The Southwicks: A Precursor to the Salem Witch Trials
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
October 26, 2025
Matthew 10:16-18 (New Revised Standard Version)
“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the gentiles.
If you follow Thee Quaker Podcast or any of its social media outlets, you may have seen, what I mentioned last week at the end of worship about the origins of the witch hat. Thee Quaker pointed out that,
Historians have offered several hypotheses for how the iconic Witch Hat came to be in North American and British popular culture. One of the leading theories is that negative portrayals of Quaker women in the media of the late seventeenth century (like broadside ballads, popular art, and Puritan sermons) led to the creation of the imagery of the witch hat over time.
Quaker women developed a negative reputation in much of English society for challenging the social norms of the time and were often accused of witchcraft to justify their persecution. These women were often portrayed with conical felt hats that were popular in the seventeenth century but out of fashion in the eighteenth century. Women were portrayed with these outdated hats to show them as being strangely plain or out-of-touch and became associated with common imagery of witchcraft over time.
To think that the witch hats we or our children wear at Halloween are actually Quaker in origin is an interesting connection, especially today as we celebrate “Advocate for Witches” Sunday in memory of how early Quakers (especially Friend Thomas Maule who we have discussed in previous sermons) advocated for the “witches” in the Salem Witch Trials. Sadly, these women were mostly innocent women who simply did not follow the Puritan way.
So, this Halloween, wear you Quaker Witch Hats in solidarity for women’s rights and religious freedom!
Now, this morning I want us to take a step back and share another story, this one proceeds the Salem Witch Trials. It is about how early Quakers, being wrongly accused, led to a wide spread discrimination and abuse of those coming to America to find religious freedom by the Puritans.
Ironically, I was studying some of my family history in preparation for my upcoming Sabbatical. As I was perusing the Shopshire Starr, the newspaper from my family’s hometown in Shopshire England, I came across an article that caught my attention. The article was titled, The Painful Link Between the Salem Witch Trials and West Midland Quaker Families. I quickly read through it and thought the story they told was perfect for sharing more of our Quaker history from this time. The Shropshire Starr tells the following story,
On a night tinged crimson by burning torches, the cries of those tortured, beaten and branded devotees of the black arts pierced the stillness, writes Mike Lockley.
The desperate pleas for mercy would continue long after the pyres and torches died, their smoking last breath hanging like a pall over the sickening scene.
This is Salem in the late 1600s, a Massachusetts township that gained global infamy for the relentless persecution of residents falsely accused of witchcraft.
Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, from Kingswinford, suffered for being Quakers and had children sold into slavery.
During a 15-month killing spree that began in February, 1692, five men and 14 women were hanged. One poor soul, Giles Corey, suffered the agonies of being “pressed” to death after refusing to enter a plea at his shambolic trial.
What happened in Salem remains a stain on America’s history.
The events have again been re-visited for current Sky drama Witches of Salem (a T.V. program in England). It is among a raft of films, series, documentaries, books and articles on the grisly events.
Yet those who have written about Salem snubbed one important point – it is very much a West Midland story. A terrible West Midland story.
For no victims were more relentlessly and sadistically tormented than Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick.
They hailed from Kingswinford, then in Staffordshire and now on the edge of the Black Country, close to the current borders of both South Staffordshire and Shropshire.
They endured sustained beatings and had two of their children sold into slavery before being left to freeze to death.
Their suffering lit the fuse for the witchfinder fever that would follow.
The couple’s “heinous” crime?
They followed the Quaker faith.
In the puritanical stronghold of Salem, a community founded on religious intolerance, that was enough to condemn Lawrence and Cassandra to a living hell.
They died within three days of each other on Shelter Island, a barren, frozen New York bolthole where they’d fled to escape the hate, harassment and brutality.
We have forgotten the Southwicks, but Massachusetts has not – and the state has apologized for their suffering.
A plaque on the wall of the University of Massachusetts is dedicated to a famed descendant of the couple and states (see it on the cover of your bulletin this morning):
'Royal Southwick, Lowell’s anti-slavery Quaker senator and manufacturer and a descendant of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick who were despoiled, imprisoned, starved, whipped, banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony and persecuted to death in the year 1660 for being Quakers.'
Details of Lawrence and Cassandra’s Black Country days are sketchy. Census records reveal they were married in Kingswinford on January 25, 1623, and travelled to Salem in search of a new life between 1637 and 1639.
Ironically, the couple chose to leave England because of the religious intolerance they had encountered here. They were doomed to step out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Lawrence took the skills learnt at home with him: he is referred to as one of America’s pioneer glass-blowers.
Hounding by Salem locals, forced him to quit the successful business and follow a career in animal husbandry. He excelled at that, too.
Looking back, Lawrence and Cassandra arrived in the township at the wrong time, with a growing band of radical Puritans already pushing their blinkered agenda. Their way, they bellowed, was the one and only path to redemption.
The man and wife were among a group of settlers who referred to themselves as the Society of Friends, later to be known as Quakers because they “trembled in the way of The Lord”.
Despite the threats and violence, they bravely refused to compromise their beliefs, would not pay tithes to the state church, snubbed oaths of allegiance and, most telling of all, steadfastly refused to stand-up for Salem in combat.
To an extent, they were as belligerent as their oppressors.
Confrontation was inevitable. The fanatical Puritans were prepared to do whatever it took to save the newcomers’ souls – even murder.
If death was necessary to save someone from eternal damnation, then so be it.
They were also prepared to stem the trickle of pioneers, to make Salem a 'no go area' for Quakers.
In 1656, two Quakers were discovered on a recently docked ship and immediately inspected for 'witch marks'. The Satanic war had begun.
When no signs of the devil could be found on their bodies, the pair were immediately deported and a law introduced banning ship captains from bringing Quakers to Massachusetts.
[Our ancestors were no different the those being detained and removed by ICE today. Think on that. This is why Stewart Mora and so many of us Quakers stand against the deportation of people in our country.]
Yet still the Quakers came, driven by a missionary zeal.
They were beaten by rabid mobs, flogged and dragged over the state border only to return when their wounds had healed.
In an attempt to end the influx, tough, cruel laws were introduced, giving Puritans the power to cut off the ears of returning Quakers, burn holes through their tongues and brand them with hot irons.
Capital punishment inevitably followed, with the first four Quaker executions taking place on Boston Common.
The Southwicks were living on borrowed time in a troubled time.
In 1657, they were heavily fined and flung in prison for allowing two Quaker preachers to stay at their home. Records show Cassandra spent seven weeks behind bars and was fined 40 shillings.
The couple refused to submit or surrender their faith.
One year later, Lawrence, Cassandra and their son, Joshua, were imprisoned for 20 weeks after refusing to attend a Puritan church service. Unable to pay the substantial fine that went with the punishment, the family were stripped of their possessions.
Bigotry had made them homeless and penniless.
In 1659, daughter and son were wrenched from the Southwicks, taken to Barbados and sold as slaves to meet outstanding court costs.
Interestingly, local ship crews and captains refused to play any part in forcibly taking the children to the Caribbean which suggests a fair percentage of Salem folk supported the Southwicks and were opposed to the campaign against the family.
In the end, even Lawrence and Cassandra, fearing for their lives, buckled. They took what little they had and travelled to Shelter Island, a muddy, barren patchwork of fields owned by the Slyvester family who had turned the acres into a sanctuary for Quakers.
The couple were already broken when they arrived at Shelter Island. They lacked the strength to work the poor soil.
One surviving record chillingly reveals their fate:
“Lawrence and wife Cassandra went to Shelter Island, Long Island Sound, being banished under pain of death in 1659 and died there in the spring of 1660 from privation and exposure; his wife died three days after him.”
Their deaths pricked Salem’s conscience and helped residents to see the Puritan purges for what they were.
The town demanded change and in 1661 King Charles II (the colony was then under British rule) issued a royal order to end the persecution of Quakers.
Despite attempts to wipe clean the memory of Lawrence and Cassandra from Salem and from history itself, the couple made a lasting mark.
Hearing this story, we realize the Quakers were actually some of the first “witches” in Salem. No wonder Quakers advocated for those who were being persecuted – many of them were being persecuted prior to focusing on so-called “witches.”
Actually, the Quakers' refusal to conform to Puritan society made them symbols of religious dissent, inspiring others to question the established power structure of the day.
Their pacifist beliefs and refusal to take loyalty oaths challenged Puritan authority, which demanded absolute adherence to colonial laws and the state church.
Folks, we are seeing this again in America, right now. How will you and I refuse to conform, become symbols of religious dissent, and question the power structures of our day? Ask yourself, what does that look like in 2025?
As well early Quakers were more egalitarian in their views on women, and clashed with Puritan social norms. Their vocal, principled resistance to persecution showed that opposition to the authorities was possible.
In a “Me, too!” society where women are again being seen as less than equal to men, we must be more egalitarian in our perspectives and embrace women in all areas of society. This means we must be vocal, resist the persecution of women, and find ways to empower them so their voices can be heard. Ask yourself, what does that look like in 2025?
Finally, these early Quakers' public challenges to the courts' legitimacy contributed to a broader societal shift that ended the Salem Witch Trials. Their consistency and unwillingness to back down finally won out. And yes, it took a huge toll on some, like the Southwicks.
Just one example for us today, is our consistency on the Death Penalty. This is why it is so important, because, I believe, over time it will lead to a societal shift in Indiana. I have already seen some people shift their views.
We cannot back down, we must build momentum, add more voices, and lead the effort to end the Death Penalty here in Indiana.
And this is only one area where we are being called to make our voices count. There are so many more that Quakers are and should be working to challenge and create societal shifts. Ask yourself, what does that look like 2025?
As the Southwicks we, too, are “being sent out like sheep into the midst of wolves,” as our scriptures say. We must “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” But also, beware of the wolves, “for they will hand us over to councils and flog us in their religious gatherings, and we will be dragged before governors, presidents, and kings because of what Christ has done as an example for us, as a testimony to them and the gentiles.”
Are we ready?
Now, is our time!
As you consider what you can do today, take a moment to center down and ponder those queries I shared, once again,
· How will I refuse to conform, become a symbol of religious dissent, and question the power structures of my day?
· How will I speak up for women, resist their persecution, and find ways to empower them and their voices?
· Who am I working with to challenge and create societal shifts?