Governor Kaine has pardoned the Pungo Witch, who terrorized the Pungonians of the early 1700s, er...spooked them.....er...made them uncomfortable with her saucy wit,.....
OK, OK, so she was railroaded, tried as a witch by dunking her (she lived thereby proving her guilt) and was jailed and lost her farm. ...which would I suspect have ended up in the same hands had she, ummm, drowned.
Roughly 14 years later, Colonial Governor Spotswood (who amongst his other accomplishments organized the killing of Blackbeard) helped her to land back and she lived nearly 40 more years after the witch trial, dying at age 80.
Now we can all be proud that Governor Kaine has taken the gutsy and no doubt controversial position that that dunking people to prove their witchieness is not something that he supports. The Governor did not seem to offer any opinion on witchery as a lifestyle choice, so we'll have to wait for more nuanced clarification of this most pressing of state issues.
More on the Pungo Witch, here.
Proof that Pungo is a real place (I used to frequent it) is here.
Hat tip Colleen Doran.
Note: I am beginning to suspect that the representation at left might not be an entirely accurate,
given that she is holding a pumpkin and not a strawberry.
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