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From: "Richard N. Burns" <>
Subject: RE: [MAESSEX] Hannah Martin
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 18:52:51 -0700


Leslie Hope wrote:

Sorry Richard. The suitor in the poem is *Esek Harden* ie Ezekial
Worthen,
Hannah's husband " On Esek Harden's oaken floor..." At least that is
what
Joyce Pendery says in NEGHR 154 in her article on the Worthens of Salem.

Leslie:

I should have acknowledged that some, including Pendery, believe
that in the poem "The Witch's Daughter", J. G. Whittier intended the
central character, whom he labeled "Mabel Martin", to represent Hannah
Martin, stepdaughter of Susannah Martin. Others believe the Witch's
Daughter is Susannah Martin's own daughter, Jane Martin.

Perhaps it's a question which can't ever be answered definitively.
Whittier himself doesn't help us at all. He was a sophisticated poet
and a well-educated man who knew the history of these celebrated people
in intimate detail. This is illustrated in his writings overall. His
specialized knowledge is also shown by the many artifacts connected with
his poems (including this one) which are on display in the Whittier
museum which, when I last visited it several years ago, was housed in
Whittier's small Amesbury house. Yet in this poem, he deliberately
smudged what he knew to be the historical facts. Although Susannah had
three daughters and one stepdaughter, Whittier created a brand-new name
for the Witch's Daughter (Mabel Martin) as well as a fictional name for
her suitor (Esek Harden). Whittier sets the courtship well after
Susannah Martin's Salem Village hanging in 1692, although her daughter
Jane had been married in 1676 to Samuel Hadley and her stepdaughter
Hannah had married Ezekiel Worthen in 1661.

I can only conclude that Whittier scrambled the historical facts for
artistic purposes which are too obscure for me to figure out. But as
Archibald MacLeish observed some years ago, "A poem should not mean, but
be."

Richard Burns

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