More from July 20th. On Witches and the Age of Money

[miladycarol]

We drove to our hotel in Peabody, MA. It wasn't until I really looked at the address G gave me that I realized it was nearer to Salem than Boston. I'm really glad we have the car.

We met with Kean and Matthew for beverages, then G and I went to Salem for dinner and we found a ghost tour. We'll likely drive into Boston for the day tomorrow as it's our only day to ourselves before meetings on Tuesday.

Witchy Women
During dinner, I was reconstructing what I remember from my exhaustive study of the Salem Witch Trials from my pre-teen years. As that was eons ago, the details were hazy and the brushstrokes bold. The ghost tour helped jog some of my memories and add some additional dimension for just how horrible some of the people involved were. My sympathies lie solely with the accused, in case you needed the spoiler.

The judge and his buddy were so offensive that neither man's families wanted to spend more than the minimum on their burials. Both, reportedly, still haunt their own abodes. Outside of a few kids wreaking vengeance on some women who maybe scolded them, everyone else was accused by these malicious men as a land grab... and guess who profited from each land sale after it was taken from the accused witches' families??? *takes deep breaths to keep blood pressure down* Up with witches! Down with greedy evil turds! I know, strong language. Well, that's how incensed I am.

Them What Don't Got Are On Their Own
G and I were having a talk this morning at breakfast with a couple from NYC. She had visited the Newport mansion museums and seen a registry showing everyone and categorizing them by their wealth. Quite typical of the 19th c. Her comment was, "They listed those with Old Money and those with New Money and how they didn't approve of each other, but nowhere was there any mention of those with No Money because they clearly approved of them even less."

Comments

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

They did a study on the aftermath of the trials back in the '90's. Almost all the families of the accused and most of the neutral families had converted to Quakerism within ten years. It turns out once the witch craze was over, no one wanted to be puritan anymore.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

It's true. I remember even back in the 70's that my studies had pretty much shown that the witch hunt brought about the end of Puritanism in America. It was a huge deal back in the day and news spread far and wide. Everyone was too embarrassed to want to be associated with that religion. In different areas, I'm guessing, different other religions filled the gap. It makes sense. Every other religion that came over from Europe is still around to some degree of popularity or another. Only Puritanism completely disappeared -- though I've met some people I feel could be categorized under that religion.