Home       Contact SalemFocus at    salemfocus@comcast.net        Victims        The Afflicted (Accusers)        Magistrates/Judges         Others involved

 

 

          

 

Text Box: This painting, entitled Examination of a Witch, by Thompkins H. Matteson, is reproduced courtesy of Creative Commons. The painting resides in the Peabody Essex Museum Text Box:   It is January 15, 1692—the coldest day so far in the new year. The interior of the Parris house is chilly, but comfortable by comparison with the bitterness outdoors. Upstairs, two girls huddle over a glass of water, peering into it as if its depths hold one of the world’s great secrets. To the two girls, that is exactly what it holds. Nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris, daughter of Samuel Parris, minister of the Salem Village parish, grins nervously at her cousin, Abigail Williams. They both know what they are doing is strictly forbidden by Puritan theology, but their youthful curiosity is too strong to ignore. In New England, experimenting with the occult is tantamount to tempting Satan. It is commonly believed that such meddling invites the Devil into one’s life. But Elizabeth and Abigail have never seen Satan, and they consider warnings of his presence simply exaggerations adults use to frighten children into obedience. It’s not that they don’t believe in Satan, for they do. They just don’t think the innocent experiments they are conducting can have any influence on whether or not he manifests himself.  While two years younger than Abigail, Elizabeth is far more precocious and possesses a lively imagination that never ceases to probe and search. Elizabeth almost always takes the lead when the two girls play together, which is often, as they live under the same roof. In 1689 Samuel Parris, a planter and merchant in Barbados, has been invited to Salem Village to become its minister. He brings with him his wife, daughter Elizabeth, niece Abigail Williams, and slave Tituba. Salem is comprised of two distinct geographical communities under the same civil authority. Salem Town was the prosperous mercantile center built around the busy harbor. Many of its residents are men of wealth and power. Salem Town derives its income from the sea and from potters, shops, innkeepers, shoemakers and the like. Adjoining Salem Village is more inland and is peopled by families that work the land. Feeling threatened by their wealthy neighbors in Salem Town, they watch with disapproval as Salem Town grows richer each year, gradually abandoning the Puritan ethic of selflessness and the dedication to community over the individual. The gulf between the two areas has grown so wide that Salem Village is debating whether to become independent from Salem Town. This is the climate into which Samuel Parris comes to Salem. He is well liked in Salem Village and not trusted in Salem Town. The procedure Elizabeth and Abigail are about to carry out is one of the occult fortune-telling practices the girls have heard about from the young slave woman Tituba. Tituba is an Arawak Indian from South America, where she’d been captured as a child. She’d been taken to Barbados and sold into slavery. Tituba spends much of her time with the two younger girls. She brings with her many superstitions from her South American tribal background and regales the girls with stories of witchcraft and of the supernatural. Many times the girls become frightened as the slave recounts strange tales of the occult and the nether world. As scary as the stories are, predictably, the girls keep coming back for more. At some point, the two girls begin to behave in strange ways. They start speaking gibberish and flail about with their arms and legs. Their bodies contort in awful ways. At times the girls go into a trance-like state, becoming mute. At other times they blurt out blasphemous epithets. The fits become more frequent, and the people of Salem Village begin to speak in hushed tones about what might be causing them. More and more people talk of the possibility that the girls have become afflicted by evil phenomena. It is not long before several other girls begin to manifest similar symptoms. Eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, a friend of Elizabeth and Abigail, is the next to exhibit the frightening behavior. Ann’s parents are among the most prominent in Salem Village, which only provokes more hushed talk around the village. Reverend Parris meets with the parents of the afflicted girls to tell them that he is taking action. He says that he’s asked Dr. Griggs to examine the girls. Dr. Griggs, said Parris, has experience with the black arts and thinks he might be able to help the girls. Dr. William Griggs, a respected physician, is known to have dealt with a case of Satanic possession in a nearby town. The Rev. Parris explains that it is possible that Dr. Griggs will find that the girls are possessed. They will know within a day or two.    Two days later Griggs says his initial examinations give him cause for concern. He believes that if the girls are possessed it could be that others in the community are also possessed. Parris apparently feels this, too. Both know how serious this is. It could mean that some people might have to be executed. Exorcism would be tried first, of course, but if that fails they will have no choice but to execute the afflicted. They can not let Satan take control of Salem.      Three days later, Dr. Griggs shares his findings with Parris. They then make the findings public at a gathering in the town center. The doctor finds no normal causes for the girls’ afflictions and concludes that their problem must have a supernatural basis—most likely witchcraft. It is known that witches seek out children as targets for demonic possession, so the doctor’s diagnosis seems plausible. The situation calls for desperate measures, as people fear that the evil will spread to other children in the community. Reverend Parris immediately begins conducting prayer services with the hope the prayers might rid the girls of the evil that possesses them. A call for fasting goes out. Nothing seems to help. The afflicted girls continue to act in strange ways. Then one day Mary Sibley, a neighbor of the Parrises, comes to Tituba with an antidote that is supposed to counteract the black magic that afflicts the girls. She calls it white magic. Sibley urges the Indian slave to bake a cake using rye flour and urine from one of the victims. Tituba uses urine from Elizabeth and feeds the cake to a dog. Tituba says that the dog will reveal the identity of the witch that has afflicted the girls. The dog fails to come up with the answer, but Tituba’s cake has disturbed people and adds to the tension in the community. Suspicion has already centered on Tituba, as it is generally known that she has told the girls about witchcraft, voodoo, and demonic possession. Her participation in the cake-baking incident only solidifies belief in her guilt. In early March Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne are examined in the meeting house by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, magistrates of the court. Tituba is the only one who confesses. On March 19 Abigail Williams accuses Rebecca Nurse of being a witch. Rebecca Nurse is one of the least likely persons to be accused of witchcraft. A pious, sickly woman of 71, she is so well regarded in the community that she is considered by many to be nearly saint-like in character. A frail and delicate woman, her general demeanor and the respect most felt for her as the mother of a large family makes it all the more shocking when people hear that she’s been accused of witchcraft. Thirty-nine of Salem’s most upstanding citizens sign a petition in support of her good character stating, “we never had any cause or grounds to suspect her of any such thing as she is nowe acused of.” From the opening gavel the outcome of the Nurse trial is less certain than that of the others that have preceded it. Each time someone makes an accusation someone else offsets it with words of support and praise for her outstanding moral character. At one point in the trial, two of the “afflicted” girls in the courtroom break into fits, saying that Nurse is tormenting them. But then things begin to calm down and further testimony tends to be in Rebecca’s favor. All signs now point to exoneration of Rebecca Nurse.      The trial of Rebecca Nurse lasts two days. When the verdict comes in, it is “Not guilty.” Many in the room heave a sigh of relief. Upon hearing the announcement the tense silence of the courtroom is shattered by a terrifying outcry from the “afflicted” girls and from some of the others in the courtroom. The courtroom is in such turmoil that Chief Judge Stoughton asks the jury if it has given adequate consideration to something Nurse had replied when Abigail Hobbs had accused her of witchcraft. Nurse had said, “Why do you bring her? She is one of us.” By this Nurse meant that Hobbs was a fellow prisoner, but the court takes it to mean that she, too, is a witch. Nurse was hard of hearing, and when asked to explain her words, she remains silent. She has not heard the question. The jury interprets this silence as indicative of her guilt. They deliberate a second time. This time the verdict is “Guilty.” Nurse’s family protests to the court, and Governor Phips grants a reprieve. Upon hearing this, the accusers once again break into fits. The court views these fits as irrefutable proof of Nurse’s guilt. On June 30 she is condemned to death. From April on through the summer of 1692 more people are accused and most are convicted. Reverend George Burroughs is arrested in Wells, Maine. Sarah Osborne dies in prison in Boston. On May 27th the Court of Oyer and Terminer is established to try witchcraft cases. Members of the court are Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, John Richards, John Hathorne, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop and Jonathan Corwin. On June 2nd, at the first sitting of the court in Salem, Bridget Bishop is tried and convicted. Shortly after this, Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns from the court out of dissatisfaction for the court proceedings. June 10th Bridget Bishop is hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem. A few days later 12 ministers from around the colony advise the court not to rely entirely on spectral evidence (an evil spirit or specter visible only to the witchcraft victim) when obtaining conviction.   On July 19 Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Good and Sarah Wildes are executed on Gallows Hill. Four-year-old Dorcas Good watches from her cell as her mother and the others are led off to their public hanging. Sarah Good maintained her innocence to the moment of her execution. “Oh Lord, help me. It is false. I am clear. For my life now lies in your hands.”  As Elizabeth Howe was about to feel the hangman’s noose, she said, “If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent.” On August 19 Martha Carrier, George Jacobs, George Burroughs, John Proctor and John Willard are hanged. Even though Burroughs recited the Lord’s Prayer perfectly on the gallows, Cotton Mather insisted that he be hanged saying that, “…the Devil has often been transformed into an Angel of Light.” On September 19, eighty-year-old Giles Corey is executed. He is the only accused “witch” who is not hanged. He had refused a trial, and for that breach of judicial etiquette his punishment was to be executed by being pressed to death. Corey is not a likeable man, so it is somewhat easier for the court to deal harshly with him. He has a reputation for being quarrelsome. One such quarrel with John Proctor had ended up in court. Corey is also known as a violent man. Rumor has it that he once beat to death a former hired hand. Loyalty to those closest to him is not his strong point, either. He believes that Martha, his wife, is a witch and says so in court. But Corey is no coward. When accused of witchcraft himself, he chooses not to respond to his indictment. Under English law he has the right to remain mute, which means that he cannot be tried. But he can be subjected to peine forte et dure (torture hard and long) until he responds to the charge or expires. For some inexplicable reason he chooses peine forte et dure. It is the sheriff’s job to extract a confession from Corey. The sheriff doesn’t expect it to take long, as Corey is an old man who won’t be able to endure much torture. But the defendant remains silent as more and more stones are laid upon him. On the second day, the sheriff climbs atop the pile and stands looking down at the uncooperative prisoner. By now the weight is such that Corey’s tongue protrudes from his mouth. “Do you confess?” demands the sheriff. Corey is gagging and can not respond. The sheriff, using his cane, forces the old man’s tongue back into his mouth. More boulders are added to the pile. “Do you confess?” roars the sheriff again. In a final gasp, Corey utters something that is barely audible. The sheriff leans closer, and Corey hisses, “Damn you. I curse you and Salem.” A few seconds later he expires. On September 22nd Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty (sister of Rebecca Nurse), Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker are hanged. On October 3rd Increase Mather warns a group of ministers in Cambridge that the magistrates at the Witch Trials should not rely on spectral evidence. Mather says, “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned…” On October 8 a man named Thomas Brattle writes a letter to a clergyman expressing his concern about the witch trials. Brattle was a man of some influence and most certainly a man of great courage. He was highly respected in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was a graduate of Harvard College, who enjoyed great prominence as both a mathematician and an astronomer. A well-to-do Boston merchant, he was also treasurer of Harvard and a Boston magistrate himself. His accomplishments in mathematics and astronomy won him such distinction that he was accepted into London’s prestigious Royal Society. So when the unidentified clergyman passes Brattle’s letter on to Sir William Phips, recently appointed Governor of the colony, Phips takes it seriously. Brattle was no one to ignore. Brattle has challenged the very procedures of the court, explaining step-by-step how they violate legal precedent and accept mere accusations as proof of guilt. “I think it very hard and unreasonable,” said Brattle, “that a town should lie under the blemish and scandal of sorceries and conjuration, merely for the inconsiderate practices of two or three girls in the said town.” Brattle goes on to say that he understands that it will not be easy for the court to admit it has been wrong. “I am very sensible, that it is irksome and disagreeable to go back, when a man’s doing so is an implication that he has been walking in a wrong path. However, nothing is more honourable than, upon due conviction, to retract and undo (so far as it may be) what has been amiss and irregular.” On October 29, Governor Phips dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer. A month later the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony creates the Superior Court, which tries the remaining cases the following spring. No one else is convicted. Many still awaiting trial are finally released from jail. Over 150 had been incarcerated awaiting trial for witchcraft. □               The Victims        The Afflicted (the Accusers)        The Judges       Others involved