Leeds Point: The Witch Laws

Leeds Point is an overtly eco-political novel set in the coastal marshes off New Jersey in 1702, just a few years after the Salem Witch Trials had rocked New England. At that time, the colony was divided into East Jersey and West Jersey. East Jersey along with New York still had religious-based witch laws on the books. West Jersey was part of the Pennsylvania colony. William Penn's experiment in more liberal governance included freedom of religion, and did not have laws requiring the execution of witches. (Pennsylvania colony laws also allowed women to file for divorce!). It's interesting to note that although William Penn wrote progressive laws and is revered as the founder of Pennsylvania, he spent very little time in the colony. His political experiment was funded by wrack-rents from his lands in Ireland, and his Irish financial manager, Philip Ford, claimed to ownership of the Pennsylvania Colony in payment of Penn's debts to him. Returning to England in 1701, Penn became financial embroiled in his eldest son's gambling debts. After Penn served a stint in debtor's prison, he died in England while colonial lawyer Alexander Hamilton represented the Penn family in suing York colony over land disputes. Penn's grandchildren revoked most of the religious freedoms and social tolerance Penn had put into place in Pennsylvania.

The patchwork of laws and governance in the American colonies set the stage for the later American revolution. Whether you could be tried and hung as a witch depended on where exactly you were arrested and at what point in time. In Leeds Point the elderly Quaker woman Hannah Fearson is a victim of the Salem Witch trials, who left New England after her release from prison on suspicion of witchcraft and walked south in hope of finding a place where hearts were more open to live out her final days. She finds Philadelphia, which she'd heard was a city of brotherly love, to be embroiled in bitter conflict over the issue of slavery. She makes her way to Leeds Point on the shores of West Jersey. When Esther Waters is captured while swimming by a British patrol boat, Esther is fortunate that Hannah is well acquainted with the colonial Witch Laws and is able to assert Esther's rights as a resident of West Jersey.

https://youtu.be/y10yplzWBWw?si=3adQI8BnaoeBCtFr