tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post7574745367591290843..comments2024-03-29T15:04:20.549+11:00Comments on ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly: The witches of Salem Ma were all hanged: 1692Helshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-61174859098236150112016-09-20T10:11:18.502+10:002016-09-20T10:11:18.502+10:00invenitmundo
Thank you.
I agree totally that the...invenitmundo<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />I agree totally that there must have been many such tragic cases throughout history - mass murderers, or psychotics who took out entire families or towns. And I agree that Enriqueta Martí 1913 may well have loved to eat human fat etc. What I am not at all clear about was these murders being explained by witchcraft. <br /><br />Self defined earth-based religions were practised in many communities, according to local beliefs. Witchcraft came into the minds/dreams of powerful men, usually not in Catholic communities and almost always against vulnerable women.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-18226956168654854212016-09-20T01:01:57.445+10:002016-09-20T01:01:57.445+10:00The story of the last wich ( Enriqueta Martí 1913 ...The story of the last wich ( Enriqueta Martí 1913 ) killed at least 40 children and drink their blood. More than that using human fat, blood, hair and bones of victims to make magic potions. invenitmundo.blogspot.com invenitmundohttp://invenitmundo.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-73294786479008547682016-05-31T17:18:45.693+10:002016-05-31T17:18:45.693+10:00Willow
Thank you for pointing out the extraordina...Willow<br /><br />Thank you for pointing out the extraordinary speed with which the Salem Trials moved, from first illness to the final hangings. Justice may be blind-ish and move slowly; injustice, on the other hand, seemed to have moved with obscene speed. The word "epidemic" comes to mind.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-57787479882323419362016-05-31T12:25:43.591+10:002016-05-31T12:25:43.591+10:00Note that the events moved with startling speed du...Note that the events moved with startling speed during the Salem trials. <br /><br />In Jan 1692 the girls fell victim to a strange illness.<br />By March, the first three witches were arrested.<br />In April, more Salem residents were named as the witchcraft fear spread.<br />In May, the newly arrived Gov Phips ordered a court to try the accused witches.<br />In June, July and August 1692, all 19 hangings took place.<br />In Jan 1693, the new Superior Court dismissed or pardoned the remaining cases. The Salem witchcraft madness was spent. Willow Winshamhttps://www.scribd.com/doc/308932942/All-About-History-Issue-No-36noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-81405381936678737932016-03-11T16:23:39.279+11:002016-03-11T16:23:39.279+11:00Malcolm
Thank you.
Are census data available for...Malcolm<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />Are census data available for the late 17th century? If the Puritans were only a small minority of the population, some of what the historians say about witch mania in Salem might need to be rethought.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-32299437402637515532016-03-10T16:38:28.270+11:002016-03-10T16:38:28.270+11:00Schiff had said "The population of New Englan...Schiff had said "The population of New England at that time would fit into Yankee Stadium today. Nearly to a person, they were Puritans". I disagree, at least if Puritan meant a covenanted church member, proven a saint according to Calvinist theology. That was true of only one fifth of the population. This matters because the divisiveness of congregationalism encouraged thoughts of witchcraft. If you were out rather than in, it was easy to feel a failure in the pursuit of grace, vulnerable to Satan's blandishments.<br /><br />Malcolm Gaskill<br />BBC History Magazine<br />Dec 2015BBC History Magazine, Dec 2015http://www.historyextra.com/article/blog/december-2015-issue-bbc-history-magazine-now-salenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-46230823559111776522015-11-26T13:46:43.483+11:002015-11-26T13:46:43.483+11:00Student
The Crucible is a dramatic play about com...Student<br /><br />The Crucible is a dramatic play about communal desperation. So even if Miller's details weren't exactly the same as the original Salem events, it doesn't matter. Did Goody Putnam really have seven children? Did they all die in infancy? Was Rebecca Nurse actually a midwife? Was the midwife responsible for all the deaths? <br /><br />In the Puritan town of Salem, where Christian morals were supposed to be paramount, communal trust had irretrievably broke down and innocent citizens were hanged. Yet Rebecca Nurse stayed true to her Christian beliefs.... and paid a great price. If Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, the Salem witch hysteria was an apt model.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-87910125677640476112015-11-25T13:30:58.241+11:002015-11-25T13:30:58.241+11:00Arthur Miller (The Crucible) said Rebecca Nurse wa...Arthur Miller (The Crucible) said Rebecca Nurse was elderly (70) and had lived an indisputably pious life. But because hysteria had quickly spread, even blameless Rebecca fell prey. Rebecca Nurse had been one of the midwives when Goody Putnam's seven children had died to illness. Putnam decided that Rebecca Nurse was at fault, and that the devil helped her kill the children. Another Student of Historynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-14628675644369175292015-11-25T10:00:19.985+11:002015-11-25T10:00:19.985+11:00jeronimus
Thank you. I had no idea that witchcraf...jeronimus<br /><br />Thank you. I had no idea that witchcraft was one of 12 capital crimes decreed by Connecticut’s colonial government in 1642. The legal precedent cited by the devoutly Puritan colonists was of a divinely higher order, using biblical passages in the legislation. I found the cases you mentioned. One woman was hanged in Hartford Connecticut in 1647. Then a witch hunt in the same town in 1662 led to seven trials and four hangings. Connecticut held its final witch trial in 1697. Not a happy history!<br /><br />And now it suggests something else to me. Betty Parris' behaviour, and the town's responses, were very similar to that of the afflicted washer-woman described in Cotton Mather's book in 1688. But what happens to our understanding of Salem if the Puritans there knew of a long history of witchcraft events, dating back before 1642?Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-37574284011102539872015-11-25T02:15:31.427+11:002015-11-25T02:15:31.427+11:00Interesting post, and the parallels to the Red Sca...Interesting post, and the parallels to the Red Scare are salient.<br /><br />Not sure it was such an isolated phenomenon. According to Wikipedia. the executions at Salem were not the first of their kind in the American colonies, nor even in New England. Of course, Salem was on a much larger scale. They were not unique, but simply an American example of the much broader phenomenon of witch trials in the Early Modern period. Also, rumours of witchcraft in neighbouring towns probably sparked events. It seems they didn't erupt from nothing.<br /><br />Not only was it insanity, but very sexist insanity.jeronimushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099993403604440221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-90433198906216415992015-11-24T10:47:51.853+11:002015-11-24T10:47:51.853+11:00Dr F
I really would feel better about this traged...Dr F<br /><br />I really would feel better about this tragedy if you were correct and Schiff was wrong. The fact that a few women sitting in a miserable gaol cell "owned up" to being witches was because they thought they would be spared. Or because they were going insane. If the judges allowed neighbourly gossip, school girl whispers and spectral evidence in court as proof of witchcraft, what chance did any normal woman have? <br /><br />I also think if a perfectly respectable minister's wife had not been caught up in the mass hysteria and charged with witchcraft, the insane accusations might have continued longer.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-59192556075999244002015-11-24T01:53:35.076+11:002015-11-24T01:53:35.076+11:00Hels:
My point was not the population thought the...Hels:<br /><br />My point was not the population thought the condemned women were witches, but that the condemned women believed that they themselves were witches. If I recall correctly, this was the point of Esther Forbes, "A Mirror for Witches." To give another example, my Italian born grandmother believed that some people could give the "evil eye." I would bet that there are still those who believe they have the power. Actually, here in the USA I believe there is even an organized group of witches who practice Wicca, they probably have their own website.<br /><br />I don't know about the urgency but it would appear that witch hunting was an exception to the norm in Puritan New England. As you point out, it seems to have been restricted to one time and place.<br /><br />FrankDr. Fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08469403843869655063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-72106969403403326492015-11-23T21:06:03.250+11:002015-11-23T21:06:03.250+11:00Deb
The New York Times (2001) wrote: When you onc...Deb<br /><br />The New York Times (2001) wrote: When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80s — the myth that Devil-worshippers had set up shop in our day-care centres, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomising children, practising ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating faeces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbours and the authorities.<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/07/magazine/lives-they-lived-01-07-01-peggy-mcmartin-buckey-b-1926-devil-nursery.html<br /><br />The comparison to Salem is not as far fetched as I had first thought.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-75746648739859676872015-11-23T20:58:52.582+11:002015-11-23T20:58:52.582+11:00Dr F
I changed the USA straight away, thanks.
Th...Dr F<br /><br />I changed the USA straight away, thanks.<br /><br />There is no doubt that many of the Salem population truly thought the condemned women were witches, including the ministers and the judges who should have known better. But the epidemic of witchly affliction only lasted from March 1692 until October of that same year. What was the urgency in having all those people tried, found guilty and hanged in such a short time?Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-83130286837782717322015-11-23T11:41:00.090+11:002015-11-23T11:41:00.090+11:00There was a kindergarten sexual abuse case in Cali...There was a kindergarten sexual abuse case in California where the owners of the kindergarten were charged with constant sexual abuse of the toddlers in their care. Unlike Salem, this case took forever. Discovered in 1983, charges were laid and trials run until 1990. Finally sanity prevailed and all the "perpetrators" were released. <br /><br />What distressed child care workers the most were the hysterical fervour that was whipped up. The witches travelled in a hot-air balloon and the toddlers were held in underground tunnels during Satanic ritual abuse. This was not 1692.<br /><br />Debnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-32919840115641043912015-11-23T11:39:12.950+11:002015-11-23T11:39:12.950+11:00Hels:
The witch trials did not take place in the ...Hels:<br /><br />The witch trials did not take place in the USA. They took place in the Massachusetts colony almost 100 years before the foundation of the USA. Also, though there is no justification for the treatment and execution of these poor women, it does appear that they thought that they were witches. I had a friend whose Sicilian mother believed that she was a witch although a "white witch" with healing powers. In the same way, many of those hunted by McCarthy turned out to be Communist sympathizers of Stalin.<br /><br />frankDr. Fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08469403843869655063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-89509658171290486372015-11-22T13:43:25.813+11:002015-11-22T13:43:25.813+11:00Parnassus
It is so sad that the witch trials actu...Parnassus<br /><br />It is so sad that the witch trials actually eroded the power of the Puritan church and community, rather than what was intended - to strengthen them. And it is ironic too, since those were the very colonists who had left England seeking religious tolerance. <br /><br />Re the McCarthy witch hunts, I feel even sicker about those victims than I did about the poor women who were hanged in Salem. McCarthy's victims were caught up in the same mass hysteria, but now the full force of government was gunning for them, rather than just the ministers and magistrates in a small part of Massachusetts.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-76769468360765926462015-11-22T02:26:03.177+11:002015-11-22T02:26:03.177+11:00Hello Hels, Overall, I think that the witch-tria...Hello Hels, Overall, I think that the witch-trial episodes eroded the power of the Puritans and especially the prestige of Cotton Mather and the Mather dynasty that was behind him.<br /><br />It is amazing that these grim trials were going on at the same time that Restoration authors such as Dryden and Shadwell were writing with such characteristic wit, urbanity and often irreverence.<br /><br />I don't know its popularity in Australia, but in the U.S. everyone reads Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, about the Salem events, but tacitly referencing the disgraceful McCarthy Communist 'witch hunts' that took place in the 1950's.<br />--Jim<br /><br />Parnassushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08958901307538141468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-37521313001777843742015-11-21T13:20:58.352+11:002015-11-21T13:20:58.352+11:00Thank you. I think the reason people were shocked ...Thank you. I think the reason people were shocked by the mass hysteria and horrific hangings of women in Salem was because we normally think of Puritanism as moral. Naturally, since the Puritan lifestyle was directed by the church and Christian beliefs. <br /><br />Puritan laws being extremely rigid worked both ways, I suppose. One on hand we might not expect wealthy Puritan families to abuse their female servants physically and verbally. And we might not expect one Puritan to viciously turn on another Puritan, whenever the community had a serious issue to deal with. On the other hand, Puritans believed strongly in the wrath of God, as divined by their ministers.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-83812129481366145712015-11-21T10:43:30.266+11:002015-11-21T10:43:30.266+11:00Why did the courts focus on weak, vulnerable women...Why did the courts focus on weak, vulnerable women like Tibula? It was a time when female servants suffered regular physical and verbal abuse behind the closed doors of a wealthy family’s home. The servants tried to achieve a tiny bit of revenge by raiding the cellar, stealing the kettle or planting stones in the master’s bed. As a result, such women were “fair game” for accusations of all sorts of crime.<br /><br />Charlotte Observer<br />24th July 2015Charlotte Observerhttp://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/books/reading-matters-blog/article27937996.htmlnoreply@blogger.com