The Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been made to look just
as it did in colonial days. The people are dressed in colonial costumes.
A visitor to Williamsburg, Virginia, tries out the pillory.
PILLORY AND STOCKS
Long ago, many troublemakers in colonial America were punished in
public. They were locked in wooden frameworks in the town square, where
everyone could see them.
One of these frameworks, called a pillory, had holes for the head and
hands. If you were locked in it, you couldn’t dodge the things people
might throw at you. Another framework was the stocks. It had holes in
which the troublemaker’s ankles were locked. But at least he could sit
down. Sometimes troublemakers were whipped at whipping posts. People
aren’t punished like this anymore. But in Williamsburg, Virginia, you
can see a pillory, the stocks, and a whipping post.
Williamsburg was once the capital of the Virginia Colony. Many of the
buildings have been rebuilt, and today this historic city looks much as
it once did. The people who work there even dress in the kinds of
clothes worn long ago. A visit to Williamsburg is like a visit to
yesterday.
◄ This man is showing how a bootmaker worked in colonial days.
