used to display executed criminals to deter future perpetrators of the same crime.
Most commonly associated with a pre-industrial Britain and the Golden Age of Piracy, you might recognize the practice of displaying the dead in a gruesome fashion up and into the days of the Bloody Code in the 18th and 19th century.
Though the barbaric practice itself is interesting enough, what becomes distinctly intriguing is how long bodies would remain inside a gibbet. Oliver Cromwell's head was on display for almost five years and was never reunited with his body, which remained in a cage fully clothed for an even longer length of time, possibly up to ten years.
Similarly, in the United States, a slave named Mark Codman was accused of helping to poison and kill and his master. After his execution in 1755, he was gibbeted in Somerville; he remained there for at least twenty years, as it is alleged that Paul Revere passed the body in 1775. Speculation persists that even in 1798, when Paul Revere's ride was actually recorded, the body was still on display almost a half-century later.
What makes all of this fascinating is that gibbeting is nothing new. In fact, a form of it that is more familiar - crucifixion - dates back to the Bronze Age, when Rome was nothing more than a hill by a river, when China was young.
Yet even in these times, a man brutalized in such a fashion was forbidden from being displayed past sundown on the day of his death; such a deed was considered undignified and barbaric.
The "modern" people of today might see crucifixion, or other ordeals carried out suspended high in the air, as something of a bygone era, and beyond that, of a people so backwards and unintelligent they barely resemble humans today. Yet, we are only a few generations removed from an identical practice that would be considered by these ancient people to be far more savage and uncivilized. How poetic is it that the people we see as unrefined, would regard us as such?
The purpose of this blog will be to explore my unpopular ideas that would have me "crucified" in most academic or political discussions. Yet, because we live in a "modern" era, I suppose being crucified is too uncivilized a punishment; no, an industrial society has more fitting punishments to ostracize our wrong-thinkers: we employ gibbeting, which as you must know, bears no resemblance.
Here is where my thoughts and opinions will be gibbeted, and strung up for all time. However, if you see any rationality behind them, best to not share it; you might be gibbeted, too.
Most commonly associated with a pre-industrial Britain and the Golden Age of Piracy, you might recognize the practice of displaying the dead in a gruesome fashion up and into the days of the Bloody Code in the 18th and 19th century.
Though the barbaric practice itself is interesting enough, what becomes distinctly intriguing is how long bodies would remain inside a gibbet. Oliver Cromwell's head was on display for almost five years and was never reunited with his body, which remained in a cage fully clothed for an even longer length of time, possibly up to ten years.
Similarly, in the United States, a slave named Mark Codman was accused of helping to poison and kill and his master. After his execution in 1755, he was gibbeted in Somerville; he remained there for at least twenty years, as it is alleged that Paul Revere passed the body in 1775. Speculation persists that even in 1798, when Paul Revere's ride was actually recorded, the body was still on display almost a half-century later.
What makes all of this fascinating is that gibbeting is nothing new. In fact, a form of it that is more familiar - crucifixion - dates back to the Bronze Age, when Rome was nothing more than a hill by a river, when China was young.
Yet even in these times, a man brutalized in such a fashion was forbidden from being displayed past sundown on the day of his death; such a deed was considered undignified and barbaric.
The "modern" people of today might see crucifixion, or other ordeals carried out suspended high in the air, as something of a bygone era, and beyond that, of a people so backwards and unintelligent they barely resemble humans today. Yet, we are only a few generations removed from an identical practice that would be considered by these ancient people to be far more savage and uncivilized. How poetic is it that the people we see as unrefined, would regard us as such?
The purpose of this blog will be to explore my unpopular ideas that would have me "crucified" in most academic or political discussions. Yet, because we live in a "modern" era, I suppose being crucified is too uncivilized a punishment; no, an industrial society has more fitting punishments to ostracize our wrong-thinkers: we employ gibbeting, which as you must know, bears no resemblance.
Here is where my thoughts and opinions will be gibbeted, and strung up for all time. However, if you see any rationality behind them, best to not share it; you might be gibbeted, too.
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