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
On September 14th, 1692, the trial of Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Disborough began at the meetinghouse in Fairfield. Witnesses traveled from both Compo and Stamford to address the special magistrates, the trial jury, and two prosecutors, offering up their testimony against the accused witches. Godbeer writes that while there is “no surviving account of the mood in the meetinghouse” throughout the trials, there is record that the jury, once sent away to reach a verdict, failed to come to a final resolution. In spite of the testimony that the jury members heard, not all of them were convinced that women were guilty of witchcraft.
Though there is an absence of documentation as to what happened in the meetinghouse during Goody Clawson and Goody Disborough’s trial, whatever transpired throughout the proceedings was clearly not enough to convince the jury that the two women were witches. Gaps like this in the historical record, Godbeer demonstrates, are often just as revealing as a wealth of information: students of history can extrapolate the fact that the trial was beset by uncertainty and perhaps lacked consistent testimony.
Themes
The magistrates needed to make a decision. They could wait for word from the jury; they could step in and provide additional evidence; or they could refer the cases back to Connecticut’s representative assembly. The magistrates sent word to the assembly, but on the 13th of October, the representatives replied that the special court must take responsibility for finishing up the case itself.
This passage demonstrates how profoundly difficult it was even for a special court of highly educated men to legislate an invisible crime like witchcraft. The central conundrum of witchcraft trials, Godbeer has shown throughout the book, was always a lack of objectivity and grounding in physical, provable fact.
Themes
The judges then sought the opinion of a group of ministers, believing that learned religious men would be able to shed some light on what to do. The ministers replied to the inquiry by stating that the results of a ducking experiment were not grounds for conviction—nor, they said, were the “Devil’s marks” found upon the women’s bodies, since the women’s examiners were not physicians. Lastly, the ministers stated that they carried “a suspicion of […] counterfeiting” when it came to Katherine Branch’s testimony, and that they did not see “strange accidents” surrounding Goody Clawson and Goody Disborough as evidence of witchcraft.
Because the crimes being legislated were crimes of the supernatural, the judges thought that a council of ministers would be better-qualified to rule upon them. The ministers, however, were clearly skeptical of the entire case, believing that the Devil himself could potentially have influenced even the alleged victims. Again, Godbeer demonstrates how difficult it was to legislate invisible, spiritual crimes.
Themes
On the 28th of October, court reconvened at the meetinghouse in Fairfield. The jury spokesman announced—surely, Godbeer writes, to the surprise of most of those present—that the jury had found Mercy Disborough guilty of “familiarity with Satan.” William Jones urged the jury to return to quarters and reconsider their decision—but when they emerged again, the verdict remained. The court sentenced her to execution by hanging. The jury then announced Goody Clawson’s verdict: she was found not guilty.
This passage implies that Goody Clawson was acquitted while Goody Disborough was convicted due to the discrepancy found on Goody Disborough’s body—her supposed “Devil’s mark.” This demonstrates how women’s bodies were often seen as objects to be controlled or punished for existing outside of the status quo. Women who represented a threat to rigid Puritan ideals of femininity were persecuted, while those who embodied the norm were spared.
Themes
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Within days of the verdicts, many of Mercy Disborough’s supporters began petitioning the courts to retry the woman’s case, stating that one of the jurors from the September trial had missed a meeting of the October trial. The claim was investigated, and Goody Disborough was granted a stay of execution. In May of 1693, three magistrates agreed with Disborough’s supporters: the change in jurors was illegal. Moreover, the magistrates stated that they believed there was not enough evidence to sentence Goody Disborough to death after all.
Though Mercy Disborough’s status as a witch was proven on shaky ground at best, it was very easy for the courts to see that there was a practical legal problem with the proceedings. This further underscores Godbeer’s assertion that trying to legislate witchcraft was a matter of asserting control rather than bidding for actual justice.
Themes
Mercy Disborough was acquitted and released from jail. Godbeer states that while there is no record of who collected her from jail—nor what their reaction was to her acquittal—it is safe to assume that Mercy Disborough was publicly maligned for years to come following her release. She was not free yet in the court of public opinion and was likely still hated by the neighbors she’d angered long before her trial. Godbeer darkly suggests that in Puritan communities, “the law was only one way of dealing with a witch.”
Godbeer’s ominous ending to the tale of Mercy Disborough and Goody Clawson suggests that just because the women were ultimately acquitted in a court of law, the court of public opinion was not so easily sated. The women, he suggests, likely had to contend with threats from their community and the constant fear of extrajudicial punishment for their perceived crimes.
Themes
