I've noticed that there's a popular notion that if you weren't hanged or pressed to death, then your life went on as before. In fact, it seems that many people's lives were ruined. Has anyone tracked how many people died in prison? I don't recall. So many people had all their property confiscated as soon as they were accused and never recovered it or the value. Those who escaped had to give up their property and connections. And there were other types of punishments that were almost as horrendous as these. Some women were put in carts and puleed from town to town. At each stop, they were stripped and beaten to unconsciousness. My "witchy" ancestor escaped death but her "punishment" lasted for the rest of her life. Her name was Elizabeth Morse and she lived in what is now Newburyport. She was a midwife and folk healer and apparently she was an uppity woman, quick to complain when she was treated disrespectfully by young men in the community. The majority of those who testified against her were young men whom she had scolded. She wasn't connected with the Salem trials. She was accused three years before. Many of the books mention that she escaped execution after spening many months in jail. What they don't generally mention is that the condition of her release was that she remain under house arrest for the remainder of her life. She had to wear a ball and chain. The only time she could leave her house was to walk by the shortest route to the meeting house down and across the street, and she had to be accompanied by the minister the entire way and back. It's not clear but apparently she couldn't even go into her garden. Long after the Salem hysteria was over and people were rebuilding their lives, her sentence went on. I'm not sure why the people in her community hated her so that they insisted on this long punishment. I wonder why communities approved and encouraged beating those women publicly over and over, through a route of a dozen towns. It disgusts me. Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

The number of witches who died in prison varied dramatically. Some places would have almost none (because their panics didn't last long, or they were lucky). Others would have devastating diseases sweep through their jails. Sickness could increase the death toll up to 50% in some areas. To give some examples, in Essex (England) 74 witches were killed and 36 died in prison. In Salem 19 witches were executed and 2 died in jail. In Ireland 4 witches were executed and one died in jail. In Chelmsford, England, 17people were hanged and 4 died in prison. In Hungary 449 witches were sentenced to death and 23 either died in prison or were lynched. But as Francine pointed out, even if you survived your trial your life would never be the same. I remember a horrible testimony, from Sir George Mackenzie in England, about an old woman who confessed that she was a witch. Mackenzie said, "I went when I was a Justice-depute to examine some Women, who had confest judicially, and one of them, who was a silly creature, told me under secresie that she had not confest because she was guilty, but being a poor creature, who wrought [begged] for her meat, and being defam'd for a Witch, she knew she would starve, for no person thereafter would either give her meat or lodging, and that all men would beat her, and hound Dogs at her, therefore she desired to be out of the World. " Even if she was found innocent, she knew her life was ruined. And she chose to try to end her life, by confessing, rather than face that future. Jenny Gibbons