DANBURY, Connecticut — The Western Connecticut State University Department of History and World Perspectives will celebrate Women’s History Month with a lecture by author and researcher Beth Caruso and historian and publisher Dr. Katherine Hermes, who will explore the question, “Should Connecticut exonerate those convicted of witchcraft?” The talk will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in the Warner Hall Lyceum on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The talk is free and the public is invited.
Caruso has been a Connecticut author and researcher since 2015 and has penned the historical novels “One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s Witch Hanging” and “The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches and A Tapper in New Amsterdam.” “One of Windsor” is about Alice Young, of Windsor, Connecticut, the first person on record to be executed for witchcraft, and “The Salty Rose” is largely about John Winthrop Jr. and his role in stopping the witch trials.
Hermes earned a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a Ph.D. in history from Yale University. She taught early American history at Central Connecticut State University for 25 years, where she also served as department chair. She is currently publisher and executive director of Connecticut Explored magazine, a nonprofit history publication produced for readers interested in Connecticut’s past. She is the author of a variety of publications on legal history and colonialism.
Hermes and Caruso recently co-authored the academic article “Between God and Satan: Thomas Thornton, Witch Hunting, and Religious Mission in the English Atlantic World, 1647-1693 Volume 61, No. 2” in the Fall 2022 edition of Connecticut History Review based on their research together.
While many are familiar with the infamous Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, it is less common knowledge that Connecticut held trials and executions decades earlier. According to the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project, “The Connecticut witch trials occurred between 1647 and 1697. During this period, 34 individuals were indicted and 11 were executed (nine of whom were women). The first execution was in 1647. The last executions were in January of 1663 during the end of the Hartford Witch Panic.”
The CT Witch Trial Exoneration Project came into existence in May 2022 as a collaboration between several people who had individual projects. Caruso started the CT WITCH Memorial Facebook page in 2016 with activist and retired New Haven police officer Tony Griego, who has been involved in exoneration efforts since 2005. Caruso and Griego joined forces for the exoneration efforts in Windsor in 2017, and co-founded the CT Witch Trial Exoneration Project with other co-founders Sarah Jack, Josh Hutchinson and Mary Louise Bingham. Hermes provided her academic insights to the project, and, according to Caruso, “Hermes’ expertise as a historian and her many contributions have helped give weight and legitimacy to the project among lawmakers and others of importance.”
The Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project seeks to coordinate the efforts of Connecticut residents, descendants of witch trial victims and others who have worked to exonerate those accused of witchcraft in Connecticut. According to its website, “Massachusetts has exonerated those convicted of witchcraft during the Salem Witch-Hunt of 1692-1693. Now Rep. Jane Garibay has taken a critical step toward Connecticut acknowledging the innocence of its own residents convicted of witchcraft in the 17th century. Our organization has been working with Jane for several months to prepare this proposal and is pleased that Sen. Saud Anwar will be working with Jane to pass this important resolution.”
On March 1, descendants of those convicted of witchcraft and their supporters appeared before the Connecticut legislature’s Judiciary Committee to request exoneration of those previously convicted of witchcraft.
“These were not witches,” Rep. Jane Garibay, D-Windsor, told the committee. “They were people, women, who were executed for electing to wear certain clothing or being too assertive. They were executed because they might inherit property or because another person simply did not like them.”
For more information, contact Dr. Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox at wilcoxw@wcsu.edu or WCSU Public Relations at pr@wcsu.edu.
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