Witch trial Salem, Massachusetts, lithograph by George H. Walker, 1892.
Nearly 20 years ago we moved to the small Ohio township where we still live. We were taken aback to find we weren’t entirely welcome. Soon after settling in I was told by several neighbors I should remove our Halloween decorations, since that marked me as being on the side of Satan. I was also informed I should take down my sign supporting the local library levy, because the library allowed children access to that bastion of evil — the Internet. A few weeks later, simply admitting we weren’t the correct brand of born again Christian resulted in a de facto death threat.
But we hung in there. We planted fruit and nut trees, along with raspberries, asparagus, and other perennials. We built barns and fenced pastures. We intend to live here until we’re so damn old that we can’t feed livestock or preserve our harvest or take a daily walk. If nothing else, we’re resilient.
Still, it’s not always easy.
Here’s one example. A few years ago, our regular postal carrier actually asked me if we were devil worshipers. He was apparently alarmed by a large outdoor mosaic I’d made out of broken dishes and other memorabilia left to me after my mother died. He perceived the crescent moon shape, a shape we all see every month in the sky above our lovely planet, as somehow malevolent. I was too surprised by the question to answer him.
But, of course, I have no concept of what it’s really like to be perceived as a dangerous influence.
An ancestor of mine paid for that with her life.
My cousin Becky recently dug through all sorts of records to complete a family history. She confirmed stories we heard when we were growing up, that we were descendants of a woman convicted and executed in 1692 during the infamous Salem witch trials.
My sister and I remember being told that this woman had been exonerated after her death so that her children could again attend church. We were wrong. She wasn’t officially exonerated until 2001.
Scott was accused of ‘certaine detestable arts called witchcraft and sorceries’ that she ‘wickedly, mallitiously and felloniously hath used, practised and exercised’.
Margaret Stephenson Scott was one of the last women hung for the crime of witchcraft in this country. Unlike depictions in popular books and shows about the Salem witch trials, she wasn’t young and pretty. She was elderly. A victim of class structure. A victim of other people’s guilt. A victim of a rigid us-versus them culture. Another victim in a long history of women who were slaughtered for being different.
Margaret was born in England around 1615 and came to the colonies with her parents as a child. She grew up to marry an indentured man, Benjamin Scott, in 1642. They moved to Rowley, Massachusetts in 1651 and Benjamin was declared a freeman in 1664. Of their seven children, only three survived to adulthood. Margaret’s husband died when she was 56, leaving her nearly penniless. Still, she survived on what he left her for nearly 21 years. By the time she was 77 years old, she was reduced to begging to survive.
She asked wealthy townsman Thomas Nelson for wood in payment for a debt he owned her. He refused to pay, and claimed his cows acted strangely afterwards, with one of them perishing. He blamed Margaret. She asked another wealthy townsman, Jonathan Burbank, if she might glean corn from his field. He refused, although his wife gave Margaret some corn. Later when his oxen refused to move, Burbank accused Margaret of bewitching them. Historians call this “refusal guilt syndrome.” When people of means refuse to help those in need, they feel guilty, and deal with their guilt by aggressively vilifying the person who caused such feelings.
A teenaged servant formally accused Margaret of sorcery after what may have been years of rumors.
Margaret was convicted on the basis of spectral evidence ( the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to a witness in a dream) and maleficium evidence (misfortune to one’s property or health blamed on someone who was a nuisance in society). She fit the profile of women accused of witchcraft in New England; loss of children, low stature in the community, and poverty.
Margaret was the only person from Rowley, Massachusetts to be accused of witchcraft. She maintained her innocence throughout her imprisonment and trial. She was found guilty on September 17, 1692 and hanged five days later — in the last group of people to be executed for this crime.
William Phips, newly appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, overruled and disbanded the court soon after, perhaps because his own wife had been accused of consorting with the devil. He ordered that courts disregard spectral evidence, pardoned several people sentenced to die for witchcraft, and released over 100 people awaiting trial.
Laura Grace Weldon 
That’s so sad about your ancestor. I don’t understand the fear behind this. Thank God we are not all exactly the same. (The Moon is beautiful.)
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It’s so strange and hard to understand, this human urge to see a fellow human as Other.
Thanks for appreciating my giant mosaic moon. It not only has broken plates and blue glass, but handles of broken tea cups and tiny doll faces. Putting it together was downright therapeutic.
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It’s an inspired work of art.
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You and I had to meet in this life. I hope we meet in the next too. (seriously)
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I recently learned that my 11th great grandmother was accused of witchcraft, too. She was elderly as well. The trials ended, but she wasn’t let out of jail immediately and died in Salem jail. It broke my heart to learn that. It was surprising to me how sad my heart felt. Sending healing love to our ancestors. And the moon is beautiful!
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Oh my, what unimaginable misery to die in jail like that.
I know healing love sent to our ancestors makes a difference. I can feel it as a rightness all the way through me.
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Certainly, that moon is gorgeous.
I find it utterly bizarre that anyone can have those sort of beliefs today. They must be very fearful people.
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I agree Mick, I think fear is behind much of the anger, suspicion, and division in our world. My mother used to say, “kill em with kindness.” That wasn’t an option for Margaret Scott, but it certainly is for us.
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I agree about the fear; ‘People hate what they fear, and fear what they don’t understand’.
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Wow, this is so… Bizarre… It’s hard to believe people actually still have that kind of prejudice. I don’t understand the need to fear everyone who isn’t exactly the same as them…
P.S. Your moon is beautiful. 🙂
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Fear is a strange creature isn’t it?
BTW Irena, your blog booksandhottea.wordpress.com is wonderful. I’ve ordered The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde thanks to your recent post.
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Thank you so much! ❤ And I hope you’ll enjoy Wilde’s works. 😀
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I had tears in my eyes reading this, emotions reacting to Margaret’s plight. It would seem I have witchy inclinations, simple beliefs of pagan origin… or otherwise. Apparently I was a healer in that time, branded as a witch in a past life, suffering a similar fate. Regardless if that is so, I am also a healer of sorts in this life, an advocate of tolerance and simply sharing my credo by living it. It’s all we can do.
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I’m glad your soul is here in this lifetime, living simply in Australia and showing us delight can be found everywhere. Thanks EllaDee.
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This is so interesting! Thanks for sharing!
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I have no doubt that every one of us have myriad ancestors who endured great suffering. History is full of famines, plagues, pograms, and slave ships. That we’re here at all is a testament to what they survived.
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When I researched my ancestry I found out some long lost secrets, with help from living relatives.
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Your moon is beautiful. What a great remembrance.
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Thank you KImberly. It was hard for me to toss out even broken things of my mom’s.
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Love what you did for your mom. So sorry that your ancestor lost her life that way….such occurrences just show how dangerous a lack of knowledge is.
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Lack of knowledge continues to be a frightening disease doesn’t it?
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So true…although sometimes I think it spreads like a wildfire.
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I’m afraid we’re living in just such a wildfire era of deliberate ignorance right now, LearnnLibraries. We have to keep having conversations, with a lot of listening, across all so-called boundaries.
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