Creative Analysis of Susanna Martin by Anahi Lopez https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r Learning Activities: Week 5 en-us 2022-10-18 19:08:48 UTC 2024-06-08 13:59:40 UTC hello@padlet.com “The Tryal of Susanna Martin” hemmkings https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345776983 “Susanna Martin, pleading Not Guilty to the Indictment of Witchcraft, brought in against her there were produced the Evidences of many Persons very sensibly and grievously Bewitched…”, Cotton Mather


— Martin’s case illustrates a typical exchange between judge and accused witch. It is important to note that the opening of this excerpt reiterating her trial reflects the preconceptions and conclusions set forth by the author, Mather, that Martin is a witch. The formal accusations presented in court were just that: personal accusations of the defendants like Martin that accompanied no real evidence beside word of mouth. It was virtually impossible to disprove these accusations because of those conclusions that were already made before the trial even occurred. The courts accepting and welcoming spectral evidence as a basis for conviction was the main reason the witch trails became as big as it was.

]]> 2022-10-18 19:23:00 UTC https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345776983 The Hanging of Susanna Martin hemmkings https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345787361 Many accused witches during the Salem Witch Trails faced this similar consequence. After the noted interrogation, Martin was found guilty and later hung for the accusations of witchcraft. She asserted her innocence the entire time, but she acknowledges in the case itself that it is impossible to prove your innocence in such a case. Pleading innocence and pleading guilt resulted in the same execution. ]]> 2022-10-18 19:31:01 UTC https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345787361 Why Susanna Martin? hemmkings https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345802448 I resonated with her honesty and her stubbornness despite being faced with inevitable doom. Susanna had claimed her innocence throughout the entirety of her trail. Likely a result of the awareness that she will not be able to prove herself in a losing game, Martin spent her time in jail and at the court fully blunt and honest with her feelings. She presented a vigorous defense when she was expected not too and consistently laughed at the ridiculous accusations thrown her way. Though she was later hung, she was hung an honest and respectable woman.

Cotton Mather called Susannah Martin

 “…one of the most impudent, Scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world.”

Which I found to be humorously entertaining. ]]> 2022-10-18 19:43:14 UTC https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345802448 Martin and The Witch Test hemmkings https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345804280 Martin proved herself as someone who led herself “according to the word of God.” When asked to quote the Bible as a part of her witch test (that was built around having the accused failed it), she was able to successfully quote it from memory. She clung to her Bible to the very end. The fits of her accusers caused her to laugh out loud and she dared to mock the proceedings with contempt.

“What! Do you laugh at it?” inquired one shocked magistrate.

“Well I may at such folly,” Susannah replied.

“Is this folly? The hurt of these persons?”

“I never hurt man, woman or child.”



]]> 2022-10-18 19:44:26 UTC https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345804280 Martin’s Legacy Years Later hemmkings https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345822253 Her marker calls her an honest, hard-working Christian woman, and was “a Martyr of Superstition.” Quite the difference from Mather’s idea of her.

In 1857, the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was a direct descendant of Susannah Martin, honored Susannah in a poem titled The Witch’s Daughter:

“Let Goody Martin rest in peace, I never knew her harm a fly,
And witch or not – God knows – not I?
I know who swore her life away;
And as God lives, I’d not condemn
An Indian dog on word of them.”
Residents of the town of Amesbury later placed a stone marker near Susannah and George Martin’s home that read:

“Here stood the house of Susannah Martin. An honest, hardworking Christian woman accused of being a witch and executed at Salem, July 19, 1692. She will be missed! A Martyr of Superstition. T.I.A. 1894”

Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/susannah-martin-accused-witch-from-salisbury/
]]> 2022-10-18 19:58:11 UTC https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345822253 Martin and the Evolving History of Massachusetts that Followed hemmkings https://padlet.com/hemmkings/wq9059y7f0h0145r/wish/2345829696 In 1711, the Massachusetts legislature passed a resolution clearing the names of the convicted witches and offered financial restitution to their descendants. Susannah Martin’s family did not wish to be named in the law and did not seek restitution.

In 1957, the Massachusetts legislature formally apologized to the victims of the Salem Witch Trials but did not specifically mention any of the victims by name.

In 1992, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial was built in Salem, Mass and a marker was established for Susannah Martin.

In 2001, the Massachusetts legislature passed a resolution officially exonerating five of the victims not mentioned in the previous resolutions: Susannah Martin, Bridget Bishop, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott.

In 2017, the Proctor’s Ledge Memorial was built in Salem, Mass and a marker was established for Susannah Martin.

Source: www.salemweb.com/memorial/chronology.shtml
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