![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
22 July 2008
We drove to Salem and have spent much of this afternoon in a café with wifi. We also happened upon a group of costumed actors in a street skit that led us on a merry romp to the old courthouse where they sold tickets for us to participate in the jury for the pre-trial of Bridget Bishop for witchcraft.
Goodwife Bishop was an older woman who was on her third husband. She was likely a cantankerous woman who worked hard on her apple orchard (which she had inherited after the death of her second husband). Instead of deeding the property to her new husband, she kept it in her name. Scandalous.
She was tried, convicted and was the first executed for witchcraft in the series of deaths starting in 1692, most by hanging.
My hypothesis: Her second husband died leaving her to work the orchard by herself. She was a very successful businesswoman who sold many of her apples to be made into hard cider, a very popular beverage at the time. She was a desirable catch with all that land. I bet she was wooed by some very ambitious men. She married Goodman Bishop who likely doted upon her right up until she refused to put the land in his name. Then, I suspect, all the warmth left the marriage. I bet she became a sharp and bitter woman who probably yelled at the kids who later accused her of cavorting with Satan because they may have tried to steal from her orchards.
I further hypothesize that the Judge and the Sherriff coaxed the “afflicted” girls to finger Goodwife Bishop as a witch so they could take her valuable lands and sell it at a profit with a deal to lower the cost of apples to make the cider. The girls were probably all to happy to return any harsh words they’d received from her with this accusation and the amazing attention from the whole town heaped upon them.
We drove to Salem and have spent much of this afternoon in a café with wifi. We also happened upon a group of costumed actors in a street skit that led us on a merry romp to the old courthouse where they sold tickets for us to participate in the jury for the pre-trial of Bridget Bishop for witchcraft.
Goodwife Bishop was an older woman who was on her third husband. She was likely a cantankerous woman who worked hard on her apple orchard (which she had inherited after the death of her second husband). Instead of deeding the property to her new husband, she kept it in her name. Scandalous.
She was tried, convicted and was the first executed for witchcraft in the series of deaths starting in 1692, most by hanging.
My hypothesis: Her second husband died leaving her to work the orchard by herself. She was a very successful businesswoman who sold many of her apples to be made into hard cider, a very popular beverage at the time. She was a desirable catch with all that land. I bet she was wooed by some very ambitious men. She married Goodman Bishop who likely doted upon her right up until she refused to put the land in his name. Then, I suspect, all the warmth left the marriage. I bet she became a sharp and bitter woman who probably yelled at the kids who later accused her of cavorting with Satan because they may have tried to steal from her orchards.
I further hypothesize that the Judge and the Sherriff coaxed the “afflicted” girls to finger Goodwife Bishop as a witch so they could take her valuable lands and sell it at a profit with a deal to lower the cost of apples to make the cider. The girls were probably all to happy to return any harsh words they’d received from her with this accusation and the amazing attention from the whole town heaped upon them.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject