Hugh & Mary Parsons & The Springfield Witch Trials

Forty years before the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Hugh Parsons stepped out of his dirty, disease ridden prison cell in Boston and was carted off towards the courthouse in order to stand trial as a witch. He’d come from a small settlement named Springfield over a hundred miles away and spent the last year cooped up in a concrete prison with his life in the balance. The previous few years had seen the fear of witches spread like a disease throughout New England, with cases springing up like boils on a plague victim. Accused, tried and sent to prison to await a verdict, Parsons had survived the cold winter drinking filthy water and eating gruel in the overcrowded gaol and finally, he was to find out if he was to be lanced. SOURCES Pynchon, William (1651) Testimony Against Hugh Parsons Charged With Witchcraft. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1650 - 1651. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/3ca63410-c627-0139-9efd-0242ac110004 Gaskill, Malcolm (2021) The Ruin Of All Witches: Life And Death In The New World. Allen Lane, UK. Handlin, Lilian (1985) Dissent In A Small Community. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 193-220 (28 pages). New England, USA. Evans, Hillary & Bartholomew, Robert (2015) Outbreak: The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior. Anomalist Books, UK. ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/darkhistories and get on your way to being your best self. ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices