Thursday, May 27, 2010

Alse Young, Witchcraft, and Thinking Before Speaking

Sometime during 1642, Connecticut made witchcraft a crime  punishable by death.  Their justification was taken from two Bible verses:


Exodus 22:18 - Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live

Leviticus 20:27 - A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.


In 1647 on the 26th of May in Windsor, CT, Alse Young was put to death for witchcraft, making her the first person in America known to be executed for this crime. Interestingly, her daughter Alice Young Beamon would stand accused of witchcraft in Springfield, MA, in 1677. Alice Beamon, unlike her mother, would survive.
I have a strange feeling that if someone had done some thinking before speaking, both of these cases might have been avoided. 

2 comments:

  1. That was quite a time in our history and interesting when they finally decided that maybe it wasn't witches afterall causing the strange happenings, but the devil himself!

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  2. In doing a little research before writing this entry, I discovered that they were not always accused of being witches for the "right" reasons. It was also suspected that she was charged with witchcraft because she was her father's only surviving heir...no sons! Ah, inheritance issues...and greed. Don't want to go there

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