It would honestly depend on the melting point of the tar and what it’s mixed with. I guess they could just heat pure wood tar, but they had the technical know how to mix it with volatile plant oils to make it more liquid.
The goal is to humiliate a person; running around like a chicken is more humiliating than being a dead chicken. Since they wanted a show, they would have went out of their way to make it less deadly.
From what admittedly little I’ve read on the subject, it seems plenty of people survived tar and feathering.
It would honestly depend on the melting point of the tar and what it’s mixed with. I guess they could just heat pure wood tar, but they had the technical know how to mix it with volatile plant oils to make it more liquid.
The goal is to humiliate a person; running around like a chicken is more humiliating than being a dead chicken. Since they wanted a show, they would have went out of their way to make it less deadly.