medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>From: Cecil T Ault <[log in to unmask]>
>One might also include Arthur Miller's _The Crucible_. It is a modern
>drama, of course, but important for its contemporary vision of what
the witch trials were all about.
Most people I've encountered who are studying the history and people
involved find that Miller's play, while valuable as a play of its time,
misrepresents what was happening at Salem. For example, Miller depicts a
teenager lusting after a man in his prime as a major factor; in fact, the
teenager was a child and the man was elderly.
>Incidentally, being pressed to death is in Miller's play. It was not
>intended primarily as a means of execution but as a torture to exctract
>confessions.
How is that different from what I said in my previous post? I specifically
stated that pressing to death was a means of turture, not execution. I said:
>Giles Corey refused to answer questions--he took the position that the
>geenral court that commissioned the trials had no jurisdiction over
him--so he was subjected to various torture and died while being pressed.
C.T. Ault also wrote:
>A confession of being a witch, it appears, would disinherit the victim's
>heirs to
his property, an interesting dimension of the witch trials.
This is a popular notion, but not proven. No one knows for sure why Giles
Corey refused to speak. The idea that he was trying to save his property for
his heirs is widespread but the evidence is not conclusive that this is what
he had in mind. A more recent notion concerns the governmental situation
which was complex at the time--the commonwealth government was operating
technically without the technical approval of the Crown in some respects and
Corey may have been protesting the presumptions of the magistrates that they
had the authority to try, condemn, and execute people for witchcraft. And,
for the record, a confession was not necessary for property to be
confiscated; an accusation was sufficient. Even if you were declared not
guilty, once your property was confiscated, you had to sue to get it back
and few people got much back. Carol Karlsen, in _The Devil in the Shape of a
Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England_, examines the evidence and points
out how magistrates manipulated the law to confiscate property in many cases
(not just witchcraft) that involved single or widowed women, but the subject
is mentioned in many books. Even when the Commonwealth "repented" and
declared that many of the victims were wrongfully accused and executed, it
did not restore property to anyone who had been accused during the hysteria.
Time and again, people lost everything they had. I don't want to suggest
that the rich suffered more through such losses than did the poor, but
sometimes the property confiscated was considerable. I don't think that the
sherrifs and magistrates actually accused anyone for the express purpose of
taking their property, but they certainly were quick to confiscate property
and slow to return it, and often the officials, not the commonwealth's
coffers, were the recipients of what was confiscated.
Also, there were variations on guilty and not guilty. For example, in 1690
Caleb Powell was declared not guilty of witchcraft, but the magistrates did
not refund his court costs because they said it was likely he practiced
witchraft though there was insufficient evidence to convict him of doing
harm. In such ways, the magistrates were able to justify not returning
money/property.
Francine Nicholson
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