Short Stuff: Tarring and Feathering | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and we're about to. demonstrate the subject of today's short. stuff on Jerry no no never. never okay we're not going to do that. let's just describe it instead I guess. so we were just chatting before the show. I know we've talked about this at some. point MH tarring and Feathering I don't.

know that I agree I have zero. recollection of that I know we did I. know they covered it on ridiculous. history our our colleagues uh Ben and. null but I know we talked about the. stocks and taring and Feathering what uh. and I I like to I want to think it was. like a top 10 you know something like. that like punishments or something from. the old times I really don't know what. you're talking about seriously well. maybe someone will remind I'm trying to.

Google it now but I'm not really seeing. anything come up except for that live. July 4th show we did with hiy Haggin and. Wyatt Sak and that could be it Joe. Randazzo that was 2011 so like I don't. even count that okay let's not let's. just move on and talk about taring and. Feathering that's right this was a form. of punishment in colonial America that. initially was um done to to criminals. and then sort of quickly was co-opted.

and done to uh people that they thought. were um you know like the Sons of. Liberty took over and they like hey if. you're not on board with us and you're. you're down with England then we might. just haul you out in the street and do. this to you yeah it was a tactic of mob. Justice in colonial America essentially. in Revolutionary America yeah and it was. so you so did not want to be and. feathered no because not only was it. humiliating it was also painful and it. usually was a by pretty serious beatings.

um that just the threat of being tart. and feathered could keep people in line. you know yeah and that's how they used. it and like you said it's used on. criminals first but um after I think the. British really kind of stepped up and. it's attempt to control keep a strangle. hold on the American colonies and that. just kind of caused the Revolutionary. colonists to bristle even further. especially like when they passed the. townend acts which were a series of Acts. that really kind of put the colonies.

back under the thumb of Great Britain. taring and Feathering really stepped up. around that so we're talking late 1760s. early. 1770s is when it was I guess the Golden. Age of taring and Feathering in the. united or in the American colonies I I. hope someone has a list that has named. the Golden Ages that you have dubbed. over the years you too yeah I know but. you I don't know you feel more of a. golden Ager than me I disagree I think. the golden age is your thing and I just. took it well this is the Golden Age of. are disagreeing that's really funny you.

really think that golden age is mine I. think of it as yours for real oh really. yeah yeah oh that's it's your GI to the. world you know what someone will do the. tally and it's probably like 15 to. 15 that'd be appropriate so here's how. you tar and feather somebody uh you. first strip them down um most of the. times it was just taking their shirt off. but a lot of times it was or sometimes. rather it was all of their clothes uh. then you would brush hot pinear on their. body.

um this was a substance used on baseball. bats and Major League Baseball to cause. stickiness and also to waterproof ships. and sails and things back in the day and. it was hot it wasn't as hot as like our. petroleum based T that we use these days. but it would blister and burn your skin. and it was not meant to be comfortable. um no I mean not meant to be comfortable. in the stickiness but also it was meant. to hurt you yeah so pinear melts at 140. degrees Fahrenheit which is 60° Cel so. you can imagine hot pine tar on your.

skin would not be would not make you. happy at all um the the colonist would. very frequently brush it on um and then. sometimes they would pour it on which. would be way worse um and as far as we. know no one died from taring and. Feathering but like you said this is not. something you wanted to go through that. was the Pain part the humiliation part. was quickly quick on the heels of the. Pain part that's right they would uh. stand someone up in front of a large fan.

and they would put put put a table full. of chicken feathers in front of that fan. and then plug it in this is like a. muppet sketch no actually they wouldn't. do it that way of course but they would. they would then bring out those chicken. feathers and they would dump them on. someone to make them look like a big. chicken and and hopefully you weren't a. colonial germaphobe because that would. have freaked you out really badly yeah. that's a good point uh like one on your. lip no good uh and then they would. put them on a cart usually and they.

would or or a wooden rail or something. and they would parade them through town. mock them sometimes they would hold up. signs saying like what they had done. that kind of thing and like you said a. lot of times there were whippings and. beatings that also came along with it. yes and one of the most famous episodes. of tarring and Feathering in colonial. America uh took place on top of John. Malcolm a customs official and I say we. take a break and we'll come back and. tell the sorry story of the taring and. Feathering of John.

[Music]. [Music]. Malcolm all right Josh promised a. specific case of taring and Feathering. and it's probably the most egregious.

famous case uh when um Customs official. John Malcolm hit a uh supporter of the. Patriots there in Boston and I don't. mean a Tom Brady fan I mean the OG. Patriots this is in 1774 in January and. the mob got a hold of him they tarred. and feathered him and uh and this is. quotes from an actual article from the. time um quote punched with WTH a long. pole beaten with clubs Capital C led to.

Liberty Tree there whipped with cords. and though a very cold night LED on to. The Gallows then whipped. again and because that taring and. Feathering caused such Burns and. blisters uh quote they say his flesh. comes off his back and. Stakes I looked all over for what that. use of stakes was couldn't find it but. just suffice to say his flesh was coming. off his back very easily well I would. think Stakes like you would eat but it's. spelled St a KES.

mhm no idea H so John Malcolm um he was. a real piece of work don't feel too. sorry for him uh the the person that he. struck in the street that led to his. tarring and Feathering uh interceded. when John Malcolm was threatening a boy. right so he was not the greatest guy. ever and if that doesn't really kind of. tell you what kind of person John. Malcolm was that taring and Feathering. was his second in two. years he was tar and feathered he was a.

tax collector or a customs official I. think Customs official right and he was. just a real jerk from what I can tell. yeah he would be what's that Reddit uh. who's the a-hole or am I the. a-hole right he'd be very popular thread. on that one probably people would be. like yes yeah uh that was not the first. one though that's just merely the most. famous um the first one was in. 1766 uh eight years before this in. Norfolk Virginia when a William Smith. who was a sea captain um and this is.

another great quote he wrote this down. uh that seven men including the mayor. had bobbed my body and face all over. with tar and afterwards threw feathers. upon me the mayor can't you see him. being like you're the May and the. mayor's like so. er so they also threw rotten eggs at him. Stones they then they humiliated him by. carting him through every street in the. town with two drums beating so they. weren't trying to to uh do this subtly.

and then they tossed him off a Warf. where he nearly drowned from what I read. and the reason that he was tart and. feathered uh is that he had been accused. of tipping off a royal official about. smuggling going on and um the Patriots. the um wigs did not take very kindly to. that kind of thing and because it worked. so well the Sons of Liberty and um just. bostonians in general started adopting. taring and Feathering 3 years after. William Smith's tnf episode tnf not p&v.

so let's tell him a little bit about the. who got and feathered like we said. Customs officials that kind of stuff. people who were not loyal to the. revolution people who are more loyal to. the crown still. um but there was like a even among those. people there was still just a certain. subset that were true targets of taring. and Feathering yeah there was sort of a. carve out for. the Brits or the the colonial Brits I.

guess that were of a little higher. status uh it wasn't that they still had. this kind of reverence for that social. structure going on and so if you were an. officer a British officer or if you were. uh uh loyal to the crown and you were. wealthy or something or just of a higher. class you would not be and. feathered it was kind of just for the. under classes and the lower classes um. you know working class middle class uh. kind of in the same way I saw I'm not.

sure where you got this but it was. likened to the fact that um you wouldn't. be challenged to a duel if you wanted to. get revenge on someone if they were of. lower class you would just like you know. get in fight or horse whip them or. something yeah it was an insult that. really played up that person's inferior. social status yeah exactly so Chuck. there was one last instance of taring. and Feathering that took place it in the. 1980s. no in Alabama in.

1981 that's impossible no oh no it's not. so there was a woman named maretta mway. and her sister uh got their hands on a. woman named Elizabeth Jameson and. Elizabeth Jameson was going to marry. maretta M's ex-husband uh later that. week so Marietta and her sister held. Elizabeth at shotgun point and cut her. hair and tarred and feathered her in 19. 1981 wow and you would think like wow.

that must have really worked wrong uh. Marietta and her sister were both. arrested like appropriately and. Elizabeth washed off all the tar later. that week got a wig and they got married. after all wow isn't that quite a story. yeah where was that again 1981 in. Alabama. 81. 1981 I thought you said 91 earlier no I.

mean 81's not not any better you're like. oh yeah yeah everybody was doing that in. the 80s no no no that's still uh hard to. believe yeah you're like 90s that's. crazy um so can you imagine somebody. tarring and Feathering somebody dressed. like Zack Morris or something wearing a. cosmic. sh yeah not at all I guess Chuck um. things seem to have petered out a little. bit and we've said everything we have to. say about taring and Feathering so I say. short stuff is out agreed.

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