Welcome to the August edition of The Throwback, your monthly hit of entertaining and informative history tales that will make you say, “Wait! What?” If you are receiving this e-mail, you have signed up on my website or at one of my lectures or author events.
You might have missed the story this summer, but the last Salem "witch" has been officially exonerated—and the thanks go in part to a middle-school history teacher and her eighth-grade students.
What sometimes gets lost in the history of the Salem Witch Trials is that the hysteria wasn't limited to Salem, Massachusetts. In fact, the madness didn't start in Salem but in the adjacent town of Danvers (known as Salem Village until 1752). Tucked away in a suburban neighborhood, you can still see the foundation of the Salem Village parsonage that was the epicenter of the evil where the minister's daughter and other girls, at the behest of villagers, accused the minister's slave, Tituba, and two other women of witchcraft.
The delusion metastasized with frightening speed from the modest parsonage to the surrounding farmsteads to towns miles around. The 25 victims of the Salem Witch Trials included residents of nine towns—some more than 20 miles away.
One of the falsely accused was 22-year-old Elizabeth Johnson, Jr., who lived in Andover, Massachusetts (which happens to be my hometown). Johnson confessed to practicing witchcraft and was sentenced to death in 1693. Johnson, however, was spared from hanging as were 54 others who admitted their "guilt." Every person who went to the gallows during the Salem Witch Trials pleaded not guilty.
Johnson lived until the age of 77. While others accused of witchcraft were exonerated during their lifetimes or posthumously, Johnson never was, perhaps because of an administrative oversight or because she had no descendants to fight to clear her name.
When North Andover Middle School teacher Carrie LaPierre learned of Johnson and her fate in Richard Hite's book, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692. LaPierre's eighth-grade civics class launched a campaign to lobby Massachusetts lawmakers to exonerate Johnson. State Senator Diana DiZoglio added an amendment that cleared Johnson's name to a $53 billion state budget that was signed into law last month.
An historical wrong has been righted. It's just a shame that it took 329 years.
Click here to read more about the exoneration of Elizabeth Johnson, Jr. And if you are interested in reading about some of the historical sites connected to the Salem Witch Trials that you can visit today, I wrote this piece several years ago for the Boston Globe.
WHAT I’M WATCHING:I was very saddened to hear of the passing of David McCullough at age 89. Not only was he a wonderful writer, he was blessed with a majestic baritone that provided a soundtrack to many wonderful PBS documentaries, including "The Civil War." His passion for history always came through in his lectures and interviews, and I was fortunate to finally attend one of his talks in person several years ago after the publication of his final book, The Pioneers. You know a history writer is pretty special if a bridge is named in his honor. For decades, McCullough has sounded the alarm about how America is developing a case of historical amnesia, and he could be critical of how history is being taught in schools. (Although he would have loved the story of the eighth-graders and Elizabeth Johnson.) "We, in our time, are raising a new generation of Americans who, to an alarming degree, are historically illiterate," he warned when accepting the National Book Award—in 1995. Luckily, McCullough has left behind an incredible legacy in his books and lectures that can be found in a quick search online. If you are a McCullough fan and haven't seen them, watch this 60 Minutes piece or this fantastic documentary produced by HBO that goes behind the scenes of how McCullough researched his subjects and pecked away on a typewriter in a backyard shed on Martha's Vineyard to produce his wonderful prose.
WHAT I'M WRITING ABOUT: Here's a roundup of some of the history-themed articles of mine that were published in the last few weeks.
8 Fascinating Facts About Ancient Roman Medicine While doctors in ancient Rome prescribed macabre elixirs (the blood of slain gladiators was thought to be a cure for epilepsy) and used dreams for diagnoses, they also made significant medical advances. How Cyrus the Great Turned Ancient Persia Into a Superpower Through far-reaching military conquests and benevolent rule, Cyrus the Great transformed a small group of semi-nomadic tribes into the mighty Persian Empire, the ancient world's first superpower, in less than 15 years.
China's Overlooked Role in World War II
China's war with Japan started more than two years before the official start of World War II—and it all began with an unexpected bathroom break.
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What sometimes gets lost in the history of the Salem Witch Trials is that the hysteria wasn't limited to Salem, Massachusetts. In fact, the madness didn't start in Salem but in the adjacent town of Danvers (known as Salem Village until 1752). Tucked away in a suburban neighborhood, 
