Throughout The Witch of Blackbird Pond, characters are skeptical of and prejudiced against people who are different from them. When Kit moves from Barbados to Wethersfield, a Puritan town in Connecticut Colony, she experiences prejudice when people assume that she’s a witch just because she knows how to swim. She continues to witness prejudice against others, such as the way Wethersfield townspeople discriminate against Hannah Tupper, whom many believe to be a witch as well. As soon as Kit meets Hannah, she realizes that Hannah isn’t a witch at all—she is actually a kind woman whom the Puritans of Wethersfield treat cruelly simply because she is a Quaker, not a Puritan. Kit recognizes that the Puritans’ treatment of Hannah is unjust—yet Kit herself judges the Puritans in return, and she discriminates against people of color. This is especially clear in how she condones and participates in slavery, something that Kit’s friend (and eventual love interest) Nat condemns as immoral. While Kit’s own character growth is limited, the book nevertheless shows how discriminating against people for their differences causes harm and is therefore unjust and cruel.
Kit’s journey to an unfamiliar place demonstrates how people become prejudiced against those who are different from them. When Kit arrives in Wethersfield, Connecticut to live with her Aunt Rachel and Uncle Matthew, the Puritans in their community (even Matthew himself) are prejudiced against Kit because she’s different from them. As Kit puts it at one point, “People are afraid of things they don’t understand.” This explains much of the treatment she receives from the Puritans: they make unfair and incorrect assumptions about her because she isn’t Puritan, and some things about her are unfamiliar to them. The first example of this is when several Puritans suspect that Kit is a witch because she can swim, an activity most New Englanders don’t know how to do. To them, swimming is unusual behavior, so it is easy for them to explain it with the assumption that Kit is a witch, instead of getting to know Kit and learning that swimming is common in Barbados, her home country. Kit, for her part, judges the Puritans in return: she grew up wealthy, so she is shocked when she sees the barren town of Wethersfield. She’s also surprised that Puritan families like the Woods do all their own work, because she sees manual labor as beneath her and is resistant to doing chores that she believes are “the work of slaves.” This racist thinking betrays Kit’s own prejudices: she, a white person, believes Black people are inferior to her. While she thinks she shouldn’t have to work, she readily accepts and supports the enslavement and forced labor of Black people. Another central example of prejudice in the novel is how the Puritans treat Hannah. They fear her because she is a Quaker, a follower of a religion that is unfamiliar to them. They assume that her pet cats, solitary nature, and refusal to attend Meeting (the Puritan religious service) are all signs that she’s a witch. Instead of trying to get to know Hannah, the Puritans of Wethersfield make assumptions about her from afar.
The book goes on to show that prejudiced people also tend to actively discriminate against people who are different than they are. Because the Puritans of Wethersfield dislike Quakers, they single Hannah out and discriminate against her. They force her to pay a fine for not going to Meeting, which means that she has an extra financial barrier that the other, Puritan townspeople don’t encounter. The Puritans also essentially exile Hannah from the town, forcing her to live on the outskirts of Wethersfield. At one point, a mob of Puritans even tries to run Hannah out of town altogether, claiming that she’s a witch and burning her cottage down. Kit experiences discrimination at the hands of the Puritans as well. Because Kit is an outsider—she’s a stranger from Barbados who rebels against Puritan society’s strictness—several townspeople (led by Goodwife Cruff) decide that Kit is a witch and bring her to trial. But Kit also discriminates against others, namely people of color. Kit condones and participates in slavery (her grandfather, who raised her, owned enslaved people), an inhumane practice that deprives Black people of their basic rights. In this way, Kit is both a victim of and a perpetuator of discrimination.
By depicting the harmful effects of this kind of treatment, the book suggests that discrimination is morally wrong. Throughout the book, Kit tries to convince her family and acquaintances that Hannah isn’t a witch, but really a kind and caring woman. Not only have the Puritans completely misjudged Hannah, but their treatment of her is exceptionally cruel. As Kit gets to know more about Hannah, she learns of the horrible treatment—such as beating and branding—that Hannah has endured at the hands of Puritans. After Hannah escapes, the Puritans then turn their attention on Kit, whom they also accuse of witchcraft. Again, their prejudices lead them astray—Kit isn’t a witch, either. Not only are they incorrect in their allegation, but their discriminatory actions are cruel, too. Kit undergoes a frightening trial, and she fears that her punishment will be death—something that the novel implies is deeply unjust, especially given that the Puritans don’t have any real evidence that Kit is a witch. But Kit isn’t a fully sympathetic character, given her racist beliefs. At one point, Nat criticizes Kit for condoning slavery by pointing out the cruelty of depriving other humans of their rights. He explains that her discrimination of Black people is inhumane and flawed. Kit, however, never appears to change her views on slavery, and it’s implied that this type of racist thinking is what normalizes slavery and allows its brutality to continue. By showing how these kinds of attitudes alienate and dehumanize people, the book suggests that discriminating against people for their differences is needlessly cruel.
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Difference, Prejudice, and Discrimination Quotes in The Witch of Blackbird Pond
“How did you think they got there? Did you fancy they traveled from Africa in private cabins like yours?”
She had never thought about it at all. “But don’t you have slaves in America?”
“Yes, to our shame! Mostly down Virginia way. But there are plenty of fine folk like you here in New England who’ll pay a fat price for black flesh without asking any questions how it got here. If my father would consent to bring back just one load of slaves we would have had our new ketch by this summer. But we Eatons, we’re almighty proud that our ship has a good honest stink of horses!”
An hour ago [Kit] had declined to go to Meeting, saying airily that she and her grandfather had seldom attended divine service, except for the Christmas Mass. What an uproar she had caused! There was no Church of England in Wethersfield, her uncle had informed her, and furthermore, since she was now a member of his household she would forget her popish ideas and attend Meeting like a God-fearing woman.
“[…] She’s been there as long as I can remember.”
“All alone?”
“With her cats. There’s always a cat or so around. People say she’s a witch.”
“Do you believe in witches, Judith?”
“Maybe not,” said Judith doubtfully. “All the same, it gives me a creepy feeling to look at her. She’s queer, that’s certain, and she never comes to Meeting. I’d just rather not get any closer.”
Kit looked back at the gray figure bent over a kettle, stirring something with a long stick. Her spine prickled. It might be only soap, of course […] But that lonely figure in the ragged flapping shawl—it was easy enough to imagine any sort of mysterious brew in that pot!
“[…] But no one in Wethersfield has anything to do with Hannah Tupper.”
“Why on earth not?”
“She’s a Quaker.”
“Why is that so dreadful?”
Rachel hesitated. “I can’t tell you exactly. The Quakers are queer stubborn people. They don’t believe in the Sacraments.”
“What difference does that make? She is as kind and good as—as you are, Aunt Rachel. I could swear to it.”
“Why should you take it upon yourself to mend a roof for the Quaker woman?” demanded [Matthew].
“She lives all alone—” began Kit.
“She is a heretic, and she refuses to attend Meeting. She has no claim on your charity.”
As Kit watched, her uncle bent slowly and scooped up a handful of brown dirt from the garden patch at his feet, and stood holding it with a curious reverence, as though it were some priceless substance. As it crumbled through his fingers his hand convulsed in a sudden passionate gesture. Kit backed through the door and closed it softly. She felt as though she had eavesdropped. When she had hated and feared her uncle for so long, why did it suddenly hurt to think of that lonely defiant figure in the garden?
For Prudence was an entirely different child from the woebegone shrinking creature who had stood in the roadway outside the school. The tight little bud that was the real Prudence had steadily opened its petals in the sunshine of Kit’s friendship and Hannah’s gentle affection. Her mind was quick and eager.
“‘Tis true I did not welcome you into my house,” [Matthew] said at last. “But this last week you have proved me wrong. You haven’t spared yourself, Katherine. Our own daughter couldn’t have done more.”
Suddenly Kit wished, with all her heart, that she had never deceived this man. She would like to stand here before him with a clear conscience. She was ashamed of the many times—more times than she could count—when she had skipped off and left her work undone.
I shall tell him some day, she vowed to herself, when I am sure that Hannah is safe. And I will do my full share, beginning this very moment. I don’t even feel tired any more.
“Is it true that you were also acquainted with a certain cat which the widow entertained as a familiar spirit?”
“It—it was just an ordinary cat, sir, like any cat.”
“Hold your tongue, woman,” shouted her husband unexpectedly. “I’m sick and tired of hearing about Prudence being bewitched. All these years you been telling me our child was half-witted. Why, she’s smart as a whip. I bet it warn’t much of a trick to teach her to read.”
Goodwife Cruff’s jaw dropped. For one moment she was struck utterly dumb, and in that moment her husband stepped into his rightful place. There was a new authority in his voice.
