After 300 years: the name of a Salem "witch" has been cleared
Elizabeth Johnson was convicted in 1693 and sentenced to death.
The 17th century witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts took place against a background of prejudice, fear of plagues and strangers, and religious fanaticism.
The trials led to the hanging of 19 people in the town and nearby towns, and the stoning to death of one person
Tali Goldstein
01/08/2022
Monday, 01 August 2022, 11:25 Updated: 11:46
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on Twitter
Share by email
Share in general
Comments
Comments
Elizabeth Johnson Jr. is not a witch - officially.
As of last Thursday, Johnson, from Andover, Massachusetts, who admitted to practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials (also known as the "Salem Witch Hunt"), was the last woman to be convicted of witchcraft and still not acquitted.
On Thursday, after 329 years, the acquittal came under the signature of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.
Johnson, who was sentenced to death in 1693 after she and twenty of her family members were accused of witchcraft, was pardoned and not executed.
The late acquittal was made possible thanks to the efforts of an 8th grade civics teacher and her students in collaboration with a senator from Massachusetts, which lasted three years.
Teacher Kari Lapierre on the left and Senator Diana DiZulio (photo: official website, Facebook)
"I'm excited and I'm relieved," said Carrie Lafere, a teacher at North Andover Middle School, on Saturday.
"But I'm also disappointed that I didn't get to discuss the issue with the students because they are on summer vacation. It was a huge project. We called her EJJ, and she became part of our world," the teacher added.
Johnson was 22 years old when she was accused of witchcraft.
She is believed to have suffered from a mental disability, never married or had children - which fueled suspicions about her in the community, Lefere said.
Then-Massachusetts Governor William Phipps granted her a death pardon, and Johnson died in 1747 at the age of 77. Unlike other women accused of witchcraft, she had no descendants who later fought to clear her name.
Her mother, a pastor's daughter, was also accused of a similar charge and acquitted.
The witch hunter in Salem (photo: official website, Cotton Mather - John Dounton, London, 1693 Title page of "Wonders of the Invisible World")
The witch hunter in Salem (Photo: official website, Bryce Barbara - John Davis Batchelder Autograph Collection, Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years, Library of Congress "Petition for bail from accused witches")
The expungement process was introduced as a section of the Massachusetts state budget, after the students and their teacher contacted the governor in favor of a pardon, Massachusetts Senator Diana DiZulio added an amendment to the budget bill, which revived the expungement efforts.
"I didn't start the project from scratch," Lapierre told the makers of a documentary called The Last Witch about her and her students' efforts to acquit Johnson.
"An author named Richard Haight wrote a book about Elizabeth Johnson and found out that she never won," she added.
The witch hunter in Salem (photo: official website, unattributed - William A. Crafts (1876) Pioneers in the settlement of America: from Florida in 1510 to California in 1849[1], Pioneers in the settlement of America: from Florida in 1510 to California in 1849. edition, Boston: Published by Samuel Walker an)
The witch hunt in Salem, which took place against the background of prejudice, fear of plagues and strangers and religious fanaticism, resulted in the hanging of 19 people in the town and nearby towns, and the stoning of one person to death;
Ten more managed to avoid death.
In total, the convictions of dozens of people out of the 300 accused in the trials that lasted about a year were overturned and their names cleared.
DiZolio, who testified last May before the Massachusetts Senate about the case and its importance, said that "we will never be able to change what happened to victims like Elizabeth, but at least we will try to correct the injustice."
Park in memory of the victims of the witch hunt in Salem (Photo: official website, Willjay at English Wikipedia - Self-photographed Salem Witch Trials Memorial Park, Salem, Massachusetts.)
In 2017, officials unveiled a semicircular stone monument inscribed with the names of those hanged in the town of Salem.
The memorial was funded in part by donations from descendants of those accused of witchcraft.
"For 300 years, Elizabeth Johnson Jr. had no voice, her story lost in the depths of time," Massachusetts state senator Joan Lovely of Salem told The Guardian.
news
world news
America
Tags
Salem
United States
Massachusetts
