Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-12-19
IN The DAYS OF WITCHES
Curious Mental Attitudes Of Old Time
Folks.
WHOLE PEOPLE WENT ALMOST CRAZY

Even the Judges on the Bench Lacked
Intelligence and Character tc With
stand the Peculiar Superstitions oi
the Day-Some of the Old Trials Re-
Called.
The celebration of the two hundred
aid fiftieth anniversary of tie first
church at Danvers, Mass, recalls the
fact that it was in this church the So
called Salem witchcraft craze" had
it's beginning in 1892, when Danyers
was a part Of Salem and known, as
Salem Village.
The first case of witchcraft in Es-
sex county. however, was that of,Mrs.
Morse of Newberry, who, in 1889, was
tried in the local court and convicted.
But her life was spared through, the
clemency of Governor Bradstreet, who
first sentenced her to be hanged and
then twice reprieved her sentence, in
spite of the protest Of the house Of
deputies. She was granted new trial
at which she was acquitted.
Had Governor Bradstreet not been
superseded by Sir William Phipps, uri-
der the new charter, it is doubtful IL
the Salem witchcraft craze would have
spread into any such holocaust of suf-
fering and terror as the whole colony
was obliged to endure for several
years. AS Winfield F. Nevins says in
his "Witchcraft of Salem Village in
1892.
an 1892 as in 1850, he Governor
Bradstreet) dared to resist the clamors
of a misguided people and judiciary
and an unlearned, superstitious popu7'
lace. Had Governor Phipps possessed
his intelligence and firmness, the har-
vest of death on Witch hill would not
have formed a part of our early Amer
lean history"
JUDGES Worst of All. -
1t is a curious fact in this witchcraft
craze in Salem, as in Boston and in
Virginia and South Carolina-or wher-
ever it was rampant-that the judici-
ary were infected with the virus of the
delusion as badly as any other people
in the community. If anything the
judicial mind seemed to crystalize the
intolerance, prejudice and fanaticism
that marked the craze.
OF course, some excuse for this
from legal point of view-may be
found in the existing English laws on
witchcraft and the court procedure
that was clearly defined for such trials
in 1892. And possibly some credit
should be given such men as Judge
Samuel Sewall, who eventually saw
the absurdity Of the whole thing, but
not until many had suffered death or
torture by their decisions.
What gives interest at this time to
the craze that started in the home Of
the Rev. Samuel Paris, pastor of the
First church in Danvers, is the manner
in which it started and spread until
the jails were so full of victims that
the authorities were puzzled what ITO
do with them or how to maintain them.
When You read the evidence in these
old witch cases you find things mixed
and jumhied together in sort of hell
BROTH" such as the witches in Mac
beth" browed. Things that are cre-
dited today to epilepsy, suggestion, hy-
nosis, neurasthenia or nervous exhaus-
ton, werA then liable to bring one to
the gallows.
In England as late as 171S, Mrs.
Hicks and her daughter, 9 years old
were hanged in Huntington "for selling
their souls to the devil, tormenting
and destroying the neighbors and rails
ing storm, so that ships were almost
lost-by pulling off her stockings and
making a lather with soap"
Wealth Brought No Exemption.
AS a rule in Great Britain, however,
it was the eccentric people in towns
and remote places that were usually
stamped as witches, while at Salem
any person or class was liable to come
into the dragnet. Ministers squires
and merchants and their wiz IS were
as apt to be named" and &C Ted out"
as the most mental in the community