Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Escaping Salem, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Women, Witchcraft, and the Subversion of Gender Norms
Fear, Law, and Control
Practical Threats vs. Spiritual Betrayals
Scapegoating and Blame
Summary
Analysis
After attempts to find natural causes for Kate’s afflictions failed, the Wescots and their neighbors became increasingly convinced that Kate was truly being preyed upon by Satan and a coterie of witches. The Wescots kept continually careful vigils over Kate and began asking her who she saw tormenting her in her nightly visions. Slowly, Kate began to describe—and then name—the women in her dreams.
The Wescots perceived the threat against Kate as a threat against their entire family—and perhaps even their entire community. As Kate began to name her tormentors, likely at the behest of her master and mistress, the Wescots may have believed that in learning the names of the women preying upon Kate, they could restore justice and peace to their community.
Themes
One of these women was Goody Clawson, a Stamford woman who had long been suspected of using occult power against her neighbors. In fact, the Wescots had quarreled with Goody Clawson years ago over a trade of flax. Goody Clawson frequently insulted the Wescots, throwing stones at Abigail in public and calling her a “proud slut.” The Wescots always suspected Goody Clawson of being behind Joanna’s fits—and now that Kate claimed to see Goody Clawson regularly appear to her in the night as an emissary of Satan, they believed they had proof of Goody Clawson’s dealings with the Devil.
This passage implies that Kate may have been naming prior enemies of the Wescots in order to please them—or because they had instructed her to name certain women as witches. At the same time, Godbeer implies that because women who expressed anger toward their neighbors were so vilified in Puritan society, the community would have been quick to see Goody Clawson’s appearances to Kate as evidence of her facility with witchcraft. This could have prevented them from realizing that Kate’s naming of Goody Clawson may have been a plot to remove one of the Wescots’ enemies from the community.
Themes
As neighbors continued to rotate their watches over Kate, they heard her name many different women as witches—some of whom had named they recognized, while others had nicknames like “Goody Crump” and “Goody Hipshod”. Kate accused a woman named Goody Miller of nursing a black dog from an extra breast below her arm (witches were believed to have an extra breast from which they fed animal familiars, or possessed pets, their own blood).
This passage introduces the image of the “Devil’s mark”—an extra breast that witches were believed to develop after entering into a covenant with Satan. Anomalies found on women’s bodies became evidence of their unholiness or darkness, meaning that women who didn’t conform to the community’s standards of beauty or normalcy were more likely to be accused of witchcraft.
Themes
Kate also mentioned seeing a woman with “thick lips”—Abigail Wescot heard the description and immediately thought of a woman named Mercy Disborough who lived in the neighboring town of Compo. Mercy was known to be a “difficult and vindictive neighbor,” and she had been accused of witchcraft before. Kate, however, had never been to Compo—Abigail was confused as to how Kate would know to describe a woman whom the Wescots knew, yet whom Kate had never met herself.
This passage continues to cast doubt on how Kate was divining the appearances of women she’d never met. Once again, although there was a practical explanation for every step of Kate’s ordeal, the Puritan community around her did not discount the darker, supernatural reasoning behind Kate’s visions.
Themes
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In May of 1692, Daniel Wescot lodged a formal complaint alongside Kate in the local preliminary courts at the Stamford meetinghouse. Four magistrates heard their lament. Kate named Goody Clawson, Goody Disborough and a woman she called Goody Hipshod—whose real name Kate did not know—as the witches who tormented her nightly. The next day, Goody Clawson and Goody Disborough were brought in for questioning, and they each insisted upon their own innocence. But when Kate was brought into the meetinghouse during their questioning, she succumbed to a fit, claiming that Mercy was tormenting her that instant. Mercy Disborough was thus sent to jail, and Elizabeth Clawson was placed on house arrest. Goody Hipshod continued to appear to Kate, but after Goody Disborough and Goody Clawson were contained, Kate claimed that they stopped bothering her.
This passage shows that even though Kate’s claims could be said to be spurious or highly coincidental, Stamford officials took no risks where witchcraft was concerned. Because Kate mentioned witchcraft, her word was seen as worth more than the accused women’s. Though their crimes against Kate were invisible and difficult to pin down, Goody Clawson and Goody Disborough were immediately punished and confined in an attempt to control the fear and uncertainty spreading throughout the community.
Themes
On June 13th, however, Daniel Wescot accompanied Kate to the home of Jonathan Selleck, the wealthiest of the four magistrates in the local court. Kate told Mister Selleck that four more women had appeared to her as witches: two women whose names she didn’t know, plus Goody Miller—the woman with the alleged extra breast—and two women called Goody Glover and Goody Abison. At yet another audience with Selleck later that month, Kate claimed that Goody Clawson had returned to tormenting her more terribly than ever. Daniel Wescot attested to Kate’s misery. Elizabeth Clawson was removed from house arrest and placed in jail.
This passage casts further suspicion on Kate’s mention of Goody Clawson—a known enemy of the Wescots. It’s possible that Daniel Wescot felt house arrest was not punishment enough for Goody Clawson, and that he spurred Kate to claim the woman was still tormenting her. Whether or not Daniel was behind Kate’s further accusations in this passage, it is clear that witches were seen as such tremendous threats that they needed to be sequestered from the rest of their community.
Themes
As the summer went on, Kate’s fits continued. She eventually named the two women who’d appeared to her namelessly at first as Mary Staples and Hannah Harvey. When Kate provided the magistrates with these names, Selleck was reminded of a New Haven woman named Mary Staples who’d recently been accused of witchcraft. Staples, it turned out, had a daughter Mary who married a man named Harvey. Mary Harvey had a daughter named Hannah. After naming these women, Kate broke down in tears. Selleck recognized the fear and exhaustion in Kate’s demeanor. He became determined to do what he could to protect her—and to weed out the witches tormenting Stamford, no matter the legal and political struggles ahead as the trials began.
Many of the women Kate named throughout her ordeal had suffered public or private accusations of witchcraft in the past. Goody Clawson, Goody Disborough, and Goody Staples were all ornery women who had experienced difficulties with their respective communities in the past. For this reason, perhaps, the magistrates were more likely to believe Kate’s claims. Women who repeatedly caused trouble for their communities were seen as dangerous liabilities in Puritan New England.
Themes
