EDITORIAL: Lessons from the past
Jul. 30—The Salem Witch Trials are a dark chapter in Massachusetts history. But as shameful as that short passage was — the whole affair lasted about a year — there is a lesson to be drawn from more than four centuries of work to atone for the death of more than two dozen innocent people.
The frenzy that gripped Salem and its suburbs — including Danvers (then called Salem Village) and Andover — reached its peak in the summer of 1692. Some 150 people were arrested. Nineteen accused of witchcraft were hanged, five died in prison and one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death for refusing to plead to his charges.
Corey's act of defiance — he is said to have uttered "more weight" as prosecutors piled rocks on him to try to force a confession — is considered a turning point in the trials (though it did not save his wife, Martha, who was hanged three days after his death). The intensity of the public outcry — and the fact that his wife had just been accused of witchcraft — led colonial governor Sir William Phips to scuttle the infamous Court of Oyer and Terminer and end its persecution of the innocent.
Rather than bury their shame, however, Salem and Massachusetts held it to the light, and continue to do so to this day. In doing so, they provide a blueprint for reckoning with our other failings, from entrenched racism to sexism to the disheartening resurgence of antisemitism in this, the most progressive of states. We shouldn't be afraid of our history. We should, however, fear repeating it.
More than 400 years ago, Salem's reckoning began almost immediately. In 1697, Jan. 14 was declared a day of fasting and reflection. That day trial judge Samuel Sewell made a public confession of his own guilt, and 12 jurors signed a Declaration of Regret asking forgiveness. A 1711 law reversed the convictions of 22 people charged during the summer of madness.
More than 250 years later, in 1957, the state Legislature passed a resolution calling the events "shocking," noting the laws governing the trials "have long since been abandoned." In 2001, Gov. Jane Swift added the names of Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd to the list of the exonerated.
On Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a proposal to add another name to the list — Andover's Elizabeth Johnson Jr., convicted in 1693. Her story was unearthed by North Andover Middle School teacher Carrie LaPierre, whose students researched the issue.
Why wasn't Johnson exonerated? State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, who filed the bill that would clear her name, noted that Johnson, at 22, "was neither a wife or a mother," and as such "was not considered worthy of having her name cleared."
We expect that oversight will be quickly rectified. Just as importantly, LaPierre and her students will have taught us an important lesson — that the work of putting things to right never really ends.
