Abigail WilliamsWritten by Melissa M. Yost, 2002Salem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2002

Abigail Williams, aged 11 or 12 in 1692, played a major role in the Salem Witch trials as one of the prominent accusers. She lived with her uncle, the Rev. Samuel Parris, Salem Village's minister. Although it was ordinary practice for young girls to live with relatives to learn about housewifery, we know very little about Abigail, including where she was born and who her parents were.

The traditional story about the beginning of the Salem Witch trials tells of a "circle of young girls" practicing voodoo and fortune telling under the direction of Samuel Parris' Indian slave, Tituba. It is commonly suggested that the girls were interested in fortune telling because they wanted to know the occupation of their future husbands. Even though this version is perpetrated in historical works and literature, there is no record of any sort of group fortune telling in Parris's household or linkage between Tituba, voodoo, and the girls. Reverend Hale, a local minister, revealed in his 1702 work, Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, that he knew one of the afflicted girls had experimented with fortune-telling in order to find out her future husband's profession, but Reverend Hale fails to name the girl in question.

Mary Beth Norton's work, In the Devil's Snare extinguished the myth surrounding the beginning of the Salem Witch trials. According to historical fact, both Abigail and her 9-year-old cousin Betty began showing signs of illness in mid-January 1692. When their behavior turned erratic, Samuel Parris called neighboring Reverend John Hale of Beverly to observe the two girls and their afflictions. Reverend Hale writes that the girls, "were bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, necks and backs turned this way and that way and returned back again so as it was impossible for them to do of themselves and beyond the power of any Epileptic Fits or natural Disease to effects." Parris and other local ministers turned to prayer and fasting in hopes that Abigail and Betty would return to health. When the girls' strange behavior continued, Parris summoned Dr. William Griggs to examine them. Dr. Griggs determined that the girls were under the influence of an "Evil Hand."

With talk of witchcraft spreading in the Village, the girls were questioned about who was afflicting them. On February 29th 1692, a formal complaint was issued against Tituba, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Good for afflicting Betty, Abigail, and other local girls such as Ann Putnam, Jr. who had began to suffer fits. Abigail Williams along with the other afflicted girls appeared at the trial hearings. In the presence of Good, Tituba, and Osborne Abigail suffered fits and outbursts. Abigail testified she "saw the apparition of said Sarah Good at her examination pinch Elizabeth Hubbard and set her into fits and also Elizabeth Parris and Ann Putnam, Jr."

Abigail's accusations continued and included complaints against Martha Cory, George Burroughs, Bridget Bishop, Elizabeth and John Proctor, Mary Easty, John Willard, Mary Witheridge, and Rebecca Nurse. Overall Abigail Williams made 41 legal complaints and gave formal testimony in

seven cases. Bernard Rosenthal estimates she was involved in at least 17 capital cases. It is important to remember, however, that without the legal complaints of the adults the testimony of minors would have never been heard in court, as unmarried women and minors had no legal standing.

During Elizabeth Proctor's examination, Abigail revealed she witnessed Elizabeth's specter along with 40 other witches partake in a sacrament of blood drinking outside of the Parris house. She even named Sarah Cloyce and Sarah Good as the deacons presiding over the ceremony. Abigail went on to accuse Elizabeth's husband John Proctor whose specter sat on her chest at night and pinched her. She also accused Martha Cory's specter of tempting her to put her hand on the Devil's book. In addition, Rebecca Nurse's apparition tried to choke, pinch, and tempt Abigail into the fire. Abigail also accused Nurse of attending the Devil's sacrament.

It is not clear why Abigail suffered fits and went on to accuse many respectable people. Historians Norton and Roach speculate that it involved the attention she received. Young girls in Puritan society did not receive much consideration and perhaps Abigail, displaced from her immediate family, craved this unusual attention and authority over adults. It appears that some of her contemporaries were skeptical of Abigail's behavior. Joseph Hutchinson of Salem Village attempted to discredit Abigail's accusations and implicitly accused her of witchcraft. He testified that Abigail told him that she could now talk to the devil as well as she could converse with him.

Even though Abigail played a major role as an accuser at the beginning of the trials, especially in March, April, and May, she gave her last testimony on June 3rd 1692. There is no historical documentation suggesting why Abigail virtually disappeared from the court hearings. In addition, there are no records indicating what happened to Abigail after the events of 1692. It is suggested that she never married and died a single woman, but without any evidence we will never be quite certain.

Bibliography• Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare, 2002.• Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed, 1974.• Marilynne K Roach,."That Child, Betty Parris," Essex Institute Historical Collections Vol. 124,

No. 1 1988: 1-27. Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story, 1993.

John ProctorWritten by Justin Lugar, 2002Salem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2002

Of all the literature focused on the Salem witch trials of 1692, Arthur Miller's The Crucible is the only one to treat John Proctor as the main character. Proctor was a major figure to be put on trial

and executed in the summer of 1692. And although his character in The Crucible is one of main significance, he is not portrayed in an historically accurate manner. Though certain features of Proctor prevail and are consistent with the record, he is contrived to be approximately 30 years younger in the play than his actual age of approximately 60-years-old in 1692. To get the true story of John Proctor, one must look to other sources including Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum's Salem Possessed, Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story, and Charles Upham's Salem Witchcraft.

John Proctor was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1632 to an established family of farmers. His father had left him a large estate , and in 1666, according to Boyer and Nissenbaum, Proctor moved near Salem Village. There, "he leased one of the largest farms of the area, 'Groton,' a 700-acre spread lying immediately southeast of the Village line." Although farming was his primary business, Proctor's wife Elizabeth and his daughter ran a local tavern. Thus, along with establishing himself as a prosperous and wealthy farmer, Proctor also diversified his economic interests by owning and operating a tavern on Ipswich Road. His economic standing was undoubtedly recognized within the community even though he held no official title. By the time of the witch trials of 1692, Proctor was a well-established man of 60 years of age.

One of Arthur Miller's innovations in The Crucible is his description of Proctor as " a farmer in his middle thirties." Though age and historical fact are blurred in Miller's story, one prominent theme is apparent concerning the character of John Proctor. Proctor is described on several occasions, from various sources as a strong-willed beast of a man. Charles Upham writes, "He was a man of Herculean frame...he had great native force and energy...he was bold in his spirit and in his language." This strong character is also mentioned in Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story,"Proctor had argued against the reliability of testimony from confessors...No one else had come as close as Proctor did to forcing the issue." Throughout the trials, Proctor stood up and questioned the credibility of spectral evidence. Testimony against John Proctor revealed his true feelings of the trials. Proctor did not conceal his vehement opposition to the trials and is recorded remarking about his servant Mary Warren, "he [Proctor] would fetch his jade Home & thresh the Devil out of her." Another reference to such opposition is found in the testimony of Joseph Pope: "this deponent heard John Proctor Say that if mr Parish would let him have his Indian hee the s'd Procter would soone Drive the Divell out of him." With such strong feelings in opposition of the court, Proctor became a prime target of accusations. Thus it can be stated that John Proctor directly and on several occasions threatened the validity of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Regardless of the possible implications of such actions, his fellow inhabitants of Ipswich supported him after his arrest.

When facing trial in 1692, "thirty-two Ipswich men, headed by the minister, John Wise, signed a petition 'on behalf of our neighbors John Proctor and his wife, now in trouble and under suspicion of witchcraft'" (B&N 202). The petition validates the character of John Proctor and his family. After receiving his sentence to die on Gallows Hill on August 19.1692, Proctor sought time to prepare for his death and secure the welfare of his estate for future generations.

One of 19 victims hanged in 1692, John Proctor embodies the legacy of innocence connected to the trials and executions of 1692. Proctor maintained his innocence until his death, all the while questioning the methods of the court and its acceptance of spectral evidence. Because of his constant protest of the court proceedings, Arthur Miller found John Proctor to embody many

qualities important to The Crucible. Such a strong will to oppose the trials proved catastrophic for Proctor and in August of 1692, he paid the ultimate price.

Bibliography Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed, 1974. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible, 1952. Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story,1993. Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft. University of Virginia E-text Center, 2002.

Rev. Samuel ParrisWritten by Seth Ragosta, 2002Salem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaFall Semester 2002

Born in 1653 as the younger son of a London cloth merchant, Samuel Parris began his life in the shadow of others. By his father's death in 1673 when Samuel was twenty years old, it was clear that he would need to leave England for any chance at financial independence and success. Failing at business in a Caribbean sugar plantation and later in business activities in Boston, Parris eventually decided to join the ministry and look for an appropriate parish in New England. His search culminated at the little village of Salem where the local elders offered the ministry church.

The position was ideally what Parris needed, but he was aware the past conflicts over the village minister and took nearly a year to make his decision. As he knew, the village had gone through three other ministers in relatively quick succession, and no one before Parris had been deemed worthy to be ordained. During this year of negotiations Parris wrangled for his salary and benefits, in the process creating an exceptional amount of animosity towards him within certain village factions. By demanding more pay and benefits such as ownership of the village minister's house, free firewood, and bonuses for any outsiders preached to on Sundays, Parris indicated an important trait in his personality. He saw his position as something demanding and deserving respect above all else. In Parris' mind, by not deferring to his needs and desires those who opposed him marked themselves as people against traditional reverent attitudes towards the church. This may have contributed to his support and to the torrent of witchcraft accusations throughout 1692. He did not trust those who did not follow the world order as he saw it, and was fearful of the influence of outsiders on the village itself.

Parris' preaching had a major hand in creating the divisions within the village that contributed to the accusations of 1692. During the crisis, he declared the church under siege by the Devil, who was assisted by "Wicked & Reprobate men." This was during the last sermon his daughter Betty and niece Abigail heard before they became "afflicted." As Mary Beth Norton puts it in In the Devil's Snare, almost undoubtedly those "wicked" men were among Parris' detractors and opposition within the community. Parris believed in his moral superiority and was determined to draw battle

lines. Even as early as November of 1691, the minister called on churchgoers to "Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." He intended to have his supporters and the church unified against anyone that would dare speak against him.

As some historians believe, Parris and other adults around him may have had a major hand in "picking" some of the accused. Through either direct order or indirect insinuation, Parris may have chosen not only those who represented an unusual or disliked position in the village, but also those who had supported his enemies and critics.

Parris himself had a major part in the actual trials, serving as a witness who submitted legal complaints about the girls' sufferings. Along with other prominent men, Parris testified about the attacks of Rebecca Nurse against Ann Putnam Sr., Jr., Mary Walcot and Abigail Williams. He declared that at the trial when Nurse's hands were freed, "some of the afflicted were pinched and upon the motion of [Nurse's] head and fingers some of [the girls] were tortured and farther that some of the afflicted then and there affirmed that they saw a black man whispering into [Nurse's] ear." As questionable as the girls claims may have been to any observer, the support and testimony of such an influential and educated man could not have done anything but strengthen their claims. Unlike the ministers in nearby Ipswich, Rowley, and Beverly, who stepped forward to defend some of the accused, Parris was clearly filled with "credulity and pitiless zeal," as Marion Starkey aptly puts it.

While Parris' actions, or lack thereof, certainly demonstrate a rather reprehensible character, it would be a mistake to assume that contemporaries believed the same. Indeed, in 1695, two years after the end of the trials, Parris still garnered a majority of town support. This demonstrates not only the ambiguity of the trials in late 17th century imaginations, but also the influence that Parris held within the community. While much of the village did support him to a certain degree, it should also be noted that Rebecca Nurse's family and others directly accused the minister of providing names to the court, and many people had strong misgivings about his place in the trials. By 1696 village sentiment and growing irritation finally forced Parris out of town in favor of Reverend Green, a man who genuinely wanted to heal Salem and started the village on the long and uncertain road to recovery.

While the trials eventually extended well outside Parris' control and ability to predict, he undoubtedly holds a position of importance regarding their genesis. Historians Boyer and Nissenbaum in their well-known history, Salem Possessed, define Parris as a "reference point" from which to view the trials and their beginning. He was seen in the village as a dividing line between two groups, in his mind the believers and true Christians of his small congregation versus the suspicious and dangerous people who would not join it. He represented the hatred in the village that enabled people to attack each other so horribly. By naming specific individuals and pushing certain accusations, Parris earns responsibility as one of the most tarnished characters in the history of Salem's story. As Miller represented him in The Crucible, the Rev. Samuel Parris was the embodiment of self-serving and small-minded reactionary behavior. If we are not careful to guard against those like him, our freedom and the sanity of society are in jeopardy.

Bibliography Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, 1974. Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare, 2002. Arthur Miller, The Crucible, 1952. Marion Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts, 1949.

Giles CoreyBy Heather SnyderSalem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2001

Born in England about 1611, Giles Corey was one of the six men to be executed during the Salem witch trials of 1692. John Proctor, George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., John Willard, and Samuel Wardwell were all hanged after being convicted of witchcraft, while Giles Corey was pressed to death with stones for refusing to "put himself on the country," that is, to allow himself to be put on trial. He emigrated from England to Salem and remained there until 1659 when he relocated to Salem Farms, just south of Salem Village. There he owned an extensive plot of land, which resulted in the appearance of his being a prosperous farmer. His personality, reputation and relationships with others however tainted that picture. Although he had become a full member of the Village church and had close ties with the Porter faction in the Village, his reputation as one who lacked consideration for others in the community and as one who lead a "scandalous life," quite possibly had a significant impact on his being accused as a witch. Because of Corey's previous encounters with the law, there was further suspicion of his guilt during the witch trials. In 1675, Corey pummeled and killed a farm worker named Jacob Goodale. He was found guilty of the murder and ordered to pay a substantial fine.

By the time of the trials, Giles Corey was already 80, and was married to Martha, his third wife. On March 19, 1692, Martha was arrested for witchcraft. Giles, for reasons unknown to others, decided to testify against his wife, but eventually tried to recant his deposition, which lead to greater suspicion of his involvement in witchcraft because of the stigma surrounding perjury. One month later, on April 19, 1692, Giles Corey was accused of witchcraft and there was a warrant out for his arrest. There were two primary accusations, one from Abigail Hobbs who during her own confession to witchcraft named Giles and Martha Corey as fellow witches, and one from Exekiell Chevers and John Putnam, Jr., who filed an accusation on behalf of Ann Putnam, Marcy Lewis, Abigail Williams, Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard.

After his arrest, Giles Corey remained in jail with his wife until his trial on September 16, 1692. He went to the trial and pleaded "not guilty" but simultaneously refused to "put himself on the court" because of his contempt for the court. Corey was not willing to submit himself to a trial by jury that, he believed, had already determined his guilt. Because the court had accepted the testimony of the same accusers in a trial on September 9, and in all previous trials, Giles understood that there was

no chance of being found not guilty and that a conviction would be inevitable. In every previous trial when an accused individual had plead not guilty, not a single person was cleared so Giles preferred to undergo "what Death they would put him to" rather than be found guilty of witchcraft and thus put to death. According to English law, Giles was ruled as "standing mute" because he would not be tried by "God and my country." The Court of Oyer and Terminer strictly adhered to the requirement that a defendant "put himself on the country". Because Giles stood mute, he was given the dreaded sentence of peine forte et dure even though this procedure had been determined to be illegal by the government of Massachusetts. It was illegal for two reasons: there was no law permitting pressing, and it violated the Puritan provisions of the Body of Liberties regarding the end of barbarous punishment. In the entire history of the United States, Giles Corey is the only person ever to be pressed to death by order of a court.

There is a strong local tradition Giles Corey refused trial in order to avoid a conviction that would result in the forfeiture of his property to the government. Under English and Massachusetts law, however, conviction could not result in the forfeiture of an estate. However, the George Corwin, the Sheriff of Essex Country illegally seized the property of some of those arrested for witchcraft. Before his arrest, Corey himself was clearly concerned about his extensive estate, and he wrote a will that deeded his land to his sons-in-law William Cleeves and John Moulton. The laws clearly stated that landowners retained the right to give their land to their heirs rather than forfeit it because of a conviction, and apparently Corey knew it. Thus it does not seem likely that Corey refused to go on trial to save his property.

On or before September 18, 1692, Giles Corey was slowly pressed to death in the field next to the jail. In the literature about Giles Corey's tortuous death, there is reference to his famous last words, "more weight." These words were uttered as a final attempt to expedite his death while also showing that not even imminent death could convince him to go to trial. It is even told that the Sheriff took his cane and pressed Giles' tongue back into his mouth just before he died at the end of the two days of being slowly crushed. On September 18, 1692, Giles Corey was ex-communicated from the Village church so that he would not die as a member of the church. On September 21, 1692, Martha, his wife, was hanged on Gallows Hill. It has been speculated that the publicity surrounding the pressing of Giles may have in fact helped to build public opposition to the witchcraft trials.

In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, Giles Corey is a prominent character in part because of his unique role in the witch trials. Giles' colorful past, his willingness to be tortured before compromising his own values, and his role in his wife's conviction are the factors which make him such a vibrant character. Although Millers' presentation of Giles Corey in The Crucibleis not purely historical, his place in the witch trials will never be forgotten. Giles Corey did in fact testify against his wife in front of the court, and he seems to have stood mute as an act of dramatic defiance. Henry W. Longfellow's Giles Corey of Salem Farms is another piece of literature that portrays Giles Corey in a strong and powerful manner. In his play, Corey's character is defined by his last conversation with his friend Capt. Richard Gardner. In the play, Giles Corey says: "I will not plead. If I deny, I am condemned already, in courts where ghosts appear as witnesses, and swear men's lives away. If I confess, then I confess to a lie, to buy a life which is not a life, but only death in life. I will not bear

false witness against any, Not even against myself, whom I count least...I come! Here is my body; ye may torture it, but the immortal soul ye cannot crush!"

This passage shows why the character of Giles Corey attracts attention not only when examining court documents from 1692 but also the present day literature. Giles Corey will be remembered unambiguously in literature and history because of his act of supreme defiance to the Salem witch trials.

Bibliography David C. Brown, "The Case of Giles Cory," Essex Institute Historical Collections. Vol. 121, No.

1985: 282-299.

TitubaWritten By Alyssa BarillariSalem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2001

In late February of 1692, Reverend Samuel Parris called in a doctor to examine his nine-year-old daughter, Betty, and eleven-year-old niece, Abigail Williams-both of whom were suffering from spontaneous fits. The children were soon diagnosed as victims of witchcraft, setting off an outbreak of panic and hysteria, which would sweep throughout Salem Village and its neighboring towns that year. Historians have long pointed the collective finger of blame at the Parris's slave, Tituba, one of the three women first accused of witchcraft, and the only member of this unfortunate trio to survive the year.

Many interpretations of the Salem Trials acknowledge the pivotal role Tituba's confession played in legitimizing the early suspicions and subsequent investigations of witchcraft, seizing on the vivid descriptions of the devil and his minions that she provided to the examining justices. A number of sources also assert that Tituba also introduced supernatural ideas to the "afflicted girls." These scholars claim Reverend Parris had purchased her in Barbados, unaware of the voodoo and witchcraft practices she would eventually undertake under the roof of the Salem parsonage. However, the mantle of guilt so eagerly thrust upon Tituba may not be rightfully hers (and at the very least, not hers alone). Later investigations have only raised more questions about the very little verifiable information available on her. Most of the perceptions and understandings of Tituba, today commonly accepted as fact, are actually based on local tradition and fictional literature rather than actual court documents or eye-witness accounts. Admittedly, the legend of Tituba as the "Black Witch of Salem" (a posthumous appellation which immediately suggests interesting racial and class connotations) may be more mysterious and entertaining than the accurate historical extent of her influence on the Salem trials; nevertheless, the ways in which this myth has been constructed are fascinating as well.

In all of the court documents relating to the Witchcraft Trials, Tituba's identity is listed as that of an "Indian Woman, servant" (for example, Warrant vs. Tituba and Sarah Osborne -SWP 745). But as scholars have recently pointed out, somewhere in the development of the Salem lore, Tituba's racial heritage has been transformed and confused-thus she appears in texts variously as "Negro," "half-breed," "colored," or "half-Indian, half-Negro." Assumptions about her origins range from the island of Barbados to Africa to Native American. This confusion necessarily complicates any understanding of the consequential and critical part traditionally assigned to Tituba; we must consider how racial stereotypes and presumptions have contributed to the varying amounts of blame she is forced to bear.

Truthfully, Tituba's story may never be clearly sorted out. Her status as a slave constrains any attempts to uncover official records and papers relating to her. The little glimpse of her life that is available is provided only by the court transcripts themselves. Though Tituba's words may resonate to us through the court records, she cannot tell her version of the events leading up to the Trials, she cannot share her own history and memory of Salem and life before it. In addition to Tituba's own recorded words, we can obtain some information based on what her contemporaries said of her. Beyond these strict limitations however, we can realistically draw no further conclusions as to her racial identity, affinity for witchcraft and stories of the occult, nor motivations for confessing to the accusations.

What we do know is from the historical documents is that Tituba was in fact a slave in the Parris home at the time of Betty and Abigail's initial sufferings. Tradition holds that she was married to another slave, John Indian, and the couple was purchased by Reverend Parris during time he spent in Barbados. Tradition, however, does not a history make. Tituba and John Indian did reside with the Parrises; Samuel Parris had a plantation in Barbados, and he owned two slaves after he returned to Boston, and she could have come from Barbados. However, the story that Tituba struck the "fatal spark" and ignited simmering tensions in Salem Village by enthralling the local teenage girls with her stories of African or Caribbean voodoo and magic spells must be recognized for what it is --a story. It was not her "voodoo spells and stories" which, in fact, caused the girls' initial hysterics but their practice of forbidden fortune telling.

Nowhere in the court records or contemporary accounts is Tituba said to have taught the practice of fortune telling to the girls in Rev Parris' house. The fortune telling technique that the girls' used, as reported by one of them to the Rev. John Hale, was an egg white in a glass of water. This was a commonly known device in New England at the time, and it was condemned by the Puritans as a demonic practice. According to the Rev. Hale, one of the girls saw a "specter in the likeness of a coffin" in the glass, and she and another girl fell into fits. Tituba did not confess to the teaching of fortune telling; she confessed to signing the Devil's book, flying in the air upon a pole, seeing a cats wolves, birds, and dogs, and pinching or choking some of the "afflicted" girls. She also said she was beaten by her owner, Rev. Parris, and was told to confess to witchcraft, which she did -- and what she confessed to was all culturally European, not African or Caribbean.

Tituba's confession, however, did ignite a "spark" in the court, especially when she named the other accused witches, Good and Osborne, as her accomplices. Confession is what the judges were looking

for, and Tituba's "evidence" of a conspiracy of witches in Salem Village stimulated the court and the girls to find and convict more people.

Bibliography Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story, 1997. "Tituba's Story," New england Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 2 (1998).

Thomas PutnamWritten by Joseph ForeRELG 415: Salem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, Univeristy of VirginiaFall Semester, 2006

Thomas Putnam was a third generation member of Salem Village. He had many relatives in the area and they collectively owned a substantial amount of land in Salem Village and Essex County. Putnam was a Sergeant in the local militia and had fought in King Phillip's War (1675-1678) against native Indians and their French allies on the northeastern frontier. He was married to Ann Putnam Sr. (maiden name Carr), who came from a wealthy Essex County family.1

Sometime in January of 1691/1692 Ann Jr. began having fits along with other girls in Salem Village. By the end of February of that year, the girls claimed that the source of their affliction was witchcraft and made specific accusations against Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an Indian slave of the Reverend Samuel Parris. Because the girls were not of legal age to make accusations, Putnam along with three other prominent men in Salem village filed official compalints on their behalf and sought warrants against the suspected witches on February 29, 1692. Immediately, the three women were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft, which was a capital offense, and were taken into custody.2

In April 21, 1692, with dozens of accused already in jail, Putnam wrote a letter to John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin, two of the judges of the examining magistrates in Salem who would later be appointed to the special court of Oyer and Terminer to try the accused witches. In that letter Putnam gave the honored judges a "most humble and hearty thanks" for the work they had done to root out evil in Salem. Putnam remarked that the judges had taken "great care and pains" to assist the people of Salem during this time of crisis. Putnam claimed that the people of Salem could never repay the judges for their remarkable actions. He assured the judges that "therefore a full reward will be given you of the Lord God of Israel, whose cause and interest you have espoused." Here Putnam was giving the legal proceedings against the witches a decidedly theological grounding. He was emphasizing the apocalyptic nature of the struggle in Salem. The Devil was attempting to spread evil in Salem, through his pact with the witches. In order to defeat Satan, good men like the judges were required to do God's work by seeking out those who had made a pact with the Devil. Putnam reminded the judges that their work for God's cause against Satan would only "add to [their] crown of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus." Here Putnam was making the argument that the

judges would receive praise and reward when Jesus came for a second time and resurrected the souls of the faithful.

Yet despite the hard work of the judges, there remained work to be done. In his letter, Putnam wrote that he believed it his duty to inform them of a "high and dreadful" truth, of a "of a wheel within a wheel, at which [their] ears do tingle." The day before, on April 20th, his daughter had accused the Reverend George Burroughs of tormenting her. Burroughs was to be accused of being the ringleader of the witches in Salem. Putnam was referring to this greater conspiracy in this part of the letter. Putnam asked the judges to continue to pray for the community and offer their help and prayed to "almighty God continually to prepare [them]" for the work ahead. He hoped the judges would be a "a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well" and offered his assistance to them in any way he might be able.3

In April, Putnam sent a second letter to Judge Samuel Sewall. In that letter he wrote that his daughter "was grievously tormented by witches, threatening that she should be pressed to death, before Giles Cory." Here Putnam was simultaneously arguing that witches were still at large in the community and that they were greatly angered by the trial of their fellow witches, like Giles Cory. Putnam claimed that his daughter had been visited by the specter of a person who had been pressed to death by Giles Cory and that that person had claimed that God desired Giles Cory to die in the same way that he had died. Here Putnam was arguing that God supported Cory's immediate death by pressing. Putnam then reminded Judge Sewall that some seventeen years past a man who lived with Giles Cory had "bruised to death." Putnam implies that Cory had to pay a large bribe to avoid prosecution in this case. Once again, in this letter, we see Putnam supporting the judges' actions and giving their work a theological basis, arguing that God supported their work.4

The question of Putnam's motives in furthering the trials has been taken up by many. In Miller's The Crucible, the Putnams worried that several of their children might have been killed by witchcraft. In reality, the Putnams had only lost one child, a girl named Sarah who died six weeks after birth in 1689.5 Ann Jr. accused John Willard of killing baby Sarah through witchcraft. Worry over the death of their baby daughter two years prior and the possibility that it may have been the result of witchcraft provides one explanation for the zeal that Putnam showed in attempting to provie evidence against so many for the crime of witchcraft.

A recent handwriting analysis of the depositions of the afflicted girls has shown that some 122 of them were written by Thomas Putnam. While it cannot be known to what degree the accusations made in those depositions were influenced by Putnam it is clear that Putnam had the opportunity to shape the words of the young accusers as he saw fit. Further, the similarity in language across these depositions suggests that some of the language might be that of Thomas Putnam rather than that of the afflicted girls themselves.6 In the depositions taken by Putnam, the afflicted often claim to be "grievously afflicted" or "grievously tormented" and "beleve in my heart" that so-and-so is a witch. The accused are often referred to as "dreadful witches or wizards" in the depositions taken by Putnam. The frequency with which these phrases can be found in the depositions written by Putnam furthers the theory that they might have been more strongly influenced by Putnam that was previously recognized. Taken in conjunction with Putnam's letters to the judges and his efforts to secure warrants against many of the suspects, this new evidence further demonstrates the remarkable influence Putnam had on the shape and progression of the trials.

Endnotes1. Mary Beth Norton In the Devil's Snare (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) 22. 2. Rosenthal Salem Story (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 14-15. 3. "Letter of Thomas Putnam to John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin" in Salem Witchcraft Papers

Vol. I Paul Boyer and Steven Nissenbaum ed. 165-166. 4. "Letter from Thomas Putnam to Judge Samuel Sewall" in Salem Witchcraft Papers Vol. I, 246. 5. Norton, Devil's Snare 157.6. Peter Grund, Merja Kyto, and Matti Rissanen "Editing the Salem Witchcraft Records: An Exploration of a Linguistic Treasure" American Speech, Vol. 79 No. 2, Summer 2004, 158-159.

Mary WarrenWritten By Devan Kirk Salem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2001

At the time the Salem witchcraft trials began, Mary Warren was twenty years old and employed as a servant in the household of John Procter of Salem Village. Before her first formal examination on April 19, 1692, Warren participated mildly in the afflicted girls' accusations. Both John and Elizabeth Procter disagreed with the conduct of the trials. Therefore, when John Procter discovered that Mary Warren participated in the accusations he threatened to whip her until her senses returned. After Mary Warren stayed in town the night of Rebecca Nurse's examination, Samuel Sibley went to court and testified to Procter's opinions about the accusers and about Mary's participation in the accusations. Sibley claimed that: "Proctor replyed if they [the accusers] were let alone so we should all be Devils & witches quickly they should rather be had to the Whipping post but he would fetch his jade [Mary Warren] Home & thresh the Devil out of her & more to the like purpose crying hang them, hang them. And also added that when she [Mary Warren] was first taken with fits he kept her close to the Wheel & threatened to thresh her, & then she had no more fits till the next day he was gone forth, & then she must have her fits again firsooth" (SWP II: 683-684).

Both of Mary Warren's parents died before this stage in her life. This situation forced Warren to become a servant and support herself since she had no funds or property to claim. Some of Mary's anxiety over the loss of her parents surfaced during the trials. The document in which John DeRich accused George Jacobs, Sr., states, "that Mary Warrens mother did appeare to this Deponent [John DeRich] this day with a white man and told him that goodwife Parker and Oliver did kill her." In her statement against Alice Parker, Mary Warren also claims that she killed her mother and afflicted her sister, Elizabeth, "she [Alice Parker] also told me she: bewiched my mother & was a caus of her death: also that: she bewiched my sister: Eliz: that is both deaf & dumb." Having no family and working for a man who beat her, it is not very surprising that, when accused of witchcraft herself,

Mary Warren sought the public attention and legal protection of being an aggressive accuser of local witches.

On April 19, 1692, the magistrates in Salem began their questioning of Mary Warren. "I am innocent" were the first words out of her mouth. At this point in the trials no one had been hanged, so the clues as to how avoid being convicted had not yet been discovered. Mary Warren, however, quickly learned that assertions of innocence did not save, but following the judges' lead during questioning did help the defendant. Warren provided many evasive answers during her first examination, possibly because she was unsure as to how to not be convicted. Throughout this examination she continuously fell into fits, which often followed the fits of the other girls in the courtroom. At one point, Mary became so afflicted by the apparitions that tortured her that she had to be removed from the courtroom, and Bridget Bishop was then brought in for questioning: "Afterwards she [Mary Warren] started up, & said I will speak & cryed out, Oh! I am sorry for it, I am sorry for it, & wringed her hands, & fell a little while into a fit again & then came to speak, but immediately her Teeth were set, & then she fell into a voilet fit, & cryed out, Oh Lord help me, Oh good Lord save me! And then afterwards cryed again, I will tell, I will tell, & then fell into a dead fit againe. And afterwards cryed, I will tell, they did, they did, they did, & then fell into a violent fit again. After a little recovery she cryed I will tell, I will tell, they brought me to it; & then fell into a fit again: which fits continuing, she was ordered to be had out, & the next to be brought in, viz: Bridget Byshop" (SWP II: 794).

Even after being brought back into the courtroom, Warren continued her fits until the magistrates held a private meeting with her. After that, Mary Warren began to confess and, once she did, the court recorder noted that, "not one of the sufferers was afflicted during her examination after once she began to confess, though they were tormented before." While in prison, Mary Warren changed her story. Her fits lessened, and she began to implicate the Procters in the mysterious events occurring in Salem. Following the examination in prison, Warren faced two more examinations: one on April 21 and the other on May 12. Now a confessed witch, Warren aggressively accused others of alliances with the devil. At this point, Warren actively accused the Procters of performing certain deeds, although she hesitated to call them a witch and a wizard. By the end of her examinations, Mary was established as an accuser, and she safeguarded her life by providing the magistrates with ample accusations and evidence.

Mary Warren's testimony did more than save her life, it also represented a turning point in the trials. For the first time fraud was introduced. Yet the judges made no move to aid the innocent, and they continued to encourage the accusers. In Edward Bishop, Sarah Bishop, and Mary Easty's complaint against Mary Warren they stated that, "for Said Mary warrin when I was Aflicted I thought I saw the Apparission of A hundred persons: for Shee said hir Head was Distempered that Shee Could not tell what Shee Said, And the Said Mary tould us that when Shee was well Againe Shee Could not Say that Shee saw any of Apparissons at the time Aforesaid -." During Warren's first examination, Elizabeth Hubbard "testifyed that a little after this Mary was well, she then said that the afflicted persons did but dissemble." Both of these statements suggest that either Warren was mentally unstable, or that she and the accusers were participating in concocted lies. Keeping in mind the above statements, Mary's remarkable description in the prison of Giles Cory's clothes could possibly be explained by the fact that the accusers were "dissembling" - and not that Giles

Cory was afflicting Mary at that very moment. In Salem Story, Bernard Rosenthal claims Warren understood that "cooperation with the accusers proved salutary" and that her decision to become an active accuser provided a great lesson to others who would later employ the same tactic.

Bibliography Boyer, Paul and Steven Nissenbaum, ed. The Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1977. Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story, 1999.

Elizabeth (Betty) ParrisWritten By Sarah-Nell WalshSalem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2001

Elizabeth (Betty) Parris was nine years old when the witchcraft epidemic broke out in Salem, and she actively participated in its beginning. Elizabeth, a sweet girl, had difficulty facing the stark realities of predestination and damnation that her father, Reverend Samuel Parris, preached to her. Elizabeth Parris lived in a period of economic uncertainty and yearned to know what lay in her future.

In the dark winter days of 1691, Elizabeth Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams began to undertake experiments in fortune telling, using a device known as a "venus glass." A venus glass consists of an egg white suspended in water in which one could see shapes and figures. The girls mainly focused on their future social status, and specifically on the trade in which their husbands would be employed. These fortune telling secrets were shared with other young girls in the area. On one occasion, the glass revealed the horrendous specter of a coffin, which, as Rev. John Hale reported in A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, (1702) led to "diabolical molestation.". And it is out of these childish beginnings that the Salem witchcraft outbreak began.

Betty Parris' afflictions started innocently in January when she began to forget errands, was unable to concentrate, and seemed rapt in secret preoccupation. She could not concentrate at prayer time and barked like a dog when her father would rebuke her. She screamed wildly when she heard the "Our Father" prayer and once hurled a Bible across the room. After these episodes, she sobbed distractedly and spoke of being damned. She seemed to see damnation as inevitable, perhaps because of her practicing fortune telling, which was regarded as a demonic activity.. Reverend Samuel Parris believed that prayer could cure her odd behavior, but his efforts were ineffective. Nobody knows precisely what the Betty Parris and her girls friends were experiencing, but it manifested itself as odd postures, foolish and ridiculous speech, distempers, and fits. John Hale in A Modest Inquiry described the affliction that the girls suffered by saying they looked as if they "were bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, necks, and backs turned this way and that way, and returned back again, so as it was impossible for them to do of themselves, and beyond the power of Epileptick fits, or natural disease to effect. Sometimes they were taken dumb, their mouths stopped, their throats choked, their limbs wracked and tormented so as might move a heart

of stone to sympathize with them." The local physician, William Griggs, diagnosed Elizabeth Parris as being afflicted by the "Evil Hand," commonly known as witchcraft. Rev. Samuel Parris thought it was "a very sore rebuke and humbling providence that the Lord ordered the horrid calamity to break out first in [his] family." Since the sufferers of witchcraft were believed to be the victims of a crime, the community set out to find the perpetrators.

On February 29, 1692, under intense adult questioning, the afflicted girls named Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba as their tormentors. Elizabeth Parris testified at these trials that she was tormented by spectral visions of these women. During their trials, Elizabeth would cry out when the accused moved her arms, legs, or head, as if the accused was injuring her from across the room. Elizabeth Parris was also involved in the conviction of Martha Corey. At Martha Corey's trial, the afflicted girls sat together, and what Martha did, they all did. If she shifted her feet they did so too, and fell to stamping their feet. If she bit her lips, they yelled that she had bitten theirs, and showed the magistrates tht they bled."

Understandably, Mrs. Parris was worried about the health of her daughter and she protested against using her as a witch finder. At the end of March, Betty was sent to live with Rev. Samuel Parris' distant cousin, Stephen Sewall, in Salem. This technique of isolation stopped most of her symptoms, but she still had visions after leaving the Parris household. On March 25, Elizabeth "related that the great Black Man came to her, and told her, if she would be ruled by him, she should have whatsoever she desired, and go to a Golden City" (Lawson). Mrs. Sewall told Elizabeth that it had been the Devil who had approached her "and he was a Lyar from the Beginning, and bid her tell him so, if he came again: which she did" (Lawson). In 1710, Elizabeth Parris finally found the answer to the question she had been searching for in her homemade crystal ball. She married Benjamin Baron, a yeoman, trader, cordwainer, and shoemaker, in Sudbury and led a very ordinary existence. She and Benjamin bore four children, Thomas, Elizabeth Jr., Catherine, and Susanna. Elizabeth Parris survived her husband by six years, succumbing to illness in their Concord home on March 21, 1760 (Marilyn Roach).

BibliographyBoyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, , 1974.Gragg, Larry, A Quest for Security, 1990.Deodat Lawson, "A Brief and True narrative," 1692. As quoted in G. L. Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1914. Rosenthal, Bernard, Salem Story, 1993.Starkey, Marion L., The Devil in Massachusetts, 1969.Roach, Marilynne K., "That Child, Betty Parris," Essex Institute Historical Collections Vol. 124, No. 1 1988: 1-27.

Rebecca NurseWritten by Matt Madden Pre-Trial Examination: March 24, 1692

Rebecca Nurse, a sick and elderly woman of seventy-years old, stood for examination before the court on charges of practicing witchcraft on March 24, 1692. Judge John Hathorne, assisted by Judge Jonathan Corwin, conducted the examination in the meeting house of Salem Village before a crowd of people from Salem Village. The examination of "Goody Nurse" developed into a spectacle worthy of the attendance of so many onlookers, as a number of afflicted women launched into "grevious fitts" and openly denounced Rebecca Nurse as the cause of their torment. In the end, after one of the great confrontations between an accused and the infamous Judge Hathorne, the Judges found cause to bind Rebecca Nurse over for trial after which she was executed on Gallows Hill on July 19, 1692.

The examination of Rebecca Nurse was recorded by the Reverend Samuel Parris, whose own young daughter Betty was one of the accusers together Betty's cousin, twelve-year old Abigail Williams. He writes that the examination opened with Hathorne turning his attention not to Nurse, but rather to Abigail Williams. Williams reported to the magistrates that the apparition of Nurse had just that morning, as well as on previous occasions, afflicted her. Shortly after this statement, Ann Putnam, Jr. launched into a "grievous fit" and before Rebecca Nurse even began to testify, the tone of the examination had been set.

Hathorne first turned his attention to Nurse, and pointedly asked her to account for the accusations of Williams and Putnam. Nurse, defiant and incredulous to the end, responded, "I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent and God will clear my innocency." Following the first of many denials on Nurse's part, Hathorne turned his attention to the assembly to hear additional evidence against Nurse. After receiving two more accounts implicating Nurse in witchcraft, this time from adult men in the community, Hathorne put the question more directly. "Are you an innocent person relating to this witchcraft?"

Before Rebecca Nurse could respond, Ann Putnam, Sr. interrupted and cried out to Nurse, "Did you not bring the Black Man with you," and the examination descended into a barrage of accusations as Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard join in by crying out that Nurse afflicted them right there in the meeting house.

In an interesting aside in the examination record, Parris wrote that one of these accusations came from, "Mary Walcott (who often heretofore said she had seen her, but never could say or did say that she either bit or pinchted her, or hurt her)". Here, Parris, who actively encouraged the accusations in Salem Village, suggests that Walcott was now able to confirm that Nurse was the cause of her previous torment. Then the girls, with their eyes on Nurse's agitated movements, imitated her postures by contorting their own bodies. Thus they made it appear that Nurse implicated herself, as the afflicted cried out in pain with every movement of the examinant's head and arms, gaining the attion of the judges and the onlookers. Yet even in the face of this seemingly damning evidence, Nurse steadfastly proclaimed her innocence: "The Lord knows I have not hurt them. I am an innocent person."

The banter between Hathorne, and possibly at times Corwin, and Nurse continued as the judges attempted to badger a confession using different rhetorical devices. The judges asked why Nurse stood stoically in the face of such afflictions suffered by the girls, to which Nurse replied, "You do not know my heart," and that she was, "... as clear as the child unborn." The effort to force a confession is clear, as is the constant and unwavering refusal of Rebecca Nurse to "bely" herself by bearing false witness against herself, though at this early stage in the trials she could not know that confession was the way to buy time and avoid the gallows.

Hathorne, likely frustrated at Nurse's refusal to cooperate and confess her dealings with the Devil, attempted a new approach. "They accuse you of hurting them," he stated, "and if you think it is not unwillingly but by designe, you must look upon them as murderers." The significance of this line runs deep. First, Hathorne by this statement deftly forced Nurse to explain the afflictions witnessed in that very room as, if not her fault, then the fault of the very girls so "grievously afflicted". Second, by stating that the afflicted girls would be "murderers" if merely pretending their affliction "by designe", it certainly became abundantly clear to Rebecca Nurse that it would be her own death to which these afflicted women would soon be responsible if they were lying, as executions had yet to be ordered or begun in Salem. It was Hathorne's final, desperate attempt to force a confession from Nurse by ensuring she understood that her own life was in the balance.

As the examination drew to a close, the best Hathorne could wrest from the steadfast Nurse was that though she did think the afflicted were "bewitcht", she stated that "I cannot help it, the Devil may appear in my shape." This small admission, made only after Hathorne had asserted that at least her apparition was culpable, still did not gain Hathorne full confession he wanted. Therefore, after an examination that was truly a circus hardly befitting a true and legal hearing, Judges Hathorne and Corwin bound Rebecca Nurse over for the trial which would result in her execution on charges of practicing witchcraft.

Sarah OsborneWritten By Meghan CarrollSalem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2001

Born in Watertown, Massachusetts in about 1643, Sarah Warren married Robert Prince, a Salem Villager who purchased a 150-acre farm next to Captain John Putnam's. Putnam was Prince's neighbor and also his brother-in-law and the executor (along with Thomas Putnam) of his will. When Prince died prematurely in 1674, he left his land entrusted to his wife Sarah with the provision that upon their coming of age, it be given to his and Sarah's two sons -- James, who was six-years-old at the time, and Joseph, who was two. However, soon after her husband's death, Sarah hired an indentured Irish immigrant by the name of Alexander Osborne as a farm hand and paid off his indenture. Rumors spread about Sarah and Alexander's living together and eventually the two

were married. Sarah, then attempted to overtake her children's inheritance and seize control of the estate for herself and her new husband, thus breaking her deceased husband's will. Legal battles ensued between Osborne and her children, who were the rightful heirs of Prince's land and were defended by the Putnams. Such conflict continued until February of 1692 when Sarah Osborne became one of the first three persons accused of witchcraft in Salem.

Sarah was accused by Thomas and Edward Putnam, Joseph Hutchinson, and Thomas Preston for afflicting Ann Putnam, Jr., Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Hubbard. Unlike the other two women accused with her, Tituba and Sarah Good, Osborne never confessed to witchcraft nor attempted to accuse anyone else. In her own defense, she was the first defendant to assert in her defense the theological claim that the devil could take the shape of another person without their compliance -- a view that eventually prevailed and brought the Salem trials to a halt. Nonetheless, Osborne never came to trial because she died, shackled in prison on May 10, 1692 at the age of 49.

Why was Sarah Osborne accused of witchcraft? To answer this question, we must look closely at the society in which she lived and at her reputation in it. Historians Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum argue that many of the accused witches were perceived as upsetting established "patterns of land tenure and inheritance." Sarah Osborne fits this profile. Not only was Salem Village aware of her fornication with Alexander (an obvious Puritan sin), but by endeavoring to gain full ownership of her late husband's estate, she disregarded her society's set practices of inheritance and land tenure, and challenged the tradition of strong, extended family alliances. By aspiring to deny her two sons of their wealth and social position, she threatened the growth and stability of Putnam family alliances in Salem Village.

Is a woman who betrays her society's social and family conventions worthy of an accusation of witchcraft? Not in today's society, but in seventeenth century New England these offenses were socially and economically serious, and a threat to the divinely sanctioned social order. Specifically, the Putnam family's economic interests and inheritance grew less secure by Sarah's attempt at social and economic independence. Consequently, but not surprisingly, it was members of the Putnam family who accused Osborne.

While such theories may offer explanations as to why Sarah Osborne, as opposed to her husband Alexander, was accused of witchcraft, we might also ask why she was actually convicted. If only 19 of the approximately 160 people accused were actually executed, what prevented Sarah Osborne from surviving? Unlike Tituba and Sarah Good who both confessed to witchcraft and falsely accused Osborne, Osborne did not confess nor did she accuse anyone else, and hence unknowingly at this stage, she closed an opportunity that might have saved her. Even though it later became apparent that the way to survive an accusation was to confess and to point fingers at others, Sarah Osborne repeatedly affirmed her innocence. When asked by local officials why she practiced with the devil, Osborne responded with bewilderment that she "was more like to be bewitched than that she was a witch." Ultimately, it was her refusal to compromise her integrity that cost Sarah Osborne her life.

Bibliography Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, 1974. Carol F. Karlson, Devil in the Shape of a Woman, 1998 Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story, 1993

John HathorneBy Devan KirkSalem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2001

On August 5, 1641, John Hathorne was born into a community that could have little suspected his future role in the condemnation and death of so many people. His prominent ancestry in Salem led him to acquire positions of justice of the peace and county judge. As a religious man in a highly religious community, Hathorne, like others, believed that the devil had the power to influence people to do harm in the community and in the church. Hathorne allowed his strong, unexamined, beliefs to influence him during his time as judge in the Salem Witchcraft Trials, thus making him take on an avid prosecutorial style and an assumption of guilt of most of those who answered his questions.

Usually, Hathorne began his questioning in an accusatory tone, and he would then proceed to badger the accused in an attempt to drive out a confession and, better yet, more accusations. Although these methods were a departure from tradition, Hathorne used them throughout the trials. One classic example of Hathorne at work as a judge is the examination of Rebecca Nurse. He begins not by asking Nurse if she is guilty or innocent, but by asking the afflicted if Nurse afflicts them. He then asks Rebecca, "here are two An: Putman the child & Abigail Williams complains of your hurting them What do you say to it" and Nurse replies that she is innocent." Hathorne, of course, does not let it rest at that. He continues, "Here is never a one in the Assembly but desires it, but if you be guilty Pray God discover you" and then allows the people in the room to stand and testify as to how Nurse afflicted each of them, relentlessly asking Rebecca after each how and if she denies them. He persists, asking, "You see these accuse you, is it true?" in response to which Nurse states "No," but, not being the answer that Hathorne desired he asks again, "Are you an innocent person relating to this Witchcraft." Hathorne then continued to allow the accusations of others to be heard until Rebecca Nurse cried, "Oh Lord help me, & spread out her hands, & the afflicted were grievously vexed" to which Hathorne replies in his usual accusatory manner, "Do you not see what a solemn condition these are in? when your hands are loose the persons are afflicted." Frustrated by her continued claim of innocence, Hathorne states, "It is very awful to all to see these agonies & you an old Professor [believer] thus charged with contracting with the Devil by the [a] effects of it & yet to see you stand with dry eyes when there are so many whet" to which Rebecca Nurse courageously asserts "You do not know my heart." It is here that Hathorne slips in his composure and openly states, "You would do well if you are guilty to confess & give Glory to God" - thus showing his already formed opinion as to her guilt and his preference for confessions. The

questioning then continues and Hathorne switches into a new mode and attempts to trick Nurse into confessing, "Possibly you [Nurse] may apprehend you are no witch, but have you not been led aside by temptations that way" for, if Nurse confessed to either, she would be confessing at least to the practice of witchcraft still, and could still be punished. Again the badgering by Hathorne continued until finally Nurse asked a revealing question to which she received no answer, "Would you [Hathorne] have me belie my self." This questioned posed to Hathorne shows that Nurse suspected that Hathorne desired her to confess even though she was innocent, and her brave questioning of him ended the examination.

Hathorne's role in the trials leaves room for questioning his motives for participating. Prior to Governor Phip's arrival in Massachusetts, both Hathorne and Corwin had actively jailed many who were suspected of witchcraft, thus setting the scene for each man to be biased toward the guilt of those accused. Hathorne also appeared strangely calm while questioning those accused of acting in the devil's name. Even Bridget Bishop wondered why he did not fear that she would harm him if she was a witch: Hathorne: How can you [Bridget Bishop] know, you are no Witch, & yet not know what a Witch is. Bridget Bishop: I am clear: if I were any such person you should know it. (SWP I: 84, emphasis added)

If Hathorne believed that God protected him or if he knew that those he questioned could be innocent cannot be proven either way. Bernard Rosenthal suggests in Salem Story the possibility that Hathorne might have also stood to have some financial gain from the trials from the seizure of property that took place, and the same with the other judges. Whatever his motives for such aggressive prosecution, however, Hathorne put many innocent people to death and became the shame of his family even down to his great-grandson, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Bibliography Boyer, Paul and Steven Nissenbaum, ed. Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the

Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692. New York, De Cappo Press, 1977. "> Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Mercy LewisWritten By Meghan Carroll, 2001 and Jenny Stone, 2002Salem Witch Trials in History and LiteratureAn Undergraduate Course, University of VirginiaSpring Semester 2002

"I veryly believe in my heart," began 19 -year-old Mercy Lewis on April 19, 1692, "that Giles Corey is a dreadful wizzard." Lewis's confidence in herself was not unique to her accusation of Corey during the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Throughout the months plagued by chaos and confusion in Salem Village, Mercy Lewis acted as a member of the core group of accusing young women in the Village, blatantly accusing several persons of afflicting herself and her friends. Besides Giles Cory,

Mercy Lewis accused Bridget Bishop, Mary Lacey, Sr., Susannah Martin, John Willard, Nehemiah Abbot, Jr., Sarah Wilds, and her former guardian, George Burroughs.

Mercy Lewis was born in Falmouth, Maine in 1675. The Lewis family lived in Maine until an Indian attack killed all of Mercy's extended family. In the Devil's Snare historian Mary Beth Norton suspects that Mercy's parents were killed in a later attack witnessed by Mercy herself. This tragic event cemented Mercy's connection between the Wabanaki Indians and Satan. The settlers came to fear death, captivity, and torture by the Indians. "In light of the perceived alliance between Satan and the Wabanakis, such suffused dread could easily have been vocalized in what became the commonplace description of the devil's threats to 'tear [the afflicted] to pieces' if they did not comply with his demands." Mercy testified to one of the witch conventions and reported that they were singing biblical passages regarding God's judgment of the heathen.

As a result of being orphaned, Mercy was sent to live as a servant with Reverend George Burroughs in Maine and then later to the household of Thomas Putnam in Salem Village. At the Putnam household, Lewis befriended Ann Putnam and her cousin Mary Walcott who were among the first to make claims of affliction by specters of witches. From her previous experience, Mercy was chief source of information about George Burroughs and the Hobbs family in Maine. To support their accusations, Mercy Lewis and the other girls continued to display spectral "evidence" of affliction. In one notable incident, Lewis is reported by Edward Putnam to have been drawn helplessly by an unseen force across a room directly towards a burning hearth while in the presence of an accused Martha Corey. Norton notes that Mercy displayed her leadership in the core group of accusers at least two times. She dismissed Ann Jr.'s claim against Nehemiah Abbott Jr. by saying that Ann was mistaken and "essentially single-handedly... prevented [Mary] Easty from being freed" when all other accusations had been withdrawn.

Is it possible that the girls, including Mercy Lewis, actually were afflicted? The position taken by Bernard Rosenthal in Salem Story considers two possible explanations. Either the girls were experiencing psychological disorders or they were simply frauds, and decides in favor of fraud. Nineteenth century historian Charles Upham, author of Salem Witchcraft, suggests a mixture of explanations "credulity, hallucination, and the delirium of excitement" to account for the girls' behavior.

Regardless of what may have fueled the incessant accusations, the fact remains that the girls accused innocent persons of witchcraft, costing many of them their lives. Historian Carol Karlsen in her book Devil in the Shape of a Woman attempts to explain the girls' afflictions as a response to their personal insecurities -- both economic and social. Mercy Lewis's case illustrates Karlsen's point well. Lewis experienced a traumatized childhood and lived in relatively insecure social and economic circumstances. As an orphan, she had no money or dowry to offer in marriage, so the chances of obtaining a husband and thus escaping her social position of servitude must have seemed bleak. Indeed, Rev. John Hale noted in his Modest Inquiry, two of the "afflicted" Salem girls were anxious about their marriage prospects. Norton draws attention to the Indian attacks in many of the girls' pasts and comments that the status of the accusers shifted from lowest to highest in the family and community. Daily life changed because the girls stopped doing their chores and neighbors constantly visited to see them perform. This was especially prominent at the Putnam

household where Mercy lived because so many of the women living there were afflicted. Boyer and Nissenbaum, who cite primarily socio-economic causes for the witchcraft trials, might agree that these girls -- who possessed essentially no social standing before the trials -- were greatly empowered by their accusations. Moreover, many of the accused persons are examples of people who managed to climb the social ladder or become assertive women -- both feats that Mercy Lewis was unable to accomplish. Furthermore, because Mercy Lewis was not involved in the initial accusations but rather joined Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Hubbard later in the game, it seems that perhaps a desperate need for social empowerment and belonging were strong underlying motives.

Finally, it may be asked, "What did an accuser hope to achieve by naming a person as a witch?" No one's socio-economic status improved as a result of the trials, and most of the accused suffered financial losses. Mercy Lewis herself did not marry until late in life and then only after she had given birth to her first child. Perhaps Bernard Rosenthal's response to the question is most appropriate. He replies with a quotation from Herman Melville who simply asks, "How much money did the devil make by gulling Eve?."

Bibliography Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare, 2002. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed, 1974. John Hale, Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, 1702. Carol F. Karlsen, Devil in the Shape of a Woman, 1998. Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story, 1993. Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft,1867.

ChildrenWritten by Darya Mattes (copyright, 2004)History 209, An Undergraduate Course, Cornell UniversityFall Semester, 2003Revised for presentation to the Berkshire Conference, 2005"Accused Children in the Salem Witchcraft Crisis"

The witchcraft crisis in Essex County, Massachusetts in 1692 has long been known for its unusual list of accused witches. The high proportion of men accused of witchcraft in the crisis has been noted by historians for decades, as has the unusual preponderance of wealthy, influential citizens and upstanding church members.1 There is one atypical group of accused, however, who have been largely overlooked. During the course of the crisis, at least eight children under the age of twelve were accused of witchcraft, and most were indicted. This examination of the eight cases of young children who were accused as witches will provide a vantage point from which to examine the dynamics of family and community that shaped the witchcraft crisis.

A study of the cases of these children reveals some notable common threads. First, in all of the cases, the only evidence offered against the children was spectral, and came from the "afflicted girls" of either Salem Village or Andover. In no case did anyone accuse a child of maleficium; every accuser was either an afflicted girl herself or someone acting on her behalf. All of the eight children also ultimately confessed to being witches while some, such as Sarah Carrier and Johanna Tyler, went as far as to offer descriptive confessions detailing their initiations into the service of the devil.

Most notably however, every one of the eight had an accused witch for a mother. In each instance when a child under twelve was accused, his or her mother had been accused at some point during the previous weeks or months. Some, but not all, of the children's mothers had been convicted as well. The children themselves brought out this connection in their confessions: almost all professed that "thire mother mayd them witches."2 The cases of the children accused of witchcraft in Salem are thus inextricably linked to the witchcraft accusations of their mothers. A study of these unusual cases, in conjunction with an examination of the ways in which Puritan individuals were situated within the family and the religious sphere, can thus offer insights into the infamous events of 1692. Before discussing the cases themselves, it is important to note that it is difficult to define a discrete category of "children" within the crisis. Whereas a study of men as witches is obviously quite clear-cut, it is less easy to say who was a child in the crisis of 1692, both for reasons of documentation and because contemporary notions of who was a "child" may have differed from modern ones. At times, it is simply difficult to determine how old individuals were during the trials; while a great deal of information can be gleaned from court records and other documents, or from each town's vital records, some people are hard to track. One young man from Manchester for example, Nicholas Frost, is listed in various places as having been born in either 1685, 1682, or 1672.3 It is therefore possible that he fits into my category of children under twelve and should have been included in this study, but he also may have been as old as twenty. I therefore did not try to include him, as his age was simply too ambiguous.

Additionally, my definition of a "child" as someone under twelve is entirely artificial. To our modern sensibilities, people who are eleven years old or younger are children. However Abigail Johnson, aged eleven in 1692, is described as a "singlewoman" in the court records,4 suggesting that her "child" status can not be taken for granted. It is unclear whether her case is substantially different from those of the twelve- or thirteen-year-old young people who were accused of witchcraft and who were all, at the time, considered too young to testify in capital cases.5 I chose to view only those individuals who were under twelve as children in order to avoid an analysis of Puritan adolescent issues by focusing on very young children who were still clearly tied to their parents. However it may be defined, a significant group of young children were targeted as witches in 1692. Although the precise eight individuals whom I have chosen to include in this group may be debatable, the group nevertheless exists, and I believe the conclusions I can draw from this sample are valid.

A brief description of each case will serve to highlight their recurring themes and possible implications. Two of the best-documented cases of accused children were those of Sarah Carrier and Thomas Carrier Jr. of Andover, aged seven and ten respectively.6 The cases of the youngest Carrier children stand as a prime example of witchcraft as linked to family ties: their mother, Martha Carrier, was hanged as a witch a week after their August examinations, and their older brothers, Richard and Andrew, had confessed to witchcraft as well, albeit probably under torture.

Both Sarah and Thomas also explicitly implicated their mother in their confessions. Thomas stated that "his Mother taught him witchcraft" and baptized him as a witch, while Sarah emphasized that their mother was, in fact, the primary agent acting on them: she said her mother baptized her, and that the devil or black man was not there.7 The cases of the young Carrier children, then, show clearly the ways in which children accused of witchcraft were linked directly to other family members, most closely to their mothers.

Sarah Carrier named others besides her mother who were present at her diabolical baptism, specifically "Aunt Toothaker and her cousin."8 Sarah and Thomas Jr's cousin Margaret Toothaker, aged ten and living in Billerica, was in fact another one of the accused children.9 Margaret is unusual in that not once in the Salem court documents is she mentioned by name. Margaret's married sister, Martha Emerson, was also an accused witch, and she and Margaret are sometimes hard to distinguish in the Salem records, as in a deposition against their father, an accuser makes reference to Roger Toothaker's "Daughter."10 However it seems clear that another Toothaker daughter besides Martha Emerson was implicated in the trials. One complaint, for example, lists "Toothaker" (not Emerson) as Roger Toothaker's accused daughter, and Elizabeth Johnson, another confessor, admits to seeing "goodwife toothaker & two of Toothakers Children" at a witch meeting. While records of Margaret's examinations do not survive in the court records, her case is enlightening precisely because her existence is so inextricably tied to her family. She was referred to repeatedly as the daughter of her father or her mother, or even as a cousin, but never as an individual, thereby highlighting the tight linkages that existed within families. She was also unusual in that not only her mother, but her father as well was accused of witchcraft. Margaret Toothaker was the only small child with two parents who were accused witches.11

Another accused child with links to the Carrier family was Abigail Johnson, who was eleven years old and lived in Andover.12 While I was unable to determine whether the Carriers and the Johnsons were actually related in any way, it is clear that their families were strongly tied to one another, at the least as neighbors in Andover. For example, Abigail and her older brother Stephen were kept together with Sarah Carrier as the responsibility of three Andover men in place of going to the Salem jail.13 There are also numerous cross-references between Johnson and Carrier confessions; Thomas Carrier Jr. "Saw Betty Johnson in the Company" at a witch meeting, while Elizabeth Johnson Jr. stated that "Goody Carrier baptized her when she Baptized her Daughter Sarah."14

Abigail, like Margaret Toothaker and the Carrier children, came from a family of witches: both her mother Elizabeth Sr. and her sister Elizabeth Jr. were accused as well, and both confessed to witchcraft. Abigail's case is also an example of the theme of spectral torture of "afflicted girls" that pervades the accusations of all of the children. Martha Sprague and Abigail Martin, both teenagers who complained against seventeen and seven people respectively, accused Abigail Johnson of afflicting them.15

Closely related to the Johnson family were Abigail's cousins Dorothy Faulkner and Abigail Faulkner, Jr., two more children accused of witchcraft.16 Dorothy, who was ten, and Abigail, aged eight, also lived in Andover. Their case returns to the theme of direct implication of mothers in children's confessions. Abigail Faulkner Sr. was an accused witch, and her daughters stated that "they were lead into that dreadfull sin of witchcraft by hir meanse." Also apparently led into witchcraft by

Abigail Sr. was the last Andover child witch, Johanna Tyler, who was eleven in 1692. Although she directly implicated only Abigail Faulkner Sr. in her confession directly, stating that "Goode falkner Pirswaded her first," her mother Mary Tyler was also an accused witch.17

The one remaining child accused of witchcraft in 1692 was anomalous for several reasons. Dorcas Good was by far the youngest accused child at age "4 or 5," with the next youngest, Sarah Carrier, being "eight years old in November next." She was also the only child accused within Salem Village itself. In fact, she was essentially the only child accused outside of Andover. Margaret Toothaker lived in Billerica in 1692 but had lived in Andover previously and had relatives there,19 while the other six children all lived in Andover during the trials. The timing of her accusation was also anomalous; Dorcas was accused months before the Andover children. Dorcas, who was often referred to as "Dorothy" in the court records, was thus unusual among the children in her age, her place of residence, and in when she was accused. However these differences help to highlight the similarities that pervade all of the children's cases, which remain in spite of divergent external circumstances.

Dorcas Good, like the other children, was accused exclusively by afflicted girls: in her case, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott. They accused her of spectral torment and not of maleficium, which was the pattern in the cases of the other children as well. Dorcas also confessed to being a witch, implicating her mother in her confession by saying that her mother "had three birds one black, one yellow & that these birds hurt the Children and afflicted persons." Dorcas' mother, like the mothers of all of the other accused children, was also an accused witch; Sarah Good had been among the first to be accused and was one of the first to be hanged.20

One notable discontinuity between the different children's cases is that some of their mothers confessed to being witches while others denied the charges against them. Martha Carrier and Sarah Good maintained their innocence and were hanged, while Abigail Faulkner, Sr., Elizabeth Johnson, Sr., Mary Toothaker, and Mary Tyler all confessed to being witches.21 This factor seems to have had little effect on the plight of their children. During the Salem witchcraft crisis everyone who was accused was presumed guilty; magistrates asked leading questions, and those who insisted upon their innocence, at least during the earlier trials, were generally executed. In such an environment, a confession or the lack thereof did not greatly affect other people's perceptions of an individual as a witch. Children of confessed witches and those whose mothers insisted on their innocence alike were suspected and often accused of witchcraft.

Thus common themes appear in each of the cases of children accused of witchcraft. Sarah and Thomas Carrier, Margaret Toothaker, Abigail Johnson, Dorothy and Abigail Faulkner, Johanna Tyler, and Dorcas Good were all accused by afflicted girls, they all confessed to being witches, all had mothers who were believed to be witches, whether confessed or not, and many implicated their own mothers in their confessions.

An important point to bear in mind in examining the witchcraft cases of young children is that the notion of a child as a witch did not contradict Puritan belief. Particularly in the unusual case of Salem, witches and children alike were seen as easily influenced and potential or existing conduits for the devil. Whereas more typical witchcraft cases tended to include accusations of maleficium

and therefore were targeted more at older individuals with negative reputations in the community, the focus in Salem was on spectral torment. A witch in Salem was thus primarily defined as one who had made a covenant with the devil. He or she was perceived as working with him to afflict other individuals, often with the intent of coercing them to make a diabolical covenant as well. Because the devil worked through people in this way, no prior experience or knowledge was necessary to make someone a witch; thus the notion of very young, uneducated children as potent witches was perfectly compatible with Puritan belief. Cotton Mather stated this directly, remarking, "Are they Young? Yet the Devil has been with them alreadyO They go astray as soon as they are born."22

Puritan children were also often viewed as religiously precocious by the adults around them. Children were surrounded by deep and pervasive religious belief from the time of their births. For this reason, adults assumed a fairly high level of theological understanding in children at a very young age. The modern historian Levin Schucking notes that "A child who, like little John Ruskin preached sermons about 'Dod' from a kitchen chair, was not only a frequent and typical phenomenon in the Puritan nursery but for nearly three centuries an extremely popular one."23 Puritan children were thus considered in many ways to possess a good understanding of religious principles. Compounded with the little theological knowledge that was expected in a believable witch, this fact meant that the notion of children as witches was not at all incongruous in Puritan belief.

In fact, Puritan practice may have made children more likely than adults in some ways to actually believe that they were witches. The historian Judith Graham notes that "Puritan girls and boys grew up in a culture that relentlessly required them to confront their sinfulness, and to contemplate the possibility of being separated from the regenerate and condemned to the palpable horrors of hell."24

Puritan doctrine may thus have worked with childhood fears to convince children of their own inherent immorality and unworthiness. In such a context, it is hardly surprising that children as young as five or seven could convince themselves that their "sinfulness" had been translated into direct collaboration with the devil. The children's confessions from 1692 support this assumption. More contemporary support comes from the Reverend Francis Dane, who was the father of Elizabeth Johnson Sr. and Abigail Faulkner Sr. He was thus intimately connected to the accused children and was unsurprisingly a critic of the trials.25 He made almost precisely this point about childhood fear, writing that in the case of "some Children we have cause to feare that dread has overcome them to accuse themselves in that they knew not."26 Even at the time of the trials, then, it was clear to some people that Puritan religious belief in general, and the witchcraft crisis in particular, may have been frightening the accused children into making confessions motivated primarily by fear. Children would have been likely, therefore, to confess to crimes that were already credible according to Puritan beliefs about both witchcraft and childhood.

The institution of the family was integral in Puritan society as well, occupying a central role in personal identity and spiritual well-being. Very visibly in the court documents, individuals are referred to through their linkages to others, as "wife of," "daughter of" or "son of." This is most true of women and children, who were almost invariably linked to family members for their identities. Notably, while women were always mentioned in connection with their husbands, children were not always described in terms of their fathers. Rather, particularly in the cases of children accused of witchcraft, the children were frequently referred to as the daughters of their mothers, as in

"Dorrithy good Sarah goods daughter" or "dorritye Forknor and Abigale Forknor children: to Abigall Farknor."27 This implicit alliance of children with their mothers has important implications for the way that conclusions were drawn and accusations made. As Richard Baxter wrote in 1673, "So it is an evident truth, that most of the mischiefs that now infest or seize upon mankind throughout the earth, consists in, or are caused by the disorders and ill-governedness of families."28 Family "governedness," in turn was the provenance of parents, particularly of mothers. Thus if children were identified with their accused-witch mothers, witchcraft would have been perceived as a family disorder.

Even more specifically, Schucking states that "Religion is for the Puritan family religion. Divine worship is, not incidentally but primarily, family worship."29 Thus not only were families tightly linked units in terms of general characteristics, but religious practices were interpreted as especially family-bound. The children's confessions in which they accused their mothers offer compelling support for this point. Sarah Carrier said, "My mother, she made me set my hand to a book," Thomas Carrier related how "his Mother baptized him in the ShawShin River," Dorcas Good confessed that her mother had given her a little snake as a familiar, and the Faulkner sisters stated that "thire mother apared and mayd them witches."30 Witchcraft was thus an inversion of Puritan doctrine, in which adherents followed the devil instead of God but in which the primary means of initiation was the same. Just as Puritans believed that religion must be learned and experienced within the family, so witchcraft was viewed as being transmitted through the family, and especially from a witch mother to her closely-connected children.

Witchcraft accusations of young children at Salem thus serve to highlight the strength and focuses of Puritan belief. They are therefore perfectly explicable in these terms. In many ways, it is possible to view the Puritan conception of witch mothers and children as the natural result as well as the inversion of the ideal Puritan mother and child relationship. Accused children, like ideal children, were religiously precocious, but they babbled confessions instead of sermons and covenanted with the devil instead of with God. Accused mothers, like ideal mothers, imparted their religion to their children, thereby ensuring one destiny or another for their children's souls. The thin line between ideal Puritanism and virulent witchcraft is exemplified in one statement from the confession of Sarah Carrier, in which she describes how her mother directly forced her into being a witch. Although Sarah never suggests that a minister performed her baptism, taken out of context, the sentence could almost refer to either diabolical or divine practice: "She said her mother baptized her, and her mother said when she baptized her, thou are mine for ever and ever and amen."31 The witchcraft accusations of children in the witchcraft crisis of 1692 can thus serve to exemplify Puritan notions of witchcraft, religion, and family relations. These ideas, in turn, can be applied not only to the cases of children, but to developing an understanding of the crisis as a whole.

Endnotes1. Examples of this occur in Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed:The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, Mass, 1974) and in Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story:Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (Cambridge, U.K. 1993). 2. "Confessions of Dorothy Faulkner, Abigail Faulkner, Jr, Martha Tyler, Johanna Tyler, Sarah Wilson, Jr, and Joseph Draper", Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissembaum, eds., The Salem Witchcraft

Papers. (New York 1977), accessed through etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft, 1: 335-7. In future notes this source will be referred to as SWP. 3. After failing to find Nicholas Frost in the Manchester vital records -his residence is listed as Manchester in Boyer and Nissenbaum's Salem Village Witchcraft (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), 377 - I checked genealogical information at www.rootsweb.com and www.familysearch.org - the two sites listed a total of three different years of birth for this one individual. 4. "Warrant for Arrest of Elizabeth Johnson, Sr. and Abigail Johnson", SWP, 2: 500.5. Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare (New York 2002), 21. 6. "Recognizance for Stephen Johnson, Abigail Johnson, and Sarah Carrier", SWP, 2:512.7. "Examination of Sarah Carrier" and "Examination of Thomas Carrier, Jr.", SWP, 1:203-4.8. "Examination of Sarah Carrier", SWP, 1:204.9. information on the Toothakers' place of residence from Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Village Witchcraft, appendix, 378. Margaret's name and age from Vital records of Billerica, Massachusetts to the year 1850 (Billerica, MA). 10. information on Martha Emerson from Norton,172. Quote from "Thomas Gage and [ ] Pickworth v. Roger Toothaker", SWP, 3:772. 11. "Complaint v. Martha Carrier, Elizabeth Fosdick, Wilmott Reed, Sarah Rice, Elizabeth How, John Alden, William Proctor, John Flood, Mary Toothaker and daughter, and Arthur Abbott" and "Thomas Gage and [ ] Pickworth v Roger Toothaker", SWP, 3:183, 772. 12. "Warrant for Arrest of Elizabeth Johnson, Sr. and Abigail Johnson", SWP, 2:499.13. "Recognizance for Stephen Johnson, Abigail Johnson, and Sarah Carrier", SWP, 2:512.14. "Examination of Elizabeth Johnson" and "Examination of Thomas Carrier, Jr.", SWP, 2:503 and 1:204. 15. "Warrant for Arrest of Elizabeth Johnson, Sr. and Abigail Johnson", SWP, 2:499.16. Norton, In the Devil's Snare 255. 17. "Confessions of Dorothy Faulkner, Abigail Faulkner, Jr., Martha Tyler, Johanna Tyler, Sarah Wilson, Jr., and Joesph Draper", "Recognizance for Dorothy Faulkner and Abigail Faulkner Jr.", and "Examination of Johanna Tyler", SWP, 1:335-337, 3:775. Johanna's mother's name is cited as "Mary" in Norton, In the Devil's Snare, 262, and this same woman is also cited in Norton as having explained her confession to Increase Mather. This woman's name, in the SWP, is erroneously cited as "Martha Tyler" based on an inaccurate eighteenth century transcription of the original document, which no longer exists. 18. "Account of William Good -- Cases of Sarah Good and Dorcas Good" and "Examination of Sarah Carrier", SWP, 1:204 and 3:994. 19. Norton, In the Devil's Snare, 182. 20. "Warrant v. Dorcas Good" and "Summary of Evidence Against Sarah Good", SWP, 1:351 and 355.21. Norton, 228, 257-264.22. Cotton Mather quoted in Judith S. Graham, Puritan Family Life:The Diary of Samuel Sewall (Boston, 2000), 61. Originall from Mather, Small Offers Towards the Service of the Tabernacle in this Wilderness, Boston, 1689. 23. Levin L. Schucking, The Puritan Family:A Social Study from the Literary Sources (London, 1969), 68-9. 24. Graham, Puritan Family Life, 72.

25. Rosenthal, Salem Story, 53. 26. "Statement by the Rev. Francis Dane on the Andover Outbreak", SWP, 1:882.27. "Warrant v. Dorcas Good" and "Confessions of Dorothy Faulkner, Abigail Faulkner, Jr., Martha Tyler, Johanna Tyler, Sarah Wilson, Jr., and Joesph Draper", SWP, 1:351 and 1:335. 28. Baxter quoted in Schucking, The Puritan Family, 56. Originally from Baxter, The Christian Directory, 1673, 514. 29. ibid.30. "Examination of Sarah Carrier", "Confessions of Dorothy Faulkner, Abigail Faulkner, Jr, Martha Tyler, Johanna Tyler, Sarah Wilson, Jr, and Joseph Draper", and "Examination of Thomas Carrier, Jr.", SWP, 1:203-4, 335-7. Summary of Dorcas Good's confession in Norton, In the Devil's Snare, 64. 31. "Examination of Sarah Carrier", SWP, 1:204.

Bibliography Andover, MA, Vital Records of Andover, Massachusetts to the year 1850. Billerica, MA, Vital records of Billerica, Massachusetts to the year 1850. Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

(Cambridge, Mass, 1974). Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem-Village Witchcraft (Boston: Northeastern

University Press, 1993). Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissembaum, eds., The Salem Witchcraft Papers. 3 vols. (New York

1977), accessed through http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft. Family Search, http://www.familysearch.org; www.familysearch.org. Graham , Judith S., Puritan Family Life: The Diary of Samuel Sewall (Boston, 2000). Manchester, MA, Vital Records of Manchester, Massachusetts to 1850. Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil's Snare (New York 2002). Rootsweb.com, http://www.rootsweb.com; www.rootsweb.com. Rosenthal, Bernard, Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (Cambridge, U.K. 1993). Schucking, Levin L., The Puritan Family: A Social Study from the Literary Sources (London,

1969)

ALL ESSAYS FROM :http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon-salem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/names.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&group.num=G01&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes