Editing Flagellation (section)

====United States====
During the [[American Revolutionary War]], the American Congress raised the legal limit on lashes from 39 to 100 for soldiers who were convicted by courts-martial.<ref>Martin, p. 76.</ref>

Prior to 1815 United States Navy captains were given wide discretion in matters of discipline. Surviving ships logs reveal the majority awarded between twelve and twenty-four lashes, depending on the severity of the offense. However, a few such as captain [[Isaac Chauncey]] awarded one hundred or more lashes.<ref>McKee, Christopher, ''A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession The Creation of the U.S.Naval Officer Corps, 1794–1815'', (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md.,1991), p. 243</ref> In 1815 the United States Navy placed a limit of twelve lashes, a captain of a naval vessel, could award. More severe infractions were to be tried by court martial.<ref>McKee, p. 235</ref> As critics of flogging aboard the ships and vessels of the United States Navy became more vocal, the Department of the Navy began in 1846 to require annual reports of discipline including flogging, and limited the maximum number of lashes to 12. These annual reports were required from the captain of each naval vessel. See thumbnail for the 1847 disciplinary report of the {{USS|John Adams|1799|6}}. The individual reports were then compiled so the Secretary of the Navy could report to the United States Congress how pervasive flogging had become and to what extent it was utilized.<ref>Sharp, John G.M., ''Flogging at Sea, Discipline and Punishment in the Old Navy'' http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/oldnavydiscipline.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723170301/http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/oldnavydiscipline.html |date=23 July 2023 }}</ref> In total for the years 1846–1847, flogging had been administered a reported 5,036 times on sixty naval vessels.<ref>Parker, Hershel, ''Herman Melville A Biography Volume 1'', 1819–1851 (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press 1996) p. 262</ref> 

At the urging of [[New Hampshire]] Senator [[John P. Hale]], the United States Congress banned flogging on all U.S. ships in September 1850, as part of a then-controversial amendment to a naval appropriations bill.<ref name=Congress>Hodak, George. [http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/congress_bans_maritime_flogging/ "Congress Bans Maritime Flogging"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222071459/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/congress_bans_maritime_flogging/ |date=22 February 2022 }}. ''ABA Journal''. September 1850, p. 72. Retrieved 18 October 2010.</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20151011114623/http://legisworks.org/congress/31/session-1/chap-80.pdf 31st Congress, Session 1, Chapter 80 (1850), p. 515.]}} Quote: ''"''Provided'', That flogging in the navy, and on board vessels of commerce, be, and the same is hereby, abolished from and after the passage of this act."''</ref> Hale was inspired by [[Herman Melville]]'s "vivid description of flogging, a brutal staple of 19th century naval discipline" in Melville's "novelized memoir" ''[[White Jacket]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/usunitedstates-hmelville|title=Sharp, John G.M. ''The Ship Log of the frigate USS United States 1843–1844 and Herman Melville Ordinary Seaman'' 2019, pp. 3–4 accessed 12 December 2020|website=www.usgwarchives.net|access-date=12 December 2020|archive-date=12 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512170344/http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/usunitedstates-hmelville|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Congress /> During Melville's time on the USS United States from 1843 to 1844, the ship log records 163 floggings, including some on his first and second days (18 and 19 August 1843) aboard the frigate at Honolulu, Oahu.<ref>Anderson, Charles Roberts, editor, Journal of A Cruise to the Pacific Ocean, 1842–1844, in the Frigate United States With Notes on Herman Melville (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1937), p. 8.</ref> Melville also included an intense depiction of flogging, and the circumstances surrounding it, in his more famous work, ''[[Moby-Dick]]''.[[File:1847 disciplinary report re flogging, on the USS John Adams.jpg|thumb|1847 disciplinary report re flogging, on the USS ''John Adams''. The United States Congress banned flogging on all U.S. ships on 28 September 1850]]

Military flogging was abolished in the United States Army on 5 August 1861.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the United States Army|last=Weigley|first=Russell|year=1984|publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0253203236|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofuniteds00weig}}</ref>