Connecticut formally pardons men and women charged with witchcraft

Centuries after they were convicted, Connecticut formally pardons men and women charged with witchcraft

CNN
By Zoe Sottile
May 29, 2023

Hundreds of years after a group of men and women were tried and convicted of witchcraft, Connecticut lawmakers have formally exonerated them for their “crimes.”

SALEM, MA - SEPTEMBER 26: Visitors walk through the Salem Witch Memorial in Salem, MA on Sep. 26, 2019. The legacy of the Salem witch trials is complicated. During October, tourists flock to the North Shore city from around the world to celebrate the contemporary idea of witchcraft tied to Halloween. Others like author, historian, and Salem State University interim dean and professor Emerson Tad Baker, focus on the rush to judgment and the innocent lives and families that were destroyed by the 1692 trials.

(Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) read more here

The last Salem witch has been exonerated, thanks to an eighth-grade teacher and her students The Senate approved the resolution Thursday, according to a news release from Sen. Saud Anwar, who introduced the bill. The resolution passed with a 33-1-2 vote, the release said.

Anwar’s office said, “the resolution seeks to bring relief to the descendants of those who were maligned and acknowledge that they were treated wrongly.”

“We cannot go back in time and prevent the banishment, tarnishing or execution of the innocent women and men who were accused of witchcraft, but we can acknowledge the wronghoods they faced and the pain they felt, pain still recognized by their survivors today,” said Anwar. “Today, the Senate took an important step to own our state’s history and provide relief to the memories of the deceased and their descendants who still struggle with their ancestors’ wrongful treatment.”

The text of the resolution stipulates “the General Assembly recognizes that residents of colonial Connecticut were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft in the seventeenth century and that such persons were tried, convicted and sometimes sentenced to death for such offense, and declares that, although these accusations, prosecutions, trials and executions cannot be undone or changed, no disgrace or cause for distress should attach to the heirs of those persons.

Charles Button, a professor of geography at Central Connecticut State University, also testified for the resolution.

He said “this resolution would bring peace and closure” to his own family, which includes both perpetrators and victims of the witch panic.
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Find more names here 

Alice Young, 1647 Windsor Hanged 

Mary Johnson 1648 Wethersfield Pressured into a confession and probably executed 

John and Joan Carrington 1651 Wethersfield Guilty, executed 

Goodwife Bassett 1651 Fairfield Convicted and hung 

Goodwife Knapp 1653 Fairfield Convicted and hung 

Lydia Gilbert 1654 Windsor Probably executed 

Rebecca Greensmith 1662 Hartford Hanged 

Nathanial Greensmith 1662 Hartford Hanged 

Mary Sanford 1662 Hartford Probably hanged 

Mary Barnes 1662-3 Farmington Hanged

When you think about all the lives of the people being accused, it is easy to understand how the families of those who were executed would never be the same. It is also easy to understand how those who survived the imprisonment and torture would be tormented by all they were subjected to. What is not so easy to understand is, how others were caused to fear they would have been the next one unless you have faced the same events at the time.

Whenever you are trying to understand what they went through, consider how many times in your own life you have been falsely accused of something because someone else did not like you, or worse, hated you for no other reason than they targeted you.

That was what happened during the witch trials across the world when some hid behind their religious beliefs to inflict what they claimed as the punishment of the damned. Leaders used their power to cause the people to live in fear while committing no crimes. If they did not obey and follow in joining in supporting punishment, they knew they could be the next one it happened to.

Think about the courage it took for the brave to step up and speak out against this ruthless abuse of power.  Often I wonder where the courageous people are today.  The 1st Amendment was written to assure this never happened again. It established that all people would be free to believe and worship as they saw fit. To ban laws from being written under the guise of someone's religious beliefs because everyone was and is supposed to have the exact same freedom. 

We keep hearing what some politicians claim is their belief when defending why they do what they do, yet they were not elected to rule over others but to serve others. So why is it that we allow them to get away with it?

We allow them to right rules over what a minority of the people push for in order to control the lives of others no matter what they choose for themselves. It is almost as if they use the word "Christian" and all other Christians assume they are acting as a "true" believer. 

Banning books, judging what others do, banning their freedom, forcing school prayer, and making all children follow along with what is being said, at the same time these same people do absolutely nothing to protect the lives of those same children in school from being slaughtered before the end of the day school bell rings.

Until the brave stand up for what is right for everyone, no matter if you agree with it or not, protecting your own rights. Either we have equal rights or no one does. Isn't it time we ensure those elected do what is best for the whole country and strive to help you live your life under better circumstances? What gave them the right to subvert what the Founding Fathers established? We did with our silence and voted for those who inspire hatred and our worst emotions are given permission to inflict harm.

Take a stand for your own rights by making sure all others have the same freedom you want for yourself. If not, then, what happened will surely happen again.