What is that? June 25, 2023
If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 631-275-1859.
Karen Brush and Roger McKeon were correct in identifying last week’s mystery photo via email as the gruesome structure (right) that’s on the grounds of the Shelter Island History Center.
Karen and Roger called it “stocks,” as does almost everyone, when actually it is called a “pillory.” Stocks were the form of punishment that only immobilized the legs, with feet and ankles thrust through the wooden holes.
Punishment, pain, but also humiliation in public places was common in Britain, the colonies and the United States well into the 19th century and a little beyond.
One researcher pointed out that the pillory was worse than stocks, since with only the legs immobilized, the unfortunate person could duck and try to avoid what was thrown at them, including mud and rotten food.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “The pillory was finally abolished in Britain in 1837… U.S. federal statutes provided for its [use] until 1839. Delaware, the last U.S. state to use the pillory, did not abolish it until 1905.”
The pillory at the History Center is most likely “not original to the period and was most likely built for a program,” according to the Historical Society Archivist Kaitlin Ketcham.
