tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post2371835163769010457..comments2024-03-28T05:28:46.610-04:00Comments on NEW ENGLAND FOLKLORE: Ann Hopkins and The Curse of FirePeter Muisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-60800880947926258092016-06-27T20:41:46.316-04:002016-06-27T20:41:46.316-04:00Hi Sue! Glad you like the blog. Curses are fascina...Hi Sue! Glad you like the blog. Curses are fascinating. Bad things will eventually happen to all of us, so curses always come true somehow... or at least it seems that way. Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-5501985181193959492016-06-27T20:39:51.270-04:002016-06-27T20:39:51.270-04:00Hi Bret! Thanks for the comment. That could be a p...Hi Bret! Thanks for the comment. That could be a possible explanation. Certainly a burning would have been notable in a society where criminals were usually hanged. Ugh. So grim! I also think there is a tendency for people to forget the history of their own region. If the Cambridgeport people had read that witches were burned in Europe they may have assumed the same was true of New England. Just speculation, of course!<br />Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-24630867398428171572016-06-25T00:28:15.974-04:002016-06-25T00:28:15.974-04:00Ooh, I love this blog! American folklore is fascin...Ooh, I love this blog! American folklore is fascinating...:-) <br /><br />Well, the curse thing is pretty universal. For example, our bushranger, Ned Kelly, told the judge who sentenced him to death, Redmond Barry, that he would be seeing him soon enough and he died a couple of weeks later. Which probably means that Mr Barry was already sick, but still... I should add that Redmond Barry was a fairly decent man, except to the Kelly family. He started the State Library, among other things(and let people borrow from his personal library meanwhile) and shared his pay with the poor. But you can't keep a good curse down eh? ;-)Sue Bursztynskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-72910214638072428562016-06-22T16:27:04.651-04:002016-06-22T16:27:04.651-04:00The only case of execution by burning at the stake...The only case of execution by burning at the stake I know of in Massachusetts, perhaps New England, was of Philis, an African-American slave, in 1755.<br /><br />https://sentinelhillpress.wordpress.com/2015/10/12/october-ganza-day-11-the-executions-of-philis-and-mark-1755/<br /><br />I wonder if that incident in nearby Charlestown had any influence?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05309788930821697776noreply@blogger.com