hell in a handbasket — Wordorigins.org

23 December 2020

Today, to go to hell in a handbasket means to willingly or without opposition to deteriorate or decline, especially a moral decline. Handcart, as opposed to handbasket, is also commonly seen. The metaphor is one of being easily transported or carried, as one might carry a small dog in a hand-held basket. But originally the meaning was more literal, referring to actual damnation. Often labeled as an Americanism, the phrase is also fairly common in Britain, and the earliest versions of the phrase are British dating to the early seventeenth century.

There are many variations on the phrase, and the handbasket version has only become the canonical one relatively recently. The earliest use of a variant that I’ve found is to hell in horse litter found in a 1636 sermon by Peter Hausted, an Anglican preacher and playwright; many of the early uses are found in sermons:

O yee will hug us of the Clergy, so long as wee let yee alone; so long as wee doe not bring backe your sinnes to your memory, wee are quiet and honest men, so long as wee will suffer ye to goe to Hell in a Horse litter, a fine easie pace, without any rubs or molestations in your way, we shall be accounted good and worthy men amongst yee.

Horse litter, like handbasket, is alliterative, but most of the early instances are not. Here is to hell in a fiery chariot from a 1641 sermon by Cornelius Burges. It is in reference to burning a heretic at the stake, hence the fire:

For, as Hoffeus the Jesuite was wont to bragg, they hold it a good peece of Pietie, instantly to commend him to the fire, ut anima ejus in curru igneo ad inferos trahatur, that so his soule might be forthwith carried to hell in a fiery Chariot.

While many of the early uses of the phrase and its variants are homiletic, not all are. Here is one from a popular song, “Chipps of the Old Block,” that was reprinted a number of times, the earliest I have found from 1659:

That Mine of fraud Sir Artur,
His Soul for Lands will barter;
And if you ride to Hell in a Wayn, he's fit to make
your Carter.

The handbasket variant appears in an anti-Catholic tract by Henry Care from 1682:

That noise of a Popish Plot was nothing in the world but an intrigue of the Whigs to destroy the Kings best Friends, and the Devil fetch me to Hell in a Hand basket, if I might have my will, there should not be one Fanatical Dog left alive in the three Kingdoms.

We have an American appearance in December 1734 in the Pennsylvania Gazette, a publication published by Benjamin Franklin. Here it is to hell in a cradle, a reference to the rocking of a sinking ship:

New and Vaughan, and one Spinner, the three greatest Rogues were drowned. One of the transports who were saved confessed, on his coming to Bristol, that Vaughan beat the Hole in the Boat, in order to make the Owner run her ashore, that they might have an Opportunity to make their Escape. They swore and curs’d all the Way, and New in particular swore, That he was going to Hell in a Cradle, for so he term’d the Rolling of the Vessel...The six other Transports were all delivered at Bristol, and go by the next ship to Virginia.

The handbasket variant reappears in a letter by Irish chartist leader Feargus O’Connor in a letter published in the Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser on 23 January 1841. And it is about this time, in the mid nineteenth century, that the handbasket version starts to emerge as the canonical phrase and become a fixed idiom. Other versions, especially the alliterative handcart one, still appear, but they become less common:

I am one of those who believe that the virtues of man, if cherished, and fairly displayed, very much preponderate over his vices. Sanctified hypocrites will tell you not, and that, do what you will, you are all to go to hell in a hand-basket, thereby, in fact, making you mere passive creatures in this world—passive to their will.

Here’s an example from the next year in the New York Herald of 10 April 1842, showing the phrase was alive on both sides of the Atlantic:

Pray, Mr. Bennett, good Mr. Bennett, keep the whip a going; lash the loafers, the dandies, the speculators, the pipelayers, the septuaginary Lotharios, the careless schoolmistresses, the Quack Doctors, Ministers and Lecturers; the State Borrowers, and City Borrowers; the wise Magistrates who try to enrich the State and City by increasing our taxes; the pettifogging Lawyers, and all those pious folks who think it a mortal sin to eat roast potatoes, who make a hell of this goodly earth, and won’t let us go to heaven unless we go in their handbasket.

It is recorded in 1865 with the sense of murder, sending someone to hell. It appeared in the context of a military tribunal of “Copperheads,” that is Northern Democrats who sympathized with the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. A group of Copperheads, calling themselves the Order of American Knights, was accused of plotting to free Southern prisoners and form them into an army. During the February 1865 tribunal, a witness testified that Illinois politician Buckner S. Morris gave a speech in the fall of 1864 using the phrase. Morris would be acquitted.

The witness’s account of Morris’s speech was recorded in the Chicago Tribune with a dateline of 13 February 1865:

He said we had friends in Camp Douglas who were Puritans, or betters compared to the Lincoln hirelings. He also spoke of giving these abolitionists hell under the shirt-tail, and about sending them to hell in a hand-basket. His speech was responded to by cheers.

I. Winslow Ayer, one of those who unmasked the conspiracy, also reported on Morris’s speech in his 1865 The Great North-Western Conspiracy:

He referred to the suspension of the habeas corpus, and said many of our best men were at that moment “rotting in Lincoln's bastiles;” that it was our duty to wage a war against them, and open their doors; that when the Democrats got into power they would impeach and probably hang him, and all who were thus incarcerated should be set at liberty; that thousands of our best men were prisoners in Camp Douglas, and if once at liberty would “send abolitionists to hell in a hand basket.”

By the end of the nineteenth century the sense of general decline was in place. From an article by journalist W.C. Brann published in 1896:

These are the unhung idiots who imagine that a nation, producing in abundance everything humanity needs, would go to hell in a handbasket if it adopted an independent currency system or an international policy which Yewrup did not approve.

So, just as the phrase indicated, its sense slowly slid from a literal and specific one of death and damnation to a squishier and more general one of decay and decline.

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Sources:

Anti-Moonshine. Letter. New York Herald, 10 April 1842, 3. Gale News Vault.

Ayer, I. Winslow. The Great North-Western Conspiracy. Chicago: Rounds and James, 1865, 47. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Brann, W.C. “Jingoes and John Bull. Anglo-Maniacs vs. Americans.” Brann, the Iconoclast (vol. 1 of 2). New York: Brann Publishers, 1896, 228–29. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Burges, Cornelius. Another Sermon Preached to the Honorable House of Commons Now Assembled in Parliament, November the Fifth, 1641. London: R.B. for P. Stephens and C. Meredith, 1641, 24. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Care, Henry. The History of Popery or Pacquet of Advice from Rome, vol. 4, 23 June 1682, 215. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

“Chipps of the Old Block.” Ratts Rhimed to Death. Or, the Rump-Parliament Hang’d Up in the Shambles. London: 1659, 49. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Goranson, Stephen. “Re: [ADS-L] New York Sunday Mercury,” ADS-L, 15 November 2020.

Hausted, Peter. “The Third Sermon Preached Upon Saint Peters Day.” Ten Sermons Preached Upon Severall Sundayes and Saints Dayes. London: John Clark, 1636, 55. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

O’Connor, Feargus. “O’Connor Upon Physical Force.” Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser (Leeds, England), 23 January 1841, 7. Gale News Vault.

“Our Cincinnati Letter. The Chicago Conspiracy.” Chicago Tribune, 16 February 1865, 4. NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2008, s.v. hell, n. and int.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, vol. 2 of 20, 5–12 December 1734, 3. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

Tréguer, Pascal. “To Go to Hell—or Heaven—in a Handbasket.” Wordhistories.net, 23 May 2018.

List of Early Uses

What follows is an early list of uses of to hell in a [conveyance] from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Some of these are literal uses referring to damnation, and there are many similar uses that I’ve left off because they did not refer to a vehicle of some sort (e.g., to hell in a dream or in a crowd).

Hausted, Peter. “The Third Sermon Preached Upon Saint Peters Day.” Ten Sermons Preached Upon Severall Sundayes and Saints Dayes. London: John Clark, 1636, 55. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

O yee will hug us of the Clergy, so long as wee let yee alone; so long as wee doe not bring backe your sinnes to your memory, wee are quiet and honest men, so long as wee will suffer ye to goe to Hell in a Horse litter, a fine easie pace, without any rubs or molestations in your way, we shall be accounted good and worthy men amongst yee.

For, as Hoffeus the Jesuite was wont to bragg, they hold it a good peece of Pietie, instantly to commend him to the fire, ut anima ejus in curru igneo ad inferos trahatur, that so his soule might be forthwith carried to hell in a fiery Chariot..

Abbot, Robert. Milk for Babes, or, A Mothers Catechism for Her Children. London: John Legate for Philemon Stephens, 1646, 263. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Hence is it that they swim in the Kingdome of pleasure, and, with their eyes to heaven, are going as fast as they can to hell in a feather-bed.

Tub-Preachers Overturnd. London: George Lindsey, 1647, 4. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Nor could he, having once the knowledg of the truth, be deceived by your errors by all your glozing specious pretences of New-Light, Christ upon his Throne, Godly Party, Free-grace, Saints, Comfort of beleevers, Divine Light, Pilgrim of the Saints, and Honey-comb, and a thousand sweet lyes in them to have a man go slumbring to hell in a feather-bed.

Godolphin, John. The Holy Limbeck. London: John Field for Edmund Paxton, 1650, 144–45. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Have you never observed a man at a Sermon to sleep very attentively, that heard, all, understood, little, and practised nothing: It seems there may be deaf hearers as well as dumb Preachers. Thus there are more ways of sleeping at a Sermon then one, and for him that cannot refrain, it would be less Hypocrisie to go to Hell in a feather-bed at home.

Sheffeild, John. A Good Conscience the Strongest Hold. London: J.B. for Samuel Gellibrand, 1650, 302. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Bernard speaks of some that were much wiser, and more skilfull then others, yet all the use they made of their wisdom was to go to Hell in a more neat and handsom manner.

“Chipps of the Old Block.” Ratts Rhimed to Death. Or, the Rump-Parliament Hang’d Up in the Shambles. London: 1659, 49. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

That Mine of fraud Sir Artur,
His Soul for Lands will barter;
And if you ride to Hell in a Wayn, he's fit to make
your Carter.

Gray, Andrew. Great and Precious Promises; or, Some Sermons Concerning the Promises. Edinburgh: Society of Stationers, 1663, 47. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Satan hath three different wayes of guiding souls unto everlasting torment; there are some that Satan carryeth to hell in a chariot of delusions, making them believe that they are still going to heaven; and such are the hypocrites in Sion: and I shall say; I think that chariot was never so filled as it is in those dayes. O fear that anxious disappointment that many of you (it is like) will meet with? An hypocrite he hath strong hopes, he hath strong idols, and he hath strong delusions, these are his three attendants. And there are some that Satan carryeth to hell in a chariot of profanity and ignorance of God, whose judgement goeth before hand, and they are known that they are going there. And there are some that Satan carryeth to hell in a chariot of civility.

Care, Henry. The History of Popery or Pacquet of Advice from Rome, vol. 4, 23 June 1682, 215. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

That noise of a Popish Plot was nothing in the world but an intrigue of the Whigs to destroy the Kings best Friends, and the Devil fetch me to Hell in a Hand basket, if I might have my will, there should not be one Fanatical Dog left alive in the three Kingdoms.

Phillips, Edward. The Mysteries of Love & Eloquence, or, the Arts of Wooing and Complementing, third edition with additions. London: James Rawlins for Obadiah Blagrave, 1685, 180. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

VVell fare him that is born to be hang'd say I, for he goes to heaven in a string, when he that is drown'd goes to hell in a ferry-boat.

Curate, Jacob. The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence; or, the Foolishness of Their Teaching Discovered. London: Randal Taylor, 1692, 111. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

I will tell you a sad truth, Sirs, You have been driven to Hell in a Coach this eight and twenty years, and that old Stock, my Father (pointing to him) has been the Coachman.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, vol. 2 of 20, 5–12 December 1734, 3. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

New and Vaughan, and one Spinner, the three greatest Rogues were drowned. One of the transports who were saved confessed, on his coming to Bristol, that Vaughan beat the Hole in the Boat, in order to make the Owner run her ashore, that they might have an Opportunity to make their Escape. They swore and curs’d all the Way, and New in particular swore, That he was going to Hell in a Cradle, for so he term’d the Rolling of the Vessel...The six other Transports were all delivered at Bristol, and go by the next ship to Virginia.

Rudder, Samuel. “Window XV.” The History of Fairford Church in Gloucestershire. Cirencester: S. Rudder, 1763. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

Description of a stained glass window

Here is Dives in hell, praying for a drop of water to cool his tongue; and Lazarus in Abraham’s bosum; also a woman going to hell in a wheelbarrow, for scolding at her husband.

Flavel, John. The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, vol. 6 of 8. Paisley: A. Weir and a. M’Lean, 1770, 191. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

There are but two differences betwixt me and the poorest slave the devil hath on earth; such are whipped on to hell by outward miseries, and I am coached to hell in a little more pomp and honor; these will have a less, and I a greater account in the day of reckoning.

Erskine, Ralph. “Sermon XV.” The Practical Works of the Reverend Ralph Erskine, vol. 1 of 10. Glasgow: William Smith, 1777, 456. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

Why, they had a good hope of heaven; and so, the higher their hope, the more dismal their fall and disappointment. Oh! how many ride triumphantly to hell in a chariot of foul-destroying delusion! They imagine they are right enough, and that all is well; while it is quite otherwise with them.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, residing in London, to His Friends in the East, vol. 2 of 2. London: R. Whiston, et al., 1790, 166. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

Reference to the Fairford Church window

It some way resembles a picture I have seen, designed by Albert Durer, where, amidst all the solemnity of that aweful scene, a deity judging, and a trembling world awaiting the decree, he has introduced a merry mortal trundling his scolding wife to hell in a wheel-barrow.

Des Carrieres, A. J. Précis de l'Histoire de France, Depuis l'Établissement de la Monarchie, Jusqu'à Nos Jour, vol. 1. London: 1791, 33. Hathitrust Digital Archive. https://www.hathitrust.org/

The monks have loaded this prince [i.e., Dagobert] with praise, the reason of which is plain; they thought it a duty to acknowledge his pious prodigality. One of them records, that they saw the dæmons conduct his soul to hell, in a boat; but that St. Denis, St. Mauritius, and St. Martin, came to its aid, rescued it from their hands, and carried it to Abraham’s bosom.

Meadows, Thomas. “Four and Twenty Puppet Shews.” Thespian Gleanings; a Collection of Comic Recitals, Songs, Tales, &c. Ulverston, Cumbria: George Ashburner, 1805, 170. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Four and twenty Puppet Shows all on a row

There was Punch and his wife going to old Nick in a hand basket, and the little devil lighting them with a dark lanthorn for fear they should lose their way

Dow, Jr. (pseudonym of Elbridge Gerry Paige). “Number XCIV. On Whales and Little Fishes.” Short Patent Sermons. New York: L. Labree, 1841, 232. HathiTrust Digital Archive. https://www.hathitrust.org/

The fact is, my friends, this billowy world, in which wo are spawned, may be properly considered one vast ocean, and its inhabitants, fishes of all sorts, sizes, grades and classes. Some are scaly, some are slimy, some are soft, some are smooth, and some are solid and consistent, clean through, from the dorsal to the ventral fin. Of the scaly tribe I may mention those suckers belonging to the body loaferish, that never rise to the surface of respectability, but are always groveling in the mud of corruption, whose sole study appears to be to see how much they can get without the least physical exertion; and who would rather ride to hell in a hand-cart than walk to heaven supported by the staff of industry.