American Canto XLII
Michael Ceraolo
Prior to the proliferation of prisons
many, many crimes were punished by death:
adultery and arson
blasphemy and burglary
rape and robbery
rebellion of slave against master,
to name just some of a long list,
though
some weren’t punished by death until the third offense
(the original three-strikes-and-you’re-out,
permanently)
In fact
there was an orgy of self-congratulation
when the list of crimes considered capital
was considerably shortened,
a perverse pride in punishing by death
only six crimes instead of sixty,
a badge of honor for enlightened America
when compared with barbaric Europe,
though
enlightenment wasn’t the true motivation;
many ‘reformers’ felt the greater punishment,
by far,
was a long incarceration
And
the death penalty then meant death by hanging
Hanging was the pre-eminent spectator sport,
eclipsing even the evolving ball games,
and
was even a popular family activity,
in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries;
the condemned a celebrity of sorts,
“surrounded with a Vast Circle of people”
“more Numerous,
perhaps,
than Ever was gathered together before,
on any Occasion,
in this colony”
Parades and patriotic speeches
preceeded the public executions,
with picnics afterward
And
salvation was hawked liked peanuts and Cracker Jack
Such sermonizing was not subtle,
to say the least:
“You are now to Dy”
“the Land where you now Live,
would be polluted,
if you should be spared from Death”
“the Gospel has been offered to you . . .
How shal you escape the forest Damnation,
if you regard not this offer of mercy”
roared one or more of the Mathers
The substance of the theocracy would soon subside,
and
the public spectacle would soon shift
to behind closed doors,
but
the ritual remains to this day
