The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-06-08
w1TCHCRAFT IN OLD SALEM.
Persecution When People Believed
the Devil Took on Human Form.

The place where a great crime has
been committed has always some
thing strangely fascinating about it.
Most people will go greater dis
tance to see the scene of murder
than they would take the trouble
to do for any other purpose what
ever. The house where great man
1as been born is often quite unknown
an unvisited even in it's own
neighborhood; the house that is as
sociated with a murder or a homi-
eide rarely is.
eve may lament then" said
Judge Story in a centennial address
at Salem, 1.-The errors of the time
which led to these prosecutions. But
surely our ancestors had no special
reasons for shame in a belief which
had the universal sanction. of their
own and all former ages; which
counted in its train, philosophers as
well as enthusiasts; which was
graced by the learning of prelates as
well as the countenance of kings;
which the law supported by it's man
dates, and the purest judges felt no
compunctions in enforcing. Let
Witch Hill remain forever memor-
able by this sad catastrophe, not to
perpetuate our dishonor, but as an
affecting, enduring proof of human
infirmity-a proof that perfect JUS
tice belongs to one judgment seat
only-that which is linked to the
throne of Cod"
What was this belief, then, which
had such high and legal sanction?
It was this: That the devil might
and did personally appear to, enter
into, and actively direct, the every
day life of men. And he did this
without the intervention of any of
those magical arts of COMPUTATIONS
such as were once thought indispen-
sable to induce him to put in an ap-
pearance. For this there was Scrip
tural authority, chapter and verse.
He was supposed to come sometimes
in one form, sometimes in another,
to tempt his victims with the prom
Use that upon their signing contract
to become his, both body and soul,
they should want for nothing, and
that he would undertake to revenge
them upon all their enemies.
The traditional witch was usually
some decrepit old village crone, OF
q sour and malignant temper, who
was as thoroughly hated as feared,
hut this did not exclude men from
sharing in the power of becoming
noted wizards though from the
great number of women who were
accused, it would appear that the
arch-enemy usually preferred to try
his arts upon the weaker and more
impressionable sex. The fatal COM
pact was consummated by the victim
registering his or her name in book
or upon scrool of parchment, ana
with his own blood. The form of
these contracts is nowhere preserved.
Sometimes, as is instanced in the ne
gotiations between Oliver Cromwell
and the devil before the battle OF
Worcester, there was a good deal OF
haggling. The bargain being con-
cluded, Satan delivered to his new re-
cruit an imp or familiar spirit, which
had the form of a cat, at
others of a. mole or bird, of mil
Ter fly, or some other insect or AMI
NAL. These were to come at call,
do such mischief as they should be
commanded. Y
Witches, according to popular be-
lief, had the power to ride at will
through the air on bromstick or a
spit. to attend distant meetings on
Sabbaths of witches, but for this
purpose they must first have anolnt-
ed themselves with certain magl-
cal ointment; given to them by
the fiend. This is neither more nor
less than what our forefathers be-
lieyed, what was sofemnly incorpor-
ated into the laws of the land and
what was solemnly preached from
the pulpit. A perusal of the witch
craft examinations shows how IA
familiar even children were with all
the forms of this superstition.
In the course of the trials at Sa-
lem several of the accused persons,
in order to save their lives, confessed
to having signed their names in the
DEVILS book, to having been bap-
tized by him and to having attended
midnight meetings of witches, or sac
raments held upon the green near
the minister's house, to which they
came riding through the air. They
admitted that he had sometimes ap-