Woman's Life in Colonial Days by Carl Holliday

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The news of the peculiar actions of the girls spread throughout the
settlement; people flocked to see their antics. By this time the
children had carried the "fun" so far that they dared not confess, lest
the punishment be terrific, and, therefore, to escape the consequences,
they accused various old women of bewitching them. Undoubtedly the
little ones had no idea that the delusion would seize so firmly upon
the superstitious nature of the people; but the settlers, especially the
clergymen and the doctors, took the matter seriously and brought the
accused to trial. The craze spread; neighbor accused neighbor; enemies
apparently tried to pay old scores by the same method; and those who did
not confess were put to death. It is a fact worth noting that the large
majority of the witnesses and the greater number of the victims were
women. The men who conducted the trials and passed the verdict of
"guilty" cannot, of course, stand blameless; but it was the long pent-up
but now abnormally awakened imagination of the women that wrought havoc
through their testimony to incredible things and their descriptions of
unbelievable actions. No doubt many a personal grievance, petty
jealousy, ancient spite, and neighborhood quarrel entered into the
conflict; but the results were out of all proportion to such causes, and
remain to-day among the blackest and most sorrowful records on the pages
of American history.

As stated above, some of the testimony was incredible and would be
ridiculous if the outcome had not been so tragic. Let us read some bits
from the record of those solemn trials. Increase Mather in his
_Remarkable Providences_ related the following concerning the
persecution of William Morse and wife at Newberry, Massachusetts: "On
December 8, in the Morning, there were five great Stones and Bricks by
an invisible hand thrown in at the west end of the house while the Mans
Wife was making the Bed, the Bedstead was lifted up from the floor, and
the Bedstaff flung out of the Window, and a Cat was hurled at her....
The man's Wife going to the Cellar ... the door shut down upon her, and
the Table came and lay upon the door, and the man was forced to remove
it e're his Wife could be released from where she was."[26a]

Again, see the remarkable vision beheld by Goodman Hortado and his wife
in 1683: "The said Mary and her Husband going in a Cannoo over the River
they saw like the head of a man new-shorn, and the tail of a white Cat
about two or three foot distance from each other, swimming over before
the Cannoo, but no body appeared to joyn head and tail together."[26b]

Cotton Mather in his _Wonders of the Invisible World_ gives us some
insight into the mental and physical condition of many of the witnesses
called upon to testify to the works of Satan. Some of them undoubtedly
were far more in need of an expert on nervous diseases than of the
ministrations of either jurist or clergyman. "It cost the Court a
wonderful deal of Trouble, to hear the Testimonies of the Sufferers; for
when they were going to give in their Depositions, they would for a long
time be taken with fitts, that made them uncapable of saying anything.
The Chief Judge asked the prisoner who he thought hindered these
witnesses from giving their testimonies? and he answered, He supposed it
was the Devil."

It must have been a reign of terror for the Puritan mother and wife.
What woman could tell whether she or her daughter might not be the next
victim of the bloody harvest? Note the ancient records again. Here are
the words of the colonist, Robert Calef, in his _More Wonders of the
Invisible World_: "September 9. Six more were tried, and received
Sentence of Death; viz., Martha Cory af Salem Village, Mary Easty of
Topsfield, Alice Parker and Ann Pudeater of Salem, Dorcas Hoar of
Beverly, and Mary Bradberry of Salisbury. September 1st, Giles Gory was
prest to Death." And Sewall in his _Diary_ thus speaks of the same
barbarous execution just mentioned: "Monday, Sept. 19, 1692. About noon,
at Salem, Giles Gory was press'd to death for standing Mute; much pains
was used with him two days, one after another, by the Court and Capt.
Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in
vain."[27a]

Those were harsh times, and many a man or woman showed heroic qualities
under the strain. The editor of Sewall's _Diary_ makes this comment upon
the silent heroism of the martyr, Giles Cory: "At first, apparently, a
firm believer in the witchcraft delusion, even to the extent of
mistrusting his saintly wife, who was executed three days after his
torturous death, his was the most tragic of all the fearful offerings.
He had made a will, while confined in Ipswich jail, conveying his
property, according to his own preferences, among his heirs; and, in the
belief that his will would be invalidated and his estate confiscated, if
he were condemned by a jury after pleading to the indictment, he
resolutely preserved silence, knowing that an acqittance was an
impossibility."[27b]

In the case of Cory doubtless the majority of the people thought the
manner of death, like that of Anne Hutchinson, was a fitting judgment of
God; for Sewall records in his ever-helpful Diary: "Sept. 20. Now I
hear from Salem that about 18 years agoe, he [Giles Cory] was suspected
to have stamp'd and press'd a man to death, but was cleared. Twas not
remembered till Ann Putnam was told of it by said Cory's Spectre the
Sabbath day night before the Execution."[28]

The Corys, Eastys, and Putnams were families exceedingly prominent
during the entire course of the mania; Ann Putnam's name appears again
and again. She evidently was a woman of unusual force and impressive
personality, and many were her revelations concerning suspected persons
and even totally innocent neighbors. Such workers brought distressing
results, and how often the helpless victims were women! Hear these
echoes from the gloomy court rooms: "September 17: Nine more received
Sentence of Death, viz., Margaret Scot of Rowly, Goodwife Reed of
Marblehead, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker of Andover, also Abigail
Falkner of Andover ... Rebecka Eames of Boxford, Mary Lacy and Ann
Foster of Andover, and Abigail Hobbs of Topsfield. Of these Eight were
Executed."[29] And Cotton Mather in a letter to a friend: "Our Good God
is working of Miracles. Five Witches were lately Executed, impudently
demanding of God a Miraculous Vindication of their Innocency."[30]

And yet how absurd was much of the testimony that led to such wholesale
murder. We have seen some of it already. Note these words by a witness
against Martha Carrier, as presented in Cotton Mather's _Wonders of the
Invisible World_: "The devil carry'd them on a pole to a witch-meeting;
but the pole broke, and she hanging about Carrier's neck, they both
fell down, and she then received an hurt by the fall whereof she was not
at this very time recovered.... This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was
the person, of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own
children among the rest, agreed, that the devil had promised her she
should be Queen of Hell."

Here and there a few brave souls dared to protest against the outrage;
but they were exceedingly few. Lady Phipps, wife of the governor, risked
her life by signing a paper for the discharge of a prisoner condemned
for witchcraft. The jailor reluctantly obeyed and lost his position for
allowing the prisoner to go; but in after years the act must have been a
source of genuine consolation to him. Only fear must have restrained the
more thoughtful citizens from similar acts of mercy. Even children were
imprisoned, and so cruelly treated that some lost their reason. In the
_New England History and General Register_ (XXV, 253) is found this
pathetic note: "Dorcas Good, thus sent to prison 'as hale and well as
other children,' lay there seven or eight months, and 'being chain'd in
the dungeon was so hardly used and terrifyed' that eighteen years later
her father alleged 'that she hath ever since been very, chargeable,
haveing little or no reason to govern herself.'"[31]

How many extracts from those old writings might be presented to make a
graphic picture of that era of horror and bloodshed. No one, no matter
what his family, his manner of living, his standing in the community,
was safe. Women feared to do the least thing unconventional; for it was
an easy task to obtain witnesses, and the most paltry evidence might
cause most unfounded charges. And the only way to escape death, be it
remembered, was through confession. Otherwise the witch or wizard was
still in the possession of the devil, and, since Satan was plotting the
destruction of the Puritan church, anything and anybody in the power of
Satan must be destroyed. Those who met death were martyrs who would not
confess a lie, and such died as a protest against common liberty of
conscience. No monument has been erected to their memory, but their
names remain in the old annals as a warning against bigotry and
fanaticism. Though some suffered the agonies of a horrible death, there
were innumerable women who lived and yet probably suffered a thousand
deaths in fear and foreboding. Hear once more the words of Robert
Calef's ancient book, _More Wonders of the Invisible World_: "It was the
latter end of February, 1691, when divers young persons belonging to Mr.
Parris's family, and one or more of the neighbourhood, began to act
after a strange and unusual manner, viz., by getting into holes, and
creeping under chairs and stools, and to use sundry odd postures and
antick gestures, uttering foolish, ridiculous speeches.... The
physicians that were called could assign no reason for this; but it
seems one of them ... told them he was afraid they were bewitched....
March the 11th, Mr. Parris invited several neighbouring ministers to
join with him in keeping a solemn day of prayer at his own house....
Those ill affected ... first complained of ... the said Indian woman,
named Tituba; she confessed that the devil urged her to sign a book ...
and also to work mischief to the children, etc."

"A child of Sarah Good's was likewise apprehended, being between 4 and 5
years old. The accusers said this child bit them, and would shew such
like marks, as those of a small set of teeth, upon their arms...."

"March 31, 1692, was set apart as a day of solemn humiliation at
Salem ... on which day Abigail Williams said, 'that she saw a great number
of persons in the village at the administration of a mock sacrament, where
they had bread as red as raw flesh, and red drink.'"

The husband of Mrs. Cary, who afterwards escaped, tells this: "Having
been there [in prison] one night, next morning the jailer put irons on
her legs (having received such a command); the weight of them was about
eight pounds: these with her other afflictions soon brought her into
convulsion fits, so that I thought she would have died that night. I
sent to entreat that the irons might be taken off; but all entreaties
were in vain...."

"John Proctor and his wife being in prison, the sheriff came to his
house and seized all the goods, provisions and cattle ... and left
nothing in the house for the support of the children...."

"Old Jacobs being condemned, the sheriff and officers came and seized
all he had; his wife had her wedding ring taken from her ... and the
neighbours in charity relieved her."

"The family of the Putnams ... were chief prosecutors in this business."

"And now nineteen persons having been hanged, and one pressed to death,
and eight more condemned, in all twenty and eight ... about fifty
having confessed ... above an hundred and fifty in prison, and above two
hundred more accused; the special commission of oyer and terminer comes
to a period...."

During the summer of 1692 the disastrous material and financial results
of the reign of terror became so evident that the shrewd business sense
of the colonist became alarmed. Harvests were ungathered, fields and
cattle were neglected, numerous people sold their farms and moved
southward; some did not await the sale but abandoned their property. The
thirst for blood could not last, especially when it threatened
commercial ruin. Moreover, the accusers at length aimed too high;
accusations were made against persons of rank, members of the governor's
family, and even the relatives of the pastors themselves. "The killing
time lasted about four months, from the first of June to the end of
September, 1692, and then a reaction came because the informers began to
strike at important persons, and named the wife of the governor. Twenty
persons had been put to death ... and if the delusion had lasted much
longer under the rules of evidence that were adopted everybody in the
colony except the magistrates and ministers would have been either hung
or would have stood charged with witchcraft."[32]

The Puritan clergymen have been severely blamed for this strange wave of
fanaticism, and no doubt, as leaders in the movement, they were largely
responsible; but even their power and authority could never have caused
such wide-spread terror, had not the women of the day given such active
aid. The feminine soul, with its long pent emotions, craved excitement,
and this was an opportunity eagerly seized upon. As Fisher says, "As
their religion taught them to see in human nature only depravity and
corruption, so in the outward nature by which they were surrounded, they
saw forewarnings and signs of doom and dread. Where the modern mind now
refreshes itself in New England with the beauties of the seashore, the
forest, and the sunset, the Puritan saw only threatenings of
terror."[33]

We cannot doubt in most instances the sincerity of these men and women,
and in later days, when confessions of rash and hasty charges of action
were made, their repentance was apparently just as sincere. Judge
Sewall, for instance, read before the assembled congregation his
petition to God for forgiveness. "In a short time all the people
recovered from their madness, [and] admitted their error.... In 1697 the
General Court ordered a day of fasting and prayer for what had been done
amiss in the 'late tragedy raised among us by Satan.' Satan was the
scapegoat, and nothing was said about the designs and motives of the
ministers."[34] Possibly it was just as well that Satan was blamed; for
the responsibility is thus shifted for one of the most hideous pages in
American history.

_IX. Religion Outside of New England_

Apparently it was only under Puritanism that the colonial woman really
suffered through the requirements of her religion. In other colonies
there may have been those who felt hampered and restrained; but
certainly in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern provinces, there
was no creed that made life an existence of dread and fear. In most
parts of the South the Established Church of England was the authorized,
or popular, religious institution, and it would seem that the women who
followed its teachings were as reverent and pious, if not so full of the
fear of judgment, as their sisters to the North. The earliest settlers
of Virginia dutifully observed the customs and ceremonies of the
established church, and it was the dominant form of religion in Virginia
and the Carolinas throughout the colonial era. John Smith has left the
record of the first place and manner of divine worship in Virginia: "Wee
did hang an awning, which is an old saile, to three or four trees to
shadow us from the Sunne; our walls were railes of Wood; our seats
unhewed trees till we cut plankes; our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to
two neighbouring trees. In foul weather we shifted into an old rotten
tent; this came by way of adventure for new. This was our Church till we
built a homely thing like a barne set upon Cratchets, covered with
rafts, sedge, and earth; so also was the walls; the best of our houses
were of like curiosity.... Yet we had daily Common Prayer morning and
evening; every Sunday two sermons; and every three months a holy
Communion till our Minister died: but our Prayers daily with an Homily
on Sundays wee continued two or three years after, till more Preachers
came."

According to Bruce's _Institutional History of Virginia in the
Seventeenth Century_[35] it would seem that the early Virginians were as
strict as the New Englanders about the matter of church attendance and
Sabbath observance. When we come across the notation that "Sarah Purdy
was indicted 1682 for shelling corn on Sunday," we may feel rather sure
that during at least the first eighty years of life about Jamestown
Sunday must have been indeed a day of rest. Says Bruce: "The first
General Assembly to meet in Virginia passed a law requiring of every
citizen attendance at divine services on Sunday. The penalty imposed was
a fine, if one failed to be present. If the delinquent was a freeman he
was to be compelled to pay three shillings for each offense, to be
devoted to the church, and should he be a slave he was to be sentenced
to be whipped."[36]

In Georgia and the Carolinas of the later eighteenth century the
influence of Methodism--especially after the coming of Wesley and
Whitefield--was marked, while the Scotch Presbyterian and the French
Huguenots exercised a wholesome effect through their strict honesty and
upright lives. Among these two latter sects women seem to have been very
much in the back-ground, but among the Methodists, especially in
Georgia, the influence of woman in the church was certainly noticeable.
There was often in the words and deeds of Southern women in general a
note of confident trust in God's love and in a joyous future life,
rather lacking in the writings of New England. Eliza Pinckney, for
instance, when but seventeen years old, wrote to her brother George a
long letter of advice, containing such tender, yet almost exultant
language as the following: "To be conscious we have an Almighty friend
to bless our Endeavours, and to assist us in all Difficulties, gives
rapture beyond all the boasted Enjoyments of the world, allowing them
their utmost Extent & fulness of joy. Let us then, my dear Brother, set
out right and keep the sacred page always in view.... God is Truth
itself and can't reveal naturally or supernaturally contrarieties."[37a]

There is a sweet reasonableness about this, very refreshing after an
investigation of witches or myriads of devils, and, on the whole, we
find much more sanity in the Southern relationship between religion and
life than in the Northern. While there was some bickering and
quarreling, especially after the arrival of Whitefield; yet such
disputes do not seem to have left the bitterness and suspicion that
followed in the trail of the church trials in Massachusetts. Indeed,
various creeds must have lived peacefully side by side; for the colonial
surveyor, de Brahm, speaks of nine different sects in a town of twelve
thousand inhabitants, and makes this further comment: "Yet are (they)
far from being incouraged or even inclined to that disorder which is so
common among men of contrary religious sentiments in other parts of the
world.... (The) inhabitants (were) from the beginning renound for
concord, compleasance, courteousness and tenderness towards each other,
and more so towards foreigners, without regard or respect of nature and
religion."[37b]

Perhaps, however, by the middle of the eighteenth century religious
sanity had become the rule both North and South; for there are many
evidences at that later period of a trust in the mercy of God and
comfort in His authority. We find Abigail Adams, whose letters cover
the last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century, saying, "That we
rest under the shadow of the Almighty is the consolation to which I
resort and find that comfort which the world cannot give."[38] And
Martha Washington, writing to Governor Trumbull, after the death of her
husband, says: "For myself I have only to bow with humble submission to
the will of that God who giveth and who taketh away, looking forward
with faith and hope to the moment when I shall be again united with the
partner of my life."[39] In the hour when the long struggle for
independence was opening, Mercy Warren could write in all confidence to
her husband, "I somehow or other feel as if all these things were for
the best--as if good would come out of evil--we may be brought low that
our faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the protecting
providence of God."[40] Among the Dutch of New York religion, like
eating, drinking and other common things of life, was taken in a rather
matter-of-fact way. Seldom indeed did these citizens of New Amsterdam
become so excited about doctrine as to quarrel over it; they were too
well contented with life as it was to contend over the life to be. Mrs.
Grant in _Memoirs of an American Lady_ has left us many intimate
pictures of the life in the Dutch colony. She and her mother joined her
father in New York in 1758, and through her residence at Claverach,
Albany, and Oswego gained thorough knowledge of the people, their
customs, social life and community ideas and ideals. Of their relation
to church and creed she remarks: "Their religion, then, like their
original national character, had in it little of fervor or enthusiasm;
their manner of performing religious duties regular and decent, but
calm, and to more ardent imaginations might appear mechanical.... If
their piety, however, was without enthusiasm it was also without
bigotry; they wished others to think as they did, without showing rancor
or contempt toward those who did not.... That monster in nature, an
impious woman, was never heard of among them."[41]

Unlike the New England clergyman, the New York parson was almost without
power of any sort, and was at no time considered an authority in
politics, sickness, witchcraft, or domestic affairs. Mrs. Grant was
surprised at his lack of influence, and declared: "The dominees, as
these people call their ministers, contented themselves with preaching
in a sober and moderate strain to the people; and living quietly in the
retirement of their families, were little heard of but in the pulpit;
and they seemed to consider a studious privacy as one of their chief
duties."[42] However, it was only in New England and possibly in
Virginia for a short time, that church and state were one, and this may
account for much of the difference in the attitudes of the preachers. In
New York the church was absolutely separate from the government, and
unless the pastor was a man of exceedingly strong personality, his
influence was never felt outside his congregation.

In conclusion, what may we say as to the general status of the colonial
woman in the church? Only in the Quaker congregation and possibly among
the Methodists in the South did colonial womanhood successfully assert
itself, and take part in the official activities of the institution. In
the Episcopal church of Virginia and the Carolinas, the Catholic Church
of Maryland and Louisiana, and the Dutch church of New York, women were
quiet onlookers, pious, reverent, and meek, freely acknowledging God in
their lives, content to be seen and not heard. In the Puritan assembly,
likewise, they were, on the surface at least, meek, silent, docile; but
their silence was deceiving, and, as shown in the witchcraft
catastrophe, was but the silence of a smouldering volcano. In the
eighteenth century, the womanhood of the land became more assertive, in
religion as in other affairs, and there is no doubt that Mercy Warren,
Eliza Pinckney, Abigail Adams, and others mentioned in these pages were
thinkers whose opinions were respected by both clergy and laymen. The
Puritan preacher did indeed declare against speech by women in the
church, and demanded that if they had any questions, they should ask
their husbands; but there came a time, and that quickly, when the voice
of woman was heard in the blood of Salem's dead.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Reprinted in _English Garner_, Vol. II, p. 429.

[2] Vol. I, p. 101.

[3] Sewall's _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 40.

[4] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 111.

[5] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 167.

[6] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 116.

[7] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 71.

[8] Original Narratives of Early Am. Hist., Narratives of the
Witchcraft Cases. p. 96, 97.

[9] Winthrop: _Hist. of N.E._, Vol. II, p. 36.

[10] Winthrop: _Hist. of N. Eng._, Vol. II, p. 411.

[11] _Child Life in Colonial Days_; P. 238.

[12] _Ibid._

[13] Pp. 137, 185.

[14] _Writings of Col. Byrd_, Ed. Bassett, p. 25.

[15] Winthrop: _History of New England_, Vol. II, pp. 79, 335.

[16] Hutchinson: _History of Massachusetts Bay._ Chapter I.

[17] Fiske: _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, Vol. I, p. 232.

[18] Hutchinson: _History of Massachusetts Bay_, Chapter I.

[19] _History of New England_, Vol. II, p. 397.

[20] _Narratives of Early Maryland_, p. 141.

[21] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 102.

[22] Sewall: _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 103.

[23] _Annals of New England_, Vol. I, p. 579.

[24] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 135.

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