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Tag Archives: The Scarlet Letter

The Wealthy Widow Witch

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by historywitch in Uncategorized

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Ann Hibbins, Mistress Hibbins, The Scarlet Letter, Wealthy Witch

AnnHibbinsSometime last night, my History Witch Facebook page crossed over the 6000-follower mark! Thank you to everyone for the support.

Continuing with Witch Season…

This is Ann Hibbins. Ann was a wealthy widow, her second husband (her first husband passed away at a fairly young age), William Hibbins, was a successful merchant and deputy to the General Court in Boston, MA. He also became the assistant to the governor in 1643. His successor, Humphrey Atherton, led the campaign to execute Ann for witchcraft after William passed away.

In 1640, Ann hired a group of carpenters to work on her home. They overcharged her and she called them out on it, and took them to court. She won the suit, but was immediately deemed “abrasive” and quickly excommunicated when she refused to apologize. WHAT? The church and courts began gathering “evidence” that she was a witch.

Two things make this a very unusual event: 1. She was of a high, social status- these type of accusations rarely went against someone like her, and 2. No record of any evidence used to convict her exists. Nothing.

She had a few supporters who retracted their statements after she was convicted. COWARDS. One of those supporters was John Norton, a prominent minister, who said (in private of course) that Ann was “hanged for a witch only for having more wit than her neighbors”.

The whole story is atrocious. She was tried and convicted and on June 19th, 1656, she was executed in Boston for her so-called crimes.

Many believe that Hibbins was the inspiration behind the character Mistress Hibbins in  Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne… literary crush.

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by historywitch in Uncategorized

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Hester Prynne, Literary Heroines, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Salem MA, The House of the Seven Gables, The Scarlet Letter

HesterPrynne

This month I am featuring literary heroines (thank you Irina Michaels of Young Vagabond magazine for the idea!). Whohoo! Let’s get reading!

Nathaniel Hawthorne just seemed to “get” women. He had to have been in love with us to create such a compelling and strong character as Hester Prynne. I sometimes wonder if Hester was a bit inspired by his cousin Susannah Ingersoll. Susannah was a fiercely independent woman. Nathaniel would visit her at her home in Salem, MA- those visits inspired his book The House of the Seven Gables.

Defiant, devoted, conflicted, and complex, the lead female in The Scarlet Letter is one of my literary heroes. I think she is best summed up by John Updike:

“She’s such an arresting and slightly ambiguous figure. She’s a funny mix of a truly liberated, defiantly sexual woman, but in the end a woman who accepts the penance that society imposed on her. And I don’t know, I suppose she’s an epitome of female predicaments. … She is a mythic version of every woman’s attempt to integrate her sexuality with societal demands.”

Go read the Scarlet Letter- hands down one of my favorite books. You can purchase here: http://tinyurl.com/oa45kwj

Nerd is the Word!

I love studying quirky history, so illustrating the people I research makes me one happy nerd girl. Did you know Queen Victoria had Bishopophobia? or that when Elizabeth of Russia died, they found 15,000 dresses in her uh... closet?

It's good stuff- and I plan to illustrate all the royal weirdos I can find.

All illustrations are my personal property- if you'd like to use them, just ask!

© COPYRIGHT

All images are property of History Witch/Lisa Graves.

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