Lecture 11B: Salem Witch Trials Lecture Notes

The Salem Witch Trials: Accusations and Trials

Introduction

Lecture focuses on the Salem witch trials from the initial accusations to the establishment of the Court of Oyer and Terminer in the spring of 1692.
A subsequent lecture will cover the remainder of the crisis.

The Setting: Winter 1692

The story begins in the winter of 1692, characterized by harsh conditions.
Winters were colder due to a mini-ice age in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Boston harbor iced up, isolating towns due to snow-covered paths.
Families, especially children, were confined indoors for extended periods.

Conditions in the homes of colonial Americans:

Most 17th-century homes were small, wooden, and sparsely furnished compared to 18th-century homes.
Rooms were small, dark, and smoky.
Young women were particularly susceptible to boredom due to confinement.

The Beginning of the Outbreak

According to Minister John Hale, the outbreak started in Reverend Samuel Parris' house.
Parris' daughter Betty (9) and niece Abigail (11) attempted to divine their future husbands using an egg in a glass of water.
They saw a coffin shape, leading them to believe the devil was involved.
Other girls, including Ann Putnam, joined and shared similar fears.

Strange Symptoms

Betty Parris exhibited strange behavior, including absent-mindedness, uncontrolled weeping, wild babbling, choking, and writhing in pain.
Others experienced similar symptoms.
Dr. William Griggs declared an "evil hand" was upon them when he found no medical explanation.
Ministers, including Hale, observed the girls and concluded that Satan was attacking the weakest among them.

Initial Reactions and Investigations

Samuel Parris initially tried to keep the matter private.
Ministers fasted, prayed, and observed the girls.
Puritan beliefs about the body as the entrance to the soul made them believe the devil targeted the vulnerable.
Parris repeatedly asked the girls who afflicted them but received no response.

The Witches’ Cake

Village women directed Tituba, a Native American slave, to make a witches’ cake – rye meal mixed with the girls’ urine, fed to a dog.
The intent was for the dog to show the same symptoms if the girls were bewitched.
The dog remained normal.
Parris was angered by Tituba's occult practices.
Betty accused Tituba, followed by other girls, including Ann Putnam, who named Tituba, Sarah Goode, and Sarah Osborne as witches.

Naming the Accused

Tituba: An outsider (Native American slave) considered more likely to be evil.
Sarah Goode: A town beggar known for grumbling when denied handouts, fitting the image of "disorderly female speech."
Sarah Osborne: Had remarried after the death of her husband and community rumor have it that allegedly had an affair with an indentured servant, failed to settle her first husband’s estate on his sons, and stopped attending church.

Sarah Goode and Disorderly Speech

Puritans valued submissive behavior in women, with disorderly speech (insolence, threats, slander, scolding, cursing) seen as a community threat.
Disorderly speech from a witch was believed capable of causing harm.

Sarah Osborne’s Transgressions

Osborne had an affair with an indentured servant, created a dispute over her first husband’s estate, and stopped attending church.

Arrest and Initial Hearing

Formal complaints issued against Tituba, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Goode on February 29, 1692.
Arrested and taken to Ipswich jail.
Hearing presided over by John Hathorn and Johnathan Corwin to determine if there was enough evidence for a grand jury.
A large crowd gathered, forcing the proceedings to move from a tavern to Salem village’s meetinghouse.

Questioning of Sarah Goode

Sarah Goode was combative and denied any contact with the devil.
Witnesses testified to her muttering and grumbling, but she denied such speech.
When asked what she muttered at the Parris house, she claimed to recite a psalm or commandment but could not recall it.
Four afflicted girls reacted violently to Goode, providing spectral evidence.
Goode declared her innocence and blamed Osborne and Tituba.
Goode’s daughter, Dorcas, testified to seeing her mother with yellow and black birds (devil’s familiars).
Goode’s husband, William, testified to her behavior and a witches’ teat on her shoulder, stating she was an enemy to all good.

Questioning of Sarah Osborne

Sarah Osborne was ill and supported by constables, claiming she was more likely bewitched than a witch.
Osborne described a dream of being visited and pinched by “a thing like an Indian, all black.”
She claimed the devil was using her specter without her consent.

Tituba's Confession

Tituba confessed, confirming fears of a diabolic conspiracy.
Her testimony lasted three days, convincing the court of the devil's presence in Salem.
Tituba implicated Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne, describing their familiars.
She spoke of a tall, white-haired man from Boston dressed in black who threatened her and the children if she did not serve him.
Tituba claimed this man warned her not to go to church.
She described riding through the air on a stick with other Salem witches and attending witches' Sabbaths.

Impact of Tituba's Confession

Tituba’s confession changed the trials and convinced the judges that Satan was loose in Salem Village.
The level of detail in her confession fueled their fears of a diabolic conspiracy, long described in ministers’ sermons, that the devil was out to destroy God’s Puritan experiment in New England.
Tituba’s reference to a tall white-haired man from Boston who was dressed in black convinced the justices that the witchcraft crisis was not confined merely to Salem.
Tituba’s South American background equipped her with a strong belief in the kenaima or outside malevolent force.
She portrayed the kenaima – as a man from Boston thus convincing all in Salem that the threat was much larger than a Village affair.
Her description implicated Massachusetts’ Puritan clergy.
Her confession, she later claimed, was beaten out of her by an irate Samuel Parris.

Aftermath of Initial Accusations

All three women were sent to the Boston jail; Sarah Osborne died on March 10, followed by Sarah Goode’s infant.
Tituba’s testimony led to corroborating depositions from villagers.
Witnesses claimed to have seen Sarah Goode’s specter, sometimes bare-footed and bare-breasted.
Some claimed to have seen Osborne, Tituba, and Goode flying on sticks or visiting them in their bedchambers.
By May, Goode and Tituba were indicted and placed in heavy irons.

Initial Beliefs and Escalation

Many believed the outbreak was similar to past incidents and would quickly end.
However, Tituba’s testimony of a regional conspiracy haunted villagers and transformed the case into a colony-wide witch-hunt.

Accusations Against Martha Corey

After mid-March, the girls expanded accusations to include women of higher status, like Martha Corey.
Martha Corey: Known as a stout professor of faith and member of the church, but was known as an outspoken and opinionated woman and had given birth to an illegitimate child of mixed race.
Ann Putnam claimed Corey choked and blinded her, named Corey as her tormenter, and said she saw Corey feeding her familiar (a yellow bird).
Ann also said that she saw Corey turning a fireplace spit with a man on it.
Edward Putnam claimed that Mercy Lewis, was drawn toward the fire by unseen hands and Martha Corey was to blame.
Other girls linked strange phenomena to Corey.
Mary Wolcott claimed to have teeth marks on her wrist; Abigail Williams ran out of her house flapping her arms in an attempt to fly.
Williams then ran into the house and claimed to see a specter and grew hysterical and ran to the fireplace hurling hot coals around the house.

Martha Corey's Arrest and Interrogation

The court issued a warrant for Corey’s arrest on a Saturday, but it could not be put into effect on the Sabbath, so she was arrested on Monday.
That Sunday, she attended church, and the afflicted girls interrupted the service with accusations.
The girls began to mimic her actions, bit their lips, and claimed to hear drums beating calling Corey and other witches to a Sabbath.
Sensing the futility of her case, Martha told the court, “If you will all go hang me, how can I help it?”

Giles Corey

Martha's husband, Giles Corey, was never accused his wife of witchcraft, but he certainly did not help her case.
Giles Corey: Like the earlier accused witches, was a “usual suspect”, had a long criminal history that included theft and suspected arson, a terrible temper, and fought with neighbors.

Accusation Against Rebecca Nurse

After accusing Corey, the girls turned their attention to Rebecca Nurse.
Rebecca Nurse: A pious woman and active member of the church whose quick rise in prosperity offended many Puritans, engaged in a long boundary dispute with their Salem neighbors, had a temper and was given to disorderly speech.
Ann Putnam, the elder, claimed she was tormented by Rebecca Nurse's specter who tried to get her to sign the devil’s book.
In response to the accusation, Nurse claimed to be “as innocent as the child unborn.”
Unlike the other accused witches, Nurse refused to cry.
Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey are transitional figures in the trials – because they represent the spread of accusations away from the “usual suspects.”
After these two women were accused, the pace quickened.

Escalation of Accusations

The pace of accusations quickened significantly after Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse:
Three witches were accused by March 1.
Six were accused by early April.
Eighteen more were arrested by May 1.
Nineteen more by May 28.
By June 1, over 72 people had been accused.
While we call this the “Salem Witch Trials” it clearly affected a much larger area.
Importantly, however, although the trials ranged over a large geographic space, the afflicted girls remained at the center of the story.
Their accusations remained central to the trials.

John Proctor

John Proctor was a wealthy Salem landholder who was skeptical of the girls.
He said that if the girls were left alone all of Salem would be said to be witches or devils and he suggested that witches were not to be found in the women accused but, rather, in the afflicted girls.

Accusations Against John Proctor & His Family

Elizabeth Proctor, pregnant with John Proctor’s 17th child, was brought to answer the charge of witchcraft; John Proctor stood next to her.
Other accusers each swore that Elizabeth had tempted them to sign the devil’s book.
Elizabeth responded to the girls, “Dear child, it is not so.”
The girls fell into their usual fits and claimed that her specter sat on the beam above them.
The court then asked Elizabeth to recite the Lord’s Prayer, something believed impossible for witches to do, but she was unable to correctly recite it twice.
The girls turned their anger on John, and went on to accuse four of John’s children.

Mary Warren

Mary Warren, Proctor’s servant, initially testified against many but recanted her testimony and was accused of witchcraft.
Warren caved to pressure and provided spectral evidence against the Proctors and rejoined the girls in court but she never again joined in their fits or demonstrations.

Bridget Bishop

Bridget Bishop had a long history of fighting violently with her husband
Before 1692, Bridget was accused of witchcraft, however, there is no record of her conviction.
Following her first husband’s death, she married again and was accused of the theft of some valuable brass, but, again, there is no evidence that she was convicted.
The girls testified that they told an observer where Bridget Bishop’s specter was and he lashed out at the empty air with his sword.
The girls then claimed that he had just missed the specter but had, instead, cut her coat, which was confirmed by the judges.

Philip and Mary English

Philip made his money in mercantile shipping and lived ostentatiously in what was called “English’s great house.”
More importantly, while Mary English traced her ancestry to the earliest Puritan pioneer, her husband was a French immigrant from the island of Jersey who had Anglicized his name.
One accuser claimed that the specter of a dead man appeared to her and claimed that he had been murdered by English.
The Englishes were able to escape from prison and flee to New York.

George Burroughs

George Burroughs had been Salem’s minister in the 1680’s but left after considerable acrimony.
Burroughs was accused by the girls of being the elusive man in black – first described by Tituba.
Ann Putnam claimed that his two wives appeared to her in their winding sheets and called out for justice.
Burroughs lived on Casco Bay in eastern Maine (then a part of Massachusetts) and so his arrest took time.
As soon as he was arrested, his wife sold all of his books and everything of value in the house and departed with her own children.
Burroughs’ children from his previous two marriages were forced to fend for themselves.
When Burroughs arrived in Salem, the girls went into hysterics, and he adamantly denied all the charges leveled against him.

Conclusion

The lecture will be continued in the next session.