Burn or Hang?

At 2nd and Charles Book Store, I happened to see a book that looked interesting. Calligraphy of the Witch by Alicia Gaspar De Alba. As I began reading, the vulgar scenes in the book made me wonder if the book hadn't be written by a man. To me, it did not sound as if a woman had written the novel. After a few pages, I was hooked into the story of pirates, slavery, Puritans, religion, Indians and witches. The descriptions of the area and the people left nothing to the imagination and I could picture the characters in the book and how they were dressed.

On the front pages I read: This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Once I got into the book I found it difficult to put it down until I reached the last page. A sad and emotional story.

The story takes place in and around Boston and Salem.  It covers the cruelty of slavery, Puritans against anything different and witchcraft. How the Puritans hated the Papists as they called those of the Catholic faith. A quote I found in the Internet about how Puritans felt about Catholics: "...More obstinate that a Quaker and just as ignorant as a savage." I found it interesting to see how other people viewed life and mistrusted anyone who did not speak their language or was different. Descriptions of Mexican food and how the names were changed to fit the English way of speaking is humorous. I couldn't help but think that everyone in the story believed they were correct and doing the right thing!

I put the book down after reading the last page and felt sad that things could not have turned out differently and happy that the main character (Thankful Seagraves, Concepcion Benavidez, Jeronima , Mistress Tobias Webb) was free and living her life as a man away from all the pain and suffering she had endured.

 Not too long ago I visited Salem and saw the place of the witch hunts of 1692.  I did not enter the museum because of the throngs of people visiting that day. Salem is now a tourist attraction and people will visit the area wearing costumes! I Googled and found out that some of the characters in the story were real people. What I had thought was a fictional novel turned out to be a bit of a historical novel. A blog, (La Bloga) featuring Hispanic writers, had a review of the book on March 25, 2008.

I would recommend this book which covers, among many things, the witch hunts, trials and how easy it was to convince someone that certain people were witches. Even though I had heard about the witches of Salem, I had always thought witches were burned at the stake. Yet, in what I have read, the witches of Salem died by hanging.

"Both Catholic and Protestant churches persecuted witches. 

The only difference being the form of execution. 

Catholics burned witches, Protestants hanged them."

Unknown