A WITCH OR NOT
by
FRANCIS H. STRAUS II
delivered to
The Chicago Literary Club
March 5, 2001
In our contemporary fictional literary scene witches and
warlocks have been presented in a new and attractive form in the
Harry Potter series written by the clever Scottish author J. K.
Rowling. Her accounting of the magic powers used by her
characters
to play special games and work for good against the many evil
forces
is a very modern interpretation of witch activity. But "working
for
good" has not been the historical way witches have been
regarded.
The definition of a witch has never been clear. Witches have
been described throughout recorded history, although in different
time periods the definition has changed its emphasis making it
very
difficult to arrive at a precise list of witch characteristics.
It
is generally accepted that witches are female and it is very
unlikely
that witch characteristics would be identified in a young,
physically
attractive and socially poised person. So the definition focuses
on
older women who are physically plain and show borderline social
acceptance. Adding to these features is the fact that a witch is
believed to have special powers which in some minds is gained
hereditarily and in other minds achieved by self development, or
a
combination of both. In primitive cultures and in Classical
Greek
and Roman times the special powers of witches were used to
inflict
appropriate punishment on men who performed unacceptable sexual
acts,
by poisoning them or using magical powers to cause subsequent
impotence or infertility. Witches were also said to be master
herbalists and able to generate effective love potions. Whether
their powers were herbal, medicinal or whether they were able to
generate a truly magical power to accomplish these alterations in
sexual performance is not clearly stated. Societal outcry was
minimal in these early times and witches were only mildly
punished.
As monotheism grew the Church Councils debated whether
certain aspects of witchcraft overlapped with heresy. Thomas
Aquinas
strongly maintained that any magical power was heretical because
it
was obtained by an individual arrangement with the Devil or a
primitive god. These activities were taken more seriously in
Southern Europe where altering sexual performance was considered
to
be a more serious offense. Up to 1230 A.D. most people had
serious
doubts as to whether there was real magical power available to
anybody for use in changing sexual performance. In the next 200
years these doubts began to lessen and then vanish. As the power
of
the Inquisition grew, heresy and witchcraft were thought to be
combined and methods of gathering evidence against the heretic
were
brutal. It was considered perfectly acceptable to torture
individuals until they confessed and this was achieved in almost
100%
of cases. There were only a few individuals with the inner
strength
to resist the physically painful torture of thumb screws or
bending
the body on the rack and not confess. The Inquisition
established
the belief that there was a great recrudescence of witchcraft
across
Europe and that witchcraft powers were obtained by individuals
making
a contract with the Devil. So now the common people believed
there
were certain women with powers obtained by special pacts with
Satan.
The Church pointed out that witches had been described in the Old
Testament, leading to universal acceptance that the magic of
witchcraft was heretical.
Some witches were called striga witches and they were the
most malignant ones that could fly like birds of prey and kill
children or handsome young men. Most people still felt this kind
of
witch was pure superstition and thought to be present only in the
far
eastern parts of Europe. Real witches were thought by people in
western Europe to be women with special powers to affect animals
or
humans, and these individuals were seen to violate the civil
rights
of the affected surrounding citizens. Trials of witches first
occurred in both ecclesiastic and civil tribunals, then later
only in
civil courts. In 16th century England and later in its colonies
the
powerful techniques of the Inquisitors were modified by requiring
that no torture could be used to obtain confessions of witchcraft
Yet many of the methods used to identify witches were modified
torture such as taking a needle and pricking the entire nude body
surface of the accused looking for the areas of diminished
sensitivity which were said to be present on witches, or feeling
all
over the nude body surface looking for little skin folds
identified
as witches' tits. The accused were also thrown into prison and
fed
very poorly as a method of obtaining confessions.
Elizabeth the First's second parliament passed a law which
made it a crime for any person to kill or injure by the use of
witchcraft. In the law there is no definition of what witchcraft
is.
According to the church bishops at that time, witchcraft was the
use
of supernatural powers given to a person by a pact with the
Devil.
This law was proposed and then passed by the landlords in
Parliament
who wished to rid their manors of freethinking women who nursed
the
sick and tended to be the ones most voiciferous in defying local
authority trying to make life easier for the tenant farmers. The
first person tried with the new law was Elizabeth Lowys of Essex,
the
wife of a tenant farmer. She was a health giver and herbalist
caring
for the sick. The head of the local church felt this woman to be
a
threat to his teachings because of her preChristian healing
techniques. She was charged with killing three men by witchcraft
and
causing spells in a local boy. The boy's parents did not accuse
her
of witchcraft as she was a positive helpful member of the local
community. Nonetheless, this first English "witch" was tried,
convicted and hung in March 1565.
Fifty five years later in 1620 the Calvinist group called
Separatists, or Brownists named after Robert Brown, landed at
Plymouth and faced a most precarious existence with wilderness
and
threatening Indians in all directions. In facing these
challenges
many Pilgrims realized that the strict Calvinist ways were very
restrictive and so they adopted a more free living life style. A
decade later the Puritans began to immigrate to New England
bringing
not only farmers and artisans but also a number of more
prosperous
and educated Englishmen. These Puritans in contrast to the
Separatists insisted that they were still members of the Church
of
England, but they believed in introducing major reforms in that
church, getting back to more restrictive Protestant beliefs.
These
Puritans were interested in founding a Bible Commonwealth made up
of
many communities following the principles of this reformed faith.
This purified Christian faith could be practiced by communities
of
"saints" who could expect eternal salvation, and, of course,
gives
rise to the name by which we know them.
Winthrop, a major Puritan leader in New England, wrote "every
man might have need of others, and from hence they might all be
knit
more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection". They
were
a chosen people who had to work very closely together to survive
in
this hostile new world. The Colony was set up as a business, The
Massachusetts Bay Company. It was made up of many communities
whose
leaders, their magistrates, gathered in Boston to maintain civil
government and social order. Most of the magistrates were the
vicars, so the Colony governance and the Colony religious beliefs
were very closely intertwined.
One of the early Puritan settlers was Roger Williams, a most
formidable figure. He was in a sense more puritanical than the
Puritans because he believed the Puritans should separate from
the
godless and corrupt Church of England, which is what the original
Pilgrims had wished. Unhappy in Boston, Williams first went to
Plymouth working as a laborer and part time cleric. Then he
moved to
Salem where he charged the Puritans with having usurped Indian
lands
for their own gain. These charges were only partly correct and
the
magistrates reprimanded Williams but Williams continued his
contentious pronouncements. The magistrates again called him in
and
forced him to surrender his pulpit in Salem. Williams said the
Massachusetts congregations were "ulcerated and gangrened". He
lived
the winter of 1635 with the Indians and then moved to Rhode
Island.
Once there he started his tiny settlement where no one was
required
to attend church services and each could follow his own
conscience in
matters of religion. The church and town governance were totally
separate. This fortunately became the model for the future
United
States. It is interesting to speculate that if Williams had been
able to hold his pulpit in Salem, his views separating
theological
activity from governance might have prevented the later witch
crisis
in Salem village.
Three years later there was a challenge from Anne Hutchinson
who accused the magistrates as being more agents of the devil
than
the true lord. John Winthrop and the magistrates tried her for
heresy and banished her south to Newport, Rhode Island. She and
her
family were later massacred by Indians on Long Island. The
Boston
Puritans quickly stated that she got what she deserved and it
showed
that God was definitely on the side of the Puritans.
New England was organized in townships roughly six miles
square with a village surrounding the "commons", which was a
central
community grazing ground, with the church and community meeting
house
facing the commons. Town meetings elected town officers and the
sheriff, and raised taxes and tried to resolve any problems
present
in the community. Many communities set up different rules than
those
pronounced by the General Court in Boston. The people of such
communities were very dependent upon each other. Individuals
interacted by means of the sale of goods or labor or by barter
for
other goods or labor. One's ability to generate remunerative
trades
was economically necessary, but generosity was needed as well
since
all these dealings were seen and known throughout the whole
community.
Scattered episodes of witch trials and hangings occurred
throughout New England from the middle sixteen hundreds. The
only
escape for the accused or condemned was to confess and claim to
negate the pact with the Devil or to escape south out of New
England
to New York or Pennsylvania where witchcraft was not punished.
Most
of the accused were not wealthy enough to escape south fast
enough to
stay ahead of the sheriff sent to detain them.
In Boston in 1688 the middle four children of John Goodwin, a
devout Puritan mason, were besieged by "diabolical possession"
evidenced by episodes of great pain and body contortions, and
barking
or purring at each other like cats and dogs. Their minister,
Charles
Morton, and his friend, the young minister of Boston's second
Church
Cotton Mather, came to pray with and for the children: Martha,
thirteen, John eleven, Mercy seven, and Benjamin five. Cotton
Mather
described the episodes of "possession" and was with others
entirely
convinced that the "possession" was an act of witchcraft. In
retrospect it does seem odd that the episodes of pain and body
distortion only occurred at the Goodwin house and became
particularly
manifest when the family or outsiders were offering prayers or
religious services. They never had spells between dinner and
breakfast and the children slept well all night. It is also
interesting that if the eldest had abdominal pain, the other
three
did too, when another developed head pain, so did the others, and
so
on with similar pains at the same time. To a modern eye it would
seem that the children were acting out in rebellion against the
strict Puritan religious environment. At the time the elder
child
began to say her tortures were secondary to the witchcraft of
Mary
Grover, the mother of the family laundress. She was Irish
Catholic
and indeed admitted to practicing image magic and on
investigation
puppets were found in her house. She certainly did not show
proper
respect for Puritan ideals and answered questions quite
abrasively.
Doctors were called in to judge whether she was mentally
competent.
They judged that she was. The Goodwin parents chose the course
of
prayer and good behavior to fight the devil in their household.
This
course just made the tortures of the children worse. Eventually
Mary
Grover was hanged as a witch in November 1688 but not
surprisingly
the affected children still had their episodes of painful bodily
contortions until each was removed from their home to live
elsewhere.
Eventually all the Goodwin children survived and seemed to
outgrow
their difficulties.
The Goodwin children's trials and the accusation, conviction,
and execution of Mary Grover of course were common knowledge
throughout the Puritan colony and in some ways set up the Salem
witch
trials which occurred four years later.
Now it is time to relate my personal connection to the Salem
witch episode with the brief biography of Elizabeth Jackson Howe,
my
sixth great grandmother. Elizabeth Jackson was born in the
hamlet of
Hunsley near Rowley in East Yorkshire ten miles west of Hull on
the
Humber River. Her family were parishioners of the 13th century
St
Peter's Church in Rowley. Her parents William Jackson and Joan
Collin
were married in St Peter's Church in May 1636. They were
farmers.
Elizabeth was born in May of 1637 and she was christened in
St Peter's on May 19th. Ezekiel Rogers was the minister. He had
become the Rector of Rowley in 1621 and he was a staunch Puritan,
one
among those whose beliefs were gaining ground in England because
some
people thought the Reformation had not gone far enough and the
Church
of England was too lax. The Puritans were still few and widely
scattered but many came to St Peter's and Ezekiel Rogers' parish
was
quite active and successful.
Rowley was in the archdiocese of York and its Archbishop
until 1628 was Tobias Mathew, a man of strong Puritan sympathies.
He
supported Ezekiel Rogers but his successor was hostile to Puritan
beliefs and Rogers' position steadily became more difficult. The
breaking point came when Rogers was ordered to read from the
pulpit
the accursed book of sports which encouraged young people to play
games on the Sabbath day which was an anathema to Puritan belief.
Ezekiel Rogers began planning his emigration to The Massachusetts
Bay
Colony with as many of his followers as wished to join him. This
happened in the spring of 1638. Elizabeth was one year old and
had
just become the older sister of recently born John.
The immigrant families met and planned together. They sold
their farms and goods, keeping only farm equipment and a few
things
from their houses. They contributed funds to the general
treasury
held by their leader, the shrewd and competent Ezekiel Rogers.
Their future land grants in Massachusetts would be based on how
much
they had contributed to the project. The Jacksons were in the
group
of lesser contributors. Space on the transatlantic ship was very
limited so important decisions had to be made concerning what
could
be taken and what needed to be sold. Most of the families were
young
with young children.
In June 1638 the group of emigrants packed their carts and
proceeded to Hull, the walled city on the Humber River. It is
interesting to note that it was when Hull refused to admit
Charles
the First to their city, four years later, that the English Civil
War
began. If Rogers had been able to foresee the successful Puritan
outcome in the Civil War, he and his followers would not have
embarked upon the dangerous long journey they had now
started.
The group spent several days by the river in Hull finalizing
their readiness to board ship. They then embarked on a chartered
merchant ship named "John" of about 200 tons displacement.
Besides
the Rowley group there was one other Puritan minister, the
Reverend
Jose Glover, with his household and a printing press destined to
be
the first brought to the northern colonies. Altogether the John
had
about one hundred passengers (70 adults and 30 children).
Baggage
was in the hold and all passengers were in the between-decks
space.
The dangers of small pox and scurvy were ever present on the
journey.
The actual time of this passage is not recorded, probably around
8
weeks. Only one death occurred while at sea and it was the
Reverend
Glover. Personal hygiene must have been a problem and the
Jacksons
with a one year old and an infant to care for in these crowded
conditions must have had real difficulties.
In August 1638 the John landed at Salem where the new
arrivals were welcomed. The Jacksons and the rest of the Rowley
group went to Boston where they lived with families through the
winter of 1638-39 helping with household and farming chores. By
spring 1639 the Rowley group gained permission from the General
Court
of The Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a "plantation"
settlement between Ipswich, founded in 1633, and Newbury, founded
in
1635, along the Atlantic coast north of Gloucester, twenty five
miles north of Boston.
With this permission the Rowley group turned down invitations
from other previously established settlements since they wished
to
establish their own community. They called it Rowley after
Reverend
Rogers' original parish in East Yorkshire. House lots and
properties
were laid out along the town brook giving each family access to
fresh
water. There were now sixty families, some being additions of
people who had already immigrated and were related to those on
the
John. Those families who made the largest original contributions
got
four acre lots, those contributing the least got one and one half
acre lots. The Jackson's small lot was on both the north and
south
sides of Bradford Street just where Narrow lane enters it, quite
far
out on the west side of the new Rowley settlement. It was one
and
one half acres but by 1652 the Jacksons owned 12 acres in the
settlement, mostly by the addition of their share of the common
land
used for pasture.
Rowley established itself without difficulty as the settlers
were hardworking and conscientious people. William Jackson was
soon
appointed overseer of the common ways which meant he was in
charge of
all the town's public roads and could call on fellow townspeople
to
help him build or maintain the roads. He was a farmer and was
able
to support his family The town soon raised sheep and developed a
water power driven mill to weave and finish both woolen and
cotton
cloth. All the houses contained spinning wheels to generate
thread
for the mill. The houses were small by our standard with a large
single room on the first floor having a large open fireplace for
cooking, a spinning wheel, and table for eating. Off this might
be a
parental bedroom, and children slept in the attic up a ladder
from
the great room or "hall". Outside were gardens, outhouse, and on
the
common ground sheep and cattle. Nearby in the woods were
Indians,
who in 1676 killed the leader of the town militia and several
militia
members. Also in the woods were deer, bear, fox and
wolves.
By 1644 Elizabeth Jackson is described as a "maid" in Ezekiel
Rogers' house. It is hard to know what this means, but at age 7
years it is unlikely that she was much of a house servant. She
may
have been living there learning to be a servant. Another
possibility
is that since the Jacksons were not strong church attenders
(William
never became a freeman of the town which was often secondary to
church membership) and Elizabeth's younger brother was charged
with
Sabbath breaking, a serious offense in the Puritan community,
perhaps
Elizabeth was in the Reverend's house to teach her better ways.
A
third possibility is that Elizabeth's mother was about to give
birth
to her fourth child and Reverend Rogers may have taken Elizabeth
in
temporarily to relieve the household.
We have little knowledge of Elizabeth's education. The
Massachusetts Bay Colony started compulsory elementary education
in
public schools in 1647, so she probably had some formal
education.
When Elizabeth returned home she certainly helped her mother care
for
her three younger siblings and helped her father with farming and
gardening. The Jacksons were now entitled to 25 acres of town
land
for cultivation and grazing which was much more than they had had
in
East Yorkshire.
Life for teenage children was pretty gloomy in the Puritan
colonies. Sabbath was strictly regulated with long services and
lectures. Town bylaws required the appointment of overseers to
inspect each house on the Sabbath to ensure that the Lord's Day
was
being properly observed. There were compulsory lectures during
the
week and lots of hard work to accomplish. Life was not
easy.
In 1658 when she was twenty one years old Elizabeth was
married to James Howe who came from the neighboring town of
Ipswich,
four miles away to the southeast. There was much social
interaction
between Rowley and Ipswich, which had been founded only six years
before Rowley, although the exact circumstances which brought
Elizabeth and James together are not recorded. James was a
little
older than Elizabeth and totally blind. Elizabeth moved to a
section
of Ipswich called Topsfield, very close to Salem. Her marriage
seems
to have been successful. She had five children: Elizabeth 1661,
Mary
1664, John (my fifth great grandfather) 1671, Abigail 1673 and
Deborah 1685. Her last child was born when she was forty eight.
She
stayed in close touch with her parents and her father gave his
son-in-law a parcel of land he owned in West Rowley. James Howe
and
the children were devoted to Elizabeth from all accounts. Yet a
woman in these early colonial times running a household and
carrying
out extra duties and activities because her husband was blind
might
have given the impression of being a busy body, over-extending
her
activities, and making decisions well beyond the accepted level
for a
retiring domestic Puritan housewife. Elizabeth apparently was
not a
submissive female figure. She had to take strong positions to
safeguard the interests of her blind husband and the children.
She
did have the gift of attracting children to herself and is
described
as always having many more than her own in tow both in her daily
activities and in attendance at story telling and other
entertainments.
The problem began in 1682 with neighbors in Topsfield, the
Perleys. Sam Perley from Ipswich had married Ruth Trumble from
Rowley six years after the Howes' marriage. Ruth Trumble was
related
by marriage to Elizabeth as Elizabeth's youngest sister Deborah
had
married John Trumble in Rowley. So Elizabeth and Mrs. Trumble
were
sisters-in-law. Apparently the trouble began when the Perleys 10
year old daughter, Hannah, who had previously been part of
Elizabeth's childrens group in the Howe household, became ill.
She
was subject to periodic fits and while in the fit would sometimes
accuse Elizabeth for causing her illness through witchcraft.
Hannah's parents certainly picked up or generated this message as
did
her siblings when the accusation against Elizabeth was made in
1682.
The Puritan minister, the Reverend Samuel Phillips, and his
assistant
the Reverend Edward Payson in Rowley were skeptics of the
witchcraft
craze which had come over from Puritan England. They contrived
to
bring Elizabeth to Hannah's house just as she was recovering from
one
of her fits. The Reverends asked Hannah if Elizabeth was
responsible
for her affliction and Hannah denied that Elizabeth Howe had any
guilt for her fits and added that if during her fits she had
accused
Elizabeth of witchcraft she was unaware of it. Then one of her
brothers who was standing nearby urged Hannah to name Elizabeth
as a
witch but she would not do so.
The accusation was made in 1682 but for the next ten years
there was no action resulting from it. Elizabeth did continue to
try
to be admitted into the Ipswich church but was unsuccessful. Her
relation to the community was damaged and her activities became
more
limited to family. Hannah, the Perley daughter, went on to die
several years after the original accusation was made.
Toward the end of that ten years in nearby Salem village a
number of unnatural or unexplained events had taken place and
members
of the town were severely frightened about their future survival.
This kind of uncertainty and personal fright occurs especially
when a
rather tightly interdependent village group suddenly evolves to a
point where individuals have more personal freedom to follow
their
own course and not spend their full efforts in fitting into the
community as they had done before. This plus the simple fact
that
there was a group of prepubertal girls who had listened to a
Barbados
slave, Tituba, working in the minister's house who ranted about
black
magic and satanism. The girls learned that by having screaming
spasms and accusing women of witchcraft, all the adults started
paying attention to them. As their importance grew so did the
number
of their accusations. The evidence they stated was always
"spectral"
saying that they had seen ghosts looking like this or that witch.
Then, when the accused was brought into their presence, the
girls'
fits stopped when they were touched by the accused. This showed
that
the accused had witch-like power to stop their suffering. These
same
girls from Salem village were invited to several nearby towns to
identify witches in those towns, which they happily did. Almost
all
of the accused were middle-aged women who probably were a little
more
independent and intelligent than the average Puritan housewife of
the
time.
Sir William Phipps, the newly arrived Governor, found The
Massachusetts Bay Colony in a turmoil with many accused witches
but
no trials had taken place. Under Common Law the accused had to
be
tried in civil court and on conviction the punishment was death.
The
Governor immediately appointed a special court "ayer et terminer"
in
March 1692 which was to move to different towns in the Colony and
set
up preliminary hearings and then conduct trials to deal with the
broadly felt threat presented by the widespread evil magical
powers
of witchcraft.
Another powerful influence at this time was Cotton Mather,
the young Puritan theologian in Boston. Unfortunately for the
Colony
his more sensible father, Increase Mather, had temporarily gone
back
to England. Cotton Mather, a well read theologian, held the
Puritan
idea that the hand of God could be found in all things and this
was
accompanied by the vivid awareness that the evils of Satan and
his
minions were not far behind. So Cotton Mather preached that firm
control of witchcraft was necessary for the survival of the
Colony
and he endorsed the hearings and trials, advised the judges and
gave
eulogies after the hangings. Eventually Increase Mather came
back
and helped to stem the witchcraft frenzy, in the fall of 1692.
But
in the spring and summer of 1692 the views of Cotton Mather were
dominant.
The evidence presented at the time of accusation, preliminary
hearing or trial was always "spectral" evidence. The damaged
person
or persons said they had seen the image of the accused in a
dream, or
heard the accused make a remark which later indicated that the
accused had initiated damage toward a neighbor or a neighbor's
animals, or the accused stopped the fits of girls which indicated
that the witch had magical powers. None of this was real
provable
factual information. Statements such as this would be quickly
dismissed from a hearing or trial in modern times. Yet in those
times of changing societal relationships and with the Puritan
fear of
evil, such evidence was accepted.
So now the ten year old accusation of witchcraft was revived
and Elizabeth was called for a hearing and put in prison for
trial.
Despite the malignancy of the period Elizabeth did have friends
and
family who tried to support and defend her. Never did her blind
husband or her children change their loving feelings towards her.
They walked miles twice a week to visit her in prison, bringing
her
things to eat and objects to provide her comfort. Generally the
imprisoned accused witches were very harshly treated, starved and
repeatedly examined for insensitive skin areas or roughly
palpated
looking for "witches nipples". One of the purposes of this
mistreatment was to get a confession of guilt from the accused.
If
such could be obtained then all the spectral evidence could be
overlooked and punishment or self-avowed denial of further use of
witchcraft could be achieved. Elizabeth never confessed and
always
proclaimed she was innocent of any witch behavior. Many of the
accused did confess and so survived by promising to give up
witchcraft. Charles Upham, a witch historian, concluded that
"the
bearing of Elizabeth Howe under accusations so cruelly and
shamefully
fabricated and circulated against her, exhibits one of the most
beautiful pictures of a truly forgiving spirit and of Christlike
love
anywhere to be found".
At Elizabeth's trial on June 30th, 1692, James Howe, her
father-in-law who was then ninety four years old, presented a
letter
to the court commending Elizabeth as a careful, loving, obedient
and
especially kind person who looked after his blind son and their
children.
The minister and his assistant from Rowley described their
bringing Elizabeth to the Purley house and not getting anything
but
denial of Elizabeth's involvement in Hannah's spells or fits.
Many
of Elizabeth's neighbors who had known her for more than twenty
years
came forward to testify that "her words and actions were always
such
as well became a good Christian". Two couples, the Chapmans and
Knowltons, said they had never heard her speak against those who
were
accusing her and had heard her say "indeed I pray that God would
forgive them for they harm themselves more than me".
The minister and his assistant from Rowley described their
bringing Elizabeth to the Purley house and not getting anything
but
denial of Elizabeth's involvement in Hannah's spells or fits.
Many
of Elizabeth's neighbors who had known her for more than twenty
years
came forward to testify that "her words and actions were always
such
as well became a good Christian". Two couples, the Chapmans and
Knowltons, said they had never heard her speak against those who
were
accusing her and had heard her say "indeed I pray that God would
forgive them for they harm themselves more than me".
At her trial Elizabeth Howe was one of five women in the
first Salem witch trial. This took place in Salem village now
renamed Danvers, Massachusetts. First there were the usual
swooning
girls who revived miraculously when Elizabeth touched them. Then
there was an accounting by so-called damaged individuals who said
they had been visited in their dreams by ghosts who claimed they
had
been killed by Elizabeth. These statements were recounted in
Cotton
Mather's report of the trial. Also in the trial it was noted
that
Elizabeth had not been admitted to the Ipswich church despite
several
applications and that "mischiefs" had fallen upon some of those
opposed to her applications. It was also claimed that she had
bewitched Joseph Safford's wife into actively supporting her, but
when later Mrs. Safford was visited by shapes in Elizabeth's
image
she retracted her support.
Next John Howe, Elizabeth's brother-in-law, came forward
saying Elizabeth had asked him to accompany her to a pretrial
hearing. He refused and alleged that immediately thereafter some
of
his cattle leaped three to four feet in the air and fell
bewitched to
their death. Later authors point out that Elizabeth's husband's
property might be inherited by Elizabeth. If Elizabeth were put
out
of the way John Howe might inherit her land. It is appropriate
to
ask: Did John covet James Howe's property? Nehemiah Abbott,
husband
of Mary Howe, Elizabeth's sister-in-law, also charged that
Elizabeth
bewitched cattle. A possible motivation for this accusation is
less
clear.
Cotton Mather describes other "trivial" evidence involving
choked and lamed cattle, and altered barrels of drink allegedly
spoiled by Elizabeth. Finally the Perleys, Hannah's family, who
had
been the main agents responsible for the original accusation ten
years before, came forward. Now Mr. Perley described helping a
transporter bring a load of posts and rails to James Howe but
because
he, Mr. Perley, was not in Elizabeth's favor all the received
posts
and rails disintegrated when used. Why the court thought
Elizabeth
would damage posts and rails brought to her husband I do not
know.
Then several confessed penitent witches affirmed that Elizabeth
Howe
had been one of them baptized by the Devil in the river at
Newbury
Falls.
This was the trial and Elizabeth was convicted of being a
witch and sentenced to death by hanging which was carried out
three
weeks later on July 19, 1692, along with the four other accused
witches. The court had convicted all who were brought before it
without exception. One accused, Rebecca Nurse, was found not
guilty
at first, but the immediate popular outcry from the afflicted
quickly
caused the judge to charge the jury to reconsider and they then
changed the verdict to guilty.
After the conviction one of Elizabeth's daughters went to
Boston to seek executive clemency but this was refused.
On July 12th William Stoughton signed the death warrants for
Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes and
Elizabeth Howe. Two were 70 and 71 years old, two in their
fifties
and one in her late thirties. Good, Martin, and Howe had been
accused of being witches some years previously and Susanna
Martin, a
widow, had rather enjoyed the notoriety of being considered a
witch.
All the others besides Sarah Good were intelligent, pious,
devout,
Puritan women. Sarah Good was shrewish, idle, and slovenly, was
said
to spread small pox, beg and damage property by setting fire to
hay
with her pipe. Another interesting common theme not often
brought up
is the fact that Nurse, Wildes and Howe were publicly on the
anti-Salem village side of a civil dispute where both Salem
village
and Topsfield-Ipswich claimed property lying between the two
townships. A court had made the mistake of, at different times,
assigning the disputed property to each township and during the
witch
craze, power was with the Salem village group with the great help
of
their vicar Reverend Perry. It is not beyond possibility that
these
three women were charged and hung in Salem village's effort to
express its power and gain this disputed property for
itself.
The Salem witch trials took place in Salem Village, and the
carrying out of the punishment, hanging, took place in Salem, by
the
ocean, purportedly on "Gallows Hill" in west Salem. This
limestone
ridge still carries the name "Gallows Hill". Most of the
contemporary accounts of the hangings describe the site as high
up in
open air taking place there because the Devil was supposed to
control
the air and so hanging the witches in the Devil's air was an
affront
to the Devil's power.
In the early 1920's a man by the name of Sidney Perley wrote
an eighteen page account of where the Salem witches were really
hanged. The author's name is spelled exactly as is the name of
the
Perley family in Ipswich who accused Elizabeth Howe in 1682, but
I
have no evidence of whether this author was related to the
earlier
Perley family. In any case, the author points out that "Gallows
Hill" is dense limestone rock without trees or ability to dig
foundations for gallows. Review by that author of town records
establishes that no expenditure for lumber was made by Salem in
June
or July 1692. So it is presumed that the hangings were from
trees,
not gallows. Contemporary accounts also describe that the bodies
of
the witches were shallowly buried in a crevice near where they
were
hung. There is no such crevice on the top of "Gallows Hill".
Lastly
it is known that the families of some of the executed witches
came in
the night immediately after the hangings and recovered some of
the
bodies, taking them off by water to family burial sites. This
was
totally against the religious beliefs of the time so it had to be
done surreptitiously. But there is no water immediately adjacent
to
"Gallows Hill".
Using all this evidence and several contemporary statements
of persons who said they could see the hanging site from their
homes
in Salem, the actual site of the hangings in Perley's opinion was
down the bluff from Gallows Hill on a smaller rise next to an
outpouching of the North River. This lesser hill had trees on it
for
the hangings, and a small crevice which could have been used for
the
burials and it was on the shore of the river. It would have been
visible from the houses whose occupants said they could see the
carts
carrying the convicted witches and the place where the hangings
took
place. After the hangings locust trees were planted in memory of
what had happened there. These locust trees remained on this
lower
ridge until fire in 1914 destroyed them. The site is presently
part
of Salem, with streets and houses and is several hundred yards
west
of the old Salem court and meeting house.
Fourteen more witches and warlocks were hung or pressed to
death in Salem in August and September 1692. By November the
prisons
were full of accused suspects and the Colony suddenly realized
they
had let the church, the children, and the people with personal
animosities or greed force the Colony to overreact. Now the
persecutors were suspect. Charges of witchcraft ceased, the
trials
stopped and the accused were freed. In fact Elizabeth's brother
and
nephew had been accused and imprisoned, but were later released.
The
finish to the trials was ordered by the same Governor Phipps who
had
initiated the trials in the spring; this time he forbade further
trials and declared spectral evidence inadmissible in court. The
prepubertal Salem village children who now were losing their
importance then proclaimed the Governor's wife, Lady Phipps, a
leader
of the witches. This convinced the authorities that these
children
were dangerous and now they were silenced when no one paid
attention
to them anymore. Ann Puttman, one of these girls, much later
admitted that she had had delusions and had accused innocent
people.
By spring of 1693 all prisoners had been freed.
Long after The Massachusetts Bay Colony's reversion to more
proper behavior, legal proceedings were instituted to show
Elizabeth
had been innocent of the conviction against her. These
proceedings
were overseen by a capable Boston lawyer named Saltonstall who
succeeded in reversing the conviction, in September 1710, well
after
the fact. Allowance to the family was granted for the loss of
her
life amounting to four pounds fourteen shillings. I wish current
malpractice lawyers thought life was of such minimal value.
Actually
four of the first five women had their convictions revoked with
compensation for their lost lives. Rebecca Nurse's family
received 25
pounds, Sarah Wildes' family 14 pounds, Sarah Good's 30 pounds,
and
Elizabeth Howe's family was said to have gotten 12 pounds but
family
records indicate the smaller amount. Susannah Martin got no
reversal
or compensation.
Knowing the dangers and worries of pioneer life in New
England, the changing in societal relationships with resultant
insecurity, and the Puritan belief that both God and evil are
everywhere, it is not hard to see the features which led to the
Salem
Witch Frenzy of 1692. The sad thing is that the scapegoats
chosen
were probably the more intelligent and independent free-thinking
persons of their time. Many would be the feminists of today.
They
were the more interesting involved people. By thinking and doing
they made some enemies who used the witch craze to get back at
them
in a most vindictive way.
Now you have absorbed the background and heard the facts of
the case for and against Elizabeth Howe as a witch in 1692. Where
do
you stand, guilty or not guilty of having generated a pact with
the
Devil and used her thus gained magical powers to inflict damage
on
her neighbors and their animals? I expect all of us in this
modern
age require true factual evidence, not hearsay evidence, dreams,
lies, or acting out as evidence to judge a person guilty. You
all
feel as I do that the so-called witches of New England were in
fact
victims of a temporarily confused society. A number of factors
led
to this confusion. First and most important as a cause was the
basic
Puritan belief that God was everywhere and so was the Devil
causing
all these unexplained phenomena. We should remember that
community
members were forced to work hard for survival and had no
recreational
time because the Church required all their non-working time to be
occupied by services, prayers, and sermons . Then the members of
this all powerful religious system that controlled the government
as
well as all the important aspects of social interaction came out
strongly for the identification, trial and execution of witches.
This is shown by the actions and writings of Cotton Mather and
the
vicar Perry in Salem village. So the worst and most significant
cause of the witch crisis in New England was the Puritan church's
pushing for stricter Calvinist ideologies without any provision
for
recreational time.
The next most grievous factor was the lying and acting out of
the Goodwin children in Boston and later the prepubertal girls in
Salem Village. The misbehavior of these children most likely
stemmed
from the restrictive nature of the Puritan beliefs and
represented a
clear attempt to shake up the system and get more freedom. They
were
not clever enough to foresee that lives would be lost because of
their actions.
Finally there is the sad fact that personal greed and
community greed also entered into the generation of verbal
evidence
given at hearings and trials. Some negative evidence came from
individuals so frightened of unexplained occurrences that they
sided
with the Church against the unknown.
The end results were disastrous for the fifty executed
witches who maintained their innocence up until their executions.
These of course were the most intelligent free-thinking
individuals
of their time not accepting the strict rules of the all
encompassing
religious society around them. Not only were they not witches
but
they were the mental leaders of their time, unfortunately too far
ahead of their time so they suffered for it.
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