1647: Alse Young, the first witchcraft execution in New England
May 26th, 2011 Headsman
On this date in 1647, the state of Connecticut carried out the first recorded execution of a witch in the American colonies.
A good half-century before the more renowned Salem witch trials, Alse Young — about whom little is recorded safe her infernal affiliations — hanged at Windsor for her devilry.
She was the first of several in Connecticut to suffer that penalty over the generation to come.
And though we’d be happy to blather on about it, we think you’ll find that Tim Abbott’s peripatetic Walking the Berkshires blog — still a font of compelling and original content in its sixth year on the beat — has Alse Young (and early Connecticut witchery) covered.
On this day..
- 1831: Ciro Menotti, hero to Garibaldi - 2020
- 2009: The brother of an Iraqi rape victim - 2019
- 1584: Samuel Zborowski, dangerous precedent - 2018
- 1755: Louis Mandrin - 2017
- Themed Set: The 2010s - 2016
- 2011: Mehdi Farahj, photographed by Ebrahim Noroozi - 2016
- 1868: Michael Barrett, the last public hanging in England - 2015
- Themed Set: Terrorism - 2015
- 1651: Jeane Gardiner, Bermuda witch - 2014
- 1991: Li Xinming, fecund - 2013
- 1884: Mary Lefley, exonerated by a deathbed confession - 2012
- 1871: Hostages of the Paris Commune - 2010
- 1831: Mariana de Pineda Muñoz, Spanish liberal - 2009
- 1923: Albert Leo Schlageter, Nazi martyr - 2008
Entry Filed under: 17th Century,Capital Punishment,Connecticut,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,History,Milestones,Occupation and Colonialism,Public Executions,USA,Witchcraft,Women
Tags: 1640s, 1647, alse young, may 26, windsor
