Salem’s Paranoia Kills Twenty  

          by Dixie Walter

       Often at Halloween we see stories about the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Although the hysteria, which claimed the lives of 20 innocent people, took place 310 years ago, Americans remain eternally fascinated by the murderous mockeries of Puritan “justice.”

       As is the case with all the “witch hunts,” far more women than men were accused and killed for such diverse reasons as a sick pig in the neighborhood, and appearing in dreams to men. However, the real reason many of the American women killed in 1692 were targeted was because they were successful, influential, independent and “different.” The first woman accused of witchcraft by a group of Salem girls was Martha Corey on March 12. Martha’s arrest was followed by the arrests of Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce (Rebecca’s sister).

         In wasn’t until April 18 that the bizarre teens pointed their collective, deadly finger at Abigail Hobbs, Giles Corey, Mary Warren and Bridget Bishop. Yet Bridget was the first person to stand trial and be hanged in Salem. Why was she chosen? Bridget just didn’t fit the unreasonable model of womanhood the Puritans held in such high esteem. She lived her life to suit herself, and died for it.

        It’s impossible to put a label on Bridget Bishop. She helped ill neighbors and she was a member in good standing of her church until she was legally murdered. Her manner of dress was severely frowned upon because she wore a red bodice. She liked to entertain guests, party and play “shovel board.” It was said she would corrupt the youth. Bridget had been married three times and widowed twice. She quarreled publicly with all of her husbands. At one point during her second marriage, to Thomas Oliver, the couple were sentenced to be gagged and tied together back-to-back in the town square.

         After his death people were suspicious, and Bridget was tried for witchcraft in 1670, but the case was dismissed. When she married the prosperous and respected mill owner Edward Bishop, Bridget’s behavior didn’t change. Indeed, she became even more of a non-conformist, pushing the Puritan envelope harder by opening and successfully operating two taverns. For years she was a constant source of gossip in the small village, and didn’t give a whit.

         This flamboyant, independent woman was put to death on such flimsy evidence it would be laughable if she had not lost her life. The way she dressed was put on trial. It is said Bridget was an attractive woman, which is probably why Richard Coman kept having dreams about her. For this reason too she was hanged. And her own sister’s husband maintained Bridget “sat up all night conversing with the Devil.” He also stated “the Devil came bodily into her.” 

         For two days preposterous tales were told to prove Bridget Bishop guilty of witchcraft. Although this was unnecessary according to prominent cleric Cotton Mather, who said, “There was little occasion to prove witchcraft, this being evident and notorious to all beholders.” More people accused her than any of the other innocent women and men of Salem. Bridget could not defend herself against the absurd accusations; all she told the judges was, “I am innocent to a Witch…I know not what a Witch is.”

         In Salem Bridget Bishop became the first fatality of Puritan ignorance and intolerance. Still professing her innocence she was taken to Gallows Hill and hanged by Sheriff George Corwin on June 10. The entire town came to watch her die, and people from as far away as Boston joined the ghoulish crowd. Bridget Bishop was between 55 and 60 when she was killed.

         As the years passed several people who had testified against Bridget confessed on their deathbeds that they had been influenced by the Devil. In 2001, 309 years after they were hanged, Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd were exonerated on Halloween by acting Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift. They were the last of the Salem “witches” to be declared innocent of all charges.

It Wasn’t Just Salem

       According to the book “Entertaining the Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England,” by John Putnam Demos, accusations of witchcraft flew around 17th century New England prior to the Salem frenzy. From 1647 to 1688, fourteen women and two men were executed as witches before Bridget Bishop walked to the hangman’s noose. They were: Alice Young, killed 1647 in Windsor Connecticut; Elizabeth Kendall, killed 1647 (?) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Margaret Jones, killed 1648 in Charleston, Massachusetts; Mary Johnson, killed 1648 in Wethersfield, Connecticut; Joan Carrington, killed 1651 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, John Carrington, killed 1651 in Wethersfield, Connecticut; Alice Lake, killed 1651 (?) in Dorchester, Massachusetts; (Female) Bassett, killed 1651 in Fairfield, Connecticut; (Female) Knapp, killed 1653 (?) in Fairfield, Connecticut; Lydia Gilbert, killed 1654 in Windsor, Connecticut; Ann Hibbens, killed 1656 in Boston, Massachusetts; Mary Sanford, killed 1662 in Hartford, Connecticut; Rebecca Greensmith, killed 1662/3 in Hartford, Connecticut, Nathaniel Greensmith, killed 1662/3 in Hartford, Connecticut; Mary Barnes, killed 1662/3 in Farmington, Connecticut and (Female) Clover, killed 1688 in Boston, Massachusetts. 

"Pity the poor kids who grow up in a big city. They miss the little things that made growing up in a small town, ah, so wonderful."
~Tom Morrow