An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts and Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions: Also, an Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem, in 1692Thacher, James
Philosophy
An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts and Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions: Also, an Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem, in 1692
Thacher, James
Superstition; Witchcraft; Witchcraft -- Massachusetts -- Salem
September 22d, eight were executed, the horse carrying them together
in a cart to the gallows, failed for a short time, and the accusers
said the devil hindered it; but it may be asked, if he had power to
arrest the cart for a moment, why not stop it altogether, and prevent
the executions? But they shew no signs of confidence or hope in his
power to save them. One Wardwell, having formerly confessed himself
guilty and afterwards denied it, was brought upon his trial. His
former confession and spectre evidence were adduced against him; but
his own wife and daughter accused him and saved themselves. 'There
are,' says Hutchinson, 'many instances of children accusing their
parents, and some, of parents accusing their children. This is the
only instance of a wife or husband accusing one the other, and surely
this instance ought not to have been suffered. I shudder while I
relate it.' Besides these irregularities, there were others in the
course of these trials. At the execution of Wardwell, while he was
speaking to the people, protesting his innocence, the executioner
being at the same time smoking his pipe, the smoke coming in his face
interrupted his discourse, the accusers said the devil hindered him
with smoke.
Mrs English was a woman of superior mind, and an excellent education;
but was thought not to be very condescending or charitable to the
poor; and by some of them she was accused of witchcraft. The officer
read to her the warrant in the evening, and guards were placed round
her house. In the morning, after attending the devotions of the
family, she kissed her children with great composure, proposed her
plan of education, and took leave of them, and told the officer she
was ready to die, being confident that would be her fate. After being
examined, she was by indulgence committed to custody in a public
house, where her husband frequently visited her, and this occasioned
an accusation against him. Being a man of large property, a merchant
in Salem, and having considerable influence, he fortunately obtained
permission to be confined with his wife in a prison in Boston, till
the time of trial. Here their friends found means to effect their
escape, and they fled to New York, where they were received with
friendly attention by Governor Fletcher. In the winter following, Mr
English sent generous supplies to the suffering poor at Salem; but on
his return after the storm had subsided, he found his house plundered,
and his property so reduced, that from an estate valued at £1500, he
realized only about £300.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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