Monster
By Grace Sherwood
Chapter 1
They drag me into the big brick courthouse. They have me in chains and they treat me like a monster. I am not a monster! I am not a witch! I am a poor midwife from Princess Anne County. I give life to infants. I don’t take it! Though I have been charged with witchcraft before for killing livestock and damaging crops this is my eventual trial. This is where they will decide if I am a witch or a human. I wish and pray for the jury to see my humanity. The men dragging me along haul me down the long wooden path and throw me into a cramped area with a wooden gate stretching across. I am still in chains so I can’t escape and flee and live as a fugitive, though that would be better than being hung. I am surrounded by justices. I see the jury looking at me with a disgusted look and I am sure that I will never see the light of day again. Then I look up and in the middle looking down on me with a disgusted glare is the Judge. I can see he wants to lock anyone convicted of witchcraft up. He is scared of me! Me, a poor woman in chains. I don’t like that. I am the scared one. I don’t like the feeling of people being scared of me. I am not a monster like they think. I don’t like being threatening. I am a woman who just wants to be equal to men not a magical, evil monster.
Chapter 2
I didn’t do anything. I don’t deserve to be slaughtered. I have done nothing. I deliver babies and I don’t turn into a cat. I didn’t sink when I was on the ducking stool but I can’t control that. But that, that is not my fault. It is rigged! I have done nothing but delivered babies all my life. Just because I got in a fight with her husband it does not mean that I caused Elizabeth Hill a miscarriage. I can’t bewitch anyone because I am not a witch. I want woman and men to be equal. I have not committed a crime. I am just a poor widow who has been through grief, a woman who mourns the death of her son. I have gotten mad I admit to it but I am no monster. I am a grieving mother. My eldest son James died at 6 years ago. I just grieve his death with my husband and my 2 other sons John and Richard. Don’t let my family suffer another loss so soon don’t put my boys through that again! I don’t know what will happen if I die or if they lock me up. I hope and pray that my boys don’t see what everyone else see’s I hope they realize I am innocent.
Chapter 3
The judge starts the prosecution. I don’t have a lawyer because I have no defense but my word. A lawyer would do nothing for me. I am my own lawyer, women can’t be lawyers so I think of it as a movement. One step forward towards women and men equality, though we still have a million miles to go. Every step counts because without each step there is no progress and it will be impossible to ever get there. He calls upon the first witness, Elizabeth Hill. Elizabeth is bursting into tears over her miscarriage and screaming that I caused her miscarriage. Yes I did sue her and her husband but then I would not just kill her baby. I already won! The next day when she suffered from a miscarriage that was just a horrible coincidence. I did not do anything to Elizabeth. I would not take any lives even lives that hadn’t started yet I would never prevent them from starting. Then as the defendant I admit to the jury sued them but then I went home and I played with my sons for the rest of the day and then went to bed. I also told them that I would most likely have delivered their baby so why would I kill their baby before I got the money. I need money to support my family.
Chapter 4
Then they call the next witness Elizabeth Barnes. She won’t even look at me. She claims that I turned into a black cat and snuck into her home. Why would I even want to go into her shabby little shack? I would never break into someone’s house. Especially as a cat. I hate cats! I always sneeze around cats. And black cats scare me with their big yellow eyes. And as I said before I don’t like to seem scary. When I tell the Jury this they all laugh like I am terrible at this and I have no defense. But how do I find evidence I am not a witch?! There is no such thing! I am very scared that this will be the end of me.
Chapter 5
Next I hear a familiar name Richard Capps. He convicted me of killing his bull. I did not kill his bull. There was no motive why would I just kill his bull. I wouldn’t do that. We were mutual, not friends but not enemies. I guess the whole town just wanted to get rid of me because they convicted me over and over again, for no reason. I am innocent but the people of princess anne county just hate me. They want to get rid of me.
Chapter 6
Then the judge calls on the final witness John Gisbourne. He accused me of enchanting his pigs and cotton crop. We barely knew each other I wouldn’t want to manipulate his pigs or his cotton! He can keep his cotton, he can keep his pigs. I wouldn’t do anything to him. I want everyone to have a good life. I want women and men to be equal but I won’t enchant a man’s livestock to make that happen. That is taking steps back not forward. I need to reach the destination. Not go back to the beginning. We have come to far to turn back.
Chapter 7
We have reached the moment of truth. The jury’s vote. This moment decides my life and death, women’s equality, and if my boys grow up without a mother. The 2 men who brought me in. Open the wooden gate and drag me out of the courtroom. I pray to god that he will see my innocence. I feel a cold wet tear run down my face. I want to see the light of day. I want to see my boys. If I have to die I want to make sure my boys are in good hands. I need them to be healthy. If I die I pray to the lord that my life is in exchange for my boys long life. My husband is not always the most caring loving person so if this is my final day I hope that my husband is a good father to my boys for the rest of their lives. Then I see a sudden flash of light and I realize the men are here to take me back into the courtroom. I am sobbing the whole way in so people may take pity on me, though I know it can not be changed. The men throw me through the wooden gate, back into the familiar chamber. I can’t bare to even look up at the grinning justices. I look up and see the dismayed judge and calls order in the court. He says “ The jury decided Grace Sherwood brought here charged for witchcraft has been convicted guilty and the justices decided she will not be faced with death but rather 7 years in prison.” I feel my legs fail me. I fall to the ground, I feel dehydrated all of the water is pouring out of my body in tears. I will never be able to face my boys again. They will be so ashamed. I can’t bare it, I need to see my boys. My neighbors hate me, that is not a punishable action.
Chapter 8
Though I was not faced with death it feels like it. I sit in a dark shell in shackles for the next 7 years for no crime, no crime at all. I had nothing to do with my convictions. It is what I tell myself everyday when I awake from my sleep. I feel like a person who was cheated out of a chance to live my life as a person who is not avoided every time I am in public, who is not declined for everything I attempt to do. I am losing clients I have to resort to giving of my midwife career. I was even declined to be part of a women’s rights movement in the county square. I am no longer trustworthy I am now a poor lonely housewife of Princess Anne County.