Human branding
Human branding or stigmatizing is the process by which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention of the resulting scar making it permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron. It therefore uses the physical techniques of livestock branding on a human, either with consent as a form of body modification; or under coercion, as a punishment or to identify an enslaved, oppressed, or otherwise controlled person. It may also be practiced as a "rite of passage", e.g. within a tribe, or to signify membership of or acceptance into an organization.
Etymology
The English verb "to burn", attested since the 12th century, is a combination of Old Norse brenna "to burn, light", and two originally distinct Old English verbs: bærnan "to kindle" and beornan "to be on fire", both from the Proto-Germanic root bren, perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root bhre-n-u, from base root bhereu- "to boil forth, well up". In Dutch, branden mean "to burn", brandmerk a branded mark; similarly, in German, Brandzeichen means "a brand" and brandmarken, "to brand".Sometimes, the word cauterize is used. This is known in English since 1541, and is derived via Medieval French cauteriser from Late Latin cauterizare "to burn or brand with a hot iron", itself from Greek καυτηριάζειν, kauteriazein, from καυτήρ kauter "burning or branding iron", from καίειν kaiein "to burn". However, cauterization is now generally understood to mean a medical process – specifically, to stop bleeding.
Historical use
Marking the rightless
- European, American, and other colonial slavers branded millions of slaves during the period of the Atlantic slave trade. Sometimes there were several brandings, e.g. for the Portuguese crown and the private owner, an extra cross after baptism as well as by African slave catchers.
- Ancient Romans marked runaway slaves with the letters FVG.
- In modern Sudan, there are reports of branding of slaves.
- An intermediate case between formal slavery and criminal law is when a convict is branded and legally reduced, with or without time limit, to a slave-like status, such as on the galleys, in a penal colony, or auctioned to a private owner.
As punishment
Brand marks have also been used as a punishment for convicted criminals, combining physical punishment, as burns are very painful, with public humiliation which is here the more important intention, and with the imposition of an indelible criminal record.
Robbers, like runaway slaves, were marked by the Romans with the letter F ; and the toilers in the mines, and convicts condemned to figure in gladiatorial shows, were branded on the forehead for identification. Under Constantine I the face was not permitted to be so disfigured, the branding being on the hand, arm or calf.
The Acts of Sharbel record it applied, amongst other tortures, to a Christian between the eyes and on the cheeks in Parthian Edessa at the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan on a judge's order for refusal to sacrifice.
In the 16th century, German Anabaptists were branded with a cross on their foreheads for refusing to recant their faith and join the Roman Catholic church.
In the North American colonial settlements of the 17th and early 18th centuries, branding was a common punishment for those found guilty of crimes. The type of brand differed from crime to crime. Men and women sentenced for adultery were branded with an A letter on their chest, D for drunkenness and B for blasphemy or burglary, T on the hand for thief, SL on the cheek for seditious libel, R on the shoulder for rogue or vagabond, and F on the cheek for forgery. Those convicted of burglary on the Lord's Day were branded upon their forehead.
During the early stages of the American Revolution, some Loyalists were branded on the face with the letters G.R by Patriots as punishment for perceived servility to the Crown.
In late 18th century England the letter used would indicate the type of crime committed, eg SS, M, B, F and R, for example.
The mark in later times was also often chosen as a code for the crime. Branding was also used by the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.
Until 1832 in France, various offenses carried the additional infamy of being branded with a fleur de lis and galley slaves could be branded GAL or, once the galleys were replaced by the bagnes on land, TF or TFP. In most of the German-speaking states, however, branding people was unlawful.
Following the Conspiracy of the Slaves of 1749 in Malta, some slaves were branded with the letter R on their forehead and condemned to the galleys for life.
Branding tended to be abolished like other judicial mutilations, sooner and more widely than flogging, caning, and similar corporal punishments, which normally aim 'only' at pain and at worst cause stripe scars, although the most severe lashings in terms of dosage and instrument can even turn out to cause death.
United States
As criminal punishment
In Pennsylvania, the horse theft law "An Act to Increase the Punishments of Horse Stealing" was passed in 1780 and repealed in 1860, which stated people guilty of such a crime should be branded. The law ran as follows; "the first offense shall stand in the pillory for one hour, and shall be publicly whipped on his, or her backs with thirty-nine lashes, well laid on, and at the same time shall have his or her ears cut off and nailed to the pillory, and for the second offense shall be whipped and pilloried in like manner and be branded on the forehead in a plain and visible manner with the letters H. T."This punishment was referenced in Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian as the character Toadvine is branded with the letters H. T. on his forehead. H stands for Horse, T for Thief and F for Felon; "On his forehead were burned the letters H T and lower and almost between the eyes the letter F and these markings were splayed and garish as if the iron had been left too long. When he turned to look at the kid, the kid could see that he had no ears."
For slavery
In Louisiana, there was a "black code", or Code Noir, which allowed the cropping of ears, shoulder branding, and hamstringing, the cutting of tendons near the knee, as punishments for recaptured slaves. Slave owners used extreme punishments to stop flight, or escape. They would often brand the slaves' palms, shoulders, buttocks, or cheeks with a branding iron.Branding was sometimes used to mark recaptured runaway slaves to help the locals easily identify the runaway. Micajah Ricks, a slave owner in Raleigh, North Carolina, was looking for his slave and described, "I burnt her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face, I tried to make the letter M."
Most slave owners would use whipping as their main method, but at other times they would use branding to punish their slaves. Another testimony explains how a slave owner in Kentucky around 1848 was looking for his runaway slave. He described her having "a brand mark on the breast something like L blotched". In South Carolina, there were many laws which permitted the punishments slaves would receive. When a slave ran away, if it was the first offense, the slave would receive no more than forty lashes. Then the second offense would be branding. The slave would have been marked with the letter R on their forehead signifying that they were a criminal, and a runaway.
As religious initiation
Ceremonial branding is an integral part of religious initiation for some Hindus. References to this practice can be traced in texts such as Narad Panchratra, Vaikhnasagama, Skanda Purana, etc. This practice remains prevalent among some Hindus of Karnataka in India, who brand small marks on both shoulders or forearms. This practice is not without controversy; a Hindu temple in Sugar Land, Texas was sued by the father of an eleven-year-old boy who was branded during a religious ceremony there.Britain
The punishment was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons, and the ancient law of England authorized the penalty. By theStatute of Vagabonds under King Edward VI, vagabonds and Roma were ordered to be branded with a large V on the breast, and "brawlers" with F for "fraymaker". Slaves who ran away were branded with S on the cheek or forehead. This law was repealed in England in 1550.
From the time of Henry VII, branding was inflicted for all offences which received benefit of clergy. Branding of the thumbs was used around 1600 at the Old Bailey, to ensure that the accused who had successfully used benefit of clergy, by reading a passage from the Bible, could not use it more than once. It was abolished for such in 1822.
In 1655, James Nayler, a Quaker, was accused of claiming to be the Messiah, and was convicted of blasphemy in a highly publicized trial before the Second Protectorate Parliament. He had his tongue bored through and his forehead branded B for "blasphemer". In 1698 it was enacted that those convicted of petty theft or larceny, who were entitled to benefit of clergy, should be "burnt in the most visible part of the left cheek, nearest the nose". This special ordinance was repealed in 1707.
In the Lancaster Criminal Court, a branding iron is preserved in the dock. It is a long bolt with a wooden handle at one end and an M for malefactor at the other. Close by are two iron loops for firmly securing the hands during the operation. The brander would, after examination, turn to the judge exclaiming "A fair mark, my lord." Criminals were ordered to hold up their hands before their sentence, to show if they had been previously convicted.
In the 18th century, cold branding, or branding with cold irons, became the mode of nominally inflicting the punishment on prisoners of higher rank. "When Charles Moritz, a young German, visited England in 1782 he was much surprised at this custom, and in his diary mentioned the case of a clergyman who had fought a duel and killed his man in Hyde Park. Found guilty of manslaughter he was burnt in the hand, if that could be called burning which was done with a cold iron". From Markham's Ancient Punishments of Northants, 1886.
Image:Mark of a deserter.jpg|thumb|right|Mark of a deserter from the British Army. Tattoo on skin and equipment. Displayed at Army Medical Services Museum.
Such cases led to branding becoming obsolete. It was abolished in 1829, except in the case of deserters from the army, who were marked with the letter D, not with hot irons but by tattooing with ink or gunpowder. Notoriously bad soldiers were also branded with BC. The British Mutiny Act 1858 provided that the court-martial might, in addition to any other penalty, order deserters to be marked on the left side, below the armpit, with the letter D, such letter to be not less than an inch long. In 1879 this was abolished.