SUSSEX COUNTY DELAWARE
HISTORY
THE WHIPPING POST
The 17th
century European Colonists who arrived on southern Delaware
soil
they brought with them
the attitudes toward criminals with roots back to the dark
Middle Ages and 'justice'
was swift and brutal with penalties which included whipping,
branding, lopping off of
ears, fingers, hands, and the worst, draw and quartering.
As late as 1873 Delaware
had the whipping post as punishment for felonies and
misdemeanors. Wife beaters
were frequent cases and its was known to be very effective
in the decrease of this
crime.
In 1904 a offender was
whipped at the post in Georgetown until blood spurted from
the cuts by the 'cat of
nine tails ' across his bare back forty times. Three others
received ten
lashes for larceny. In
1932 crowns up to 2000 witnessed prisoners being flogged in
Georgetown's prison yard
.
The last whipping was in
1952 and in 1972 the Delaware Whipping Post was
abandoned.
More can be found in the
sources of the above abstract, January 7, 1905 Delaware
Register, December 25,
1904, Washington Post, February 19, 1932, Delaware Coast
Press, and December 11,
1873, New York Times.
Abstract: Michael
Morgan's Delaware Diary, Delaware Beaches.com, 20 February
2019. by Harrison H,
www.delmarhistory.blogspot.com.
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