It’s now official, after 329 years, Elizabeth Johnson Jr. is not a witch. Until last week, the woman from Andover, Massachusetts, who confessed to practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, was the only person remaining convicted during the trials whose name had not been cleared.
Although she was sentenced to death in 1693, after she and more than 20 members of her family faced similar charges, she received a suspension and avoided the death sentence.
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Elizabeth was never executed, but neither was she officially pardoned like others wrongfully accused of witchcraft.
The court agreed to reconsider her case last year after a North Andover eighth-grade civics class took up her case and researched the necessary legislative measures to clear her name.
“They spent most of the year working to get this set for the legislature – actually writing a bill, writing letters to legislators, creating presentations, doing all the research, analyzing Elizabeth Johnson’s actual testimony, learning more about the trial. of the Salem Witches,” said North Andover professor Carrie LaPierre, whose students took on the research project.
Professor Carrie said: “Passing this legislation will be incredibly impactful on your understanding of how important it is to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves and how strong a voice they really have.”
Elizabeth is the last accused witch to be exonerated, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group dedicated to the history and lore of the 17th century witch hunt. Not much is known about her, other than the fact that she lived in an area that is now part of northern Andover and never married or had children.
Twenty people from Salem and surrounding towns were killed and hundreds more accused during a frenzy of injustice that began in 1692, fueled by superstitions, fear of disease and strangers, scapegoats and petty jealousies. Nineteen were hanged and one man was crushed to death by stones.
Elizabeth was 22 years old when she was caught and hanged. The gallows never came: so Governor William Phips threw away his punishment as the magnitude of Salem’s gross miscarriages of justice sank.
In the more than three centuries that followed, dozens of suspects were officially exonerated, including Elizabeth’s own mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction was eventually overturned.
But for some reason Elizabeth’s name has not been included in the various legislative attempts to clear things up. As she was not among those whose convictions were formally set aside, hers still held.
“Elizabeth’s story and struggle continue to resonate to this day,” says State Senator Diana DiZoglio. “While we’ve come a long way since the horrors of the witch trials, women today still see their rights challenged and concerns ignored.”
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