[4] Cropping sometimes occurred as a standalone punishment (such as in the case of William Prynne for seditious libel),[5] where criminals' ears would be cut off with a blade.
Cropping was also a secondary punishment to having criminals' ears nailed to the pillory (with the intention that their body movements would tear them off).
[3] From page 153 of Reverend Samuel Peters' General History of Connecticut, written during the colonial period, there is this account: Newhaven is celebrated for giving the name of "Pumpkin Heads" to all of New Englanders.
When caps are not to be had, they substituted a hard shell of a pumpkin, which being put on the head every Saturday, the hair is cut by the shell all round the head…….. and fourthly, such persons as have lost their ears for heresy, and other wickedness, cannot conceal their misfortune and disgrace.In Rhode Island, cropping was a punishment for crimes such as counterfeiting money, perjury, and "burning houses, barns, and outbuildings" (but not amounting to arson).
[11] American Notes, a work written by Charles Dickens in 1842, describes the cropping of fleeing slaves' ears being used as identification after capture.