Well my dear readers  in our last History of Spanking entry we left off with the Renaissance.  We also examined a Ancient Spanking Customs and determined that the French and the clergy were spanking enthusiasts. 

Spanking in Early America
In 1620 a somewhat fundamentalist sect escaping from religious persecution landed upon the great continent of North America in now what we call Massachusetts.  To the Puritans discipline was not only necessary but fundamental to the disposition of your very soul.  Children were brought up by a very strict set of rules and the punishment were severe.  (There are reports of Puritans flogging babies and toddlers sick I know). 

While the Puritans outright banned any type of spousal abuse their idea of abuse is somewhat different then what we have today.  Based upon English commonlaw a husband was allowed to correct his wife with a stick no thicker then his thumb.  Correction in Puritan society was not considered abuse, and when a wife got out of line the stick was applied (though perhaps not to their bum,  the Puritans were kind of particular about naughty female bits).

Oddly enough I couldn’t find any references to spanking for most of the 17th and 18th century (I was convinced that Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were spanko’s)

Spanking in the 18th Century
Meanwhile over in Europe the English were getting into the spanking game.  In 1795 the  British Lord Chief Justice declare that Corporal Punishment of servants “like children is indisputably justified”

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia a tradition emerged on Easter Sunday of all days.  On the morning of the holiday males threw water at females and spank them with a special handmade whip called poml