Escaping Salem

In Seventeenth Century New England, the world must have seemed so much bigger than today. Early settlers lived in towns with a few hundred people. "Most families lived in small timber framed homes with only four rooms, two downstairs and two above" p13 with little more than the necessities. If they received news it was generally by word of mouth, newspapers were scarce. People were essentially isolated from the world. This is difficult for some of us to fathom considering the onslaught of technology in the world today. We can instantly transmit pictures and data to each other right from our pocket. We can get up to the minute results of virtually any election or sporting event anywhere in the world. The world is quite literally at our fingertips. Back in the 1600's your country could be at war and you wouldn't know about it for days or even weeks. Isolation and blind faith transposed itself to belief in the supernatural for many in this time period.

The quality of life for communities like Stamford depended on the quality and skills of its members. There were no specialty shops to pick up whatever you needed, nor were there large warehouse stores. If you wanted something you had to find someone who was producing it or could produce it. You may be a corn farmer that needed cloth. Unless you had someone in your town that was growing flax or cotton, as well as someone who was spinning these materials into fabric, you would need to travel great distances to get them. My point is that in these towns everyone was dependant on one another either directly or indirectly. When there was animosity between people in these towns it was, more likely than not, common knowledge to the community. This could effect the whole community for that reason, "Stamford's minister taught mutual assistance was a spiritual as well as practical necessity." (p 74) Today we could say screw you Jewel and go to Dominick's. We put much less stock in what others think of us because we have the freedom of selection unknown in colonial times.

Most small towns did not have formally trained doctors, and they relied on women who possessed knowledge passed down through the generations to provide care to the sick or pregnant. They used herbs and minerals to create medicines. "Women like Sarah Bates emerged as experts from those communities of mutual care, their skills endorsed by the experience and gratitude of their neighbors rather than university degrees or formal apprenticeship." (p 16)

Early settlers had a strong belief of the supernatural, and the bible was basically the foremost authority on everything. The bible was read literally. Taking into consideration how devoutly people in these times interpreted the bible, it is easier to understand how they could believe in other things supernatural. Magic was the work of the Devil and had to be punished. In the minds of 17th Century Puritans, things that happened whether good or bad, happened for a reason. They must have pleased or angered God or the Devil. "Any responsible diagnosis had to take account the possibility of supernatural intervention. God might have inflicted the symptoms as punishment for sin". (p17) In the 21st Century, an age of advanced technology and biological knowledge we have the ability to test, diagnose and usually treat or cure whatever psychological, viral, fungal, or bacterial ailment is affecting a person without the thought that it is a curse brought on by good or evil.

The Wescott family was more prominent than most families in the small town of Stamford, Connecticut. Mr. Wescot was a member of the colonial assembly as well as a sergeant in the town militia. Katherine 'Kate' Branch was the servant of the Wescot family. Kate was taken in by the Wescots after her parents died and in those days a servant was a member of the family, but of lower status. As a member of the family it was the duty of Mr. and Mrs. Wescott to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of Kate as they would their own children. When Kate was afflicted by the inexplicable ailments the Wescots looked to there neighbors to help and due to either a sense of community or plain old curiosity many came to their aid. (p. 22)

The people of Stamford did not come to the conclusion Kates condition was a result of witchcraft right away. There were reports by those who watched over Kate of many strange things, from floating fireballs, to mysteriously appearing pins, to Kate developing mysterious marks on her body, to inflating breasts, strange bodily contortions. (p27-29) These strange events convinced some of the skeptics, but there were still those who believed it was an act. The first woman Kate accused was Goody Clawson, she had been rumored to be a witch in Stamford for years (p. 36). The second woman that Kate described, the Wescots decided was Goody Miller's description, but no one could figure out why Goody Miller would want to bewitch their servant. (p. 37) The third woman accused was, at first, only a vague description of a woman who was pretty tall, had pretty thick lips, and wore high quality homespun wool clothing. At that point Kate went into another fit and Mistress Wescot, thinking Kate couldn't hear anything, remarked to a neighbor and said "I know a woman at Fairfield who was suspected formerly; she has thick lips." then said the woman's name. It was only at this point that Kate came out of her trance and named Mercy Holbridge from the