The Witchcraft of Female Independence: Unpacking the Story of Katherine Harrison

When Katherine Harrison’s husband passed away, she became the wealthiest woman in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Rather than wallow in her new status as a young widow she decided to run the farm she’d inherited on her own. She took up ranching and a slew of other hobbies including brewing ale, spinning yarn and beekeeping. She traded honey and beeswax for candles. She was by all accounts, headstrong, outspoken and clever.

In many corners of the internet, Harrison’s interests are having a moment. Craft brewers have been spruiking classic ales for years, urban beekeeping is surging in popularity, and people are looking to textile-based crafts as ways to practise mindfulness. But Harrison was a single woman and mother of three daughters who, in a notable contrast to today’s tradwives, felt she did not need a man. Her independence, wealth – and the fact that she practised astrology – make her hobbies seem less like those of a good wife and more like those of a good witch.

Unfortunately, Harrison lived in the 17th century when fear and paranoia dominated the New England colonies. It was a time when a woman’s refusal to conform to puritanical, patriarchal norms made her vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft. In 1668, more than two decades before the Salem witch trials kicked off 200km north, Harrison was arrested and put on trial for witchcraft.

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