Heretic's Places

Question 1

Bellerica, Massachusetts

Bellerica is the small farming community where the Carrier family lives in Massachusetts.

Andover, Massachusetts

Andover is the town where the Carrier family relocates because of the smallpox epidemic. The Carriers stay for a three-month period with Aunt and Uncle Toothaker, where they isolate themselves from the spreading physical disease to encounter a spiritual contagion in the form of witch paranoia.

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is the capitol city of Massachusetts and the location for the witch trials.

Iron Bessie

Iron Bessie is a slotted spoon Martha Carrier sometimes uses to discipline her children.

Smallpox

Smallpox is the deadly disease that sweeps the Massachusetts colony at the time of the Salem witch trials. At the time of this story there is no known treatment or prevention for the disease, before the widespread use of immunization programs. Smallpox deforms and disfigures its victims with ugly scars and usually some degree of neurological damage, if they should survive. The mortality rate for smallpox is high, and it is very contagious, which helps to feed a general climate of fear.

Bucephalus

Bucephalus is Uncle Roger’s horse, named for Alexander the Great’s horse. The moniker translates as “oxhead.”

Grandmother’s house

The house in Andover owned by Grandmother Carrier is large and comfortable. When she dies, there is a dispute between Margaret and Martha Carrier about whose house it should become.

The Caribbean

The Caribbean is the home and point of origin of a small black slave boy who plays with Sarah in church as well as the slave woman known as Tituba.

Court of Oyer and Terminer

The Court of Oyer and Terminor is the quasi-official jurisdiction in Salem that conducts the witch trials and decides on execution for the guilty.

Wales

Wales, located in the southwest of the United Kingdom adjacent to England.

Answer 1

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