To hell in a handbasket
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Going to Hell in a handbasket" or "Going to hell in a handcart" is an English alliterative phrase of unclear origin, describing something or a situation taking a turn for the worse or towards disaster without effort or in great haste.
There are similar phrases going back over 400 years, such as to "Heaven in a wheelbarrow". There has been some speculation that the phrases may be related, with "to Hell in a handbasket" perhaps being a mocking reference to the Guillotine which often used a lined basket to catch the severed head.[citation needed]
Its first use recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is in a historical work of 1865 by I. Windslow Ayer entitled The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details, with the quote: "Thousands of our best men were prisoners in Camp Douglas, and if once at liberty would ‘send abolitionists to hell in a hand basket.'"
It has also appeared in title of several published works and other media:
- "Hell in a Handbasket" was the title of a 1998 Star Trek comic book.
- Hell in a Handbasket is the title of a 2006 book (ISBN 1585424587) by American counterculture cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, who authors a nationally syndicated cartoon strip This Modern World.
- "Hell in a handbasket" was the name of an undescribed con requiring a trained cat referenced in the 2004 film, Ocean's Twelve.
Often heard quoted in the midwest circa 1940s, according to Rieta Collins.[citation needed]
