Witch trials in Virginia

Last updated
"Opening of the Witch Hunting Season" from "Bill Nye's History of the United States" (1894) 057-OPENING OF THE WITCH-HUNTING SEASON.jpg
"Opening of the Witch Hunting Season" from "Bill Nye's History of the United States" (1894)

During a 104-year period from 1626 to 1730, [1] there are documented Virginia Witch Trials, hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Colonial Virginia. [2] [3] More than two dozen people are documented having been accused, including two men. Virginia was the first colony to have a formal accusation of witchcraft in 1626, and the first formal witch trial in 1641. [4]

Contents

In 1730, Virginia was also the location of the last witchcraft trial in the mainland colonies. Shortly after that, the Parliament of Great Britain repealed the Witchcraft Act 1603, which had sanctioned witchcraft trials for British American colonists.

Witchcraft in Virginia

Powhatan, detail of map published by John Smith (1612) Powhatan john smith map.jpg
Powhatan, detail of map published by John Smith (1612)

Witchcraft was a phenomenon that was of genuine concern for colonial Virginians. The English settlers brought several superstitions with them to the New World, including their beliefs in the devil’s power, demons, and witches. [5] These beliefs first manifested in the Jamestown colonists’ early views towards the Virginia Indians, whom they believed to be worshippers of the devil. [6]

When he described the native peoples of Virginia, English colonist John Smith wrote, “their chief God they worship is the Devil,” and Powhatan, the chief, was “more devil than man.” [7] In 1613, Puritan minister William Crashaw also wrote that "Satan visibly and palpably reigns [in Virginia], more than in any other known place of the world." [8]

Reverend Alexander Whitaker, in a 1613 letter, wrote that the behavior of the native people, “make[s] me think that there be great witches among them, and that they are very familiar with the devil.” Notably, in the same year, Whitaker was responsible for the baptism and conversion of Pocahontas at Henricus. [9]

In the 1620s, some colonists began to accuse one another of practicing witchcraft. Though witchcraft cases in Virginia were less common and the sentences less severe than the more famous witch trials of Salem, documented evidence exists that about two dozen such trials took place in Virginia between 1626 and 1730. These ranged from civil defamation proceedings to criminal accusations. [10] Unlike the Salem witch trial courts, where the accused had to prove their innocence, in Virginia courts the accuser carried the burden of proof. [11] Further, Virginia courts generally ignored evidence said to have been obtained by supernatural means, whereas the New England courts were known to convict people based solely on it. Virginia courts required proof of guilt through searches for "witch's marks" or a ducking test. [11] [12]

The southeastern corner of Virginia, around present-day Norfolk and Virginia Beach, saw more accusations of witchcraft than other areas. Researchers believe this may have been due to local poverty as there was no establishment elite to curtail such prosecutions. [11]

The entire history of witchcraft in Virginia is challenging to track, primarily due to the lack of documentation from the accusations and trials. Additionally, many of Virginia's early court records were destroyed in fires during the Civil War. [13]

Prominent figures

Joan Wright

The earliest witchcraft allegation on record against an English settler in any British North American colony was made in Virginia in September 1626. “Goodwife” Joan Wright was a midwife in Surry County and the first person in any of the colonies to be legally accused of witchcraft. [14] Wright was a self-professed healer and described as a "cunning" woman, the term used for those who practiced "low-level" or "folk" magic. She was also left-handed, which deemed her untrustworthy and suspicious by the day's standards. [15] Her accusers claimed that she had cursed their local livestock and crops, accurately predicted the deaths of several of her neighbors, and cast a spell that caused the death of a newborn baby. [16] Wright was acquitted despite her admission that she did possess basic knowledge of witchcraft practices. [17]

Katherine Grady

In 1654, Katherine Grady, en route to Virginia from England, was accused of being a witch, tried, found guilty, and hanged aboard an English ship. Grady was executed before arriving on Virginia's shores, so she is not formally considered a casualty of the Virginia Witch Trials. [18] The matter concerning Grady's execution was later heard in a Jamestown court, and the captain of the ship, Captain Bennet, was tried in the case. The records about the outcome of the case have been lost. [19]

William Harding

While the vast majority of those accused of witchcraft in Virginia and other colonies were women, a small number of men did come under similar suspicion for using witchcraft and dark magic. In 1656, Reverend David Lindsay accused another Northumberland County resident, William Harding, of witchcraft. Harding was found guilty of the charges, sentenced to 13 whip lashes, and ordered to leave the county. His case remains one of the few male witchcraft trials in the New World. [13]

Memorial marker for Sherwood Grace Sherwood stone vertical (cropped).jpg
Memorial marker for Sherwood

Grace Sherwood

The most notable witch trial that occurred in colonial Virginia is the case of Grace Sherwood of Princess Anne County, the only Virginia woman to have ever been found guilty of witchcraft. In 1698, her neighbors first accused Sherwood of having “bewitched their pigs to death and bewitched their Cotton [crop]”. She was also accused of shape-shifting and flying. Sherwood and her husband brought defamation suits against the accusers but did not win either case. The accusations against Sherwood continued until 1706 when Sherwood stood trial before the General Court of Virginia. After a lengthy investigation, the justices decided to use the water test to determine Sherwood's guilt or innocence. The test involved binding her hands and feet and throwing her into a body of water. According to custom, it was believed that as water was considered pure, it would reject witches, causing them to float, whereas the innocent would sink. Sherwood floated, was convicted of witchcraft, and was subsequently imprisoned. [20]

By 1714, Sherwood had been released, demonstrating Virginia authorities' reluctance to execute individuals convicted of witchcraft. English law prescribed severe punishments for witchcraft, the most extreme being execution, referred to as “pains of death,” but no person accused of the crime in colonial Virginia was ever executed. [21]

End of the trials

According to available records, the last witch trial in Virginia was held in 1730. In the case, Justices charged the accused, a woman named Mary (surname unknown), with using witchcraft to find lost items and treasures. She was convicted and sentenced to be whipped 39 times, but no further documented case details have been found. This was likely the last criminal case of witchcraft in any mainland colonies. [8]

That same year, Benjamin Franklin published a satirical report of a witch trial [22] in the Pennsylvania Gazette, which signaled a shift in the public's perception and acceptance of witchcraft, and embraced Deism, a form of religious belief that emphasized reason and rejected the supernatural. [13]

Virginia's witchcraft cases fell into relative obscurity in the succeeding years and largely out of public memory. The more fanaticized cases overshadowed Virginia's witch trials in Salem and other New England colonies and many Virginians seemingly forgot their witch trials history. In 1849, U.S. Congressman Henry Bedinger of Virginia inaccurately invoked the Salem witch trials as evidence of the Northern states' immorality, stating, “There are some monstrosities we [would] never commit.” [13]

Legacy

The street sign at the intersection of North Witchduck Road and Sherwood Lane in Virginia Beach, VA. Witchduck and Sherwood sign 3.jpg
The street sign at the intersection of North Witchduck Road and Sherwood Lane in Virginia Beach, VA.

In 2006, Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine informally pardoned Grace Sherwood 300 years after her conviction. Mayor of Virginia Beach Meyera Oberndorf subsequently declared July 10 to be known as Grace Sherwood Day. [23] [24]

In Pungo, Virginia, Sherwood is an honorary official of the neighborhood's annual strawberry festival. [20] A statue depicting Sherwood was erected in 2007 near Sentara Independence in Virginia Beach, close to the site of the colonial courthouse where she was tried. [8]

A Virginia Department of Historic Resources highway marker was erected in 2002 near Sherwood's statue. The location of her water test and the adjacent land are named Witch Duck Bay and Witch Duck Point. Virginia Beach has municipal streets and trails named Sherwood Lane, Witch Point Trail, and Witchduck Road in the area close to where the 1706 water test occurred, now known as Witch Dutch Bay. Many things are named "Witchduck" or "Witch Duck" in Virginia Beach and both spellings are used. [25]

At Colonial Williamsburg, there is a yearly reenactment of the witch trial of Sherwood and a "Cry Witch" historical program. There is also a yearly reenactment held at the Ferry Plantation House in Virginia Beach, as well as a commemorative plaque on the grounds. [26]

The Herb Garden at Old Donation Episcopal Church contains a stone memorial to Sherwood, which was dedicated in 2014. [27]

An obelisk marker commemorating the life of Katherine Grady has been erected by the Winchester Witches project. [19]

A Virginia witch trial loosely based on the story of Joan Wright is featured in a 2017 episode of the British drama television series Jamestown. [28]

In 2019, an original play, "Season of the Witch" premiered at the Jamestown Settlement. The play is a dramatic retelling of the witch trials in Virginia, with a focus on the story of Wright. [14]

See also

General

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch-hunt</span> Search for witchcraft or subversive activity

A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. In medieval Europe, witch-hunts often arose in connection to charges of heresy from Christianity. An intensive period of witch-hunts occurring in Early Modern Europe and to a smaller extent Colonial America, took place from about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salem witch trials</span> Legal proceedings in Massachusetts, 1692–1693

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in the disease-ridden jails.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tituba</span> 17th-century enslaved woman involved in the Salem witch trials

Tituba was an enslaved Native American woman who was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693.

Jane Wenham was one of the last people to be condemned to death for witchcraft in England, although her conviction was set aside. Her trial in 1712 is commonly but erroneously regarded as the last witch trial in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Corey</span> American woman accused of witchcraft

Martha Corey was accused and convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, on September 9, 1692, and was hanged on September 22, 1692. Her second husband, Giles Corey, was also accused and killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercy Lewis</span>

Mercy Lewis was an accuser during the Salem Witch Trials. She was born in Falmouth, Maine. Mercy Lewis, formally known as Mercy Allen, was the child of Philip Lewis and Mary (Cass) Lewis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susannah Martin</span> Woman executed for witchcraft in Salem, 1692

Susannah Martin was one of fourteen women executed for the suspicion of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of colonial Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Corwin</span>

Jonathan Corwin was a New England merchant, politician, and magistrate. He is best known as one of the judges involved in the Salem witch trials of 1692, although his later work also included service as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the highest court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

In the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, about 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and British America. Between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, almost all in Europe. The witch-hunts were particularly severe in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Prosecutions for witchcraft reached a high point from 1560 to 1630, during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion. Among the lower classes, accusations of witchcraft were usually made by neighbors, and women made formal accusations as much as men did. Magical healers or 'cunning folk' were sometimes prosecuted for witchcraft, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused. Roughly 80% of those convicted were women, most of them over the age of 40. In some regions, convicted witches were burnt at the stake, the traditional punishment for religious heresy.

Children have been accused of witchcraft, both historically and in contemporary times, in societies that harbor beliefs about the existence of witches and black magic. These accusations have led to punishment, imprisonment, torture, and execution of children.

Abigail Faulkner, sometimes called Abigail Faulkner Sr., was an American woman accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. In the frenzy that followed, Faulkner's sister Elizabeth (Dane) Johnson (1641–1722), her sister-in-law Deliverance Dane, two of her daughters, two of her nieces, and a nephew, would all be accused of witchcraft and arrested. Faulkner was convicted and sentenced to death, but her execution was delayed due to pregnancy. Before she gave birth, Faulkner was pardoned by the governor and released from prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch trials in early modern Scotland</span>

In early modern Scotland, in between the early 16th century and the mid-18th century, judicial proceedings concerned with the crimes of witchcraft took place as part of a series of witch trials in Early Modern Europe. In the late middle age there were a handful of prosecutions for harm done through witchcraft, but the passing of the Witchcraft Act 1563 made witchcraft, or consulting with witches, capital crimes. The first major issue of trials under the new act were the North Berwick witch trials, beginning in 1590, in which King James VI played a major part as "victim" and investigator. He became interested in witchcraft and published a defence of witch-hunting in the Daemonologie in 1597, but he appears to have become increasingly sceptical and eventually took steps to limit prosecutions.

Grace White Sherwood (1660–1740), called the Witch of Pungo, is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia.

Louisa Venable Kyle was an American historian, author and journalist. She wrote works of fiction based on the history of her home state of Virginia.

The Lisbon witch trial took place in 1559-1560 and resulted in the execution of six women for witchcraft. The trial in Lisbon resulted in a general inquiry of witchcraft in Portugal, which resulted in 27 additional people being accused, and one more receiving a death sentence the following year. This was arguably the only witch trial with multiple death sentences that ever took place in Portugal.

The witch trials in Connecticut, also sometimes referred to as the Hartford witch trials, occurred from 1647 to 1663. They were the first large-scale witch trials in the American colonies, predating the Salem Witch Trials by nearly thirty years. John M. Taylor lists a total of 37 cases, 11 of which resulted in executions. The execution of Alse Young of Windsor in the spring of 1647 was the beginning of the witch panic in the area, which would not come to an end until 1670 with the release of Katherine Harrison.

The Witch trials in Portugal were perhaps the fewest in all of Europe. Similar to the Spanish Inquisition in neighboring Spain, the Portuguese Inquisition preferred to focus on the persecution of heresy and did not consider witchcraft to be a priority. In contrast to the Spanish Inquisition, however, the Portuguese Inquisition was much more efficient in preventing secular courts from conducting witch trials, and therefore almost managed to keep Portugal free from witch trials. Only seven people are known to have been executed for sorcery in Portugal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Wright</span> American woman, first person accused of witchcraft in American Colonies

Goodwife Joan Wright, sometimes "Jane Wright" and called ''Surry's Witch," is the first person known to have been legally accused of witchcraft in any British North American colony.

During the 17th through 19th centuries, there are at least thirty documented New York Witch Trials, hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in the Province of New York. Several of the witchcraft cases in New York pre-dated the Salem witch trials.

The views of witchcraft in North America have evolved through an interlinking history of cultural beliefs and interactions. These forces contribute to complex and evolving views of witchcraft. Today, North America hosts a diverse array of beliefs about witchcraft.

References

  1. ↑ Johnson, Olin (2017-10-26). "There Be Great Witches Among Them: Witchcraft and the Devil in Colonial Virginia". The UncommonWealth. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  2. ↑ admin (2018-02-11). "Historian Explores Witchcraft in Virginia". Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  3. ↑ "Witchcraft | Department of History". history.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  4. ↑ B., Bell, James (2013). Empire, Religion and Revolution in Early Virginia, 1607-1786. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-1-137-32792-5. OCLC   1116059032.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ Davis, Richard Beale. “The Devil in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 65 (April 1957): 131–149.
  6. ↑ Sheehan, Bernard W. (1980). Savagism and civility : Indians and Englishmen in Colonial Virginia. Cambridge, UK. ISBN   0-521-22927-8. OCLC   5239471.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ Castillo, Susan P. (2005). Colonial encounters in New World writing, 1500-1786 : performing America. Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge. ISBN   978-0-203-56932-0. OCLC   1086549380.
  8. 1 2 3 Witkowski, Monica C. "Witchcraft in Colonial Virginia". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  9. ↑ Snyder, Howard A. (2015-10-29). Jesus and Pocahontas. The Lutterworth Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1cg4mj0. ISBN   978-0-7188-4445-5.
  10. ↑ "Witchcraft in Colonial Virginia". www.colonialwilliamsburg.org. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  11. 1 2 3 Newman, Lindsey M. (April 3, 2009). Under an Ill Tongue: Witchcraft and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Virginia (PDF) (MA (History) thesis). Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
  12. ↑ Gibson, Marion. Witchcraft Myths in American Culture. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2007.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Hudson Jr., Carson O. Witchcraft in Colonial Virginia. The History Press. 2019. ISBN   978-1-4671-4424-7
  14. 1 2 "Witchcraft and gossip: Jamestown Settlement explores English women's interactions with the law in colonial era". Daily Press. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  15. ↑ Davis, Richard Beale (April 1979). "The Devil in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Richmond, VA: Virginia Historical Society. 65 (2): 131–47.
  16. ↑ General Court. General Court Hears Case on Witchcraft (1626). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/general-court-hears-case-on-witchcraft-1626 .
  17. ↑ Court, General. "General Court Hears Case on Witchcraft (1626)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  18. ↑ "'Witches' in Colonial Virginia: Author to discuss book". The Virginian-Pilot. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  19. 1 2 "Winchester Witches - Katherine Grady". www.winchesterwitches.com. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  20. 1 2 Witkowski, Monica C. "Grace Sherwood (ca. 1660–1740)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  21. ↑ Westbury, Susan; Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; Tate, Thad W. (1987). "Colonial Virginia: A History". The Journal of Southern History. 53 (4): 649. doi:10.2307/2208781. ISSN   0022-4642. JSTOR   2208781.
  22. ↑ "Founders Online: A Witch Trial at Mount Holly, 22 October 1730". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-10-24.
  23. ↑ "Convicted witch pardoned 300 years after trial". NBC News. 11 July 2006. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  24. ↑ "16 Things to Know About... Tim Kaine". Washington Week. 2016-07-20. Archived from the original on July 26, 2016. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  25. ↑ Dunphy, Janet (August 13, 1994). "Rural Charm Meets City Splendor". The Virginian-Pilot. Landmark Communications.
  26. ↑ "USATODAY.com - Va. woman seeks to clear Witch of Pungo". usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  27. ↑ claude.bing (2009-06-04). "The Haunting of Witchduck Road". Virginia Beach. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  28. ↑ "Meet Real Women From Jamestown's History". Org. 2019-06-27. Retrieved 2022-10-23.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.