April 6 - The Devil Made Me!

April 6 – The Devil Made Me!

A little girl with epilepsy, a group of people ready to believe the Devil was at work, religious zealots, a court run by those religious zealots and fear all add up to a year of incredible pain for many people from a small area of Massachusetts.

In 1692, the Puritans were facing new generations of people who didn’t believe in Jesus. They saw evil everywhere they turned as people moved away from the church and began living lives without religious fervor.

A small pox outbreak had just occurred; the threat of Indian attacks was always at hand and the Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter had just been revoked. The colonists were in terror and believed that God’s wrath was coming down on them for some reason or other. Witchcraft just had to be the reason.

A local pastor – Samuel Parrish – had a daughter who had a seizure. The local doctor couldn’t find anything physically wrong with her and after a great deal of pressure, she began accusing women in the community of witchcraft. It was the only thing that made sense to anyone. Soon there was mass hysteria and by the time a year had passed, over 150 people had been accused of witchcraft.

Many of the accused simply acquiesced, admitted that they had done it and repented. They were set free. There were, however, nineteen people that couldn’t be forced to confess to something they hadn’t done. All of them ended up being hanged for the crime of witchcraft. One man was killed by stones pressing on him as they tried to force him to confess and at least thirteen others died while in prison.

Increase Mather was one of the pastors that began to be concerned that perhaps innocent people were being condemned. As more and more became outspoken, the Governor finally stepped in, dissolved the accusing court and pardoned the remaining people still in prison.

The Puritans in America were never able to quite get over this blot on their reputation as Christians. There was never any hard proof that the condemned had performed witchcraft, it was all hearsay and hysteria.