Every Day Is Special: July 31 - Of Public Punishment and Flowers

July 31 - Of Public Punishment and Flowers

Posted on July 31, 2019

Freedom of the press is an important thing - especially when used to let people know that the rich or powerful - and especially the rich AND powerful! - are doing shady things to grab even more money or to keep their power.

And freedom of religion is also super important. Of course governments should not insist that all of their citizens worship one or more god or goddess, in one particular way! Of course citizens should have the right to believe in any or no religion, and if they hold religious beliefs, they should be able to do any lawful activity to practice those beliefs.

But back when author Daniel Defoe was living (1659 - 1731), these freedoms weren't as obvious. Back then, many, many rulers had and used the power to punish people for criticizing their decisions, and most nations had a state church (temple, etc.) or official religion; many - but not all - nations required its citizens to belong to the state church (etc.) and punished or discriminated against those who didn't.

Defoe was an Englishman, and in 1702 the King of England, William III, died and was replaced on the throne by Queen Anne. She immediately began to punish what was called "Nonconformists," people who didn't belong to or believe in the Church of England.

One of the people Queen Anne moved to punish was Defoe. He had written a lot of political pamphlets, and one satirized those who pushed for everyone to belong to the Church of England. In other words, he used what should have been his right to freedom of the press to criticize those who go against freedom of religion. It was a sort of pro-rights "two-fer."

Daniel Defoe was arrested for "seditious libel" - in other words, publishing criticism of the government. He had three punishments: he had to pay a fine, he had to stay in prison until the fine was paid, and - on this date in 1703 - he had to be locked in a pillory.

A pillory was a device set up in a public square. It had three holes meant to secure the head and two hands. It was supposed to be all about public humiliation plus uncomfortable, even painful, corporal punishment.

The public was encouraged to insult, laugh at, or taunt whoever was locked into a pillory. Even more, the public was encouraged to throw yucky stuff at the prisoner. You know, slop water, rotten vegetables, mud, dead animals, the guts from a butchered animals, even poop.

This picture shows yucky stuff, including dead
animals, being thrown at several prisoners
locked into multiple pillories.

Once in a while, the jeering, mocking, pelting public got too carried away, and the prisoner in the pillory would get badly hurt as people threw stones or bricks at him or her.

Now, supposedly, when Daniel Defoe was put into the pillory for criticizing the government, he was a hero to the general public. Instead of pelting him with disgusting, foul-smelling stuff, people threw flowers. Or so the story goes.

One thing is for sure: most people who get put into the pillory had a worse reputation after the public punishment. But Defoe ended up becoming more respected and more famous after his punishment.

By the way, if you think to yourself, "I've never heard of him - I don't know how famous he could be!" - have you ever heard of his book Robinson Crusoe?