The great endemic witchcraft at Salem Village in 1692 has been extensively
ascribed to the voluntary acts of a few girls and women, who are sometimes
credited with having derived much knowledge from books, traditions, weird
stories, and the like, and thus obtained hints and instructions whereby
they were enabled to devise, and, acting upon the credulity and
infatuation of their time, to enact, and did enact, that great and
thrilling performance, without supermundane aid. Was it so? An examination
of several sporadic cases which preceded that famous outburst of
mysterious operations, may indicate strong need to assign many witchcraft
manifestations to causes and forces lying off beyond the reach of man's
ordinary faculties, for we perceive in them the operation of powers which
he never acquired, nor can acquire, by reading, listening, or by any
training processes.
Hutchinson says, "The great noise which the New England witchcraft made
throughout the English dominions proceeded more from the general panic
with which all sorts of persons were seized, and an expectation that the
contagion would spread to all parts of the country, than from the number
of persons who were executed; more having been put to death in a single
county in England in a short space of time, than have suffered in New
England from the first settlement until the present time. Fifteen years
had passed before we find any mention of witchcraft among the English
colonists.... The first suspicion of witchcraft among the English was
about the year 1645."
We commence now an examination of several of the earlier cases, and begin
with MARGARET JONES.
There is extant, in the handwriting of the judge before whom she was
tried, a summary of the evidence adduced against this woman, who, in 1648,
was tried, condemned, and executed in Boston for the crime of witchcraft;
and who thus became, so far as we now know, the first American victim in
Christendom's carnal warfare against the devil. Unconsciously to herself
surely, but yet in fact, she may have been, as we sometimes view her,
America's first martyr to _Spiritualism_.
The chief knowledge of this case now attainable is furnished by the
Journal of Governor John Winthrop, who was both governor of the colony and
chief judge of its highest court in 1648, and presided at the trial of
Margaret Jones. His position on the bench gave him opportunity, and made
it his duty, to know precisely what was charged, what testified, and what
proved in the case. The character of that recorder is good voucher for an
honest and candid statement as far as it goes. His record states that,--
"In 1648, one Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was indicted and found
guilty of witchcraft, and hanged for it. The evidence against her was,
that she was found to have such a malignant touch, as many persons, men,
women, and children, whom she stroked or touched with any affection or
displeasure, or, &c., were taken with deafness, or vomiting, or other
violent pains or sickness; that, practicing physic, and her medicines
being such things as, by her own confession, were harmless, as anise-seed,
liquors, &c., yet had extraordinary violent effects; that she used to tell
such as would not make use of her physic, that they would never be healed,
and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued, with relapses against
the ordinary course, and beyond the apprehension of all physicians and
surgeons; that things which she foretold came to pass accordingly; other
things she could tell of, as secret speeches, &c., which she had no
ordinary means to come to knowledge of; in the prison, in the clear
daylight, there was seen in her arms, she sitting on the floor, and her
clothes up, &c., a little child, which ran from her into another room, and
the officer following it, it was vanished. The like child was seen in two
other places to which she had relation; and one maid, that saw it, fell
sick upon it, and was cured by the said Margaret, who used means to be
employed to that end."
Thus much was recorded by Winthrop in 1648. But the quantum of information
relative to Margaret Jones which historic selection deemed needful for the
public in 1764 had become very small, for at the latter date Hutchinson
says (vol. i. p. 150), "The first instance I find of any person executed
for witchcraft, was in June, 1648. Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was
indicted for a witch, found guilty, and executed. She was charged with
having such a malignant touch that if she laid her hands upon man, woman,
or child in anger, they were seized presently with deafness, vomiting, or
other sickness, or some violent pains."
Those few sharp lines comprise the whole of that historian's account of
this case. He gives no hint that the woman was accused of anything but _a
malignant touch_; therefore he falls long way short of fair presentation
of the facts. He leaves entirely unnoticed the chief grounds for just
inferences and conclusions. Whether that writer had access to Winthrop's
record we do not know. But the historian Upham had, and he states (vol. i.
p. 453), "The only real charge proved upon Margaret Jones was, that she
was a successful practitioner, using only simple remedies." _The only
charge proved!_ What can that mean? There surely were several other and
much more marvelous and significant things just as clearly charged and
"proved upon" her as was her successful use of simple remedies. The only
thing _proved_! If that thing was proved, then the same document which
teaches this, also teaches with equal distinctness that five or six other
things were proved upon her; and the greater part of these others were
difficult of solution by the philosophies of both the historians named
above. Turn back to Winthrop's account, and see what was charged.
1. When she manipulated either man, woman, or child, some nausea, pain, or
disease was forthwith engendered in the subject of her operations.
2. Her very simple medicines, viz., anise-seed and liquors produced
extraordinary violent effects.
3. She told such as would not take her physic that they would never be
healed; and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued, with relapses
against the ordinary course.