The girls of Salem had
a taste for the occult, and Reverend Parris' Caribbean slave, Tituba,
seemed happy to tell them stories of witchcraft and Barbados magic on
the long winter evenings. But then the excitement got out of hand.
Nine year old Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and her eleven year old
cousin, Abigail Williams began to experience fits of sobbing and
convulsions. And their behaviour worsened. Abigail would run around
to the fireplace before throwing flaming sticks around the house.
This strange behaviour soon seemed to spread to their companions: Ann
Putnam (12), Mary Walcott (16), Elizabeth Hubbard (17), Susan Sheldon
(18), Elizabeth Booth (18), Mercy Lewis (19) and Mary Warren (20).
Map of Salem in 1692 (Original)
On 25th
February, Mary Sibley, the aunt of Mary Walcott, requested that
Tituba and her husband, Indian John, bake a witches cake: a mixture
of mean and the urine of the afflicted children, which was then fed
to the Parris family dog (a supposed familiar of demons). Apparently
this worked and the girls were able to name those responsible for
their ''illness''. On 29th February, warrants were issued
for the arrest of Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba.
Tituba and the Children (Original)
In modern times, these
symptoms would probably be diagnosed as clinical hysteria. However,
the diagnosis of the time was entirely different and the girls were
believed to be demonically possessed. By the end of the summer,
nineteen had been hanged on Gallows, or Witch's Hill, and one man had
been pressed to death.
Three years before
the girls of Salem began exhibiting these symptoms, a leading New
England minister had published an account of similar phenomena,
titled Memorable Providences Relating To Witchcrafts And
Possessions. Cotton Mather, the
author, was the son of the famous preacher Increase Mather, had
studied medicine and was a member of England's scientific
association, the Royal Society. He had considerable ability in
writing and his book, which was extremely popular, could be credited
in part to the atmosphere in Salem during the witch trials which took
place there.
Cotton Mather (Original)
Cotton
Mather's account of the events which took place, which he described
as notable humane, helps to explain why the girls' symptoms would be
considered something supernatural, along with the girls' testimonies
of their being supernaturally afflicted adding enormous weight to the
following accusations. Mather's book described the case of a young
woman named Martha who became similarly 'ill' when the family
bed-linen went missing. A young laundry girl was suspected and
Martha accused her of witchcraft. The laundry girl's mother defended
her and ''bestowed very bad language'' on Martha. The effects of
this were immediate, with Martha beginning to have ''strange fits,
beyond those that attend an epilepsy or a catalepsy...'' Soon
Martha's seven year old sister began to show similar symptoms, with
doctors unable to diagnose an illness, instead believing the symptoms
to be the effect of witchcraft. If one children experienced an
attack, the others immediately experienced the same symptoms in the
same parts of the body. Mather described the symptoms as follows:
Sometimes they would
be deaf, sometimes dumb, and sometimes blind, and often, all at once.
One while their tongues would be drawn down their throats; another-
while they would be pull'd out upon their chins, to a prodigious
llength. They would have their mouths opened unto such a wideness,
that teir jaws went out of joint, and anon they would clap together
again with a force like that of a strong springlock. The same would
happen to their shoulder-blades, and their elbows, and hand-wrists,
and several of their joints. They would at times ly in a bennumed
condition; and be drawn together as those that are ty'd neck and
heels; and presently he stretched out, yea, drawn backwards, to such
a degree it was fear'd the very skin of their bellies would have
cracked. They would make most pitteaous out-cries, that they were
cut with knives, and struck with blows that they could not hear.
Their neck-bone would seem dissolved into them that felt after it;
and yet on the sudden, it would become again so stiff that there was
no stirring of their heads; yea, their heads would be twisted almost
round; and if main force at any time obstructed a dangerous motion
which they seem'd to be upon, they would roar exceedingly. Thus they
lay some weeks, most pitiful spectacles...''
On
the mention of witchcraft, the magistrates arrested Mrs Glover, the
laundry girl's mother, for examination. She failed their various
tests: when asked if she believed in God, her reply was so
blasphemous that Mather's wouldn't print her answer, and she failed
to recite the Lord's prayer. Glover was jailed and the girl's
symptoms improved. Glover's case was brought forward and she
confessed to witchcraft. Her house was then searched, with ''several
small images, or puppets, or babies, made of raggs, and stiff't with
goat's hair and other such ingredients,'' brought to the court and
Glover admitting that these items had been used to torment her
victims by spitting on her finger and rubbing it on the chosen doll.
An experiment ensued where the children were brought into court and
one of the dolls was handed to Mrs Glover. While she held this doll,
one of the children would fall into a fit. Glover was condemned to
death but, on the way to the gallows, she said that the children
would not regain their health as others were involved.
Her
prediction was correct, with the children continuing ''in their
furnace as before, and it grew rather seven times hotter than it
was.'' They would bark at each other like dogs, or purr like cats,
and would complain of intense heat or cold. At times their limbs
appeared to be made of rubber, with the boy sometimes saying that his
head was nailed to the floor, where ''it was as much as a strongman
could do to pull it up.'' Their worst agony came when preachers were
taken to them. When the preachers ''bestowed some gracious counsils
on the boy'' he would go completely deaf. If they prayed or read the
Bible ''this would occasion a very terrible vexation to them; thhey
would then stop their own ears with their own hands; and roar, and
shriek, and halla, to drown the voice of devotion.'' Mather took
Martha into his own house but her symptoms persisted. She would
complain that she was painfully chained by her invisible assailants,
and was seen attempting to dive through the floorboards, telling
Mather that ''They'' had told her there was silver ''plate'' at the
bottom of the well. Martha did, however, seem to find some relief
from her symptoms when in Mather's study, although getting her there
was a real struggle.
Then
a day came when Martha said that she would, on the following day,
cease to be afflicted and that she could now tell Mather the names of
those who had afflicted her. Mather, however, never published or
reported their names. Martha recovered, but the brother remained
seriously troubled.
Martha
Goodwin and the girls of Salem were all seen as the victims of
demonic assault. When the first women went to court on the
accusation of witchcraft, two magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan
Corwin, examined them. Sarah Good's husband testified that she was a
witch and her daughter, Dorcas claimed that her mother had familiars:
three birds, one yellow and one black, which ''hurt the children and
afflicted persons''. Sarah Good then accused Sarah Osborne.
Already, the questioning magistrate, Hathorne, had the opinion that
Good was guilty, asking questions such as, ''Sarah Good, what evil
spirit have you familiarity with?''
The
afflicted children were present in court and were asked if Sarah Good
was one of those which had afflicted them. They agreed that she was
before falling into a bout of fits. On their recovery they revealed
that, while Sarah Good was not physically there, she was there
''spectrally'' tormenting them. Good protested, saying that she had
not. This same procedure was repeated with Sarah Osborne, with more
''spectral evidence'' being admitted.
Sarah Good cursing the judge (Original)
Finally,
Tituba came to the stand and she soon admitted that she knew the
Devil – a tall man in black, with white hair, sometimes appearing
as an animal. He had asked Tituba to do his bidding and she had made
her mark of agreement in red in his book which had nine other names
in it. Tituba claimed that she had seem Sarah Good's and Sarah
Osborne's names there, also having seen them in the company of the
Devil, along with two other Boston witches whose names she didn't
know. Apparently Good had two familiars; a cat and a yellow bird,
which sucked her between the fingers. Osborne had two familiars; one
with wings, two legs and a head like a woman; the other being hairy
with a long nose, which was two or three feet high and walked like a
man. Tituba claimed to have seen this last standing by the fireplace
in Reverend Parris' house the previous night. The 'witches' had rode
together through the air on a sticking, searching for children to
torment.
Throughout
this evidence, the children had fits and Tituba was asked if she
could see who tormented them. Tituba claimed that it was Sarah Good,
before herself falling into convulsions. The women were again
examined on 3rd and 5th March, then, on 7th
March, were jailed in Boston. On 11th March a day of
prayer and fasting was announced in Salem. The girls threw fits,
with one of them, Ann Putnam accusing Martha Corey, a reputable
church member, of being spectrally responsible of these convulsions.
When asked what the specter was wearing, Ann replied that she didn't
know as she had been blinded. Martha Corey was taken to the
magistrate, where she asked if her accuser had said what she was
wearing, with the magistrate asking how Corey knew this question had
been raised. Corey was unable to give a satisfactory answer, and was
heard to comment that ''we must not believe all that these distracted
children say.''
During
Corey's examination, she is said to have bitten her lip and that when
she did, the children complained of being bitten. Reverend Noyes of
Salem Townsaid that this was a form of image magic in which Corey
used her own body to inflict harm. Corey was sent to jail pending
further examination. At this point there was a pause in the
examinations, although the spectral harrassments continued.
On
19th March, the former minister of Salem Village, Deodat
Lawson, came to town, spending his first night in Ingersol's tavern
where she saw Mary Walcott experience a fit. From her Lawson went to
Parris' house to pay his respects, where Abigail Williams also
experienced hysterics. The next day, being a Sunday, Lawson preached
a sermon, ''Chirst's Fidelity the Only Shield Against Satan's
Malignity,'' but not without interruption. One of the afflicted
complained that his text was very long, and another claimed to see a
yellow bird perching on his hat which hung on a nail by the pulpit.
Lawson was, however, undeterred, urging the magistrates to prove they
were ''a terror of and punishment to evil-doers.'' He also warned
them that there was no dependable way to discover a witch, there were
''no means of God to make a trial of witches.'' Lawson then went on
to caution the congregation against false accusations and rash
condemnation, which was considered by him to be behaviour of the
Devil.
On
the day of Lawson's return, another woman was accused. Rebecca Nurse
had an entirely different background to the others which had been
accused; Good was a destitute beggar, Osborne was old and sickly,
Tituba was a black slave. Nurse, however, was a god-fearing woman
who owned property and had good standing in the community. Petitions
were drawn up by prominent people on Nurse's behalf before the first
investigation on 23rd March and before her trial, and
Nurse protested her innocence. While the jury believed Nurse was
innocent, Chief Justice Stoughton reminded the jury that one piece of
evidence needed to be taken into account: an accused woman called
Hobbes had been brought into the court to give evidence against
Rebecca. Nurse had protested, saying Hobbes was ''one of us,''
meaning that she was a fellow prisoner and therefore not in a positon
to testify. However, this was taken to mean that both Nurse and
Hobbes were part of the same coven. When Nurse was asked to explain
what she meant, she didn't answer and this silence was taken as an
important factor in the trial.. Nuse was convicted of witchcraft on
30th June.
Petition for the freedom of Rebecca Nurse (Original)
Nurse's
later written explanation was that ''I being something hard of
hearing, and full of grief, none informing me how the court took up
my words, and therefore had not opportunity to declare what I
intended when I said they were of our company.'' Governor Philps
granted her a reprieve but the afflicted ones began to claim renewed
spectral attacks by Nurse. On 19th July Nurse was hanged.
On
the day of Nurse's examination, Dorcas Good, aged 4, was also
examined. She voluntarily confessed that she was a witch, claiming
to have her own familiar; a small snake which sucked her blood from a
spot on her forefinger. There was a small, red mark, around the size
of a flea-bite on her finger. Dorcas claimed that her mother Sarah
had given the snake to her. . Dorcas spent seven months in prison
before her case was dismissed by the Superior Court of Judicature.
In 1710, Dorcas' father requested compensation from the General Court
as ''being chained in the dungeon [she] was so hardly used and
terrified that she hath ever since been very chargable, having little
or no reason to govern herself.''
The
magistrates, having discovered grounds for believing that an
organised conspiracy of witches was at work and confirming the
validity of specral evidence, were two steps away from unleashing a
torrent of accusations. On 31st
March, a day of public fasting was held on the afflicted girls'
behalf. During the course of fasting Abigail Williams claimed that
the witches had decided to have ''a Sacrament that day at a house in
the village, and that they had Red Bread and Red Drink.'' On the
following day, Mercy Lewis, the maid of Thomas Putnam, said that
''they did eat Red Bread like Mans Flesh, and would have had her eat
some but she had turned away her head and Spit at them, and said, 'I
will not Eat, I will not drink, it is Blood'.''
On
3rd
April, Sarah Cloyce, Nurse's sister, stormed out of the meeting house
when Reverend Parris chose ''One of them is a Devil'' as his sermon.
The afflicted girls caught the scent of scandal and accused Cloyce of
witchcraft. She was examined the next day and jailed for eight
months before her case was dismissed in the following January by the
Supreme Court Judicature.
On
10th
May, Magistrate Hathorne, during his examination of George Jacobs Sr,
declared that while the Devil might choose to appear in someone's
form, he could only do so if the person had consented. Following
this announcement, the accusations came in droves. The accused were
usually jailed on the grounds provided by the afflicted girls during
the first examinations. Among the newly accused was a former
minister of Salem, George Burroughs, who was brought from Maine. He
gave a speech from the scaffold which touched his audience before
reciting the Lord's prayer, which was believed impossible for a
witch. However, he was still executed.
Another
man, Giles Corey, refused to plead guilty or not guilty, nor would he
agree to a trial. Therefore, as the law then allowed, he was
tortured by having heavy weights piled onto his body until he either
answered the allegation or died. He chose to die, taking two days to
do so.
The torture and death of Giles Corey (Original)
Having
seen such success in court, the afflicted girls became somewhat
famous, with other communities such as Andover and Gloucester seeking
their visionary help. However, not all communitires respected their
so-called insight. When on the way to Gloucester, at a stopover at
Ipswich, the girls threw a fit or two but were completely ignored.
As others leared of the methods used in the Salem, accusations became
more and more numerous and were increasingly directed at the ruling
classes. Among those accused were the clergy, (Reverend John Willard
of Boston), politicians (the Secretary of Connecticut), judges and
justice (Nathaniel Saltonstall and Dudley Bradstreet), merchants
(Hezekiah Usher and Philip English), military men (Captain John
Alden), and the wives of prominent men (Margaret Thatcher, widow of a
Boston divine and mother-in-law of Judge Corwin). The wives of the
governor and Increase Mather were also rumoured to be witches. As
the charges became more absurd, it became obvious that the legal
procedures were hurting rather than helping the problem.
A
surprisingly successful method was soon discovered which could be
used against the accusers. A man from Boston who had been accused of
witchcraft by people from Andover hired agents to ask publically
about those who had accused him. In the course of these inquiries,
the agents announced that the accusers would find themselves facing a
lawsuit for defamation of character and would be fined £1000 in
damages. Accusers quickly dropped their charges.
Theologians
also waged war on the accusers. Increase Mather, president of
Harvard and the Bay's premier divine, published a pamphlet called
Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men
which was widely distributed. He started by saying that no one was
immune to the charges of witchcraft, no matter how virtuous they
were, and stated that ''It were better that ten suspected witches
should escape than that one innocent person be condemned.'' Most
importantly, he ised his education and moral authority against the
use of spectral evidence in obtain convictions. This publication saw
many witchfinders without their previous power and the afflictors
were believed to be possessed instead of bewitched.
On
12th
October, Governor Phips ordered that the trials be suspended and
then, on 26th
October, the Court of Oyer and Terminer (''Hear and Determine'') was
ended. During its time, the court had heard thirty-one cases of
witchcraft, giving the death sentence to every one of them. Of the
eleven yet to be executed, five were pardoned after confessing, two
died in prison, two had their executions suspended as they were
pregnant, with them later being pardoned, and one escaped. Tituba
was held until the court decided that they were unable to reach a
conclusion about her and she was later sold as a slave to pay for her
imprisonment.
The Old Witch House in Salem, as it was until 1856 (Original)
In
total, 19 people were hanged on Gallows Hill, one man was pressed to
death, several people died in prison and alsmost 200 people overall
were accused of practicing ''the Devil's magic.'' Following the
trials, on 21st
February 1693, Governor William Phips wrote:
When I put an end to
the Court there were at least fifty persons in prison in great misery
by reason of extream cold and their poverty, most of them having only
spectre evidence against them and their mittimusses being defective,
I caused some of them to be lettout upon bayle and put the Judges
upon consideration of a way to reliefe others and to prevent them
from perishing in prision, upon which some of them were convinced and
acknowledged that their former proceedings were too violent and not
grounded upon a right foundation... The stop put to the first method
of proceedings hath dissipated the blak cloud that threatened this
Province with destruction...
Another
contemporary writer, Robert Calef, summed up the results of the
trials as follows:
And now Nineteen
persons having been hang'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more
condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were
Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of
them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear'd; about
Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one
Executed;above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more
accused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a
period...
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