Execution
Public execution was considered the most severe punishment of the time in Puritan Massachusetts. It is logical then that this severe punishment would come upon those convicted of a most severe crime: witchcraft. Convicted witches were hanged on Gallows Hill. Elizabeth Howe was hanged on July 19, 1692, along with Rebecca Nurse (her sister-in-law), Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes and Susanna Martin.
The execution methods in New England were very similar to those used in England. The condemned would ride to the execution spot with a minister. He would then elaborate on the saving grace of Jesus Christ and repentance. The minster would also preach a sermon to the crowd that had gathered to watch the execution. Historian Louis P. Masur wrote, “The ritual of execution day required that condemned prisoners demonstrate publicly that they were penitent, and the execution sermons repeatedly pounded the chord of penitence”. In an ideal situation the convicted would confess to their crime, alleviating worry from the community that they were sending an unprepared soul to the next life.
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Howe
Famous quotes containing the word execution:
“Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
“I am gradually drifting to the opinion that this Rebellion can only be crushed finally by either the execution of all the traitors or the abolition of slavery. Crushed, I mean, so as to remove all danger of its breaking out again in the future.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The application requisite to the duties of the office I hold [governor of Virginia] is so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)