Thursday, September 15, 2011

Patriarchal Attitudes in Pennsylvania Regarding Domestic Violence in 1904


FULL TEXT: “There’s nothing so good for a wife-beater as the whipping post.

“Unless it is a good beating by a man who meets him in a fair fight and licks him well.”

This is the philosophy of John F. Donohue, alderman and magistrate in Wilkesbarre, Pa.

Two years ago he was on the bench, when a big, rough fellow was brought before him upon a charge of wife-beating.

“You’ve been up here before on the same charge,” said Judge Donohue, speaking to the prisoner. “How long are you going to keep this up?”

“As long as I want to,” answered the defendant “A woman needs a beating once in awhile – it makes her behave.”

“Well, let’s hope this will make you behave,” cried the judge. It was summer and he threw off his light coat, pushed aside several chairs and vaulted over the railing. And then and there he administered such a beating that before the man at the bar – or who had been there – knew what was happening, he was a whipped man. He cried in vain for mercy until he gave his solemn promise never to strike his wife again. Then the justice released him.

“That proved to me that all wife-beaters are cowards,” said the judge, “and you know there’s nothing a coward fears more than physical pain.”

That’s why the judge is going to ask the next legislature in Pennsylvania to establish a whipping post such as they have now in Delaware.

[“Whipping Post The Thing. - Pennsylvania Magistrate Considers Good Licking Best Punishment for Wife-Beaters.” Spirit of the Valley (Harrisonburg, Va.), Apr. 29, 1904, p. 4]

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• You have been told that before the rise of feminism in the 1960s that domestic violence against women was tolerated by society as acceptable behavior and was not taken seriously by police and the courts.

You have been lied to. The people who told you these lies were paid to tell them you. In most cases you paid your own money (taxes and tuition fees) to be lied to.

Here is one of countless pieces of evidence that demonstrate the truth.

• To see more eloquent, vivid evidence proving the lie and giving you the truth, see:


19th Century Intolerance Towards Domestic Violence

Treatment of Domestic Violence Against Women Before 1960this post collects cases classified by the form of punishment or sentencing (whether judicial or through community action)

No, the claim that laws created by males were for the benefit of males is false. Yes, the "Rule of Thumb" myth has been proven to be a marxist-feminist hoax, taking an ancient English common historical notation published in the 18th century and extrapolating it into unsupported claims that 18th and 20th century United States communities, courts and legislatures (laws on the books) were in agreement with the18th century historical notation (Blackstone).

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“[O]nly since the 1970s has the criminal justice system begun to treat domestic violence as a serious crime, not as a private family matter.”

From the entry: “Domestic Violence” on encyclopedia.com

This claim has been proven to be false.

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