Derby's dose: Difference between revisions

'''Derby's dose''' was a form of [[torture]] used in [[Jamaica]] to punish [[slavery|slaves]] who attempted to escape or committed other offenses like stealing food. According to [[Malcolm Gladwell]] in his 2008 book ''[[Outliers (book)|Outliers]]'', "The runaway would be beaten, and salt pickle, lime juice, and [[bird pepper]] would be rubbed into his or her open wounds. Another slave would defecate into the mouth of the miscreant, who would then be gagged for four to five hours."<ref name=Gladwell>{{cite book |last=Gladwell |first=Malcolm |authorlink=Malcolm Gladwell |year=2008 |title=[[Outliers (book)|Outliers: The Story of Success]] |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |page=282 |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-316-01792-3}}</ref> The punishment was invented by [[Thomas Thistlewood]], a slave overseer and named for the slave, Derby, who was made to undergo this punishment when he was caught eating young sugar cane stalks in the field on May 25 1756.

Thomas Thistlewood recorded this punishment as well as a further punishment of Derby in August of that same year in his diary.<ref name=race>{{cite book |last1=Tate |first1=Thad W. |last2=Jordan |first2=Winthrop D. |last3=Skemp |first3=Sheila L. |year=1987 |title=Race and Family in the Colonial South: Essays |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |page=74 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=y9F2AAAAMAAJ&q=%22derby%27s+dose%22&dq=%22derby%27s+dose%22&ei=3D-iSbG4PIuiyAS4kIyMAg&client=firefox-a&pgis=1 |accessdate=February 23, 2009}}</ref> In 2013, Derby's dose came to prominence when television host [[Martin Bashir]] suggested on air that former Alaska Governor [[Sarah Palin]] deserved to be subjected to the punishment. Bashir was heavily criticized for this and resigned from the MSNBC network in the aftermath.