WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville | Salem witch trial material archived at U.Va

Salem witch trial material archived at U.Va

The University of Virginia has opened a new window on one of the most troubling and complex events in American judicial history.  We're talking about the Salem Witch Trials.

News7's Keith Humphry went to UVa to examine the trial record.  But you don't have to go to Charlottesville to view the documents, they're all available online. 

Everything from arrest warrants, to indictments, depositions, transcripts of the witch trials themselves, everything is there at the click of a mouse.

It's the work of UVa religion professor Benjamin Ray.  Dr. Ray is reviewing the case of John Willard, one of 20 men and women tried and executed for the crime of witchcraft in 1692.

The story of the Salem Witch Trials was told in the CBS mini-series in 2002.  Professor Ray and his colleagues have applied computer technology to thousands of documents, enabling students to word search more than 1,600 names.

You can pull up a deposition, for example, and read an account given by the young girls who said they were afflicted by witches.

There's also an interactive map that documents the spread of accusations across two dozen towns in eastern Massachusetts.  In all, 160 people were accused of witchcraft.   Ray calls it a cautionary tale of fraud deception and delusion.

And it's a personal thing for this professor from New England. 

"These are my roots actually," said Ray. 

Ben Ray is a descendant of Rebecca Nurse, a church member twice tried for witchcraft and ultimately put to death.  So it's personal, studying documents produced more than three centuries ago.

"You're holding something that was terribly important.  It's good that it still survives as a reminder," said Ray. 

He seeks to understand the Puritans, rather than simply condemn them.

"They thought they were fighting an institution that would destroy them," said Ray. 

He says it was their 9-11.

"It happened once, but can happen again and again," said Ray.

In less than 20 years after the trials ended, cooler heads prevailed and the state began making restitution to families of those jailed and executed.  The last of them were pardoned in 2001, on October 31st.

**********************

Witchcraft is an ancient Pagan practice.  Witches were practicing the craft centuries before Christ.  And it is now one of the fastest growing religions in America.

By day Lady Willow-Diur Rosewood is a student and full-time employee in Alumnae Relations at Hollins University.  In real life, to put it simply, she's a witch. 

Willow, as she likes to be called, is a High Priestess in a local Coven of Witches.  She teaches "the craft" to others.  She first got involved in the university community as the clergy advisor to a Pagan Club on campus.

"And then I didn't start going to school and working here until after that," said Willow.

It's a perfect fit for her, Willow says, a normal, life-affirming place to grow.  Raised in the Catholic Church, she loved its rituals. Willow found herself drawn to the rituals of witchcraft.

"We do worship one God.  We just have a different perception of him," said Willow.

She's taking a pottery class this semester, and finds crafting pots is a lot like practicing "the craft."  The mesmerizing movement of the potter's wheel is all about balance, she says, finding and "being in your center."

"If you have it centered perfectly, when you're lifting up the clay or you're working with it, your hands don't move.  It doesn't even look like the clay moves, but everything just forms on its own," said Willow. 

Of course, this is every witches' favorite time of year. Modern-day witches are just as taken with "Hallows" as their pre-Christian ancestors were.

"The veil being thin at this time of the year when spirits come into this world," said Willow. 

So, beware the ghosts that walk the land this weekend.  Though an ordained Priestess of witchcraft, Willow won't cast a spell on you, we hope, for conjuring up stereotypes.