Difference, Prejudice, and Discrimination Theme Analysis

Throughout The Witch of Blackbird Pond, characters are skeptical of and prejudiced against people who are different from them. When Kit moves from Barbados to Wethersfield, a Puritan town in Connecticut Colony, she experiences prejudice when people assume that she’s a witch just because she knows how to swim. She continues to witness prejudice against others, such as the way Wethersfield townspeople discriminate against Hannah Tupper, whom many believe to be a witch as well. As soon as Kit meets Hannah, she realizes that Hannah isn’t a witch at all—she is actually a kind woman whom the Puritans of Wethersfield treat cruelly simply because she is a Quaker, not a Puritan. Kit recognizes that the Puritans’ treatment of Hannah is unjust—yet Kit herself judges the Puritans in return, and she discriminates against people of color. This is especially clear in how she condones and participates in slavery, something that Kit’s friend (and eventual love interest) Nat condemns as immoral. While Kit’s own character growth is limited, the book nevertheless shows how discriminating against people for their differences causes harm and is therefore unjust and cruel.

Kit’s journey to an unfamiliar place demonstrates how people become prejudiced against those who are different from them. When Kit arrives in Wethersfield, Connecticut to live with her Aunt Rachel and Uncle Matthew, the Puritans in their community (even Matthew himself) are prejudiced against Kit because she’s different from them. As Kit puts it at one point, “People are afraid of things they don’t understand.” This explains much of the treatment she receives from the Puritans: they make unfair and incorrect assumptions about her because she isn’t Puritan, and some things about her are unfamiliar to them. The first example of this is when several Puritans suspect that Kit is a witch because she can swim, an activity most New Englanders don’t know how to do. To them, swimming is unusual behavior, so it is easy for them to explain it with the assumption that Kit is a witch, instead of getting to know Kit and learning that swimming is common in Barbados, her home country. Kit, for her part, judges the Puritans in return: she grew up wealthy, so she is shocked when she sees the barren town of Wethersfield. She’s also surprised that Puritan families like the Woods do all their own work, because she sees manual labor as beneath her and is resistant to doing chores that she believes are “the work of slaves.” This racist thinking betrays Kit’s own prejudices: she, a white person, believes Black people are inferior to her. While she thinks she shouldn’t have to work, she readily accepts and supports the enslavement and forced labor of Black people. Another central example of prejudice in the novel is how the Puritans treat Hannah. They fear her because she is a Quaker, a follower of a religion that is unfamiliar to them. They assume that her pet cats, solitary nature, and refusal to attend Meeting (the Puritan religious service) are all signs that she’s a witch. Instead of trying to get to know Hannah, the Puritans of Wethersfield make assumptions about her from afar.

The book goes on to show that prejudiced people also tend to actively discriminate against people who are different than they are. Because the Puritans of Wethersfield dislike Quakers, they single Hannah out and discriminate against her. They force her to pay a fine for not going to Meeting, which means that she has an extra financial barrier that the other, Puritan townspeople don’t encounter. The Puritans also essentially exile Hannah from the town, forcing her to live on the outskirts of Wethersfield. At one point, a mob of Puritans even tries to run Hannah out of town altogether, claiming that she’s a witch and burning her cottage down. Kit experiences discrimination at the hands of the Puritans as well. Because Kit is an outsider—she’s a stranger from Barbados who rebels against Puritan society’s strictness—several townspeople (led by Goodwife Cruff) decide that Kit is a witch and bring her to trial. But Kit also discriminates against others, namely people of color. Kit condones and participates in slavery (her grandfather, who raised her, owned enslaved people), an inhumane practice that deprives Black people of their basic rights. In this way, Kit is both a victim of and a perpetuator of discrimination.

By depicting the harmful effects of this kind of treatment, the book suggests that discrimination is morally wrong. Throughout the book, Kit tries to convince her family and acquaintances that Hannah isn’t a witch, but really a kind and caring woman. Not only have the Puritans completely misjudged Hannah, but their treatment of her is exceptionally cruel. As Kit gets to know more about Hannah, she learns of the horrible treatment—such as beating and branding—that Hannah has endured at the hands of Puritans. After Hannah escapes, the Puritans then turn their attention on Kit, whom they also accuse of witchcraft. Again, their prejudices lead them astray—Kit isn’t a witch, either. Not only are they incorrect in their allegation, but their discriminatory actions are cruel, too. Kit undergoes a frightening trial, and she fears that her punishment will be death—something that the novel implies is deeply unjust, especially given that the Puritans don’t have any real evidence that Kit is a witch.  But Kit isn’t a fully sympathetic character, given her racist beliefs. At one point, Nat criticizes Kit for condoning slavery by pointing out the cruelty of depriving other humans of their rights. He explains that her discrimination of Black people is inhumane and flawed. Kit, however, never appears to change her views on slavery, and it’s implied that this type of racist thinking is what normalizes slavery and allows its brutality to continue. By showing how these kinds of attitudes alienate and dehumanize people, the book suggests that discriminating against people for their differences is needlessly cruel.