The first is "The Boot" which are iron plates tied around the foot with a crank system. The boot would be tightened enough to lacerate the foot and crush the bone. Other variations of this device had spikes inside the boot along with a drill that would drive through the center of the foot. OUCH!
"The Ducking Stool" was a device that was used specifically for women. This could be used for punishment of not so severe crimes like gossiping or more frequently a fool-proof way of disproving witchcraft. The women were strapped onto a chair/stool and the operator would duck the women into freezing cold river water and the length of time they were submerged was all dependent on the severity of the crime!
"Balls Torture" was when people were hung by their wrists, and heavy iron balls were attached to the ankles by ropes. The person would be stretched until they were near death, physicians would get them alert and conscious again only to be tortured all over again. This proess would be repeated over and over spanning over 6 hours!!
And here are some more pictures to make you feel better about our justice system instead of the tactics of punishment of the Middle Ages!!
Hope this makes you feel better!! (haha)
It has always been weird to me why they used this specific form of dunking/drowning women in female torture. I can't think of an instance when that specific way of drowning/dunking was used on a male. Although, all forms of torture were used on persons thought to be witches, especially during the witch trials. Do you have any thoughts on why they would use that method specifically on women?
ReplyDeleteYou know Amy, I have never thought about that until you brought up that point! I don't know why they have tendencies to only use water torture on women and not men; maybe because it seems more humane than some of the other devices/procedures they used more on the men. Not saying that drowning/dunking is humane at all! That is a really interesting question!
DeleteDanielle, this post made me cringe reading it. I cant believe that they did this kind of thing to one another! Yuck, its very hard to imagine. What's even more scary is to think that many of these people were subject to this kind of torture for things that today might not even be viewed as wrong. Maybe for your next post you can tell us what crime constituted which punishment!
ReplyDeleteThat last picture though... gruesome. One would think just letting people sit in jail (or isolation) would be bad enough, but no, let's saw them in half! I love this post too! I think it amazing to see how far the "justice" system has come. I would be interested to know what kind of crimes permitted being sawed in half or whatever is going on in that last picture... *shudder*...
ReplyDeleteI will for sure look into what crimes constitute what punishments and get back to you guys about that!!
ReplyDelete