Last witchcraft trial in U.S. - May 14, 1878

On this day in 1878, a suit was brought against Daniel Spofford in Salem, Massachusetts, for allegedly practicing mesmerism on Lucretia Brown.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to this
dand History Class, a podcast where the past becomes the
present every single day. I hope you all are still
doing well. I'm doing well, still recording from the closet.
I hope that you'all have been able to find things

(00:22):
that make your day a little bit brighter every single day. I,
for one, have been able to get a lot of
fresh air, a lot of sunlight, and I must admit
one or two or three horror movies, which is my
particular brand of craving right now, and even when I'm
not in the middle of a pandemic, I love horror movies.

(00:43):
With that said, today's episode has nothing to do with
horror movies, but it is about witchcraft. So let's get
into the show. Today is made. The day was made fourteenth,
eighteen seventy eight, the last witchcraft trial in the United

(01:07):
States began in Salem, Massachusetts, the site of the infamous
seventeenth century witch trials. The Salem Witchcraft Trial of eighteen
seventy eight, also known as the ips Witch witchcraft trial,
had its roots in the Christian science community in Massachusetts.
Christian science is a religious denomination founded by Mary Baker

(01:28):
Eddie in the nineteenth century. In her eighteen seventy five
book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddie
argued that sickness was all in the mind and that
it could be cured through prayer. She also expounded on
the concept of animal magnetism, writing the following. Animal magnetism
or hypnotism is the specific term for error or mortal mind.

(01:52):
It is the false belief that mind is in matter
and is both evil and good, that evil is as
real as good and more powerful. This belief has not
one quality of truth. It is either ignorant or malicious.
The malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy. Daniel
Spofford was one of Eddie's early students. Spofford opened up

(02:13):
a practice in metaphysical healing in eighteen seventy five and
began calling himself Doctor Spafford. He even introduced Mary to
her future husband, Asa Gilbert Eddie. Mary and Asa got
married in eighteen seventy seven, but Mary and Spofford eventually
had a falling out. She expelled him from the Christian
Scientists Association for alleged immorality. She even filed a suit

(02:37):
against him for violating his contractual obligations. Though the case
was dismissed, Mary was litigious, and she sued some of
her other students for unpaid tuition. Then there was Lucrecia Brown,
a woman who lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a town about
thirteen miles or twenty one kilometers away from Salem. She

(02:57):
had a spinal injury that Dorcas Rawson so opposedly healed
through Christian science. But Brown had a suppose it relapse
when she was under Rawson's spiritual treatment, so Rawson went
to Eddie for help. Eddie blamed Brown's condition on Spofford,
who had recently visited Brown. Eddie claimed that Spofford was
using mesmerism to harm Brown. She got twelve students from

(03:20):
the Christian Scientists Association to take two hours each to
focus their mental energy on keeping Spofford from practicing his
mes merried powers over his students and patience. Some scholars
have suggested that Eddie may have been more invested in
bringing a suit than Brown was. It's been alleged that
she drew up the complaint against Spafford herself and petitioned

(03:42):
the court to keep him from using his mesmerism against her.
The suit was heard in the Supreme Judicial Court in
Salem on May fourteenth, eighteen seventy eight. She and around
twenty other witnesses showed up to testify against Spofford. The
judge was Horace Gray. The bill of complaint said the following,
in part, Daniel H. Spofford has, at diverse times and places,

(04:05):
since the year eighteen hundred and seventy five, wrongfully and maliciously,
and with intent to injure the plaintiff, caused the plaintiff,
by means of his said power and art, great suffering
of body and mind in severe spinal pains and neuralgia,
and a temporary suspension of mind, and still continues to
cause the plaintiff the same. The judge called for a

(04:28):
hearing of the case on May seventeenth, and Spofford was
ordered to appear. Then. The case garnered attention from the press.
A crowd gathered at the courthouse that day, but Spofford
did not appear. His attorney filed a demur and the
judge sustained it, saying that the case wasn't in the
court's jurisdiction and that it had no power to control

(04:49):
Spofford's mind. The judge dismissed the case. The ruling was appealed,
but the appeal was waived. Eddie drew a lot of
criticism for the case. Her scandals con get to garner attention,
and she continued to blame illnesses on the influence of
malicious animal magnetism. Still, the Church of Christ Scientist was
founded in eighteen seventy nine and the religion gained more followers.

(05:14):
The trial is now considered the last witchcraft trial in
the US. I'm Eves Jeff Code and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
And if you have any suggestions or questions or comments,
or just want to send a nice note, you can
do so to our email at this day at I

(05:34):
heeart Media dot com. You can also hit us up
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(05:57):
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