The English Jacobean play “The Witch of Edmonton” was written by playwrights William Rowley, John Ford, and Thomas Dekker in 1621. In this drama, the main character, Elizabeth Sawyer, is a lonely and unfortunate woman, and she’s wrongly accused of participating in witchcraft. After the accusation, she does, indeed, turn to witchcraft. Tom is her “familiar,” a devil-dog who attends Elizabeth, obeying her commands. She sells her soul to this devil-dog, and together, they work their evil magic on others, causing madness and even death.

The witch, who often appears in the form of her familiar, Tom, is sometimes on stage to suggest that characters kill and act maliciously because of the dog’s encouragement or because they’re under a sort of spell. It’s always a mystery in the drama: do the characters act of their own will, or is the dog pushing them to commit evil deeds? Even when Elizabeth Sawyer is physically executed by the town, her familiar lives on. In fact, Tom decides to travel to London and continue to inflict harm and curses on souls there.

This was actually a real issue, even in America, as the Salem Witch Trials unfolded. People were paranoid that any animal that suddenly became injured, diseased, or died was consumed by a witch. Many believed that witches had familiars (sidekicks or helpers), that they would employ to do certain evil deeds. If an animal, such as a dog, were accused of attacking someone or staring at them and potentially “bewitching” them, then that animal would be put to death. Villagers even thought that witches would kidnap dogs and other animals and ride them to their meetings in the woods. So, if a dog or another pet appeared to be “different” in the morning, the owners believe the pet had been hag-ridden the evening before. The actual records of accused witches during the Witch Trails actually includes two dogs’ names. Many pieces of artwork, such as wooden carvings, depicted witches with their dog familiars.

Eventually, this kind of theory was less common because when the animals were killed, they, of course, didn’t come back to life. People concluded that demon or witch-possessed animals could not be killed. They would rise and walk again if they were truly bewitched.

Tom is only one of the witch familiar characters in we see in plays, literature, and films. Thank goodness today, dogs along with other animals, are seen as innocents in this regard, and they’re not tried for witchcraft involvement. Those actions of early Americans are now illegal, and our animals are protected by law.