Wednesday, August 15, 2018

DATELINE TOOBWORLD - BEN FRANKLIN'S MOM


'TIMELESS'
"THE SALEM WITCH HUNT"


From the IMDb:
While Wyatt sneaks away from the bunker to face an unbelievable truth, Lucy, Rufus and their former enemy-turned-teammate, Garcia Flynn, chase the Mothership to the Salem Witch Trials.


It was the plan of Lucy's mother that the mother of Benjamin Franklin, Abiah Folger Franklin, would also be swept up as an accused witch to be hung that day in 1692 along with the other women.  And this would happen while she was pregnant with her son Peter which would prevent the births of Ben and six of his siblings.


Abiah Folger Franklin was born on August 15, 1667, on Madaket Road, Nantucket Island, to farmer and surveyor Peter Folger. In 1687, she became the second wife of Josiah Franklin of Boston, and had 8 children, the youngest of whom was the famous Benjamin Franklin. (O'Bservation - apparently the two daughters born after Ben did not survive.)

Josiah's first wife (the mother of his first 10 children) died, so Abiah raised all 18 Franklin children.

Abiah bore Josiah 10 children: John (1690), Peter (1692), Mary (1694), James (1697), Sarah (1699), Ebenezer (1701), Thomas (1703), Benjamin (1706), Lydia (1708), and Jane (1712). 

Within just a few years after the marriage, a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts sweeping many of the early settlers up in the ensuing confusion.

Abiah’s sister, Bethshua Folger Pope, was an active and theatric participant in the events in Salem Village proper.  She suffered “hysterical blindness” and convulsions, and in the middle of one trial she threw a shoe at the accused’s head. Her accusations contributed to the death-sentence of at least one convicted witch, Martha Corey.

The involvement of Abiah's sister was woven into the plot of the episode, and she admitted freely that she used the accusations to get rid of her enemies.  But she never wanted her sister to get caught up in the hysteria.

Abiah's life in Toobworld differed from her life in the Real World.  There was no way she would be in Salem Village in 1692 - not only was she caring for her step-children as well as her first-born John, but she was seven months pregnant with Peter.  It's just a deviation we have to accept.  And since the timeline they were in was probably based on previous timeline alterations, they were many dimensions away from the main Toobworld by this point.

I'm posting this today because it is the 351st anniversary of Abiah Franklin's birth.


BCnU!

 

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