Virginia Gov. Kaine pardons Grace Sherwood, the "Witch of Pungo"

[Meffy]

As you drive along Interstate 64 in Tidewater it's hard not to notice the signs for "Witch Duck Road." Well, 300 years have passed since Grace Sherwood was accused of witchcraft and "ducked" in a trial by ordeal. If she'd drowned, it would have proven her innocence. But she didn't drown, so she was obviously a witch. Seven years in jail, we'll have no burnings at the stake in genteel Virginia, please.

Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArti cle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149189068521&path=!news&s=1045855934842)

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071101218.html)

I salute Belinda Nash for belaboring Governor Kaine to issue the pardon, even if it's just an informal declaration. (Has to be informal. Her conviction took place in 1706, under English rule, not under the present government.)

Note: I attach no particular significance to the fact that Pat Robertson's headquarters is very near the site where this antique injustice was committed. Merest coincidence, I'm sure. Nothing like the TV horror-soap opera "Dark Shadows."

[JamesDillon]

Ha! Beat you (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=59858)!

[Meffy]

You sure did. I ought to've checked in Politics, the story overlaps both.

[TragicMonkey]

The curse of the witch lives on, in the form of a particularly traffic-prone interstate exit. It's just a hill, people. You don't need to brake to go uphill. Really. There won't be dinosaurs just over the top of it.

[Meffy]

No dinosaurs? Ach, I can't trust my memory these days. It's not far from Mount Trashmore, is it?

[TragicMonkey]

No dinosaurs? Ach, I can't trust my memory these days. It's not far from Mount Trashmore, is it?

About a mile away. It's not true that Mount Trashmore is filled with the skeletons of the witch's victims, or that she reanimates them every four years and has them all vote Republican.

[Marquis de Carabas]

I salute Ms. Nash as well for wasting her governor's time with crap.

[Meffy]

As crap goes, it's better by far than most of the other crap he has to deal with.

[Marquis de Carabas]

I quite agree. My salute was in all earnest. The more time one can distract a government with crap, the less time said government can spend bending one over the ol' raping stump.

[Meffy]

About a mile away. It's not true that Mount Trashmore is filled with the skeletons of the witch's victims, or that she reanimates them every four years and has them all vote Republican.
"Grooooan... I return to life at your bidding... for which member of the House of Burgesses shall I vote this time? God bless the king!"

[Meffy]

@MdC: Government is at its best when distracted. I think we, the people, ought to pay to have government distracted by... I dunno, bread and circuses maybe.

[TragicMonkey]

@MdC: Government is at its best when distracted. I think we, the people, ought to pay to have government distracted by... I dunno, bread and circuses maybe.

Hookers work best on government. In public, the government likes to rail against them. In private, government just can get enough of them.

[Meffy]

They can pay for their own hookers. Bread and circuses I don't mind funding, keeps the little dears busy with hours of creative fun.

[Beerina]

As you drive along Interstate 64 in Tidewater it's hard not to notice the signs for "Witch Duck Road." Well, 300 years have passed since Grace Sherwood was accused of witchcraft and "ducked" in a trial by ordeal. If she'd drowned, it would have proven her innocence. But she didn't drown, so she was obviously a witch. Seven years in jail, we'll have no burnings at the stake in genteel Virginia, please.

I thought "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". Ahh, already human sensibilities have superceded Yahweh's irrational anger.


From the story:

In a letter explaining his unusual decision, Kaine declared, "With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice."

Oh, I don't know. For all we know, it is an accurate method to separate a real witch from an innocent person. That it happens to kill the person if innocent, may be a bit on the brutal side, but those witches is bad, man!

He suggested that Sherwood, who scandalized contemporaries by wearing trousers, was hounded because of her lifestyle and beliefs.

Now that's what I call being a butch lesbian before it was cool to be one!

"We also can celebrate the fact that a woman's equality is constitutionally protected today, and women have the freedom to pursue their hopes and dreams."

Yes, witchcraft is allowable. However, if it actually works, I'm sure the DOD would be highly interested in acquiring spellcasting and/or divination technologies.

"I am pleased to officially restore the good name of Grace Sherwood," he wrote.

Sheesh, it sounds almost as if he didn't believe she was actually a witch! And in any event, she did her time and earned her freedom.

He is not the first chief executive to help Sherwood. Alexander Spotswood, who represented the English king in Virginia from 1710-1722, helped her reclaim her property, Kaine said.

Yikes! Didn'cha always know those Redcoats were in league with the witches?

[Meffy]

Alexander Spottswood, a grand fellow. I've got a partly-finished story telling of the exploratory excursion he and his "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" enjoyed up into the mountains... but I mythologized it just a bit. (In the real world there aren't any dragons in the Shenandoah Valley, and never have been. Not in the valley itself, anyway. Up on the ancient, smoky-looking mountains of the Blue Ridge... maybe.)

"We drank King George's health and all the Royal Family's and Governor Spottswood's, then fired another volley."

Must get back to that some day.