The First Witch of Boston

by Andrea Catalano

She had said it was because they had been made for each other, intended from the time they ceased to be stars and took their first breaths in the world of the living.

At first he had found it sweet, stirring within him pride and the wonder of what magic, what alchemy, might have occurred between them while they were blissfully unaware.

The men in power could not abide by a woman speaking her mind and gaining the admiration of others. And so she had been charged with blasphemy and banished to the wilds.

You see, I had only known men who threw their weight and voices round as though they were kings, as though it were their divine right. Most think they know everything and speak like they do, when it is nothing but empty words. They know naught, most of them. And the louder they are, the less they know. The more they boast, the less they have. The more show they put on in front of lasses, the less show they’ve got for you under the bed linens.”

“I knew, from the time I was a small girl, that I did not want a man like that in my life. I never wanted to be under some boisterous, belligerent man’s thumb.”

“I wanted a man who had enough faith in his own worth, his strength, and his mind that he had no need to put on some absurd stage drama. I wanted a man who was confident enough in himself to handle the likes of me.”

A woman skilled in herbals and physic was always a woman both admired and feared.

“I think you give her more import than she deserves. She’s nothing but a silly thing who ought to be married soon. She needs a man’s presence.”

But when people cannot understand something, when they can’t make sense of a thing, they always become fearful. People fear what they do not understand, you see?”

“I caution you: Never underestimate 195how deeply power can corrupt even the most godly.

Men are governed by their whims and passions far more than us women, yet they ascribe such traits to us. It is the purest form of hypocrisy there is. It has existed since the dawn of our time. Think of Adam and Eve. Oh aye, the Devil tempted Eve with knowledge, and she thought to better herself. And so she took the bait, and then Adam grew curious and envious and wanted a piece of it all. Just like a selfish child. But go ahead and tell me again how man is governed by his mind and woman by her heart. They have lied to us from the beginning.

“Magistrates, the rest of this assembly, I know not why Goody Jones is accused of consorting with Satan. I know her only as the angel who saved me in my time of desperate need.”

“I have heard of this Anne Hutchinson. She, too, were a midwife, banished from this place for speaking her mind too freely and for having the audacity to be a woman who strove to educate other women. Heretic, indeed.”

You are about to execute an innocent woman for the crime of being a woman, a woman who lived fully, spoke plainly, listened intently, observed acutely, intuited wisely, loved passionately.

“I am a force that makes you quake!”