The Gallows

The county gallows stood in this area and was erected when needed, then disassembled, serving as a grim symbol of the ultimate price of lawbreaking. Gallows were widely used in America to execute the convicted, and in 19th-century Virginia the courts’ jurisdiction over capital punishment was changing: by 1828, cases involving white persons were tried in the circuit courts, while slaves and free blacks could still receive capital punishment from the county courts. In 1875, the scaffold at the northwest corner of the courthouse yard was described as built of heavy pine posts five and a half feet apart, with the platform seven and a half feet from the ground and seats arranged in front for the press within the enclosure. Death by hanging was intended to be a rapid execution, with a court-appointed hangman placing a rope around the prisoner’s neck, tying the other end to a beam above, and opening a trap door beneath the prisoner’s feet so the fall would usually break the neck quickly. Sentences to die on the gallows were rare in 19th-century America, as fees or confinement in the county jail were more common punishments, while whipping or lashing were also common outcomes of guilty verdicts. A whipping post also stood in the Brentsville Public Lot, and citizens often attended public punishments to show chagrin for the guilty and to witness a painful reminder that lawbreakers would be punished. The Prince William County Minute Book of 1833-1836 records that on June 20, 1834, Henry, also called Harry Parker, was found guilty of simple larceny and sentenced at Brentsville to receive thirty-nine lashes on his bare back at the public whipping post, with the sheriff ordered to carry out the judgment forthwith.

Virginia · United States