tarring and feathering

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

A punishment sometimes inflicted by indignantly virtuous mobs in Southern and Western States, on persons who have committed an offence of which they fear the law will not take cognizance, by daubing them all over with tar, and afterwards covering them with feathers. "A practice," says Grose, "lately inflicted by the good people of Boston, in America, on any person convicted or suspected of loyalty."

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