Innocent Blood and Hardened Hearts: Disability, Religion, and the Salem Witchcraft Trials

Daniel Howlett

Advisor: Randolph Scully, PhD, Department of History and Art History

Committee Members: Cynthia Kierner, John Turner

Research Hall, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media Main
April 15, 2025, 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM

Abstract:

In the seventeenth century, Puritan ministers like Rev. Increase Mather developed a theology of embodied providence, emphasizing God’s power to cast judgement against human bodies with disability, illness, and death.  In 1692, accusers during the Salem Witchcraft Trials utilized this theology to support their claims, both by claiming temporary disability in the form of witchcraft afflictions and highlighting the disabilities of their victims.  Prisoners and their families offered an alternative interpretation of accused bodies, that any perceived weakness or flaws of their bodies offered an opportunity to reflect and develop a stronger relationship with God.  The Court of Oyer and Terminer focused on the most negative readings of disability, that bodily difference was proof of sin, to convict and execute nineteen people.

The survivors of the trials, their families, and descendants continued to embrace their alternative reading of embodied providence for decades as they sought restitution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s harm to their families and estates.  Their efforts continued into the 1740s and the memory of Salem continues to the present day.   By focusing on competing theological interpretations of the body, this dissertation uses court records, sermons, petitions, genealogical materials, and gravestone iconography to demonstrate the central role of disability and bodies during the Salem Witchcraft Trials and its aftermath.