• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Redress For Victims Of Witch / Witchcraft Persecution (Pardons; Etc.)

Interesting, isn't it? I once read something quite comprehensive about the whole affair, but can't remember what or where I read it.
 
I /think/ that the Unexpained partwork dealt with it at some length and wasn't adulatory. My copies seem to have vanished however, I'm hoping not into recycling...
 
Never too late for a pardon.

More than three centuries after a woman in the US was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she is finally on the verge of being exonerated – thanks to a class of curious school pupils.

State senator Diana DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen, Massachusetts, has introduced legislation to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr, who was condemned in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials but never executed. Ms DiZoglio said she was inspired by sleuthing done by a group of 13 and 14-year-olds at North Andover Middle School. Civics teacher Carrie LaPierre’s students painstakingly researched Johnson and the steps that would need to be taken to make sure she was formally pardoned.

If legislators approve the measure, Johnson will be the last accused witch to be cleared, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group devoted to the history and lore of the 17th-century witch hunts.

Twenty people from Salem and neighbouring towns were killed and hundreds of others accused during a frenzy of Puritan injustice that began in 1692, stoked by superstition, fear of disease and strangers, scapegoating and petty jealousies. Nineteen were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by rocks.

In the 328 years that have ensued, dozens of suspects were officially cleared, including Johnson’s own mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction was eventually reversed.

But for some reason, Johnson’s name was not included in various legislative attempts to set the record straight.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40362269.html
 
More than 700 women executed for witchcraft have been formally pardoned by the Catalonian parliament.
Catalonia's parliament pardons hundreds of women executed for 'witchcraft'

Catalonia's parliament has formally pardoned hundreds of women who were executed for "witchcraft" between the 15th and 18th centuries.

MPs in the Spanish region approved a resolution on Wednesday that rehabilitates the memory of more than 700 women who were "tried, tortured and executed".

... MPs said the women were "victims of misogynistic persecution" and have called for some of Catalonia's streets to be named after the persecuted "witches".

Historians believe that the majority of "witchcraft" executions in Spain took place in the northeastern region. Catalonia was also one of the first areas in Europe where anti-witchcraft acts were carried out in 1471.

The Catalonian parliament used research by the local scientific journal Sapiens and Barcelona historian Pau Castell to call for the resolution. ...

An estimated 50,000 people were condemned to death for "witchcraft across Europe" between 1580 and 1630, around 80% of whom were women. ...

The Spanish region of Navarre had already addressed the historical persecution of "witches," as well as Norway, Switzerland, and Scotland.
FULL STORY: https://www.euronews.com/2022/01/26...ons-hundreds-of-women-executed-for-witchcraft
 
Never too late for a pardon.
State senator Diana DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen, Massachusetts, has introduced legislation to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr, who was condemned in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials but never executed. ...

Update ... Elizabeth Johnson has now been formally pardoned.
329 years later, last Salem ‘witch’ who wasn’t is pardoned

It took more than three centuries, but the last Salem “witch” who wasn’t has been officially pardoned.

Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr., clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials.

Johnson was never executed, but neither was she officially pardoned like others wrongly accused of witchcraft. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/last-salem-witch-pardoned-3cff0a6a8dfcd81f7d6ac9e049a410ba
 
Back
Top