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A brief letter to readers from Kathleen Kent, author of The Heretic's Daughter, followed by a short history of the Salem witch trials.
A Letter from Kathleen Kent
Dear Readers,
Martha Carrier, my grandmother back nine generations, was hanged as a witch in
1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Called the "Queen of Hell" by Cotton Mather,
Martha was unyielding in her refusal to confess and went to her death rather
than join the accused men and women who did so and were spared.
I've read countless historical sources about the trials, including the
transcripts that captured verbatim Martha's defiance to the court. But it was
the stories of my mother and my maternal grand parents that defined more clearly
the courage—and obstinacy— that set the Carriers apart.
All the Carrier tales I heard as a child were enthralling. The children made
bows and arrows and practiced shooting objects off each other's heads. Their cow
was fed pumpkins so she would give golden milk. Martha's husband Thomas was,
according to local gossip, a soldier for Cromwell and the executioner of King
Charles I of England. Thomas was over seven feet tall and, when he died at 109,
two coffins had to be fitted together to bury him.
Sarah is the central character of The Heretic's Daughter, and Martha did
have a daughter with that name. She was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft
along with her three brothers and spent months in captivity in a crowded cellar
prison. It's my hope that weaving my family legends into the fictional narrative
will bring an authenticity to the story of their tremendous bravery and
fortitude.
Regards,
Kathleen Kent
A brief history of the Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials of 1692 were a unique and tragic part of American
history. The trials and executions, which took place in Salem Village, included
nearly 150 men and women arrested from many different villages in
Massachusetts. The accused came from such towns as Andover, Topsfield, Beverly,
and as far away as Wells, in what is now the state of Maine. Ultimately 19 men
and women were hanged, and one man pressed to death with stones because he would
not testify, either to his guilt or his innocence. The witch hysteria, and the
ensuing legal actions, took a little more than a year from January 1692 to May
of 1693, and yet the fascination with the Salem "witches" has never
diminished.
One of the most terrifying aspects of the trials was the reliance by the court
magistrates on "Spectral Evidence", said to be the manifestation of Satan's
Invisible World seen only by the afflicted, accusing girls. It was
the testimony of these young women which was accepted and written into the court
transcripts; the original documents held for posterity in such institutions as
the Peabody Essex Museum in Boston.
Many of the accused, to save themselves from death, pled guilty to consorting
with the Devil and so were only imprisoned. The men and women who held fast to
their innocence were all condemned to be hanged. Martha Carrier, one of the 19
accused witches who was hanged, not only professed her innocence, but harshly
admonished her judges for allowing the words of a few hysterical girls determine
such a cruel fate for so many. It is a common misunderstanding that the Salem
witches were burned, but no witches in the Colonies were ever killed at the
stake as they were in Europe, as the British courts considered a burning death
too cruel. But to the Puritans who had forsworn themselves to being in league
with Satan, this false self-testimony meant eternal damnation.
The imprisonment of mostly women and children took place in some of the most
appalling conditions ever seen by the Colonial judicial system. Upon release
from jail, many of the accused were never compensated for their expenditures for
provisions such as food and water, as well as for the very shackles and heavy
chains that confined them. With a few exceptions, such as the grave memorial of
Rebecca Nurse, there are no known grave sites for most of the executed witches,
as they were tossed into shallow open pits after being hanged.
There have been many different theories as to the cause of such a terrifying
outcry by young women, ranging in age from 11 to 20, accusing their neighbors
and friends of witchcraft; ergot poisoninig, encephalitis, and, more
reasonably, conflict brought about by land disputes, disagreements over
fundamental religious practices and the dread of attacks and capture by the
indigenous native tribes. Whatever the confluence of causes, it
is the mystifying social drama of family against family, friend against
neighbor, that still haunts us and echoes today through the current events of
religious intolerance, superstition and the fear of the "Other."
The men and women hanged by the Court of Oyer & Terminer 1692:
Sept 19: Giles Corey
For further reading on the Salem witch trials, the
author recommends:
This article is used with the permission of Hachette Book Group and Kathleen Kent. All rights reserved. More at The Heretic's Daughter website.
Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
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