Beggar … Friend … Rebel … Saint … Seductress
This week, five women were tried in court, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. But it raises questions. The three unsavory women – the beggar, the rebel, and the seductress – have no family or friends to speak of, and no one to defend them. But the two more acceptable women – the friend and the saint – have nearly 60 people vouching for them. How is it that all five were so quickly condemned? Would anything make a difference?
An important thread is becoming clear: Resistance is growing. While they’re still in the minority, more and more people are signing petitions, writing letters, and offering testimony in defense of the accused.
Just as important, more people are beginning to question the system. A deputy and a judge have quit in protest. One prominent Puritan minister has asked the judges to slow down, stop assuming guilt, and keep the afflicted girls quiet. As a group, the Puritan ministers have asked the court to stop using visions of specters as evidence (the biggest reason people are being accused, arrested, and now convicted). Even a Baptist minister has written two petitions to condemn using spectral evidence. (The Governor had him arrested for his Baptist impudence).
Unfortunately, the one man who can stop it all — the Governor — is bored by the trials and would rather be fighting the frontier wars. So he’s delegated the situation to his Chief Justice, who’s delighting in his power and crusading to roust and destroy every witch in Massachusetts. Now more than 70 people are in prison, four people are dead, and five more are condemned. Can anyone stop him?
WHO’S BEEN TRIED AND SENTENCED TO HANG:
- The beggar Sarah Good – a vagrant who smokes a pipe and has a terrible temper. Sarah has been in prison with her 4-year-old daughter, Dorcas Good, and a 6-month-old baby, who died while there.
- The neighborly Elizabeth How – A friendly and pleasant woman who, nonetheless, is bitterly suspected by a family who’s 10-year-old daughter accused her, then died — two years ago. More than a dozen people have testified or deposed in her defense.
- The rebellious Susannah Martin – a mean, pole cat who a prominent minister called one of the most “impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world.”
- The beloved Rebecca Nurse – a 70-year-old grandmother who is well-loved throughout the community. 39 people signed a petition on her behalf, attesting to her upstanding character.
- The flamboyant Sarah Wilds – an aging, glamorous woman who was whipped for fornication as a young woman, brought to court for wearing fancy clothes, and now is suspected of bewitching a man into marrying her.
WHO’S BEEN HANGED FOR WITCHCRAFT:
- The unruly Bridget Bishop was hanged on June 10. Bridget Bishop was an unpopular and outspoken woman, and the first to be executed. A large crowd attended her hanging.
WHO’S DIED IN PRISON:
- The baby Mercy Good (the beggar Sarah Good’s 6-month-old baby) died on May 26, probably of malnutrition.
- The sickly Sarah Osborne died on May 10, probably of typhus. She was a scandal-ridden woman who’d married her servant and was trying to take her sons’ inheritance.
- The fortuneteller Roger Toothaker died on June 16 of “natural causes,” according to the coroner’s jury.