Existing comment:
Witchcraft trial transcript concerning Grace Sherwood (c. 1660-1740) of Princess Anne County (now Virginia Beach), who was accused in 1705 of being a witch and was tested by being put into water "above man's depth" to "try her how she swims therein." People then believed that water was pure and would only accept the innocent, so by floating Sherwood was guilty. But Virginia had no laws concerning witchcraft, and she seems only to have undergone brief house arrest, or perhaps gone unpunished. She was lucky not to have lived in Salem, Massachusetts, which hanged twenty persons for witchcraft in 1692. |