Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer

Author:Rosalyn Schanzer [Schanzer, Rosalyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Nonfiction, Witchcraft - Massachusetts - Salem - History, Witchcraft, Body; Mind & Spirit, Puritans, Puritans - Massachusetts - Salem - History, Witchcraft & Wicca, General, United States, Religion, Salem, Colonial & Revolutionary Periods, Massachusetts, Christian Church, Salem (Mass.) - Church History, Christianity, History
ISBN: 9781426308697
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Published: 2011-09-13T05:00:00+00:00

Apparently only one of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall, believed that Bishop was innocent. Chief Justice Stoughton and the rest of the men believed every single detail in this mountain of spectral evidence. So the end had come for Bridget Bishop. She was found guilty and condemned to death.

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE END IS NEAR

On the morning of June 10, Bishop was loaded into a cart surrounded by guards and officers on horseback and was driven away from the Salem Town Prison down Prison Lane. The procession then headed toward Salem Village, past crowds of gawking onlookers, and after crossing a bridge, it wound its way to the top of a ledge above a salt marsh. As Bishop continued to proclaim her innocence, guards wrapped her skirt around her feet and tied it tightly at the bottom. Then Essex County’s high sheriff, George Corwin, made her stand halfway up a ladder, where she was blindfolded and a noose was placed round her neck. Corwin kicked the ladder out from under her, and the noose jerked tight! She was hanged by the neck until dead.

On the very same day, a man named Thomas Brattle sent a letter to a gentleman in London. He made no mention of Bishop’s hanging, but he wrote a few words about the other goings on: “When Witches were Tryed several of them confessed a contract with the Devil by signing his Book, and did express much sorrow for the same, and said the Tempters tormented them till they did it.”

This was important because by now so many people who were accused of witchcraft had figured out that they would not be hanged if they confessed. Like Reverend Parris’s slave Tituba, all they had to do was to say they were sorry. In the end, 49 people confessed that they were witches.

The next part of Brattle’s letter revealed some foolish shenanigans going on in court:

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