Each year as the warm days of summer start to gradually fade to fall we embrace our bountiful harvest and look forward to the comfortable days to come with great anticipation. We awaken to our first frost and walk about our tree lined streets gazing at the abundant foliage, rich in color and texture, for we are New Englanders. As the days quickly approach All Hallowed Eve, we embrace all that is good and sometimes not so good. We watch our annual dose of Halloween movies, purchase plenty of candy for the trick or treaters and carve pumpkins and place them upon our steps. We enjoy hot cider and plain donuts and festivities abound. Yes, Halloween is approaching.
As a historian I have enjoyed researching year after year, the greater Concord area, a place my family has called home for many generations. My wife is from Boston and her family reaches back centuries to the earliest of days. Consequently, we research together and have enjoyed many hours searching deeply into each of our families past. So it is that each October, as Halloween approaches, we discuss and anticipate a resurrection of sorts, we talk about the witches that were sadly persecuted amongst great hysteria. The Salem Witch Trials held in Salem, Massachusetts during the colonial period resulted in extreme sadness for so very many. There were over two hundred souls accused of witchcraft between February 1692 and May 1693. A very sad chapter in our early history that captures so much attention each and every October.
I have a personal connection to the Salem Witch Trials, a connection here in Concord, N.H. that has been documented time and again. Each October we discuss, debate and document a little more, learning about this history from our past.
My wife is the connection here in Concord, New Hampshire. Wendy brings the Salem Witch Trials home with her every day of the year. You see, the witch trials are very near and dear to her and interest continues to prevail as yet another Halloween is approaching. We have documented through intense research a very interesting chapter in my wife’s past, she is descended from those accused of witchcraft in Salem, Mass. Not descended from one of the accused witches, but multiple witches.
Both of her ninth Great Grandmothers were accused of witchcraft in Salem, they were arrested and jailed. Both of her grandmothers’ children were also arrested and jailed for witchcraft. A very sad place to be in history if you were suspected of witchcraft, as mass hysteria continued more people were accused, arrested and sometimes put to death. People are very intrigued by this fascinating period in Massachusetts Colonial America, but in reality, it is steeped in sadness. A sadness that follows the generations to this very day, right into our Concord home.
Ninth Grandmother Johanna Blessings was married to a gentleman named William Towne. Their union produced multiple children including three daughters named Rebecca, Mary and Sarah, my wife’s three aunts. Grandmother Johanna Blessings was accused of witchcraft along with her three daughters, Rebecca, Mary and Sarah. After their arrests they were jailed with the Salem Witch Trials awaiting them. Grandmother Johanna Blessings was released along with her daughter Sarah Towne, sadly her daughters Rebecca and Mary were executed as witches.
Ninth Grandmother Abigail Dane was born in 1652. While still a young woman she was accused of witchcraft at Salem. As she appeared before the Salem Witch Trials she was convicted and sentenced to death. This wife was with child and the court decided the pregnant Abigail Dane should not be executed until after the birth of her unborn child. As the date for the birth of her child arrived, she was pardoned by the governor of Massachusetts and released. Abigail had two young daughters named Dorothy and Abigail, both aunts to my wife. They were also accused of witchcraft, though they survived the ordeal to live their lives.
As we travel into Autumn each year we visit Salem, Mass., not in search of ghosts or goblins, but to honor the memories of those less fortunate victims of the mass hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials. The many descendants of those accused of witchcraft walk among us each and every day, in towns across America. Three hundred and seventy years after the trials ended the fascination remains within for many. Yes, it is the steps from Salem, Mass., to Concord, N.H., that bridge centuries, this place we visit each October year after year.