Brandon Nelson - Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live (concert band) [score video]

“Such was the darkness of that day, the tortures and lamentations of the afflicted, and the power of former presidents, that we walked in the clouds, and could not see our way.”
-John Hale, minister and witness to the Salem witch trials

Simple explanations are tempting yet ultimately impossible and, indeed, minimize the great human tragedy that was the persecution and killing of “witches” in Salem. What could possibly whip up such a hysteria among colonial Americans, so apparently devoted to quiet stoicism and
religious piety?

Scholars have been divided for centuries, coming up with pet theories on what compelled this society to turn against certain elements within it. Indeed, many volumes have been written, yet the conclusion we may reach is that a perfect explanation will never be ours.

This piece focuses not as much on potential causation, but reflects upon the fundamental nature of guilt, justice, and forgiveness, on both human and divine levels. Does the professed absolution of God clear the conscious completely notwithstanding the blood of the innocent on one's hands?
Answers again remain elusive, but the questions are continuously demanded.

The title is taken from the Book of Exodus, King James Version. This verse is the clearest and most pointed reference to witches in the Bible and as such has been used as justification for the kinds of persecution seen in Salem by “witch hunters” through the ages. By the end of the Salem killings, twenty innocent people had lost their lives, five others (including two infants) having died while imprisoned. In November 2001, the Massachusetts legislature
passed an act exonerating all of those convicted.

If there is any positive outcome to this episode of our history, it may be, as put by George Lincoln Burr, “the rock on which the theocracy was shattered.”