Notice to Parents:
Dear Eighth Form Parents:
This letter is to let you
know about an event this week in American history.
As a class, we have begun
studying the first English colonies in North America. We have covered Jamestown
and are now reading about Puritan New England. As part of this study, we will be
staging a mock Puritan General Court this Friday in class. Students will take on
the roles of magistrates, accused, or witnesses, and act out actual court
situations from New England in the 1650s. The
simulation will give students an excellent look at the Puritan moral code,
system of justice, and means of punishment. As part of the simulation,
magistrates will mete out punishments for those found guilty, using fairly
harmless (and hopefully humorous) versions of Puritan punishments. For instance,
“branding” may be done by marking someone’s thumb with a washable pen. No
student will be made to stand accused if they do not feel comfortable doing so.
While I do want students to get a sense for Puritan crime and punishment, I
don’t want any student to feel uneasy. Having done such simulations many times before, I fully
anticipate that everyone will enjoy this class period, and we should have no
shortage of volunteers to be tried in the court. It should be a lot of fun.
If you have any questions
about this event in history class, do no hesitate to contact me.
Please sign this letter below and return it to school with your child
tomorrow, so that I know you received the communication.
Thank you,
Rick Riordan
Options for magistrates
1. Benefit of clergy – the convicted made plead benefit of clergy, in which case, if they can read a passage from the Bible without one mistake, their sentence will be reduced.
2. Stocks – the convicted will have his head and hands placed in a locked stockade for the remainder of the day, and the community will be invited to pelt him with food. The convicted must clean up anything he is pelted with.
3. Wearing a sign – a milder punishment than branding. The convicted must make their own sign to hang around their neck, which indicates their crime.
4. Branding – the convicted is marked with letters that stand for their crime – HT for hog thief, A for adulterer. The branding can be on the cheek, forehead, or more mildly on the hand or finger.
5. Ducking stool – for women only, usually used in the case of gossip. The woman shall be confined in a chair and dunked in water.
6. Whipping – for men only, a common punishment. A number of “lashes” is administered to the convicted’s back. Lashes usually number from 5 to 20.
7. Public shaming – a milder form of punishment, the convicted is pulled on a rope through the town, while the community is invited to point fingers at him, tell him he is naughty, and pelt him with small objects.