This Autumn Equinox marks the anniversary of the hanging of Samuel Wardwell, one of my great, great grandfathers. He was accused during the Salem Witch Trials and hanged on September 22nd, 1692.
Wardwell was unconventional and practised things like fortunetelling. He was accused of bewitching Martha Sprague. He retracted his forced confession and was hung. His wife, daughter and stepdaughter were also accused, tried, and confessed. The daughters were acquitted, but the wife was convicted.
Wardwell's wife was later released in 1711. The trials brought much hardship, and the family was destitute after. Their son sued the colony and regained 36 pounds, 15 shillings.
I can't help but feel an eerie resemblance to what happened then and what's going on now. It feels like a Witch hunt the way we're dehumanizing free people who don't want forced injections and masking. The other side of my family was also financially ruined, more recently during dekulakization during the "Russian" revolution before we barely made it to Canada. R.I.P. to those who died in the Gulag. I feel like the victim of mass group think, just like my ancestors.
Full moon.... and Equinox....
Gone but not forgotten <3
damn
@tipu curate
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We have been fighting ignorance, fear, and greed since time began. It comes in various forms over the millennia but it just keeps coming. We never seem to manage to live happy ever after.
It has been a pleasure researching your heritage. And my own. It seems to me that we all come from families with interesting stories, somewhere back up the line. History is full of amazing, heartwrenching, bewildering, unbelievable stories.... and they're all true. Even in the lives of little people like ourselves, there is intrigue, adventure, drama, and even magic.
Samuel Wardwell is not just one of the Salem "witches" that was accused and hung. He is my son's mother's mother's father's mother's father's mother's mother's mother's father's father's father. He's blood! We are his family. I think it's fitting that we recognize and remember him.