If you visit Colonial Williamsburg, Va. today, you will note that the Public Jail is still standing, and in front of it are the stocks and pillory. My fantasy is to experience these for real.
After being caught shoplifting, I am brought to the nearby courthouse and found guilty. The judge sentences me to 21 lashes at the whipping post and an hour in the pillofry. I am to be punished on Market Day, which is a week and a half away, so I have to spend that time sweltering in the Public Jail.
On Market Day, I emerge from the jail, my shift soaked in sweat. Wearing knee breeches, my legs and feet are bare, since I had to hand in my footwear at the jail. The square is packed with onlookers eager to see me punished.
I am instructed to remove my shift and obey, stripping to the waist. Then I am told to show my hands, which are secured to the post with heavy iron shackles. The back of my hands face outward as my wrists are pressed into the wood. Then the shackles are locked, pressing my wrists into the wood of the whipping post.
I am to be whipped with a three-foot-long single tail whip with a one-ounce lead weight at the tip. When the whipping begins, I wince but grit my teeth, but the seventh lash breaks my will, and I let out a scream. then I scream with every lash.
I soon find myself doing a vigorous barefoot dance, hopping from one bare foot to another. Although it adds to my humiliation, it takes my mind off the pain, somewhat, and makes my punishment more tolerable.
At last, the whipping is over, and I am led to the pillory. My head and hands are soon imprisoned, and I am still half-naked, my body bathed in sweat. I can feel blood running down my back.
Once I am locked in, I feel a burning pain across my back and am once again screaming and dancing. My back is being rubbed with salt to disinfect my wounds.
For the next hour, as I stand uncomfortably in the pillory, I am pelted with rotten fruit and rotten eggs even as I whimper in pain. The sweat, blood and garbage attracts flies, which swarm over my bare flesh, but I cannot shoo them away. I am also showerd with insults by the townsfolk.
When I am finally released, I vow that I will never again shoplift.
