Who coined the term”Hell in a handbasket”?
Meaning ‘Going to hell in a handbasket’ is to be deteriorating – on a course for disaster. Origin The transit to hell is conjured up in various terms that use the imagery of swiftness; for example ‘hellbent’ and ‘hell for leather’. There are one or two theories as to why ‘handbasket’ was chosen as the preferred vehicle to be conveyed to hell. Handbaskets are, of course, baskets that are carried by hand. Items put in a handbasket are moved without resistance and it could be that the imagery of someone being taken off directly and without choice was in the mind of whoever coined the phrase. Another theory is that it derives from the use of the guillotine and the imagery of decipitated heads being caught in baskets, the casualty presumably going straight to hell, without passing Go. The first use of an alliterative ‘in a handbasket’ phrase does in fact relate to head rather than hell. In Samuel Sewall’s Diary, 1714, we find: “A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he
