The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-11-25
s Hanged for Witchcraft at Salem.

5 Hanged for Witchcraft at Salem.
The episode in Massachusetts his
tory known as Salem witchcraft' as
tonishes the civilized world, and to
this day is a matter for wonderment.
/ 1t began in 1888, when girl in Dan
vers, part of Salem, accused maid
servant of theft. The servants moth
er. an Irish woman, vehemently de-
clared that the charge was false,
Whereupon the complainant accused
the woman of having bewitched her.
. Some of the girls family Joined her
lin the accusation, and they alternate
ssly simulated deafness, dumbness and
blindness, at times barking like dogs
and purring like cats.
The Rev Cotton Mather, promi-
nent clergyman of the time, was
firm believer in witchcraft. He has
!. tened to Danvers with other clergy
men as superstitious as himself, and
they spent the whole day there in
fasting and prayer. They were salts
fed that the poor woman was
witch, and they had the additional
satisfaction of seeing her hanged.
Mather preached sermon against
witchcraft, and it was printed and
scattered broadcast among the peo-
pie, bearing terrible fruit not long
afterward.
# In 1892 an epidemic disease re-
sem5ling epilepsy broke out in Dan
vers. The physicians could not con-
troll it and, with Mather's sermon be-
fore them, they ascribed the epidemic
to witchcraft. A belief that evil
spirits in the form of witches were
affecting the people took possession
OF their minds and there was state
of terror for six months. Accusations
became so numerous that, no person
was safe from suspicion. and its con-
sequences, and many innocent per-
2 sons suffered.
On August 19 two women and
three. men-Bridget Bishop, Martha
Carrier, John Proctor, John Willard
and George Burrows, the latter an
exemplary clergyman-were hanged
for .witchcraft. During the preva-
lence of the terrible delusion in the
spring and summer of 1892 nineteen
persons were hanged, one was killed
by the horrible punishment of press
ing to death, fifty-fve were frighten-
ed or tortured into confession of
guilt, and fully two hundred were
named as worthy of arrest.
Finally citizen of Andover was
accused of witchcraft, and being wiser
and bolder than the magistrates and
clergy, he caused. the arrest of his &C
cuser on charge of defamation OF
character, claiming damages in g. the
sum of 1000 pounds. The public
was in sympathy with him, and the
spell was instantly broken. Many OF
the accusers came forward and pub
lished solemn recantations or denials
3 of the truth of their testimony, which
had been given, they said, to save
their own lives. The parish minister
at Danvers, in whose family the 'af'
fiction started, was compelled tc
leave the country. The Legislature
appointed general fast and suppl
cation, and Judge Sewall, who hac
presided at many of the witchcraf
trials, stood up in church on the fas
day and imrlored the prayers of the
people that the errors which he hae
committed might not be visited b!
the judgments of an avenging Coo
on his country, his family and him
self" Thus ended the delusiol
which long vexed Salem, but Cottol
Mather clung to his belief in witche
and wrote in support of the belief
Washington Post.