Susanna Martin Accused of Witchcraft in Salem May 2, 1692
Jan 21, 2011 Michael Streich
In 1692 Salem Village in Massachusetts saw itself as the battleground between the forces of the devil and God’s people. In that same year, Puritan theological leader Cotton Mather had written The Wonders of the Invisible World, noting that “…The New Englanders are a people of God settled in those which were once the devil’s territories…”
Historian Perry Miller refers to the “afflicted” Puritans that gave “spectral evidence” in the examinations and trials as “emotionally unstable” and lays the blame, in part, on “neurotic women and hysterical children.” This was the dilemma for Susanna Martin on May 2, 1692, in which she told her accusers, “I have no hand in witchcraft.”
The Examination of Accused Witch Susanna Martin
Susanna Martin refused to confess. As she was brought to the examination, her accusers reacted physically: “as soon as she came in many had fits.” This set the tone for the hearing. The reaction of the accusing members of the community predisposed the examiners. Martin was guilty and her sole recourse to avoid hanging was sincere confession. But a true witch could never confess, having made a pact or covenant with the devil, according to Puritan belief.
Before any questions were put to her, several of her accusers blamed her for their fits. Some were pinched. All were tormented physically. Martin’s response was to laugh. She was seventy years old and had been accused of witchcraft years earlier. As an old, impoverished widow, she fit the profile of women convicted and sentenced to death for witchcraft.
Martin’s Knowledge of the Bible and the Whispering Black Man
Her examiners asked how her appearance at the hearing could cause hurt to those in attendance. Martin’s response was from I Samuel 28: 14-15, casting the accusation of evil onto her accusers: “he that appeared in Samuel in the shape of a glorified saint can appear in anyone’s shape.”
If the devil could masquerade as the prophet Samuel, he could certainly do so as Massachusetts' farmers and their wives. Martin referred to Samuel as a “glorified saint,” indicating that the prophet was in heaven and that the apparition summoned by King Saul was a demon or perhaps the devil himself. Martin knew, from hearing countless sermons, that the devil could appear as an angel of God, intent on deceiving the faithful.
Susanna Martin’s accusers claimed that “…there was a black man with her…” The examiners asked Martin, “…who is the black man whispering to you?” The term “black” was often employed to refer to the “black arts” in the Colonial period. In Old English, the term is frequently associated with “black moor,” referring to Muslims that were considered infidels. Martin’s “black man” was an obvious reference to the devil. 18th Century Protestant broadsheets and woodcuts depicted demons as small black imps. Throughout Europe, the devil was often portrayed as a large, black tomcat.
Martin Defies the Salem Court and is Executed for Witchcraft
Spectral evidence sent Martin to the scaffold. Martin, however, proclaimed her innocence until the end and mocked the hysteria of her accusers. Spectral evidence encouraged the “wiles and subtlety” of her accusers, a phrase used by another accused witch Mary Easty. It was enough for Increase Mather to write in 1693, “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned.”
Salem Witch Trials Shame the Puritans
Historian Perry Miller notes that once Massachusetts Governor Sir William Phips ended the trials, the entire episode was forgotten: “after 1692…the very word witchcraft almost vanishes from public discourse.” Miller notes that not until 1721 were the incidents openly discussed.
The Puritans were trapped by their own closed society – a society built upon a covenant relationship with God that, like the Old Testament Israelites, was constantly tested by heathen influences. Hence, the wiles of the “evil one” were long anticipated. Puritan history in New England has a long legacy of spiritual conflict between the righteous and those sowing the seed of discord, including witches and heretics like Ann Hutchinson.
Spectral evidence had already been discounted in Europe where the witch craze had run its course. But New England Puritan society was closed and paranoid. It was the special covenantal relationship, built upon Old Testament concepts, which perceived a literal devil doing everything in his power to destroy community solidarity.
Susanna Martin was a heroic martyr who refused to succumb to what Miller refers to as “abnormal states of mind.” Her confession might have spared her, but she would not perjure herself. Her death was a righteous act of principle.
Sources:
- Alison Games, Witchcraft in Early North America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010)
- Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco, editors, The Puritans in America: A Narrative Anthology (Harvard University Press, 1985)
- Perry Miller, The New England Mind From Colony to Province (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1983)
- Perry Miller and Thomas H. Johnson, The Puritans (American Book Company, 1938)
- Richard Weisman, Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts (The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1984)
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