300 Years & Counting 1H KILLS - On The Issues Magazine

W I T *6What Really Happened DuringThose Dark Days In The PuritanColony—And Why Are WeCelebrating?o to Gallows Hill Park in Salem and youI will findno indication that 14 women andfive men were hungthere as witches. Therolling terrain is punctuated by grey boulders, coveredwith graffiti and the shards of broken beer bottles. Anasphalt basketball court and a children's playgroundcover the most likely site of the executions. An Americanflag snaps in the wind, over the faint sounds of traffic onProctor Street.From this spot the sisters Rebecca Nurse and Mary Estyproclaimed their innocence, and George Burroughs, in afinal effort to save his life, recited the Lord's prayer,knowing that common wisdom held a witch incapable ofuttering those sacred words. When the confused crowdthreatened to stop the hangings, Boston minister CottonMather rode up declaring, "There will be no reversal ofjustice in this place." And here too, Sarah Good wasdefiant to the end, telling Salem Town minister Rev.Nicholas Noyes, "I am no more a witch than you are awizard. If you take my life away, God will give you bloodto drink."ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199211