IT'S INTERESTING THAT THESE CHILD MURDERS, AND THE SUPPORT OF THE MURDERER, TAKES PLACE IN MASSACHUSETTS.
Midwives and female healers in early New England possessed traditional knowledge of herbal remedies for reproductive health, though court records from the New England witch trials rarely explicitly charged defendants with providing contraceptives or abortions. [1]
Herbal Care in Early Communities
- Midwives served as the primary medical providers for women and children in colonial towns.
- Healers maintained herbal gardens and used common plants to induce menses or manage fertility.
The Focus of New England Trials
- Puritan court records focused on accusations of spectral harm, malice, or causing illness in neighbors and livestock.
- Prosecutors did not target accused witches in New England specifically for dispensing birth control or abortifacients.
Broader Historical Connections
- As noted in a discussion by Scientific American, European witch hunts frequently targeted women who held independent reproductive health knowledge.
- Additional analysis in Ms. Magazine outlines how reproductive care became criminalized and linked to witchcraft over centuries.
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