At an early stage in American history, male superiority in a day to day colonial society was established. At times public shaming would not be reasoned by the breaking of a law, but by religious reasoning that would affect women. Improper marriages were largely prosecuted and publicly shamed. Some examples of subjectively punished acts were when a wife lived apart from her husband, not publicly publishing marriage, filthy lifestyle fornication etc... disorderly living and more. Women received punishments ranging from fines and being forced to conform to the proper etiquette to being whipped, wearing signs in public that shamed the women for their "misconduct" like “I STAND HEERE FOR MY LACIVIOUS & WANTON CARIAGES”. The shaming of women for stepping outside their designated role in society was punished leading to more social double standards. Women were seen as community leaders and models in Christian colonies but were also viewed as the weaker of the two sexes which made the colonial leaders feel a need to police anything out of the ordinary to keep away what they thought would lead to social unrest.
A very important part of society in the early colonial period was religion. Colonies based their entire system of living off of religion. As stated earlier gender norms were dictated by religion and one of the ways that gender norms appeared were because of public shaming that kept women away from having a pivotal role in society outside from the home. There was also public shaming in many Puritan colonies regarding religious piety stemming from fear of punishment from God, division within a community which would hinder the productivity of the colony and more. These ideas stem from the amount of disease and the weather misfortunes that were occurring when the colonies settled. One example of colonies attempting to keep piety as high as possible would be in Virginia where a law stated that everyone must attend church on Sundays in an orderly sober manner. One of the punishments was multiple hrs in the stocks. Religion also affected sexual activity for both men and women, masturbation buggery fornication and basically anything that was even a hair off the bibles expectations, were outlawed and in some extreme cases, people were publicly hanged.
These examples show how colonial leadership held a firm grip on societies expectations and norms. For a very long time, the fear of being punished by public shaming prevented gender norms from being broken, allowing women to become more involved in society. It also prevented the diversification of society regarding religion. In the end, secularist thought brought by enlightenment revolutionary thinkers helped people leave the ideas that had been forced upon them behind for a more modern society. The effects of this were religious toleration in the north and much later a growing role of women in society.
Rescources
http://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=honors_theses
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring03/branks.cfm
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It is interesting how early colonial times were shaped more often by communities than the individualistic culture Americans prize today. Today, we would never think of using pillories or stocks to punish others for offenses such as stealing, but back then, it was very common. For example, judges had ordered thieves to walk outside the stores they had stolen from in boards. The Enlightenment ideals of freedom and rational thought definitely permeated American culture and allowed for more free will and privacy in these matters.
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/04/weekinreview/the-nation-forget-prisons-americans-cry-out-for-the-pillory.html