Posted on 10/06/2012 12:11:36 PM PDT by ETL
HARTFORD, Conn. Descendants of some of the 11 people executed for witchcraft in mid-1600s Connecticut are hoping for a little magic of their own: that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will issue a proclamation clearing their distant relatives' names and condemning the prosecutions and killings.
Over the past seven years, descendants and their supporters have been trying to get state officials to denounce the Connecticut witch trials, which began in 1647, three decades before the more famous trials in Salem, Mass., and ended in 1697. About 46 people were prosecuted, according to a 2006 state report.
"They were wrongly accused. It's a justice issue," said Debra Lynne of New Milford, who says her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Sanford, was hanged for witchcraft in Hartford in 1662.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Watched "The Good Witch" this week on hulu.
True. However, they were trying to escape death themselves.
The prosecutors would allow a confession with evidence of repentance as reason for allowing the person to be released. Refusal to confess was taken as evidence of guilt.
Evidence of repentance essentially required accusation of others.
Making such accusations was a wicked thing to do, but a very human failing when in fear of death. The primarily responsible parties are those who put the "witches" in this position.
We should also remember the heroic Giles Corey, who not only refused to accuse others, but refused to plead guilty or not guilty. He was therefore "pressed" to death, crushed under a pile of stones. This meant his family inherited his property, which would have been confiscated if he was convicted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey
In a truly classic example of "F U," his last words were "more rocks."
She’s a witch! (Burn her!!) - Monty Python:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g
The Crucible was a work of fiction/propaganda. The false accusations by those already charged (and guilty of being witches in the book) were supposed to make Americans skeptical of those named by known Communists.
Do they have any evidence to overturn the verdicts?
Long before the United States was founded and religious liberty protected (even for witches).
On what basis should a contemporary government forgive the convictions of those tried under an earlier government's legal system hundreds of years ago?
Put them on a scale with a duck. That is a tried and true method.
I’m quite well aware of that.
I was referring not to The Crucible, but to the actual trial events.
Leftists often write plays or movies “based on real life,” then manage to get the story presented in the plays accepted as being what really happened.
Good examples of this are Inherit the Wind about the Scopes trial, and Conspiracy about the Wannsee conference. Both were making a case for one side, not trying to present an accurate account of the events. Yet these stories have come to be generally accepted as “the truth.”
An ancestor of my grandfather was hung 1692 in Salem as an accused witch.
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So do you have natural broom-driving skills?
This must be a bad witch.
say what you will about the witch trials. But we’ve not had a witch attack in over 300 years.
Put them on a scale with a duck. That is a tried and true method.
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The relatives? That could work.
Oh, no?
Gov. Malloy is the state in such RUIN that you are working on BS now?
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