Pillory

Pillory, former mechanism for public punishment of criminals, consisting of two parallel boards, joined by sliding hinges and fixed like a signboard on the top of a strong pole, supported on a wooden platform elevated above the ground. A large circular hole with its center in the line of junction of the two planks received the neck, and two corresponding holes of smaller size, one on each side of it, received the wrists. In France the pillory was abolished in 1832. It was abolished in Britain in 1837 and in the United States, where early statutes had ordered it for some offenses, in 1839. In the state of Delaware, however, this form of punishment remained in effect until 1905. Compare Stocks.