History keeps many remarkable episodes telling about people of bygone eras and their customs. Sometimes, it is told about it by their very lips … But let's start from afar. In the North American state of Virginia, a few miles from the city of Norfolk, there is the remarkable Compton Hill tract. Its red-haired rocky landscapes amaze the eye with their ascetic beauty. The clayey soil of Compton Hill is infertile: nothing grows here except stunted shrubs. However, one mighty, dumpy oak nevertheless grew here … But people found it very specific use: to hang other people on it, kill and bury at its foot …
In 1634, by a special rescript of the military council of Fort Norfolk, a decision was made to use the Compton Hill oak as a gallows for mass executions of Indians who did not want to submit to the power of the pale-faced newcomers. On other days, without trial or investigation, up to ten aborigines were sent into loops, who were then buried nearby, at a distance of one hundred meters from the tree. Soon, the slave graveyard - the so-called blood-soaked place - grew enormously.
Soon, however, they stopped burying here, but only executed. Why is that? The community judge Isaac Danko himself, who left his invaluable for history entries in the "Household Chronicles", will tell about this:
“Starting from March 13, when the next obstinate red-skinned man was sprinkled with earth, lightning strikes the burial square at night. The forces of their blows are such that they do not spare, turning people, horses, carts loaded with corpses into firebrands. The lightning tree does not touch. In the hope of establishing the cause, the roots were opened. They are like iron ropes, and they lead the currents of heavenly fire into the earth. The Council of Elders has decided not to poison the plateau with killed criminals, not to bury their bodies. After the execution, bodies should be immediately removed from the branches and buried near the river, the sands of which have already been defiled with filth."
The Indians have calmed down. But not empty is the beautiful natural gallows? They also began to execute the whites, noticing soon that the lightning, which continued to unleash colossal power into the clearing around the oak, had become somewhat whitish, and the night air shimmered either white or red.
Isaac Danko continues: “There is no need to punish men on the oak. In the area there are many witches worshiping Satan, arranging, under the cover of a tree, ugly orgies with dismemberment, eating babies, walking on the crown, flying over the river and fields. A local whore, twenty-year-old Henrietta Walker, was particularly successful in dealing with demons. They tortured her in every possible way until they found out that the oak is only partly an oak, because it is a devil's house, whose inhabitants devour the souls of the hanged villains.
Next, we present another document by Danko under the telling title Biased interrogation of the dissolute girl Walker, convicted of satisfying satanic lusts and other dirty tricks. It's about the execution of a witch - all on the same oak
Danko's pen outputs the following, and the words speak for themselves:
Promotional video:
“Angelic and lascivious, rejecting Christian marriage, in full view of witnesses she cohabited with invisible evil spirits, wriggling like a worm, and throwing poisonous bloody foam from her mouth. On her breasts were the terrible faces of Satan himself and his servants. When they wanted to capture the Walker girl, she would rise into the air and run away, shouting that she knew heather ointment that taught to fly. When looking for her, every time they found only a white cat in the house, once presented to the bailiffs by Henrietta Walker herself. There is enough evidence to send her to the stake, but they could not burn her. At first, the slut spat with shreds of wool. Then the sulfur was scattered out of nowhere, which scorched the executioners and their accomplices. She prayed to Satan for help. He gave a rain of such force that the fire was washed away and the executioners were carried away by the streams. They tried. Torturedapplying red-hot coppers to the heels. The witch answered with mock laughter, reviling the Lord and praising Satan. Secondary burning did not take place. The wind scattered the blazing fire. The witch shouted: "You will never burn me!" The council decided to resort to hanging the witch from an oak tree. The executioners refused to fight the devil again. Hired, paid in gold, others. But the fate of the punishing is unenviable. As soon as the witches knocked the bench out from under the feet, a thick, by no means dry branch broke off. They tried to hang it two more times. In vain! A huge flock of crows flew into the executioners, spitting their heads and hands in the blood. When, nevertheless, justice was achieved, for half an hour the libertine Walker shouted curses. I must say that both the bough and the ropes, as we later understood, were not damaged by breaks and breaks. They were decaying! The witch cursed in turn the offspring of all,who contributed to the taking of her life. Her curses came true. The sons of those who administer justice, including mine, have met a terrible end - some in water, some on fire, some from a bullet, some from a knife. I considered it necessary to certify the authenticity of what I have stated with the signatures of well-known citizens with an impeccable reputation."
Psychiatrists, in turn, have a lot to tell about this Norfolk judge and his "impeccable reputation." But this is already history, and you will not return any of the dead.
And only the Norfolk oak remains, which still stands in its place, it is already 500 years old … By the way, when it was measured using high-precision equipment, they discovered a strong electromagnetic field, the polarity of which was constantly changing, and the wood itself gave out the properties of a magnet … This oak absorbed human passions, pain and sins, remaining a silent witness.
