About "Escape from Salem" by Richard Godbir

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In the seventeenth century, the physical conditions improved a lot from the beginning of the Puritan colonies, however, the challenges of Puritan communities toward religious faith and value, political system, and the role of women aroused. In 1693, the Salem witch trials happened in colonial Massachusetts, where more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft by hearings and prosecutions, and nineteen were found guilty and executed. Escaping Salem, written by Richard Godbeer contains historyroleshistoricalwitchcraft records of a true story about less known witch trials that took place in Stamford, Connecticut.

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Godbeer undermined the dominant narrative of the famous Salem trials by illustrating the more reserved approach of using the Bible as a legal code in the Stamford trial. In content, Godbeer drew a close look at the community of Puritan society and gave information on Puritan religion, gender roles, and colonial jurisprudence.

Godbeer’s purpose in writing Escaping Salem was to restore the truth of witch trials in the seventeenth century in Puritan society as a typical and measured affair by using historical records of the Stamford trial from an objective point of view.

The author claimed that the commonly held interpretation of the famous Salem witch trial was an “atypical stereotype”. This conception considered Puritans in New England as feverish and irrational witch hunters who had mass panic among society from Salemasthe trials. By contrast, the author described the Stamford trial as “much more typical” and representative because it was more cautious and measured.

Godbeer used detailed information about all the main characters in these trials and explained both personal identities and social relationships between them to well explain the narrative.

For example, the main accuser Katherine Branch was an orphan and maidservant of Daniel and Abigail Wescot, who made effort to help her with the trial. On the other hand, the accused mainly represented by Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Desborough were quarrelsome women in Puritan society. Especially, Elizabeth had a previous quarrel with the Wescott, which drew a suspect rolesonof the credibility of Kate’s witness. The ministers as the judges also struggled to accomplish their goal of preventing massive panic in the Puritan community by interpreting the religious code and hearsay as reliable evidence for the trial.

Throughout the content, Godbeer presented different modes of knowledge in Puritan New England and witchcraft back in the era compared to modern society. First, unlike modern society, Puritans had differentiation between one’s social role and one’s education. For instance, the midwife Sarah Bates, who was not a physician, however, was called to perform their duties there as a doctor in the community. Later, the magistrates and judges of the trial were made of a group of ministers. Unlike modern society, they did not understand abo legal philosophy and texts but chose to use the Bible and hearsay to testify during the trial. Another explanation of this can be the supernaturalwitchcraftthatin interventions like witchcraft were seen as facts rather than fantasies in Puritan society. Therefore, the judges had to testify in a witch trial by using Biblical statements and part of hearsay as evidence.

The religious value and characters of the Puritan community also played important roles in testifying the trial. The Puritan community values faith based on religion and Biwithfor ble, as mentioned before, they also believed the fact of the supernatural power. The book indicates that their houses were sited close together because it expected that all the members of the community would protect each other, at the same time, look over each other. Most of the Puritans were farmers and “aspired to a life of peaceful order and purposeful spirituality”3, which suggested that social discord was a harmful way to disobey God and their value of the community.

However, their belief in supernatural power also caused the suspension and insecurity in their hearts toward their neighbors, they doubt that devil will be above making alliances with the people around them. With the insecurity they had about the devil in an environment of this “small and close community”, the rumors were extremely easy to spread. In this case, the rumors were treated as a part of information and were interpreted as a part of the evidence in the court. On the other hand, the interpretation of the public towards the trial was separated into different voices due to the different opinions people held about the reliability of the words of the witness--Kate. For example, although Wescots’ neighbors were willing to help them to watch out for Kate, however, they did not agree on the idea that Katherine was bewitched. Those neighbor who watched out Kate earlier was not only doing it for neighborly obligatioaobligationwithWescot'sbut also to observe Kate themselves. After, many of the neighbors did believe that Kate was faking the witness. These different opinions from the making public not only broke the social harmony of the Puritan community, but also made the Puritan leaders of the community had a-ha for one to make judgment thoughts of the witch trial to prevent the mass panic from the supernatural witch power and reassure the important position of their faith.

Due to the specialness of this trial as a witchcraft accusation and the magistrates’ body was made by ministers, the witch trial was justified mainly by using the religious doctrine and Bible, with some of the verbal evidence from the public. At the same time, it was not hard to tell that the result was made before the trial itself, with the fact that the Puritan leaders only focused on reducing the panic of the community, and also reassuring the importance of their religion rather than the justice itself. The clear evidence was shown in the book that when the magistrates deferred to the help of the Connecticut representative assembly, which was seen as legal scholars. However, the magistrates have chosen to seek help from Connecticut’s ministers, which was seen as a representation of their religion. As the result, Elizabeth was acquitted, and Mercy was convicted by the jurymen due to the “Devil’s mark”4 on her body. Although the ending of the trial was the acquittal of all involved, it is not hard to see that the Magistrates still held opinions against Mercy and Elizabeth. “Magistrates sometimes tried to contain public anger by recognizing quite openly in their formal judgments that legal innocence did not necessarily mean actual innocence.”5 This quote indicated that rather than name guilty or innocent of the trial, the magistrates reinforced the public’s anger by asserting that they believed the accused to be guilty, and showed the public that only the law prevented them from ruling so. They used this justification to take the law into their own hands.

The Stamford trial also drew a closer look at the role of women in Puritan society. In the colony of New England, women were seen as an accessory to men. They were expected to have a silent voice by the society, at the same time still have a proper role. Women who challenged men’s thought would have a great risk of being accused of witchcraft. An example in the book can be Daniel Wescot'sthat siteWescot'sdescribed incident that siteWescot'sdescribed incidents involving Elizabeth Clawson. The events were a woman argued with a man, then the man later accused her of applying witchcraft to children and other people. All of the accusations she has received were because a woman disagreed with a man. A specific example in the book illustrated “Similar resentments and suspicions swirled around Mercy Desborough as the residents of Compo recalled disputes with their sharp-tongued neighbor and the misfortunes that ensued.”6 This quote had two meanings. First, it shows that people believed witchcraft was a following of disputes, therefore, the quarrelsome women were more likely to have a dispute followed by the other men’s misfortune. Secondly, this also showed the lower gender role woman had: there were no issues of quarrelsome men in Stamford, only women were targeted as evil figures and were charged to the Puritan court. A similar stereotype of gender in modern society still exists, an outspoken woman may be viewed as short-tempered, while an outspoken man may be viewed as confident.

In conclusion, Godbeer undermined the dominant narrative of the famous Salem trial by illustrating the more cautious and measured approach of using the Bible as legal code in the Stamford trial. Compared to Salem, where people quickly reacted and became judgmental of witchcraft, in Stamford, many did not quickly conclude that the tormented victims were bewitched. Stamford trial was a much more measured affair compared to the Salem witch trial and with an ending of acquittal of all involved. In content, Godbeer drew a close look at the community of Puritan society and gave information on Puritan religion, gender roles, and colonial jurisprudence thoughts Wescot's.