Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Salem Witch Trials (Part 2)

Timeline

In Salem Village in February 1692, Betty Parris, 9, and her cousin, Abigail Williams, 11, the daughter and niece, respectively, of Rev. Samuel Parris, started to have fits described as "beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect" by John Hale, the minister of the nearby town of Beverly. The girls screamed, threw things around the house, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions, as seen by the eyewitness account of Rev. Deodat Lawson, a former minister in Salem Village.

When the girls complained of being pinched and pricked with pins, a doctor by the name of William Griggs, could find no physical evidence of any ailment. Other women began exhibiting similar behaviors. When Lawson preached as a guest in the Salem Village meetinghouse, he was interrupted several times by outbursts of the afflicted.

The three people to be accused and arrested for allegedly afflicting Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and 12-year-old Ann Putnam, Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard, were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba—Tituba being first. Some historians believe that the accusations by Ann Putnam, Jr. suggests a family feud may have been a major cause of the witch trials. During this time, a vicious rivalry was underway between the Putnam and Porter families, and deeply polarized the people of Salem. Citizens even resorted to heated debates, which erupted into full-fledged fights based on their opinions of the feud.

Good, a homeless beggar known to seek food and shelter from neighbors, was accused of witchcraft because of her appalling reputation. At her trial, she was accused of rejecting Puritan ideas of self-control and discipline when she chose to torment and "scorn [children] instead of lead them towards the path of salvation."

Sarah Osbourne, rarely attending church meetings, was accused of witchcraft when Puritans believed that Osbourne had her own self-interests in mind when she remarried an indentured servant. The citizens of the town also disapproved of Osbourne trying to control her son's inheritance from her previous marriage.

Tituba, a South American Indian slave by way of the West Indies, became accused because of her ethnic differences from most of the other villagers. She was accused of attracting Abigail Williams and Betty Parris' attentions with stories of enchantment from Malleus Maleficarum. These tales about sexual encounters with demons, swaying the minds of men, and fortune-telling were said to stimulate the imaginations of girls, which made Tituba the target of such accusations.

These women were outcasts exhibiting characteristic traits typical of the "usual suspects" for witchcraft accusations and were left to defend themselves. Brought before the local magistrates on the complaint of witchcraft, they were interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, 1692, and sent to jail.

Also in March, others were accused of witchcraft—Marth Corey, a child, Dorothy Good, and Rebecca Nurse in Salem Village, and Rachel Clinton in nearby Ipswich. Martha Corey expressed skepticism about the girls' credibility of accusations and drew attention to herself. The charges against her and Rebecca Nurse deeply troubled the community because Martha Corey was a full covenanted member of the Church in Salem Village, as was Rebecca Nurse in the Church in Salem Town. this meant that if upstanding people could be witches, according to townspeople, then anybody could be a witch, and church membership was no protection from accusation. Dorothy Good, Sarah Good's four-year-old daughter, was not exempted from questioning by the magistrates, as her answers were construed as a confession implicating her mother. In Ipswich, Rachel Clinton was arrested for witchcraft at the end of March on independent charges unrelated to the afflictions of the girls in Salem Village.

Accusations and Examinations Before Local Magistrates

Sarah Cloyce, Nurse's sister, and Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor were arrested in April, and brought before John Hathorne and Jonathon Corwin at a meeting in Salem Town. the men were local magistrates and members of the Governor's Council. Present for the examination were Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, and Assistants Samuel Sewall, Samuel Appleton, James Russell and Isaac Addington. When Elizabeth's husband, John Proctor, objected during the proceedings, he was arrested that same day.