Byline: Abigail Giron Marroquin
What is a witch?
Some may think of the intellectual Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter book series, others may think of the bubbly Glinda from Wicked, but for the Connecticut Puritans of the 1600s, witches were a living nightmare from the devil himself.
University of New Haven professor and author Cynthia Wolfe Boynton presented a lecture about the first witch trials in North America as part of University of Bridgeport’s Necessary Voices lecture series during the spring semester. Boynton is the author of Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World.
Explaining what motivated her to write this book, Boynton says, “One of the things that I am very interested in and invested in is telling the stories of people whose lives were forgotten. So that led me to delve into the Connecticut witch trials.”
Colonial fears and forgotten files
For Boynton, one of the trickiest parts of this journey was simply finding information on the Connecticut witch trials. Little documentation from the 1600s exists in general, and documents specifically pertinent to the witch trials remain scattered throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. Most of these documents are in college repositories, having arrived through the relatives of some of the original magistrates who tried the cases.
For the Puritans arriving in the new world, learning to survive in an unfamiliar land was a challenge. They experienced different weather and struggled to access food and security. The Puritans needed to fend off wild animals, produce their own food, and — perhaps most importantly to them — survive the constant advances of the devil.
“As Puritans, one of the most important things was to go to heaven. That wasn’t going to happen if the devil killed us or seduced us into being one of his witches,” Boynton highlights. “The settlers believed that the devil literally walked the earth. They believed he was as real as you or me, and that he spent his days mingling and following us around. He would try to beguile us, to convince us to either be his minions, make us sick, kill us, or trick us down a dark path.”
The need to go to heaven ran deep. Puritan laws were based on the Bible. The first capital law of the Connecticut Colony was that all needed to believe in God, and the second was that being a witch was forbidden. It is not until the fourth law that the code mentions that one cannot murder another person.
Spirits, foxes, and the devil’s dance
What especially caught my attention in Professor Boynton’s talk is how the Connecticut witch panic began. Elizabeth Kelly was an eight-year-old girl living in the Connecticut Puritan colonies. She had become sick and was only getting worse. On March 26, 1662, her father asked her how she had become gravely ill. Lying on her bed, Elizabeth said Goody Ayres was in the corner of her room and her spirit was bewitching her; she died as she said these words.
Mr. Kelly requested that the magistrates lead an investigation. This accusation led to the arrest of not only Goody Ayres, but also of Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith and Mary and Andrew Sanford. They were all put in jail to await their trial.
Nathaniel Greensmith told his wife that she should admit to being a witch so he could return home and care for their daughters. Unfortunately for him, Rebecca accused all of them of witchcraft, saying that the devil would come to them in the form of a fox, lead them out into the forest to dance, and have his way with them. Given their strong Puritan faith, the magistrates were terror-stricken and sentenced the group to death.
As for Goody Ayres? Although she had been the first accused, her husband was able to break her out of jail. They left their two children behind in Connecticut and ran away to Rhode Island, which did not have extradition laws.
Read more stories like this and learn about the fascinating history of the Connecticut witch trials in Cynthia Wolfe Boynton’s book, Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World.
To learn more about what happened to Connecticut’s accused, I recommend you read the book Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World by Cynthia Wolfe Boynton. Abigail Giron Marroquin, class of 2025, is majored in English and Professional Writing.
Human connection is at the heart of the “Necessary Voices” speaker series hosted by UB’s English Department. UB students hear from voices not unlike their own — diverse and creative thought leaders of today whose origin stories may look and feel like that of our students. From athletes and authors to visionaries and public servants, this series brings these voices to UB to empower and inspire students to reshape their thinking and look forward to their future.