Post by jadedsage on Oct 30, 2004 23:56:20 GMT -5
By Sean Corcoran
Staff writer
SALEM — Mayor Stanley Usovicz is intrigued by a Scottish township's plan to pardon 81 people who were executed for witchcraft there and said he will consider issuing similar pardons in Salem.
"It sounds like a good idea," Usovicz said, when told of Scotland's plan.
The township of Prestonpans, Scotland, will mark Halloween on Sunday by publicly pardoning the 81 people, and their cats, who were executed there for witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries, Adele Conn, spokeswoman for the Scottish court that issued the pardons, told the Associated Press yesterday.
"There will be no witches' hats, dress-ups or that sort of thing — it will be a fairly solemn occasion," she said.
More than 3,500 Scots, mainly women and children, were killed in witch hunts at a time of political intrigue and religious excess there during the 1500s and 1600s.
Conn said 15 local descendants of executed witches had been invited to attend the pardoning ceremony and an inaugural Witches' Remembrance Day, which will become an annual event in the township on Halloween.
"It's too late to apologize, but it's a sort of symbolic recognition that these people were put to death for hysterical ignorance and paranoia," said historian Roy Pugh, who presented evidence to the Scottish court that issued the pardons.
During Salem's witch scare in 1692, 19 people were hanged and one was pressed with heavy stones for allegedly practicing witchcraft. By the end of that year, 200 people were jailed under charges of witchcraft.
In 1957, many of the accused Salem witches were exonerated by the Massachusetts Legislature, and Usovicz said one of the judges apologized for his role in the trials about eight years after they concluded.
"But I am not sure there has ever been an official declaration by the city government of Salem," he said. "I would have to take a look at that."
A good date for such a pardon might be in 2007, Usovicz said, the 315th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials.
"But I would suggest that anytime is a good time to forgive," he said.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.