A quite wonderful column appeared in the New York Times back in May 1899, headlined: “VIRGINIA PEOPLE SLANDERED.; An Imaginary Picture of the Flogging of a Girl Published by a French Journal.”.
The story reports that a top French paper had published an illustration – sadly not reproduced – of a sheriff flogging an eighteen-year-old girl with a whip, whilst she was tied to the stocks in the main square of a Virginia town.
“The chastisement is witnessed with apparent enjoyment” by the bystanders, the journalist reports. (Surely not?!)
What makes the story all the more interesting is that it’s entirely fabricated: it’s claim that the Virginia state assembly had “voted a law permitting the application of corporal chastisement in public” was simply not true, and floggings weren’t legal in the state at the time! Still, it makes for an interesting diversion…
Alas, the NYT failed to give credit to old Mr. Snopes for exposing the hoax.
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I couldn’t resist … that was worth transcribing in full and reblogging. Great find!
Not connected with Washington? I believe the following antidote is in “The Making of the Prefident 1789: The Unauthorized Campaign Biography” by Marvin Kitman and John Cleese:
Apparently the founder of the nation (or disloyal treasonous rebel, depending on your point of view) George Washington had a regrettable incident when he was a young man in which one or two girls stole his clothes while he was swimming in the Potomac. One of these girls was sentenced to several lashes at the public whipping post. There is no evidence, apparently, that Washington attended the proceedings.
This was before the revolution, of course, so I’m forced to believe this was imposed under English law. Perhaps after the revolution, whipping young ladies in the public square was found to be harsh and unusual punishment. Lamentable, but there it is!
I don’t have access to my copy of the book at the moment, so I can’t say more, and even this is from memory. It did stick in my mind, however.
(The title spells this “Prefident” because the style of “s” used at the time looked like an “f”. It’s a take off on a popular series of “The Making of the President” books, of course.)
This is your history lesson for the day, and aren’t you sorry, now!