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Escaping Salem

The document discusses the witchcraft accusations made by Katherine Branch against three women in the community of Stamford, Connecticut in the late 1600s. It describes the medical treatment Katherine received, the investigations and trials of the accused women (Elisabeth Clawson, Goody Miller, and Mercy Holbridge), and the challenges faced by the magistrates in handling the trials. Key issues included a lack of tangible evidence, pressure from the community for convictions, and differing interpretations of what constituted legal standards of proof for a witchcraft conviction. In the end, Elisabeth Clawson and Mercy Holbridge were found not guilty due to insufficient evidence and procedural issues with one of the jury members.

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336 views4 pages

Escaping Salem

The document discusses the witchcraft accusations made by Katherine Branch against three women in the community of Stamford, Connecticut in the late 1600s. It describes the medical treatment Katherine received, the investigations and trials of the accused women (Elisabeth Clawson, Goody Miller, and Mercy Holbridge), and the challenges faced by the magistrates in handling the trials. Key issues included a lack of tangible evidence, pressure from the community for convictions, and differing interpretations of what constituted legal standards of proof for a witchcraft conviction. In the end, Elisabeth Clawson and Mercy Holbridge were found not guilty due to insufficient evidence and procedural issues with one of the jury members.

Uploaded by

kyte walker
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ronald Fopossi

31 Mar. 2022

History 1301-6026

CRN 20191

Escaping Salem Writing Assignment

1- Daniel and Abigail Wescot were familiar with the torments afflicting Katherine Branch

because their daughter Joanna had experienced something similar a couple years ago.

2- Goody Bates had no formal training as a medical practitioner, but she did have many years of

experience in observing and treating her neighbors’ ailments.

3- For medical practitioners, any responsible diagnosis had to take into account the possibility of

supernatural intervention.

4- The two procedures Goody Bates advised were:

- To burn feathers under Kate’s nose.

-To warn her if the servant's condition did not improve.

5- Puritans parents who feared that they were overly indulgent to their children often sent their

offspring to live for a while in households where they would receive a stricter form of

governance.

6- John Bishop impressed upon the Wescots that they must keep a close watch over Kate to

protect her.
7- Aside from needing a break from the exhausting work of overseeing Kate, Daniel Wescot

called his neighbors for help so they could confirm that something supernatural was indeed

plaguing his home.

8- Some people in the community believed that Kate was faking her fits.

9- The assertion that the residents of Stamford were hasty in concluding that Kate’s afflictions

were caused by witchcraft is False.

10- The first woman that Kate named as causing her torments was Elisabeth Clawson.

11. The second woman that Kate named as causing her torments was Goody Miller.

12- The third woman that Kate named as causing her torments was Mercy Holbridge.

13- Jonathan Selleck was worried that the allegations of witchcraft could multiply rapidly and

plunge the entire community into crisis.

14- For Jonathan Selleck, the most serious legal problem for trying accused witches was that

witchcraft was an invisible crime and thus difficult to prove.

15- Acquittals in witchcraft trials were a problem for the legal community because they caused

friction between officials determined to uphold legal standards of proof and local residents

convinced of a defendant’s guilt.

16- Bringing Goody Miller to trial was a problem for the magistrates and Jonathan Selleck

because she fled to Bedford, New York which was out of the jurisdiction of Connecticut.

17- To deal with logistical issues related to the distance individuals’ would have to travel to give

testimony in the case against the accused witches, the Connecticut’s representative
assembly created the special Court of Oyer and Terminer in Fairfield to adjudicate the cases

arising from Katherine Branch’s accusations.

18- The special court decided to dismiss them for lack of tangible evidence incriminating them.

19- At the request of her husband, no fewer than seventy-six townsfolk came forward to sign a

petition and testify in support of Goody Clawson.

20- The three considerable challenges to the magistrates overseeing the trials were:

- To make sure that they themselves understood the established grounds for conviction in

witchcraft cases and avoided the kinds of confusion that had plagued some trials in the past.

- To ensure that the jurymen not only understood but also abided by those guidelines.

- To handle as diplomatically as possible the mounting public pressure for conviction.

21- It is true that in New England communities like Stamford, enmities tended to be intense and

festering.

22- It is true that few ordinary folks appreciated the rigorous standards of proof that judges were

bound to uphold in trials regarding capital crimes like witchcraft.

23- Ducking involved binding suspects and then throwing them into water to see if they sank or

not. If they floated, the water had rejected their bodies as unholy and so they were guilty; if they

sank, they were innocent.

24- Cunning folk were people supposed to possess supernatural powers.

25- The three options the magistrates had when the jury could not reach a unanimous decision in

the case against Goody Clawson and Goody Disborough were:


- To wait, trusting that the jurymen would eventually reach a verdict of their own accord.

- To step in to provide additional advice.

- To refer the cases back to Connecticut’s representative assembly with a request for further

guidance.

26- Goody Clawson was found not guilty based on the indictment.

27- Mercy Disborough was eventually set free because her supporters submitted a petition asking

that the verdict should be overturned due to an illegal substitution of one of the members of the

jury during the second meeting of the latter; complaint which after examination of the facts was

accepted by the general court.

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