The History of Torture

In his book, The History of Torture (Sutton Publishing, 1964), Daniel P. Mannix investigates torture techniques throughout the ages. Even though whipping and flogging don't have a chapter of their own you find spanking, whipping, flogging, and caning in almost every chapter. After all, this was the preferred method of punishment in both the ecclesiastical and judicial courts. Mannix dives right in with both feet and doesn't let up.

"The executioners stripped the eldest son and then scourged him until they were exhausted The three official types of scourges used by the Romans were a flat leather strap called the ferula, for mild offenses; the scutica made of twisted strips of parchment designed to lacerate the flesh, for more serious crimes; and the death dealing flagellum, a type of bullwhip."

The above appears on page two and Mannix begins to take us on a journey through the history of corporal punishment. What is interesting about this book is that he focuses mainly on female recipients with some detailed accounts. There's a story of a young woman who was stripped and flogged until raw and bloody. She would later die from the whipping and the church would canonize her as Saint Elizabeth. In England, Elizabeth Brownrigg would hire an astonishing amount of young orphan girls as servants and treat them cruelly by stripping and whipping them. She beat one girl, Mary Clifford to death and was hanged for the crime. Society women sometimes flogged their servant girls as recounted by Lady Frances Pennoyer. At Bridewell prison flogging women was a spectacle.

"Eighteenth century debutantes used to make up "flogging parties" to go to Bridewell and watch the whores beaten. The women were usually stripped to the waist and flogged with a birch (steeped beforehand in vinegar and salt to increase the sting). By tipping the warden, arrangements could be made to have the girls flogged on their bare buttocks. In W. Reinhard's "Nell in Bridewell" there is a description of a girl who was stretched on the whipping bench, her skirt turned up, and beaten on her bare bottom until blood ran and her screams could be heard throughout the prison. Two birches were broken on her."

Mannix did an excellent job of researching for this book. Anyone interested in the technique and devices used in torture should read it. The ducking stool, scavengers daughter, and iron maiden all make an appearance as well as beheadings, stoning, and imprisonment. A worthwhile read and an interest to anyone curious about corporal punishment.

Is there any mention of the Russian knout? There's a bit about this in Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser and it seemed to be a particularly vicious instrument used for a number of offences.

The Russian knout isn't named specifically but appears to be similar to the cat-o'-nine-tails. The knout had wires that were hooked and sharpened to rip the flesh open. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the knout was more brutal, painful, and deadly compared to the cat. I guess Mannix overlooked it since it's similarities are close.

In the way its described in FatC in the hands of a skilled user it can either kill with one blow or the punishment can be drawn out and excruciating.

"Knout" simply means "whip" in Russian, so there were numerous regional variants. The one Seegee is thinking about is the "great knout", which is a heavy, 1.2 m leather thong, more like a very thick bullwhip than a cat.
According to legend, Cossack shepherds would kill wolves with one stroke of it.

That being said, the knout(s) are the exception, rather than the rule when it comes to instruments of JCP.
The vast majority of people who were "flogged to death" back in the bad old days died of infected wounds, rather than blood loss or trauma.