Colonists accused of being witches were executed 300 years ago. They may be exonerated

Salem may be synonymous with witch trials, but the superstitious practice has its origins elsewhere.

Decades before the Massachusetts town was swept by mass hysteria, colonial America’s first convicted witches were sent to the gallows in Connecticut.

Now — over three centuries later — these condemned individuals, many of whom were women of humble means, might have their names cleared. After a yearslong push from activists, a resolution has been put before the state legislature that would exonerate them of their alleged crimes and apologize to their descendants.

“It’s a token resolution of remorse basically for the families of the victims, saying we’re sorry this happened to you; it was an injustice,” Beth Caruso, co-founder of the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project, an organization that has lobbied for the resolution, told McClatchy News.

“This is part of Connecticut’s history,” Caruso said. “We embrace the wonderful things about colonial history, but often the darker parts are ignored.”

America’s first witch trials

Witchcraft — which involved consorting with the devil — was criminalized by the English parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was considered a capital offense in the New England colonies, according to a 2006 Office of Legislative Research (OLR) report.

The law was first enforced in 1647 when a Connecticut woman named Alse Young was tried and executed, making her the first person put to death for witchcraft in America, according to a state judicial branch report. A town administrator briefly noted the event in his diary, writing, “Alse Young was hanged.”

In total, at least 34 Connecticut colonists were indicted on witchcraft charges and 11 were executed between 1647 and 1665, according to the resolution. Of those who were killed, nine were women and two were men.

The women were mostly middle-aged and of low social status, while the men were relatives of accused women — “thus a matter of literal guilt by association,” John Demos, a historian and author of two books on witch hunts, told McClatchy News in an email.

“The reasons for women’s predominance are deeply psychological, I believe — with misogyny, in both men and women, as the galvanizing force,” Demos said.

The intensely religious colonists blamed suspected witches for natural disasters, diseases and other misfortunes, according to the OLR report.

Trials were initiated after a formal complaint was lodged, and a single witness testimony was enough to attain a conviction, according to the report.

If a guilty verdict was reached, the accused individual was hanged to death, Demos said.

“Connecticut proved to be much harsher in its treatment of suspected witches than Massachusetts,” Walt Woodward, the state historian emeritus said in a 2021 lecture, per a video posted on YouTube. “Whereas in Massachusetts a person had a fifty-fifty chance of gaining their freedom, to be indicted for witchcraft in Connecticut during those early years was simply a death sentence.”

Exoneration effort

For years, a group of activists has lobbied the state of Connecticut to acknowledge these early injustices with little luck, Tony Griego, a retired police sergeant and co-founder of the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project, told McClatchy News.

“Many of the elected officials that we wrote to over the years didn’t return our letters,” Griego said.

In 2016, he and Caruso, the author of several historical novels on witch trials, founded the Facebook page CT Witch Memorial to promote awareness of the trials.

The pair began to hear from descendants of both condemned witches and perpetrators, who were asking for something to be done to clear their ancestors’ names, Caruso said.

After a continued lobbying effort, several state legislators showed interest in the group’s request, and a resolution was drafted last year, Caruso said.

The state judiciary committee overwhelmingly voted to approve the resolution in March, clearing the way for it to be brought before the state house and senate this session.

Opponents to the resolution have said that it distracts from more pressing issues affecting living individuals, Caruso said.

“People have said ‘why not talk about current injustices, like the disparities of people in our jails,’” Caruso said. “We totally agree that those things should be addressed. But it’s not like empathy is finite. It’s a false argument that you have to choose one or the other.”

Others have argued that because Connecticut was an English colony at the time of the trials, the state bears no responsibility, Griego said.

In response, Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz, an advocate of the resolution, told McClatchy News, “Some of the people who participated in the trials actually became leaders of our state,” adding, “Who was in charge really doesn’t matter. We should just take responsibility and tell the world what really happened because we all know.”

Beyond absolving the deceased, there are other reasons to pass the resolution that could have implications for the modern world, Bysiewicz said.

“There are still some countries that have these witchcraft laws on the books, so we should take leadership and hopefully those countries change their laws,” Bysiewicz said.

Thousands of people worldwide are accused of witchcraft every year, often resulting in their death or mutilation, according to the United Nations. Women, children and people with disabilities like albinism are especially vulnerable.

“And also, in light of women being attacked in federal courts, state courts and state legislatures, I think it’s important to stand up for them,” Bysiewicz said.

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