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Stocks and Pillories and the 21st Century
Would these punishments work today?
On a recent tour/visit of Colonial Williamsburg, I saw the old courthouse. Outside of it sits the stocks and pillory. They are roped off to keep visitors from becoming half “insta-famous” by posing in them.
When I walked by I fixated on the idea of them. As a mechanically minded person I had to wonder; would they be an effective form of punishment today?
That led me to ponder how we punish those today. For our modern system of corrections, we simply remove the person from their liberties.
They are arrested and taken from all they know, love, and have comfort with. It is the modern equivalent of being sent to your room (if that room was from the early 1900's).
The real deterrent of the stocks and pillory was that they put a person on full display for the public to see. In an era where honor and a family name was the strongest currency most people had, this was to be avoided.
In small communities where everyone was known and recognized this punishment was quite effective. No one wanted to be “branded” by this display of public humiliation.
We no longer have that set of values. This is the 21st century. Communities are far larger and people don’t even know their own…
