On This Day: Alse Young Hanged for Witchcraft in Connecticut

Connecticut laws in the late 17th century stated that witchcraft was punishable by death, according to the Connecticut Judicial Branch Web site. Alse Young (who is also known as Alice), the first person to be executed for witchcraft in the country, was hanged on May 26 in Hartford, on the site of what is now the Old State House.

In following years, several other residents were executed on charges of witchcraft, and the “crime” did not disappear from the list of capital crimes until the laws were reprinted in 1750.

Although the state never experienced the same level of hysteria as Salem, Mass., where the “witch trials” became famous in the late 1600s, witchcraft accusations were rampant in Connecticut in the 1640s.

Today little else is known of Young, including what she looked like, or even specifics regarding the “witchlike” behavior that led the young woman to her grim fate.

Her death is confirmed by the journal of then-Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop, which states that “One of Windsor was hanged.” Matthew Grant, the second town clerk of Windsor, also confirms the incident with a May 26, 1647, diary entry, “Alse Young was hanged.” Few other details are available.
 
As unbelievable as the witch craze seems to modern minds, the events were a product of a Puritan culture where “the devil” was a real presence, said Connecticut historian Walter Woodward.

In a May 2007 Hartford Courant article, Woodward said, “when they think they’re under attack by the devil, their response is based on perceived threat. This wasn’t just mean-spiritedness. This was the product of intense fear.”

After Massachusetts, Connecticut was the witchcraft center of New England, according to the Web site Connecticut’s Heritage Gateway. Not counting the Salem trials, 93 complaints of witchcraft were made in New England between 1638 and 1697: 43 in Connecticut and 50 in Massachusetts. About two-thirds of those were acquitted, but 11 of the 16 people executed in New England for witchcraft prior to 1692, when the Salem trials began, lived in Connecticut.

The witch craze in Salem, Mass.—a town famously known for the Salem witch trials in the late 1600s—began with the strange behavior of two young girls, Betty and Abigail Williams. The accusations began flying, several so-called eccentric women were declared “witches” by town officials and the hysteria began. Nineteen so-called witches, both women and men, were eventually executed. A total of 24 died, with some dying in prison.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law provides thorough information on the Salem witch trials from a legal perspective. One page, called "You're Accused" tries to explain what it must have been like for someone to be accused, and offers several reasons why it happened: "Perhaps you're reclusive, talk to yourself, or exhibit some other form of eccentric behavior. Perhaps you were involved in a previous dispute with the family of the afflicted girl.” The page offers "Choose Your Own Adventure" type options for people accused, such as flee, confess, and plead innocent and stand trial.

On May 26, 2007, 400 years after Young's death, an elementary school teacher organized a ceremony to memorialize the 11 Connecticut residents who were accused of witchcraft and executed. The Hartford Courant said that as each of the names of the nine women and two men who died was read a bell was rung, and a white rose laid at the base of a tree, where a hangman's noose dangled.

Washington State University’s Web site provides thorough information on Puritanism, the predominant religion during the witch craze. Christianity and Puritanism differed in a number of ways. The site explains that "Puritans believed that belief in Jesus and participation in the sacraments could not alone effect one’s salvation; one cannot choose salvation, for that is the privilege of God alone."