history of early colonial america and find examples of cruel and unusual punishments. What must of been in min

Question

d of the constistution writers.

Answer 1

Examples of what the Founders would have likely felt to be "cruel and unusual" by the standards of the Enlightenment would probably include such punishments as branding ('T' for thief, 'D' for drunkard, 'A' for adulterer, for instance), the ducking stool, "whipping at the cart's tail" (in which the malefactor was flogged while tethered to a cart, which was in motion), and pressing a person to death if he or she "stood mute," i.e., refused to answer charges and incriminate himself or others (as occurred in the case of Giles Corey in Salem, and earlier in the 1500's in England in that of Margaret Clitherow of York).

I think the writers of the Constitution probably felt that such things were relics of less civilized eras, and that their abolition was been long overdue.

Answer 2

Mainly they were thinking of the odd punishments of the Puritans during the Salem Witch Trials (the stocks, stoning, pressing, etc.) and the tortures used during the English Civil War (the Iron Maiden, thumbscrews, the Rack, etc.).