by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. It all happened a long time ago, in 1663 in fact, but some of the good citizens of Connecticut just cannot let it go. And it's easy to understand why. After all, it was their ancestors who were burnt, hanged and otherwise mistreated because their anxious neighbors deemed them witches and were adamant that their property values would plummet if they didn't take Immediate Action and get rid of these noisome influences immediately.
This is the story of how it happened, why it happened, and how it is that His Excellency Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is spending so many of his waking (and perhaps sleeping) moments dealing with the matter, trying hard to find a formula that will accommodate everyone and end this matter once and for all.
Such a subject, you'll agree, needs an appropriate tune to put you in the mood for what follows. So I've selected Frank Sinatra's sultry 1957 song "Witchcraft". It was composed by Cy Coleman with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. Go find it now in any search engine. Watch out! Its seductive sound and smooth words are designed to entrance you, "Cause it's witchcraft, wicked witchcraft/ And although, I know, it's strictly taboo".
"It's such an ancient pitch."
Admit it, we're fascinated and repelled by the idea of witches, gals who like to spend their time boiling the body parts of particularly disgusting creatures; turning them into potions, philtres, unguents, incenses, elixirs, oils and other loathsome concoctions all easily found in their handy grimoire, the textbook of white and black magic. Such people, hair uncombed, stinking and unwashed (my particular aversion) gathered deep in forests, there to summon their Boss, known hereabouts in New England as Old Scratch. They liked being able to summon him. It made for a really festive evening. He was such a cut up and his tricks with fire were mesmerizing!
However, I've got a hunch Scratch didn't much like hanging out with such a motley, reeking crew, but since a guy's got to take his followers where he can find them, he no doubt made the best of it, as we all do. Besides I have it on excellent authority that Scratch particularly favored their preserves featuring hard-to-find eye of newt. He could always position himself to avoid their more gruesome features. And as for the smells... he could always sit upwind and use his brimstone cologne.
"I've got no defense for it/The heat is too intense for it."
Of course the participants want their little soirees to be discrete, private, secret. Equally, people who want to know will move heaven and earth (there's a potion for this) to find out. And in due course, they do... and, man oh man, are they ever shocked, not least at the smell, for remember these are Puritans where cleanliness is next to Godliness.
In short order, the fat is in the fire and the Witch Problem commences. Witches are suspected, identified, charged, tried, found guilty and done away with as quickly, publicly and painfully as possible. Their remains are often left to be seen, to warn others that witches are real, are evil, move amongst us... and that if you ever see anything odd to summon at once the authorities, the purest of the Puritans, who can take action and return the community and all its residents to God's strict, unalterable tenets. Hallelujah!
Sadly, to achieve the desired results, a few must be extinguished but since these are always low-income, low status, completely powerless women, the Godly divines go forward, sure that the sweeping removal of such undesirables is beneficial, their mere existence in the community being outrage enough to justify even the most heinous deed.
"My Grandmother Mary Was Hanged."
This time the problem was discovered by 82 year-old Bernice Mable Graham Telian. She was researching her family tree when she discovered that her seventh grandmother, Mary Barnes of Farmington, Connecticut, was condemned as a witch; then dispatched by the gallows at the site of the old State House in Hartford. This happened in 1663.
"You won't find Mary's grave. She and all these people who were hanged were dumped in a hole. Their graves aren't marked," said Telian,a retired university administrator who now lives in Delhi, New York.
This discovery so shocked Telian that she spent the last five years writing a book entitled "My Grandmother Mary Was Hanged." She was immediately recruited by other outraged citizens with ancestors charged with witchcraft and executed. For you see, Mary Barnes was only one of 11 Connecticut residents so charged and executed between 1647 and 1663.
What would you have done? The most difficult question of all, information, empathy, due deliberation required.
Since Connecticut and the other colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Virginia assigned those believed to be witches to death, our view of God, evil, Satan, witches and punishment has changed dramatically. Thus we, with our progressive view on the matter, imagine that had we been present we would surely have saved the ladies from the gallows. But I argue this view is naive, merely another opportunity to praise ourselves and assign virtues which are at best spurious. I am not saying that these executions were right; they were not. However, are they understandable? Can you see how otherwise reasonable people made such decisions under the stress of the moment?
They believed in sin, in the devil and that the devil's disciples, some called witches, actively moved amongst them. They did not just think this as some intellectual parlor game. It was an essential element of what they believed and how therefore they arranged their lives in every aspect. And so, given their viewpoint they made decisions of the greatest gravity, ending lives because by so ending they saved and preserved the community of the Godly they had established in the New World. All this is overlooked, forgotten and pooh-poohed by those who, in an instant, condemn the perpetrators without understanding, their judgements sweeping, emphatic, final... and wrong.
"Cause there's no nicer witch than you."
Of course you can't ask Bernice Telian to accept this. It's her ancestor who was charged, found guilty and executed for witchcraft. That ancestor, Mary Barnes by name, deserves absolution, pardon, her name entirely cleared. The descendants of the other "witches" entirely concur, and they are now inundating Governor Malloy with postcards reading "I am a Pagan/Witch and vote. Clear the names of Connecticut's eleven accused and executed witches."
Malloy is in hot pursuit of a way to accommodate the aggrieved but he lacks the constitutional ability to pardon while the state Board of Pardons and Paroles doesn't grant posthumous pardons.
Still, I feel sure they'll find a way of resolving the matter to the satisfaction of all, "Cause there's no nicer witch than you."
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com
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