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Bridget Bishop Bewitching MenWas She Witch, Woman, or Just Devilish?
Bridget Bishop is accused of coming to men's beds and bewitching them.
Disappearing Holes and Dead ChildrenEvidently, Bridget Bishop wasn't satisfied with just making money disappear that she had just paid out to have work done. Another incident, concerning this same luckless man and Bridget, tells of the man driving his cart near where Bishop was standing. The wheels of his cart became stuck in a hole. He managed to loosen his cart but when he later returned to the same spot the hole was not there. From tales, real or imagined, of Bridget making money disappear as well as holes in the road, and other occult occasions attributed to her, her label of witch was sealed. Her reputation also included the bewitching to death of several small children. Was Bridget a Bewitching Bewitcher?But the accusations of witchcraft against Bridget soon included more. Now they began to take on a possibly sensual nature, which can only make one wonder at Cotton Mather's later written statement that Bridget Bishop was a "poor and friendless old woman." Perhaps she had more friends than some worthy gentlemen chose to admit. Topping it all, Bridget was accused of making spectral nighttime visitations to certain men. It was told that she would either lie upon their "breast or body," as in the case of Richard Coman. This resulted in the man being unable to speak, move, or wake his wife. Another gentleman, thirty-two-year-old John Louder, told that Bridget sat upon his stomach. She then grasped his throat, nearly choking him. Two of the men, who confessed to nighttime visits by Bishop, even went so far as to describe what she was wearing at the time of the visits. What they described was her usual daytime dress-including the scarlet bodice she had made for herself that had set Salem tongues a wagging. Previous: Witch Work of Bridget Bishop: An Attempt to Bewitch a Witch Recommended Reading:Growing Up in Salem, Massachusetts: Rebelling Against Adult Rule. Children Beware of Demons: Cotton Mather Gives Warning. The New Massachusetts Charter: Now Witches Can be Tried Sources:Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. De Capo Press, 1995. Hill, Frances. The Salem Witch Trials Reader. De Capo Press, 1995.
The copyright of the article Bridget Bishop Bewitching Men in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Bridget Bishop Bewitching Men in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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