Updated on MFS - Strange But True - Things / Other 20
The Tarring and Feathering.
Tarring and feathering was a physical punishment, used to enforce formal justice in feudal Europe and informal justice in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance (compare Lynch law).
In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the subject of a crowd's anger would be stripped to his waist. Hot tar was either poured or painted onto the person while he was immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on him or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar. Often the victim was then paraded around town on a cart or a rail. The aim was to hurt and humiliate a person enough to leave town and not cause any more mischief.Read more about this strange practice on MFS,with 1 videoclip.
Gosh Will,
ReplyDeleteWith all that tarring and feathering, it's a wonder anyone would recognize who the hell it was they were trying to humiliate in the first place, lol.
Anyways, as usual, interesting article!