Alexis Peck Blog

For my last blog I wanted to research the different ways to test whether or not someone was a witch. Throughout the semester, these had been brought up rather sporadically, and each time I thought to myself how impossible, crazy, and downright insane these methods were for testing if someone was a witch. Many of them were difficult to pass and their linkages to witchcraft seem fairly weak. Three tests I want to cover include the swimming test, the urine cake test, and the touch test. The following blog will explain each test in detail by highlighting why they predicted if someone was a witch, how the test occurred, and how the type of test came about.  The first test, the swimming test, is one of the most well known ways that individuals were historically tested for being a witch. The swimming test, explained in “A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult,” tied the accused witch up and threw them into water to see if they would sink or float. If the person floated, they were a...

Over the last few weeks in class we discussed the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials including the exoneration of many of the accused victims. It amazes me that it took so many years for many of the individuals who were falsely accused to have their names cleared. I wanted to first discuss the exonerations described in the chapter Redemption of “A Salem Witch.” This chapter covers all of the apologies and efforts to exonerate victims of the witch trials except for one exoneration which occurred in 2022. The exoneration occurring in 2022 was the final one to occur which means it marked the official clearing of every accused Salem Witch, or so we think.  The first exonerations followed a series of apologies coming from Ann Putnum Jr., Judge Samuel Sewall, and twelve jurors from the Salem Witch Trials. What is interesting about their apologies is that they all blamed their actions on the devil and claimed that they were not their fault. Several years after these apologies came ...

When reading about Rebecca Nurse’s execution, I thought it was notable that the location of where the execution took place was inaccurate for many years. With a well-documented trial for the 1600s, it is expected that the execution would also be well documented, but this thought ultimately was wrong. With roughly fifteen of A Salem Witch: The Trial, Execution, and and Exoneration of Rebecca Nurse , dedicated to Rebbeca Nurse’s arrest and examination, the short three paged execution lacks many details. This short of an execution documentation, combined with many other short and un-detailed accounts of the executions that took place during Salem Witch Trials, leaves many questions unanswered. The book, A Salem Witch: The Trial, Execution, and and Exoneration of Rebecca Nurse, highlights some of these including the location where individuals were hanged, the method of hanging, and even where most of the executed were buried.  Many of these questions were answered recently in 2016 ...

Throughout the semester we have talked about several plants used by witches and seen throughout various films and different books about witchcraft. With this blog I wanted to research two specific plants: the mandrake root and belladonna to discuss their history, features, and appearances in various movies and media over the years. They both have been brought up over and over again many times in class and in the readings which is why I wanted to do more research.  The mandrake root is described in “A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult,” as a plant with one of the largest reputations for magic. Its humanlike shape was the reason for many of its magical powers due to the ancient Greek idea that plants affected what they resemble.  Research also shows that the mandrake was found drawn inside Egyptian tombs used for good luck on the dead. There also is a myth explaining that the mandrake root had magical powers for witches to fly and that it was inhabited by a demon and ...

After discussing the Salem Witch Trials over the last several weeks, and the many characters involved, both accusers and the accused, I wanted to do a little more research regarding Reverend Samuel Parris due to his large role in the witch trials. We learned in class that he was born in London, England, then immigrated to Boston. After obtaining a college education he moved to Barbados in the Caribbean and used his inheritance to maintain a sugar plantation where he bought Tituba. He moved back to Boston after a hurricane in Barbados (bringing Tituba along with him) and became the minister of Salem. Parris’s role in the Salem community as minister played a large part in what occurred during the witch trials and I believe that without him the witch trials would not have killed as many individuals.  Parris decided he wanted to be the minister of Salem due to a desire to switch vocations and preach instead. His new vocation let him down quickly as he provided unsatisfactory sermo...

This week's reading from The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents focused on providing context for the Salem witch trials. As I was reading, I found a large connection between the Puritan beliefs of the seventeenth-century New Englanders and what went on in Salem. Puritan beliefs appeared to be at the root of the hysteria that was occurring during this time. I wanted to highlight three beliefs in the Puritan faith I witnessed throughout this reading that fueled this hysteria which eventually led to the Salem witch trials. The first belief was that God was constantly testing Puritans. The Puritans thought that nothing was accidental and that anything that occurred or happened to an individual whether that be good or bad was willed by God. This connected to what occurred in Salem because it allowed New Englanders to believe that being affected by witchcraft was a sign from God that they were being punished. This had the effect of increasing hysteria throughout New Eng...