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Irish culture in America
Irish culture in America
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The Legend of Moll Dyer: A Witch in Maryland
The first time I heard this story was in Maryland. It was told by a woman in her thirties, who identified herself as being of Irish heritage, which made the story of Moll Dyer more close to her heart. She was also an anthropology major who has had contact with local folklorists in the past. This is where she first learned of the story of Moll Dyer, which she recounted to me as follows:
Moll Dyer was an Irish immigrant to Saint Mary’s County, where people began to think she was a witch. When all of the children of the town became sick, the people blamed her and tried to kill her. She ran away from them and they chased her to a large rock. She placed one hand on the rock and raised the other hand towards the sky [gestures with one hand lowered, flat, as if on the rock, and the other hand raised towards the sky], praying. She froze like that and you can still see her hand print on the rock. I’ve actually seen it and put my hand in the place. It’s pretty freaky since it really does fit a human hand. It’s at the courthouse in St. Mary’s County if you want to go see it.
Although most of the stories are relatively similar to this version, there are slight differences or additions. In one of the other versions collected, it is said that Moll Dyer lived in a remote cottage outside of Leonardtown in St. Mary’s County in the 1700s. This version stated that, while most of the townspeople knew nothing of her past, they believed Moll Dyer was from a wealthy family and came to this country to escape some mysterious event. This version also gave more details of the history of the townspeople’s interactions with Moll. According to this version, she was given the label of witch bec...
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...parainvestigator/Maryland/Maryland.html.
Maryland Ghost & Spirit Association. “Maryland Hauntings—St. Mary’s County.” Access date: 6 April 2005. 2000-2005. http://www.marylandghosts.com/locations/stmarys.php.
Maryland Women’s Heritage Trail. Access date: 6 April 2005. http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/3DB5F819-6E1C-4917-8F43-5251C2D49C52/2474/MD_Heritage_41_50.pdf>.
MDP. “Maryland, the old Supernatural Stomping Ground.” Access date: 6 Apr 2005. http://groups.msn.com/marylandtheoldsupernaturalstompingground/comingsoon.msnw
Shoemaker, Sandy. Tobaccor to Tomcats… St. Mary’s County since the Revolution. StreamLine Enterprises: Leonardtown MD. Circa 2002. http://access-somd.org/tobacco_to_tomcats/tobacco_to_tomcats.htm.
United States Work Projects Administration (Md.). Records microform. Reel #23, frame 034037. 1933-43.
Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer. This book was published in 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Richard Godbeer examines the witch trials in the seventeenth century. When a young girl Katherine Branch of Stamford, Connecticut is stricken with unexplainable convulsions, her master and mistress begin to think it is caused by something supernatural. Godbeer follows the incident without any bias and looks into how the accusations and trials are handled by the townspeople and the people in charge of handling the trails. Godbeer’s purpose of writing this book is to prove that Salem was not the norm. Godbeer’s approach of only one using one case, slightly weakens his effectiveness that Salem was not the norm.
In the book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, Rosalyn Schanzer describes what happens all because two girls fell ill. When Betty and Abigail started having fits, a doctor diagnosed them as bewitched. Almost immediately they accused the first witch, their slave Tituba. From there all the accusations started pouring out, Ann Putnam Jr., a friend of Betty and Abigail, became “afflicted” as well as multiple others, and soon the jails were overflowing. The first “witch” was hanged on June 10, and the last “witches/wizards” were hanged on September 22. The most likely reasons for the accusations were a thirst for revenge, boredom, and peer/parental pressure.
In order to understand the outbreak of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, explore the social and economic divisions and tensions within Salem and the surrounding communities. Both Boyer and Nissenbaum have a strong background in history. Paul Boyer (1935-2012) was the Merle Curti Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a cultural and intellectual historian who authored several other books. Stephen Nissenbaum was a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who authored several other books as well. In Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of
As a member of the Creek tribe and the Wind Clan, Musgrove spent the first few years of her life learning her tribe language of Muskogee, as well as English, and the ways of the deerskin trade. Being of mixed heritage, she was acquainted with the cultures of both the Native Americans and the colonial people. When Musgrove was about ten years old, she was sent to live with a white family in Ponpon, South Carolina, just outside of Charles Towne. There, she was baptized, given the name Mary, and attended an English school. As a result, she became accustomed to both colonial and tribal life.
Presuppositions: Many assumptions have been made about Tituba. Mainly, being that when people (specifically Americans) hear the term “slave,” the term becomes immediately recognized as an African American. However, Tituba was an Indian Woman, from an Arawak village in South America.2
To completely understand the history of New England witchcraft you have to understand the role of colonial women. The author of this book, Carol Karlsen, used a lot of Secondary and primary sources to support her thesis. She uses first hand accounts of witch trials. Which I found very interesting to read. Such as her use of Cotton Mathers personal writings. She also used court records as one of her sources to writing this book. These records showed the detailed court proceedings, depositions, and court rulings.
Woodward, Walter “New England’s other Witch-hunt: The Hartford Witch-hunt of the 1660s and Changing Patterns in Witchcraft Prosecution” OAH Magazine of History, 2003
The Bell Witch is the most common name for a well-known haunting that occurred in Red River, Tennessee, which is now known as Adams. The Witch is also known as “Old Kate” or “Kate Batts’s ghost” due to the belief that the Bell family was targeted after Batts laid a curse upon his family. She is described as a woman that “possessed no greater height than most average women but certainly greater girth. The flesh of her upper arms were as thick as a young man’s thighs. She also possessed enormous quantities of bright red hair and freckles.” Batts was a hardworking person that took on the many responsibilities of her family farm after her husband was involved in an accident which crushed his legs. It was believed by a small group in the
Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe.
Rebecca Nurse was the embodiment of a kind, pious, and gentle citizen during the 17th century in Salem, Massachusetts. Having spent her entire life a devout Purist, Rebecca was hardly a typical candidate to be accused of such a heinous act such as witchcraft in 1692. And yet, she was violently taken from this world before her time had come, accused of afflicting girls through the medium of witchcraft, causing pain, suffering, and fits to such innocent younglings. How could someone who seemed so innocent be sentenced to the worst, cruelest punishment of all, death? A consensus on her innocence has been undisputed by historians and scholars since her travesty of a hanging.
Puritans believed in the devil and his role as strong as they believed in God and his role. For many centuries, Puritans had the idea that the weakest individuals in society often committed diabolical acts and sins. Furthermore, Satan selected the most vulnerable individuals to do his bidding, among these individuals, women were often held responsible for many sins, including witchcraft. (Godbeer 12). According to Richard Godbeer, in his book, The Salem Witch Hunt, “it was Eve who first gave away to Satan and seduced Adam.” (Godbeer 12). In 1692, witchcraft became a panic among Puritan society. Even though both men and women were accused of witchcraft, women were seventy-six percent more likely to be accused in Salem than men. (Godbeer 12). Puritan society was a male dominate society and men looked down upon women. There were two particular reasons to why women were often accused of being witches. The first reason, was in due to the Puritan belief that women were the source of evil. The second reason was because of certain events that associated with accusations. These events were being of relatively low social status and income, being rich or financially independent and being a midwife or nurse.
12 Nov 2013. <http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/queenmary.ht,>. "Ghost Myth: Bloody Mary." seeksghosts.blogspot. N.p., 08 Jun 2011.
Tidwell, James N. "Folklore in the News." Western Folklore 14 (1955): 213-14. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
What do you think when someone calls someone a witch? What comes to mind? Do you think of the movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ or do you think of the black pointed hats and the long black, slit ended dresses? What about witchcraft? Does the term “Devil worshiper” ever cross your mind? Do you think of potions and spells? For many, many generations, we have underestimated what the true meaning of a witch and what witchcraft really is. What is the history that hides behind it? Witches and witchcraft have been in our history since the ancient times. There is a little bit more than the ghost stories told on Halloween, the movies shown on TV and dressing up on Halloween.
Schanzer, Rosalyn. Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2011. Print.