Eastern Professor explores story of little-known witch in new book

WILLIMANTIC, CT — Scott Moore, an associate professor of history at Eastern Connecticut State University, recently published a book about a legendary accused witch from southeastern Virginia.

Moore is from Virginia Beach, VA.

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“The Witch of Pungo,” published this May by the University of Virginia Press, explores the legend of Grace Sherwood, who was accused of witchcraft and subjected to a water trial in 1706.

Moore’s diverse background as a historian prepared him to study Sherwood from a new perspective.

“I’m really interested in what one might think of as historical memory,” Moore said. “In other words, how do communities remember their past and think about it in the context of who they are?”

Moore said the holistic approach resulted in a historical report on Sherwood that included new information.

“I was able to find things that no one had really seen,” Moore said.

In his research, Moore focused on Sherwood’s influence on the culture of southeastern Virginia rather than, as most scholars before him had done, focusing on her as a person.

“I was … disconnected from the emotional attachment to the individual,” he said. “The reason for that is that the attachment, if you could put it that way, is more to the history and the development of that cultural history.”

In Sherwood’s case, public opinion about her only changed when belief in witchcraft faded, Moore said.

“There’s this gap in the story where Sherwood’s trial takes place and then almost 100 years pass before the study of history becomes professionalized,” Moore added. “By the time this retelling came about, American culture had already decided that all those accused of witchcraft were victims of a superstitious time. Then when the story was repackaged, there was a sense of, ‘she was obviously someone who was falsely accused.'”

Because “nobody wrote anything down in that era, it was difficult to find a true historical background on Sherwood,” he said.

“All we have left are court records,” Moore said. “What we do know is that she had to undergo a water test. That meant she was tied up and thrown into the water to see if she would swim.”

How did the colonialists of Virginia come to believe in witchcraft?

“The English colonial communities literally drew on centuries of popular beliefs from Europe,” Moore said. “They imported beliefs that were already present in their communities in England and that were part of the broader European faith.”

“Essentially, a whole folk belief developed around how people use magic, what type(s) of people are more likely to use magic, and that means targeting people who are often considered marginal in the community – people you may not like so much or you may have had a conflict with before.”

An example Moore often uses to illustrate the process of accusing someone of witchcraft is the accusation against Sherwood that there were rumors that she had “spoiled the cotton crop of one of her neighbors and killed his pigs.”

“Let’s say his cotton suddenly dies after he has a conflict with her, or one of his pigs tramples her crop and she gets into a fight with him about it. Then the next day his pigs and his crops die,” Moore said. “That confluence of events would lead to people saying, ‘Of course she did it,’ especially if there were already rumors that someone might be a witch. That’s usually how that kind of (accusation) develops.”

Although there is no written record of Sherwood’s history, Moore enjoyed a “streamlined” research and publication process.

“I admit that this was a very magical project, no pun intended,” he said. “Fortunately, I have a friend who works as an editor for the University of Virginia Press,” Moore said.

After he contacted her, great interest was immediately aroused, he said.

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“There was a lot of support from the press and I was really lucky because it stayed that way the whole time,” he said.

Moore is from the same region as Sherwood and said he was “thrilled by the very positive feedback and interest from the community.”

Through her work at Eastern, Moore finds herself in a region where other accusations of witchcraft are more well-known than Sherwood’s story, which sparks her interest in learning more about her.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised that there’s been interest so far because she’s a clear focal point for the area she’s in, so it’s been nice to see interest outside of her home region,” Moore said.