Today in Salem: Rev Parris’s dog is under the table, resting his head on his front paws and lying on Parris’s feet. The dog is the only spot of calm in the room, though, as Parris tries to transcribe the court’s proceedings.
It’s impossible, though. Parris’s own niece, Abigail Williams, is shrieking and convulsing and crying so dramatically that Parris can’t concentrate. She’s 11 years old, and yet somehow she’s louder than the teenage girls. The only person who’s even louder is the slave John Indian. Yesterday the schoolmaster had threatened him fiercely, and John had promised that his fits wouldn’t happen again. But now he’s back, more forcefully than before, and it takes 4 men to control him.
The harsh John Proctor was arrested yesterday during his wife’s examination, and less than 24 hours later the magistrates have brought him here for his own. But he’s hardly spoken when John Indian shouts that Proctor’s specter is on the dog’s back. The girls contort and gasp, pointing as the specter moves from the dog to the magistrate’s lap.
The judges have barely questioned Proctor, but they don’t need to. His specter is obviously tormenting people, right here and now. They send him back to jail to wait for a trial.
By now the Salem jail is so crowded that several prisoners are sent to Boston. Among them: the gospel woman Martha Corey. Her husband, the cantankerous Giles Corey, promises to visit her next week. And he will, but not in the way he thinks.
LEARN MORE: Why did Rev Parris have a dog with him in court? Did people in early colonial America have pets?
The Pilgrims on the Mayflower brought with them two dogs: a mastiff and an English spaniel, who not only survived the journey, but feasted during the first Thanksgiving. But they probably weren’t coddled the way pets are today. Still, Massachusetts published the first laws in America preventing cruelty toward animals, saying that “No man shall exercise any Tirranny or Crueltie towards any bruite Creature which are usuallie kept for man’s use.”
The mastiff continued to be the most popular dog during colonial times. Often, the family dog was tied up outside a front door and used as a guard dog. But many family dogs were treated more companionably and went everywhere with their owners, even to church.
Cats also arrived on the Mayflower (and every ship thereafter), and were expected to earn their keep by hunting pests and vermin. They came and went as they liked and were treated more like working animals than pets. Today, cats are the second most popular pet in the United States … behind dogs, with mastiffs being the 33rd most popular breed.