Many people alive today, me included, were disciplined by State mandated whipping- totally legal and accepted as normal by everyone I knew. My Grandmother told me when she was six years old, in 1907, she and another little girl were whipped with a rod across the backs of her legs by a male teacher. This was done in back porch of the school, beyond the eyes of the other students. The beating left welps- although not permanent - but the mental scars lasted a life time. She never remembered why she was whipped but she remembered that teacher and her hatred for him.

Corporal punishment is a legacy of the Colonial Period and its use covered many different aspects of justice and social control. It was applied to persons who committed serious or extremely minor infractions across all classes. For it's favored period in American history, it was much quicker and practical option than imprisonment and or death. Corporal Punishment, or whipping, began to fall out of public favor with the post-Civil War Whitecapping movement across America that lasted until about 1900.