1 “TO THE FARTHEST PORT OF THE RICH EAST” SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

“I know histhry isn’t thrue, Hinnissy, because it ain’t like what I see ivry day in Halsted Street. If any wan comes along with a histhry iv Greece or Rome that’ll show me th’ people fightin’, gettin’ dhrunk, makin’ love, gettin’ married, owin’ th’ grocery man an’ bein’ without hard coal, I’ll believe they was a Greece or Rome, but not befur.” — Dunne, Finley Peter, OBSERVATIONS BY MR. DOOLEY, New York, 1902

1. Motto of the city of Salem, previously known as “the fishing place,” as translated from the Latin. Peruse a much briefer history of this city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Salem,_Massachusetts HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1627

The man who would become stepfather to Samuel Shattuck settled in at Naumkeeg (would become Salem). HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1629

The name Shalom, Hebrew for “peace,” was selected for the little settlement of whites living with the Native American tribe at Naumkeag. This Shalom is the name, of course, that through pronunciation drift and spelling drift would become “Salem.” When the Reverend Francis Higginson arrived in Shalom suffering from TB, he was served lobsters that weighed in at 25 pounds. Each.

[T]he least Boy in the Plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them. For my owne part I was soon cloyed with them, they were so great, and fat, and lussious.

The Reverend further reported from Naumkeag that:2

Although New England has no tallow to make candles of, yet by the abundance of the fish thereof, it can afford oil for lamps. Yea, our pine trees, that are most plentiful of all wood, do allow us plenty of candles, which are useful in a house. And they are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no other; and they are nothing else but the wood of the pine tree cloven in two little slices, something thin, which are so full of the moisture of turpentine and pitch, that they burn as clear as a torch.

I think, myself, that they had ought to have named that place Lobster. Give themselves something to aim at. Except, heaven knows what a name like “Lobster in the Bay Colony” would’ve become through pronunciation drift and spelling drift, by now. Maybe “Lersder Maaass”?3

June 24, Wednesday (Old Style): The 5 vessels of the Massachusetts Bay Company arrived in Salem harbor, with a group of 300 settlers led by the Reverend Francis Higginson. There would be 5 houses in Salem besides that of the Reverend. They were greeted by a small group of settlers led by John Endecott. • The Talbot • The George Bonaventure • The Lyon’s Whelp, carrying only provisions • The Four Sisters • The Mayflower (not the same Mayflower as that of the Pilgrims who had disembarked at Plymouth)

September 14, Monday (Old Style): Salem, Massachusetts was founded.

In a later timeframe, the Reverend William Hubbard would have his own imitable comments on this “lustre of years” in the history of New England.

CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE

READ HUBBARD TEXT Chapter XVIII. The discovery and first planting of the Massachusetts.

2. The reference is to fish liver oil. The large lamp which contained this was made of tin, had a great wick, and commonly hung at the side of the fireplace. The fish oil would of course eventually be replaced by whale oil, which produced less smoke and odor. 3.“Daddy, whassa lersder?” “Shut up, brat, and eat your clam fries before the fat congeals.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Chapter XIX. Several planters transport themselves into New England; Ministers invited to join with them. The first Plantation in the Massachusetts, called Salem. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1631

The Reverend Roger Williams and the Reverend John Eliot arrived at a New World where all male church members in the Bay Colony were becoming eligible to vote, and where, for impiety, in this year Philip Ratcliff’s ears were being severed (so how can someone’s ears be impious, did they wiggle during worship, or what?).

When Thomas Angell came with the Reverend Williams on the ship Lyon under Captain William Pierce (Captain William Peirce? Captain A. Pearce?), sailing from London to Boston, he was about thirteen years of age and was bound in service to the Reverend as an apprentice or servant. (Another source says he was instead the servant of Richard Waterman.) After a couple of months in Boston the two went to Salem, where they would remain until their departure for Providence, Rhode Island in 1636.

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

Fall: The Reverend Roger Williams went to be associated with the Reverend Skelton at Salem, only to discover that he was more needed at Plymouth. He would minister for a couple of years there before returning again to Salem, as Skeleton’s replacement.

Salem, Massachusetts “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1633

The Reverend Roger Williams returned from Plymouth to Salem. He believed, he said, in “soul-liberty,” which meant that every man had the complete right to enjoy freedom of opinion on the subject of religion. He would soon be in difficulties with the Massachusetts Bay authorities again, denouncing them for forcing religious uniformity upon the colonists in defiance of the liberty of their souls — and this time also publicly proclaiming that, since the king had no right to present them with lands that actually belonged to the native Americans, their colonial charter was invalid.

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

Salem, Massachusetts “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1634

April: William Wood’s NEW ENGLANDS PROSPECT. A TRUE, LIVELY, AND EXPERIMENTALL DESCRIPTION OF THAT PART OF AMERICA, COMMONLY CALLED NEW ENGLAND: DISCOVERING THE STATE OF THAT COUNTRIE, BOTH AS IT STANDS TO OUR NEW-COME ENGLISH PLANTERS; AND TO THE OLD NATIVE INHABITANTS. LAYING DOWNE THAT WHICH MAY BOTH ENRICH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE MIND-TRAVELLING READER, OR BENEFIT 4 THE FUTURE-VOYAGER, published in this year in London by John Dawson, as part of its elucidation of the frontispiece “The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this year, 1639” on pages 31-38, described the settlement at Salem: Foure miles Northeast from Saugus lyeth Salem, which stands on the middle of a necke of land very pleasantly, having a South river on the one side, and a North river on the other side: upon this necke where the most of the houses stand is very bad and sandie ground, yet for seaven yeares together it hath brought forth exceeding good corne, by being fished but every third yeare; in some places is very good ground, and good timber, and divers springs hard by the seaside. Here likewise is store of fish, as Basses, Eeles, Lobsters, Clammes, &c. Although their land be none of the best, yet beyond these rivers is a very good soyle, where they have taken Farmes, and get their Hay, and plant their corne; there they crosse these rivers with small Cannowes, which are made of whole pine trees, being about two foote and a halfe over, and twenty foote long: in these likewise they goe a fowling, sometimes two leagues to sea; there be more Cannowes in this towne than in all the whole Patent; every houshould having a water-horse or two. This Towne wants an Alewife river, which is a great inconvenience; it hath two good harbours, the one being called Winter, and the other Summer harbours, which lieth within Derbies Fort, which place if it were well fortified, might keepe shippes from landing of forces in any of those two places.

SALEM

4. A text Henry Thoreau would be frequently citing, involving 17th-Century inventories of American resources. (I have “CNN- colorized” the map from William Wood’s NEW-ENGLAND’S PROSPECT of “The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1634,” prepared by Thomas Cotes for John Bellamie.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1636

January: The Reverend Roger Williams fled Salem, where he had found no peace, and took haven with the tolerant Narragansett tribalists of what would become Providence, Rhode Island.

\CONTINGENCY ALTHOUGH VERY MANY OUTCOMES ARE OVERDETERMINED, WE TRUST THAT SOMETIMES WE ACTUALLY MAKE REAL CHOICES. “THIS IS THE ONLY WAY, WE SAY, BUT THERE ARE AS MANY WAYS AS THERE CAN BE DRAWN RADII FROM ONE CENTRE.”

October 20, Thursday (Old Style): Richard More and Christian Hunter were wed at Plymouth. Shortly after their wedding, Richard and Christian Hunter More would sell their land in the Plymouth Colony and relocate to Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where Richard would find employment as a mariner and then become captain of a ship.

Salem, Massachusetts “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1638

Samuel Shattuck arrived at Salem in the company of his parents.

January 1, Monday (1637, Old Style): Richard More was admitted to reside in Salem, which is rather strange as he had not yet joined the First Church there.

November: At Salem, Richard More bought a small ketch. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1639

April 14, Sunday (Old Style): The Reverend Francis Higginson’s 2d son Francis Higginson was admitted of the church at Salem. He would sail back to England, study at Leyden and other places on the continent, and be established in the church of Kirby Steven, in Westmoreland, where he would conform, and die in 1672 in his 55th year (per Reverend Cotton Mather’s MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA; OR THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW- ENGLAND).

November 18, Monday (Old Style): Richard More appeared in the Salem county court to obtain permission to set up his own fishing stand (a sort of warehouse on stilts, projecting over the water) beside his house at Winter Harbor, far out on Salem neck. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1640

By this point Giles Cory was in Salem, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Rebecca Towne, daughter of William Towne and Joanna Blessing Towne, age about 18, unmarried, was brought to Salem with that family.

In about this year (perhaps even as early as 1637), Mary White was born in South Perthton, Somersetshire, England. (At some point John and Joan White would migrate with their ten children, including this Mary, to Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.) MARY ROWLANDSON

Late Summer: Richard More sailed his small ketch from Salem to St. Mary’s City, Maryland. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1642

In Salem, the lesbian Elizabeth Johnson was publicly whipped.5

“Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.”

— Dwight David Eisenhower

End of February: Richard More, a distant relative of the Reverend Roger Williams through his mother Katherine More, joined Salem’s First Church and became a freeman of the town (eligible to vote there).

March 6: Samuel More and Thomas More were born or baptized in Salem. RICHARD MORE

5. Actually, in a well-ordered society, this would only be done to masochists. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1644

March 31, Sunday (Old Style): Caleb More was born in Salem. He would not marry, and would predecease his father Captain Richard More, on January 4, 1678/1679 in Salem. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1646

May 3, Sunday (Old Style): Joshua More was born in Salem. RICHARD MORE HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1648

January 2, day (1647, Old Style): Richard More (junior) was born in Salem. RICHARD MORE

He would marry with Sarah (---) before 1673, and would die after May 1, 1696. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1649

October 3, Wednesday (Old Style): Captain Richard More and Christian Hunter More bought a house on the South River in Salem and some land beyond town, in the general direction of Boston. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1650

May 12, Thursday: Susanna More was born in Salem. She would marry with Samuel Dutch in about 1675, and would die after October 30, 1728, probably in Salem. RICHARD MORE

September 1, Thursday: Christian Hunter More was accepted into membership at the Salem First Church. RICHARD MORE HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1652

September 5: Christian More was born in Salem, and was named after her mother Christian Hunter More. She would marry with Joshua Conant on August 31, 1676 in Salem, and would die on May 30, 1680 in Salem. RICHARD MORE HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1653

John and Joan White migrated with their ten children, including Mary White, migrated from Salem on the coast to Lancaster in the interior of the continent. MARY ROWLANDSON HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1655

September 13: Captain Richard More purchased another house near his home in Salem. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1657

Early in the year (1656, Old Style): Mary Dyer and Ann Burden arrived in Boston by ship from England, Mary as a former Bostonian relocated to Rhode Island who was returning after a trip to England (begun in 1650), and Ann as a Boston widow who was returning home to settle her dead husband’s estate. However, it was learned that while in England the two women had been converted to Quakerism.6 Unexpectedly, instead of a warm homecoming, they were carted off to jail. This would be the year in which:

“Christopher Holder and John Copeland, Quakers, were whipped through town with knotted cords, with all the strength the hangman could command. The prisoners were gagged with a stick in the mouth, to prevent their outcries.”

What had happened with Friend Christopher Holder was that he had caused a disruption by attempting to speak in church in Salem after the Sunday sermon (it was during this year, incidentally, that Quaker meetings for worship were beginning locally). A guard there had brought him to the floor and stuffed his glove and handkerchief into Holder’s mouth. When a member of the Puritan congregation, Samuel Shattuck, got the glove and handkerchief out of Holder’s mouth, and resuscitated him, Shattuck was taken to the Boston lockup and had to pay a 20-shilling fine to get released. (Shattuck would become a Quaker and be exiled.) Holder was given 30 lashes and then had to spend the next three days and nights in jail without any food or bedding. All told, he and two other Quaker ministers would be held in this jail for the next three and a half months.

During this year Friend George Fox would be sending out a number of epistles, including one entitled “To Friends, To Dwell in that which Keeps Peace”: Number CXXXVI, Volume VII, page 132. Dear Friends, - Dwell in that which keeps your peace, and comprehends the deceit, and answers that of God in everyone. And let Friends keep their meetings, and never hearken to tales, nor things without; but keep their peace, and know the life and power, union and fellowship, which stands in God, in and with which ye may stand over the world in the one power, life, and wisdom, and therein be kept to the glory of the Lord God. So, in that which is pure, the Lord God Almighty preserve you! G.F.

His epistle entitled “To The Prisoners” dates to this year: Number CXXXVIII, Volume VII, page 133. Friends, - Ye that are the prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ in outward bonds, who witness him by whom the world was made, who is the King of saints, and who are his, and come under his dominion and government, ye are not your own; but purchased with his blood, which washes and makes you clean, and justifies, whose bodies are his temple. Though he suffers you to be imprisoned, yet in his power your bodies are kept, and your spirits also; ye standing witnesses for your master, for your king, for your prophet, for your covenant of light, for your wisdom of God, (him by whom all things were made,) for the word and power, by which all things were made and upheld, against the powers of 6. In the quite numerous Dyer family, only Mary Dyer and her son William, Jr. (Will) would ever be converts to Quakerism. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS darkness, who are out of the light, out of the truth, who cannot bind, stop, nor limit the unlimited power, which is over it, and comprehends it. They who are born of the world, and in the power which upholds all things, over that, (and the power of the evil one,) have victory, and sing over the false prophet. For the devil was the deceiver, who abode not in the truth; and there is the false prophet, who speaks of his own, and not from the Lord; and there is the beast, that makes the war against the lamb and his saints, who witness the testimony of Jesus, and the word of God. Therefore mind the word of God, ye children of the light, who are in the light, that comes from the word; mind the word of the Lord, which is a hammer, and as a fire, and sharper than a two-edged sword. And ye who are the Lord’s, are not your own; but they who are in their own time, see not the time which is in the Father’s hand; their time is always, and they do their own works, and not the works of God, which the son of God did. G.F.

Friend George’s epistle entitled “Know The Praying in the Spirit” also dates to this year: Friends, - Know the praying in the spirit, and with the understanding; then ye will come to know the sighs and groans than cannot be uttered. For such as have not the spirit that gave forth the scriptures to guide them, are as the Pharisees were, in the long prayers, and in the wrath, and in the doubting, and do not lift up holy hands. This makes a difference between praying in the spirit, and the Pharisees’ long prayers, that devoured widows’ houses. And none owns the light as it is Jesus, but he that owns the light that Christ lighteth him withal. And none owns the truth, but who owns the light that cometh from Christ, the truth. And none cometh to the Father, but such who owns the light that cometh from Christ, which leads to him. Nor none owns the son, except he owns the light that cometh from him. For all dwelling in the light that comes from Jesus, it leads out of wars, leads out of strife, leads out of the occasion of wars, and leads out of the earth up to God, out of earthly- mindedness to heavenly-mindedness, and bringeth your minds to heaven. G.F.

His epistle entitled “Dwell in Unity and Love in the Power of God.” also dates to this year: GF, To Friends, to live in love and unity together, in the power of God. Friends all every where, in the life and power of God live and dwell, and spread the truth abroad. Quench not the spirit, but live in love and unity one with another; that with the wisdom of God ye may all be ordered to God’s glory. And live all in patience one with another, and in the truth, that ye may feel and see to the beginning, before the world and its foundation was, in the faith which gives the victory; that nothing may reign but the life and power amongst you. And live HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS all as the family of God in love, in life, in truth, in power, having your house established atop of all the mountains and hills; that ye may answer that of God in every man, and the word of the Lord ye may witness to go forth among you and be among you. So in this the Lord God Almighty preserve you and keep you. And in the son of God’s power live, for all power in heaven and earth is given him; who is to subdue all the powers of darkness, and to make the kingdoms of the world his kingdom. And none go beyond the measure of the Spirit of God, nor quench it; for where it is quenched it cannot try things. So if any have any thing upon them to speak, in the life of God stand up and speak it, if it be but two or three words, and sit down again; and keep in the life, that ye may answer that of God in every man upon the earth. To you this is the word of the Lord God. G.F.

His epistle entitled “To Friends Beyond the Sea, That Have Blacks and Indian Slaves” also dates to this year. He did not implored slave-holding Quakers to free their captives, but merely to treat them well. The slaves of Quakers should be allowed to hear the Gospel, so they would know of the equality of all men in the eyes of God. Later, he would find it necessary to salve the fear, among the planter class of the New World islands, that with such appeals the Quakers had been creating a dangerous situation: Dear Friends, - I was moved to write these things to you in all those plantations. God, that made the world, and all things therein, giveth life and breath to all, and they all have their life and moving, and their being in him, he is the God of the spirits of the flesh, and is no respecter of persons; but “whosoever fearth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.” And he hath made all nations of one blood to dwell upon the face of the earth, and his eyes are over all the works of his hands, and seeth every thing that is done under the whole of heaven; and “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” And he causeth the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust, and also he causeth the sine to shine upon the just and the unjust; and he commands to “love all men,” for Christ loved all, so that he “died for sinners.” And this is God’s love for the world, in giving his son into the world; that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish.” And he doth “enlighten every man that cometh into the world,” that they might believe in the son. And the gospel is preached to every creature under heaven; which is the power that giveth liberty and freedom, and is glad tidings to every captivated creature under the whole heavens. And the word of God is in the heart and mouth, to obey and do it, and not for them to ascend or descend for it; and this is the word of faith which was and is preached. For Christ is given for a covenant to the people, and a light to the Gentiles, and to enlighten them, who is the glory of Israel, and God’s “salvation to the ends of the earth.” And so lye are to have the mind of Christ, and to be merciful, as you heavenly Father is merciful. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS G.F.

Friend George’s epistle entitled “Concerning the Light” also dates to this year: Friends, - Ye that be turned to the light in it wait, in it meet together, that with it your hearts may be joined together up to Christ, the head, from whence the light doth come; with which ye may see all the world and all the gatherings that are out of the light, which are in the vanities of their minds, and in the rebelliousness of their hearts, and stubbornness of it from the light. But ye believing in the light and receiving it, he receive and come into the covenant with God, and peace with God; and into that which gives the knowledge of his glory and of his image, And this belief giveth the victory over the world, and brings unto God, and into his likeness, and separates you from the world, and its likeness, and image, and its fashion, which or out of the light; and its knowledge, and its wisdom, and its honour, and its fear, and its love, and its rejoicing, which are out of the light in the flesh, and it the iniquity, where the soul is in death. But in the light rejoicing and walking, ye receive the love of God shed abroad into your hearts, which love rejoiceth in the truth, (mark,) in that which the devil abode not in. With that ye know and will know the increase of God, and know God and his law put in your minds, and in your hearts written, where the fear is placed, where the secrets of the Lord are revealed, and the light, which is the truth, comes to be walked in. Here is a joy in the Lord where no flesh glories, In this waiting, (in the light,) the world where there is not end it gives you to see and the power of the world which is to come, ye will come to see and be partakers of. Which power ye receiving (who are in the light,) it brings you to become the sons of God and to he heirs of the world where there is no end, and of the everlasting inheritance which fadeth not away, and the riches which are durable, where no their can come, nor nothing to rust or canker; for that is out of the light that doth thieve, rust, or canker, ad in the transgression. Therefore, ye saints in the light of the most high God, whose name is dreadful amongst you, and his power made manifest in measure, and his glory appearing, walk worthy of the high calling! Keep your dominion, keep you place of rest in the power and strength of the Almighty, and meet together in the love, unity, and peace, and know one another in this love that changes not; which being received, ye walk in that which condemns that which is changeable. This love rejoiceth in the truth, and hath dominion over him that abode not in the truth, but rejoiceth in that which the devil abode not in. And here the spirit is received in which God is worshipped, that Father of spirits, He that believeth here believes in the Lord, and shall never be confounded, for he believes in that which doth confound and condemn those who are out of the light, and gone from the word of God in the heart, and from the power of God, and from the light of the glorious gospel, which is the power of God. The God of the world hath blinded their eyes that abide not in the truth, they are gone from the light which is the truth; and all that are blinded by HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS the god of the world, these are out of the light and out of the truth. Therefore ye being in the light, and to it turned, (the light of the glorious gospel,) the image of God is seen, and the glorious gospel received, Therefore walk in the light as the children of the light, and know the wisdom that is of her children justified; that ye may answer the light in every one (that comes into the world) that hateth it. And keep you habitations, that ye may every one feel you spring in the light which comes from the Lord, and feel your nourishment and refreshment; which waters the plants and causeth them to grow up in the Lord, from whom the pure, living springs come. And here is the water which is the witness in the earth, which doth wash, and here come the spirit to be known, the witness that doth baptize. and the witness the blood, which doth cleanse, which agrees with the witness in heaven. So, he that believe hath the witness in himself. (Mark and take notice.) And so, ye being in the light, every one in particular feed upon the bread of life which comes from above, which nourisheth up to eternal life; wherein as every one grows up, here every one gives glory to the Father, and to the son, and knows the light which is the way, the truth, and the life. Every one of you that are turned to it, ye are in the one way, truth, light, and life, feeding upon the one bread which comes from above; which whosoever doth eat of lives for ever, and shall never die. Let this be read among all Friends everywhere, in this nation and elsewhere, that to the light are turned and in it are kept, that in the unity they may all be kept. And in it God Almighty preserve and keep you, that ye may feel his promises, which are to the seed; and know the seed to which the blessing is, and know the flesh of Christ, that ye may be flesh of his flesh. And friends, live at peace among yourselves, waiting upon the Lord; and the Lord God of life and peace be with you. Let no Friends be discouraged; but walk in the truth and the love of it, and to it bend. G.F. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS During this year, also, Friends William Brend and John Copeland were on their way from Scituate in Massachusetts to Rhode Island, on a missionary journey, when intercepted by officials of the Plymouth Colony who demanded that they pledge to be out of the colony within 48 hours. Well, it was one thing for these Quakers to be on their way directly out of the colony, and quite another for government types to come around and make such a demand — the two missionaries instantly scrupled against obedience and would need to be hauled before a judge. The judge would classify their attitude problem, accurately it would seem, as “contemptuous perverseness.” (And, we may add to the historical record as an inference, the response of these Quakers to that judge would likely have been something on the order of “Hey, dude, deal with it!”)

During this year, also, the Quakers were establishing a meeting house at Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, and William Dyer came up to Boston and obtained his wife’s release upon condition that he not allow Friend Mary Dyer to speak with anyone until they were beyond the frontiers of the Bay Colony. Friend Ann was not allowed to settle her estate, and eventually the captain of the vessel was forced to take her back to England — at his own expense.

At about this period, many married Quakers were beginning to take vows of celibacy, and refrain from sexual intercourse with their spouses. This would go on for like two, three years. There is a suggestion that Friend Mary Dyer, although her husband was not and never would be a Quaker, joined in this movement for some time prior to her execution. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1658

At least nine Quakers went from Rhode Island to Boston and there attempted to speak at the end of a sermon. They were of course arrested and whipped for their disruptiveness, but when the Quakers in Rhode Island heard of this, they sent off two more Quakers to Boston to attempt to tend to their wounds. The entire scheme of penalties collapsed as not only barbaric but also ineffectual, and the public raised moneys by general subscription to return all these Quaker hornets to their hive in Rhode Island. However, three of them promptly returned again, and suffered the penalty of removal of one ear. “In the strength of God we suffered joyfully.” The first person in Providence, who adopted the principles of Friends, is stated by tradition to be Richard Scott. He was one of the early settlers of the town; at first he joined the Baptists, but remained with them but a short time. His wife Catharine, and two daughters Patience and Mary, were also among the first members of the Friends’ Society. All three of these suffered corporeal punishment in Massachusetts, at an early period, the wife as early as 1658. One of the daughters subsequently intermarried with Christopher Holder, whose name appears, more than once, among those who suffered corporeal punishment in Massachusetts, as Friends. That these met together for worship with such others as agreed with them in principles, is highly probable, though there is no direct proof of the fact.7 Three expelled Quaker ministers –Friend Marmaduke Stevenson, a farmer from Yorkshire, Friend William Robinson, a young resident of London, and Friend Mary Dyer– determined to test the barbarous new law requiring death for return to Boston after an initial expulsion. Would it be enforceable or, only another idle threat, would it also collapse upon a challenge from those of sufficient faith? 6 Salem Quakers, keeping faith, prepared “linen wherein to wrap the dead bodies of those who were to suffer.” (These people, you see, were playing hardball.) Friend Mary was convicted of “rebellious sedition, and presumptuous obtruding herself after banishment upon pain of death,” and was sentenced to be executed, but upon the petition of her son Will Dyer, Jr. was reprieved on condition that she depart the jurisdiction of Massachusetts colony in 48 hours — and if she return, to suffer the sentence as imposed.

A friendlier attitude was being taken in Providence, Rhode Island: 1658. This town refuses to banish such Quakers as are here, or to prohibit others from coming, though strongly urged to such a course by the Commissioners of the united Colonies, and replies to the intolerant request, that they prize freedom of conscience as the greatest happiness men can possess in this world. This place had then become a city of refuge to the cruelly persecuted Quakers of Massachusetts. By a municipal vote, all those who enjoyed lands within the jurisdiction of the town were freemen.

7. William Read Staples (1798-1868). ANNALS OF THE TOWN OF PROVIDENCE, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT, IN JUNE, 1832. Providence, Rhode Island: Printed by Knowles and Vose, 1843. VIEW THE PAGE IMAGES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS In Salem, Friend Samuel Shattuck was fined for absence from the Puritan church’s First-Day worships and for aiding visiting Quakers. (He had, at the Salem church, attempted to intervene when Friend Christopher Holder was being silenced.) Persisting “in his course and opinions as a Quaker” despite this fine, he would be jailed. At mid-year he and other of Salem’s “resident converts” would suffer banishment, on pain of death should they return.

A number of Quaker families of Salem lived in a district referred to as “The Woods” or as “Great Pastures.”8

THE severities already inflicted on the members of this society had so affected many of the inhabitants of this colony that they withdrew from their public assemblies and met on the first day of the week, to worship quietly by themselves, for which they were fined 5 shillings per week, and imprisoned. Particularly Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, an aged couple (who in the last year had been imprisoned and fined for entertaining Christopher Holder and John Copeland), with their son Joseph, were sent to the house of correction, whipped in like manner as those before mentioned, and had their goods taken to the value of £4, 15 shillings, for not coming to church. For the same cause Edward Harnet, aged 69, and his wife, 73 years of age, had 37 shillings taken from them without regard to their circumstances, which were but mean, or their age, which would naturally excite tenderness. About this time (1658) there was a meeting at the house of Nicholas Phelps in the woods about five miles from Salem, and upon the information of one Butler, the six following residents were taken up and committed to prison: Samuel Shattock, Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra his wife, Josiah their son, Samuel Gaskin (or Gaskill), and Joshua Buffum, who being kept close in the house of correction during the heat of the Summer, from their husbandry, after three weeks confinement, represented their case to the court in the following letter: This to Magistrates at the Court in Salem. Friends:— Whereas it was your pleasure to commit us, whose names are under-written, to the house of correction in Boston, although the Lord, the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth, is our witness that we have done nothing worthy of stripes or of bonds; and we being committed by your court to be dealt withal as the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term us; and having some of us suffered your law and pleasures, now that which we do expect is, That whereas we have suffered your law, so now to be set free by the same law, as your manner is with strangers, and not to put us on the account of one law, and execute another law upon us, of which according to your own manner we were never convicted, as the law expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of your new law, we should have expected the jailer’s order to have been on that account, which that it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the punishment which we bare, as four of us were whipped, among whom was one that had formerly been whipped; so now according to your former law, friends, let it not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in you lies, our families to ruin. It is not unknown to you, the season and the time 8. John Gough. HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS. Dublin, Ireland: 1790. Volume I: Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, their sufferings, pages 349, 361; Josiah Southwick, pages 349, 361; Daniel and Provided ordered to be sold for slaves, pages 376 to 381. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS of year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and families may be exposed unto; and also such as live upon trade. We know if the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression on your spirits. What our lives and conversations have been in that place is well known, and what we now suffer for, is much for false reports, and ungrounded jealousies of heresy and sedition. These things lie upon us to lay before you. As for our parts we have true peace and rest in the Lord in all our sufferings, and are made willing in the power and strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in this cause of God, for which we suffer: yea, and we do find (through grace) the enlargement of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves and our families, for the disposing of us according to his infinite wisdom and pleasure, in whose love is our rest and life. From the house of bondage in Boston wherein we are made captives by the wills of men, although made free by the Son, (John 8, 36). In which we quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th month, 1658. LAWRENCE SOUTHICK, JOSIAH SOUTHICK, CASSANDRA SOUTHICK, SAMUEL SHATTOCK, JOSHUA BUFFUM. The first victims to this severe law were Lawrence and Cassandra Southick, their son Josiah, Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum. They were called before the court 11th of 3rd mo., 1659, and on their trial (such as it was), the same arbitrary spirit of tyranny appeared in their manner of executing as in passing their laws. The prisoners making a rational objection to their proceeding against them by their law as being in custody when it was made, and therefore as to them an ex post facto law. To their query whether it was for an offence against that law which then had no existence, they were committed to prison and banished, they received no reply; then one of them desired the governor that he would be pleased to declare before the people the real and true cause of their proceedings against them. He answered, it was for contemning authority in not coming to the ordinances of God. He further charged them with rebelling against the authority of the country in not departing according to their order; to which they answered they had no other place to go, but had their wives, children, families and estates to look after; nor had they done anything worthy of death, banishment or bonds, or any of the hardships or ignominious punishments which they had suffered in their persons, beside the loss of one hundred pound’s worth of their property taken from them for meeting together. This remonstrance of their recent accumulated injuries silencing the Governor, Major General Denison made this unanswerable reply, that they stood against the authority of the country in not submitting to their laws, that he should not go about to speak much of the error of their judgements but added he, you and we are not able well to live together, at present the power is in our hand, and therefore the strongest must fend off. After this the prisoners were put forth for a while, and being called in again, the sentence of banishment was pronounced against them, and no more than a fortnight’s time allowed for HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS them to depart on pain of death; and although they desired a respite to attend to their affairs and till an opportunity of a convenient passage to England might occur, the unrelenting malice of their persecutors would not grant them even this small and reasonable request; so Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps, and Josiah Southick were obliged to take an opportunity that offered four days after, to pass for England by Barbadoes, in order to seek redress from the parliament and council of state there, but without success. Lawrence and Cassandra Southick went to Shelter Island, where they soon died, within three days of each other; and Joshua Buffum retired to Rhode Island. The proceedings of these haughty rulers are strongly marked throughout with the features of self- importance, inhumanity and bitter malignity, but I know of no instance of a more persevering malice and cruelty, than that wherewith they persecuted the aforesaid Lawrence and Cassandra Southick and their family. First, while members of their church, they were both imprisoned for entertaining strangers, Christopher Holder and John Copeland, a christian duty which the apostle to the Hebrews advises not to be unmindful of; and after seven weeks imprisonment, Cassandra was fined 40 shillings for owning a paper written by the aforesaid persons. Next, for absenting from the public worship and owning the Quakers’ doctrine, on the information of one Captain Hawthorne, they, with their son Josiah, were sent to the house of correction and whipped in the coldest season of the year, and at the same time Hawthorne issued his warrant to distrain their goods for absence from their public worship, whereby there were taken from them cattle to the value of £4, 15 shillings. Again they were imprisoned, with others, for being at a meeting, and Cassandra was again whipped, and upon their joint letter to the magistrates before recited, the other appellants were released, but this family, although they with the rest had suffered the penalty of their cruel law fully, were arbitrarily detained in prison to their great loss and damage, being in the season of the year when their affairs most immediately demanded their attendance; and last of all were banished upon pain of death, as before recited, by a law made while they were imprisoned. Thus despoiled of their property, deprived of their liberty, driven into banishment, and in jeopardy of their lives, for no other crime than meeting apart and dissenting from the established worship, the sufferings of this inoffensive aged couple ended only with their lives. But the multiplied injuries of this harmless pair were not sufficient to gratify that thirst for vengeance which stimulated these persecutors, while any member of the family remained unmolested. During their detention in prison they left at home a son Daniel and a daughter Provided; these children, not deterred by the unchristian treatment of their parents and brother, felt themselves rather encouraged to follow their steps and relinquish the assemblies of a people whose religion was productive of such relentless persecution; for their absence from which they were fined £10, though it was well known that they had no estate, their parents having been reduced to poverty by repeated fines and extravagant distraints; wherefore to satisfy the fine they were ordered to be sold for bond-slaves by the following mandate: “Whereas Daniel Southick and Provided Southick, son and daughter of Lawrence Southick, absenting themselves from the public ordinances, having been HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS fined by the courts of Salem and Ipswich, pretending they have no estates and resolving not to work, the court upon perusal of a law which was made upon account of debts, in answer to what should be done for the satisfaction of the fines, resolves, that the treasurers of the several counties are, and shall be fully empowered to sell the said persons to any of the English Nation at Virginia or Barbadoes, to answer the said fines.” Pursuant to this order, Edward Butler, one of the treasurers, sought out for a passage for them to Barbadoes for sale, but could find none willing to take them thither. One master of a ship to whom he applied, in order to evade a compliance, pretended they would spoil the ship’s company. Butler replied, no, you do not fear that, for they are poor harmless creatures that will not hurt anybody. The master rejoined, will you then offer to make slaves of such harmless creatures? and declined the invidious office of transporting them, as well as the rest. Disappointed in his designs and at a loss how to dispose of them, the winter approaching, he sent them home to shift for themselves till he could find a convenient opportunity to send them away. Is it strange that a few people became excited unto insanity, after such terrible outrages upon themselves? friends, as to appear naked in public; rather is it not a wonder that more were not made insane? HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1659

William Dyer and Friend Mary Dyer had established their new farm in what is now Newport, Rhode Island.9 In this year Friend Mary and two other expelled Quaker ministers –Friends Marmaduke Stevenson and William Robinson, who were youths of little more than 20 years of age– would determine to test the barbarous new Boston law requiring death for return after an initial expulsion. Would it be enforceable or, only another idle threat, would it also collapse upon a challenge from those of sufficient faith?

6 Quakers of Salem, keeping faith, prepared “linen wherein to wrap the dead bodies of those who were to suffer.” (These people, you see, were playing hardball.)10

After training for the ministry, John Higginson had succeeded his father-in-law Henry Whitfeld or Whitfield (1597-1687) as minister at Guilford, Connecticut. At this point he became the pastor at Salem.

9. There is still a very small street, Dyer’s Gate off 3rd Street just next to the overpass from the Newport Bridge, to mark where they had lived. The island just off Newport that was associated with this farm, Goat Island where the family kept livestock, was then about a hundred times larger than it now is in this era in which this now tiny island has been transformed into a US Navy weapons- development facility. 10. Sewell, William. THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, INCREASE, AND PROGRESS, OF THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS. A NEW EDITION IN TWO VOLUMES. Philadelphia PA: Uriah Hunt, 1832, Volume I, pages 253-5 HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS LETTER TO THE GENERAL COURT AT BOSTON, AFTER BEING SENTENCED TO DEATH, TH TH 27 OF 8 MONTH, 1659. To the General Court in Boston. Whereas I am by many charged with the guiltiness of my own blood; if you mean in my coming to Boston, I am therein clear, and justified by the Lord, in whose will I came, who will require my blood of you, be sure, who have made a law to take away the lives of the innocent servants of God, if they come among you, who are called by you, cursed Quakers; although I say, and am a living witness for them and the Lord, that he hath blessed them, and sent them unto you; therefore be not found fighters against God, but let my counsel and request be accepted with you, to repeal all such laws, that the Truth and servants of the Lord may have free passage among you, and you be kept from shedding innocent blood, which I know there are many among you would not do, if they knew it so to be; nor can the enemy that stirreth you up thus to destroy his holy seed in any measure countervail the great damage that you will, by thus doing, procure. Therefore seeing the Lord hath not hid it from me, it lieth upon me, in love to your souls, thus to persuade you. I have no self- ends the Lord knoweth; for if my life were freely granted by you, it would not avail me, nor could I expect it of you, so long as I should daily hear or see the sufferings of these people, my dear brethren, and the seed with whom my life is bound up, as I have done these two years: and now it is like to increase, even unto death, for no evil doing, but coming among you. Was ever the like laws heard of among a people that profess Christ come in the flesh? And have such no other weapons but such laws to fight against spiritual wickedness withal, as you call it? Woe is me for you! Of whom take ye counsel? Search with the light of Christ in you, and it will show you of whom, as it hath done me and many more, who have been disobedient and deceived, as now ye are: which light as ye come into, and obeying what is made manifest to you therein, you will not repent that you were kept from shedding blood, though it were by a woman. It is not mine own life I seek, (for I choose rather to suffer with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of Egypt,) but the life of the seed, which I know the Lord hath blessed, and therefore seeks the enemy thus vehemently to destroy the life thereof, as in all ages he ever did. O hearken not unto him, I beseech you, for the seed’s sake, which is one and all, and is dear in the sight of God, which they that touch, touch the apple of his eye, and cannot escape his wrath; whereof I having felt, cannot but persuade all men that I have to do withal, especially you who name the name of Christ to depart from such iniquity as shedding blood, even of the saints of the Most High. Therefore let my request have as much acceptance with you, if you be Christians, as Esther’s had with Ahasuerus, whose relation is short of that that is between Christians: and my request is the same that hers was: and he said not that he had made a law, and it would be dishonourable for him to revoke it; but when he understood that those people were so prized by her, and so nearly concerned her, as in truth these are to me, you may see what he did for her. Therefore I leave these lines with you, appealing to the faithful and true witness of God, which HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS is one in all consciences, before whom we must all appear; with whom I shall eternally rest, in everlasting joy and peace, whether you will hear or forbear. With him is my reward, with whom to live is my joy, and to die is my gain, though I had not had your forty-eight hours warning, for the preparation of the death of Mary Dyar. And know this also, that if through the enmity you shall declare yourselves worse than Ahasuerus, and confirm your law, though it were but by taking away the life of one of us, that the Lord will overthrow both your law and you, by his righteous judgments and plagues poured justly upon you, who now, whilst ye are warned thereof, and tenderly sought unto, may avoid the one, by removing the other. If you neither hear, nor obey the Lord, nor his servants, yet will he send more of his servants among you, so that your end shall be frustrated, that think to restrain them ye call cursed Quakers, from coming among you, by any thing you can do to them. Yea, verily, he hath a seed here among you, for whom we have suffered all this while, and yet suffer; whom the Lord of the harvest will send forth more-more labourers to gather, out of the mouths of devourers of all sorts, into his fold, where he will lead them into fresh pastures, even the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Oh, let none of you put this good day far from you, which verily in the light of the Lord I see approaching even to many in and about Boston, which is the bitterest and darkest professing place, and so to continue so long as you have done, that ever I heard of. Let the time past, therefore, suffice, for such a profession as brings forth such fruits as these laws are. In love, and in the spirit of meekness, I again beseech you, for I have no enmity to the persons of any; but you shall know, that God will not be mocked; but what ye sew, that shall ye reap from him, that will render to every one according to the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil. Even be it, saith Mary Dyar. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1660

Sometime during this decade Philip English came to America from the Isle of Jersey. He would become a prominent merchant of Salem, Massachusetts and would control 20 ships that sailed to the Channel Islands, to Newfoundland and Barbados, and to Suriname. SPICE HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1672

Francis Nurse was Salem’s constable.

Salem monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends was established. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1674

Retiring from the sea, old Captain Richard More repurposed his home in Salem as a tavern. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1676

A prison was established on Nantucket Island, the initial real prison in the American colonies. William Bunker was chosen as warden with compensation set at “foeur pounds, halfe in wheat, the other in other graine.”

Giles Cory was brought to trial in Essex court in the Massachusetts Bay Colony after beating Jacob Goodale, one of his indentured servants, to death for stealing apples. Although there was no such offense as killing an indentured servant in the course of punishment, the court considered Cory’s force as “unreasonable,” and he was fined.

March 18, day (1675, Old Style): Christian Hunter More, age 60, died. Her gravestone is in Salem’s Old Burying Ground. RICHARD MORE

December 9, day (Old Style): Samuel More (back from the Great Swamp Fight), Blaze Vinton, and Thomas Lenard were riding near Salem and were either drunk or acting out. One person they encountered, Jonathan Stacy, had his hat carried off, while another person, Leonard Bellringer, was molested, threatened, and then beaten, and another person, Richard Simmons, was pulled from his horse, held against a tree, and beaten severely, and another person, William Lattimore, was beaten and had taken from him a gold ring, two silver shillings, and other objects of more trifling value. Samuel More would have forehead branded with the letter B. His father Captain Richard More would pay his bond — and then this son would disappear from the pages of history. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1677

There were a total of 14 “Ordinaries & publick drinking Howses” in Salem. Captain Richard More and his wife had a “neager” slave named Judeth, possibly procured in Barbados, to help them around their tavern. The tavern evidently had deep drinkers among the “travailers & strangers” that made up its transient clientele, as during this year the old Captain arranged for a shipment of “two tonnes of strong beer” to be shipped there by way of Virginia. SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1678

In Salem, old Captain Richard More, retired from the sea to be a tavern keeper, married the widow Jane Crumpton (her husband, Samuel Crumpton, had been killed in September 1675 at Bloody Brook, during “King Phillip’s War”).

July 18, Monday: Sarah Miles, first wife of John Miles of Concord, died. John would remarry, with Susannah Goodenow Rediat, widow of John Rediat, and with her would have 3 children: John, born on May 20,1680; Samuel Miles, born on February 19, 1682 (this is the generation in which the family name was changed from Myles to Miles); and Sarah, born on May 25, 1686 (Sarah would marry on May 10, 1670 with Edward Putnam of Salem).

November: Judeth, the “neager” slave of Captain Richard More’s tavern in Salem and Mr. Pilgrim’s “neager man” slave David Geffard were detected while “fornicating.” Judeth was sentenced to receive “five stripes” and her lover ten — but instead old Captain More paid a fine for the couple. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1680

Rachel Fuller, Isabella Towle, and Eunice Cole (she had been accused before) were tried on charges of witchcraft in Hampton, New Hampshire, and acquitted. Bridget Oliver (she was also known as Bridget Bishop, and would be hanged in Salem village in 1692) was accused of witchcraft in Salem village (now Danvers), Massachusetts. We know that there was an indictment or presentment in which she was required to appear before a court preliminary to trial, but we don’t know what happened after that. Margaret Gifford was accused of witchcraft in Lynn, Massachusetts. We know that there was an indictment or presentment in which she was required to appear before a court preliminary to trial, but we don’t know what happened after that. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1683

Fall: The “neager” of Captain Richard More’s tavern, Judeth, and her lover David Geffard, Mr. Pilgrim’s slave, escaped to Barbados with a portion of the proceeds of a burglary of Captain George Corwin’s property. Another member of the burglar team, however, John Collier of New-York, was captured and taken to Salem jail. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1686

October 8: In Salem, Jane Crumpton More, the third wife of Captain Richard More, died: JANE SECOND WIFE TO CAPT RICHARD MORE SENR AGED 55 YEARS DEPARTED THIS LIFE Ye 8 OF OCTOBER 1686 HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1687

At about this point the Boston pewtersmith John Comer (1) took as apprentice John Comer (2).

The pirate ketch Sparrow docked in Boston out of Barbados with Boston native Richard Narramore as its master. According to his tale, he had been hired by 18 pirates “at a cost of 40 pieces of eight each, to deliver them at different places” along the East Coast, from New-York to Newfoundland. These former pirates were returning home with their treasure. One had been dropped off at Gardner’s Island at the east end of Long Island with his two chests full of gold or dirty laundry, then Christopher Goff had been dropped off at Newport, Rhode Island, and two men with small chests had been dropped off at Damaras Cove, and Thomas Scudder had gone to Salem, and John Danson and his hoard had wound up in Boston. John Danson, Thomas Scudder, Christopher Goff, Edward Calley, and Thomas Dunston were collected and brought before the magistrates. In John Danson’s confiscated chest 900 pieces of eight were discovered, and these men made no bones about the fact that they had been pirates — but since the court had no witnesses, they were released to spend their treasures. “Go thou and sin no more.” Christopher Goff would be employed by the Massachusetts General Court to patrol the coast. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1688

Having wives in different ports clearly was not enough for this master mariner, Captain Richard More, for according to the Salem Church Records of 1688, Old Captain More having been for many years under suspicion and common fame of lasciviousness, and some degree at least of incontency and therefore was at several times spoken to, by sundry brethren and also by the Elders in a private way, because for want of proof we could go no further. He was at last left to himself so far as that he was convicted before justices of peace by 3 witnesses of gross unchastity with another man’s wife and was censured by them. On July 1, after the morning sermon, 5 Elders acquainted the Church with it, 2 of the brethren were sent to him to require him to come in the Afternoon which he did, speaking in some relenting way, and submitting to the Church and so a publicke Admonition was consented to by the vote of the brethren, which was pronounced by the Pastor charging him the blame and shame of a scandalous Sin being a gross breach of the 7th commandment not fit to be named, and that aggravated by his being formerly privately admonished, and he was now in his old age, etc., then he was delivered from the Lords table and required to repent as Revelation 2:21. After the deaths of his two wives, the one in Salem (Christian Hunter More) and the one in England (Elizabeth Woolno More), the sea captain had taken a third one, Jane — but then she had died, leaving that randy old bigamist with no-one to sleep with.

(We have been given no information as to the name of the married woman with whom the old Captain had been committing adultery, for which he was lashed and would need to wear the scarlet letter A affixed to his garments, but can be fairly positive that because of the social dynamic of the situation, whoever this woman was, she was not a member of the congregation of Salem’s First Church.)

July 1: Just before this day, in Salem, old Captain Richard More had been summoned before justices of the peace for the offense of gross unchastity with another man’s wife, lashed, and obligated to wear the scarlet letter A affixed to his garments. On this Sunday at the First Church, after the morning sermon, five Elders acquainted the congregation with the offenses of this adulterer, who was not present, and then two of the brethren were sent to him to require him to come to the church for a special session in the afternoon. He appeared, conducted himself nondefiantly “in some relenting way” and submitting to the authority of the Church. A vote was taken as to how to deal with him, and the result of this vote was that “a publicke Admonition ... was pronounced by the Pastor charging him the blame and shame of a scandalous Sin being a gross breach of the 7th commandment not fit to be named, and that aggravated by his being formerly privately admonished, and he was now in his old age, etc.” What that Bible reference that was chosen, Revelation 2:21, offers by way of worldly advice is:

“And I gave her space to repent of her fornications; and she repented not.”

In accordance with this, the First Church began to deny Captain More the communion, and awaited his repentance for his sin. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1689

The Reverend Cotton Mather preached a sermon on witchcraft that would be pirated and included in a Boston publication, MEMORABLE PROVIDENCES RELATING TO WITCHCRAFTS AND POSSESSIONS.

In Concord, a town that was never in any way involved in the New England witchcraft hysteria, at this point Thomas Brown was Town Clerk.

Samuel Parris was ordained as the first minister of Salem village (not the present Salem town, but what is now Danvers).11

11. Samuel Parris of Salem, son of Thomas Parris of London, had been educated at Harvard College but had left before graduation. He had been of the first church at Boston, had become a freeman during 1683, and in this year was preaching at Salem village (now Danvers), where he was ordained on November 15, 1689 as the first minister. He would be fired from his job as minister during June 1696, and would be for two or three years a preacher at Stow, but in 1700 he would be in Watertown MA, with a license as a retailer, and soon afterward he would move to Concord, where he would continue during 1705 to engage in trade, but unprofitably, and afterward he would preach for a few months at Dunstable MA during 1711. His wife Dorothy Parris would die on September 6, 1719 and he would die on February 29, 1720 at Sudbury. In his will, probated on March 28, 1720, he would mention his father Thomas Parris, his uncle John Parris, his daughters Elizabeth Parris Barnard, the wife of Benjamin Barnard, Dorothy Parris Brown, born August 28, 1700 and the wife of Hopestill Brown, and Mary Parris Bent, born during 1703, married during 1727 with Peter Bent, and two sons Samuel Parris, born at Watertown MA on January 9, 1702 and baptized on March 1, 1702; and Noyes Parris, born on August 22, 1699, Harvard 1721, both minors. (There is also a record of a Samuel Parris of Boston who by his wife Elizabeth had Thomas Parris, born on October 25, 1681; Elizabeth Parris, born on November 28, 1682; and Susanna Parris, born on January 9, 1688, and perhaps this man left Boston and became that unhappy minister at Salem.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1691

April 26, Sunday (Old Style): In Salem on this day, both old Captain Richard More and the local farmer Giles Cory demonstrated contrition. The old Captain’s contrition was demonstrated not only by his attire and his “blubbering” behavior (the appropriate weeping and tearing of the clothing) before the congregation of the First Church and his words, but also by some piece of writing which he then served upon the Reverend Nicholas Noyes. (The delivery of such a piece of writing was unprecedented –one wonders what it contained– but nevertheless Richard would be entitled to remove that scarlet letter A he had been wearing affixed to his garments.) Old Captain More having lyan under the Churches censure, almost 2 yeares whereby he was debarred from the Lords Supper comeing severall times to the Elders, and at last publickly in a writing and partly by speech professing his Repentance for his offences against God and his Church was in charity accepted and by the vote of the Church forgiven and restored to his former state.12

Winter: Housebound during the cold season, Betty Parris, age 9, the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris of the Salem Village church, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, were dropping egg whites into a glass to find out what shapes they might be able to perceive in the cloudy liquid. One of them announced that she could make out the shape of a coffin. Soon these bored little girls would be joined by Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam, and then by Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott. SALEM

December: Some unseen something began to pinch at and scratch at Betty Parris, the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris of the Salem Village church. The 9-year-old’s body was sent into dramatic contortions. She announced that somehow she was being choked.13 Soon she would begin to be able to perceive who or what was invisibly doing these things to her. A physician was summoned who, finding no other explanation, suggested that little Betty’s malady might be the product of an “Evil Hand.” SALEM WITCHCRAFT

12. Richard D. Pierce, ed. THE RECORDS OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 1629-1736 (Salem MA: Essex Institute, 1974), page 171 13. The little girl was, possibly, taking after her father, for her father was a similar piece of work. For instance, when once a member of his congregation had risen in order to close the door to the meetinghouse without first obtaining his permission, the minister pronounced that he had thereby been insulted. “The chip doesn’t fall far from the stump.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1692

January 20, Wednesday (1691, Old Style): Nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-or-twelve-year-old Abigail Williams14 were living in the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris when they began to exhibit strange behavior, such as blasphemous screaming, convulsive seizures, trance-like states and mysterious spells. Within a short time, several other Salem girls began to demonstrate similar behavior. WITCHES

14. Note that if Abigail Williams had actually had a sexual affair with John Procter before the witch panic broke out as would be hypothesized in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” as made into a film, then Procter would have been a child molester who sexually assaulted his servants.

Arthur Miller would cope with this by announcing in the preamble to the printed version of the play that for “dramatic purposes” the character Abigail’s age “has been raised.” Also, Act 2 Scene 2, in which she and John Procter discuss their act of fornication, has been removed from the play beginning in about 1958. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

January 27, Wednesday (1691, Old Style): The Reverend George Burroughs, formerly the minister of Salem, sent word to Salem that the Abenaki of Maine had massacred 50 whites of York and taken 100 as hostages to hold for ransom: God is still manifesting his displeasure against this Land. He who formerly hath set his hand to help us, doth even write bitter things against us.

Mid-February (1691, Old Style): Unable to determine any physical cause for their symptoms and dreadful behavior, a physician concluded that the Salem girls were under the influence of Satan. PSYCHOLOGY WITCHES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Late in February (1691, Old Style): In Salem Township (now Danvers), prayer services and community fasting were being conducted by the Reverend Samuel Parris in hopes of relieving the evil forces that were plaguing them.

In an effort to identify who were the witches, John Indian had baked a “witchcake” out of rye meal moistened with the urine of the afflicted girls. This counter-magic was meant to enable the dog that was then fed this witchcake to sniff out the identities of the “witches.” The Reverend Parris really tied into Mary Sibley for suggesting such a thing. He declared that what she had done had raised the Devil, “and when he shall be silenced, the Lord only knows.” He delivered himself of a sermon in which he warned his Salem flock that “for our slighting of Christ Jesus, God is angry and is sending forth destroyers.” The girls were pressured to come up with a list of names and they identified three women, including John Indian’s spouse Tituba who was the Reverend Parris’s Carib slave, as witches.

John Indian was evidently, despite his name, black, for he was referred to by his owner as “my negro lad.” It was in the Parris home that the “afflicted children” began their careers, and it appears that Tituba had been entertaining the children with ghost stories.15 But the first name brought forward, when the authorities asked that they be “provided suspects for them to act upon,” was Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse, an elderly woman in poor health. When Judge Hawthorn asked her about familiar spirits such as “the black man,” she replied “No: I have none but with God alone.” But she was ill and illness was of course of the devil, therefore she must 15. The foundation of the parsonage in which, in this year, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams became overexcited at hearing the tales of the slave Tituba is still to be located, but it is not in Salem Village. It is located in what is now known as Danvers MA. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS be possessed. Tituba also was arrested and confined in the Salem jail on suspicions of witchcraft, but no proceedings were begun against her. She would remain forgotten there in the jail for the next two years, presumably with the jail making use of her labor, until the general 1694 amnesty for inconvenient hags.16 “Salem’s infamous witch episode of 1692 took root in three decades of disputing over ministers, churches, taxes, and roads that made a mockery of John Winthrop’s sermon aboard the Arbella and uprooted almost any notion of community, secular or religious.”17

February 29, Monday (1691, Old Style): Warrants were issued for the arrests of Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Although Osborne and Good maintained innocence, Tituba confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her “sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog.” What’s more, Tituba testified that there was a conspiracy of witches at work in Salem.

March 1, Tuesday (1691, Old Style): Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne in the meeting house in Salem Village. Tituba confessed to practicing witchcraft. Over the next weeks, other townspeople would come forward and testified that they, too, had been harmed by or had seen strange apparitions of some of the community members. As the frenzy continued, accusations were made against many different people. Frequently denounced were women whose behavior or economic circumstances were somehow disturbing to the social order and conventions of the time. Some of the accused had previous records of criminal activity, including witchcraft, but others were faithful churchgoers and common people of standing in the community.18

Sarah Good to the Reverend Nicholas Noyes of Salem 1st Church: “You are a liar.... I am no more a witch, than you are a wizard; —and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.”

March 12, Saturday (1691, Old Style): Martha Corey was accused of witchcraft. SALEM 16. You may want to consider Maryse Condé’s imaginative recent reconstruction: I, TITUBA, BLACK WITCH OF SALEM (Caraf Books, 1992). 17. Butler, Jon. AWASH IN A SEA OF FAITH: CHRISTIANIZING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1990, page 70). See Demos, John Putnam. ENTERTAINING SATAN: WITCHCRAFT AND THE CULTURE OF EARLY NEW ENGLAND. NY: Oxford UP, 1982, and Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. SALEM POSSESSED: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF WITCHCRAFT. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1974. 18. John Hathorne was a “stern, relentless prosecutor” who believed that “Satan enticed followers into his service and used them in his special warfare against New England.” (Unlike Magistrate Samuel Sewall, this man never repented.) “his son too” — John Hathorne (1641-1717) was the great-great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote this evaluation. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

March 19, Saturday (1691, Old Style): Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse was denounced as a witch. SALEM

March 21, Monday (1691, Old Style): Martha Corey was examined before Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS March 23, Wednesday (1691, Old Style): A warrant was issued for the arrest of Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse upon the complaint of Edward Putnam and John Putnam. (The Putnam family was among those that had been involved in some land disputes with Francis Nurse and his wife Rebecca.) While the judges were interrogating HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS her the bewitched girls made “great noyses.” WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Major American Witchcraft Cases

1647 Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young 1663 Mary Barnes

1648 Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson 1666 Elizabeth Seager

1651 Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody 1669 Katherine (Kateran) Harrison Bassett, Mary Parsons

1652 John Carrington, Joan Carrington 1683 Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson

1653 Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth 1688 Annie “Goody” Glover Godman

1654 Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee 1692 Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies, Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson, Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey, Reverend George Burrough, George Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Ward- well, Mary Parker, Tituba

1655 Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley, 1693 Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins

1657 William Meaker 1697 Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Ben- ham, Junr.

1658 Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson, 1724 Sarah Spencer Katherine Grade

1661 Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings 1768 —— Norton

1662 Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca 1801 Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket” Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew San- ford, Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith Varlett, James Walkley HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS March 24, Thursday (1691, Old Style): Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse was examined before Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. SALEM

Rebecca Towne Nurse: “I am innocent as the child unborn, but surely, what sin hath God found out in me unrepented of that He should lay such an affliction on me in my old age.” WITCHES

March 28, Monday (Old Style): Elizabeth Proctor was denounced as a witch. SALEM

April 3, Sunday (Old Style): Sarah Towne Cloyce, one of Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse’s sisters, was accused of witchcraft. SALEM

April 11, Monday (Old Style): Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Towne Cloyce were examined before John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, and Magistrate Samuel Sewall. During this examination, John Proctor was also accused and imprisoned. WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS April 19, Tuesday (Old Style): Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey, and Mary Warren were examined. Abigail Hobbs was 14 years of age and a refugee from the frontier region racial warfare, living at this time in the village of Topsfield close to Salem. Abigail confessed that she had indeed seen the Devil, whom she described as “a black man.” This had happened in the woods outside Falmouth in Maine — the town in which the Reverend George Burroughs was minister. She had seen the “black man” in the woods, she said, in 1688 or 1689, only a few months prior to the bloody Abenaki assault upon the people of her town. Magistrate John Hathorne demanded that Abigail Hobbs directly tell the court: “Are you guilty, or not?” She responded: “I have seen sights and been scared.” The examiners were able to obtain such a confession only from Abigail Hobbs, however, and not from any other person being examined.

A man who died in the jailhouse, William Hobbs, had this to offer: “I can deny it to my dying day.” WITCHES John Hathorne became confused as to who had said what, and as he was interrogating Giles Cory, he attempted to engage him in regard to a remark that someone else had made about a black dog. Cory emphatically replied “I do not know that I ever spoke that word in my life.” Cory then refused to take any further part in the proceeding, standing mute. He was attempting to challenge this sorry court and its sloppy proceedings, but this was a tactical legal error — because a person who refused to testify could under current English law be subjected to pein fort et dure until he or she came out of their “muteness.” (Pein fort et dure, under these colonial conditions, would amount to being taken out into the field behind the courtroom and tortured by being loaded up with stones until the witness either began to speak, or expired.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS April 22, Friday (Old Style): Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Towne Estey or Easty, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, and Mary English were examined before John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Only Nehemiah Abbott was cleared of charges. WITCHES SALEM

May 2, Friday (Old Style): Sarah Morey, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin, and Dorcas Hoar were examined by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin.

Dorcas Hoar: “I will speak the truth as long as I live.” WITCHES SALEM

May 9, Friday (Old Style): George Burroughs of Maine was examined by John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, Magistrate Samuel Sewall, and William Stoughton. One of the afflicted girls, Sarah Churchill, was also examined. WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS May 10, Saturday (Old Style): Sarah Osborne or Osburne died in prison in Boston.

George Jacobs, Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret were examined before John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Margaret confessed and testified that her grandfather and George Burroughs were both witches.

Margaret Jacobs: “... They told me if I would not confess I should be put down into the dungeon and would be hanged, but if I would confess I should save my life.” HANGING SALEM A warrant for the arrest of John Willard was addressed to the “Constable of Salem” and put in the hands of John Putnam, Jr., for execution. This deputy would file a return on May 12, to the effect that he had searched “the house of the Vsuall abode of John Willards” as well as “seuerall other houses and places,” without turning up anything of interest other than the fact that “his relatione and friends then gaue mee accompt that to theire best knowledge he was ffleed.”

Seven indictments would be found against him, charging him with practising his sorceries on various spinsters. Per Robert Calef’s MORE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD (London, 1700): John Willard, had been imployed to fetch in several that were accused; but taking dissatisfaction from his being sent, to fetch up some that he had better thoughts of, he declined the Service, and presently after he himself was accused of the same Crime, and that with such vehemency, that they sent after him to apprehend him; he had made his Escape as far as Nashawag, about 40 Miles from Salem; yet ’tis said those Accusers did then presently tell the exact time, saying, now Willard is taken.

May 18, Sunday (Old Style): Mary Towne Estey or Easty was released from prison. Yet, due to the outcries and protests of her accusers, she was arrested a 2d time. WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS May 25, Sunday (Old Style): Because of the witchcraft furor, Jonathan Corwin, Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, John Richards, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Peter Sergeant, Magistrate Samuel Sewall, William Stoughton, and Wait Winthrop were appointed by the Governor and Council Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer to “enquire of, hear and determine all manner of crimes and offenses perpetrated within the counties of Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex, or of either of them.” SALEM

May 27, Tuesday (Old Style): Governor Phips set up a special Court of Oyer and Terminer comprised of seven judges to try the witchcraft cases. Appointed were Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Magistrate Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John Richards, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin. These magistrates based their judgments and evaluations on various kinds of intangible evidence, including direct confessions, supernatural attributes (such as “witchmarks”), and reactions of the afflicted girls. Spectral evidence, based on the assumption that the Devil could assume the “specter” of an innocent person, was relied upon despite its controversial nature. SALEM

May 31, Saturday (Old Style): Martha Carrier, John Alden, Wilmott Redd, Elizabeth Howe, and Phillip English were examined before John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and Gedney.19 WITCHES SALEM

19. The merchant Philip English was the owner of the Mansion House, regarded as the finest home in Salem. In later years one of John Hathorne’s grandsons would marry one of English’s great-granddaughters, and the Mansion House would wind up as a property of the Hathorne family. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

June 2, Thursday (Old Style): Initial session of the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Salem. Bridget Bishop was the first to be pronounced guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death.

Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse was indicted, and physically examined by a jury of women, who were able to discover on her body what a majority supposed to be a witchmark (two of the women disagreed, ascribing the mark to natural causes — what might it have been, an unshapely mole, a stretch mark from labor, a port- wine birthmark?). Rebecca asked that others be allowed to examine this supposed “witchmark,” but was ignored. Her accusers included the Reverend Samuel Parris and the four girls who had initiated the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, as well as the several members of the Putnam family who had brought the original complaint. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS One of Rebecca’s sons, a son-in-law, and a daughter-in -law spoke in her defense at the trial. A declaration as to her character had been signed by some 40 members of Salem Village. The first report of the jury was “not guilty,” but then some of the others who had been condemned to death for witchcraft made confessions of their guilt and pled for mercy in the expectation that as a result their offenses would be forgiven and their death sentences not carried out. When one of these petitioners, Goody Hobbs, muttered “she is one of us,” the judge asked that Rebecca’s not-guilty verdict be reconsidered by the jury. Asked what Goody Hobbs had meant by this muttered “she is one of us,” Rebecca Nurse failed to respond (later she would claim that, being hard of hearing, she simply had not heard the question, and that “one of us” might well have meant only that they had been being held in the jail at the same time). The Governor granted a reprieve, but then Rebecca’s accusers renewed their outcry and the governor withdrew his reprieve.

Early June: Soon after Bridget Bishop’s trial, Nathaniel Saltonstall, dissatisfied with the proceedings of the witchcraft court, resigned.

Sarah Good, one of the Salem women accused of witchcraft, was being held in the Boston jail. Mercy Short, one of the refugee Maine girls who had been ransomed from Indian captivity in Canada, was on an errand for her mistress when she had a hostile encounter with the prisoner. Soon afterward, this traumatized war victim would experience an apparition of the Devil, who would appear to her in the form of a man of “Tawny” or “Indian” color. (Two years earlier, in her frontier family home in Maine, she had had the experience of witnessing Abenaki warriors kill her father, her mother, and three of her brothers.)

June 8, Wednesday (Old Style): Judge William Stoughton signed the execution order of the condemned witch, Bridget Bishop. An interesting fact is to be noted here, that it would only take the Salem high sheriff a couple of days to get around to hanging her — but then it would take him four additional days before he would get around to certifying that he had offed her. Hey, Sheriff George, the job’s not done until the paperwork’s complete! To George Corwin Gentlm high Sheriff of the County of Essex Greeting Whereas Bridgett Bishop als Olliver the wife of Edward Bishop of Salem in the County of Essex Sawyer at a special Court of Oyer and Terminer ——(held at?)20 Salem this second Day of this instant month of June for the Countyes of Essex Middlesex and Suffolk before William Stoughton Esqe. and his Associates Justices of the said Court was Indicted and arraigned upon five several Indictments for useing practising & exercising on the — —21 last past and divers others days ——22 witchcraft in and upon the bodyes of Abigail Williams Ann puttnam Jr Mercy Lewis Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard of Salem Village single women; whereby their bodyes were hurt afflicted pined consumed wasted & tormented contrary to the forme of the statute in that case made and provided To which Indictmts the said Bridgett Bishop pleaded not guilty and for Tryall thereof put herselfe upon God and her Country ——23 she was found guilty of the ffelonyes and Witchcrafts whereof she stood Indicted and sentence of death accordingly passed agt her as the Law directs execution whereof yet remaines to be done These are therefore in the name of their Majties William & Mary now King & Queen over England & to will and command you that upon Fryday next being the fourth day of this instant month of June between the hours of Eight and twelve in the aforenoon of the same day you safely conduct the sd Bridgett Bishop als Olliver from their Majties Goale in Salem 20. Some of the words in the warrant are illegible. 21. Illegible. 22. Illegible. 23. Illegible. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS aforesd to the place of execution and there cause her to be hanged by the neck until she be dead and of your doings herein make returne to the Clerk of the sd Court and precept And hereof you are not to faile at your peril And this shall be sufficient warrant Given under my hand & seal at Boston the Eighth of June in the ffourth year of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lords William & Mary now King & Queen over England Annoque Dm 1692 Wm. Stoughton

June 10, Friday (Old Style): Bridget Bishop was hanged in Salem, the 1st official execution of the Salem witch trials.

Bridget Bishop: “I am no witch. I am innocent. I know nothing of it.” Following her death, accusations of witchcraft would escalate, but the trials would not be unopposed. Several townspeople would sign petitions on behalf of accused people they believed to be innocent. To George Corwin Gentlm high Sheriff of the County of Essex Greeting Whereas Bridgett Bishop als Olliver the wife of Edward Bishop of Salem in the County of Essex Sawyer at a special Court of Oyer and Terminer ——(held at?)24 Salem this second Day of this instant month of June for the Countyes of Essex Middlesex and Suffolk before William Stoughton Esqe. and his Associates Justices of the said Court was Indicted and arraigned upon five several Indictments for useing practising & exercising on the — —25 last past and divers others days ——26 witchcraft in and upon the bodyes of Abigail Williams Ann puttnam Jr Mercy Lewis Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard of Salem Village single women; whereby their bodyes were hurt afflicted pined consumed wasted & tormented contrary to the forme of the statute in that case made and provided To which Indictmts the said Bridgett Bishop

24. Some of the words in the warrant are illegible. 25. Illegible. 26. Illegible. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS pleaded not guilty and for Tryall thereof put herselfe upon God and her Country ——27 she was found guilty of the ffelonyes and Witchcrafts whereof she stood Indicted and sentence of death accordingly passed agt her as the Law directs execution whereof yet remaines to be done These are therefore in the name of their Majties William & Mary now King & Queen over England & to will and command you that upon Fryday next being the fourth day of this instant month of June between the hours of Eight and twelve in the aforenoon of the same day you safely conduct the sd Bridgett Bishop als Olliver from their Majties Goale in Salem aforesd to the place of execution and there cause her to be hanged by the neck until she be dead and of your doings herein make returne to the Clerk of the sd Court and precept And hereof you are not to faile at your peril And this shall be sufficient warrant Given under my hand & seal at Boston the Eighth of June in the ffourth year of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lords William & Mary now King & Queen over England Annoque Dm 1692 Wm. Stoughton

June 16, Thursday (Old Style): Sheriff George Corwin of Salem endorsed the execution order of the witch Bridgett Bishop, assuring the town authorities of Salem that in due course she had indeed been hanged — and was now as dead as might be desired:

To George Corwin Gentlm high Sheriff of the County of Essex Greeting Whereas Bridgett Bishop als Olliver the wife of Edward Bishop of Salem in the County of Essex Sawyer at a special Court of Oyer and Terminer ——(held at?)28 Salem this second Day of this instant month of June for the Countyes of Essex Middlesex and Suffolk before William Stoughton Esqe. and his Associates Justices of the said Court was Indicted and arraigned upon five several Indictments for useing practising & exercising on the — —29 last past and divers others days ——30 witchcraft in and upon the bodyes of Abigail Williams Ann puttnam Jr Mercy Lewis Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard of Salem Village single women; whereby their bodyes were hurt afflicted pined consumed wasted & tormented contrary to the forme of the statute in that case made and provided To which Indictmts the said Bridgett Bishop pleaded not guilty and for Tryall thereof put herselfe upon God and her Country ——31 she was found guilty of the ffelonyes and Witchcrafts whereof she stood Indicted and sentence of death accordingly passed agt her as the Law directs execution whereof yet remaines to be done These are therefore in the name of their Majties William & Mary now King & Queen over England & to will and command you that upon Fryday next being the fourth day of this instant month of June between the hours of Eight and twelve 27. Illegible. 28. Some of the words in the warrant are illegible. 29. Illegible. 30. Illegible. 31. Illegible. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS in the aforenoon of the same day you safely conduct the sd Bridgett Bishop als Olliver from their Majties Goale in Salem aforesd to the place of execution and there cause her to be hanged by the neck until she be dead and of your doings herein make returne to the Clerk of the sd Court and precept And hereof you are not to faile at your peril And this shall be sufficient warrant Given under my hand & seal at Boston the Eighth of June in the ffourth year of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lords William & Mary now King & Queen over England Annoque Dm 1692 Wm. Stoughton

June 16 1692 According to the within written precept I have taken the Bodye of the within named Bridgett Bishop out of their Majties Goale in Salem & Safely Conueighd her to the place provided for her Execution & Caused ye sd Bridgett to be hanged by the neck till Shee was dead all which was according to the time within Required & So I make returne by me George Corwin Sheriff

June 29-30: Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe were condemned for witchcraft. Rebecca Nurse: “Oh Lord, help me! It is false. I am clear. For my life now lies in your hands....” SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Mid-July: In an effort to expose the witches who were afflicting his mysteriously ailing wife, Joseph Ballard of nearby Andover enlisted the aid of two of the accusing girls of Salem.

The suspects were summoned to the Andover meetinghouse and confronted there with the Salem girls. The belief was that when a witch touches the body of a person they have bewitched, that releases the spell and therefore the victim can identify the witch. Mr. Barnard prayed and then blindfolded the suspects. When the afflicted girls from Salem came into the presence of a blindfolded person, they went into their fits. Then the hand of the blindfolded person was placed on each of the afflicted girls and instantly they came out of their fits and identified the person touching them as being the one who had been afflicting them. The authorities therefore dispatched the suspects to Salem for trial. Among these suspects were Mary Tyler (sometimes the documents identify her as Martha) and her daughter Johanna or Hannah.

July 19, Tuesday (Old Style): Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse was 71 years of age and an invalid after having reared a family of 8 surviving children, when on this day she was driven in a cart along with Sarah Good, Susannah Martin of Amesbury, and Elizabeth Howe and Sarah Wildes of Topsfield, to the gallows hill, and were hanged as witches. SALEM

Elizabeth Howe: “If it was the last moment I was to HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS live, God knows I am innocent...” WITCHES

Susannah Martin: “I have no hand in witchcraft.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Tradition has it that at midnight Francis Nurse, with his sons and sons-in-law, sneaked to the common pit into which the bodies had been dumped and took Rebecca’s body home for burial.32

(One of Rebecca’s sisters, Mary Towne Estey or Easty, would also hang.)

Major American Witchcraft Cases

1647 Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young 1663 Mary Barnes

1648 Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson 1666 Elizabeth Seager

1651 Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody 1669 Katherine (Kateran) Harrison Bassett, Mary Parsons

1652 John Carrington, Joan Carrington 1683 Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson

1653 Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth 1688 Annie “Goody” Glover Godman

1654 Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee 1692 Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies, Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson, Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey, Reverend George Burrough, George Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Ward- well, Mary Parker, Tituba

1655 Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley, 1693 Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins

1657 William Meaker 1697 Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Ben- ham, Junr.

1658 Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson, 1724 Sarah Spencer Katherine Grade

1661 Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings 1768 —— Norton

1662 Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca 1801 Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket” Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew San- ford, Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith Varlett, James Walkley

O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could die When all about thee Owned the hideous lie! The world, redeemed from superstition’s sway, Is breathing freer for thy sake today. — John Greenleaf Whittier inscribed on a monument

32. We will encounter a descendant of this Francis Nurse, also named Francis Nurse, marching to assemble on the green at Lexington on April 19, 1775. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS marking the grave

August 2-6: George Jacobs, Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John and Elizabeth Proctor, and John Willard were tried for witchcraft and condemned.

Martha Carrier: “...I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits.” SALEM

The trial of John Willard was held before a special term of the Court of Oyer and Terminer: Anno Regni Regis et Reginae et Mariae nunc Angliae, &c. Quarto. Essex ss The Jurors for our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King & Queen presents that John Willard of Salem Village in the County of Essex husband the Eighteenth day of May in the ffourth year of the Reigne of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady William & Mary by the Grace of God of England Scottland ffrance & Ireland King & Queen Defenders of the ffaith &c: Divers other Dayes & times as well before as after, certaine detestable arts called Witchcrafts & Sorceries wickedly & feloniously hath vsed, Practised & Exercised at & within the Towne of Salem in the County of Essex aforesaid in. vpon. and agt one Mercy Lewis of Salem Village aforesaid in the County aforesaid single woman by which said wicked arts the said Mercy Lewis the said Eighteenth Day of May in the ffourth year abovesaid and divers other Dayes & times as well before as after was & is hurt, tortured afflicted consumed Pined wasted & tormented, against the Peace of our Sovereigne Lord & Lady the King & Queen. and against the forme of the Statute in that case made & Provided Witnesses Mercy Lewis Abigail Williams Mary Walcott Susanna Sheldon Ann Puttnam Senior Ann Puttnam Junior Elizabeth Hubbard HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

August 4, Thursday (Old Style): Six persons had thus far been executed in Salem as witches. It was at this point that the Reverend Cotton Mather wrote, in his A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD, the following words: They —the judges— have used as judges have heretofore done, the spectral evidences, to introduce their farther inquiries into the lives of the persons accused; and they have thereupon, by the wonderful Providence of God, been so strengthened with other evidences that some of the witch-gang have been fairly executed.

August 19, Friday (Old Style): George Jacobs, Sr., the Reverend George Burrough, John Proctor,33 John Willard, and Martha Carrier of Andover were hanged on Salem’s Gallows Hill. Before he was turned off, the Reverend Burrough was allowed to make a statement, which he concluded with a prayer, reciting at the end the Lord’s Prayer. This caused great consternation among the onlookers, as the Reverend Burrough recited the Lord’s Prayer without any obvious blunders — and the common belief of the time was that a witch would not be able to accomplish this task without making blunders. It required the Reverend Cotton Mather, on horseback, to quell the assemblage by assuring them that the action being taken was righteous.

George Jacobs: “Because I am falsely accused. I never did it.”

33. Four years after her husband was hanged, the widowed Elizabeth Procter would remarry. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Major American Witchcraft Cases

1647 Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young 1663 Mary Barnes

1648 Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson 1666 Elizabeth Seager

1651 Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody 1669 Katherine (Kateran) Harrison Bassett, Mary Parsons

1652 John Carrington, Joan Carrington 1683 Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson

1653 Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth 1688 Annie “Goody” Glover Godman

1654 Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee 1692 Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies, Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson, Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey, Reverend George Burrough, George Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Ward- well, Mary Parker, Tituba

1655 Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley, 1693 Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins

1657 William Meaker 1697 Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Ben- ham, Junr.

1658 Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson, 1724 Sarah Spencer Katherine Grade

1661 Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings 1768 —— Norton

1662 Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca 1801 Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket” Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew San- ford, Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith Varlett, James Walkley

September 9, Tuesday: Martha Corey, Mary Towne Estey or Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury were tried and condemned. Mary Bradbury: “I do plead not guilty. I am wholly innocent of such wickedness.” WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

September 14, Wednesday (Old Style): Just as the witch frenzy had been reaching its climax in Salem, Massachusetts, it had been reaching its climax also in Fairfield. Early in the year several local women had been accused of this capital crime, among them Mercy Disborough, wife of Thomas Disbro or Disborough of Compo in Fairfield. The General Court of Connecticut had ordered a Special Court to convene in Fairfield, to be presided over by Governor Robert Treat. (Other local women would also be indicted as witches before this special court, one such being Elizabeth Clauson or Clawson.) On this day, however, a true bill (billa vera) was rendered against Mistress Disborough, in the following words: Mercy Disborough is complayned of & accused as guilty of witchcraft for that on the 25t of Aprill 1692 & in the 4th year of their Maties reigne & at sundry other times she hath by the instigation & help of the diuill in a preternaturall way afflicted & don harme to the bodyes & estates of sundry of their Maties subjects or to some of them contrary to the law of God, the peace of our soueraigne lord & lady the King & Queen their crowne & dignity. BILLA VERA. Here are the evidences given against her: EDWARD JESOP — The roast pig — “The place of Scripture” — The bewitched “cannoe” — The old cart horse — Optical illusions Edward Jesop aged about 29 years testifieth that being at The Disburrows house at Compoh sometime in ye beginning of last winter in ye evening he asked me to tarry & sup with him, & their I saw a pigg roasting that looked verry well, but when it came to ye table (where we had a very good lite) it seemed to me to have no skin upon it & looked very strangly, but when ye sd Disburrow began to cut it ye skin (to my apprehension) came againe upon it, & it seemed to be as it was when upon ye spit, at which strange alteration of ye pig I was much concerned however fearing to displease his wife by refusing to eat, I did eat some of ye pig, & at ye same time Isaac Sherwood being there & Disburrows wife & hee discoursing concerning a certain place of scripture, & I being of ye same mind that Sherwood was concerning yt place of scripture & Sherwood telling her where ye place was she brought a bible (that was of very large print) to me to read ye particular scripture, but tho I had a good light HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS & looked ernestly upon ye book I could not see one letter but looking upon it againe when in her hand after she had turned over a few leaves I could see to read it above a yard of. Ye same night going home & coming to Compoh it seemed to be high water whereupon I went to a cannoe that was about ten rods of (which lay upon such a bank as ordinarily I could have shoved it into ye creek with ease) & though I lifted with all my might & lifted one end very high from ye ground I could by no means push it into ye creek & then ye water seemed to be so loe yt I might ride over, whereupon I went againe to ye water side but then it appeared as at first very high & then going to ye cannoe againe & finding that I could not get it into ye creek I thought to ride round where I had often been & knew ye way as well as before my own dore & had my old cart hors yet I could not keep him in ye road do what I could but he often turned aside into ye bushes and then went backwards so that tho I keep upon my hors & did my best indeauour to get home I was ye greatest part of ye night wandering before I got home altho I was not much more than two miles. Fairfield Septembr 15th 1692. Sworn in Court Septr 15 1692. Attests John Allyn, Secry......

JOHN BARLOW — Mesmeric influence — Light and darkness — The falling out John Barlow eaged 24 years or thairabout saieth and sd testifieth that soumtime this last year that as I was in bedd in the hous that Mead Jesuop then liuied in that Marsey Desbory came to me and layed hold on my fett and pinshed them (and) looked wishley in my feass and I strouff to rise and cold not and too speek and cold not. All the time that she was with me it was light as day as it semed to me — but when shee uanicht it was darck and I arose and hade a paine in my feet and leags some time after an our or too it remained. Sometime before this aforesd Marcey and I had a falling out and shee sayed that if shee had but strength shee would teer me in peses. Sworn in court Septr 19, 92. Attests John Allyn......

BENJAMIN DUNING — “Cast into ye watter” — Vindication of innocence — Mercy not to be hanged alone A Speciall Cort held in Fairfield this 2d of June 1692. Marcy Disbrow ye wife of Thomas Disbrow of Fairfield was sometimes lately accused by Catren Branch servant to Daniell Wescoat off tormenting her whereupon sd Mercy being sent for to Stanford and ther examined upon suspecion of witchcraft before athaurity and fro thnce conueyed to ye county jaile and sd Mercy ernestly desireing to be tryed by being cast into ye watter yesterday wch was done this day being examind what speciall reason she had to be so desiring of such a triall her answer was yt it was to vindicate her innocency allso she sd Mercy being HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS asked if she did not say since she was duckt yt if she was hanged shee would not be hanged alone her answer was yt she did say to Benje Duning do you think yt I would be such a fooll as to be hanged allone. Sd Benj. Duning aged aboue sixteen years testifies yt he heard sd Mercy say yesterday that if she was hanged she would not be hanged allone wch was sd upon her being urged to bring out others that wear suspected for wiches. Sept 15 1692 Sworn in Court by Benj. Duning attest John Allyn Secy

Joseph Stirg aged about 38 declares that he wth Benj. Duning being at prison discoursing with the prisoner now at the bar he heard her say if she were hanged she would not be hanged alone. He tould her she implicitly owned herself a witch. Sworn in Court Sept. 15, atests John Allyn, Secry......

THOMAS HALLIBERCH — A poor creature “damd” — Torment — A lost soul — Divination Thomas Halliberch ye jayle keeper aged 41 testifieth and saith yt this morning ye date aboue Samull Smith junr. came to his house and sad somthing to his wife somthing concerning Mercy and his wifes answer was Oh poor creature upon yt Mercy mad answer & sd poor creature indeed & sd shee had been tormented all night. Sd Halliberch answered her yt it was ye devill her answer was she did beleue it was and allso yt she sed to it in ye name of ye Father Son and Holy Gost also sd Halliberch saith yt sd Mercy sd that her soul was damd for yesterdays worke. Mercy owned before this court yt she did say to sd Halliberch that it was reuealled to her yt shee wisht she had not damd her soule for yesterdays work and also sad before this cort she belieued that there was a deuination in all her trouble. Owned by the prisoner in court Sept. 15, 1692. attest John Allyn, Secy . . . . .

THOMAS BENIT, ELIZABETH BENIT — “A birds taile” — A family difference — “Ye Scripture words” — The lost “calues and lams” Thos. Benit aged aboute 50 yrs testifieth yt Mercy Disbrow tould him yt shee would make him as bare as a birds taile, which he saith was about two or three yrs sine wch was before he lost any of his creatures. Elizabeth Benit aged about 20 yrs testifieth yt Mercy Disbrow did say that it should be prest heeped and running ouer to her sd Elizabth; wch was somtime last winter after som difference yt was aboute a sow of Benje. Rumseyes. Mercy Disbrow owns yt she did say those words to sd Elizabeth & yt she did tell her yt it was ye scripture words & named ye place of scripture which was about a day after. The abousd Thos. Benit saith yt after ye sd Mercy had expressed HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS herself as above, he lost a couple of two yr old calues in a creek running by Halls Islande, which catle he followed by ye track & founde them one against a coue of ice & ye other about high water marke, & yt they went into ye creek som distance from ye road where ye other catle went not, & also yt he lost 30 lams wthin about a fortnights time after ye sd two catle died som of sd lams about a week old & som a fortnight & in good liueing case & allso saith yt som time after ye sd lams died he lost two calues yt he fectht up ouer night & seemed to be well & wear dead before ye next morning one of them about a fortnight old ye one a sucker & ye other not......

HENRY GREY — The roaring calfe — The mired cow — The heifer and cart whip — Hard words — “Creeses in ye cetle” The said Henry saith yt aboute a year agou or somthing more yt he had a calfe very strangly taken and acted things yt are very unwonted, it roared very strangly for ye space of near six or seven howers & allso scowered extraordinarily all which after an unwonted maner; & also saith he had a lame after a very strange maner it being well and ded in about an houre and when it was skined it lookt as if it had been bruised or pinched on ye shoulders and allso saith yt about two or three months agou he and Thos Disbrow & sd Disbroughs wife was makeing a bargaine about a cetle yt sd Henry was to haue & had of sd Disbrough so in time they not agreeing sd Henry carried ye cetle to them againe & then sd Dibroughs wife was very angry and many hard words pased & yt som time since about two months he lost a cow which was mired in a swampe and was hanged by one leg in mire op to ye gambrill and her nose in the water and sd cow was in good case & saith he had as he judged about 8 pound of tallow out of sd cow & allso yt he had a thre yr old heifer came home about three weeks since & seemed to ale somthing she lay downe & would haue cast herself but he pruented her & he cut a piece of her eare & still shee seemed to be allmost dead & then he sent for his cart whip & gave ye cow a stroak wth it & she arose suddenly and ran from him & he followed her & struck her sundry times and yt wthin about one hour he judges she was well & chewed her cud allso sd Henry saith yt ye ketle he had of sd Disbrow loockt like a new ketle the hamer stroakes and creeses was plaine to be seen in ye cetle, from ye time he had it untill a short time before he carried it home & then in about a quarter of an hour, the cetle changed its looks & seemed to be an old cetle yt had been used about 20 years and yt sundry nailes appeared which he could not see before and allso saith yt somtime lately he being at his brother Jacob Grays house & Mercy Disbrough being there she begane to descorse about ye kitle yt because he would not haue ye cetle shee had said that it should cost him two cows which he tould her he could prove she had sed & her answer was Aye: & then was silent, & he went home & when he com home he heard Thomas Benit say he had a cow strangly taken yt day & he sent for his cart whip & whipye cow & shee was soon well againe & as near as he could com at it was about ye same time yt he tould Mercy he could prove what shee sad about ye two cows and allso saith yt as soon as he came home ye same time his wife HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS tould him yt while Thos Benit had ye cart whip one of sd Henrys calues was taken strangly & yt she sent for ye whip & before ye whip came ye calf was well......

JOHN GRUMMON — A sick child — Its unbewitching — Benit’s threats — Mercy’s tenderness John Grummon senr saith yt about six year agou he being at Compo with his wife & child & ye child being very well as to ye outward vew and it being suddenly taken very ill & so remained a little while upon wch he being much troubled went out & heard young Thomas Benit threaten Mercy Disbrow & bad her unbewitch his uncles child whereupon she came ouer to ye child & ye child was well. Thomas Benit junr aged 27 years testifieth yt at ye same time of ye above sd childs illness he came into ye house wher it was & he spoke to sd John Gruman to go & scould at Mercy & tould him if he sd Gruman would not he would wherupon he sd Benit went out and called to Mercy & bad her come and unbewitch his unkle Grumans child or else he would beat her hart out then sd mercy imediatly came ouer and stroaked ye child & sd God forbad she should hurt ye child and imediately after ye child was well......

ANN GODFREE — The frisky oxen — Neighborly interest — The “beer out of ye barrill” — Mixed theology — The onbewitched sow Ann Godfree aged 27 years testifieth yt she came to Thos Disbrows house ye next morning after it was sd yt Henry Grey whipt his cow and sd Disbrows wife lay on ye bed & stretcht out her arme & sd to her oh! Ann I am allmost kild; & further saith yt about a year & eleven months agou she went to sd Disbrows house wth young Thos Benits wife & told Mercy Disbrow yt Henry Greys wife sed she had bewitcht his her husbands oxen & made y jump ouer ye fence & made ye beer jump out of ye barrill & Mercy answered yt there was a woman came to her & reuiled her & asked what shee was doing she told her she was praying to her God, then she asked her who was her god allso tould her yt her god was ye deuill; & Mercy said she bad ye woman go home & pray to her god & she went home but shee knew not whether she did pray or not; but she sed God had met wth her for she had died a hard death for reuileing on her & yt when ye sd Thos Benits wife & she came away sd Benits wife tould her yt woman yt was spoaken of was her sister and allso sed yt shee had heard those words which Mercy had related to her pas between Mercy and her sister. Upon yt sd An saith she would haue gon back & haue talked againe to Mercy & Thomas Benit senr bad her she should not for she would do her som mischief and yt night following shee sd Ann saith she could not sleep & shee heard a noyse about ye house & allso heard a noyse like as tho a beast wear knoct with an axe & in ye morning their was a heifer of theirs lay ded near ye door. Allso sd An saith yt last summer she had a sow very sick and sd Mercy cam bye & she called to her & bad her on-bewitch her sow & tould her yt folks talked HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS of ducking her but if she would not onbewitch her sow she should need no ducking & soon after yt her sow was well and eat her meat. That both what is on this side & the other is sworne in court. Sept 15, 92. Attests, John Allyn Secy During her trial a committee of women had searched Mercy Disborough’s body for witch marks and nothing suspicious had been found. This search was repeated and again produced nothing, but then a young girl in the courtroom, a girl with a history of epilepcy and hysteria, had one of her fits just after the defendant had glanced in her direction:

DANIEL WESTCOTT’S “GERLE” — SCENES IN THE MEETING HOUSE — “YE GIRL” — MERCY’S VOICE — USUAL PAROXISME The afflicted person being carried into ye meeting house & Mercy Disbrow being under examination by ye honable court & whilst she was speaking ye girl came to her sences, & sd she heard Mercy Disbrow saying withall where is she, endeavoring to raise herself, with her masters help got almost up, in ye open view of present, & Mercy Disbrow looking about on her, she immediately fel down into a fit again. A 2d time she came to herself whilst in ye meeting house, & askd whers Mercy, I hear her voice, & with that turned about her head (she lying with her face from her) & lookd on her, then laying herself down in like posture as before sd tis she, Ime sure tis she, & presently fell into a like paroxisme or fit as she usually is troubled with. So, the authorities ordered that Mercy be subjected to the dreaded ordeal by water. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS September 17, Saturday (Old Style): In Salem, Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Dane Faulkner,34 Rebecca Eames, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster, and Abigail Hobbs, accused of witchcraft, were tried and condemned.

“The Jury find Abigail Faulkner, wife of Francis Faulkner of Andover, guilty of ye felony of witchcraft, commited on ye body of Martha Sprague, also on ye body of Sarah Phelps. Sentence of death passed on Abigail Faulkner.”

However, Abigail, being pregnant, could not be taken to the gallows with the others.

34. Cara Helfner is currently asserting on the Internet (http://www.faulknerhospital.org/PDF/ The_History_of_Faulkner_Hospital_31110.pdf), and evidently with institutional backing, that “Colonel Francis Faulkner’s second son Winthrop was Emerson’s grandfather.” This would of course make Abigail Dane Faulkner out to have been a great-great-great- grandmother of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I find I am unable to corroborate such an assertion. In fact the name “Faulkner” nowhere appears in the most extensive Emerson genealogy I have seen, one which in some branches takes the family back into a generation of Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents living toward the end of the 16th Century.

WALDO’S RELATIVES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS September 16, Friday or 17, Saturday (Old Style): In an open field behind the jail of Salem, in the center of the town, in the center of a large crowd, Giles Cory was being urged to cooperate in the trials for witchcraft. He was prostrate on the ground and large stones were being placed upon his body, one by one.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF UNKNOWN PROVENANCE A RECENT HALLOWEEN IN DUBIOUS TASTE Captain Gardiner of Nantucket was urging Giles to begin to testify, but he would not. He gasped: HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Famous Last Words:

“What school is more profitably instructive than the death-bed of the righteous, impressing the understanding with a convincing evidence, that they have not followed cunningly devised fables, but solid substantial truth.” — A COLLECTION OF MEMORIALS CONCERNING DIVERS DECEASED MINISTERS, Philadelphia, 1787 “The death bed scenes & observations even of the best & wisest afford but a sorry picture of our humanity. Some men endeavor to live a constrained life — to subject their whole lives to their will as he who said he might give a sign if he were conscious after his head was cut off — but he gave no sign Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.” —Thoreau’s JOURNAL, March 12, 1853

1681 Headman Ockanickon of the Mantas are the “Leaping Frogs” “Be plain and fair to all, both Indian the Mantas group of the Lenape tribe and Christian, as I have been.”

1692 Massachusetts Bay being pressed to death for refusing to “Add more weight that my misery colonist Giles Corey cooperate in his trial for witchcraft may be the sooner ended.”

1777 John Bartram during a spasm of pain “I want to die.”

1790 Benjamin Franklin unsolicited comment “A dying man can do nothing easy.”

1793 Louis Capet, being beheaded in the Place de la Con- “I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my King Louis XVI of corde charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned France my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.”

1793 Jean-Paul Marat reviewing a list of names “They shall all be guillotined.”

1793 Citizen Marie Antoinette stepping on the foot of her executioner “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur.” ... other famous last words ...

“In pressing, his tongue being prest out of his Mouth, the Sheriff with his Cane forced it in again, when he was dying.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Major American Witchcraft Cases

1647 Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young 1663 Mary Barnes

1648 Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson 1666 Elizabeth Seager

1651 Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody 1669 Katherine (Kateran) Harrison Bassett, Mary Parsons

1652 John Carrington, Joan Carrington 1683 Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson

1653 Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth 1688 Annie “Goody” Glover Godman

1654 Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee 1692 Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies, Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson, Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey, Reverend George Burrough, George Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Ward- well, Mary Parker, Tituba

1655 Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley, 1693 Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins

1657 William Meaker 1697 Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Ben- ham, Junr.

1658 Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson, 1724 Sarah Spencer Katherine Grade

1661 Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings 1768 —— Norton

1662 Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca 1801 Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket” Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew San- ford, Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith Varlett, James Walkley HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

September 21, Sunday: Dorcas Hoar became the 1st of those accused of witchery who had initially pled innocent and then found out that that got them exactly nowhere, to try out the alternate option of confessing and repenting. She having confessed and repented, Satan having evidently gone out of her, her hanging would be delayed. SALEM

September 22, Thursday (Old Style): Magistrate Samuel Sewall –the progenitor of the Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. of Scituate in the Bay Colony who would begin to attend the Concord Academy in Concord in June 1839 and of the Ellen Devereux Sewall to whom Henry Thoreau would propose– was involved in the offing of 19 women of Salem for being in league with Satan. On this one day Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Towne Estey or Easty (whose sister, Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse, had already been taken to the gallows), Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were hanged. Mary Towne Easty: “...if it be possible no more innocent blood be shed...... I am clear of this sin.”

The Reverend Nicholas Noyes: “What a sad thing to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS William Hathorne’s son John Hathorne (1641-1717), a chip off the old block, a Colonel in the Massachusetts Militia and a deputy to the General Court in Boston, was a Magistrate during this episode in which in addition to the hangings of this day one woman had a short time before been tortured to death.35 WITCH

35. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a descendant, would be much troubled by a curse Sarah Good had placed on her executioners, “God will give you Blood to drink.”

His tale “The Gentle Boy” of 1831 would make reference to this history.

Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors; and let each successive generation thank him, not less fervently, for being one step further from them in the march of the ages. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Major American Witchcraft Cases

1647 Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young 1663 Mary Barnes

1648 Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson 1666 Elizabeth Seager

1651 Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody 1669 Katherine (Kateran) Harrison Bassett, Mary Parsons

1652 John Carrington, Joan Carrington 1683 Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson

1653 Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth 1688 Annie “Goody” Glover Godman

1654 Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee 1692 Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies, Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson, Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey, Reverend George Burrough, George Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Ward- well, Mary Parker, Tituba

1655 Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley, 1693 Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins

1657 William Meaker 1697 Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Ben- ham, Junr.

1658 Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson, 1724 Sarah Spencer Katherine Grade

1661 Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings 1768 —— Norton

1662 Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca 1801 Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket” Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew San- ford, Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith Varlett, James Walkley

October: Some witchcraft accusers went to Gloucester and there accused 4 women, but Salem prison was already full so 2 of these new accused were sent to the Ipswich prison.

October 8, Saturday (Old Style): After 20 people had been executed in the Salem witch hunt, Thomas Brattle wrote a letter criticizing the witchcraft trials. This letter had great impact on Governor Phips, who ordered that reliance on spectral and intangible evidence no longer be allowed in trials. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS October 29, Saturday (Old Style): Governor Phips dissolved Salem’s Court of Oyer and Terminer.

The madness was over, in Salem.36 That did not, however, mean that the madness was over, elsewhere in New England. On this day, at Fairfield, Connecticut, a committee made up of Sarah Burr, Abigail Burr, Abigail Howard, Sarah Wakeman, and Hannah Wilson that had been “apointed (by the court) to make sarch upon ye bodis of Marcy Disbrough and Goodwif Clauson” for witch marks, swore before Jonathan Bell, Commissioner, and John Allyn, Secretary, as follows: Wee Sarah bur and abigall bur and Abigail howard and Sarah wakman all of fayrfeild with hanna wilson being by order of authority apointed to make sarch upon ye bodis of marcy disbrough and goodwif Clauson to see what they Could find on ye bodies of ether & both of them; and wee retor as followeth and doe testify as to goodwif Clauson forementioned wee found on her secret parts Just within ye lips of ye same growing within sid sumewhat as broad and reach without ye lips of ye same about on Inch and half long lik in shape to a dogs eare which wee apprehend to be vnvsuall to women. and as to marcy wee find on marcy foresayd on her secret parts growing within ye lep of ye same a los pees of skin and when puld it is near an Inch long somewhat in form of ye fingar of a glove flatted that lose skin wee Judge more than common to women.

Octob. 29 1692 The above sworn by the above-named as attests JOHN ALLYN Secry

36. The reading version of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” play avers that not long afterward, the Reverend Samuel Parris would be voted from office, would walk out upon the highroad, and would never again be heard of. It also avers that when, after a couple of decades, the government had offered compensation of sorts, this compensation had gone not only to the families of the real victims, but also to the families of some of the informers. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS November 25, Friday (Old Style): The General Court of the colony created the Superior Court to try the remaining witchcraft cases, which would take place in May 1693. No one would be convicted. The total hanging score would remain at: 14 hanged women, 5 hanged men, 2 hanged dogs, 1 hanged cat. We should pay attention here to that fact that at the very end of the Hollywood film based upon the Arthur Miller play, “The Crucible,” the following words scroll up the screen: “After nineteen executions the Salem witch-hunt was brought to an end, as more and more accused people refused to save themselves by giving false confessions.”

There is no shred of truthfulness in this conclusion to the film, and it isn’t because they left out the two hanged dogs and one hanged cat. Actually, what brought the sordid Salem affair to its termination, a sordid fact too sordid for the movie to recount, was that the situation had been brought to a halt by the fact that the ever- widening circle of accusations had come to threaten persons of social prominence and thus the situation was threatening to transform itself into a populist uproar similar to the era of Robespierre. In other words, the structure of the situation was such that the moral example set by John Procter, in choosing to go to the gallows rather than implicate others unjustly, did more to perpetuate the crisis than to bring it to an end. What should he have done? He should have said he saw the devil standing by the judge! Mr. Marilyn Monroe was, however, not writing the history of the 17th Century, he was writing the history of the 20th Century. The actual question would be, was it citizens acting as the John Procter actor acted in this play/film that brought our House Unamerican Committee era to its completion?

Mary Towne Easty: “...if it be possible no more innocent blood be shed...... I am clear of this sin.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1693

March 20, Monday (1692, Old Style): Ammi Ruhammah Faulkner was born in Andover. Since his mother Abigail had been one of those convicted as a witch in Salem, she should presumably then have been hanged in accordance with her sentence; however, the frenzy having evaporated, this did not occur. Ammi Ruhammah means “My people have obtained mercy.”37

37. Cara Helfner is currently asserting on the Internet (http://www.faulknerhospital.org/PDF/ The_History_of_Faulkner_Hospital_31110.pdf), and evidently with institutional backing, that “Colonel Francis Faulkner’s second son Winthrop was Emerson’s grandfather.” This would of course make Ammi Ruhammah Faulkner out to have been a great-great- grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I find I am unable to corroborate such an assertion. In fact the name “Faulkner” nowhere appears in the most extensive Emerson genealogy I have seen, one which in some branches takes the family back into a generation of Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents living toward the end of the 16th Century.

WALDO’S RELATIVES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1694

In Salem, the West Indian slave woman Tituba, who had 2 years earlier been arrested on suspicions of witchcraft –or on suspicions of suspicions, or something or other– and who had for these 2 years been confined, thankfully forgotten about, in the Salem jail, was freed back into her previous condition of enslavement.

Old Captain Richard More, the bastard of the Mayflower, was still alive and living in Salem while all this stuff and nonsense about witches and hangings had been going down. As a man who had been condemned by his church on account of his sexual dalliances, he would have been entirely without influence as an elder in his community. One may well wonder what sort of take the old man would have had on the activities of his neighbors, as he watched this thing develop, and as he watched various neighbors being hauled off to be hanged!

Richard More would die in Salem sometime between March 19, 1693/1694 and April 20, 1696. More’s gravestone survives, the only known original gravestone of a Mayflower passenger still in existence which was erected at the time of burial:

December: A meteor appeared in the skies over Salem. It broke into 7 pieces, and overall the phenomenon was visible for 3 minutes. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS “Nothing was more common, in those days, than to interpret all meteoric appearances, and other natural phenomena that occurred with less regularity than the rise and set of sun and moon, as so many revelations from a supernatural source. Thus, a blazing spear, a sword of flame, a bow, or a sheaf of arrows seen in the midnight sky, prefigured Indian warfare. Pestilence was known to have been foreboded by a shower of crimson light. We doubt whether any marked event, for good or evil, ever befell New England, from its settlement down to revolutionary times, of which the inhabitants had not been previously warned by some spectacle of its nature. Not seldom, it had been seen by multitudes. Oftener, however, its credibility rested on the faith of some lonely eye-witness, who beheld the wonder through the coloured, magnifying, and distorted medium of his imagination, and shaped it more distinctly in his after- thought. It was, indeed, a majestic idea that the destiny of nations should be revealed, in these awful hieroglyphics, on the cope of heaven. A scroll so wide might not be deemed too expensive for Providence to write a people’s doom upon. The belief was a favourite one with our forefathers, as betokening that their infant commonwealth was under a celestial guardianship of peculiar intimacy and strictness.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1695

Friend Thomas Maule, a Quaker of Salem, one of the richest men in town, proclaimed, in TRUTH HELD FORTH, that there were indeed witches loose in New England, and that the reason why this was so was that God was displeased that his people the Quakers were being persecuted. God had unleashed witches and Indians to devastate the persecutors of his people. This pamphlet was not anonymous — he would be imprisoned for slander. (In 1701 he would become more personal about his message, in NEW ENGLAND PERSECUTORS MAULED, by asserting flat out that “the evil one abideth in Cotton Mather.”) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1696

Four years after the hanging of John Procter as a witch, his widow Elizabeth Procter remarried. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1698

June 6, Monday (Old Style): We have a record that a Samuel Shattuck died in Salem. (Was this the same Friend Samuel who had in 1661 brought the royal mandamus to Boston? If so, he must have lived well over a hundred years — and that renders the identification unlikely.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1699

26, 4th mo.: The New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends dissociated itself from the wealthy Quaker of Salem, Friend Thomas Maule, who had in 1695 issued a pamphlet TRUTH HELD FORTH in which he had suggested that God was so displeased at the Puritan persecution of his people the Quakers that He was unleashing witches and Indians to punish New England.

The New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends established a Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, headquartered in East Greenwich and consisting of three Monthly Meetings: • Dartmouth Monthly Meeting. • Rhode Island Monthly Meeting. • Narragansett (which became Greenwich), held for a time at Kingston and hence sometimes referred to as “Kingston Meeting,” but in 1700 relocated to “the New Meeting in East Greenwich,” where it remained until in 1707 the Quarterly Meeting directed that it should be held at Providence, Greenwich, Kingstown, and East Greenwich alternately, which was the case until in the 4th mo. of 1718 Providence Monthly Meeting was set off and established by Quarterly Meeting. In 3d. mo. 1743 it was again divided, and the new grouping was named “Kingston Monthly Meeting” — this became South Kingstown Monthly Meeting, headquartered at Hopkinton. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

June 26, Monday, 28, Wednesday (Old Style)John Evelyn’s diary: : after a yeares tedious altercations caused by one Dr. Fullham who had married a Grandaughter of my Bros, against the full Consent of her Relations, a Crafty & intriguing person, he so insinuated into my good Bro, after a few moneths, as to perswade my Bro[ther] to require me, to cut off an Intaile of the Estate he had given me, & that in Case, I should die without Issue Male, it might fall to the Grandaughter, which by the reiterated settlements the law would not give him: My Bro[ther] having often professed, that he would have it descend to the name, & I by no meanes willing it should be otherwise, & that the Patrimony of my Ancestors should be dissipated, sold or scattered, among strangers, as it would soon have ben, & our name & family extinguished, as it almost was, by Sir Jo: Evelyn of God-stone, Sir Jo: of Wilts, Sir Ed of Ditton, who leaving nothing to their name, 3 considerable Estates went away to the female: My Bro[ther] likewise, having amply provided portions to his 3 Grandaughters; & so many years persisting to have his Estate Continue in the name: Was as I sayd, so wrought upon by the Crafty Doctor as upon my refusal to alter the settlement, to exhibit a Bill against me in Parliament now sitting, tho’ I often promised not to alter the settlement, but let it passe with the Contingencys, offering in the meanetime, that provided the Mannor of Wotton & Abinger might be reserved, to comply as to the rest, that in Case I had no heir Male it should go to the Grandchildren: but when I found nothing would pacify the Doctor & the rest, but the swallowing it all; I so answered my Bro[ther] Bill, shewing how absolutly it was conveyed to me; That the house of Commons was so convinct of my Case, that they durst not proceede, I having so very greate an Interest among them in favour of my right: So as hoping to fare better with the Lords, they attempted all they could to gaine a party among them; but, when they found I had not onely almost all the Bishops, & so very many of the secular Lords, as were the most eminent speakers, that they had no hope to prevaile there: My Bro[ther] (who ’til now they would not suffer, to accept of any Composition) did at last, offer that if I would alowe him 6500 pounds, to inable him to discharge [some of] his owne debts, & give legacys to his Gr[and]- Children, he would make a new settlement, that should more expressly Convey the whole Estate by an indefeasable Inheritance, & being Tennant for life onely, oblige himself not to make any HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS farther wast of the woods & other spoile he had begunn, & was in his power to do: To this, in reguard of his free & original gift (tho most believed it had ben intended by my Father but which my Bro[ther] deneyed) & to quiet his Mind, & indeede in Gratitude, I did consent to, The mony to be payd by 1000 pounds a year for 7 years to begin after his decease: Now my good Bro[ther] being sufficiently Convinct, & declaring that what he settled on me, was not onely absolutly in his power, to give his Estate as he pleased, and peremptorily affirming to the Doctor himselfe, that he would do it again if what he had settled was not sufficiently valid: Yet so dextrous was this Insinuating faire tongued & crafty man, assisted with the perpetual solicitation of the Women; that then they set on my Bro[ther] with a Case of Conscience, & that tho’ he had power to give the Estate as he had don, yet in Conscience he ought not to have don it: Upon this I sent my Case to the learned Bishop of Worcester Dr. Stillingflete, not more esteemed for his being an Excellent Lawyer, but a profound divine, who, as indeede did the A Bishop of Cant[erbury] Bishop of Ely, Chichester, Peterborough, Chester, Salisbery, Lichfield &c: who universaly affirm’d my Bro[ther] was not obliged by Conscience to revoak what he had settled on me: And as to matter of Law, the other Lords, Dukes, Earles & Peers who were generaly for me, as were the Commons: I had so much the advantage, that, had I not ben tenderer of my Bro[ther] reputation than some would have had me: I might have saved 6500 pounds: but I chose rather to incumber the Estate with it, than not to gratify my good Bro[ther] notwithstanding the advantage I had, & least it should be said I was ungratefull; my designe & desire being nothing so much in all this Contest, but to preserve the patrimonial Estate to the famely: So as now, a settlement being made as strong as Law could do it, all was Reconciled: my Good Bro[ther] having ben prevailed with, contrary to his own resolution, but suffers them to govern his as they pleased, & this in my absence, whilst I was cald to London about other affairs: to both our trouble & charge: The Writings were sealed 26. of June, & a Recovery suffered on 28: After this finding my Occasions calling [me] so often to Lond[on] I tooke the remainder of the Time, my sonn, had in his lease of an house in Dover-streete, To which I now removed, finding my being at Wotton as yet Inconvenient: So as I resolved to continue at Lond[on] without removing my furniture at Wotton; having enough at Says Court, I furnished the house in Dover- streete, & came to it on Saturday, July 1. from Berkley streete, where I had ben ever since I came from Wotton, in reguard of my unhapy Sons Indisposition: I pray God of his infinit mercy, whose gracious providence has hitherto so wonderfully extricated me [out] of this, & other disturbances & afflictions, to sanctifie it to me, and to blesse the remainder of my life & now very old age with peace, & Charity, & assist me with his Grace to the End: July 6, Saturday (Old Style): At Doctors Commons tooke my Oath of Administration of my Sonns Estate: August 7, Monday (Old Style): I went to Greenwich to refresh & take the aire for a few days: & to see how our building went forward: August 13, Sunday (Old Style): ... In the Afternoone, at Deptford, where they had built a pretty decent new Church: The Curat preached on 5 Gal:16:... August 20, Sunday (Old Style): ... I came from Greenewich where I had ben til this day & drank Shooters-hill waters: returned: The weather very fine & seasonable all the time: September 1, Friday (Old Style): My Daughter Draper was brought to bed of a Sonn, and Christned on the 1 of September by the name of Richard, his Godfather[s] were Mr. Morley, Nephew to the late Bishop of Winchester, & Mr. Sherwood, who maried a neere Relation of my Sons in Law: News of the Q[ueen] of Portugals death, caused by a feavor with the boaring an hole in her Eare, for which according to the method of that Country (not of Germany) they let her blood til she breathed out her life:... HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS September 13, Wednesday (Old Style): ... There was on Wednesday this weeke greate expectations of the Effects of a very dismal Eclipse of the Sun, people expected by predictions of the Astrologer[s] that it would be exceedingly darke: But tho’ the morning were very Mirky, yet was the obscurity no other than on other clowdy days: But this I well remember, the whole Nation was affrited by Lilly the Almanack [writer], who foretold what a dreadfull Eclipse [that which was called Black monday] it would be, insomuch as divers persons were grievously in dread, & durst not peepe out of their house: Yet was that a very bright morning, & the darknesse much like this: It is now above 50 years since, it was indeede succeeded with many revolutions, cruell wars, twixt us & Holland, but this, was preceded by the Death of the K[ing] of Denmark & Q[ueen] of Portugal: But thus superstitious people, not considering the natural Course of those Luminarys, looke on what ever haps of Extraordinary as their Effects, who ought to looke up to God the Author of Nature. October 4, Wednesday (Old Style): Wednesday night departed this life my worthy & dear Bro[ther] Geo: Evelyn at his house at Wotton in Surrey in the 83d yeare of his Age, & of such Infirmitys as are usualy incident to so greate an Age, but in perfect memory & understanding: A most worthy, Gentleman, Religious, Sober & Temperate, & of so hospitable a nature as no family in the whole County maintained that antient Custome of keeping (as it were) open house the whole yeare, did the like, or gave nobler & freer Entertainement to the whole County upon all occasions: so as his house was never free, there being sometime 20 persons more than his family, & some that stayed there all the summer to his no small expense, which created him the universal love of the Country: To this add, his being one of the Deputy Lieutenants of the County; and living to be the most antient Member of Parliament living: He was Born at Wotton, Went to Oxford, Trinity Coll[ege] from the Free Schole at Guilford, Thence to the Midle Temple, as gent[lemen] of the best quality did, tho’ with no intention to study the Law as a Profession: He married the Daughter of Colwall, [of] a worthy & antient family in Leicester-[s]hire, by whome he had One son; she dying in 1643, left George her son an Infant, who being educated liberaly, after Traveling abroad, returning home, married one Mrs. Goare; by whom he had severall Children but left onely 3 daughters: He was a Young man of a good understanding, but over Indulging to his Ease & pleasure, grew so very Corpulent, contrary to the constitution of the rest of his fathers relations, that he died: after my Bro[ther] his Father had married a most noble & honourable Lady, relict of Sir Jo Cotton, she being an Offley, a worthy & antient Staffordshire family by whom he had severall Children of both sexes: This lady dying left onely 2 daughters & a son: the younger daughter dyed, before Mariage: The other lived long [as] a Virgin, & was afterward married to Sir Cyrill Wych, a noble learned Gent[leman] sonne to Sir [Peter] Wych: he had ben Ambassador at Constantinople: Sir Cyrill was afterwards Made one of the Lords Justices of Ireland: Before this Mariage her onely Bro[ther] John Maried the daughter of Aresfeild of Sussex [of] an honorable family, whom he left a Widdow, without any Child living: He dying about Anno 1691 & his wife not many yeares after, without any heire: My Bro[ther] resettled the whole Estate on me: His sister who maried S[ir] C.Wych having had a portion of 6000 pounds to which what was added was worth above 300 pounds more: The 3 other Grandaughters, with what I added to theirs about 5000 pounds each: [This] my Bro[ther] having seene performed, died this 5t of Octob: in a good old Age, & greate Reputation: & making his beloved Daughter my Lady Wych sole executrix (leaving me onely his Library & some Pictures of my Father, Mother &c:) She indeede buried him with extraordinary solemnity, rather as a Noble man, Than a private Gent[leman] There were I computed above 2000 people at the funerall, all the Gent of the County doing him the last honour: This performed [20th] I returned to Lond, where I came the day before, leaving my Concernes at Wotton, ’til my Lady should dispose of her selfe & family: & sending onely a servant thither to looke after my Concerns: HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS October [22, Sunday] (Old Style): ... I presented my Acetaria38 dedicated to my Lord Chancelor, who returned me Thanks by a most extraordinary civil lett[er] shewing him to be a person of greate parts, & learning &c: I waited on his [22] Lordship who received me with greate humanity & familiar kindnesse:

38. ACETARIA, A DISCOURSE OF SALLETS [SALADS]. 1701

Friend Thomas Maule, a Quaker of Salem, one of the richest men in town, proclaimed, in NEW ENGLAND PERSECUTORS MAULED, that “the evil one abideth in Cotton Mather.”) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1704

June 30, Friday (Old Style): Jack Quelch had been elected as commander of the Charles after the crew had dumped their captain overboard at Half Way Rock outside Salem Harbor. Captain Jack had led his merry men in pirate raids off the coast of South America and then, upon returning to Marblehead, he and six of that crew had been taken prisoner by a force of volunteers led by Stephen Sewall of Newbury. On the mud flats1 of the Charles River (Quinobequin), a gallows was erected and on this day Jack Quelch and the other 6 captured pirates of the Charles were turned off. This was not the olden savage times, during which a pirate’s body would be left to twist slowly in the wind among the apple trees on Governors Island (now under Logan Airport’s runway)

to offer a moral example to passing sailers — so, temporarily, there would be a surfeit of good specimens for dissection by Boston’s physicians. THE MARKET FOR HUMAN BODY PARTS Ye pirates who against God’s laws did fight, Have all been taken which is right. Some of them were old and others young, And on the flats of Boston they were hung.

1. Those condemned under Admiralty law were of course to be executed on ground over which the Admiralty held authority, which is to say, below the line of the high tide — you can’t just up and hang someone in someone else’s jurisdiction! However, the pirates could not be executed on mudflats on the Boston Harbor side, because on that side there was still 17 feet of water even at low tide, ergo no convenient mudflats at all. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1705

The Salem Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends was established, and a Hampton monthly meeting, which was taking place on the border of New Hampshire, was authorized. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1712

Abraham Redwood, the father, arrived on the North American continent. We don’t know whether he initially settled his family in Newport, in Salem, or somewhere between these two towns. However, we know that Friend Abraham Redwood, the son, would grow up in Newport on Rhode Island’s Aquidneck Island. As a young man may well have gotten his education in Philadelphia. Following the death of his father and his older siblings, he would come into immense wealth as the owner of the sugar plantation “Cassada Garden” in Antigua and its large population of slaves.

Richard Derby was born in Salem.

March: On orders from the colonial government, the congregation in Salem rescinded their excommunications of the citizens who had been hanged as witches. The jury issued a statement requesting the forgiveness of all who had suffered. Some of the farms of victims would lie fallow and abandoned for more than a century simply because no-one could expose themselves to the whisper that they were profiting from the spilled blood of innocents. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1713

September 23, Wednesday (Old Style): The Reverend Benjamin Prescott was ordained at Salem Village (Danvers). The Boston Gazette would obit in 1777 that “In this office he continued about 45 years, discharging its duties with such capacity and fidelity as gave him an extensive reputation. When he thought himself called in Providence to resign his pastoral charge, he was introduced into the magistrate, which he supported with honor to himself and usefulness to the public; always appearing the same man, and exhibiting a uniform piety and virtue in every station. He had great political as well as theological knowledge. He well understood the laws, the rights, and the interest of his country; and defended them with great strength of reason as well as generous warmth of heart. In this service his pen was frequently and largely employed, more especially at the commencement of the important controversy of the revolution, though his name was concealed; and the clearness, the consistency, the force and vivacity with which he would support a long train of argument, even when he had entered his 90th year, was truly surprising. Few, very few attained so great an age as he did with so much comfort to themselves and their friends and so much usefulness. Besides employing himself in some writings which he left unfinished, but enough to show the remaining vigor of his mind, he transacted considerable business as a magistrate till within a week of his death. After he was seized with the violent fever that soon put an end to his life, he could speak but little; but he satisfactorily evinced that he had those inward consolations and supports which are the genuine result of that blessed religion which he had so long professed, preached and practiced.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1724

Mary Matthews, tried for her life in Salem for allegedly murdering her bastard, was found not guilty. She was jailed for the cost of her prosecution and, when she could not pay, was sold to her jailor, Paul Langdon, carpenter of Salem, to serve him for five years. SLAVERY HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1739

August 16, Thursday (Old Style): Elias Hasket Derby was born to Richard Derby (1712-1783) and Mary Hodges in Salem. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1769

The Reverend Asa Dunbar began to share the duties of the 1st church in Salem with the Reverend Thomas Barnard, Jr. at a “sallery” of £133 6s. 8d. per annum.2 DUNBAR FAMILY

July 28, Friday: The Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker was installed over the 3d Church in Salem.

2. “Half pay is better than no pay. Covetousness is Idolatry.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1772

October 22, Thursday: The Reverend Asa Dunbar got married with Mary Jones, a sister of Daniel Jones of Hinsdale, at about the same time as First Church in Salem was splitting over the issue of whether to elect him or the other minister, the Reverend Thomas Barnard, Jr., son of the previous minister. He took over as pastor of First Church while the remainder of the congregation went to a new “North Church” under Reverend Barnard.3 Asa and Mary would produce four children. DUNBAR FAMILY

THOREAU GENEALOGY

The Reverend and Mistress Dunbar’s 1st child would cause a letter to its maternal grandfather, Colonel Elisha Jones: Dear Sir, I have ye happiness of informing you that Mrs. Dunbar is comfortably abed with a Daughter. She was delivered about three O’Clk this morning, after a moderate illness of thirty-six hours. Her circumstances seem very agreeable, & ye child is a perfect & promising child. We have already named her after both her grand-Mammas and her immediate mother, and we will endeavor that she shall not disgrace ye name wh. they have born with so much honor.

3. “I see by visiting [my parishioners in their homes] that my preaching does but little good.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1774

In Salem, when the 3d Church meeting-house of the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker burned, there was a division in his society. The minister and one of the factions would erect a new house of worship which they would term their Tabernacle Church.

1 April: The London Magazine published a 10 inch by 7 /2 inch map of the Boston area engraved by J. Lodge, entitled “A Chart of the Coast of New England, from Beverly to Scituate Harbor, including the Ports of Boston and 1 Salem,” with a 5 inch by 3 /2 inch “Plan of the Town of Boston.”

MAPS OF BOSTON

June 2, Thursday: The Reverend Asa Dunbar recorded in his journal: “General Gage came to town,” meaning presumably either to Salem or to Weston.

The Quartering Act. READ THE FULL TEXT HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

August 31, Wednesday: At a meeting in Salem, Concord was chosen as the place of meeting for the 1st Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, because, being off tidewater, it was not subject to bombardment by the fleet.

October 5: The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony met in Salem.

October 7, Friday: The Quebec Act. READ THE FULL TEXT

The colonial government not having legitimated the ongoing meeting of the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Salem, that body resolved itself into a Provincial Congress and adjourned “to the meeting-house in Concord.”

December: The Reverend Asa Dunbar recorded in his journal that “Doctr. Lathome came to Town to inoculate for ye small pox in Salem Hospital.” SMALL POX HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1775

February 26, Sunday: The minutemen of Salem managed to turn back an army column out of Boston without anybody getting killed. They were quite elated about this at the time, but it would turn out to be extremely shortsighted of them — as, had somebody had the good sense to get himself killed, it would in all likelihood have turned out to be Salem that would be raking in the big tourist bucks as the sacred town of the beginning of our Revolutionary4 War, rather than Lexington on their Green and Concord at their Old North Bridge! During the month of GO TO MASTER INDEX OF WARFARE

February 1775, the town [Concord] used the greatest caution to have the articles of association observed. Several meetings were held, and such measures as the state of the times required, adopted. Capt. Timothy Wheeler, Mr. Andrew Conant, Mr. Samuel Whitney, Capt. John Greene, Mr. Josiah Merriam, Mr. Ephraim Wood, Jr., Mr. William Parkman, and Capt. Thomas Davis, were added to the committee of inspection, and directed to return the names of those who declined signing the articles of association. Such were to be treated with neglect and detestation.5 Three only were returned.6 AMERICAN REVOLUTION

4. As a point of nomenclature, actually at this point we should not be referring to this developing conflict as a revolution. At this stage at least, it was still a nascent civil war. 5. This vote remained in force till May 14, 1778, when the town [Concord] annulled it, “so far as respects any persons who reside among us, and no farther.” 6. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS April 19, Wednesday: People were trying to kill each other at Lexington, and then people were trying to kill each other at Concord. AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The Reverend Asa Dunbar recorded of this day in his journal that: “Hostilities commenced at Concord & Lexington.” The day that would be remembered as “Patriots Day” because folks perceived was a one-day reprieve from the obtrusive Old Testament commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” and from the intrusive new New Testament commandment “Love thine enemy.”7 For 24 hours, apparently, the operating rule would be not the Ten Commandments (portrayed here as they have been presented on a T-shirt), not the Golden Rule, but a

much more intriguing “Thou shalt lay waste thine enemy.” The Bedford Minutemen, for instance, bore with them a banner emblazoned with the motto of the Dukes of Kent, “Conquer or die.” [next screen]

7. A POP ESSAY QUESTION. In terms of the above, define and provide synonyms for the term “patriot”: ______. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

WALDEN: I was witness to events of a less peaceful character. One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellum, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two reds ones to one black. The legions of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the only battle-field I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red republicans on the one hand, and the black imperialists on the other. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were fast locked in each other’s embraces, in a little sunny valley amid the chips, now at noon-day prepared to fight till the sun went down, or life went out. The smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to his adversary’s front, and through all the tumblings on that field never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of his feelers near the root, having already caused the other to go by the board; while the stronger black one dashed him from side to side, and, as I saw on looking nearer, had already divested him of several of his members. They fought with more pertinacity than bull-dogs. Neither manifested the least disposition to retreat. It was evident that their battle- cry was Conquer or die.... I should not have wondered by this time to find that they had their respective musical bands stationed on some eminent chip, and playing their national airs the while, to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants. I was myself excited somewhat even as if they had been men. The more you think of it, the less the difference. And certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed. For numbers and for carnage it was an Austerlitz or Dresden. Concord Fight! Two killed on the patriots’ side, and Luther Blanchard wounded! Why here every ant was a Buttrick, –“Fire! for God’s sake fire!”– and thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer. There was not one hireling there. I have no doubt that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not to avoid a three-penny tax on their tea; and the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the battle of Bunker Hill, at least. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS This all came about because the army that had been camped on Boston Common, early that morning, embarked to cross the Charles River estuary with muffled oarlocks at the point which is now the corner of Boylston and Charles streets (this part of the estuary long since filled in and the intersection now sports a statue of Edgar Allan Poe). The “two lantern” signal from the steeple of one or another Boston church (we don’t actually know which one, perhaps the Congregational church of which Revere was a member, or the nearby Anglican church in the North End) meant that the soldiers were crossing the Charles River (Quinobequin) and being marched through Cambridge, not that they were coming by sea, and the “one lantern” signal would have meant that the soldiers were being marching down Boston Neck, through Roxbury. The two lanterns which were used had been made in the workshops of Paul Revere or Rivière.8 General Thomas Gage had sent an army detail to dismantle the steeple of the Old West Church, to ensure that it could not be used for any such signaling. SLAVERY

As the Army marched up the Charlestown road from the Boston ferry landing, it would have passed a specimen of local justice: an old set of chains with human bones inside them, dating to an incident of September 1755. This had been an African slave, Mark, who had been left to rot after throttling, disemboweling and beheading upon suspicion of having poisoned, or of having attempted to poison, his American owner, Captain John Codman. (Keep this cage in mind, when you are tempted to suspect that what these indignant colonials had

8. This Huguenot silversmith received the warning signal from the church steeple while still in Boston and only afterward departed from the city on his errand, rather than seeing the signal from the opposite shore as has commonly been fantasized. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS decided to fight for was freedom and justice for all.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS One of the men who were marching to unite with the Lexington militia, had slept the previous night in this house:

He was Francis Nurse, a great grandson of Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse who had been hanged in Salem as a witch and then, when the witch fervor had died down, been reinstated postmortem into her church.

The Lexington militia had assembled too early, in response to the riders coming out of Boston such as Revere, and when the army column had not showed up by 2AM they decided to disperse and get some sleep. Shortly before daybreak there were some 70 of them on the Lexington green, and they spread out in two lines to face HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS the oncoming troops. Major John Pitcairn of the Marines called out to the army troops that they were not to

fire but were to surround these militiamen and then take away their weapons, and Captain John Parker of the militia (ancestor of the Reverend Theodore Parker of Thoreau’s day, carrying his Charleville musket) called

out to the militiamen that they were not to fire, but were to disperse. At that point there was a gunshot, origins unclear, and the army troops broke ranks and began to fire at the 27 militiamen. It would be pointless to inquire who fired, as in such a situation at the instant that it occurs nobody has any idea where the round came from or where it went and therefore everyone becomes terrified and presumes that he is being fired upon and proceeds to fire as rapidly as possible at anyone who appears to be holding a weapon. As Parker stated it, the result was that the army killed “eight of our party, with out receiving any provocation therefor from us.” After this killing, and presumably after the army had collected the militia’s weapons,9 neighbors were allowed

to come forward to tend the wounded and remove the corpses, while the army got itself back into a column, fired off one massive victory volley to clear their weapons, and marched on toward Concord. Major John HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Buttrick sent Captain Reuben Brown on horseback down Lexington Road toward Boston to report the firing in Lexington. Captain Brown would ride more than 100 miles to the coast and back, while the soldiers were looting his liveries and setting his barn on fire (neither the barn nor the house would be destroyed).

As the redcoat drums rumbled like thunder through the town’s streets, a panic-stricken 18-year-old named Harry Gould was being consoled by the Reverend William Emerson. In Concord, while destroying what few military stores they could get their hands on, the army also set afire the liberty pole in front of the courthouse. The scene would be re-imagined and painted by Amos Doolittle and then a famous lithograph would be made

9. Likewise, we do not refer here to the militia as “the Americans” and the army as “the British,” since that is a later conceptual framework and anyhow would have been false to the actual constitution of these bodies of armed men. There were in fact many Americans in the paid colonial army, and I know of at least one Brit who was assembled with the Minutemen militia — before the battle we know that he put aside his rifle for awhile and went down the hill to chat up various Redcoats. This was a struggle of a militia faction of British subjects in America, the separatist faction, versus an army faction of British subjects in America, the loyalist faction, similar to the struggle during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 between the Imperial Iranian Air Force cadets and warrant officers, adherents of the religious faction in Iranian politics, versus the Imperial Iranian Ground Forces brigades, controlled by officers adherent to the secular faction in Iranian politics. It is significant, then, using this more accurate terminology, that rather than attempt to seize “the militia’s” stores and withdraw with them to Boston, “the army” was attempting to destroy those military stores in place. This means that, going into this action, “the army” was already regarding its withdrawal to Boston to be the difficult part of the day’s military operation, because, had they seized and relocated these military stores, “the army” could have made use of them itself — the military may upon occasion become wanton in the destruction of civilian properties, just as it may upon occasion rape, but military stores are never destroyed in place without at least one damned good reason. The major military stores available to “the militia” were being stockpiled in Worcester rather than in Concord, because it was more of a march from Boston for “the army” and was therefore safer. Had “the army” succeeded in its withdrawal from Concord, of course, it would have marched to Worcester to destroy the bulk of the stores in the possession of “the militia,” in order to force “the militia” to return once again to the political faction favored by the officers of “the army.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS of this famous painting by Smith: HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Sparks from the liberty pole, however, ignited the courthouse roof, and while that fire was extinguished without great harm to the structure, the smoke from this fire caused the some 400 militiamen assembled in safety on the rise on the opposite side of the Concord River to presume that it was the army’s intention to burn their dissident town to the ground. In a column of pairs they approached the Old North Bridge, on the Concord side of which were three army companies. The army made some attempt to render the bridge impassible by removing planks, and then fired a volley which killed the militia Captain Isaac David and Abner Hosmer, in the front rank of the Acton minutemen as their drummer, whose face was half shot away.10 It was then that

Major John Buttrick called out “Fire, fellow soldiers, for God’s sake, fire.” Thus it came to be that here the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard ’round the world.11

Not counting those who were wounded but would survive, three redcoats of the Light Infantry Company, 4th Regiment fell in the responding volley, Thomas Smith, Patrick Gray, and James Hall. One went down evidently with a bullet through the head and two would die of bodily wounds. Two would be buried by colonials where they had fallen next to the Bridge, and one would be buried in Concord center by the army (somewhere “in the ragged curb where that road wound around the side of the hill,” a gravesite now evidently disturbed during later centuries of construction activity). Through the affair Acton’s fifer, Luther Blanchard, and the drummer Francis Barker, were performing a lively Jacobin tune, “The White Cockade.”12 According 10. When Deacon Jonathan Hosmer inspected Private Abner Hosmer’s faceless corpse, he found a breastpin his son had received for his 21st birthday. 11. A footnote to Waldo Emerson’s famed line “Here the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard ’round the world”: A publication of the Boeing Corporation would eventually declare that with the employees of the Boeing Corporation on the job, making Minuteman ICBMs, it was quite a bit less likely that “some future poet” would be forced to “modify the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson” into “Here the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot reaching ’round the world.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS to the Reverend William Emerson, the Reverend Waldo Emerson’s grandfather, who was watching from an upstairs window at the Old Manse as these people shot off muskets at each other out at the North Bridge, one or the other of the seriously wounded soldiers was then struck, as he attempted to rise, on the head with a hatchet.

Ammi White was a private in Captain David Brown’s company of militia. Captain Brown13 had his home near the Old North Bridge and in 1770 had been paid by the town of Concord to care for the causeway and wall associated with that bridge. As the redcoats fell back from the firing, Colonel Barrett’s militia unit advanced a short distance. According to reconstructions of what happened, the gravely wounded British soldier, between the retreating and the advancing lines, was attempting to rise when he was chopped down with a small hatchet by militiaman White, “not under the feelings of humanity.” He “barbarously broke his skull,” he “uplifted his axe, and dealt the wounded soldier a fierce and fatal blow upon the head,” with Thomas Thorp of Acton nearby but unable or unwilling to intercede:

This one circumstance has borne more fruit for me, than all that history tells us of the fight. Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Reverend William Emerson acknowledged the fact of an ax blow and acknowledged also that the soldier languished for hours before expiring, but would insist that neither scalp nor ears were removed. When the redcoats returned from Barrett’s farm and were grossing out at the sight of the wound on the head of their fallen comrade, they told one another the story that the American militia had scalped him as if they were red savages (the usual story, things like this typically are done to innocent white people by vicious persons of color). Five soldiers would testify to having themselves seen the wounded man with the skin over his eyes cut and also the top part of his ears cut off. There was not only misunderstanding, there was a considerable Fake Facts exaggeration: A rumor would begin to circulate that the dying soldier’s eyes had been gouged out. Ensign Jeremy Lister later would write tendentiously and falsely that “4 men...killd who afterwards scalp’d their eyes goug’d their noses and ears cut of, such barbarity execut’d upon the Corps could scarcely be paralleled by the most uncivilised savages.” The army would be forced to abandon its dead and wounded that hot day, with soldiers falling not only from bullets but also from sunstroke, and the citizens of Concord would need to dig a hole and inter two of the bodies where they lay (there being no particular reason for the extra labor of transporting these dead bodies anywhere else prior to interment), and one of the wounded soldiers, Samuel Lee 12. Major Francis Faulkner led a company, the “Acton Patriots.” 13. Captain David Brown of Concord (1732-1802) kept a diary of Bunker Hill action in 1775. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS of the 10th Regiment, left behind, eventually would become a Concord citizen. The commander of the Concord column, LTC Smith, reported to his superiors Lord Percy and General Gage that “after the bridge was quitted, they scalped and otherwise ill-treated one or two of the men who were either killed or severely wounded.” General Gage would summarize this as: “... one scalped, his head much mangled and his ears cut off, though not quite dead ... a sight which struck the soldiers with horror.” In Concord, stories would be generated that the person who had used the hatchet had been merely a wood-chopping chore boy of the Emersons, or had been Frank, the Emersons’ slave (the usual story, blame everything on some nearby flunky or on some handy person of color) — but in fact there had been no such chore boy and black Frank’s activities on that date had been well vouched for by members of the Emerson family.

Here is the story per D. Michael Ryan: Various explanations for the cause of this deed were advanced. The culprit was “half-witted”; excused only by excitement and inexperience; startled by the soldier and acted out of fear; acting to end the soldier’s suffering. Extreme claims noted that the victim was trying to drown himself in a water puddle and begged someone to kill him; had thrust at the American with his bayonet; or was an escaping prisoner. None of these theories have a basis in fact and had such mitigating circumstances existed, would certainly have been mentioned by the Reverend William Emerson. While the British publicized the incident, Americans chose to ignore it possibly due to embarrassment, fear of reprisals, failure to appreciate its importance or a notion that it would blot a historic cause. Provincial authorities hesitated to confirm that the act had occurred but in response to a Boston story insured that the burial detail testified that “neither of those persons (2 dead soldiers buried at the bridge) were scalped nor their ears cut off.” Concord historians Ripley [??] and Lemuel Shattuck ignored the incident completely while well into the 19th Century, British historians continued to write of the scalping and ear cutting episode. A long guarded secret was the name of the young culprit who tradition acknowledges as Ammi White.... The British troops returning to Boston would remember the “scalping” with fear, anger and a sense of revenge. This, together with civilian hostility in Boston and the tactics of the colonials along the retreat route, considered cowardly, would lead to army reprisals and atrocities (house burnings, killing of unarmed men, bayoneting of wounded and dead colonials, etc.) especially in the village of Menotomy. Lord Percy’s relief column had been informed of the “scalping” and General Gage would later use the story to offset atrocity charges leveled against his troops.

In a much later timeframe Waldo Emerson would declaim at this famed bridge that “Here once the embattled farmers stood / and fired the shot heard round the world” for the freedom of white people, and would sagely say nothing about the alleged offing of a defenseless, critically wounded man with a hatchet. And then at an even later date Henry Thoreau would be refused an audience in Concord, and would declare in Framingham, Massachusetts that “The inhabitants of Concord are not prepared to stand by one of their own bridges” for the freedom of black people. (That was in 1854 in his speech “Slavery in Massachusetts,” but Thoreau would be preparing this sentiment as early as 1851.)

After some two hours more in Concord, the army began its disastrous withdrawal to Lexington, where its remnants were reinforced by the 1st Brigade under Sir Hugh Percy.

In his SACRED GROUND,14 Edward Linenthal has presented an extended treatment of dissidence in the Concord context in effect with one hand tied behind his back. That is, he does this while accomplishing the feat of not

14. Linenthal, Edward Tabor. SACRED GROUND: AMERICANS AND THEIR BATTLEFIELDS. Urbana IL: U of Illinois P, 1991 HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS once bringing in the name of Thoreau. Picking up on the Emersonian description of the fallen farmer minutemen of April 19, 1775 as having acted “from the simplest instincts,”15 Linenthal states that: These instinctive warriors were ceremoniously perceived as men whose New England origins nurtured republican principles that protected them from the moral pollution of old-world warriors. Consequently, the minuteman became a powerful cultural model for generations of Americans at war and at peace: from Billy Yank and Johnny Reb in the Civil War to the doughboys of World War I and the GI’s of World War II; from the right-wing Minutemen of the 1960s to a more recent transformation into the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile. Patriotic rhetoric portrayed the minutemen as Christ-like saviors, and citizens of Lexington and Concord were proud that these new-world warriors drank from the wellsprings of liberty which, they believed, ran especially deep in their towns.... Beyond the ever-present threat of failing to measure up to the principles embodied by the minutemen, the specter of defilement appeared in other ways. Beginning in rancorous debate in the 1820s, a number of citizens of Lexington and Concord claimed that their town was the authentic birthplace of the nation. Each was accused of falsifying the national creation story by refusing to grant this sacred status to the other.... If the encounter on Lexington Green was not a battle but a massacre, were the martyred minutemen really the first models of how Americans die in war or just further examples of colonial victims? And if they were only victims, could that affect popular perception of the potency of their sacrifice?... On occasion, what some people perceived as defilement, others viewed as creative attempts to redefine the meaning of the events of April 19, 1775. Both the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Peoples Bicentennial Commission understood Lexington and Concord to be sacred ground when they held separate protests on the Battle Green and at the North Bridge in the mid-1970s. In their view, the purpose of protest was not desecration of a sacred spot, for they believed the real defilement had been perpetrated by a new class of American Tories who had severed the link between revolutionary war principles (especially the principle of dissent) and contemporary American life. Each group believed that its protest would spark the recovery of the American revolutionary tradition, which was viewed as crucial to the resuscitation of authentic American values that had fallen into disrepair because of public apathy. OLD NORTH BRIDGE The fifer boy of the Concord Minutemen was the son of Major John Buttrick, 15 years of age. The side drum he used would belong to the son of Colonel James Barrett, Nathan Barrett, until it would fall apart and the town would need to purchase a new one. One source alleges that a severe earthquake shook Concord.16 March and early April having been extraordinarily warm, the apple trees around Concord were in bloom by April 19th, and the soldiers being marched through Lexington toward Concord suffered heat prostration. Later, when Lafayette would visit Concord as part of a triumphal tour, tiny Mary Moody Emerson would approach him to let him know that she had been “‘in arms’ at the Concord fight” — she having been a newborn during that period.

When word of approaching British troops was received, Captain Charles Miles had mustered his company near the Wright Tavern.17 Included with the muster roll we can discover a handwritten note by Sergeant David

15. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. A HISTORICAL DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF CONCORD, 12 SEPTEMBER 1835 ON THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN. Boston MA: W.B. Clarke, 1835. 16. Such an earthquake is not listed on the comprehensive scientific list of known New England earthquakes, which has no entries between August 15, 1772 and February 7, 1776. –Presumably some historian has misunderstood a casual comment on the order of “the earth certainly shook that day.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Hartwell, “Concord, April 19th 1775, then the battel begune....”

On the high ground above North Bridge where the colonial force reformed, Captain Miles then joined the officers’ conference. When it was decided to march into Town, the story is, the lead was initially offered to a Concord captain but this man said he “should rather not go.” Since it was Captain Miles who was in command of the senior minute company, and would not be in the lead, it is speculated that he might have been the one to have said this. Captain Isaac Davis’s Acton company then led the march to the Bridge and while the position of other units is uncertain, several accounts have placed Miles’s company either second or third in line. Years later, the Reverend Ezra Ripley noted that when Captain Miles was asked his feelings when marching on the Battle Bridge on April 19, 1775, he responded “that he went to the service of the day with the same seriousness and acknowledgement of God which he carried to church. During the fighting it was though that this reluctant captain had been killed, but he had only been somewhat wounded and would be able to continue to direct his company during the chasing of the Regulars back to Charlestown.

We don’t have the names of the army casualties of this glorious day, only those of the militia and of bystanders. The numerical estimate of General Gage’s intelligence officer was that about 25 of the soldiers had been killed and almost 150 wounded; the estimate by a soldier, John Pope, was that 90 soldiers had been killed and 181 wounded; the estimate by Ensign De Berniere was that 73 soldiers had been killed, 174 wounded, and 25 were missing in action; — and General Gage reported to his superior officer that 65 of his soldiers had been killed,

17. The Wright Tavern is called that because Amos Wright was renting the building from its owner Samuel Swan and keeping tavern there when first the local militia gathered there and then Army officers Lt. Col. Smith and Maj. Pitcairn used it as their headquarters. In such a quarrel the businessman of course would sell drinks to all comers. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 180 wounded, and 27 were missing in action.

Presumably what we would discover, if we had the names of the army casualties, would be that a significant number of them had been Americans who had enlisted in the army. Here are the names of the militia casualties and the civilian casualties including an unarmed 14-year-old bystander (that’s termed “collateral damage”):

Town Killed Wounded Missing

Acton Isaac Davis Luther Blanchard James Hayward Abner Hosmer (would die this year of wound)

Bedford Captain Jonathan Wilson Job Lane

Beverly Reuben Kenyme Nathaniel Cleves William Dodge III Samuel Woodbury

Billerica Timothy Blanchard John Nichols

Brookline Isaac Gardner

Cambridge John Hicks Samuel Whittemore Samuel Frost William Marcy Seth Russell Moses Richardson James Russell Jason Winship Jabez Wyman

Charlestown Edward Barber James Miller HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Chelmsford Oliver Barron Aaron Chamberlain

Concord Nathan Barrett Jonas Brown Captain Charles Miles George Minot Abel Prescott, Jr.

Danvers Samuel Cook Nathan Putnam Joseph Bell Benjamin Deland Dennis Wallace Ebenezer Golwait Henry Jacobs Perley Putnam George Southwick Jothan Webb

Dedham Elias Haven Israel Everett

Framingham Daniel Hemminway

Lexington John Brown Francis Brown Samuel Hadley Joseph Comee Caleb Harrington Prince Estabrook Jonathan Harrington, Jr. Nathaniel Farmer Jonas Parker Ebenezer Munroe, Jr. Jedidiah Munroe Jedidiah Munroe Robert Munroe Solomon Pierce Isaac Muzzy John Robbins John Raymond John Tidd Nathaniel Wyman Thomas Winship

Lynn William Flint Joseph Felt Josiah Breed Thomas Hadley Timothy Monroe Abednego Ramsdell Daniel Townsend

Medford Henry Putnam William Holly

Needham John Bacon Eleazer Kingsbury Nathaniel Chamberlain Xxxxx Tolman Amos Mills Elisha Mills Jonathan Parker

Newton Noah Wiswell

Roxbury Elijah Seaver

Salem Benjamin Pierce

Stow Daniel Conant Daniel Conant

Sudbury Deacon Josiah Haynes Joshua Haynes, Jr. Asahael Reed Thomas Bent

Watertown Joseph Coolidge HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Woburn Daniel Thompson Jacob Bacon Asahel Porter Xxxxx Johnson George Reed

Here is an example of what we don’t know. When we somewhat belatedly erected this grave marker, in the Year of Our Lord 2000, we presumed that the slain army soldier was a Brit although he may very well have been simply one of the Americans who had enlisted not in what was at that time our militia but in what was at that time our army:

Dr. Charles Russell, son of the Hon. James Russell, born in Charlestown, graduated at Harvard College, 1757, and inherited his uncle Chambers’s estate in Lincoln, where he resided as a physician. He married Miss Elizabeth Vassall of Cambridge, and from his father-in-law he contracted opinions opposed to the measures of the people in the revolution, and left Lincoln on the 19th of April, 1775, and went to Martinique, in the West- Indies, where he died.... Dr. Joseph Adams was also unfriendly to the revolution, and went to England, where he died.18

18. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry David Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS When Timothy Dwight would write of his 1795 travels, while speaking of his passing through Concord he would give a small amount of attention to the bucolic details of the place:

Concord was purchased of the Indians and incorporated in 1635. Three persons only are known to have been killed within the limits of this township by the savages, although it was the first settlement made in New England so far from the shore. From Boston it is distant nineteen miles, from Williams’ in Marlboro, fifteen. The soil of this township is various. The higher grounds have loam mixed with gravel. The plains are sandy, light but warm, and friendly to rye and maize, of which considerable quantities are carried to market. Pastures are visibly few and indifferent. Along the river, which is named from this town and runs through the middle of it, lie extensive and rich meadows. Hemp and flax grow here luxuriantly. Two acres are said to have yielded in one instance one thousand pounds of flax. Few fruits are seen except apples, and these plainly do not abound as in most other parts of the country. The face of this township is generally a plain. A hill of no great height ascends at a small distance from the river on the eastern side and pursues a course northward, parallel with that of the river. Between this hill and the river lies the principal street. Another containing a considerable number of houses abuts upon it, perpendicularly from the western side. The houses in Concord are generally well built, and with the outbuildings and fences make a good appearance. The public buildings are the church, courthouse, and jail, all of them neat.

But then he would devote a good deal of his attention to this locale’s belligerent status as the site of this notorious squabble. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Concord will be long remembered as having been, partially, the scene of the first military action in the Revolutionary War, and the object of an expedition, the first in that chain of events which terminated in the separation of the British colonies from their mother country. A traveler on this spot, particularly an American traveler, will irresistibly recall to his mind an event of this magnitude, and cannot fail of being deeply affected by a comparison of so small a beginning with so mighty an issue. In other circumstances, the expedition to Concord and the contest which ensued would have been merely little tales of wonder and woe, chiefly recited by the parents of the neighborhood to their circles at the fireside, commanding a momentary attention of childhood, and calling forth the tear of sorrow from the eyes of those who were intimately connected with the sufferers. Now, the same events preface the history of a nation and the beginning of an empire, and are themes of disquisition and astonishment to the civilized world. From the plains of Concord will henceforth be dated a change in human affairs, an alteration in the balance of human power, and a new direction to the course of human improvement. Man, from the events which have occurred here, will in some respects assume a new character, and experience in some respects a new destiny. General Gage, to whom was committed one of the most unfortunate trusts ever allotted to an individual, having obtained information that a considerable quantity of arms and military stores was by order of the Provincial Congress deposited in this town,1 sent Lieut. Col. Smith and Major Pitcairn at the head of eight hundred grenadiers and light infantry, with orders to march to Concord and destroy the deposit. The troops were accordingly embarked from the common in Boston, and landed on the opposite shore in Cambridge at a place called Phipps’s farm. Thence they marched by the shortest route to this town.

1.The whole amount of the warlike stores in the province of Massachusetts as they appear on a return, April 14, 1775, is contained in the following list. Firearms 21,549 Pounds of powder 17,441 Pounds of ball 22,191 No. of flints 144,699 No. of bayonets 10,103 No. of pouches 11,979 The whole of the town stocks Firearms 68 Pounds of powder 357 1/2 Pounds of ball 66,78 No. of flints 100,531 Duke’s county and Nantucket were not included in this list. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

An expedition of this nature had for some time been expected. Certain intelligence of it had been obtained the preceding afternoon by Dr. Warren, who afterwards fell in the battle of Breed’s Hill,1 and was forwarded by him with the utmost celerity to the intervening towns, particularly to Lexington, where were at that time Mr. Hancock and Mr. Adams, both afterwards governors of Massachusetts.2 As these gentlemen were supposed to be the principal objects of the expedition, the expresses who carried the intelligence (Col. Paul Revere and Mr. William Dawes) were peculiarly directed to them.3 They reached Lexington, which is four miles from Concord, in such season that Messrs. Hancock and Adams made their escape.4 Here, however, the expresses were stopped by the British as they were advancing toward Concord; but Dr. Prescott, a young gentleman to whom they had communicated their message, escaped and alarmed the inhabitants of Concord.5 The British troops reached Lexington at five o’clock in the morning. Here they found about seventy militia and forty unarmed spectators by the side of the church. Major Pitcairn rode up to them and cried out with vehemence, “Disperse you rebels; throw down your arms, and disperse.” As this command was not immediately obeyed, he discharged a pistol and ordered his soldiers to fire upon the inhabitants. The soldiers fired, and the people instantly fled. The soldiers, however, continued to fire at individuals. This at length provoked a return, and several were killed on both sides. Still the troops continued their march toward Concord, where they arrived early in the morning. For the purpose of defense, the inhabitants had drawn themselves up in a kind of order; but, upon discovering the number of the enemy withdrew over the North Bridge, half a mile below the church, where they waited for reinforcements. The soldiers then broke open and scattered about sixty barrels of flour, disabled two twenty-four pounders, destroyed the carriages of about twenty cannon, and threw five hundred pounds of ball into the river and neighboring wells. The principal part of the stores, however, was not discovered.

1.Joseph Warren (1741-1755), Harvard 1759, an excellent physician in Boston, became deeply involved in Revolutionary politics. Early in 1775, he gave up his profession to enter the army. He became president pro tempore of the Provincial Congress and was elected a major general four days before his death. 2.John Hancock (1737-1793), Harvard 1754, adopted by his rich uncle Thomas, joined his successful mercantile firm. The famous Revolutionary patriot was treasurer of Harvard College, 1773-1777, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and first governor of Massachusetts in the new republic, 1780-1785. His successor was Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Harvard 1740, better remembered for his incendiary role as one of the “Sons of Liberty” in the Revolution. As lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1789, acting governor in 1793, and elected governor, 1794- 1798, this turbulent man showed little understanding of the problems of the state or of the nation. 3.See Colonel Revere’s letters to the corresponding secretary of the Mass. Hist. Society…. 4.Revolutionary patriot Paul Revere (1735-1818), a silversmith, was the official courier for the massachusetts Provincial Assembly as well as an effective political cartoonist and the acknowledged leader of Boston’s artisans. William Dawes (1745-1799) was one of the two men chosen to spread the alarm if the British troops should move to raid the military stores deposited in Concord. 5.Samuel Prescott (1751-c. 1777) completed the famous midnight ride after Paul Revere was captured, but died later in a prison in Halifax. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

After this work was completed, the troops advanced to the bridge in order to disperse the Americans. Major Buttrick, of Concord, who commanded the militia, being ignorant of the tragedy at Lexington, had directed his men not to begin the fire.1 As he advanced with his party, the light infantry began to pull up the bridge; and, as he approached, fired, and killed two Americans one of them a Captain Davis, of Acton, in the neighborhood.2 The fire was instantly returned, and the troops were compelled to retreat. Several of them were killed, several wounded, and a few taken prisoners. The party was pursued; and, after they had rejoined the main body, the whole retired with the utmost expedition. On their way to Lexington they were continually harassed by an irregular and not ill-directed fire from the buildings and walls on their route. Every moment increased the number of their assailants and their own fatigue, distress, and danger. Upon the first intelligence that the Americans had betaken themselves to arms, General Gage sent a second detachment to the relief of Lieutenant Colonel Smith under the command of Lord Percy.3 It amounted to nine hundred men and marched from Boston with two fieldpieces, their music playing the tune of Yankee Doodle to insult the Americans. As they were passing through Roxbury, a young man who was making himself merry on the occasion being asked, as is said, by his lordship, why he laughed so heartily, replied “To think how you will dance by and by to Chevy Chase.” This detachment joined their friends at Lexington, where the whole body rested for a short time, and with their fieldpieces kept the Americans at a distance. The neighboring country was now in arms, and moving both to attack the enemy and to intercept their retreat. The troops, therefore speedily recommenced their march. From both sides of the road issued a continual fire, directed often by excellent marksmen, and particularly dangerous to the officers. Major Pitcairn thought it prudent to quit his horse and lose himself among the soldiery. Everywhere the retreating army was pursued and flanked. Their enemies descended from every new hill and poured through every new valley. Perplexed by a mode of fighting to which they were strangers, and from which neither their valor, nor their discipline furnished any security; exhausted by fatigue, and without a hope of succor; the troops wisely withdrew from impending destruction with the utmost celerity.

1.John Buttrick (1715-1791) was a leader of the Concord militia in action on April 19, 1775. 2.Isaac Davis (1745-1775), who led the Acton minute men against the British on the Concord bridge, was killed in the first volley. 3.Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland (1742-1817), apparently disapproved of the war with the American colonies although he entered military service against them. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

In their retreat, however, they set fire to several houses, plundered whatever pleased their fancy or gratified their avarice, and killed several unarmed persons: particularly two old men, whose hoary locks pleaded for compassion in vain. Bunker Hill, which they reached about sunset, was the first place of safety and repose in their march. The next day they returned to Boston. In this expedition the British had sixty-five killed, and one hundred and eighty wounded, and twenty-eight made prisoners: two hundred and seventy-three. Among the wounded were fifteen officers, one of them Lieutenant Colonel Smith. Of the Americans, fifty were killed, thirty-four wounded, and four missing: eighty-eight. Several gentlemen of reputation fell in this conflict, and were regarded as martyrs in the cause of freedom and their country. Such was the issue of this memorable day, and such the commencement of the Revolutionary War in the United States. Whatever opinions may be adopted concerning the controversy between the British government and the colonies by those who come after us, every man of sober, candid reflection must confess that very gross and very unfortunate errors existed in the measures adopted, both in Great Britain and America, toward the colonies. In both countries information was drawn and received almost solely from those who espoused the system of the reigning administration. It hardly needs to be observed that deception and mischief were the necessary consequence. An opinion also was boldly advanced, sedulously adopted, and extensively diffused that the Americans were mere blusterers and poltroons. In the British Parliament, Colonel Grant declared, with equal folly and insolence, that at the head of five hundred, or perhaps (as numerals are easily misprinted) of five thousand men, he would undertake to march from one end of the British settlements to the other, in spite of all American opposition.1 This declaration would almost of itself have converted a nation of real cowards into soldiers. Why it should be believed that the descendants of Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen were cowards, especially by their brethren descended from the same ancestors, I shall not take upon me to explain. The difficulties and hazards attendant upon a war conducted at the distance of three thousand miles from the source of control and supplies were certainly not realized by the British cabinet. As little did they realize the disposition or the circumstances of the Americans.

1.Probably Dwight refers to James Grant (1720-1806), member of Parliament at different times, a military man who went to America with reinforcements under Howe and became a general. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

General Gage’s principal advisers were of two classes, both very unhappily fitted to give him useful advice. One class was composed of Britons, utterly unacquainted with the state of the country, unwarrantably relying on their own prowess, and foolishly presuming on the supposed pusillanimity of the colonists. The other class was composed of colonists who had embarked their all in British measures, were generally deceived themselves, and were strongly prompted by every motive to deceive him. When the expedition to Concord was planned, it is probable that neither General Gage, nor his advisers, expected the least attempt at resistance. This opinion was bandied through the whole party in Boston. At the same time were continually circulated fulsome panegyrics on the bravery of the British troops. Silly jests and contemptible sneers were also reiterated concerning the dastardly character of the colonists. All these were spread, felt, and remembered. The expedition to Concord refuted them all. Concord, as has been observed, lies almost equally on both sides of the river to which it gives its name. The surface of the township is generally level and low, and the river remarkably sluggish. From these facts a traveler would naturally conclude that Concord must be unhealthy. The following statement will however prove this conclusion to be unsound. In the year 1790, the township contained 1,590 inhabitants. Of these, seventy-five were seventy years of age, or upward. From the year 1779 to 1791 inclusive, a period of thirteen years, 222 persons died. The greatest number in a single year was twenty-five, the least ten. The average number was seventeen. Of these, fifty-nine were more than seventy, thirty others more than eighty, and eight more than ninety, amounting in the whole to ninety-seven (out of 222) who passed the limit of seventy years. It is presumed, a more remarkable instance of health and longevity cannot be produced. Almost 7/17 of the whole number deceased have during this period reached the boundary of human life. It is scarcely to be imagined that even here a similar list will be furnished a second time. Yet the Rev. Mr. Ripley, minister of Concord, who kept this register, informed me that the state of health during this period did not, so far as he had observed, differ very materially from what was common.1

1.Ezra Ripley (1751-1841), Harvard 1776, became pastor of the First Church in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1778. There he founded what was perhaps the first temperance society in the country. He was the stepfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

The salubrity of Concord violates the most received medical theories concerning such diseases as are supposed to be generated by stagnant waters. I know of no stream which approaches nearer to a state of stagnation than Concord River. Yet diseases of this class are seldom, or never, found here. The cause I shall not pretend to assign. Within these thirteen years the baptisms in Concord amounted to 395,. Three fourths only of those who were born are supposed to have been baptized. The number of births, therefore, was about 527. Concord contains a single congregation. The whole number of inhabitants in 1790, as has been observed, was 1,590. In 1800, it contained 227 dwelling houses, and 1,679 inhabitants; and in 1810, 1,633.

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

April 23, Sunday: The army in Boston was surrounded by a militia which had marched from all over New England. A soldier commented in his diary: The country is up in arms ... we are absolutely infested with many thousand men, some so daring they came very near our outposts on the only entrance to town. The have cut off supplies

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The People of Walden: Waldo Emerson HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS and provisions from the country. AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The events just described spread terror over the minds of some, indignation over others, and gloom over all; and predisposed them to new alarms. The death of several fellow citizens, in defence of their rights against British soldiers, was indeed a novel sight of fearful interest. The next day, April 20th, 1775, a messenger brought a report into town by way of Lincoln, that the regulars were again on their march to Concord. For a while this was believed, and the most active preparations were made for their reception, by removing the women and children from the village and concealing them in remote parts of the town [Concord], and in the woods, the men parading under arms, determined to defend themselves or perish. After a few hours the report was contradicted, and the inhabitants returned to their homes. Meantime the patriot-soldiers were continually marching to Concord from remote towns. On the 21st, 700 of them went into the meeting-house where prayers were offered up by the Rev. Mr. Emerson [the Reverend William Emerson], and an address made by the Rev. Mr. Webster of Salem. In the afternoon Mr. Emerson and several others went to Cambridge. Great commotion prevailed. The next day the town [Concord] was again alarmed. The minute companies paraded and marched to Cambridge; but finding no enemy, they returned. The Provincial Congress met here [Concord] on the 22d and orders were given to raise an army forthwith. These occurrences brought out the friends and opposers of liberty. Two or three individuals in town were yet inclined to toryism. It was not strange it should be so. It was a tremendous step to take up arms against the mother country; and, to say the least, the issue of the contest was doubtful. Men honestly differed in opinion as to the propriety of the measures of England, and others as to the proper course to be taken to obtain redress. Some had sworn allegiance to the King and were afraid HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS they should break their oath. While entertaining such opinions they did not enter warmly into the popular cause. They were, however, sure to receive the unwelcome notice of the people. One individual, who had been a Selectman, was heard to say, “For myself I think I shall be neutral in these times;” and his name was immediately taken from the jury-box. The government was dictated by the force of public opinion. the town [Concord] assumed, in some respects, the authority of an individual community, - an independent republic. Its committee of correspondence met daily, and acted in a legislative, executive and judicial capacity. All suspicious persons were brought before it for trial, and, if found guilty were condemned. The people supported them in their decisions. The following is a copy of one of these sentences, and most remarkably shows the peculiar spirit of those times. “We the subscribers, committee of correspondence for the town of Concord, having taken into consideration the conduct of Dr. Lee of said town of late, are fully of the opinion, that he be confined to the farm his family now lives upon; and that, if he should presume to go beyond the bounds and should be killed, his blood be upon his own head. And we recommend to the inhabitants of the town, that, upon his conducting well for the future, and keeping his bounds, they by no means molest, insult or disturb him, in carrying on his common affairs on said farm. Jonas Heywood Ephraim Wood, Jr. James Barrett, Jr. } Committee of Joseph Hosmer Correspondence. Samuel Whitney “Concord, April 26, 1775.” Dr. Lee was not set at liberty until June 4, 1776. His house was fired at several times by soldiers who passed through town; and so strong was the feeling against all tories, that he would probably had been killed, had he gone beyond his bounds. All his privileges were, however, restored to him. Dr. Lee’s son, Jonas Lee, was a warm friend of liberty and for his son’s sake many were restrained from committing outrages upon him. The estate of one individual only in Concord, that of Daniel Bliss, Esq., was confiscated and sold by the government.19

19. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS July 20, Thursday: William Bartram crossed Pintlala Creek near the present-day town of Pintlala.

There had been a Colonial Fast declared for this day by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and the Reverend Asa Dunbar did or said something in Salem or Weston, Massachusetts that the revolutionaries found offensive. He was forced to issue an explanation that amounted to an apology:

Having been acquainted by the Gentlemen, the Committee of Correspondence in Weston, with some uneasiness arising in the minds of the people, from the conduct of myself and family upon Fast day, the 20th of last July; and having a desire to live in good fellowship with every friend of American liberty, I beg leave publicly to declare that the part I bore in those transactions that gave offence was dictated solely by the principles of religion and humanity, with no design of displeasing any one: and that I am sorry it was, in the eyes of one of my countrymen attended with any disgusting circumstances.... As it has been suspected that I despised the Day, and the authority that appointed it, I must, in justice to myself, and from the love of truth, affirm, that I very highly respect and revere that authority; and, were it not from the appearance of boasting, could add, that I believe no person observed it with greater sincerity than /s/ ASA DUNBAR. WESTON, September 8, 1775.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1776

The 3d Church meeting-house of the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker in Salem had burned and there had been a division in his society, but in this year the minister and one of the factions dedicated a new house of worship, one which they would term their Tabernacle Church. (In this new edifice, a new set of difficulties would arise, and the Reverend Whitaker would be dismissed by the congregation in 1783.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1777

May 28, Wednesday: The Reverend Benjamin Prescott died in Salem Village (Danvers) at the age of 89. According to the Boston Gazette: In this office he continued about 45 years, discharging its duties with such capacity and fidelity as gave him an extensive reputation. When he thought himself called in Providence to resign his pastoral charge, he was introduced into the magistrate, which he supported with honor to himself and usefulness to the public; always appearing the same man, and exhibiting a uniform piety and virtue in every station. He had great political as well as theological knowledge. He well understood the laws, the rights, and the interest of his country; and defended them with great strength of reason as well as generous warmth of heart. In this service his pen was frequently and largely employed, more especially at the commencement of the important controversy of the revolution, though his name was concealed; and the clearness, the consistency, the force and vivacity with which he would support a long train of argument, even when he had entered his 90th year, was truly surprising. Few, very few attained so great an age as he did with so much comfort to themselves and their friends and so much usefulness. Besides employing himself in some writings which he left unfinished, but enough to show the remaining vigor of his mind, he transacted considerable business as a magistrate till within a week of his death. After he was seized with the violent fever that soon put an end to his life, he could speak but little; but he satisfactorily evinced that he had those inward consolations and supports which are the genuine result of that blessed religion which he had so long professed, preached and practiced.

BENJAMIN PRESCOTT, son of Captain Jonathan Prescott [of Concord], was born September 16, 1687, and graduated [at Harvard College] in 1709. He was ordained at Salem Village (Danvers), September 23, 1713. “In this office,” says a biographical notice in the Boston Gazette of 1777, “he continued about 45 years, discharging its duties with such capacity and fidelity as gave him an extensive reputation. When he thought himself called in Providence to resign his pastoral charge, he was introduced into the magistrate, which he supported with honor to himself and usefulness to the public; always appearing the same man, and exhibiting a uniform piety and virtue in every station. He had great political as well as theological knowledge. He well understood the laws, the rights, and the interest of his country; and defended them with great strength of reason as well as generous warmth of heart. In this service his pen was frequently and largely employed, more especially at the commencement of the important controversy of the revolution, though his name was concealed; and the clearness, the consistency, the force and vivacity with which he would support HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS a long train of argument, even when he had entered his 90th year, was truly surprising. Few, very few attained so great an age as he did with so much comfort to themselves and their friends and so much usefulness. Besides employing himself in some writings which he left unfinished, but enough to show the remaining vigor of his mind, he transacted considerable business as a magistrate till within a week of his death. After he was seized with the violent fever that soon put an end to his life, he could speak but little; but he satisfactorily evinced that he had those inward consolations and supports which are the genuine result of that blessed religion which he had so long professed, preached and practiced.” He died May 28, 1777, in his 90th year. He married three times. 1. Elizabeth Higginson of Salem, by whom he had 2 sons and 3 daughters. Benjamin, the eldest, was graduated at Harvard College in 1736, married Rebecca, daughter of the Hon. James Minott in 1741, lived in Salem, and had 8 children. Rebecca, the eldest, married the Hon. Roger Sherman of New Haven. Her brothers, James and Benjamin, also lived there; the former married Rebecca Barrett of Concord. The Rev. Benjamin married, the second time, Mercy, daughter of the Rev. Henry Gibbs of Watertown, by whom he had Henry, who died at New Castle September 10, 1816, father to Benjamin, Henry, and William Pepperell of that town, and George Washington. His 3d wife was Mary, widow of the Rev. Benjamin Coleman, daughter of Sir William Pepperell.20

20. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1778

It was established that at least in the vicinity of Boston, Lynn, and Salem, all members of the Religious Society of Friends had by this point completed the process of manumission necessary to clear their families of the practices of “importing, buying, or disposing or holding of mankind as slaves.” INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1779

April 29, Thursday: The Reverend Asa Dunbar asked his Salem congregation to release him from churchly duties owing to ill health. He received from the church in settlement for his services a sum of paper money amounting to £700 (a sum which due to their generosity exceeded by some £50 the actual amount they owed him) and began to prepare himself, in the office of Joshua Atherton of Amherst MA, for the practice of the law. He became a Freemason.21 Such is the general state of my health that I judge it expedient for me to ask a dismission from your service in the Gospel ministry. This request I doubt not you will think to be reasonable, and I hope your compliance with it will be greatly to your own interest. DUNBAR FAMILY

21. In 1815, because of this, his widow Mary Jones Dunbar would be able to apply for a Masonic pension in her old age. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1787

June 22, Friday: Asa Dunbar, who had been ill, died in Keene, New Hampshire at age 42 after about four years practice of law there, and would be buried with Masonic honors. He left five children, his youngest, Cynthia Dunbar, being but one month of age. Mary Jones Dunbar, his widow, surviving him by a great many years, would remarry. DUNBAR FAMILY

THOREAU LIFESPANS

Daniel Corneille was replaced as governor of St. Helena by Colonel Sir Robert Brooke (until July 13, 1801 — it would be Governor Brooke who would erect Plantation House). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1783

New difficulties having arisen at the 3d Church of Salem, in this year the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker was dismissed by the congregation. (In the following year the Reverend would be installed in a church at Canaan, Maine, but he would there again be dismissed, in 1789.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1789

Ginkgo was planted at Pierce Arboretum (now part of Longwood Gardens) in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. By 1968 that tree was 105 feet tall and about 13 feet dbh.22

According to Charles Corn’s THE SCENTS OF EDEN: A HISTORY OF THE SPICE TRADE (NY: Kodansha America, 1999), pages 231-6: PLANTS

Early one fine morning in 1789, not long after his inauguration on April 30 at New York City’s Wall Street, George Washington departed Boston for Salem, Massachusetts, in a large four-horse coach, followed by a baggage wagon with black lackeys and outriders in rich livery, his white horse haltered behind. Their pace was brisk, for this was another leg of a continuing journey through New England, and there were engagements planned for the day. Standing aloof from party divisions, the unanimously elected nations’ first chief executive was keen to emphasize his role as president of the entire country by a tour through the northern states, as later he would travel through the South. The president was especially enthusiastic about visiting Salem, for there was a strange, unprecedented force at work in this modest New England port that had all but overshadowed its larger neighbor, Boston, just a few miles to the southeast. In time, the successes of the two ports would be reversed. In the meanwhile, while Boston’s day was yet to come, foreign trade had for more than a century brought great wealth to Salem, and the influence of the Washington administration would see it continued. When the Salem Federal Custom House was opened in 1789, the vast seas east of the Cape of Good Hope awaited exploitation by Salem’s merchants. Though the British, having eclipsed the Dutch, still traded in spices, the dissemination of clove and nutmeg seedlings had already reduced the dearth of the “holy trinity.” Likewise, the pepper trade was for the English a routine commerce in this bustling era, when tea and opium commanded a premium. But for the traders of Salem, Massachusetts, pepper, as we shall see, was anything but a routine commerce. It was two-o’clock in the afternoon when the fifty-seven-year-old president stepped down from the coach on Salem’s Federal Street to take in his large hands the reins of his horse, already bridled and saddled. His party looked on, enjoying the ease and authority with which the old general placed his foot in the stirrup and swung his sturdy-shouldered, six-foot three-inch frame atop his old charger. Washington, an experienced rider and foxhunter since his youth, was at home on horseback and cut a commanding figure. People liked to watch him ride. The, preceded by an honor guard, the former head of the colonial forces rode up the line in review of the troops to Boston Street. Since the bleakest days of the Revolution, when Massachusetts troops had stood firmly in support of him, a Virginian, thus solidifying the link between the two most powerful colonies, Washington had maintained close ties to this 22. When measuring trees, the convention is to take their diameter at breast height, four and a half feet above the ground. This is referred to as the “dbh” measurement. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS port city. Hurrahs rang out as the president appeared on the balcony at Town House Square to receive a welcoming address and to hear a choir sing an ode composed for the occasion. Washington made a brief reply, ending with these words: “From your own industry and enterprise, you have everything to hope that deserving men and great citizens can expect. May your navigation and commerce flourish, your industry in all its applications be rewarded, your happiness here be as perfect as belongs to the lot of humanity, and your eternal felicity be complete.” When he had finished, a chorus of loud cheers went up. The cheering din followed Washington as he retired from the Town House balcony to the home of Joshua Ward, one of the city’s most distinguished merchants. Ward’s house was a large, new brick structure well off the street, facing the water. Terraced up in front, the property afforded at the top a stunning view of the busy harbor. As one stood and gazed, there was nothing to impede the vista out to Naugus Head save the long reach of Derby Wharf. The foreground of the harbor as seen from the house provided a lively tableau, as if to illustrate the sentiments expressed in Washington’s remarks spoken earlier. At Derby Wharf a large East Indiamen, which had arrived earlier that day from the waters east of the Cape of Good Hope, was berthed and off-loading, her keep embedded in harbor mud. A roar of incessant noise rose from the docks –shouted orders, creaking windlasses, shrieking seagulls, the cacophony of vessels under construction from nearby shipyards– while prostitutes beckoned to sailors from nearby windows and the aromas of cinnamon, clove, coffee, tea, and pepper wafted on the strong-smelling sea air at low tide. Crew members shouldered bags of sugar from Île de France (Mauritius) and bolts of cotton from India to be weighed on the customs scale and the merchant’s scale, while dunnage now stacked by the merchantman’s bow had been packed around the cargo as a preventative against its shifting in bad weather. Berthed just forward of the off-loading ship was a coasting schooner having its hull coppered; behind Derby’s counting house and warehouse on the wharf itself, a lumber schooner was putting in at shipyard with a load of timber. Down the harbor another merchantman was docked in front of the large, striking, and somewhat eccentric dwelling later to be known as the House of the Seven Gables, and beyond it was planned a great finger of construction reaching into the harbor just where it widened. It was to be called India Wharf or Crowninshield Wharf, depending on one’s preference, and it promised to rival that of Captain George Crowninshield’s arch-competitor Mr. Elias Haskins Derby, who owned by far the most prominent of Salem’s swelling number of wharves. Coaches plied the narrow waterfront streets seeking fares from among the shore parties of the several visiting frigates. In the early evening, with powdered hair and dressed in a black velvet suit with gold buckles, yellow gloves, a cocked hat with an ostrich plume in one hand, and a sword in a white leather scabbard, President Washington arrived at the Assembly Hall on Federal Street, where a party was already gathered. Like the courthouse across town, another notable building of this enlightened day, the hall with its noble Federalist lines was an anomalous structure flanked by gambrel-roofed houses; for it had been built only a few years before expressly for the social events of Salem’s most prominent citizens. On this evening the proud building beamed with neoclassical confidence and promise HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS of intoxicating possibilities. The Reverend Dr. William Bentley, the local chronicler who kept a finger on Salem’s pulse, noted the scene glowing beneath the candlelit chandeliers with gentle irony: “The ladies were numerous and brilliant, the gentlemen were also numerous!” Washington confided to his diary that there were a hundred handsome, well-dressed people assembled to pay him homage. The cream of Salem’s society parted for the presidential party entering the hall, withdrawing left to right with curtsies and bows, as the lofty guest of honor was escorted to a fine armchair at the end of the spacious room offered for the occasion by Mr. Derby and his wife, Elizabeth Crowninshield Derby. French tapestries and portraits of persons and ships adorned the walls; fine silver, crystal, and porcelain pieces graced the tables and hunt boards; Khotan, Samarkand, and Tabriz carpets decorated the floor. In one corner hung a highly polished mahogany spice cabinet where the precious condiments were kept under lock and key. There followed an evening of dancing until the distinguished visitor retired at nine, as it was his custom to rise at five, but not before promising well- wishers that he would be riding out into Essex County at eight the next morning to inspect a new bridge. The festivities continued late into the evening, for if the citizens of Salem knew one thing apart from diligence and hard work, it was how to live and enjoy themselves. One of the most sedate of the revelers was Elias Hasket Derby Sr., who had lent the hall for the evening. Mr. Derby was a bold, visionary maritime merchant and the head of Salem’s most prosperous family, a house that had emerged from the Revolution measurably richer, with Derby’s privateers having captured nearly 150 British prizes at a profit of one million dollars. “King” Derby has been described as “a tall man, of fine figure and elegant carriage. His deportment was grave and dignified, his habits regular and exact.” His contemporaries were especially struck by his eyes, for one was blue, the other brown, and the arresting contrast is vividly revealed in a contemporary portrait. The son of Richard Derby, he had entered his father’s business at age fifteen not by way of the quarterdeck, which was the normal way to begin a merchant’s career, but with the account books in the counting house. His sons John and Elias Hasket Jr. and other prominent captains and merchants, known as “Derby’s Boys,” would serve a similar apprenticeship. By the age of thirty-three in 1772, he was running the business, and after his father’s death at war’s end, when Derby was forty-four, he had complete authority over the port’s greatest merchant house, with wharf, warehouses, stores, a distillery, brigs, and ships: all without ever having been to sea or abroad. Refitting his privateers as merchantmen, he began to broaden his vision, being the first Salem merchant to dispatch ships to such distant ports as Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and Manila. An innovator, Derby established for Salem ships the role of supercargo, or traveling business agent. He was most likely the first American merchant to send ships to sea with coppered bottoms. Having envisioned a centralized global trade network and developed a system that allowed the consignment of cargoes to a foreign house, he relieved his supercargos of the task of dealing with a succession of buyers. His life was lived in luxury, a style mostly promoted by his wife. The most envied man in Salem, he was also the luckiest, having lost but one ship at sea during his entire career. In the HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS approaching decade, the 1790s, one third of the vessels out of Salem to round the Cape of Good Hope were to be Derby’s vessels. Dr. Bentley wrote with some awe of America’s first millionaire, “Wealth with full tide flows on in that man.” Other merchants looked to Derby as an example to follow in Far Eastern trade. Derby, unsurprisingly, had his enemies present that evening, most notably Captain George Crowninshield, the patriarch of a rival clan of seafarers and from whose family had come Derby’s own wife. Crowninshield’s rise in the merchant arena had been quick, aggressive, and occasionally litigious. Moreover, the Crowninshields were Republicans, an affront to the aristocratic, Federalist Derbys. Crowninshield had been a captain for Richard Derby before the Revolution and was described as a “bluff, warm- hearted chivalrous seaman” and “a son of nature [with powers] such as are employed only in seafaring.” George Crowninshield had a toughness that matched his ambition, and both these qualities helped to elevate his firm to a competitive level with that of Elias Haskins Derby. His five sons who followed him in the family business were diverse and complemented their father’s character. Each had mastered navigation at age twelve, sailed to the East Indies at fifteen, and captained a ship by age twenty. After independence their father began acquiring ships of his own, much to Derby’s displeasure, who branded the Crowninshields as “base plebeians” and “sons of pride.” Derby brought a suit against his brother-in-law for a wharf that extended too far into the channel, causing the bottom adjacent to his own wharf to silt in. After an acrimonious contest, Derby prevailed. A court decision forced Crowninshield to remove twelve feet of his wharf, fueling the animosity. Bitterness between the patriarchs was so rife that when Elizabeth Crowninshield Derby died in 1799, not one Crowninshield attended the funeral. Henry David Thoreau undoubtedly had these two dynamic families in mind when he described the ideal merchant in WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS, published over a half century later, in 1854: “If your trade ... demands a universal knowledge.” Many of Salem’s maritime achievements and domestic conflicts were to be embodied in these rival dynasties of Derbys and Crowninshields, whose fates were intertwined through collaboration and competition in trade, politics, and marriage. Their story is the story of a growing Salem, for the two families gave great and lasting shape to an American city whose development is indelibly linked to the East Indies pepper trade. SPICE HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS August 4, day: According to the Salem Mercury, a family of Arabian camels had come to town: HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1795

The Derby ship America brought to Salem from Île de France (Mauritius) an elephant that had been procured there for $450, and that sold here for $10,000. Good elephant! It drank port and would pick pockets for pieces of bread, but would not allow itself to be ridden. Good elephant!23 SPICE

In the Virginia colony of the North American seaboard, a white planter named George Washington was advertising for the capture of one of his slaves, who had escaped from his plantation. The planter stipulated for some reason, however, that this advertisement should not appear north of Virginia.

The Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker died in Virginia.

NATHANIEL WHITAKER, son of David Whitaker, was graduated [at Harvard College] in 1730. After being some time employed as a minister at Norwich in Connecticut, he went to England in 1765 or 1766, accompanied by Sampson Occum, the first Indian educated by the Rev. Mr. Wheelock, afterwards President of Dartmouth College, to solicit donations for the support of Mr. Wheelock’s school “for the education of Indian youth, to be missionaries and school-masters for the natives of America.” He was installed July 28, 1769, over the 3d Church in Salem. In 1774 his meeting- house was burnt, and a division in his society took place. He and his friends erected a new house, and called it the Tabernacle Church in 1776; but, difficulties having arisen, he was dismissed in 1783, and installed at Canaan, Maine, September 10, 1784. He was again dismissed in 1789, and removed to Virginia, where he died.24

23. We do not have a record of whether this was an African elephant or an Indian one, but since Indian elephants are smaller and easier to transport, and since Charles Darwin would take an elephant ride while on the island of Mauritius and tourists typically can ride on an Indian elephant but not so readily on an African one, in all likelihood this was an Indian one. The issue would be, was this the same female as would arrive in the port of New-York on the America during the following year, or a different one. 24. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1796

An English fleet captured Ambon in the Spice Islands. Captain Jonathan Carnes of Salem, Massachusetts secretly sailed his schooner Rajah to Sumatra to acquire bulk pepper. According to Charles Corn’s THE SCENTS OF EDEN: A HISTORY OF THE SPICE TRADE (NY: Kodansha America, 1999), pages 242-4: The origins of Captain Carnes’s voyage of 1796 may be found in an earlier expedition. In December 1785 Elias Hasket Derby, shipowner, had sent the Grand Turk, commanded by the twenty- seven-year-old former privateersman Ebenezer West, around the Cape of Good Hope to Île de France (Mauritius). Though she was the first American ship to stop there, her captain found little enthusiasm from the natives for his cargo of butter, fish, flour, rice, and rum, and trading proceeded slowly. Approached by a Frenchman to carry a cargo to Canton, West agreed, after establishing a base on Mauritius for future Salem expeditions. Sailing to Canton was an audacious move, for the ship was not insured beyond Île de France, and West had only crude charts for the unknown waters and the pirate-infested Straits of Malacca, through which no American ship had ever sailed. But although the shipowner, Derby, was not seaman himself, he was known for trusting the judgment of an enterprising shipmaster and giving him his head. Captain West steered northeast through unknown waters for China, dreaming of an unprecedented fortune from the East. Arriving at the mouth of South China’s Pearl Rivers in September 1786, Captain West learned that the Grand Turk was New England’s first vessel to reach China. With a difficult voyage behind him, West faced another arduous task in meeting the complex trade regulations and customs of the Chinese, an elaborate ceremony of bribes and fees. The English East India Company had established a factory here a hundred years earlier, followed later by the French and Dutch; by an imperial decree of 1757, Canton had been made China’s sole port for foreign trade. But there were tensions. Already the Honourable Company’s exportation of opium from India to China was beginning to alarm Chinese authorities by its reversal of a trade balance hitherto favorable to them. This sinister commerce would lead eventually to the rise of Hong Kong as a deepwater port, the Opium Wars, and Lord Ashley’s parliamentary denunciation in 1843 that such trade “was utterly inconsistent with the honour and duty of a Christian kingdom.” Despite the frictions, however, Canton in 1785, with its coveted Chinese products of porcelains, teas, silks, and rhubarb, was the choice port of call for Western traders. A “celestial representative,” or customs inspector, boarded to sail the ship upstream to Whampoa Reach, a widening in the river twelve miles south of the port proper. Here the cargo was unloaded and carried upriver in sampans threading their way through junks and tea-deckers to Canton Harbor, where the shallow-drafted vessels were unloaded at factories. “New people,” as visitors were known, were restricted to these walled compounds of warehouses called hongs, where goods were stored and negotiations conducted through one of a dozen imperially appointed Chinese merchants, in this case a man known as Pinqua. William Vans was West’s supercargo, or traveling business agent, and it was his responsibility to purchase goods. Soon the ship’s HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS hold was filled with diverse teas transported in boxes from eight hundred miles inland on the backs of porters, crates of porcelain, and sacks of cassia (Chinese cinnamon). With a loaded ship and the issue of the grand chop certifying that all duties and taxes were paid, the Grand Turk was cleared for Captain West to sail downriver. The ship returned to Salem Harbor in May 1787 to a thunderous welcome, with gun salutes and crowds cheering over the exotic cargo. Derby had tripled his investment on a pioneering voyage, and the gaze of Salem seafarers was suddenly to the Far East.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

September 1, Thursday: Elias Hasket Derby was born to John Derby and Sarah Barton in Salem.

Salem, Massachusetts “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1797

July 25, Tuesday: Nicholas Marcellus Hentz was born in Versailles, France where for political reasons the family was living under the name Arnold.

The Salem Gazette reported the return to the port of New-York of the Rajah under Captain Jonathan Carnes with a full load of bulk pepper from Sumatra. The dried seeds had been shoveled into her hold like coal, and weighed out at an astonishing 150,000 pounds. Since pepper pound for pound was worth about as much as gold, there was considerable celebration. Investors would make a 700% profit, spawning investment by other Salem merchants and injecting the United States into the world spice trade (this Salem-based trade would flourish until 1856, creating some of the first great US fortunes). PLANTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1798

July: The Rajah, reconfigured as a brig rather than a schooner, sailed again from Salem. This time it would return, in October 1799, with 158,544 pounds of Sumatran pepper. (And again, in July 1801, it would bring back 149,776 pounds.) SPICE HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1799

Friends visiting Boston had observed that, where once Friends had been so important that they were “carted from town to town, and whipped severely, on account of their religion,” their religious zeal and faithfulness had departed under “the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the unlawful love of other things.” Due to the advanced age of the remaining members and due to lack of attendance at Quaker meeting for worship, the Boston meeting of Quakers was formally discontinued and the remaining Boston Friends were advised to travel to Lynn MA or Salem for their First Day worship. “[C]ontrary to the advice of the Monthly Meeting,” however, Boston Quakers would continue to observe the silence in their own meetinghouse.

February 20, Wednesday: The America, under Captain Benjamin Crowninshield, cleared Salem harbor for the East Indies, in a search for the unknown source of the pepper riches which had been brought home by the Rajah. It would return with 95,000 pounds bought at higher prices in Bengal, where it did not grow. Soon afterward, however, Sumatra would no longer be a secret. SPICE

October: The Rajah appeared in Salem harbor with a cargo of 158,544 pounds of Sumatran pepper. SPICE

Late in the year: The Patch family (Mayo Greenleaf Patch and Abigail McIntire Patch, with their children Polly Patch, Greenleaf Patch, Nabby Patch, and Samuel Patch) moved on from North Reading, to Danvers on the outskirts of Salem, Massachusetts.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

Salem, Massachusetts “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 1800

July 7, Monday: Michele Felice Cornè arrived in Salem, Massachusetts from Naples aboard the Mount Vernon, Captain Elias Hasket Derby, Jr. During this year the Captain was selling off to Benjamin Hawkes the enormous Georgian mansion his wealthy father “King” Derby had caused to be erected next door to the son’s own wedding-present mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, because that enormous structure had never been fitted out for habitation but was instead used as merely a warehouse for the trade goods his Revolutionary-War privateers had been seizing (Cornè would reside with Derby at his wedding-present mansion in Salem and paint until 1806, and then relocate to Boston).

“King” Derby of Salem had died in the previous year, closing one blue eye and one brown. During the Revolution the father’s privateers had brought in almost 150 prizes. Here is the ranking of the 40 richest Americans of all time as compiled by American Heritage magazine. The conversions were made using a formula comparing the original value of wealth to the size of the US economy at the time and appeared in the magazine’s October 12, 1998 issue. I have highlighted those born before Henry Thoreau, so that you can perceive that “King” Derby had been the 11th richest American citizen to that point in our national trajectory:

Then Now 1 John D. Rockefeller 1839-1937 oil $900 million $190 billion

2 Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919 steel $250 million $100 billion

3 Cornelius Vanderbilt 1794-1877 shipping/railroads $105 million $96 billion

4 John Jacob Astor 1763-1848 real estate/fur trade $20 million $78 billion

5 William H. Gates III 1955- software $62 billion $62 billion

6 Stephen Girard 1750-1831 shipping/real estate $7.5 million $56 billion HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Then Now 7 A.T. Stewart 1803-1876 retail/real estate $50 million $47 billion

8 Frederick Weyerhaeuser 1834-1914 lumber $200 million $43 billion

9 Jay Gould 1836-1892 railroads $72 million $42 billion

10 Marshall Field 1834-1906 department stores $140 million $41 billion

11 Sam Walton 1918-1992 retail $28 billion $37 billion

12 Henry Ford 1863-1947 automobiles $1 billion $36 billion

13 Warren Buffett 1930- investing $34 billion $34 billion

14 Andrew W. Mellon 1855-1937 banking $350 million $32 billion

15 Richard B. Mellon 1858-1933 banking $350 million $32 billion

16 James G. Fair 1831-1894 mining $45 million $30 billion

17 William Weightman 1813-1904 chemicals $80 million $29 billion

18 Moses Taylor 1806-1882 banking $40 million $29 billion

19 Russel Sage 1816-1906 finance $100 million $29 billion

20 John Blair 1802-1899 railroads $60 million $29 billion

21 Cyrus Curtis 1850-1933 publishing $174 million $26 billion

22 Paul G. Allen 1953- software $25 billion $25 billion

23 John Pierpont Morgan 1837-1913 finance $119 million $25 billion

24 Edward Henry Harriman 1848-1909 railroads $100 million $25 million

25 Henry Huddleston Rogers 1840-1909 oil $100 million $25 million

26 Oliver Hazard Payne 1839-1917 oil $178 million $25 billion

27 Henry Clay Frick 1849-1919 steel $225 million $22 billion

28 Collis Potter Huntington 1821-1900 railroads $50 million $22 billion

29 Peter A. Widener 1834-1915 streetcars $100 million $21 billion

30 Nicholas Longworth 1782-1863 real estate $15 million $20 billion

31 Philip Danforth Armour 1832-1901 meatpacking $50 million $20 billion

32 James C. Flood 1826-1889 mining $30 million $20 billion

33 Mark Hopkins 1813-1878 railroads $20 million $20 billion

34 Edward Clark 1811-1882 sewing machines $25 million $18 billion

35 Leland Stanford 1824-1893 railroads $30 million $18 billion

36 Hetty Green 1834-1916 investing $100 million $17 billion

37 James J. Hill 1838-1916 railroads $100 million $17 billion

38 William Rockefeller 1841-1922 oil $150 million $17 billion HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Then Now 39 Elias Hasket Derby 1739-1799 shipping $800,000 $16 billion

40 Claus Spreckels 1828-1908 sugar $50 million $15 billion

November 25, Tuesday: Krishna Pal, a 36-year-old Indian carpenter, suffered a dislocated arm, and was treated by Dr. John Thomas, the first missionary to India from the Baptist Missionary Society. Dr. Thomas, along with the Reverend Joshua Marshman, spoke with this Indian worker about religion. Soon Krishna Pal embraced the Christian faith.

The Belisarius under Captain Samuel Skerry, Junior sailed from Salem harbor toward the distant destination of the Spice Islands. PEPPER HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1801

July: The Rajah appeared in Salem harbor with a cargo of 149,776 pounds of Sumatran pepper. SPICE

July 30, Thursday: The Essex Register reported: Arrived the fast-sailing and well-known “Belisarius,” Captain Samuel Skerry, Junior, one hundred and two days from Bencoolen, having performed the voyage in the short time of eight months and three days, as she sailed from Salem, November 25, 1800.... It is supposed that the “Belisarius” has made the shortest voyage to the East Indies that was ever made from this country. SPICE PEPPER HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1802

In Salem, Michele Felice Cornè planted some tomatoes – but they failed to survive.

The story that he had a tomato seed in his pantspocket when he came over from Naples in 1800 is presumably just that, a story. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1803

Early in the year: The Patch family moved on, from Danvers, Massachusetts to Marblehead.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

Salem, Massachusetts “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS December 25, Sunday: On his way home after an extended voyage to Sumatra, Nathaniel Bowditch sailed his Putnam into the harbor of Salem and tied up at the dock in an intense snowstorm in the middle of the night, with perfect zero visibility. He had been able to make a sight of the sun some two days before and had been confident he knew where he and his ship were in the dark waters off New England. At the entrance to the harbor, there had been a few seconds in which the white curtain of falling snow had rifted and he and his officers had managed to catch one glimpse of a light which he knew could only be the one on Baker’s Island. As he walked through the streets of Salem on his way to home and family, he was recognized, and the town assumed –since no ship could conceivably have come into the rock-bound and poorly mapped harbor under these conditions– that Captain Bowditch had been shipwrecked somewhere along the coast.1 After this last successful voyage, Bowditch would sell the Putnam and be appointed Inspector of Journals for the East India Marine Society. [SEE NEXT SCREEN: WOULD THIS BE AN IMPORTANT PARADIGM FOR THE JOURNAL OF THOREAU, OF HIS LIFE’S VOYAGE IN CONCORD WATERS??]

1. On February 24, 1817, the Union, returning to Salem harbor with a cargo of Sumatran pepper and of tin, would attempt this same stunt in a thick snowstorm, but Captain William Osgood would vacillate and lose way and ram hard aground on the northwest point of Baker’s Island — littering the beach there with his spoiled riches. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Since its formation, the East India Marine Society had been collecting journals of its voyages. The basic purpose of the society was to acquire nautical information, and to get this information the society had blank journals printed and bound for the use of members. Each member starting a voyage took along a journal to record his trip. In the volume the shipmaster was supposed to keep an account of wind and weather, note landfalls, set down the latitude and longitude of out-of-the-way places not fixed on charts, give weights and measures and exchange rates of foreign ports, and make any comments he wished on practically anything else that might be helpful to other members of the society. The society looked on Bowditch as its most scholarly member, the one most capable of examining the journals and noting information that should be called to the attention of other shipmasters. And, in fact, his orderly, critical mind made him an ideal inspector. These journals were considered most important, as the comprehensive directions for keeping them testified. These directions, in addition to calling on members of the society for nautical information, also stated: There should be collected, for the Museum, specimens of various kinds of vegetable substances, earths, minerals, ores, metals, volcanic disturbances, &c. There should also be preserved such parts of birds, insects, fish &c. as serve most easily to distinguish them, and if no part can be preserved, a description of any that are remarkable may be given. Inquiry should be made of any remarkable books in use, among any of the eastern nations, with their subjects, dates and titles. Articles of the dress and ornaments of any nation, with the images and objects of religious devotion, should be procured. This was quite a tall order, one that was never completely filled, since no shipmaster is known to have brought home a volcanic disturbance. Nevertheless, the order was filled to such a degree that war clubs and spears, ceremonial axes, feathered headdresses, armor of medieval Asiatic warriors, carved ivory, and imperial yellow robes were brought into port along with barrels, bales, and sacks of merchandise. In the course of years the shipmasters belonging to the East India Marine Society of Salem collected musical instruments from Arabia, stone images from Java, swords ornamented with human hair from Borneo, wooden bowls used at cannibal feasts in Fiji, a hideous wooden idol from sacred ground in Hawaii. It was a grisly and fascinating collection, this array of images of heathen gods, of heathen weapons. Indian temple bells could be rung on New England shores, and drums made from human skulls could be thumped in Salem. The museum founded by the East India Marine Society grew until, years later, it had art objects long after they had disappeared from the islands on which they had originated, and figures of strange gods long after they had been forgotten by the tribes who had carved them. The curios were put on display in the society’s headquarters on Essex Street in a big room arranged for the exhibit, with a painting of the landing of the Pilgrims on one chimney and on another a portrayal of the launching of the Essex. Some of the loot hung on the walls; some of it was in glass cases. The heathen idols stood. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1804

John Thoreau moved to Salem and learned the dry-goods business working for a merchant named Hathaway.

HENRY’S RELATIVES

Our national birthday, Wednesday the 4th of July: The 1st Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi occurred at Independence Creek and was celebrated by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

Born at 27 Union Street in Salem, Massachusetts, 2d of 3 children of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne, a manchild named Nathaniel Hathorne, Jr.2

The expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, passing through northeastern Kansas (part of area then known as Territory of Orleans) marked the first Fourth of July ever celebrated west of the Mississippi by firing its keelboat’s cannon, by drinking an extra ration of whiskey, and by naming a creek (near what has become Atchinson) “Independence Creek.” A good time was had by all.

The new “Concord Artillery” militia formation made its 1st march through the town of Concord. The charter says, “Whereas Major John Buttrick and Captain Isaac Davis, with a party of the armed yeomanry, did, on the birth- day of our revolution, attack and defeat a superior number of the invaders of our country, who were most advantageously posted at the north bridge of Concord,” it is ordered that the prayer of the petition be granted, and that two brass field-pieces, with proper apparatus, be provided for said company, with suitable engravings, “to commemorate and render honor to the action which led to the victory of the day, and to perpetuate the names of the gallant Buttrick and Davis, and also to animate in future the ardour and bravery of the defenders of our country.” The inscription is as follows: “The Legislature of Massachusetts consecrate the names of Major John Buttrick and Captain Isaac Davis, whose valour and example excited their fellow-citizens to a successful resistance of a superior number of British troops at Concord Bridge, the 19th of April, 1775, which was the beginning of a contest in arms that ended in American Independence.” The Captains have successively been, Thomas Heald, Jesse Churchill, Henry Saunderson, Reuben Brown, Jr., Francis Wheeler, Cyrus Wheeler, Elisha Wheeler, Eli Brown, William Whiting, John Stacy, Joshua Buttrick, and Abel B. Heywood. Cyrus Wheeler and William Whiting were promoted to the office of Colonel.3

2. Nathaniel would be able to say, with President Thomas Jefferson, “The only birthday I ever commemorate is that of our Independence, the Fourth of July.” (There’s no reason to suppose that Tom even knew what his Sally’s birthday was, let alone the birthdays of one after another of her little tan babies.) CELEBRATING OUR B-DAY HDT WHAT? INDEX

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3. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1805

According to Joseph Felt’s ANNALS OF SALEM, in this year a great tunny fish that had been found stranded was on display in Salem, Massachusetts. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1808

According to Joseph Felt’s ANNALS OF SALEM, in this year a 60-foot dead whale was towed into the port of Salem for exhibition, and was then towed on to Boston Harbor for more of the same. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1812

December 8, Tuesday: Elias Hasket Derby died in Salem, Massachusetts.

This year had been a year of heavy flooding in Alta California. It had been the year in which a Russian settlement had been begun, near Bodega Bay.4 The peak of the population of dusky “neophyte” serfs was reached at Mission San Juan Capistrano, with 1,361 Juaneño souls on the mission roster. Any baptized primitive who attempted to flee would of course be searched out by the Spanish soldiers and returned to the mission for punishment, as it was considered that baptism for such a one was equivalent to enlistment for a common soldier. Attempting to run away from one’s fields and one’s sustaining labor was equivalent to desertion, treason, and/or apostasy. “On a summer-like morning, Dec. 8, 1812, mass was being celebrated. What was that distant roar? Was it the sea? The tower tottered. ... Bells swayed, tolled, were silenced and crashed to the earth. With them fell two Indian bell ringers. The door had been twisted by the earthquake and could not be unlocked. Nearly forty neophytes were buried under the stone and mortar of the fallen tower.”5 This fault passes out to sea below Newport Beach, California but in the 1812 event, the effects had been felt strongly enough that the stone domes of the basilica fell in during morning mass, crushing 40 Native American worshipers.6 Six persons present for the ceremonies escaped with their lives, witness to the infinite mercy of the Deity. The proud belfry that had been visible for ten miles around had become a pile of rubble over a mass grave, and a ruin had been created which would become rated as the most picturesque, or at least the most utterly depicted, in the Sovereign State of California.

4. This settlement would eventually become known as Fort Ross. 5. In a similar earthquake in October 1987 the stone basilica of nearby Mission San Gabriel did not collapse but was rendered too dangerous for occupancy. This temblor of 1812 which destroyed the historic basilica is attributed to the Newport/Inglewood strike- slip fault, which is now known to run northwest to southeast along the California coast from the Cheviot Hills overlooking what has become Culver City down through the Baldwin Hills, the Rosecrans Hills, the Dominguez Hills, Signal Hill and Reservoir Hill overlooking what has become Long Beach, Alamitos Heights and Landing Hill behind what has become Seal Beach, through the coastside Bolsa Chica Mesa, Huntington Beach Mesa, and Newport Mesa behind what has become the hoity-toity residential communities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. This is the same fault which caused an earthquake of magnitude Richter 6.3 early in the morning of March 10, 1933, ten kilometers below the surface of the earth just offshore from Newport Beach, rupturing the shoreline for 25 kilometers. The 1933 quake killed only 120 people, in Long Beach CA, because like the recent Northridge CA quake it happened to occur very early in the morning; however, many of the school buildings in Long Beach collapsed and it was clear that thousands of children would have been crushed had the earthquake occurred during school hours. This 1933 event brought about the Field Act governing the seismic engineering of public school structures and the Riley Act governing the seismic engineering of buildings larger than two-family dwellings. The scenario which is now used in this area for planning allows for an earthquake of Richter 7.0 with 25 seconds of shaking causing surface displacements of one meter. It has been estimated that in such a scenario, worst case, there would be 23,000 dead and 91,000 hospitalized, with $69,000,000,000 in property damage (by way of contrast, only $2,400,000,000 was lost in the Orange County bankruptcy of 1995). This makes the Newport/Inglewood strike-slip zone potentially more dangerous to human life and property than the San Andreas strike-slip zone, and the most dangerous by far in the continental United States. The University of California – Irvine is 15 kilometers from this fault but most of its structures, with the exception of the Humanities Office Building (which is expected to crush people, as cracks have already been found) and the Main Library (to be renovated Summer 1996), have been rated as adequate for this planning event. It is anticipated that the primary disruption for the UCI community would be the demand on the services of the primary and secondary medical personnel of the Orange County area. 6. One person was extracted alive from the rubble. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1816

As an example of Quaker disownment, in this year a number of Quakers were disowned by the Lynn and Salem meetings for refusing to submit to a spiritual discipline that was beginning to go beyond governance of behavior and attire into matters of theological opinion. “Beware the lo heres, and the lo theres.”

According to Joseph Felt’s ANNALS OF SALEM, in this year an exhibition of an elephant, and an exhibition of a tiger, were touring Massachusetts.

June: The Union, commanded by Captain William Osgood, cleared from Salem harbor bound for Sumatra. SPICE PEPPER HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1817

February 24, Monday: The lookout aboard the Union, returning to Salem harbor with a cargo of Sumatran pepper and of tin, after midnight sighted the Thatcher’s Island light through a thick snowstorm, and the ship tacked to pass north of it. But should there be one light, or two? Perhaps this was instead the Boston light, and if so they should be steering to the south of it! During the second-guessing, Captain William Osgood gave a command to helm down, and then the ship was unable to regain her course and rammed hard aground on the northwest point of Baker’s Island. Although all hands would survive, the beaches of Baker’s Island would be littered with salt-spoiled peppercorns, and scavengers would be salvaging an occasional box or tin for months to come.7 SPICE

Friend Elizabeth Fry wrote in her journal: I have lately been occupied in forming a school in Newgate for the children of the poor prisoners as well as the young criminals, which has brought much peace and satisfaction with it; but my mind has also been deeply affected in attending a poor woman who was executed this morning. I visited her twice; this event has brought me into much feeling by some distressingly nervous sensations in the night, so that this has been a time of deep humiliation to me, this witnessing the effect of the consequences of sin. The poor creature murdered her baby; and how inexpressibly awful now to have her life taken away. ... Newgate Prison and myself are becoming quite a show, which is a very serious thing. I believe that it certainly does much good to the cause in spreading amongst all ranks of society a considerable interest in the subject, also a knowledge of the Society of Friends and of their principles.

7. When Nathaniel Bowditch had attempted this same feat on December 25, 1803, he had gotten away with it cold. But not just everybody could pull off the stuff that Bowditch could pull off! HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1819

July 22, Thursday: The Reverend Elias Cornelius, who had been raising money for Indian missions and schools, became associate pastor of the Tabernacle Church in Salem, Massachusetts.

One of the early dates we have for the homophonic Christmas song “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!” (“Silent Night! Holy Night!”) is July 22, 1819, the date assigned to it in a church songbook prepared by Blasius Wimmer, organist and teacher of Waidring in Tirol in about 1825.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5 day 22nd of 7 M / Our meeting was pretty well attended on the womens side of the house, but I thought the mens was rather thin it was a season of leaness to me partly occasioned by indisposition of body. — I suffer much with weakness & pain in my back which from its long continuance I begin to fear well terminate in something of a serious nature, tho’ I hope for the best. — In the Preparative meeting there was no buisness occured to send forward to the Moy [Monthly] Meeting. — With my H & Sister Ruth set the eveng with Abigail Robinson RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1822

The recorded Quaker minister Mary Newhall, and friends Elizabeth Redman and Mary Rotch, were in the process of being disowned by the New Bedford Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, for espousal of “advanced doctrines.”

Read about this “New Light” controversy: THE “NEW LIGHTS”

Read about the impact this controversy would have on Waldo Emerson (according to his own evaluation): FREDERICK B. TOLLES

About 35 of these “New Lights” were being disowned in Lynn,8 and almost that many in nearby Salem. Micah Ruggles and Lydia Dean were involved in this set of beliefs.

ELIAS HICKS

“Our hearts are filled with many guests — many beloveds.”

8. Lynn (maybe it was yet called Lynnfield) was less than an hour’s travel from Boston. From Burrill’s Hill there you can see the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Quaker Meeting for Worship Note that Thoreau and Emerson scholars, to date, have taken a simplistic attitude toward this history, presuming for one thing that in the Friendly struggle between Hicksites and Evangelicals, it was always the Hicksites who were disowned and the Evangelicals who stayed in possession of the Quaker logo when that is utterly inaccurate, and presuming, for another thing, that whenever there was a struggle with the Evangelicals in the Friends groups, those who were in opposition were Hicksites or Hicksite sympathizers when that is utterly simplistic. For instance, the “New Light” movement of Mary Newhall that began in about 1815 had not more sympathy for Hicksites than for Evangelicals, was affiliated with the “Irish Liberals,” and was a parallel within Quakerism of the group within the Congregational Church which had eventually split off as Unitarians. (The payoff for these simplistic attitudes is that the scholars get to pretend that the Hicksites were merely Unitarian-symps within Quaker groups, and thus dismiss the fundamental difference between the sort of “reformer” who goes for religious closure, like the Reverend Ralph Waldo Emerson or the Reverend Frederic Henry Hedge or Martin Luther, but merely for closure of a different stamp, and the sort of religious reformer, like Henry Thoreau or Elias Hicks or George Fox, who seeks to forestall any religious closure.) Mary Newhall, Elizabeth Redman, and Mary Rotch, reformers of the “closure-seeking” variety and deadly opponents of the Hicksites (of whom they had no comprehension, because they did not know what it was to seek “non-closure” in matters of the spirit) as well as of the Evangelicals (in opposition to whom they defined themselves), became Unitarians and became friends (small f) of Ralph Waldo Emerson. To characterize their belief system, the historian has to explain that these “New Lights” opposed the Evangelicals within Quakerism who were tending to oversimplify the spiritual life by an escapism in which the old was automatically better than the new, the past better than the present, their model of religious doctrine being one of gradual deterioration with time, and has also to explain that what they had to offer in the place of these simplicitudes was merely an equal but opposite oversimplicitism according to which the new is automatically better than the old, because bright and new, and the future better than the present because after the present. Their simplistic model of religious doctrine was one of progressive revelation with time — a doctrine of evolutionary progress in religious attitudes similar to the sophomoronic attitude that a few deities are obviously better than a confused pagan mess of them, and one monotheistic deity obviously superior to a few (and no deity superior to one). What these people had to offer reduced to the message “Oh, that’s old- fashioned now,” if one allows that they did deliver this doctrine with some wit and subtlety. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Friend Elias was responsive to the tribulation of these disowned Friends, but his basic attitude had already been expressed in a letter to Martha Aldrich on May 29, 1801: neither memories of the past nor anticipations of the future should be allowed to distract us from the seriousness of our task of using “our own experience and judgment” in “living our daily experience in that injunction of our dear Lord.”

ELIAS HICKS

“The candle could not be often put out, unless it was also often lighted, which shows the mercy of God.” Is it any wonder that this was the year in which Friend Elias had his first heart attack?

February 17, 1st Day morning: Friend John Alley, Jr. appeared at the Quaker meetinghouse in Lynn still wearing his sword, and moved to seat himself in one of the high seats traditionally reserved for recognized ministers and elders. Friend Isaac Basset grabbed him about the waist pinning his arms to his side while several others cut the belt of the sword and pulled it away. He, Friend Jonathan Buffum, Friend Benjamin Shaw, and several other “New Lights” then managed to seat themselves in the high seats, some of them by clambering over the main benches in the meetinghouse. The elders of the meeting quickly brought that morning meeting for worship to a close.

At the afternoon meeting for worship, these “New Light” Quakers again seated themselves in the ministers’ section. Friend Isaac Basset invited them to come down and when they accused him of being disorderly, accused them of being the ones who were being disorderly. He gave a signal and three Friends seized Friend Benjamin Shaw, and carried him struggling from the building. Then Friend Jonathan Buffum was removed, and then Friend John Alley, Jr. The three were confined in a nearby house under guard and Friend Preserved Sprague, who had on other occasions behaved in a disruptive manner, was added to their number. There were shouts of “Mob! Mob!” and a deputy sheriff of the town appeared and read the riot act.

That evening a Salem sheriff would take custody of the four detained Quakers of Lynn.

Meanwhile on this day, in Concord, Massachusetts, it was 18 days subsequent to the death of Brister Freeman, and his grandson John Freeman for whom he had been providing, an 8-year-old whose father was long gone and whose mother had died a year and a half earlier, also succumbed — apparently of neglect.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 17th of 2nd M 1822 / In the forenoon Father Rodman was engaged in a short lively testimony. - Afternoon Silent - both meetings were rather small in consequence of the walking - both to me were seasons of but little life — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

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February 18, 2d day (Monday): The four disruptive Quakers from Lynn, Benjamin Shaw, John Alley, Junior, Jonathan Buffum, and Preserved Sprague, were arraigned in Salem court, declined to produce bail, and were returned to confinement.

In the records of Boston: “Be it enacted, etc., as follows: ... Sophia Lapham, widow, may take the name of Sophia Dunbar, and that her son, Charles Howard Lapham, a minor, may take the name of Charles Howard Dunbar.”9

9. Such a renouncing of a father’s name is such an unusual event as to raise the suspicions of a historian. Perhaps the father –who was being said to have deceased but for whom no actual record of date or manner of death has ever been produced– was still alive. Note also the interesting fact that this name being chosen, “Charles Howard Dunbar,” was not even a unique one, as there was already a Charles Howard Dunbar, a different person, who had been born in 1811 in West Bridgewater and would marry there in 1836. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1823

January-August: Captain Jones Very of Salem took his oldest son, Jones Very, Jr., nine years of age and subject, his father considered, to excessive “diffidence,” along with him as “cabin boy” of the Aurelia on a voyage to North Sea ports, and to the Russian port serving St. Petersburg.

October: Captain Jones Very took his oldest son, Jones Very, Jr., ten years of age, on a voyage to New Orleans, France, and Portugal. Off Key West, on the first leg of their venture, Captain Jones’s ship was pursued by a pirate vessel, which they managed to elude. Wooo-oooo, what an adventure! They would not be returning to Salem until August 31, 1824. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1825

The Reverend Henry Root Colman became the minister of a Unitarian church in Salem, Massachusetts.

A council made up both of orthodox Congregationalists and of Congregationalists of the new Unitarian persuasion called the Reverend Hosea Hildreth to preside over the First Parish Church in Gloucester, Massachusetts. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1826

Our national birthday, Tuesday the 4th of July: Construction was initiated at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on the Main Line Canal.

The cornerstone was laid for the first lock of the Oswego Canal.

About noon, Stephen Collins Foster was born in Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, the 9th child of William Barclay Foster, a businessman, and Eliza Clayland Tomlinson, daughter of a fairly well-off farmer.

Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugene Scribe met in Paris to discuss Robert le diable for perhaps the 1st time.

English newspapers picked up and translated, word for word, the hoax or invention that had appeared in the Journal du Commerce de Lyon about an Englishman, one Roger Dodsworth, who had apparently been frozen in a Mount Saint Gothard glacier since an avalanche in 1654, and had on July 4th been recovered and reanimated “by the usual remedies” by a Dr. Hotham of Northumberland. Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley read this newspaper account and by October would produce her THE REANIMATED MAN.

The newspapers of 1826 abounded with descriptions of solemn odes, processions, orations, toasts, and other such commemoratives of July 4th, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. One reflection of the public conception of the Declaration was Royall Tyler’s “Country Song for the Fourth of July,” a poem that describes a New England celebration of the Brother Jonathan type, where neighbors gather for food, fun, and festivities. A clear view of just how the political ideals of the Declaration were received by the masses shines through Tyler’s rhymed directions for the country dance. Here is how his dance appeared in an 1841 publication (although Tyler, who would die on August 26, 1826 from cancer of the face, could only have composed this in a considerably earlier timeframe). Squeak the fife and beat the drum, Independence day is come!! Let the roasting pig be bled, Quick twist off the cockerel’s head. Quickly rub the pewter platter. Heap the nutcakes, fried in butter. Set the cups, and beaker glass, The Pumpkin and the apple sauce. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Send the keg to shop for brandy; Maple sugar we have handy, Independent, staggering Dick, A noggin mix of swingeing thick, Sal, put on your russet skirt, Jotham, get your boughten shirt, To-day we dance to tiddle diddle. —Here comes Sambo with his fiddle; Sambo, take a dram of whiskey, And play up Yankee doodle frisky. Moll, come leave your witched tricks, And let us have a reel of six; Father and mother shall make two; Sal, Moll, and I, stand all a-row, Sambo, play and dance with quality; This is the day of blest equality, Father and mother are but men, And Sambo — is a citizen. Come foot it, Sal, — Moll, figure in. And, mother, you dance up to him; Now saw fast as e’er you can do And father, you cross o’er to Sambo, —Thus we dance, and thus we play, On glorious Independence Day. — [2 more verses in like manner]

In Salem, Massachusetts, 4th-of-July orator the Reverend Henry Root Colman delivered the necessary oration. This would be printed by the town as AN ORATION DELIVERED IN SALEM, JULY 4, 1826, AT THE REQUEST OF THE TOWN, ON THE COMPLETION OF A HALF CENTURY SINCE THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. Meanwhile, elsewhere, 4th-of-July orator George Bancroft was alerting an audience to the fact that his attitudes about government were coming to tend toward the democratic.

On this 50th anniversary of our American independence, which at the time we were referring to as our “Jubilee of Freedom” event, on the 22d birthday of Nathaniel Hawthorne, both former President Thomas Jefferson and former President John Adams died.10 This was taken at the time to constitute a sign of national favor from Heaven, although why death ought to be regarded as a sign of favor remains untheorized — perhaps once again we Americans were “pushing the envelope” of what it is to be a human being. At any rate, this coincidence would become quite the topic for conversation in our American republic.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS: Jefferson: “Is it the 4th?” —Ah.” John Adams: “Thomas Jefferson still survives” (actually Jefferson had died at 12:50PM and then Adams died at 5:30PM.)

Even before news of Jefferson’s demise had reached Washington DC, Mayor Roger C. Weightman was having his final letter read aloud at that city’s Independence Day national-birthday festivities. The most stirring words in that former president’s missive –his assertion that the mass of mankind had not been born “with saddles on their backs” nor a favored few “booted and spurred” to “ride” them– had of course originated in the speech delivered by the leveler Colonel Richard Rumbold on the scaffold moments before his execution for treason against the English monarchy, at the conclusion of the English Civil War, in the Year of Our Lord 1685.11 Those who noticed that the former President had intentionally or unknowingly been borrowing sentiments did not see fit to record that fact in writing.12

10. At any rate, this coincidence would become quite the topic for conversation in our American republic. Refer to L. H. Butterfield, "The Jubilee of Independence, July 4, 1826," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, LXI (1953), pages 135-38; Joseph J. Ellis, Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (NY, 1993), pages 210-16; Robert P. Hay, "The Glorious Departure of the American Patriarchs: Contemporary Reactions to the Deaths of Jefferson and Adams," Journal of Southern History, XXXV (1969), pages 543-55; Merrill D.Peterson, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, 1960, pages 3-14. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Former president Jefferson’s death at Monticello (“All my wishes and where I hope my days will end — at Monticello.”) would be followed shortly by the auction of his 90 black slaves over 12 years of age –along with his 12 black slaves between 9-12 years of age, his 73 cows of unknown coloration, and his 27 horses also of unknown coloration– for he had been living quite beyond his means, bringing back with him for instance from France no fewer than 86 large crates of civilized goodies. Jefferson did, however, set free his mulatto blood relatives. Jefferson, one might say, in allowing that after a certain number of crosses with white daddies, an infant ought to be considered to be white, had “pushed the envelope” of what it meant to be a human being. Yeah, right.

THOMAS JEFFERSON JOHN ADAMS

Mary Moody Emerson entered into her Almanack a comment that this was the day on which her Country had thrown the gage (thrown down the gauntlet, issued a challenge to a duel of honor): tho’ the revolution gave me to slavery of poverty & ignorance & long orphanship, — yet it gave my fellow men liberty HOLOGRAPHIC IMAGES

11. Macaulay’s HISTORY OF ENGLAND, Chapter V; Adair, Douglass. “Rumbold’s Dying Speech, 1685, and Jefferson’s Last Words on Democracy, 1826,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, IX (1952): pages 526, 530: I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden. Rumbold was not merely being hanged but being hanged, drawn, and quartered — the penalty for an attempt upon the monarch. This trope about horses, saddles, boots, and spurs was taken at the time to have been originated by Jefferson, in John A. Shaw’s EULOGY, PRONOUNCED AT BRIDGEWATER, MASSACHUSETTS, AUGUST 2D, 1826 and in Henry Potter’s EULOGY, PRONOUNCED IN FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH-CAROLINA, JULY 20TH, 1826 and in John Tyler’s EULOGY, PRONOUNCED AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, JULY 11, 1826 in A SELECTION OF EULOGIES, PRONOUNCED IN THE SEVERAL STATES, IN HONOR OF THOSE ILLUSTRIOUS PATRIOTS AND STATESMEN, JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON (Hartford CT: 1826). See also THE LAST LETTER OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS STATESMAN, THOMAS JEFFERSON, ESQ. AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: BEING HIS ANSWER TO AN INVITATION TO JOIN THE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON IN CELEBRATING THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: MONTICELLO, JUNE 24, 1826 (Washington DC: 1826).

That 17th-Century incident was not the first one in our history to conform to the dictum “there must be none higher than us, though of course there must always be some lower than us,” for in the 14th Century the Reverend John Ball had been hanged for preaching against public toleration of privileged classes: “When Adam dalf [digged] and Eve span, Who was then a gentleman?” HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Isabella (Sojourner Truth), who would have been approximately 29 years old, had in this year borne another daughter, whom she had named Sophia, who would need to grow up laboring as an indentured servant, by the husband Thomas to whom she had been assigned by her master who would not admit that he was a husband. She had once again increasing the prosperity of the master race! The remaining slaves of New York State were to be freed one year from this date, and John Dumont had solemnly promised Isabella in some earlier period that he would free her and her husband “a year early” and set them up in a nearby log cabin. So it had come time for the white race to be true to its word. However, since the master had made that commitment to this enslaved woman, she had carelessly chopped off one of her fingers while working for him –so he figured she couldn’t work as productively with only nine fingers as she had with ten, and so –he figured she must still owe him some work. Fair’s fair, right? No freedom, no cabin, not yet, instead work some more for nothing. (But don’t lose heart, as maybe later I’ll be able to keep my solemn promise.) TIMELINE OF ACCIDENTS

In New Harmony, Indiana, Robert Dale Owen gave a speech he called his “Declaration of Mental Independence.”

In Providence, Rhode Island, four of those who had participated in the capture of the British armed schooner Gaspe during the Revolution rode in a parade.

In Newport, Rhode Island, Major John Handy read the Declaration of Independence “on the identical spot which he did 50 years ago,” in the presence of Isaac Barker of Middletown, “who was at his side in the same place fifty years before.” Patriotic fun and games! Friend Stephen Wanton Gould protested to his journal: 3rd day 4th of 7th M 1826 / This is what is called Independence Day - & an exceeding troublesome one it is to all sober Minded people - The expence of this day given to the poor or 12. Note that we have here an American author who is establishing his claim to fame upon his being the author of the memorable phrases of our foundational document, and who is attempting incautiously to do so by appropriating phrases originated by someone else. Also, we have here an American public so stupid or so patriotic that it lets him get away with it. Witness John A. Shaw, EULOGY, PRONOUNCED AT BRIDGEWATER, MASSACHUSETTS, AUGUST 2D, 1826 in A Selection of Eulogies, Pronounced in the Several States, in Honor of Those Illustrious Patriots and Statesmen, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (Hartford, Conn., 1826), 163; Henry Potter, “Eulogy, Pronounced in Fayetteville, North-Carolina, July 20th, 1826,” A Selection of Eulogies...., 130; John Tyler, “Eulogy, Pronounced at Richmond, Virginia, July 11, 1826,” A Selection of Eulogies...., 7-8; National Intelligencer, July 4, 1826; Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, July 12, 1826; Philadelphia Gazette, July 5, 1826; Commercial Chronicle and Baltimore Advertiser, July 11, 1826; The last letter of the illustrious statesman, Thomas Jefferson, Esq. author of the Declaration of Independence: Being his answer to an invitation to join the citizens of Washington in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of American independence: Monticello, June 24, 1826 (Washington, D.C., 1826). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS appropriated to public school would school all the poor children in town for some time. — Last night, we were the whole night greatly troubled & kept Awake, by the firing of squibs & crackers, great Bonfire in the middle of the Parade & tar Barrells, with various noises which were kept up all night & consequently kept us & many others awake, to our great discomfiture - in addition to which is the bitter reflection of the discipation & corruption of habits & morals to which our youth are exposed. — & today we have had numerous scenes of drunkness both among the Aged & Youth, & many act of wickedness -besides the pomp & vain show apparant in all parts of the Town -This evening again we are troubled with noise & tumult & what kind of a night we are to have cannot be told. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

In New-York, 4 gold medals had been ordered to be struck by the Common Council: 3 were for surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the 4th was given to the son of Robert Fulton as a memorial of “genius in the application of steam.”

In a celebration at Lynchburg, Virginia, among the “aged patriots of ’76” were General John Smith and Captain George Blakenmore.

At the South Meeting House of Worcester, Massachusetts, Isaiah Thomas stood on the spot from which he had read the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The Frederick-Town Herald of Frederick, Maryland announced that it would no longer be publishing the usual round of “generally dull, insipid” dinner toasts, “about which few feel any interest.”

In Salem, North Carolina, the Moravian Male Academy was dedicated.

In Quincy, Massachusetts, Miss Caroline Whitney delivered an address on the occasion of the presentation of a flag to the Quincy Light Infantry.

In Arlington, Virginia, General Washington’s tent, the very same tent that the General had been using at the heights of Dorchester in 1775, was re-erected near the banks of the Potomac River for purposes of celebration. CELEBRATING OUR B-DAY HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1828

Joseph Barlow Felt (1789-1869). THE ANNALS OF SALEM.

Nathaniel Bowditch sat for his portrait in the Boston studio of Gilbert Stuart. The East India Marine Society had commissioned this painting for their hall in Salem. At this point Stuart was so old and ill that he would have to let his hand lie on a rest until it had stopped shaking, and then rush the brush to the canvas before the shaking started again. This portrait would be the very last he would paint. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS July 9, Wednesday: Gilbert Stuart died in Boston with his portrait of Nathaniel Bowditch still unfinished.

The East India Marine Society of Salem, which had commissioned this painting, would refuse to accept it in that condition, so Bowditch himself sprang for the cost and hung the portrait, the best one of him ever made, in a hall on the second floor of his home: The East India Marine Society would offer its cash instead to the painter Charles Osgood, and the portrait of Bowditch would be completed in 1835 or 1836: HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 9th of 7 M / Samuel Rodman was in town from New Bedford - I had buisness with him on acct of Moses Lopez, which brought us together, & he called & set the evening with us a sociable way. - the time passed on pleasant subjects & not a word on disputable points. - but Oh the secret silent lamentation that pervaded my heart on acct of the loss he has sustained in a separation from the Society of which he was once a useful & ornamental Member. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1830

The 1st course of lectures offered by the Salem Lyceum consisted of:

The Salem Lyceum — 1st Season Daniel A. White of Salem Advantages of Knowledge John Brazer of Salem Authenticity of Ancient Manuscripts Francis Peabody of Salem Steam Engine Abel L. Peirson of Salem Physiology George Choate of Salem Geology Thomas Spencer of Salem Optics Charles G. Putnam of Salem Nervous System Thomas Cole of Salem Astronomy Stephen C. Phillips of Salem Reading of a Lecture written by E. Everett of the Workingmen’s Party Stephen C. Phillips of Salem Public Education, with a sketch of the origin of the public schools of Salem Henry Colman of Salem Human Mind Joshua B. Flint Respiration Joshua B. Flint Circulation of the Blood Joshua B. Flint Digestion

By this year the observed position of the 7th planet Uranus, which had been discovered in 1781, was deviating so much from its calculated position (about half a minute of space), as to cause speculation that there must be another massive object out there beyond it, as yet undiscovered (this 8th planet would be observed in 1845, and named Neptune). ASTRONOMY HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Captain Joseph White, after whom White Island in the Isles of Shoals had been named, was murdered in Salem.

Gallops Island, 16 acres of high drumlin13 surrounded by shrubs, trees, meadow, and salt marsh named for Captain John Gallop, had been farmed during the 1700s and early 1800s. Just north of Gallops, on Nix’s Mate,14 pirates are said to have been hung from chains as a warning against illegal maritime activity. At this point, with the construction of an inn and restaurant, it had become a popular summer resort, the trade at which was being enhanced by thoughts of these pirates. Harbor historian Edward Rowe Snow15 revealed that “Long Ben” Avery buried a fabulous treasure of diamonds somewhere on the higher island.

CAPE COD: I heard a boy telling the story of Nix’s mate to some girls as we passed that spot. That was the name of a sailor hung there, he said. — “If I am guilty, this island will remain; but if I am innocent, it will be washed away,” and now it is all washed away!

NIX’S MATE

13. A drumlin is an elliptical, streamlined mound of clayey till formed beneath a moving glacier. Such mounds are typically found in clusters, one cluster in the northwest plains of Canada being made up of perhaps 10,000 of them, with long axes in parallel marking the original direction of the ice movement. The glacier was moving in the direction from their abrupt end toward their sloping end. A drumlin may be from 20 to 200 feet high and may extend for several miles. Beacon Hill and Bunker Hill are pronounced drumlins. 14. Once an island of 11 acres, Nix’s Mate has eroded over the years until at this time a black-and-white channel marker is all that remains. A speculation as to the name is that at one point both Gallops and Nix’s had been owned by one man named Nix, and that the smaller of the two had at that time been given the name Nix’s Mate.

15. THE ISLANDS OF BOSTON HARBOR (1630-1971). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Construction, in Salem, of the customs counting-house at which Nathaniel Hawthorne eventually would work. Presumably this structure would have been being erected in the old method rather than in the new “balloon carpentry” method: Americans’ technologies of building in the first decades of the 19th Century had evolved gradually from those of their 17th- and 18th-Century ancestors and for the most part would have been recognizable to earlier generations of housewrights. But a radically new way of putting buildings together appeared in the early 1830s, probably first developed by carpenters struggling to keep pace with the rapid growth of the settlement of Chicago on the tree-poor Illinois prairie. “Balloon framing” replaced the massive timber frame with a structural skin of numerous light, weight-bearing members, later standardized as two-by-fours, which were simply nailed together, not intricately joined. Carpenters could put up a balloon frame more quickly and could use much smaller-dimensioned lumber. Balloon framing was adopted first by builders in fast-growing Western cities and commercial towns, for whom speed and economizing on materials were highly important. It was slower to arrive in older, Eastern cities and took even longer to arrive in the countryside, where it did not really begin to replace the old ways until after 1860. Eventually rapid construction with lighter lumber triumphed almost everywhere; traditional timber framing and log construction had almost disappeared by the end of the nineteenth century. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Three biographical sketches from New England history appeared in the Salem Gazette during this year and the next couple of years would see the 1st publications using Nathaniel Hawthorne’s name: “The Hollow of

the Three Hills” and “An Old Woman’s Tale” (perhaps versions of stories in the destroyed SEVEN TALES OF MY NATIVE LAND). After this year Hathorne would be adding a “w” to the spelling of his family name. Sometime in 1831 the unsold copies of FANSHAWE would be destroyed in a Boston bookstore fire. Publisher Samuel Goodrich’s annual The Token and Atlantic Souvenir (for 1831) would contain “Sights from a Steeple.” “The Gentle Boy,” “The Wives of the Dead,” “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” and “Roger Malvin’s Burial” (meant for PROVINCIAL TALES) would appear in The Token for 1832. More sketches and stories would appear in The Token for 1833.

September 29, Wednesday: John F. Knapp was hanged in Salem, for having murdered 82-year-old Joseph White on April 6th.

Horace Mann, Sr. got married with Charlotte Messer, daughter of Brown University’s former president Asa Messer (resigned as president due to school unrest) who had just been a candidate for Governor of Rhode Island (unsuccessful).

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 29th of 9 M / Moy [Monthly] Meeting held in Town Wm almy was short in testimony encouraging the youth The buisness was pretty well conducted - Elisha Bowen dined at the Institution the first time since we have been here — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Lecture Season: The 2d course of lectures offered by the Salem Lyceum consisted of:

The Salem Lyceum — 2d Season Rufus Babcock of Salem Power of Mind Alexander H. Everett A Review of the Continual Progress in Improvement of Mankind Alonzo Potter Moral Philosophy Malthus A. Ward of Salem Gardening Leonard Withington Historical Probability Stephen C. Phillips of Salem The Influence of the Country and the Age in which we Live, on the Condition of Man, as an Individual, a Member of Society, a Political Agent, and an Intelligent and Moral Being Henry K. Oliver of Salem Pneumatics Albert L. Peirson of Salem Biography of Dr. Jenner, and history of vaccination Henry K. Oliver of Salem Solar Eclipse of 1831 George Choate of Salem Climate and its Influence on Organic Life Charles W. Upham of Salem Witchcraft (1st lecture) Charles W. Upham of Salem Witchcraft (2nd lecture) HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Jonathan Webb of Salem Electricity (1st Lecture) Jonathan Webb of Salem Electricity (2nd Lecture) Alexander H. Everett of Salem French Revolution (1st Lecture) Alexander H. Everett of Salem French Revolution (2nd Lecture) Thomas Spencer of Salem Optical Instruments Malthus A. Ward of Salem Natural History (1st Lecture) Malthus A. Ward of Salem Natural History (2nd Lecture) Francis Peabody of Salem Heat Stephen P. Webb of Salem Russian History Edward Everett Political Prospects of Europe Benjamin F. Browne of Salem Zoology Rufus Choate of Salem History of Poland HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1831

Due to ill health, the Reverend Henry Root Colman resigned from the ministry of his Unitarian church in Salem, Massachusetts. He would manage a farm in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

January: Capture by Malay pirates of the Friendship, and the murder of five members of its crew: the worst tragedy in the history of the pepper trade between Salem and Sumatra (the US Navy would of course retaliate). SPICE

September 3, Saturday: The Liberator.

Notice of the servile insurrection led by Nat Turner in Virginia and North Carolina appeared in the Salem Observer. Two reports told of massacres of women and children. “It was altogether unexpected; no one had the slightest intimation of such a movement.”

November 29, Tuesday: Frederick Townsend Ward was born near the docks of Salem, Massachusetts (since most of his correspondence has been destroyed by a relative, we know very little about the earlier portions of this short life).

In Providence, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 29 of 11 M 1831 / Our sub committee Meeting was held - it was a pleasant time, & the buisness conducted harmoniously. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1832

The Female Anti-Slavery Society of Salem, Massachusetts was organized as a black association (segregated of course: this must have seemed at the time to make a certain amount of sense) by Mary A. and Dorothy C. Battys, Charlotte Bell, and Eleanor C. Harvey, free women. A more general New England Anti-Slavery Society was initiated by one dozen white men meeting in the African Baptist Church on Beacon Hill in Boston, the church that had been erected on Smith Court off Joy Street in 1806 by Boston’s free African-Americans.

The Salem Friends erected a meetinghouse (this is the one they would remodel in 1903, that would be consumed in the Great Salem Fire of June 25, 1914). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1835

The Reverend Timothy Flint made good on his 1833 commitment to contribute “Sketches of the Literature of the United States” to the London Athenaeum (there would be a total of 11 articles from the issue of July 4th to the issue of November 9th). He traveled in Cuba, in New England, and on the Great Lakes.

Sophia Amelia Peabody and her sister Mary Tyler Peabody (Mann) returned to Salem from Cuba. Her letters home would be collected and circulated among friends (but not published) by her mother Elizabeth Palmer Peabody under the title THE CUBA JOURNAL, 1833-1835. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1836

January 18, Monday: Waldo Emerson probably delivered a lecture on this date in Salem, the first of a series at their lyceum, for the Salem Mechanics’ Institute. Although dates are available for only five lectures, the payments records in Emerson’s ms account books and on the books of the town Lyceum, which total up to $146, suggest that actually eight or ten lectures were delivered. THE LIST OF LECTURES

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. reported the Alert dealing with the weather off Santa Barbara, California.

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR:

The next night, which was the last, we went ashore in the same manner, until we got almost tired of the monotonous twang of the instruments, the drawling sounds which the women kept up, as an accompaniment, and the slapping of the hands in time with the music, in place of castanets. We found ourselves as great objects of attention as any persons or anything at the place. Our sailor dresses– and we took great pains to have them neat and shipshape– were much admired, and we were invited, from every quarter, to give them an American sailor’s dance; but after the ridiculous figure some of our countrymen cut, in dancing after the Spaniards, we thought it best to leave it to their imaginations. Our agent, with a tight, black, swallow-tailed coat, just imported from Boston, a high stiff cravat, looking as if he had been pinned and skewered, with only his feet and hands left free, took the floor just after Bandini; and we thought they had had enough of Yankee grace. The last night they kept it up in great style, and were getting into a high-go, when the captain called us off to go aboard, for, it being south-easter season, he was afraid to remain on shore long; and it was well he did not, for that very night, we slipped our cables, as a crowner to our fun ashore, and stood off before a south-easter, which lasted twelve hours, and returned to our anchorage the next day.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 18 of 1 M / Our friend Jn Wilbur left us today & returned homewards to Hopkinton where he lives - it was a Snow Storm when hie went over the ferrys, but otherwise a favourable time, the Wind not being high. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

February 17, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was lecture Number 2 of the series: he would receive $25. THE LIST OF LECTURES

The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin left Tasmania. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS February 28, Sunday: Waldo Emerson to his journal:

Cold, bright Sunday morn, white with deep snow. Charles thinks if a superior being should look into families, he would find natural relations existing, and man a worthy being, but if he followed them into shops, senates, churches, and societies, they would appear wholly artificial and worthless. Society seems noxious. I believe that against these baleful influences Nature is the antidote. The man comes out of the wrangle of the shop and office, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. He not only quits the cabal, but he finds himself. But how few men see the sky and the woods! Good talk to-day with Charles of motives that may be addressed by a wise man to a wise man. First, Self-improvement; and secondly, it were equipollent could he announce that elsewhere companions, or a companion, were being nourished and disciplined whose virtues and talents might tax all the pupil’s faculties in honorable and sweet emulation. Charles thinks it a motive also to leave the world richer by some such bequest as the Iliad or Paradise Lost, a splendid munificence which must give the man an affection to the race he had benefitted wherever he goes. Another is the power that virtue and wisdom acquire. The man takes up the world into his proper being. The two-oared boat may be swamped in a squall. The vessels of Rothschild every wind blows to port. He insures himself. The Revival that comes next must be preached to man’s moral nature, and from a height of principle that subordinates all persons. It must forget historical Christianity and preach God who is, not God who was.

Eripitur persona, manet res. It must preach the Eternity of God as a practical doctrine. God manifest in the flesh of every man is a perfect rule of social life. Justify yourself to an infinite Being in the ostler and dandy and stranger, and you shall never repent. The same view might hinder me from signing a pledge. There is such an immense background to my nature that I must treat my fellow as Empire treats Empire, and God, God. My whole being is to be my pledge and declaration, and not a signature of ink. That life alone is beautiful which is conformed to an Idea. Let us not live from hand to mouth now, that we may not ever. I would not have a man dainty in his conduct. Let him not be afraid of being besmirched by being advertised in the newspapers, or by going into Athenaeums and town meetings, or by making speeches in public. Let his chapel of private thoughts be so holy that it shall perfume and separate him unto the Lord, though he lay in a kennel. Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

This passing Hour is an edifice Which the Omnipotent cannot rebuild.

Goethe writes to his friend, September 22, 1787, from Rome, “It is really cheering that these four pretty volumes, the result of half a life, should seek me out in Rome. I can truly say, there is no word therein which has not been lived, felt, enjoyed, suffered, thought, and they speak to me now all the livelier.” The vessel that carried him from Palermo to Naples was in danger, and the ship’s company roared at the master. “The master was silent, and seemed ever to think only of the chance of saving the ship; but for me, to whom from youth anarchy was more dreadful than death itself, it was impossible longer to be silent.” “For the narrowed mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade; for the higher an art; and the highest, in doing one thing, does all: or, to speak less paradoxically, in the one thing which he does rightly, he sees the likeness of all which is done rightly.” (Volume xxi, p. 51.)....

Waldo lectured in Salem. This was the 3rd lecture of the series. THE LIST OF LECTURES

Hymne an den Unendlichen D.232 for vocal quartet and piano by Franz Schubert to words of Schiller was performed for the initial time, in the Vienna Redoutensaal.

The Alert arrived in Santa Barbara and Richard Henry Dana, Jr. had a chance to catch up on Boston news and also news of the graduation of some of his Harvard College classmates. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR: We just missed of seeing the California, for she had sailed three days before, bound to Monterey, to enter her cargo and procure her license, and thence to San Francisco, etc. Captain Arthur left files of Boston papers for Captain T______, which, after they had been read and talked over in the cabin, I procured from my friend the third mate. One file was of all the Boston Transcripts for the month of August, 1835, and the rest were about a dozen Daily Advertisers and Couriers, of different dates. After all, there is nothing in a strange land like a newspaper from home. Even a letter, in many respects, is nothing, in comparison with it. It carries you back to the spot, better than anything else. It is almost equal to clairvoyance. The names of the streets, with the things advertised, are almost as good as seeing the signs; and while reading “Boy lost!” one can almost hear the bell and well-known voice of “Old Wilson,” crying the boy as “strayed, stolen, or mislaid!” Then there was the Commencement at Cambridge, and the full account of the exercises at the graduating of my own class. A list of all those familiar names, (beginning as usual with Abbot, and ending with W.,) which, as I read them over, one by one, brought up their faces and characters as I had known them in the various scenes of college life. Then I imagined them upon the stage, speaking their orations, dissertations, colloquies, etc., with the gestures and tones of each, and tried to fancy the manner in which each would handle his subject,

* * * * *, handsome, showy, and superficial; * * * *, with his strong head, clear brain, cool self-possession; * * *, modest, sensitive, and underrated; * * * * *, the mouth-piece of the debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and democratic;

and so following. Then I could see them receiving their A.Bs. from the dignified, feudal-looking President, with his “auctoritate mihi commissa,” and walking off the stage with their diplomas in their hands; while upon the very same day, their classmate was walking up and down California beach with a hide upon his head. Every watch below, for a week, I pored over these papers, until I was sure there could be nothing in them that had escaped my attention, and was ashamed to keep them any longer.

March: At some point this month Waldo Emerson delivered the 4th lecture of his current series in Salem, but we don’t know the exact date (perhaps it was on the 1st of the month). THE LIST OF LECTURES

Waldo’s brother Charles Chauncy Emerson, coming home to Concord from Boston, was obliged to ride on top of the stagecoach and caught a bad cold. He would go down to Staten Island and stay with his brother Judge William Emerson while seeking some relief from “this lake of fire I am bearing about in my breast,” and would collapse and die of tuberculosis after a walk on May 9th.

The engagement of his brother Charles, who resided with Mr. and Mrs. Emerson, to Miss Elizabeth Sherman Hoar of Concord, had had much to do with their decision to purchase a home there. They had added new rooms to the house they purchased, expecting that he would soon bring his bride to live with them (the plan was for them to be wed during the month of September after an engagement of three years). Madam Ruth Haskins Emerson would then have had the joy of having two grown sons under the same roof with her, along with their wives, and potentially their children as well. But this was not to be. Of Charles his grieving brother would write: — And here I am at home again. My brother, my friend, my ornament, my joy and pride has fallen by the wayside, — or rather has risen out of this dust.... Beautiful without any parallel in my experience of young men was his life; happiest his death. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Miserable is my own prospect from whom my friend is taken.... I read now his pages, I remember all his words and motives without any pang, so healthy and humane a life it was, and not like Edward’s, a tragedy of poverty and sickness tearing genius.... I have felt in him the inestimable advantage, when God allows it, of finding a brother and a friend in one.

This grieving brother would write to his other brother William: — Concord, May 15, 1836. ... At the church this morning, before the prayers, notes of the families were read [desiring the prayers of the congregation] and one from Dr. Ripley, and one, “many young people, friends of the deceased, join in the same request.” As it was unusual it was pleasing. Mr. Goodwin preached in the morning from the text, “Who knoweth the time of his death?” and made affectionate and sympathetic remembrance of Charles. Grandfather, [Dr. Ripley] in the afternoon, called him by name in his own rugged style of Indian eloquence. “This event seems to me,” he said, “loud and piercing, like thunder and lightning. While many aged and burdensome are spared, this beloved youth is cut down in the morning.”

This grieving brother would write about Charles at the end of the chapter “Discipline” of NATURE. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS March 2, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was lecture Number 5 of the series, presumably about Martin Luther. He would receive $25. THE LIST OF LECTURES

At San Antonio, in the northern province of Mejico, Tejas, General Antonio López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón and the Mexican army had staged a siege that finally, at some cost, had overwhelmed the 179 defenders of the Alamo fortification. Among those trapped there and eliminated, in what would eventually become known as “The Battle for Texas Independence” (see below), had been Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Colonel Travis. General Santa Ana would later be defeated at San Jacinto in a battle against troops led by Sidney Sherman and Sam Houston, and the new Republic of Texas would be able to assert a claim to all the land between the Rio Grande and Nueces rivers. On this day a constituent assembly named David Burnet as president and Lorenzo de Zavala as vice-president and this northern province declared independence from Mejico. READ THE FULL TEXT

General Houston celebrated his 43rd birthday as the republic declared its independence from Mexico. These were free white men, Texians with Kentucky squirrel rifles, and they could hold slaves if they wanted to — and no little brown greaser was going to come around and tell them they shouldn’t.

April 18, Monday: Waldo Emerson began delivering a private course in Salem: six lectures on “English Biography and Literature” (his net would be $149). THE LIST OF LECTURES

April 20, Wednesday: A Canadian company was incorporated to build a suspension bridge over the Niagara River.

Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was the 2d lecture of the series. THE LIST OF LECTURES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

May 2, Monday: Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was the 3d lecture of the series. THE LIST OF LECTURES

May 4, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was the 4th lecture of the series. THE LIST OF LECTURES

In the Chiesa Collegiata di San Bartolomeo of Busseto, Giuseppe Verdi got married with Margherita Barezzi, daughter of Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and Verdi’s patron.

When Felix Mendelssohn arrived in Frankfurt on his way to Dusseldorf to direct the Niederrheinisches Musikfest he was introduced to several people among whom was a young chorus member, Cecile Jeanrenaud, daughter of a Protestant minister (she would eventually become his wife).

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day we came in to attend the select Meeting - Dined at Susan Prouds - & I went to the Meeting for Sufferings in the Afternoon after which T Howland again took my wife to his House & I again walked out to it — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

May 6, Friday: Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was the 5th lecture of the series. THE LIST OF LECTURES

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day spent the forenoon in walking about Greenwich in waiting for the Packet which got off about 1 OC & we arrived at home in about 4 hours altho the wind was entirely a head. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

The New York State Legislature authorized construction of the Genesee Valley Canal.

The Alert, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. crewman, completed its cargo of California hides.

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR: Friday, May 6th, completed the taking of our cargo, and was a memorable day in our calendar. The time when we were to take in our last hide, we had looked forward to, for sixteen months, as the first bright spot. When the last hide was stowed away, and the hatches calked down, the tarpaulins battened on to them, the longboat hoisted in and secured, and the decks swept down for the night,– the chief mate sprang upon the top of the long-boat, called all hands into the waist, and giving us a signal by swinging his cap over his head,– we gave three long, loud cheers, which came from the bottom of our hearts, and made the hills and valleys ring again. In a moment, we heard three, in answer, from the California’s crew, who had seen us taking in our long-boat, and– “the cry they heard– its meaning knew.” The last week, we had been occupied in taking in a supply of wood and water for the passage home, and bringing on board the spare spars, sails, etc. I was sent off with a party of Indians to fill the water-casks, at a spring, about three miles from the shipping, and near the town, and was absent three days, living at the town, and spending the daytime in filling the casks and transporting them on ox-carts to the landing-place, whence they were taken on board by the crew with boats. This being all done with, we gave one day to bending our sails; and at night, every sail, from the courses to the skysails, was bent, and every studding-sail ready for setting. Before our sailing, an unsuccessful attempt was made by one of the crew of the California to effect an exchange with one of our number. It was a lad, between fifteen and sixteen years of age, who went by the name of the “reefer,” having been a midshipman in East India Company’s ship. His singular character and story had excited our interest ever since the ship came into the port. He was a delicate, slender little fellow, with a beautiful pearly complexion, regular features, forehead as white as marble, black haired, curling beautifully, rounded, tapering, delicate fingers, small feet, soft voice, gentle manners, and, in fact, every sign of having been well born and bred. At the same time there was something in his expression which showed a slight deficiency of intellect. How great the deficiency was, or what it resulted from; whether he was born so; whether it was the result of disease or accident; or whether, as some said, it was brought on by his distress of mind, during the voyage, I cannot say. From his own account of himself, and from many circumstances which were known in connection with his story, he must have been the son of a man of wealth. His mother was an Italian woman. He was probably a natural son, for in scarcely any other way could the incidents of his early life be accounted for. He said that his parents did not live together, and he seemed to have been ill treated by his father. Though he had been delicately brought up, and indulged in every way, (and he had then with him trinkets which had been given him at home,) yet his education had been sadly neglected; and when only twelve years old, he was sent as midshipman in the Company’s service. His own story was, that he afterwards ran away from home, upon a difficulty which he had with his father. and went to Liverpool, whence he sailed in the ship Rialto, Captain Holmes, for Boston. Captain Holmes endeavored to get him a passage back, but there being no vessel to sail for some time, the boy left him, and went to board at a common sailor’s boarding-house, in Ann street, where he supported himself for a few weeks by selling some of his valuables. At length, according to his own account, being desirous of returning home, he went to a shipping-office, where the shipping articles of the California were open. Upon asking where the ship was going, he was told by the shipping-master that she was bound to California. Not knowing where that was, he told him that he wanted to go to Europe, and asked if California was in Europe. The shippingmaster answered him in a way which the boy did not understand, and advised him to ship. The boy signed the articles, received his advance, laid out a little of it in clothes, and spent the rest, and was ready to go on board, when, upon the morning of sailing, he heard that the ship was bound upon the North-west Coast, on a two or three years’ voyage, and was not going to Europe. Frightened at this prospect, he slipped away when the crew was going aboard, wandered up into another part of the town, and spent all the forenoon in straying about the common, and the neighboring streets. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

THE REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR DANA, CONCLUDED:

Having no money, and all his clothes and other things being in the chest, on board, and being a stranger, he became tired and hungry, and ventured down toward the shipping, to see if the vessel had sailed. He was just turning the corner of a street, when the shippingmaster, who had been in search of him, popped upon him, seized him, and carried him on board. He cried and struggled, and said he did not wish to go in the ship, but the topsails were at the mast-head, the fasts just ready to be cast off, and everything in the hurry and confusion of departure, so that he was hardly noticed; and the few who did inquire about the matter were told that it was merely a boy who had spent his advance and tried to run away. Had the owners of the vessel known anything of the matter, they would have interfered at once; but they either knew nothing of it, or heard, like the rest, that it was only an unruly boy who was sick of his bargain. As soon as the boy found himself actually at sea, and upon a voyage of two or three years in length, his spirits failed him; he refused to work, and became so miserable, that Captain Arthur took him into the cabin, where he assisted the steward, and occasionally pulled and hauled about decks. He was in this capacity when we saw him; and though it was much better for him than the life in the forecastle, and the hard work, watching, and exposure, which his delicate frame could not have borne, yet, to be joined with a black fellow in waiting upon a man whom he probably looked upon as but little, in point of education and manners, above one of his father’s servants, was almost too much for his spirit to bear. Had he entered upon his situation of his own free will, he could have endured it; but to have been deceived, and, in addition to that, forced into it, was intolerable. He made every effort to go home in our ship, but his captain refused to part with him except in the way of exchange, and that he could not effect. If this account of the whole matter, which we had from the boy, and which was confirmed by all the crew, be correct, I cannot understand why Captain Arthur should have refused to let him go, especially being a captain who had the name, not only with that crew, but with all whom he had ever commanded, of an unusually kind-hearted man. The truth is, the unlimited power which merchant captains have, upon long voyages on strange coasts, takes away a sense of responsibility, and too often, even in men otherwise well-disposed, substitutes a disregard for the rights and feelings of others. The lad was sent on shore to join the gang at the hide-house; from whence, I was afterwards rejoiced to hear, he effected his escape, and went down to Callao in a small Spanish schooner; and from Callao, he probably returned to England. Soon after the arrival of the California, I spoke to Captain Arthur about Hope; and as he had known him on the voyage before, and was very fond of him, he immediately went to see him, gave him proper medicines, and, under such care, he began rapidly to recover. The Saturday night before our sailing, I spent an hour in the oven, and took leave of my Kanaka friends; and, really, this was the only thing connected with leaving California which was in any way unpleasant. I felt an interest and affection for many of these simple, true-hearted men, such as I never felt before but for a near relation. Hope shook me by the hand, said he should soon be well again, and ready to work for me when I came upon the coast, next voyage, as officer of the ship; and told me not to forget, when I became captain, how to be kind to the sick. Old “Mr. Bingham” and “King Mannini” went down to the boat with me, shook me heartily by the hand, wished us a good voyage, and went back to the oven, chanting one of their deep monotonous songs, the burden of which I gathered to be about us and our voyage.

May 7, Saturday: The Liberator.

Waldo Emerson lectured in Salem. This was the 6th and final lecture of the series. THE LIST OF LECTURES

July: Founding father of the Mormons Joseph Smith went back east to search for buried treasure in the vicinity of Salem, Massachusetts (without finding anything). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1837

Visiting the Peabody sisters Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Mary Tyler Peabody (Mann), and Sophia Amelia Peabody (Hawthorne) in Salem in this year, Nathaniel Hawthorne met his future wife. The sisters began their efforts to champion his reputation and assist his fortunes. Sophia was during this period achieving a reputation as a copyist of artworks and Nathaniel would engage her to illustrate the 1839 book edition of his THE GENTLE BOY. He would wind up dedicating this book to her. SOPHIA PEABODY HAWTHORNE

March 7, Tuesday: Waldo Emerson probably lectured at the lyceum in Salem. THE LIST OF LECTURES

March 20, Monday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the lyceum in Salem. He would receive $25. THE LIST OF LECTURES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS November 11, Saturday: Henry Thoreau indicated a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6- 9 of Lemuel Shattuck’s A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;..., which had appeared in October 1835.

At some point between this day and the 14th, Henry wrote his older brother John Thoreau, Jr., who was teaching in Taunton.

Brother, it is many suns that I have not seen the print of thy moccasins by our council fire, the Great Spirit has blown more leaves from the trees and many clouds from the land of snows have visited our lodge — the earth has become hard like a frozen buffalo skin, so that the trampling of many herds is like the Great Spirit’s thunder — the grass on the great fields is like the old man of eight [sic?] winters — and the small song-sparrow prepares for his flight to the land whence summer comes.

In Salem, the Hawthornes paid a visit to the Peabody sisters. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY SOPHIA AMELIA PEABODY MARY TYLER PEABODY

Thomas Green Fessenden died in Boston.

Mormon missionaries had been sent from America to England and had begun preaching the apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, in Preston in Lancashire. This day saw the carpenter Miles Romney and his wife Elizabeth Gaskell Romney, previously adherents of the Church of England, being baptized there in the Ribble River (in 1841 this Romney family would emigrate to Nauvoo, Illinois and Miles would become an architect for a Mormon Church in Utah; Miles Park Romney, one of their sons, would when US anti-polygamy laws began to be seriously enforced flee from Utah to Mexico in 1885 with his 4 wives and 30 children). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1838

January 17, Wednesday: Reuben Crandall died in Jamaica — of consumption or tuberculosis which he had contracted during his lengthy incarceration in the Washington DC lockup on charges of having attempted to persuade the citizens of our nation’s capital to give up on human enslavement.

Waldo Emerson lectured in Boston. This was the 7th lecture of his series, “Prudence.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

On this same day, at the Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Salem, Massachusetts, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould was struggling with the spiritual error of those Quakers who, like the Hicksites of 1827, were allowing themselves to become over-preoccupied with the ongoing antislavery crusade to the detriment of their religion.

“Abolitionists often identified themselves with the slaves in a mood not so much of compassion as of self- seeking liberation.” — Bliss Perry, THE AMERICAN SPIRIT IN LITERATURE, page 233

None of your hyperventilation, please — we are white people here, and this “being enslaved” situation isn’t a problem that we need concern ourselves with. He approved a motion by the Yearly Meeting barring the abolition societies from use of Friends meetinghouses for their inciting gatherings in precisely the same mode in which the abolition societies had been barred in Washington from distributing their inciting pamphlets. 4th day / attended Select meeting which was a time of favour the[n?] attended with a sense of weight & some distress things not being all right among them — Dined at Abijah Chases & met in the Afternoon with the Yearly Meeting committee & endeavoured to feel after the mind of Truth & I believe we were favoured with a right sense & right movements, which resulted in private & tender council to a few who appeared to be much involved the spirit of Anti Slavery, or are at least by their heated zeal injuring a good & right cause by intemperate movements, & in some instances injuring themselves, & society in persuing wrong, or at least unseasonable Measures - We thought some good was done & that we went at present as far as Wisdom dictated - Returned to Brother J R & lodged. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

SELFPRIVILEGING The problem was that these anti-slavery white people were mere self-privilegers. By identifying themselves with the plight of an oppressed minority they achieved a kind of cheap righteousness, not only at the expense of the slaves they purported to be defending but also at the expense of other white people, slavemasters, whom they were cheaply disparaging! HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1840

February 17, Monday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Lyceum in Salem. He would receive $17. THE LIST OF LECTURES

February 26, Wednesday or 27, Thursday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Lyceum in Salem (probably “Analysis, the Character of the Present Age” according to HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SALEM LYCEUM). He would receive $17. THE LIST OF LECTURES HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1844

January 10, Sunday: In this exceedingly cold and biting winter, an exceedingly cold and biting law went into effect in the District of Columbia. The burden of proof was shifted entirely onto the shoulders of any Negro taken under arrest, to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the white authorities that he had in fact been born free.

At Fruitlands, during this exceedingly cold and biting winter, after interminable talk and too little work, “the chickens had come home to roost.” It was still midwinter and already there was nothing whatever in the pantry, nothing whatever in the root cellar, nothing whatever in the woodshed. Bronson Alcott had been attempting to atone by starving himself to death, but, as Louisa May Alcott put his spiritual situation in her autobiographical TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS,

When all other sentiments had faded into dimness, all other hopes died utterly; when the bitterness of death was nearly over, when body was past any pang of hunger or thirst, and soul stood ready to depart, the love that outlives all else refused to die.

Abba Alcott wrote her brother, the Reverend Samuel Joseph May, that

having ate our last bit and burnt our last chip, we sent for Mr. Lovejoy to come and get us out — which he did.... All Mr. Lane’s efforts have been to disunite us. But Mr. Alcott’s conjugal and paternal instincts were too strong for him.

Bronson has destroyed his journal of the last months at Fruitlands. It appears he also went through his daughter Anna’s diary, ripping out numerous pages. Eight pages of Louisa’s diary of that period have turned up, behind a partition in one of the houses the Alcott family subsequently inhabited, so it is remotely possible that more pages may someday appear. Of course, we do have her TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS, but it would be nice to have something less thoroughly sanitized by afterthoughts. THE ALCOTT FAMILY

Richard Wagner wrote Felix Mendelssohn about their new relationship. “If I have come a little closer to you, that is the nicest thing about my whole Berlin expedition.”

Waldo Emerson lectured at the lyceum in Salem, likely on “The New England Man.” He would receive $20. THE LIST OF LECTURES

Sunday, January 10, 1844. I believe that no law of mechanics, which is observed and obeyed from day to day, is better established in the experience of men than this, —that love never fails to be repaid in its own coin; that just as high as the waters rise in one vessel just so high they will rise in every other into which there is communication, either direct or under ground or from above the stars. Our love is, besides, some such independent fluid element in respect to our vessels, which still obeys only its own, and not our laws, by any means, without regard to the narrow limits HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS to which we would confine it. Nor is the least object too small for the greatest love to be bestowed upon.

March 6, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the lyceum in Salem, probably on the topic “Want of Distinctive National Character.” He would receive $20. THE LIST OF LECTURES

On approximately this day Frederick Douglass lectured in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Russia.

November 3, Sunday: Frederick Douglass lectured at Mechanics’ Hall in Salem, before the Salem Female Anti- Slavery Society.

November 11 (approximately): Frederick Douglass lectured at Mechanics’ Hall in Salem. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS December 11, Tuesday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the lyceum in Salem, most likely on the crowdpleaser topic “Genius of the New Englander.” He would receive $20. THE LIST OF LECTURES

Dr. Horace Wells, a 29-year-old dentist of Hartford, Connecticut who had been trained in Boston, inhaled

nitrous oxide “laughing” gas administered by Gardner [Garner?] Quincy Colton, and had an associate, his friend and former pupil Dr. John Riggs (later of “Riggs’ Disease” fame) extract an aching 3rd molar. After the effects had worn off he exclaimed, “I did not feel so much as the prick of a pin. A new era in tooth-pulling has come!”16 This was the first operation performed under nitrous oxide inhalation anesthesia. Wells would focus his career on the promotion of nitrous oxide anesthesia and would attempt without much success to promote his technique in the Boston medical community. He would carry on his work in many of the capitals of Europe. He used the influence of William T.G. Morton, with whom he had had a shared dental practice in 1843, and whom he had tutored in dentistry.

DENTISTRY

16. Later in his life, Dr. Wells would become a recreational user of chloroform, and he liked to sniff some and then go out and find himself a prostitute, and throw acid at her. His experiments on himself and his fun activities would, on January 24, 1848, bring about his death by suicide in jail. He is commemorated by a bronze statue in the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford CT (but I don’t know that any of the prostitutes he threw acid upon while under the influence have been similarly commemorated, in Hartford CT or elsewhere, or if there is a bronze plaque on the wall of the cell in which he killed himself). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

WINTER 1845/1846

Lecture Season: The 17th course of lectures offered by the Salem Lyceum consisted of:

The Salem Lyceum — 17th Season H.N. Hudson King Lear, (Shakspeare) The Reverend William Henry Channing The College, the Church, and the State E. Darling Chemistry, including Solidification of Carbonic Acid Gas W.B. Sprague Life of Wilberforce Stephen Pearl Andrews Phonography George H. Devereux of Salem Man Charles T. Brooks Omnipresence of the Poetic James T. Fields Books A.F. Boyle Phonography Caleb Stetson Individuality of Man Lieutenant Halleck The Battle of Waterloo Amory Holbrook of Salem Galileo Samuel Osgood Rousseau Charles B. Haddock Cultivation of a Taste for Letters by Men of Business Fletcher Webster China (1st lecture) China (2d lecture) Edwin P. Whipple Wit and Humor The Reverend Theodore Parker The Progress of Man Professor Asa Gray Geographical Botany (1st lecture) Geographical Botany (2d lecture) Thomas D. Anderson Reverence for our Government and Laws Waldo Emerson of Concord Napoleon Bonaparte HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS Winter Lecture Season of ’45/46, at the Odeon Hall in Boston:

7th Season of The Lowell Institute Charles Lyell, Esq., F.R.S., Geology 12 lectures (then repeated, total 24) 1. Lieut. H.W. Halleck, United States Army, The Military Art 12 lectures (one repeated, total 13) Professor Asa Gray, M.D., Botany 12 lectures (then repeated, total 24) Professor Joseph Lovering, A.M., Astronomy 12 lectures (then repeated, total 24)

THE LOWELL INSTITUTE HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1849

July 31, Tuesday: “The darkest hour I ever lived.” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mother died in Salem.

The remnants of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s army, including Hugh Forbes, formerly of the Grenadier Guards, and Forbes’s son, a lad of 13 years, after a month of avoiding Austrian troops in the Apennine mountains, crossed into San Marino and were disbanded (Forbes would go on to reside with his family in Florence, where he would work as a silk merchant).

The Hungarian army was defeated at Segesvar.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Salem, Massachusetts HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1875

During 1858-1864 John G. Palfrey had produced the 3 volumes of HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND DURING THE STUART DYNASTY. In following years he would produce 2 more volumes, which would be published as HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FROM THE REVOLUTION OF THE 17TH CENTURY TO THE REVOLUTION OF THE 18TH. He would be pointing up something that we should all bear in mind, that the “witchcraft” episode in Salem history had not really been any sort of aberration — that what was truly amazing, that we should reflect upon, was that there had not been a whole lot more witch mania in the New World. Much of what we now term scholarship in regard to this witch mania, actually, is nothing more nor less than sheer sensationalism, because: It was not to be expected of the colonists of New England that they should be the first to see through a delusion which befooled the whole civilized world, and the gravest and most knowing persons in it. The colonists in Connecticut and New Haven, as well as in Massachusetts, like all other Christian people at that time —at least with extremely rare individual exceptions— believed in the reality of a hideous crime called witchcraft. — Volume IV, pages 96-127 HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1897

The USDA section on Seed and Plant Introduction was formed, with David Fairchild as the “Explorer in Charge.”

The last of Salem’s proud square-riggers was repurposed, as a coal barge. PEPPER SPICE

Having discovered major improprieties in bourbon production, the US Congress passed the Bottled-in-Bond Act, controlling bourbon production at the source and setting standards for proof and aging. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1898

G.D. Latimer, Salem, in Lyman P. Powell, ed., HISTORIC TOWNS OF NEW ENGLAND. NY & London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Then, too, the belief in witchcraft was general. Striking coincidences, personal eccentricities, unusual events and mysterious diseases seemed to find an easy explanation in an unholy compact with the devil. A witticism attributed to Judge Sewall, one of the judges in these trials, may help us to understand the common panic: “We know who’s who but not which is witch.” That was the difficulty. At a time when every one believed in witchcraft it was easy to suspect one’s neighbor. It was a characteristic superstition of the century and should be classed with the barbarous punishments and religious intolerance of the age. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1914

June 25, Thursday: Bernhard III replaced Georg II as Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

At 1:37PM a fire broke out in a combustible fluids manufacturing shed at the Korn Leather Factory at 57 Boston Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Before the fire would be put out, a strip a half a mile wide and a mile and a half long would be burned over and 1,376 buildings would be consumed. That night nearly 20,000 people would be homeless and some 10,000 workers would be without employment. Among the structures destroyed was the Friends meetinghouse erected in 1832 and remodeled in 1903. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1919

In about this timeframe, seeking to make of Salem a better tourist trap, an unknown person carved an inauthentic “DIED 1692” into Richard More’s famed stone.17 The inscriptions at the grave of him and his third wife, Jane, now read: HERE LYETH BURIED YE BODY OF CAPT RICHARD MORE AGED 84 YEARS DIED 1692 MAYFLOWER PILGRIM

JANE SECOND WIFE TO CAPT RICHARD MORE SENR AGED 55 YEARS DEPARTED THIS LIFE Ye 8 OF OCTOBER 1686

17. Refer to David Lindsay’s MAYFLOWER BASTARD: A STRANGER AMONG THE PILGRIMS (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2002). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1974

Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s SALEM POSSESSED: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF WITCHCRAFT (Cambridge MA: Harvard UP). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

1996

Peter Charles Hoffer’s THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLES: THE MAKERS OF THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS (Baltimore MD: The Johns Hopkins UP)

Elaine G. Breslaw’s TITUBA, RELUCTANT WITCH OF SALEM: DEVILISH INDIANS AND PURITAN FANTASIES (NY: New York UP) Reviewed for H-PCAACA by Jennifer Putzi, University of Nebraska-Lincoln The Witches of Salem—Race and Gender/Puritan Era Elaine G. Breslaw’s TITUBA, RELUCTANT WITCH OF SALEM is an important contribution to the literature of the Salem witchhunt. By foregrounding Tituba and her role in the familiar events of 1692, however, Breslaw distinguishes her account from those of other scholars in the field and raises intriguing questions about the interpretation of the culture and heritage of early New England. Most historians have ignored Tituba, thereby perpetuating misinformation about her life and her role in the Salem tragedy. Through careful, meticulously documented research, Breslaw has convincingly reconstructed the life of this woman, so crucial to American history and yet about whom so little is known. Much of the book relies upon Breslaw’s first and perhaps most important point that Tituba was not, as most scholars have asserted, an African woman. Although Tituba did indeed come to Massachusetts with Samuel Parris from Barbados, she was an Arawak Indian, kidnapped from the northeast coast of South America and brought to Barbados as a young girl. This point is carefully supported by archival documents from Barbados, analysis of naming patterns on Barbados plantations, as well as the fact that Massachusetts references to Tituba specify that she was an American Indian, not a Negro. After piecing together her early life and arrival in Massachusetts, Breslaw analyzes Tituba’s role in the events of 1692, continually exposing the mythology surrounding her in scholarship and popular culture. Breslaw shows how Tituba’s confession was influenced heavily by her ethnic heritage, her life as a slave in Barbados, and her social position in Salem. Tituba’s testimony, which was adapted by both the accused and the accusers later in the trials, is shown to be at least partially influenced by her Creole worlds in Barbados, although Breslaw denies that Tituba had more than a cursory knowledge of witchcraft either in Barbados or the colonies. Most important, however, Breslaw examines the testimony as a careful manipulation by Tituba of Puritan beliefs and fears, in an effort to satisfy the magistrates and save her own life. Tituba’s confession reveals an intimate knowledge of Puritan society and religion, an awareness of print culture, and a facility with the English language, all of which allowed her to construct a believable narrative that would change the shape of the Salem trials. Breslaw’s reconstruction of Tituba’s life and influence on the HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS events of 1692 is equally important for the way in which it reveals the rich multicultural, international texture of the seventeenth-century world. Often viewed as simply a Puritan phenomenon, the Salem witchhunt is an excellent example of the interaction and exchange of various international cultures in early New England. TITUBA, RELUCTANT WITCH OF SALEM is a provocative and necessary addition to the history of New England. Dealing with difficult and often scant materials, Breslaw constructs an effective argument for the impact that Tituba, as an Indian slave familiar with the Puritan culture in which she lived, had on the events of the Salem witchhunt. The contribution is particularly timely today, in an era concerned with the issues of race and gender in areas of study often dismissive of such topics. This review is copyrighted (c) 1996 by H-Net and the Popular Culture and the American Culture Associations. It may be reproduced electronically for educational or scholarly use. The Associations reserve print rights and permissions. (Contact: P.C.Rollins at the following electronic address: [email protected])

TITUBA, RELUCTANT WITCH OF SALEM: DEVILISH INDIANS AND PURITAN FANTASIES. NY: New York UP, 1996. Reviewed by Robynne Rogers Healey, University of Alberta. Published by H-Women (April 1998)

During the spring and summer of 1692, the lives of the residents of Salem and surrounding area were thrown into upheaval. This was the time of the infamous Salem witchhunts. Between March and October, over a hundred and fifty people were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. When Governor Phips called for a stop to the executions in early October, twenty-four people had died: nineteen were hanged, one was pressed to death, and four died of other causes while in prison. The effects of the witchhunts were far-reaching. As Elaine Breslaw notes, “[h]undreds of lives [were] disrupted by jailings, the loss of property, and the absence of needed labor on the farm and in the household. Ties between children and parents, between husbands and wives, among siblings and neighbors, were frayed by accusations and counteraccusations. Some would never recover from the trauma” (p. 171). The witchhunts rocked Puritan society to its core. At their heart stands the confession of one woman: Tituba, Amerindian slave of Samuel Parris. Breslaw’s recent book is a fascinating re-examination of the Salem witchhunts and the woman whose confession initiated them. On one level, this is a biography of Tituba and the circumstances surrounding her confession and subsequent recantation. On another level, however, Breslaw’s work is an example of how biography can be used successfully to tell a story much larger than the story of one life. Historians, especially social historians, have a nasty habit of looking askance at biography as a tool of political historians used to tell the story of HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS influential men and occasionally famous women. But skillfully done, biography can offer a window through which we can peer into the past and gain an appreciation of events through the life of an individual and the people with whom she had contact.18 The drawback, of course, is that biography is tied to the specific: a specific individual, kinship network, community, worldview. Many biographies could be written about the people who took part in this event. Yet, by offering insights into the use of the confession as a defense mechanism, the biography of Tituba sheds light on yet another facet of the Salem witch craze. Methodologically, Elaine Breslaw’s examination of Tituba provides an important contribution to both women’s history and the history of witchcraft. Its importance lies primarily in her reappraisal of the confession and the woman at the centre of the Salem witch trials. Breslaw’s purpose is not simply to revisit and reconstruct the life of Tituba. She seeks to discern how a woman who remained outside the Salem Puritan community, because of her identity as an Indian, was able, through her confessions, to initiate a witch scare, the likes of which the British colonial world never again witnessed. Breslaw painstakingly reconstructs Tituba’s pre-trial life from minimal information and tiny clues buried in Barbadian plantation records. She then re-examines the witchcraft narratives, in light of her conclusions on Tituba’s worldview. From this, Breslaw determines that Tituba’s 1692 confession was not an act of submission. Rather, by manipulating the fears of Salem’s Puritan leaders, Tituba’s confession can be seen as an act of slave resistance against the abusive treatment of her master Samuel Parris, Salem’s Puritan minister. Moreover, Breslaw contends that the ensuing frenzy that swept through the village demonstrates the existence of a syncretic culture in Puritan New England in which the Puritan worldview and print culture was shaded by other distinct worldviews and folklore. Tituba’s confession of visitations by the Devil, women flying on sticks, satanic pacts, and a book containing nine names was so fantastic that it was necessary to keep her alive for further questioning. Similar testimonies by those subsequently accused opened the door between high and popular culture, between the common folk and the educated elite. The meeting of these two cultures created “a violent moment in early New England history, but one that ultimately redirected Puritanism into less turbulent paths” (p. 181). The biography is presented in two parts: the first explores Tituba’s life in Barbados following her capture and enslavement; the second examines her experiences in Massachusetts to the end of the trials and Tituba’s recantation of her confession. Presented in this manner, Breslaw is able to illustrate how the two worlds, although very distinct, were inextricably linked. Tituba’s experiences in South America, Barbados, and Massachusetts meant that she crossed over many worlds and cultures: Amerindian, African, English, and Puritan. In one way, Tituba herself represents the successful syncretism of language and culture in the British colonial world. Her experiences among her own people, the Arawak, her interactions with the African and Creole worlds on Barbados, her contact with Elizabeth Pearsehouse, her white mistress in Barbados, and her years in

18. Probably the best example of this to date is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s, A MIDWIFE’S TALE: THE LIFE OF MARTHA BALLARD, BASED ON HER DIARY, 1785-1812, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc, 1990). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS the household of Samuel Parris meant that by the winter of 1691- 92 Tituba had absorbed many aspects of all these cultures as well as the ability to communicate abstract ideas in competently-spoken English. Yet, as acculturated as Tituba had become to Puritan society in terms of her deportment and actions, she was never accepted completely by the community and consequently remained an outsider. This was a result of Tituba’s Amerindian identity and the equation of that identity in the Puritan mind with “the presence of evil” (p. 98). Ironically, it was the very identity which kept Tituba outside the community that lent credence to her confession. Puritans assumed that Indians had closer ties to the spirit world (pp. 99-100). Tituba’s “Indianness,” combined with her own knowledge of the beliefs, practices, and fears of the spirit world of her own and other cultures, added legitimacy to her confession of witch craft. After all, Tituba had participated in a magic ritual. In her efforts to relieve the suffering of Betty Parris, Tituba agreed to cooperate with Parrises’ neighbor, Mary Sibley, in countermagic by making a witchcake. The witchcake, a mixture of rye meal and the girl’s urine baked in ashes and fed to a dog that, as the familiar of the witch, would disclose the source of Betty Parris’s suffering. The attempt at countermagic was unsuccessful. Betty Parris did not improve; in fact, she got worse and her symptoms spread to three other girls who had been involved in the experiment. By this point, Samuel Parris and other community leaders had decided that the girls’ sufferings were the result of satanic influence. Asked to identify their tormentors, the four girls accused Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba. Confronted with her actions by her master, Tituba denied being a witch because, in her worldview, a witch was one who used magic with the intent to harm, similar to the Arawak kenaima, who used occult power solely for evil ends. But Tituba’s beliefs were not shared by her persecutors who believed that all occult practices were tools of the Devil. Tituba was arrested, along with the other women, for alleged witchcraft activities used with the intent to injure the four girls. At what point Tituba decided to “confess” to witchcraft is unknown. What we do know is that by the time of her initial hearing on 1 March 1692, Tituba reluctantly at first, and then more forcefully confessed to familiarity with the Devil. The confession did not end here. What followed was the unfolding of a concocted story so fantastic that it set off a witchhunt based on panic and hysteria in which no one was safe from accusations of witchcraft. What set the Salem witchhunts apart from previous witchcraft cases was the panic that ensued when Tituba introduced the beliefs of the common folk into the courtroom of Salem’s educated elite. As Breslaw points out, witchcraft was not foreign to the worldview of Puritans. Magic and religion were very much intertwined. The supernatural world was not one known only to Africans and Indians, but was an integral part of Puritan belief. Accusations of witchcraft were not uncommon. In fact, as Keith Thomas has argued, these accusations could function as a method of social control, deterring undesirable behavior and encouraging community solidarity.19 But the circumstances and results of these accusations were very different. Tituba’s confession, delivered in an environment where social tension and 19. Keith Thomas, RELIGION AND THE DECLINE OF MAGIC, (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 531. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS factional conflict were at their peak, set the stage for the witchhunts that followed. Tituba’s confession fuelled rather than dampened the elite’s worst fears about what was happening in their village. An important aspect of re-examining the trial narratives and Tituba’s confession is the connection of her testimony to a larger group of people, both strangers and acquaintances from within and without the community. Tituba’s implication of men and women of high status challenged traditional notions of hierarchy and allowed for witchcraft accusations to extend beyond the social misfits normally accused. Therefore, although women, especially women whose situation or behavior placed them outside conventional Puritan opinion,20 constituted the majority of those accused of witchcraft, Tituba’s confession increased the vulnerability of men and people of high status to accusation. With nothing more than two transcriptions of the narratives, it is impossible to know whether Tituba deliberately issued this challenge to established tenets of gender and status. For, as Breslaw points out, in so many cases, Tituba’s testimony was given in one context — that of the syncretic worldview of the common folk — and was interpreted in another — that of the Puritan theological elite. For instance, the trance into which Tituba was drawn on her first day of testimony was in the contemporary African and Indian rituals of Barbados “a familiar part of magico-religious healing ceremonies” (p. 122). Thomas Putnam interpreted the trance as Tituba’s bewitchment by other witches. Although this particular even added to Tituba’s credibility, it also spurred on the witchhunt. The lack of a legitimate government and the suspension of courts until the arrival of a new governor meant that the witch scare could not immediately be resolved. This allowed a period of time whereby there was a negotiation of folklore and theological beliefs within the public sphere. Ultimately, it would lead to an altered Puritan notion of the cosmic order. This was not so much a result of Tituba’s confession directly but of subsequent testimonies which borrowed from those concepts she introduced but incorporated elements, such as mock sacraments which fit readily into the framework of Puritan folk beliefs of Devil worship. The confessions helped to feed the frenzy; people were convicted on weak spectral evidence. By the summer, unable to live with the possibility of eternal damnation for lying, the convicted began to retract their confessions. Tituba also recanted, saying she had lied to protect herself from a master who had essentially beaten a confession out of her. In October, when Governor Phips’s wife was accused, the threats became too personal and Phips took immediate steps to end the witchhunts. Prisoners were released as their family and friends paid their jail fees. Tituba did not return to the Parris family. An unknown individual paid her jail fees in April of 1693, allowing for her release; from that point Tituba disappears from the public record. A re-examination of the events in Salem during this period using a worldview approach illustrates the clashing cultural contexts in which people were moving and demonstrates how events and circumstances could be (mis)interpreted in vastly different ways

20. See for instance, John Putnam Demos, ENTERTAINING SATAN: WITCHCRAFT AND CULTURE IN EARLY NEW ENGLAND, (NY: Oxford UP, 1982) and Carol Karlsen, THE DEVIL IN THE SHAPE OF A WOMAN: WITCHCRAFT IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND, (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987). HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS by the historical actors. But Breslaw’s interpretation is at times too speculative to yield the conclusions she asserts. For instance, in her testimony, Tituba maintained that the Devil first appeared to her one night as she was going to sleep. Breslaw’s connection of this statement to the Indian identification of dreams as omens could be solidly supported. Her further claim, however, that Tituba was attempting to warn the people of Salem of Parris’s evil ways, a “suggestion” that was ignored, is speculation that cannot be supported. In the instance of the Tituba’s trance, also interpreted in the syncretic Indian/Creole worldview, Breslaw insists that “it was not necessarily [Tituba’s] intent to claim to be a victim” (p. 122). How do we know this? Further examples could be cited. To attribute intent or to assume knowledge of a person’s or persons’ individual thoughts based only on court transcripts is supposititious. Yet, even though some of the specific detail is speculative, the larger premise of colliding and adaptive worldviews is well argued and recounted through this biography of Tituba, reluctant witch of Salem. HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

2001

October 31, Wednesday: The legislature of Massachusetts enacted a very typical bit of stupidity: it chose the date of Halloween to retroactively exonerate 5 of the Salem citizens who had in the 17th Century been hanged as witches. One wonders whether these legislators donned ghoul and goblin costumes before their vote! WITCHES SALEM HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

2002

Norton, Mary Beth. IN THE DEVIL’S SNARE: THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT CRISIS OF 1692. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002 WITCHES SALEM

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2017. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: April 13, 2017 HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in HDT WHAT? INDEX

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

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