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Corporal Punishment or Physical Chastisement

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Corporal punishment or known as the physical chastisement of someone who has disobeyed or gone against their right to do something. At one extreme it may include the death penalty, but the term corporal punishment usually refers to punishments such as branding, flogging, and flagellation. Many things come to mind when thinking of the term corporal punishment but the first is slavery. What role did corporal punishment play in slavery? How did it affect the daily lives of the slaves? Corporal punishment was the cornerstone of slavery, but its effectiveness is debatable. The effectiveness of corporal punishment has been questioned for many years by educators and researchers. Was the suffering and trouble that not only the offender went through but the punisher worth it? Jenny Proctor is a great example that corporal punishment was not effective. Jenny Proctor was born in slavery. Her mother was a cook and she worked in the cotton fields. As a child Jenny Proctor had a unique attitude towards life. Even though she knew she would be severely punished she still did what she wanted to do. In Proctor’s narrative she tells us of a time she was so hungry she ate a biscuit from her master’s house. “ I recollects once when I was tryin’ to clean de house like old miss tell me, I finds a biscuit and I’s so hungry I et it, ’cause we nev’r see sich a thing as a biscuit only some times on Sunday morning”. (Proctor, 1) Jenny was not afraid to eat the biscuit even though she knew eventually

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