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In Puritan Boston, one didn't swear, gossip about one's neighbor, or
criticize the state. It could lead to public ridicule, physical whipping,
banishment from the colony, or even death by hanging.
For swearing in public or gossiping (scolding), a cleft stick was often the punishment. A chop-stick
like prong was clasped to the tongue, and one had to stand in shame in a public place.
In 1636, Elisabeth Aplegate was proclaimed guilty of the crime of swearing and reveling,
and was required to stand in public with her tongue in a cleft
stick. That same year, for rayling or
making provocative statements in public, Robert Shorthose was sentenced to
stand in public for a half-hour with his tongue in a cleft stick. In 1639,
John Gosse was fined 20 pounds and sent to prison for what can be described today as
"disorderly conduct."
In 1672, gossiping was officially forbidden by law for the first time, and
the gag and ducking stool were introduced: "Whereas, there is no express
punishment (by the laws hitherto established) affixed to the evil practise
of sundry persons by exhorbitancy of the tongue in rayling & scolding, it is
therefore ordered, that hath proper cognizance of the case, for rayling or
scolding, shall be gagged & dipt ouer head and eares three times, in some
convenient place of fresh or salt water, as the Court or magistrate shall
judge meete."
It is unlikely that the popular English ducking stool was used in Boston,
but this apparatus was employed in colonial Virginia. Women were bound to a
chair on the end of this lever-like device, and then dipped over their head
into the James River. Habitual gossiping best describes their
supposed crime.
The most famous case of punishment for gossiping in Boston is that of
Anne Hibbins. In 1656, she was
hanged as a "witch" for the crime of quarreling with her
neighbors.
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