
Curious Punishments of Bygone Days is a history book published in 1896. It was written by Alice Morse Earle and printed by Herbert S. Stone & Company. Earle was a historian of Colonial America, and she writes in her introduction:
In ransacking old court records, newspapers, diaries and letters for the historic foundation of the books which I have written on colonial history, I have found and noted much of interest that has not been used or referred to in any of those books. An accumulation of notes on old-time laws, punishments and penalties has evoked this volume.[1]
As the title suggests, the subject of the chapters is various archaic punishments. Morse seems to make a distinction between stocks for the feet, in the Stocks chapter, and stocks for the head, described in the Pillory article- which itself clashes with the modern day understanding of a pillory as a whipping post.
Table of contents
- Foreword
 - The Bilboes
 - The Ducking Stool
 - The Stocks
 - The Pillory
 - Punishments of Authors and Books
 - The Whipping Post
 - The Scarlet Letter
 - Branks and Gags
 - Public Penance
 - Military Punishments
 - Branding and Maiming
 
References
- ↑ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, by Alice Morse Earle". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
 
External links
 Media related to Curious Punishments of Bygone Days at Wikimedia Commons
- Text of Curious Punishments of Bygone Days; public domain