January 17, 2024 10:35 amPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on The Untold Story of Dorothy Good, Salem’s Youngest Accused Witch
Perhaps the most devastating story from the Salem witchcraft trials is that of Dorothy Good, the youngest person to be arrested and jailed in 1692. At the age of just four years old, Dorothy was accused of practicing witchcraft and confined to a dungeon-like prison for nearly eight months. Though at first jailed with her mother, Sarah Good, and infant...
July 28, 2023 12:48 pmPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Grace Sherwood: The “Witch” of Pungo
Those traveling through Virginia Beach, Virginia will likely find themselves driving along one of the town’s most well-traveled streets: Witchduck Road. The name is peculiar, seemingly out of place surrounded by more familiar names such as Independence Boulevard and Donation Drive. The history of this name carries a legacy dating back hundreds of years and represents one of the state’s...
June 1, 2023 9:00 amPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on LGBTQIA+ Pride
The Lavender Scare The anti-communist campaign referred to as the Second Red Scare, but more popularly known as McCarthyism, is a well known and discussed portion of American history. The fear mongering utilized by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy to identify suspected communists led to the removal of thousands of government employees and ruined the reputation of countless other individuals. A...
May 31, 2023 12:06 pmPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Magical Creatures, Artifacts, and Folk Belief
By: Jonah Hoffmann This blog series focuses on magical creatures, artifacts, and folk belief in various countries during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Witchcraft and sorcery, as illustrated by contemporaries of these eras, were part of a wider magical world filled with an array of supernatural beings and objects. These could be created either explicitly through rituals...
May 17, 2023 11:24 amPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Debunking the “Moldy Bread” Theory
Many today are aware of the theory that moldy bread caused the strange behavior that triggered the witchcraft panic in Salem in 1692. Known as the “ergot theory” this idea was put forward by Linnda Caporael in the April, 1976 edition of Science magazine. Ergot is a fungus that, under the right circumstances, grows on rye. Those who consume this substance...
May 3, 2023 12:48 pmPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Cotton Mather: Villain, Bystander, or Somewhere in Between?
Reverend Cotton Mather was an influential Puritan minister in Boston, serving his community for 43 years. Though famously associated with the Salem witch trials, Mather was only peripherally involved in the events of 1692. Nevertheless, to this day he is frequently cast as a major participant, even the leader of the witch-hunt. This is primarily due to his work The...
March 31, 2023 10:57 amPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Deputy Husbands
It was in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, that we first learned about the colonial American concept of “deputy husbands.” Ulrich, who devotes a chapter to the subject in Good Wives, provides this definition: “A deputy husband shouldered male duties. These might be of the most...
February 10, 2023 12:05 pmPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on The Metaphor of Salem and the New York Slave Rebellion of 1741
Today the Salem witch trials are perhaps the most well-known witch-hunt to have taken place in the Western world. At various times used as a metaphor for behavior deemed to be fanatical, irrational, or unjust, the Salem witch trials have long been a common cultural reference used to criticize and condemn behavior. While Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible is...
September 7, 2022 4:41 pmPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Witches in Comics
By: Jonah Hoffmann The witch is a pop culture staple appearing in various media types with real-life roots that are every bit as unsettling as the stories depicted in literature and film. The narrative of the powerful woman using magic for primarily nefarious means has haunted humanity for thousands of years. Accusations of witchcraft have plagued women, and men to...
June 29, 2022 10:13 amPublished by Rachel ChristComments Off on Movie Monday
By: Jonah Hoffmann This blog series is a celebration of witchcraft in cinema and focuses on some of the films that take a more traditional, historically influenced look at the witch and witch trials. When considering witches on-screen, the classic iconography of the green-skinned woman, the pointed hat, and the broomstick often come to mind. However, the history of witchcraft...
