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The Witch of Pungo
Author Scott O. Moore explores how Grace Sherwood’s story has evolved through memory, myth, and meaning
University News | October 21, 2025
Three centuries ago, a woman was bound and cast into the waters of the Lynnhaven River. Her name was Grace Sherwood, and her neighbors believed she was a witch. If she floated, she was guilty. If she sank, she was innocent—but likely drowned. Somehow, she survived.
That harrowing scene from 1706 has echoed through Virginia’s history ever since, transforming from an act of persecution into a piece of enduring folklore. The so-called “Witch of Pungo” has been retold in classrooms, commemorated in reenactments, and even honored with an informal pardon read aloud by the mayor of Virginia Beach in 2006.
Why does this story still hold such power?
On October 16, Scott O. Moore, Ph.D., associate professor of history and assistant department chair at Eastern Connecticut State University, visited campus to explore that very question in his presentation, “The Witch Next Door: Memory, Myth, and Meaning in the Story of Grace Sherwood.” The talk, part of the Robert Nusbaum Center’s fall 2025 programming, drew from Moore’s recent book, “The Witch of Pungo: Grace Sherwood in Virginia History and Legend” (University of Virginia Press, May 2024).
Growing up in Coastal Virginia, Moore often heard the whispers of Sherwood’s legend. Years later, as a historian, he found himself less interested in whether Sherwood truly practiced witchcraft and more fascinated by how her story has been told—and retold—over generations.
“The way a community remembers its past,” Moore notes, “can be just as revealing as the past itself.”
In his book and lecture, Moore traces the strange evolution of a tale that “refuses to sink.” What began as a story of fear and punishment has become one of reflection and pride. The Witch of Pungo now lives on not as a warning, but as a symbol—of resilience, of misunderstood women, of a community wrestling with its conscience.
Through Moore’s careful research, Sherwood’s story becomes a lens through which to examine the broader questions that shape us: How do myth and memory define identity? What do our retellings reveal about justice, gender, and belonging? And what does it mean when a legend born from fear becomes a celebration of survival?
In the end, Grace Sherwood’s story is not just a piece of Tidewater folklore—it’s a mirror. It reflects how we choose to remember, and what those memories say about who we are.
Learn more about the Robert Nusbaum Center at VWU.