The following is a guest post by Sarah Friedman, a legal reference librarian working with the Public Services Division at the Law Library of Congress. She has authored several posts, including ‘A monstrosity of art’: A Strange D.C. Landmark’s Connection to Congress, The Legal History of the Presidential Management Fellows Program, and Hansberry v. Lee: The Supreme Court Case that Influenced the Play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Although the 1692 trials in Salem, Massachusetts are the most infamous witch trials in New England, witch trials began in Connecticut decades earlier. In the 17th century, while Connecticut was still a British colony, several colonists were accused of witchcraft and some were sentenced to death. In 1647, Alice Young became the first person in the American colonies to be executed for witchcraft when she was hanged in Hartford, Connecticut. Because court records were lost or destroyed, it is unknown exactly how many witch trials took place in Connecticut between the first trial in 1647 and the last trial in 1697. Still, we do know that during that period several people lost their lives or had their reputations damaged as a result of these accusations.
Centuries later in 2023, the Connecticut General Assembly decided to absolve the witch trial victims with House Joint Resolution No. 34 – Resolution Concerning Certain Witchcraft Convictions in Colonial Connecticut. The Connecticut General Assembly defines a resolution