A Laughing Witch

In 1692, it did not pay to be a nonconformist in Salem Village, Massachusetts. This was especially true if the nonconformist just happened to be an elderly, improvised widow. Susannah Martin found this out the hard way. Susannah Martin stood trial, received a conviction, and suffered hanging for bewitching some of the good folk of Salem, Massachusetts and the surrounding area. More than two dozen persons related the crimes Martin committed. It seems that Susannah Martin's most heinous crime may have been that she had a sense of humor. When she heard the ridiculous accusations made against her, she laughed aloud. When the stern judge asked her what she was laughing at, she replied, "Well I may at such folly." While Martin's laughter may have doomed her, it is unlikely that she would have escaped even if she had been somber and had held her tongue. This brief volume deals with the accusations against, the trial, the conviction, and the execution of Susannah Martin for the infamous crime of witchcraft. While Martin was just one of the twenty persons killed by authorities in Salem (at least five others died in jail), her story is unique to the extent that she was one of the very few accused persons who saw and pointed out publicly the absurdity of the whole affair. Sadly, her story is not a comedy; it is a tragedy. Had the accusers, or more so, the judges been as able to release a boisterous laugh as was Susanna Martin, we would view Salem Village in 1692 in a very different light.