Today’s Well-Hung Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Gibbeting was the practice of hanging the body of an executed prisoner in an iron cage in a public place. We picture this practice as something out of medieval Europe, some grisly sight that Robin Hood might pass. Think again. Gibbeting occured in the American colonies. Two slaves were convicted of poisoning their master, Captain John Codman of Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1755. After a speedy trial, the female, Phyllis, was burned at the stake and Mark was hung at the gallows, then put up in a cage in the center of town, in Charlestown Commons. An army surgeon, Dr. Cabel Ray, passing by in 1758 noted in his diary: “His skin was but very little broken, altho he had hung there over three or four years.” When Paul Revere took his famous ride on April 18, 1775, he mentioned racing past the spot “where Mark was hung in chains.”
Culled from: An Underground Education
Isn’t it sweet that they burned women at the stake to “protect their modesty”? (Because, you know, if you hung them… men could see up their skirts!!!!) But burning their clothes off keeps them modest. Have I mentioned lately that I hate people?