In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, act 2, lines 402–421, the stage directions indicate that John Proctor reached for the whip (lines 402404) to punish Mary for leaving the house when she was not supposed to and implying that she would be leaving every day from then on as her presence as an official was requested in the trials (lines 398-400). Elizabeth only interferes to convince Mary to promise not to leave the house again so that John doesn't whip her (lines 408-410). Because of this, we can infer that it was generally accepted that people would whip their servants as punishment for disobedience.
