Delaware's Whipping Posts and Mixed History on Physical Punishment
One day that year, a friend and I, just out of military service in WW II, went for a leisurely drive from our homes in Philadelphia. We were feeling relaxed and upbeat.
Spotting an attractive restaurant, we pulled in and were shocked to see signs that read "COLORED" and "WHITE" posted over the drinking fountains and restrooms. We had driven into Delaware, a state was still segregated. It had been a slave state, and although it did not join the Confederacy (Then Gov. William Burton reminded its citizens that their state had been the first to ratify the constitution forming our union and it should be the last to leave it), segregation and abuse continued, including floggings.
Between 1900-45, 1,600 people were sentenced to public whippings, most for petty crimes. The number of lashes ranged from 10-60. Two-thirds of those subjected to this punishment were Black although Blacks constituted only one-sixth of the population. Women were seldom sentenced to the whipping post, but those who were, inevitably were Black. Even children as young as 10 were subjected to this treatment.
Whipping posts nicknamed 'Red Hannahs'
The state’s three whipping posts, one in each county, were known as Red Hannahs. When prisoners were tied to the post to be flogged, it was known as "hugging Red Hannah.” The whip was a cat-o-nine-tails with a short stick and several thongs.
The last use of a whipping post in Delaware was in 1952, and the state was the last in the U.S. to abolish it when the law was dropped from the state Code in 1972.
Last whipping post removed in 2020
But whipping posts remained in the state until July 2020 when, in response to public demand, the last one was removed.
While flogging is illegal, there is currently no federal law prohibiting corporal punishment in public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, and 19 states still permit it.
Though the state of Delaware lagged in outlawing flogging and removing its flogging posts, it on the leading edge of another kind of physical punishment. In 2012, it became the first state in the nation to effectively outlaw corporal discipline of children by their parents as well as in its schools, joining a few countries such as Sweden in this move.
