Most disturbing Torture Devices ever made
While some may argue that we are still quite barbaric at times. Even so, there’s no debate that over the years we have become more civilized. On the whole, we no longer punish wrongdoers in front of public crowds.
We don’t generally flay the skin of our enemies, nor do we allow bamboo to grow inside of military men that have been captured.
Solitary confinement
You might be surprised that this is on the list. Seeing as putting a prisoner in
solitary still goes on today all over the world. That might be because he is a danger to himself, a danger to others or has broken rules in some ways. Or he’s on the hit list of other prisoners.
Being alone in a cell all day or for most of the day can produce a number of psychological maladies. We can imagine that in most countries today, human rights agreements preclude a nastier kind of solitary confinement that we found in the past in the USA.
In the hundreds, solitary confinement was practiced, but there wasn’t usually such a thing as yard time or meeting with trained therapists.
Often, inmates were given a Bible locked in a room with not much light and given time to repent. But it wasn’t very successful. With a U.S. Supreme Court justice pointing out in 1890, a considerable number of the prisoners fell after even a short confinement into a semi fatuous condition from which it was next to impossible to retain them and others became violently insane. Some others, took their own lives. But you only need to look at the dungeons of Europe to know that solitary was much worse in medieval times.
Some of these cells let no light in. While there were sometimes too small to really move around in, prisoners might often be tortured on top of having to spend time repenting in their stone cell.
You might still think this is not as cruel as some of the punishments we’ve written in other parts. But try to imagine being in a cold, dark dungeon and dying slowly, losing your mind, perhaps trying to recover from injuries and without a doctor so you can get medical attention.
Solidary confinement can take many forms, but it basically means being locked up until you die. It could mean having four walls built around you. So you were in solitary but left there with no door. You might have an air hole, but it’s just a matter of days until you die. We’re told in ancient Rome this might happen to vestal virgins who didn’t remain chaste, but it’s reportedly quite common in parts of Persia.
This is what one visitor wrote after his trip to Persia just over a century ago and what he saw of an emergent chamber.
Another sad sight to be seen in the desert sometimes are brick pillars in which some unfortunate victim is walled up alive. The victim is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness. Then, if the executioner is merciful, he will submit quickly up to the face and death comes speedily. But sometimes a small amount of air is allowed to permeate through the bricks.
White torture
White torture has notably been used in Iran in recent times as a punishment for political prisoners. But this extreme kind of psychological torture has been used elsewhere. Where the prisoners are isolated in white cells. They wear white, they hear nothing. And in some cases it’s said that they only eat white rice.
It can also mean another kind of sensory deprivation.
here’s how the Organization of European Democratic lawyers described it when they accuse the USA of it.- In Guantanamo, prisoners are held under sensory deprivation, ears and eyes covered hands and feet tied hands and thick gloves held in cages without any privacy, always observed day and night.
Prisoner in Iran called -Amir Bravas said why torture was far worse than any physical torture he suffered even when they broke his bones. This is what he told the media after his release.
–We didn’t see any color, All of the cell was white, the floor was white, our clothes were white, and also the light 24 hours was white. Our food also was white rice. We couldn’t see any color and we couldn’t hear any voices.
Tarring and Feathering
This Torture comes with some added humiliation.
You can find this kind of punishment in medieval Europe, but it became quite popular during the American Revolution.
It usually consisted of a person being stripped and having hot tar poured over his skin. After that, feathers were dropped on the person. So for all intents and purposes, he became a human bird.
The pain part was the hot tar and the humiliation was the feathers.
Many years later, the provisional Irish Republican Army might tar and feather women who were accused of having relationships with their enemies.
Once tied up, they had hot tar poured over their heads. This was followed by feathers being dumped over them, which would stick to the tar for days, acting as a reminder of their so-called crimes against their community.
Trial by water
This is not only inhumane, but might go down as the most backwards kind of justice the world has ever seen. It was seen in parts of Europe as late as the 17th century, and what happened was when a woman was accused of witchcraft, she was given the swimming test.
It was often used as a test on witchery.
The accused is usually tied up with rope and dumped into the river to see if she floated. If she did, she must be a witch. But if she died, she didn’t have the help of evil.