During a chat with a reader, I was asked how the witch trials affected the children of the times and whether I would consider writing a non-erotic piece (obviously) through a child’s eyes. The idea intrigued me, but I wondered… could I actually do it? The times were dark enough for adults – so dark, I sometimes had to stop my research and completely walk away to shake off the sadness.
But, if you are interested, there is one documented case of a very young child’s experience back in Salem Village, 1692.
Little Dorcas Goode, daughter to William and Sarah, was only four or five when she was imprisoned along with her mother. The charge for both, of course, was witchcraft.
The magistrates questioned Dorcas mercilessly, confusing her. Frightening her. And finally breaking her as she “confessed” that, yes, she and her mother were witches. It would have been impossible for her to deny it anyway, since the girls little Dorcas was said to be tormenting, fell into fits whenever she glanced their way during her questioning.
When Dorcas finally confessed, she told about her own familiar. A snake which she fed through a teat on her finger. Upon examination, a mark was indeed discovered – a mark, they said, about the size and color of the bite of a flea.
Dorcas was remanded to Salem prison and it was there, in that dark, squalid, rat-infested cell, chained day and night, where she and her pregnant mother were kept for more than nine months. Imagine the confusion and terror of a child shackled to a wall for that length of time. A child who, while imprisoned, witnessed the birth and death of her newborn sister. And who, after all those months, witnessed, too, the hanging of her mother.
Fortunately for Dorcas, who had only been interrogated but never tried or convicted, bond was posted and she was released into the care of her father. But freedom came too late for that child, however, because her tiny life was forever ruined, and her tortured mind forever confused and crazed.
Yet one more victim of the times…
Even though we have seen the horrors that were inflicted on adults, it is hard to imagine that children were put through the same ordeal. Don’t you wonder what would happen today if someone were to brand people as witches? Would enough people fight this or would they be complacent and go along with the crowd. It gives me the shivers to think about this.
I feel the same as you, Diane – shivers. The saddest thing is that this is still going on. People are being branded as witches and they’re being tortured and killed – even today – because of it. Just this February, a woman in Papua New Guinea was hunted down, beaten, raped with a pipe then burned alive. And just last month, on May 13th, a woman in Brazil was accused (via Facebook) of being a witch. She was hunted, found and beaten to death for her supposed crimes.
We’re still coming to terms with what happened in Salem centuries ago and here it is, happening in the here and now. Shivers? Most definitely.