USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 17
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In 1688, in Boston, four children in the family of a Mr. Goodwin were said to have been bewitched by an Irish woman named Glover. This woman was a Roman Catholic, somewhat ignorant, and from accounts given of her, somewhat demented. She was executed for the crime. Cotton Mather, the son of Increase Mather, from whom I have quoted, became greatly interested in these bewitched children. The oldest of them was only about thirteen years of age. According to his account their conduct was indeed extraordinary. At times they would bark like dogs and again they would purr like cats. "Yea," says he, "they would fly like geese, and be carried with an incredible swiftness, having but just their toes now and then upon the ground, sometimes not once in twenty feet, and their arms waved like the wings of a bird." One of the girls would complain that the Irish woman was choking her;
"and her complexion and features would instantly assume the various hues and violent distortions natural to a person in such a predicament. She would declare that an invisible chain was fastened to one of her limbs, and would limp about precisely as though it were really the case. She would say that she was in an oven; the perspiration would drop from her face, and she would exhibit every appearance of being roasted; then she would cry out that cold water was thrown upon her, and her whole frame would shiver and shake. She pretended that the evil spirit came to her in the shape of an invisible horse; and she would canter, gallop, trot, and amble around the rooms and the entries in such admirable imitation, that an observer could hardly believe that a horse was not beneath her, and bearing her about. She would go upstairs with exactly such a toss and a bound as a person on horseback would exhibit."
Cotton Mather took this child into his own home to examine her and study her case and also to see if he could cure her. This cunning and ingenious child took great delight in fooling the learned man. Once he tried to speak to a third person with the intention that the girl should not understand. He first spoke in Latin, but to his amaze- ment the girl comprehended what he said. Next he tried Greek, and she also comprehended. His next attempt was in Hebrew, with the
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same result. Finally, he tried the Indian language, and the girl was baffled. Mather concluded that the girl's evil spirit was acquainted with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, but not with the Indian tongue. Mather once gave her a book written by a Quaker, a sect to which he was greatly opposed, and the girl read it off with great ease, but she could not read a book written against the Quakers. Dr. Mather was greatly opposed to the liturgy and order of the Church of England. The girl was very fond of the book of Common Prayer and called it her "Bible." She could not read a word of the Scriptures in the Bible, but she would read them very easily in the Prayer Book, but even in this she could not read the Lord's Prayer. This was conclu- sive evidence to Dr. Mather that the girl was in league with the Devil.
Dr. Mather decided to write, deliver, and have published a ser- mon which would give an account of the strange proceedings of the girl. The girl tried to prevent him from doing this by calling him out of the room and throwing things at his head. Once the girl attempted to distract him from his work by telling him that some- one downstairs "would be glad" to see him. Dr. Mather left his work and went downstairs only to find that Mrs. Mather and her family were the only ones in the room. When he accused the girl of lying to him she replied, "I did not lie to you. Is not Mrs. Mather always glad to see you?" Dr. Mather struggled manfully against what he thought to be the buffetings of the Devil and finished his account. It appears quite obvious that Cotton Mather was deceived and tricked by the cleverness of this girl.
There is reason to believe that the views of Cotton Mather on witchcraft originated the delusion in Salem. His account filled the whole country and appeared only four years before the outbreak. He nourished the spark into a real flame and kept it burning. I shall use the words of J. Duncan Phillips to substantiate this idea :
"Undoubtedly Cotton Mather, the young and vigorous pastor of the North Church of Boston, was a moving spirit in the matter. While witchcraft was a result of general belief of the times, without his logical and aggressive mind, it might not have gone as far as it did. He systematized, organized, and defended demonology. He viewed America, especially New England, as a realm of the Devil formerly populated by Indians who were his agents. In this far land, God had
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enabled his saints to gain a foothold, and now the old deceiver had opened a counter-attack, selecting the very community where the first church had been organized. Mather regarded himself undoubtedly as the militant crusader appointed by the Lord to fight the Devil in this contest, and he must be credited with sincerity and courage in his attack upon the Evil One, and though we object to his bitter and venomous attacks upon the convicted, there is no evidence that he cared who the persons were who suffered, so long as those guilty of witchcraft were rooted out. Nicholas Noyes of the Salem church was a minor imitator of the attitude of Mather. It is unlikely that he could have led the movement, but he did all he could to help it on once it was started. The same is true of Mr. Hale of the Beverly church. He also was an imitator, not a leader. What was needed was an equally vigorous crusader on the other side, loud and vehement in his opposition; one who would have charged Mather with being an agent of the Arch-Fiend mas- querading in sheep's clothing, instead of a crusader of Jesus Christ, and who would have claimed that if the Devil had got into the 'afflicted children,' he was using them very success- fully to persecute God's saints. No one exactly took this rôle."
During the winter of 1691-92 a group of young girls had been in the habit of meeting at the home of Mr. Parris, the minister of the Salem Village Church, for the purpose of learning palm reading, fortune telling, magic, and spiritualism. Their teacher was one Tituba, a West Indian servant in the home of Mr. Parris, who was aided by her husband, John Indian. The group consisted of :
Elizabeth, nine years old, the daughter of Mr. Parris. Her father early removed her from Salem Village to Salem.
Abigail Williams, eleven years old, the niece of Parris, and a member of his household.
Ann Putnam, twelve years old, the daughter of Sergeant Thomas Putnam, the parish clerk. She is perhaps the prime mover in the pageant which followed.
Mary Walcot, seventeen years old, the daughter of Captain Jona- than Walcot, who was a deacon of the parish, though not a church member.
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Mercy Lewis, seventeen years old, for a time a member of the household of the Reverend George Burroughs, but in 1692 she lived as a servant in the family of Sergeant Thomas Putnam.
Elizabeth Hubbard, seventeen years old, niece of Mrs. Dr. Griggs, the village doctor, and lived in the family.
Elizabeth Booth and Susannah Sheldon, eighteen years old, belonged to families in the community.
Mary Warren, twenty years old, a servant in the family of John Procter.
Sarah Churchill, twenty years old, a servant in the family of George Jacobs, Sr.
There were three other persons who attended these meetings, or classes : Ann Putnam, Sr., the mother of Ann; Mrs. Bibber, who appears to have lived at Wenham; and Mrs. Pope.
It was not long before these girls became very apt pupils and began to express their learning in very strange ways. They would creep into holes, cast themselves into very strange and uncomfortable positions, throw themselves into spasms and drop on the floor insen- sible. Naturally, accounts of these doings became known to the people of the village and they could find no explanation for it except that they were bewitched. The village physician, Dr. Griggs, was summoned and pronounced that without any doubt the children were bewitched. This was quite a common answer when the doctor could not understand what the trouble was with his patients. The girls continued to meet at Mr. Parris' house, and they continued to be "afflicted by the Devil." The Reverend Mr. Parris became greatly perturbed by all this and soon called a meeting in his house of all the ministers of the surrounding territory. A day was devoted to a solemn religious supplication to God that he might spare these chil- dren from their afflictions, and at the same time the ministers wit- nessed the cruel treatment that the children were receiving from the Evil One. As it was the common idea of the time that the Devil manifested himself through human agents or "witches," the natural question arose as to who these witches were. At first the girls were reluctant to give any names, but they may have thought they would be considered witches unless they could lay the blame on others, so ultimately they uttered the names, "Good," "Osburn," "Tituba." Accordingly, on February 29, warrants were issued against those
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persons by the complainants, Joseph Hutchinson, Edward Putnam, Thomas Putnam, and Thomas Preston. They were all men of influ- ence and unquestionable character.
On the first of March the examination of Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and Tituba took place before John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, the principal magistrates of the district, in the meetinghouse.
Sarah Good had for a long time been enduring a very miserable existence. Her worthless husband did not live with her. She and her children had sometimes been forced to go from door to door begging a living. The girls could not have picked on a more unfortunate woman or one more suited to their purpose. The following are the minutes of her examination :
"Sarah Good, what evil spirits have you familiarity with ? None.
"Have you made no contacts with the Devil? No.
"Why do you hurt these children? I do not hurt them. I scorn it.
"Who do you employ then to do it ? I employ nobody.
"What creature do you employ then ? No creature; but I am falsely accused.
"Why did you go away muttering from Mr. Parris his house ? I did not mutter but I thanked him for what he gave my child.
"Have you made no contact with the Devil? No.
"Hathorne desired the children all of them too look upon her, and see if this were the person that hurt them; and so they all did look upon her, and said this was one of the persons that did torment them. Presently they all were tormented.
"Sarah Good, do you not see what you have done? Why do you not tell us the truth? Why do you thus torment these poor children? I do not torment them.
"Who do you employ then ? I employ nobody. I scorn it.
"How came they thus tormented ? What do I know? You bring others here, and now you charge me with it.
"Why, who was it? I do not know but it was some you brought into the meeting-house with you.
"We brought you into the meeting-house. But you brought two more.
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"Who was it, then, that tormented the children? It was Osburn.
"What is it you say when you go muttering away from persons' houses ? If I must tell, I will tell.
"Do tell us then. If I must tell, I will tell: it is the com- mandments. I may say my Commandments, I hope.
"What Commandment is it? If I must tell you, I will tell : it is a psalm.
"What psalm ?
"(After a long time she muttered over some part of a psalm.)
"Who do you serve? I serve God.
"What God do you serve? The God that made heaven and earth. (Though she was not willing to mention the word 'God.') Her answers were in a very wicked, spiteful man- ner, reflecting and retorting against the authority with base and abusive words; and many lies she was taken in. It was here said that her husband had said that he was afraid that she either was a witch or would be one very quickly. The wor- shipful Mr. Hathorne asked him his reason why he said so of her, whether he had ever seen anything by her. He answered, 'No, not in this nature; but it was her bad car- riage to him; and indeed' said he, 'I may say with tears, that she is an enemy to all good.'"
After the examination of Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn was brought in and examined in a like manner. This woman had much the same status in the community as did Sarah Good. She was sent to prison and heavily chained, as was the practice of the time. She slowly languished away in the Boston jail, where she died on May 10.
After Sarah Osburn had been taken from the meeting house, Tituba, the West Indian servant of the Parris household, was brought in. The following is the record of the court:
"Tituba, what evil spirit have you familiarity with ? None.
"Why do you hurt these children ? I do not hurt them.
"Who is it then? The Devil, for aught I know.
"Did you never see the Devil? The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.
.
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"Who have you seen? Four women sometimes hurt the children.
"Who were they? Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and I do not know who the others were. Sarah Good and Osburn would have hurt the children, but I would not.
"(She further saith there was a tall man of Boston that she did see.)
"When did you see them? Last night, at Boston.
"What did they say to you? They said, 'Hurt the children.'
"And did you hurt them? No; there is four women and one man, they hurt the children, and then they lay all upon me; and they tell me, if I will not hurt the children, they will hurt me.
"But did you not hurt them? Yes; but I will hurt them no more.
"Are you not sorry that you did hurt them? Yes.
"And why, then, do you hurt them? They say, 'Hurt children, or we will do worse to you.'
"What have you seen? A man come to me, and say, 'Serve me.'
"What service? Hurt the children; and last night there was an appearance that said, 'Kill the children'; and, if I would not go on hurting the children, they would do worse to me.
"What is this appearance you see? Sometimes it is like a hog, and sometimes like a great dog.
"(This appearance she saith she did see four times. )
"What did it say to you? The black dog said, 'Serve me'; but I said 'I am afraid.' He said, if I did not, he would do worse to me.
"What did you say to it? I will serve you no longer. Then he said he would hurt me; and then he looks like a man, and threatens to hurt me. (She said that this man had a yellow-bird that kept with him.) And he told me he had more pretty things that he would give me, if I would serve him.
"What were these pretty things? He did not show me them.
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"What else have you seen? Two cats; a red cat, and a black cat.
"What did they say to you? They said, 'Serve me.'
"When did you see them? Last night, and they said, 'Serve me'; but I said I would not.
"What service? She said, hurt the children.
"Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning ? The man brought her to me, and made me pinch her.
"Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night, and hurt his child ? They pull and haul me and make go.
"And what would they have you do? Kill her with a knife.
"(Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, when the child saw these persons, and was tormented by them, that she did complain of a knife-that they would have her cut her head off with a knife.)
"How did you go? We ride upon sticks and are there presently.
"Do you go through the trees or over them? We see nothing but are there presently.
"Why did you not tell your master? I was afraid; they said they would cut off my head, if I told.
"Would you not have hurt others, if you could? They said they would hurt others but they could not.
"What attendants hath Sarah Good? A yellow-bird, and she would have given me one.
"What meat did she give it? It did suck her between her fingers.
"Did you not hurt Mr. Curren's child. Goody Good and Goody Osburn told that they did hurt Mr. Curren's child, and would have me hurt him too; but I did not.
"What hath Sarah Osburn? Yesterday she had a thing with a head like a woman, with two legs and wings.
"(Abigail Williams, that lives with her uncle Mr. Parris, said that she did see the same creature, and it turned into the shape of Goody Osburn.)
"What else have you seen with Osburn? Another thing, hairy; it goes upright like a man, it hath only two legs.
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"Did you not see Sarah Good upon Elizabeth Hubbard, last Saturday? I did see her set a wolf upon her to afflict her.
"(The persons with this maid did say that she did com- plain of a wolf. She further said that she saw a cat with Good at another time. )
"What clothes did the man go in? He goes in black clothes; a tall man, with white hair, I think.
"How doth the woman go? In a white hood, and a black hood with a top-knot.
"Do you see who it is that torments these children now ? Yes : is is Goody Good; she hurts them in her own shape.
"Who is it that hurts them now? I am blind now : I cannot see.
"Written by Ezekiel Cheever. "Salem Village, March the Ist, 1692."
I have quoted these examinations to show the similarity of treat- ment in all the cases, and also to show that the judges always assumed that the accused was guilty of being a witch.
Tituba was clever enough to plead guilty, and apparently her case was dismissed without any punishment being meted out to her. As far as we know none who plead guilty was executed. She was probably intrusted to the care of the Reverend Samuel Parris. If one is seeking to discredit the witchcraft proceedings in Salem Vil- lage, he will find more than an inkling of delusion in the court ques- tions and in the answers of the clever Tituba.
The feelings of the community were now thoroughly aroused. The minister, the doctors, and all classes of the people were certain that the afflictions of the girls could not possibly have any other explanation than that of witchcraft. According to Upham :
"Every voice was loud in demanding, every mind earnest to ascertain, who were the persons, in confederacy with the Devil, thus torturing, pinching, convulsing, and bringing to the last extremities of mortal agony, these afflicted girls. Every one felt that if the guilty authors of the mischief could not be discovered, and put out of the way, no one was safe for a moment."
There was a great feeling of relief and satisfaction when the girls cried out against Good, Osburn, and Tituba. Now they were getting
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somewhere. They had some human beings upon whom they could show their vengeance. "They were just the kind of persons whom the public prejudice and credulity was prepared to suspect and condemn."
The girls were now ready to strike higher in their accusations. It will be remembered that Tituba had said that there were two others, besides the two she had named, who were hurting the afflicted girls. The two now chosen were noted for their piety and religious faith. The first, Martha Corey, was known to spend a great deal of time at prayer. She asked that she might go to prayer during her testimony, but this request was refused on the ground that she was communicating with the Devil in these prayers. The second of the two remaining "afflicters" was Rebecca Nourse, the head of a large and prominent family, and a member of the mother-church in Salem Village. There had long been a land feud between the men of Salem and the Topsfield men. The Nourse family were the leaders of the Salem faction in this quarrel, but Rebecca's eldest son, and her eldest son-in-law had entered a protest against a most vehement resolution. passed by the village against the Topsfield men. This naturally exposed the Nourse family to the ill will of the Salem people. The greatest charge against this family was that with one exception, that of Thomas Preston, the family had discountenanced the whole doings in the Parris household. They went so far as to absent themselves from meeting. Even a letter written by highly respected people of the community did not deter the court in its action. It may even have tended to make them exert themselves the more to convict her and thus rid the village of still another who was in league with the Devil. Martha Corey, Elizabeth Nourse, and Dorcas Good, the five-year-old daughter of Sarah, were sent to jail.
It seems safe to say that if the witchcraft proceedings had remained local, they would have died out, but it was not destined that they should remain local. Up to this time the examinations had been held in Salem Village before the justices, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, of Salem. On April II these two were supple- mented by the arrival of Deputy-Governor Danforth and four mag- istrates, James Russell, of Charlestown; Isaac Addington and Cap- tain Samuel Sewall, of Boston; and Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich. The responsibility for the action taken in the following cases cannot, therefore, be laid wholly upon either the town or the village of Salem.
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As one examines the proceedings in these cases and notices the actions of the "afflicted" girls, one may get the idea that they were the best of actors, that perhaps the whole thing was planned so as to make the greatest possible effect upon the magistrates, the accused, the ministers, and other learned persons, and also upon the many common people who flocked to see the proceedings and then talked about them and mulled them over in their minds. Here was the case of Mary Warren, originally one of the afflicted girls. For some reason she left their ranks and became an accuser. She did not take an open part against her master and mistress, John and Elizabeth Procter, at their examination, but she did act against them as an accusing witness at their trial two months later. The afflicted girls occasionally had a falling out, but they usually acted together even to the extent of pass- ing words around to each other which would help to incriminate the witness on the stand. As soon as Mary Warren dropped out of the circle, the girls immediately cried out against her, charged her with witchcraft, and had her apprehended. Four persons in prison with her on the same charge prepared a statement as follows :
"We heard Mary Warren several times says that the magistrates might as well examine Keysar's daughter that has been distracted many years, and take notice of what she said, as well as any of the afflicted persons. 'For,' said Mary Warren, 'when I was afflicted, I thought I saw the apparitions of an hundred persons'; for she said her head was distem- pered that she could not tell what she said. And the said Mary told us, that, when she was well again, she could not say that she saw any of the apparitions at the time aforesaid."
During her examination she had owned herself to have become a confederate with the Devil. Upham says further :
"Having established this conviction in the minds of the magistrates and spectators, the point was reached at which she completed the delusion by appearing to break away from her bondage to Satan, assume the functions of a confessing and abjuring witch, and retake her place, with tenfold effect, among the accusing witnesses. The manner in which she rescued herself from the power of Satan exhibits a specimen of acting seldom surpassed. The account of the proceedings goes :
Essex-14
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'Now Mary Warren fell into a fit, and some of the afflicted cried out that she was going to confess; but Goody Corey, and Procter and his wife came in, in their apparition, and struck her down, and said she should tell nothing.'"
The
"'in apparition' part 'was based upon the declarations of the accusing witnesses. It was an art they often practiced in offer- ing their testimony. They would cry out, that the Devil, gen- erally in the shape of a black man, appeared to them at the time, whispering in the ear of the accused, or sitting on the beams of the meeting-house in which the examinations were generally conducted. On this occasion, they declared that three of the persons, then in jail in some other place, came in their apparitions, forbade Mary Warren's confession, and struck her down. To give full effect to their statement, she went through the process of tumbling down. Although nothing was seen by any other person present, the deception was per- fect. The Reverend Mr. Parris wrote it all down as having actually occurred.'"
Mary Warren appears thus to have been received back into the number of the afflicted girls. She was examined several times later in the prison and fell into fits as if she were struggling against the attempts of Satan to keep her from confessing. The magistrates and ministers thought they were seeing enacted a scene similar to that when the powers of Satan were struggling against those of Jesus. They remembered that when the Lord cast the evil spirits out of the young man, they "threw him down, and tare him." Finally, as in that case, the Evil One was overcome, and Mary Warren was released from his power. She made a full and circumstantial confession. Mr. Parris reports: "Note that not one of the sufferers was afflicted during her examination, after once she began to confess, though they were tortured before."
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