Flagellation was a form of punishment given to us by the English Churches and British Government. One of the first groups in America that suffered whipping as a punishment was delt to the Quakers by the Puritans of Massachusetts. At Boston in 1657, Mary Clark, after preaching, was seized, and whipped 20 times with knotted cords by the town hangman.

In 1644, at Hingham, Massachusetts, a man, for turning Baptist, and refusing to have his babe sprinkled, was, by the General Court, tied up to a whipping post, and publicly whipped upon his naked back.

In July, 1651, three Baptist ministers, viz. Clark, Holmes, and Moody, were arrested at Lynn, Massachusetts, on the Sabbath, while Clark was preaching, and were imprisoned in Boston, until they were tried. At the trial, Clark was fined a hundred dollars for preaching, Holmes sixty-six dollars and sixtyseven cents, for aiding, and Moody sixteen dollars and sixty-seven cents, for attending. They were sentenced to be publicly whipt, if payment were not made. Holmes refused to suffer his friends to pay the fine, and so fie was publicly whipped at Boston. Two spectators, showing signs of sympathy at his bloody whipping, were suspected of entertaining Baptist sentiments, were arrested, tried, and condemned, and sentenced to pay twenty shillings each, and to be publicly whipped themselves, for their sympathy.

Ia 1655, nine persons, in Boston, were arrested, imprisoned,. and sentenced to public whipping, and other sufferings, for denying infant baptism, und attempting te form a Baptist church in Boston, according to the organization of Christ. Three of these Were banished, by sentence of the Court. But refusing to leave, they were imprisoned again. The Baptists obtained a House to worship in, and the General Court passed a law closing the doors, and inhibiting the holding of any meeting in the same.

In the 1850s the Boston Police arrested black persons, men, women, boys and girls, for being out past curfew. Then in the morning all were given 39 lashes- the whipping officers were given an extra .50 cents for administering the punishment.

Slaves in the South were whipped by their masters as punishment. This right was protected by State laws as a means to keep slaves from being killed or mutilated. Also, the right to whip a slave was retained by the owner only, those who rented slaves could punish but not damage the slave and lessen the original value of the property.

The leather strap and the scientific paddle (a large, thin, ferule of wood, in which small holes are bored) was also used to punish slaves- I'VE been punished in school with this item, so I know how it feels. Whipping of American school children, by the rod, continued in almost every state up until the 20th Century.