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Book: Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer
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Authors: Rosalyn Schanzer
Tags: Religión, United States, General, Juvenile Nonfiction, History, Witchcraft & Wicca, Massachusetts, Witchcraft, salem, Christianity, Body; Mind & Spirit, Witchcraft - Massachusetts - Salem - History, Puritans, Puritans - Massachusetts - Salem - History, Colonial & Revolutionary Periods, Christian Church, Salem (Mass.) - Church History
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with smoak.”
As usual, hard-nosed Reverend Noyes had not one bit of sympathy for the people who were hanged. “What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of Hell hanging there,” he proclaimed. About that time, it began to pour down rain.
CHAPTER NINE
THE END IS HERE
A s the cool winds of autumn blew into New England, it became obvious that change was in the air. More and more people were starting to realize that the innocent were being executed because of hearsay, malicious gossip, and invisible evidence. Some people even wondered whether the accusers were witches themselves, especially since they said they could talk so easily with the Devil and because they sometimes contradicted their own stories.
Far too many fine upstanding Puritans from the best families were being packed off to jail. Besides that, the main accusers seemed perfectly healthy outside of the courtroom, and the sheer number of suspects was so high that it was impossible to believe this many people could all be witches. A Beverly, Massachusetts, minister named John Hale said it best: “It cannot be imagined that in a place of so much knowledge, so many in so small compass of land should abominably leap into the Devil’s lap at once.”
What’s more, every single one of the 19 people who were hanged denied the crime of witchcraft right up until the moment they died. If these denials had been a pack of lies, God would never allow their souls to enter heaven, and the accused people knew it. Since nobody wants to go to Hell for lying about being a witch, surely this meant that none of them was guilty. Until now, many townsfolk who thought the trials were unfair had been afraid to say a word for fear of being accused themselves. But it was becoming quite clear that unless the trials were stopped, an entire generation of innocent Puritans could be condemned as witches.
O n October 3, Boston Reverend Increase Mather preached a sermon arguing against the witch hunts. He agreed with his son Cotton that the Devil could make himself look exactly like any innocent person he chose. But Increase added that the Devil could play his dirty tricks without a person’s permission. (The judges had always claimed that the Devil needed a person’s permission before he could use that person’s likeness as a disguise.) The upshot was that Increase thought it could be the Devil, not the accused people, who was causing all the trouble. Like Cotton, he again urged the courts to exclude every bit of spectral evidence from now on, saying it would be “better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned.”
On October 6, six young suspects in the Salem prison were released on bail. This was something entirely new.
On October 8, eight powerful men (a former governor and deputy governor, the Reverend Increase Mather, a major who had resigned as a judge during the witch trials, and several other justices from various towns) signed a letter declaring their objections to the witch trials. The letter was written by Thomas Brattle, the same man who wrote earlier that the accusers had purposely injured themselves in court with pins and thorns hidden in their clothing. Brattle said that the group was “very much dissatisfyed with the proceedings; also several of the present Justices; and in particular, some of the Boston Justices were resolved to throw up their commissions rather than be active in disturbing the liberty of their Majesties’ subjects, merely on the accusations of these afflicted, possessed children.”
On October 19, a group of sobbing women reversed their previous confessions and revealed that not a single person they had accused of witchcraft had done them a bit of harm. They said their examiners had harassed them over and over to make them confess, and their families begged them to confess, too, so that they wouldn’t hang. Finally they’d had no other choice than to wrong themselves and lie about their
As usual, hard-nosed Reverend Noyes had not one bit of sympathy for the people who were hanged. “What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of Hell hanging there,” he proclaimed. About that time, it began to pour down rain.
CHAPTER NINE
THE END IS HERE
A s the cool winds of autumn blew into New England, it became obvious that change was in the air. More and more people were starting to realize that the innocent were being executed because of hearsay, malicious gossip, and invisible evidence. Some people even wondered whether the accusers were witches themselves, especially since they said they could talk so easily with the Devil and because they sometimes contradicted their own stories.
Far too many fine upstanding Puritans from the best families were being packed off to jail. Besides that, the main accusers seemed perfectly healthy outside of the courtroom, and the sheer number of suspects was so high that it was impossible to believe this many people could all be witches. A Beverly, Massachusetts, minister named John Hale said it best: “It cannot be imagined that in a place of so much knowledge, so many in so small compass of land should abominably leap into the Devil’s lap at once.”
What’s more, every single one of the 19 people who were hanged denied the crime of witchcraft right up until the moment they died. If these denials had been a pack of lies, God would never allow their souls to enter heaven, and the accused people knew it. Since nobody wants to go to Hell for lying about being a witch, surely this meant that none of them was guilty. Until now, many townsfolk who thought the trials were unfair had been afraid to say a word for fear of being accused themselves. But it was becoming quite clear that unless the trials were stopped, an entire generation of innocent Puritans could be condemned as witches.
O n October 3, Boston Reverend Increase Mather preached a sermon arguing against the witch hunts. He agreed with his son Cotton that the Devil could make himself look exactly like any innocent person he chose. But Increase added that the Devil could play his dirty tricks without a person’s permission. (The judges had always claimed that the Devil needed a person’s permission before he could use that person’s likeness as a disguise.) The upshot was that Increase thought it could be the Devil, not the accused people, who was causing all the trouble. Like Cotton, he again urged the courts to exclude every bit of spectral evidence from now on, saying it would be “better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned.”
On October 6, six young suspects in the Salem prison were released on bail. This was something entirely new.
On October 8, eight powerful men (a former governor and deputy governor, the Reverend Increase Mather, a major who had resigned as a judge during the witch trials, and several other justices from various towns) signed a letter declaring their objections to the witch trials. The letter was written by Thomas Brattle, the same man who wrote earlier that the accusers had purposely injured themselves in court with pins and thorns hidden in their clothing. Brattle said that the group was “very much dissatisfyed with the proceedings; also several of the present Justices; and in particular, some of the Boston Justices were resolved to throw up their commissions rather than be active in disturbing the liberty of their Majesties’ subjects, merely on the accusations of these afflicted, possessed children.”
On October 19, a group of sobbing women reversed their previous confessions and revealed that not a single person they had accused of witchcraft had done them a bit of harm. They said their examiners had harassed them over and over to make them confess, and their families begged them to confess, too, so that they wouldn’t hang. Finally they’d had no other choice than to wrong themselves and lie about their
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