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Tarring and feathering is a physical punishment, at least as old as the Crusades, used to enforce formal justice in feudal Europe and informal justice in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance (compare Lynch law).
Description
Both pine tar, used in early industry, and feathers from edible fowl sources (such as chickens) were plentiful. In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the subject of a crowd's anger would be stripped to the waist (if not below). Hot tar was either poured or painted onto the person while he (rarely she) was immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on him or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the sticky tar. Often the victim was then paraded around town on a cart or a rail. The feathers would stick to the tar for days, making the person's degradation clear to the public and ongoing. The aim was to hurt and humiliate a person enough to leave town and cause no more mischief.
The practice was never an official punishment in the United States, but rather a form of vigilante justice. It was eventually abandoned as society moved away from public, corporal punishment and toward rehabilitation of criminals.
There were examples of tarring and feathering during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In these cases hospitals could clean the mess off quickly.
A more brutal derivation called pitchcapping, designed to badly damage skin and flesh on the head, was used by British soldiers against suspected rebels during the period of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.;
Sometimes only the head was shaven, tarred and feathered.;
In a milder form, avoiding wounds by fixing the tar on (under)clothing, it is still occasionally used, as a humiliating or jocular punishment, as for disobedient fraternity pledges (compare hazing).;
First degree burns are sustained after a split second contact with a material that is about 70 °C (160 °F). The same is also sustained after thirty seconds of contact with 55 °C (130 °F) material. The tar of that period was of such a quality that it only melted at about 60 °C (140 °F). At temperatures of 60 °C (140 °F) burns can be created with a three second contact. The thin tar layer presumably cooled quickly; nevertheless, the victims possibly sustained some burns in addition to their humiliation.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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