Healer or Hag? Female Medical Practitioners and Witch Accusations in 17th-Century New England

Abstract

In 17th-century New England, many women provided valuable medical services to their communities without formal training as midwives and healers. They were generally well-respected by their patients and trusted to testify as medical experts in cases of paternity, rape, and witchcraft at community forums. Yet this trust was capricious; female medical practitioners could easily be accused of being witches, usually for failing to heal a patient or causing illness through supernatural means. This paper examines two women who practiced medicine and were accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New England. The details and circumstances surrounding the witchcraft accusations against Jane Hawkins of Boston, Massachusetts in 1637 and Ann Burt of Lynn, Massachusetts in 1669 are gathered from court documents, journal articles, and secondary source materials. In analysing the cases of Jane Hawkins and Ann Burt, several themes are explored to explain why early female medical practitioners tread a thin line between trusted healers and witches. In Hawkins’ case, inexplicable medical maladies were often attributed to witchcraft when a woman was involved and she did not fit Puritan ideals of how a woman should behave. In Burt’s case, an accusation of witchcraft was used by male physicians to eliminate competing female healers in a crowded medical marketplace. Both Hawkins and Burt practiced medicine in a manner that threatened the inherent power differential favouring men, leading to witchcraft accusations intending to destroy their credibility as medical practitioners.