Read Online The Penguin Book of Witches by Katherine Howe - Free Book Online
Authors: Katherine Howe
Ads: Link
threat embodied by witches, particularly the threat that they posed to male authority.
Bridget Bishop was also an example of the spread of the accusations outside the main purview of the small community of Salem Village. She was a woman of dubious character, living in Salem Town, who was not personally acquainted with any of the afflicted girls, nor did she have a stake in any of the ongoing conflict between the various factions in Salem Village. Instead, she was a woman who had been tried as a witch once before and who had stoked the suspicion of her neighbors for years. 1
The use of conventional courtroom arguments, like proof by negation (“if you don’t know what a witch is, how do you know that you are not a witch?”), illustrates that the existence of witchcraft was treated in the court system like any other common felony. Witchcraft was a real enough phenomenon in the colonial New England intellectual world that it could be argued as any other criminal act.
The Examination of Bridget Bishop 2
The Examination of Bridget Bishop at Salem Village 19 April, 1692
by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, esquires
As soon as she came near all fell into fits.
[Q]: Bridget Bishop, you are now brought before authority to give account of what witchcrafts you are conversant in.
[A]: I take all this people
(turning her head and eyes about)
to witness that I am clear.
[Q]: Hath this woman hurt you
(speaking to the afflicted)
?
A[illegible]g Hubb[?]d[scored out] Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams, and Mercy Lewis affirmed she had hurt them.
[Q]: You are here accused by 4 or 5 for hurting them. What do you say to it?
[A]: I never saw these persons before; nor I never was in this place before.
Mary Walcott says that her brother Jonathan stroke her appearance and she saw that ha[scored out] he had tore her coat in striking, and she heard it tear.
Upon sea[scored out] some search in the court, a rent that seems to answer what was alleged was found.
[Q]: They say you bewitched your first husband to death. 3
[A]: If it please your worship, I know nothing of it.
She shake her head and the afflicted were tortured.
The like again upon the motion of her head.
Sam. Braybrook affirmed that she told him today that she had been accounted a witch these 10 years, but she was no witch. The Devil cannot hurt her.
[A]: I am no witch.
[Q]: Why if you have not wrote in the book, yet tell me how far you have gone? Have you not to do with familiar spirits?
[A]: I have no familiarity with the Devil.
[Q]: How is it, then, that your appearance doth hurt these?
[A]: I am innocent.
[Q]: Why you seem to act witchcraft before us, but the motion of your body, which has in[scored out] seems to have influence upon the afflicted.
[A]: I know nothing of it. I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.
[Q]: How do you know then that you are not a witch? And yet not know what a witch is? [scored out from “and yet”]
[A]: I do not understand [scored out] know what you say.
[Q]: How can you know you are no witch, and yet not know what a witch is? 4
[A]: I am clear: if I were any such person you should know it.
[Q]: You may threaten, but you can do no more than you are permitted.
[A]: I am innocent of a witch.
[Q]: What do you say of those murders you are charged with?
[A]: I hope I am not guilty of murder.
Then she turned up her eyes and they [scored out] the eyes of the afflicted were turned up.
[Q]: It may be you do not know that any have confessed today, who have been examined before you, that they are witches.
[A]: No, I know nothing of it.
John Hutchinson and John Hewes in open court affirmed that they had told her.
5
[Q]: Why look you, you are taken now in a flat lie.
[A]: I did not hear them.
Note Sam. Gold saith that after this examination he asked said Bridget Bishop if she were not troubled to see the afflicted persons so tormented, said Bishop answered no, she was not troubled for them. Then he
Bridget Bishop was also an example of the spread of the accusations outside the main purview of the small community of Salem Village. She was a woman of dubious character, living in Salem Town, who was not personally acquainted with any of the afflicted girls, nor did she have a stake in any of the ongoing conflict between the various factions in Salem Village. Instead, she was a woman who had been tried as a witch once before and who had stoked the suspicion of her neighbors for years. 1
The use of conventional courtroom arguments, like proof by negation (“if you don’t know what a witch is, how do you know that you are not a witch?”), illustrates that the existence of witchcraft was treated in the court system like any other common felony. Witchcraft was a real enough phenomenon in the colonial New England intellectual world that it could be argued as any other criminal act.
The Examination of Bridget Bishop 2
The Examination of Bridget Bishop at Salem Village 19 April, 1692
by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, esquires
As soon as she came near all fell into fits.
[Q]: Bridget Bishop, you are now brought before authority to give account of what witchcrafts you are conversant in.
[A]: I take all this people
(turning her head and eyes about)
to witness that I am clear.
[Q]: Hath this woman hurt you
(speaking to the afflicted)
?
A[illegible]g Hubb[?]d[scored out] Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams, and Mercy Lewis affirmed she had hurt them.
[Q]: You are here accused by 4 or 5 for hurting them. What do you say to it?
[A]: I never saw these persons before; nor I never was in this place before.
Mary Walcott says that her brother Jonathan stroke her appearance and she saw that ha[scored out] he had tore her coat in striking, and she heard it tear.
Upon sea[scored out] some search in the court, a rent that seems to answer what was alleged was found.
[Q]: They say you bewitched your first husband to death. 3
[A]: If it please your worship, I know nothing of it.
She shake her head and the afflicted were tortured.
The like again upon the motion of her head.
Sam. Braybrook affirmed that she told him today that she had been accounted a witch these 10 years, but she was no witch. The Devil cannot hurt her.
[A]: I am no witch.
[Q]: Why if you have not wrote in the book, yet tell me how far you have gone? Have you not to do with familiar spirits?
[A]: I have no familiarity with the Devil.
[Q]: How is it, then, that your appearance doth hurt these?
[A]: I am innocent.
[Q]: Why you seem to act witchcraft before us, but the motion of your body, which has in[scored out] seems to have influence upon the afflicted.
[A]: I know nothing of it. I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.
[Q]: How do you know then that you are not a witch? And yet not know what a witch is? [scored out from “and yet”]
[A]: I do not understand [scored out] know what you say.
[Q]: How can you know you are no witch, and yet not know what a witch is? 4
[A]: I am clear: if I were any such person you should know it.
[Q]: You may threaten, but you can do no more than you are permitted.
[A]: I am innocent of a witch.
[Q]: What do you say of those murders you are charged with?
[A]: I hope I am not guilty of murder.
Then she turned up her eyes and they [scored out] the eyes of the afflicted were turned up.
[Q]: It may be you do not know that any have confessed today, who have been examined before you, that they are witches.
[A]: No, I know nothing of it.
John Hutchinson and John Hewes in open court affirmed that they had told her.
5
[Q]: Why look you, you are taken now in a flat lie.
[A]: I did not hear them.
Note Sam. Gold saith that after this examination he asked said Bridget Bishop if she were not troubled to see the afflicted persons so tormented, said Bishop answered no, she was not troubled for them. Then he
Similar Books
