Whipping post on display in Delaware public square finally removed

State was last in US to abolish the penalty from law in 1972

A whipping post in Delaware has finally been removed after historians and activists condemned the stone as a constant reminder of racial discrimination and the glorification of corporal punishment.

The post, which has stood in a public plaza near the Old Sussex County Courthouse in Georgetown where it was placed in 1993, was torn down on Wednesday as a crowd of people cheered as it toppled.

Delaware was the last state to abolish the use of whipping posts as state punishment and this particular one was used until 1952, according to the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA)

The post was erected and used to bind people for beatings at the Sussex Correctional Institution some time after 1931.

It was put on display outside the Courthouse two decades after Delaware formally removed whippings from its criminal justice laws in 1972.

“Finally, Delaware is removing its last ‘Red Hannah’, the whipping post, from the public’s view,” said Dr Reba Hollingsworth, vice-chair of the Delaware Heritage Commission.

“Such relics of the past should be placed in museums to be preserved and protected for those who want to remember the cruel, inhuman, barbarous acts perpetrated on our citizens.”

A disproportionate amount of black people were punished against the post throughout its use for crimes from petty theft upwards.

It will be placed into storage and could be later placed in a museum where it can be properly contextualized and interpreted the HCA said in a statement.

“It is appropriate for an item like this to be preserved in the state’s collections, so that future generations may view it and attempt to understand the full context of its historical significance,” said HCA Director Tim Slavin.

“It’s quite another thing to allow a whipping post to remain in place along a busy public street – a cold, deadpan display that does not adequately account for the traumatic legacy it represents, and that still reverberates among communities of colour in our state.”

The post's removal comes after widespread national civil unrest following the death of George Floyd and subsequent calls to tear down representations of slavery and colonial power across the US.

Leaders of the town are also under pressure to remove a 2007 monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers from Delaware and its Confederate flag.