A Storm of Witchcraft: Salem in 1692 & Ballyvadlea in 1895
December 15, 2014 § 8 Comments
I read my colleague Emerson Baker’s fantastic A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience this weekend. Salem bills itself as “Witch City, USA”, the image of a witch on a broom adorns the police cars here. My wife is on the board of the Salem Award Foundation, which seeks to draw
upon the lessons of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, [to promote] awareness, understanding and empathy in support of human rights, tolerance and social justice. We advance social change through educational programming, stewardship of the Salem Witch Trials Memorial as a place of reflection, and by awarding and celebrating contemporary champions who embody our mission.
The Salem Witch Trials Memorial
As a public historian, the Hallowe’en silliness has fascinated me, as ‘ghost walks’ are held all around town, showing some of the locations sort of connected to the Witch Trials. I say ‘sort of’ because most of the action did not take place in Salem. Most of the accused came from Salem Village (then apart of Salem, now Danvers) and Andover. Some of the trials took place here, though. Nonetheless, every year, hundreds of thousands of people come to Salem, in the wake of the murder of twenty innocent people in 1692-3, most of them on Gallows Hill, to engage in revelry and have fun.
But, this is the first time I’ve engaged seriously in the actual history of the events. I knew the stories, I knew the outlines of what happened here and how those twenty people came to be killed in an explosion of mass hysteria. But, in reading Barker’s book I’ve been impressed at just how deeply held was the beliefs in witches in 17th century New England. Baker makes this argument forcefully, noting how a belief in witches, and in the wickedness of Satan drove Puritan beliefs. In this way, as he argues, witches became a convenient scapegoat in tumultuous times in Massachusetts. There was war with the aboriginals on the frontiers, from what is now Maine to towns located 15-20 miles inland from Salem, like Billerica. The economy was suffering. Puritans felt themselves under attack as religious toleration was extended.
Salem is itself named after the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace, and is a shortened version of Jerusalem, or City of Peace. Massachusetts was established as a city on the hill, and Salem is amongst the oldest towns in Massachusetts, settled in 1626 by Roger Conant and a group of Puritans, and is two years older than Boston. In 17th century Massachusetts, Salem and Boston were the two major commercial and administrative centres in Massachusetts. All of this was under attack in the late 17th century.
The story Baker tells is not unlike that told by Angela Bourke in one of my favourite books, The Burning of Bridget Cleary, the story of the burning to death of Bridget Cleary, a 25-year old woman, by her husband, Michael, in 1895 in Ballyvadlea, in rural Co. Tipperary, Ireland. What seems a straight-forward case of domestic violence is more than that. Michael Cleary claimed his wife had been taken away by the faeries, and he killed the changeling posing as his wife, as the real Bridget would return from the nearby ringfort, where she had been held captive by the faeries. Bourke then ties the case of Bridget Cleary into larger stories of Irish nationalism and the fight for Home Rule; faeries, then, were a traditional folkway for the people of rural Ireland in a rapidly changing time.
Bridget is often called the ‘last witch’ to be burned in Ireland. She was never accused of witchcraft, so that’s unfair (yes, I am aware of my title). But what is interesting in the similarity of these two stories.
Matthew Barlow 
We studied the Trials in high school 55 years ago and spent hours in classroom discussion talking about scapegoats. But who are our scapegoats today? I am afraid that anyone with a grievance will start targeting Islam.
Here in North America, I think Muslims have been the scapegoat for some time, even before 9/11, and I guess, after today in Sydney, something similar will happen in Australia, if it hasn’t already. Jews also seem to still be targets here, too, sadly.
Yes. What happened in Sydney was not a terrorist attack it was one guy on many charges including murder of his ex partner who went in using an Islamic Flag. But the uninformed in Western Sydney will use it as a trigger.
Much like what happened in Ottawa last month. Ugh. Our government is already attempting to tighten civil liberties in response.
Sometimes I’m proud of being Aussie Check out #illridewithyou: support for Muslim Australians takes off following Sydney siege – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting …
I saw that trend on Twitter, it was a nice response.
I always try to resist the “lessons” of Salem and comparisons between past and present–feeling that neither is served well particularly–but I’m a bit more intrigued by 17th & 19th century comparisons–there are are “last witch” episodes across Europe, all of which tie into larger fears.
I was just reading the intro to Kenneth Foote’s Shadowed Ground, which I’m using for a course I’m teaching @ UMass on landscape & memory. His book begins with Salem, his thinking about violence and commemoration began in Salem, I’d guess in the late 80s, he is of the opinion that Salem has never figured out how to deal with the Witch Trials. I’d have to agree. Salem is almost schizophrenic in its response between that garish Hallowe’en celebrations and then the peaceful, beautiful Witch Trials Memorial.