The First Witch of Boston

Margaret Jones is the novel’s protagonist. She is characterized in large part by her work as an apothecary, midwife, and herbalist. Margaret is an intelligent woman who possesses a vast body of medical knowledge. She can reliably diagnose a variety of maladies accurately and early, and she is trusted by many of her neighbors. Through this work, Margaret becomes one of the novel’s key points of engagement with history, patriarchy, and misogyny. Margaret lives in a patriarchal society that is suspicious of female intellect. Men are seen as innately more intelligent and rational than women. “Women’s knowledge,” such as it is, is seen as both inferior and at least potentially sinful. Because much of Margaret’s knowledge is about pregnancy and childbirth—that is, about the lives and bodies of women—she is viewed by many in her community as doubly suspect. While male clerics and scholars are revered for their erudition, Margaret’s expertise raises suspicions that she is in league with the devil.

It is in part Margaret’s work as an apothecary, herbalist, and midwife that results in the charge of witchcraft being leveled against her. Because so little was known about medicine at the time, the tinctures and remedies Margaret prepared were seen as adjacent to the spells and incantations associated with witchcraft.