The Drunkard's Cloak
The Punishment
The common Drunkard’s Cloak, allowed the wearers hands and legs to stick out of the barrel. This gave the wearer the ability to walk around the town to serve as an example to others and to further humiliate the wearer. One eye witness to an American soldier wearing the Cloak commented that “the poor fellow loafed about in the most disconsolate manner, looking for all the world like a half-hatched chicken.” The Crimes Being drunk in public. This punishment was developed around the 1600s but used as late as 1862 in America to punish Civil War soldiers. |