WITCH ... WITCH !!!

In 1651, Alice Lake's baby died. Later, she told people that she saw the baby. Maybe she did. Or, maybe she grieved so much that her mind allowed her to imagine that she saw her baby to ease her grief.

The Puritan belief was that the devil was coming to her in the form of her deceased child, and because of that, she was accused of being a witch and brought to trial. Like most of the women accused of witchcraft, Alice was poor. And like most of the accused, she denied being a witch. The records of her trial are lost, but she was apparently found guilty of witchcraft.

The Devil's Mark
It was widely believed that most witches sported a mark on their body which was placed there by the Devil. The Witches' mark, Devil's Mark, or Witches' teat was the seal of the Devil, given to witches upon initiation. This mark could be a scar, a mole, or a birthmark. If a witch had no mark, it meant that she or he was especially devout to Satan. Excerpts - more at History of American Women.

Well, shit. If you have a mark, you're a witch. If you don't have a mark, you're a WORSE witch. I mean, sheesh, these chicks stood no chance at all. What strikes me is they were blind to this ridiculous premise. I mean, how fucking stupid do you have to be to believe this? Perhaps these were the ancestors of the liberals.

Further reading of this story will reveal another person who thought they were being punished by God. Turns out, there was a lot of that in "courtrooms" back in the day.