by Marjorie

Apr 30: ARRESTED: Widows, a burglar, and a minister

arrest warrant for Susannah Martin — *Susannah Martin’s*
*arrest warrant*

Today in Salem: 23 people are languishing in jail, some in Salem, and the rest – the overflow – in Boston. None has had a trial yet, but the judges aren’t thinking about that when they write arrest warrants for six more people.

The first is a woman in the nearby town of Amesbury; someone they haven’t even heard of. But the powerful Putnam family has filed a complaint against her, so they just write the name “Martin” and leave a space for her first name, which they fill in later: Susannah, and then cross out her station of “widdow,” even though she was one.

They know the second person well, though: the Reverend George Burroughs, the former minister of Salem who’d left two dead wives and a string of debts in his wake. They write his warrant in a decisive hand, but knowing that he can’t be fetched from Maine for an examination in two days, order the Marshall to “Convay him with all Speed to Salem before the Magestrates there, to be Examened, he being Suspected for a Confederacy with the devil.”

Others: the fortune teller and leader of a burglary ring Dorcas Hoar, one of her widowed neighbors, the rich merchant Philip English (whose wife is already in jail), and the widow Lydia Dustin, from the nearby town of Reading.

WHO was Dorcas Hoar?

old house — *A late-1890s photo of*
*Dorcas Hoar’s house. It was*
*torn down in the early 1900s.*

Age 58. A widow who was also a fortune teller and leader of a burglary ring, which included six of her children and numerous servants in households around town. Among her victims was a local minister whose servant stole an abundance of money, jewelry, clothing, and food, funneling all of it to Dorcas Hoar. Once captured, the burglars’ only sentence was to pay the costs of what they stole, a light sentence indeed, but one that was still resented by the Hoar family, who beat two of the minister’s cows (one to death) in revenge.

Dorcas Hoar’s hair was four feet, seven inches long, a so-called “elf lock” where evil spirits could hide. During her trial, the suspicious court ordered that her hair be cut off, a devastating blow. Her execution was delayed when she confessed.

After the trials, she moved in with her son-in-law and died in poverty. Case files: Dorcas Hoar

WHO was Susannah Martin?

Susannah Martin's memorial bench — Susannah Martin’s
memorial bench in Salem

Age 71. Depending on you you asked, she was either “one of the most “impudent, Scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world” (Cotton Mather), or an “honest, hard-working Christian woman and a “Martyr of Superstition” (her historical house marker).

We do know that her past included six unsuccessful lawsuits to inherit her father’s estate. She had also appeared in court as a defendant numerous times when her neighbors accused her of a variety of offenses, including calling one of them a liar and a thief. She was accused twice of witchcraft the Salem hysteria, with the charges eventually dropped.

During Martin’s examination, she laughed at her accusers. When asked if she had compassion for the afflicted, the forthright and hardened Martin replied, “No. I have none.”

At her later trial, at least nine (perhaps as many as 24) traveled by horse for nearly three days to Boston just to testify against her. Among their grievances: she’d caused one man’s oxen to drown themselves, her specter had stalked a farm hand, she’d bitten another man’s hand, she’d driven a neighbor mad, and she’d been seen at witch meetings. Case files: Susannah Martin

Tomorrow in Salem: The beloved Rebecca Nurse’s friends rally

by Marjorie

Apr 29: The resistance takes root

Today in Salem: The tavern keeper is fast with his quill, so eager to sign the petition that the quill catches on the paper and the ink splotches at the first stroke. This witchcraft hysteria is just that, he thinks. Hysteria. At best, those “afflicted” girls are misguided. At worst, they’re liars and trollops, drunk on attention and throwing accusations around like it’s a game. Now they’ve caught the beloved Rebecca Nurse in their net. So when one of his customers asks him to sign a petition attesting to Rebecca’s character, he doesn’t hesitate.

Nearby, a venerable old man nods and points at the paper. So the tavern keeper signs his name, too. Then of course there’s the tavern keeper’s wife, who’s incensed by the accusations against Rebecca and insists on writing her own first name. And there’s his 36-year-old daughter, who never married and has been God’s own blessing to him and his wife. He signs her name, too, then blows on the wet ink before handing the petition back to his customer.

In Boston, the prominent minister Cotton Mather is writing and praying about the “horrible enchantments and possessions” that have broken out in Salem. Could some of the prisoners be innocent? Is it possible that their specters are the Devil in disguise?

LEARN MORE: Why were some people against the search for witches? Wasn’t it dangerous to disagree?

Three kinds of records have survived the centuries: church, legal, and personal.

Church sermons paint witchcraft as a tool of Satan. Puritans believed that when bad things happened, it was because they had sinned, and God was allowing Satan to hurt them. Witchcraft was one of Satan’s tools.

Legal records show an intellectual approach to solving problems. Before Salem, calling someone a witch was sometimes just a legal (not moral) problem between arguing neighbors, and disputes could be settled in court. (This is why many of the accused people in Salem had mothers or grandmothers who’d been called witches, with nothing ever coming of it.)

Personal records, like diaries, are very few. From those we do have, it’s clear that while people often looked to the church to understand misfortune, they also knew that the world can be a naturally dangerous place. When bad things happen, it might have nothing to do with whether they’d sinned. Maybe the world is just a hard place.

Salem of 1692 was unusual in that the legal system had completely caved in to the religious one. There was no check or balance. (In fact, that tricky relationship between the church and the courts is the root of the American constitution’s separation of church and state.) Calling someone a witch was suddenly the same thing as accusing them of witchcraft.

300 years later we can see that the collapse was caused by a perfect storm of political upheaval, colonization of native lands, brutally cold weather patterns, and disease epidemics. At the time, though, it was a tremendous shock. Making it worse, children were suddenly holding immense power over adults, overturning the entire social order. Young girls called adults witches, and almost all of them went to jail, with 20 executed. In normal times, children couldn’t speak in church, court, or really anywhere in public. And now they were standing up and shouting during sermons, wailing and collapsing in court, and causing a stir in the taverns.

Was it dangerous to object? Sometimes. Calling an afflicted girl a liar could provoke her into accusing you – and she always won. Now, though, with petitions and letters, people could object in groups. There was safety in numbers.

Tomorrow in Salem: ARRESTED: Widows, a burglar, and a minister

by Marjorie

Apr 24: the cantankerous Giles Corey writes a new will

Today in Salem: The cantankerous Giles Corey is pounding his fist on the jail keeper’s table. He’s ripped his will into the smallest shreds that his calloused hands can, and now, with the help of the Justice of the Peace, he’s making a new one. “Being under great troubles & affliction,” Giles begins, and goes on to proclaim:

To the son-in-law who testified against Giles and his wife Martha: NOTHING.

To another son-in-law, who called Martha a witch: NOTHING.

To Martha herself, his gospel woman wife: NOTHING. The jail keeper sits up at that. She’s been in jail for over a month now, which doesn’t bode well. Does Giles think she won’t survive? Or is she a thorn in his side that he wants to remove?

Everything – every shilling, acre, and cow – is to go to his other two sons-in-law, share and share alike, for “considerations mee at ye present Espetially moveing.”

Meanwhile, Susannah Sheldon joins the ranks of the afflicted girls when, during Sunday meeting, she sees the specter of a wealthy merchant, Philip English, crawl over a pew to torment her.

WHO was Susannah Sheldon?

Susannah Sheldon's mark — *Susannah Sheldon’s mark*

Susannah was an 18yo traumatized refugee of the Indian Wars in Maine. Her 24yo brother was killed in an Indian attack, and her 10yo brother died of “distraction.” Only four months before she made her first accusation, her father died of an infected wound that he’d received in Maine, and the family farm was taken. Her mother, fours sisters, and brother were reduced to poverty. Her first accusations were against the wealthiest family in Salem. Her visions were among the most disturbing.

Susannah moved to Providence, Rhode Island before the trials were over. According to local records, she was summoned before the Providence City Council two years later. We don’t know why she was summoned, but she was referred to as a person “of Evill repute” and may have been indigent at the time. Some records indicate that she died 4 years after the Trials ended.

Of the people Susannah accused and/or testified against, 15 were hanged. Her legal case files are here.

Tomorrow in Salem: This WEEK in Salem

by Marjorie

Apr 23: Newly accused: the former constable John Willard

Today in Salem: Yesterday the constable was deeply uneasy watching his mother, the flamboyant Sarah Wilds, be carted off to jail for witchcraft. Today another constable enters the picture, one who is just as uncomfortable. He’s sure that some of the women in jail – whom he himself arrested – are actually innocent. After several sleepless nights, he’s quit his position in protest.

Unfortunately for the former deputy John Willard, it’s becoming clear that people who say the girls are lying end up being accused themselves. And now – it’s happening. He doesn’t know it yet, but the girls’ leader, 13-year-old Ann Putnam, is crying out against him this very minute. Her worried parents are watching as she falls to her knees and begs his specter for mercy as he tries to make her sign the Devil’s book.

Ann’s parents aren’t just worried. They’re angry. John had been involved in the mysterious death of their baby three winters ago. It doesn’t surprise them one bit that he’s aligned himself with the Devil.

WHO was John Willard?

John Willard was 35. At the time of the first allegations of witchcraft Willard was serving as a constable, and had arrested some of the accused. When he quit his position in protest, the afflicted girls accused him of being a witch himself. Not only that, but they said he’d murdered 13 people.

Unfortunately he’d made powerful enemies in the Putnams. When he first arrived at Salem Village, John Willard worked as a hired hand on the Putnam farm. One of his many tasks on the farm was looking after the young children living there, including a newborn baby girl. When the baby died, the distraught parents blames Willard.

John was also unpopular with his wife’s family, who also made several accusations against him: that he beat his wife, caused business failures, and that he caused illness and even death by looking at people with an “evil eye.” Case files: John Willard

Tomorrow in Salem: The cantankerous Giles Corey writes a new will

by Marjorie

Apr 22: SENT TO JAIL: the flamboyant Sarah Wilds and the pious Mary Esty

Today in Salem: It’s 10:00 in the morning, but inside the Meeting House it’s dark, with so many people sitting on the windowsills that the light can’t get through. Nine people were arrested yesterday, and between the witnesses, accusers, family members, magistrates, and ministers the Meeting House is overflowing.

Rev Parris squints as he takes notes in the dim light. Six of the prisoners are quickly examined and sent to jail for future trials: a wealthy merchant’s wife, a slave, the wild child Abigail Hobbs’s parents, the unruly Bridget Bishop’s son and daughter-in-law. And one man is set free when he’s brought outside where the afflicted girls can see him better.

Things slow down, though, when the flamboyant Sarah Wilds sashays in. She’s 65 and married, but she’s always been glamorous and outspoken, and has spent her entire life leaving a trail of scandals in her wake. She’s been whipped for fornication, brought to court for wearing a silk scarf, and accused of witchcraft for years. Nothing fazes her, and now the afflicted girls launch into spectacular convulsions.

“What do you say to this?” the magistrate asks. “Are you guilty or not?”

“I am not guilty, sir,” she says. The magistrate is incredulous. Has she allowed the Devil to use her specter to hurt the girls? No? How can she deny what everyone can see?

The magistrates send her to jail for future trial. As she’s led away, one of the constables catches her eye and looks especially uncomfortable: he is her son, and he knows she’s innocent. But what does that mean about the other women?

The crowd is silent when the pious Mary Esty enters the room. She’s the exact opposite of Sarah Wilds. How can both of them be guilty of the same thing? Like her sisters, the beloved Rebecca Nurse & nervous Sarah Cloyce, Mary is esteemed and well-liked. The afflicted girls, though, are as wracked and convulsing as ever.

“How far have you complied with Satan whereby he takes this advantage of you?” the magistrates ask.

“Sir, I never complied, but prayed against him all my days. I will say it, if it was my last time—I am clear of this sin.”

She’s so insistent on her innocence that the magistrates press the girls to be sure the specter they’ve seen belongs to Mary. They’re certain though, and they continue their fits until the judges commit Mary to prison.

WHO was Sarah Wilds?

SARAH WILDS – Age 65. Sarah was bold, and in her younger years even a little glamorous. At age 22 she was whipped for fornication. In her mid-30’s she was charged with wearing a silk scarf (considered to be above her station; an offense to the Puritans).

Like many accused people, Sarah and her family had been part of several feuds and scandals. When her husband’s 1st wife died, he married Sarah within months – a scandalous insult to the 1st wife’s family, who accused Sarah of witchcraft early and often. Two of her stepsons had died; one mysteriously, and the other of depression or possession. And unexplained illnesses and deaths seemed to follow her arguments with neighbors. She was an outspoken non-conformist, which may have made her an easy target. Case files: Sarah Wilds

WHO was Mary Esty?

Age 58, née Towne. Sister of Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce. Married to Isaac Esty, with whom she had 11 children. Mary’s mother had long ago been suspected of witchcraft. Despite her piety, with the arrest and indictment of 2 of her sisters, it was no surprise that she was also caught up in it. Case files: Mary Esty

Mary Esty’s descendants include baseball great Ty Cobb.

LEARN MORE: Why would someone be whipped for wearing a silk scarf? What did it mean to dress “above one’s station,” and why was that bad?

Today we think of Puritans as wearing all black, with the women in tight white caps and even the children in mournful gray clothing. While that was somewhat true in the earliest Puritan colonies, 50 years had passed by the time of the Trials, and Puritan standards had loosened.

That said, they weren’t exactly ready for powdered wigs and waistcoats. In fact, men were forbidden to wear periwigs, with one Salem Trial judge calling them “Horrid Bushes of Vanity.” With the exception of the ministry, magistrates, and others in the upper-class, men’s hair was expected to be very short, not over the neck, the band, or the doublet collar. In the winter it might be allowed to grow a little below the ear for warmth. Facial hair was verboten; in fact, even 80 years later, not a single man who signed the Declaration of Independence had facial hair.

As for women’s hair, Cotton Mather’s father preached “Will not the haughty daughters of Zion refrain their pride in apparel? Will they lay out their hair, and wear false locks, their borders, their towers like comets about their heads?” Another clergyman called these women “Apes of Fancy, friziling and curlying of their hair.”

Of course, hair wasn’t the only object of the Puritan fashion police. Clothing was also regulated, for both sexes. Again with the exceptions of ministers and magistrates, men and women were expected to wear only “sadd” (serious) colors. This did not include the black clothing that we often associate with Puritans. Black was too bold, requiring scarce black dye and care that it not fade. Instead, Puritans wore subdued colors like russet, rust, purple, gray-green, dark green, and dark gray-brown. Shades of blue were usually reserved for servants and slaves.

*King Charles I of England in his great boots and slashed sleeves*

Higher class Puritans like magistrates, or those with a net worth higher than £200, were exempt from the laws. Poorer people who dressed like them were seen as greedy and envious, and sometimes liars — all punishable offenses.

Finally, clothing was not just about color. It was also about fabric, and cut, and design, especially for women. “Sumptuary laws” were very common throughout Europe and the colonies, and were meant to control behavior and distinguish the high classes from the lower ones. For the Puritans, the laws also implied morality. Dressing in a simple manner meant embracing modesty and simplicity, and rejecting the sins of pride, greed, and envy. Dressing extravagantly was wasteful and unseemly. For example, in Europe slashed sleeves revealed expensive undergarments that flaunted the wealth of the wearer. So the Puritans outlawed sleeves with more than one slash. Also out: lace, silk, gold and silver thread, any embroidery or needlework, scarves, and bright buttons, shoes with heels, leather great boots, and so much more.

Tomorrow in Salem: Newly accused: the former constable John Willards

by Marjorie

Apr 21: Two wheels and nine arrests

Today in Salem: The powerful Thomas Putnam is shaking the cramp out of his hand, trying to write quickly with a scratching quill that’s leaving ink blots in its wake. The specter of Rev George Burroughs had tormented Ann last night, and bragged that he was more than a witch or wizard, that he could do the Devil’s work for him. The bitter, former minister of Salem Village has a vendetta against the Village, especially the Putnam family, and now he has the power to inflict great harm. This witchcraft threat is bigger and more complicated than anyone had realized, and the magistrates need to know.

“After most humble and hearty thanks,” Putnam writes, “for the great care and pains you have already taken for us … we thought it our duty to inform your Honors of what we conceive you have not heard, which are high and dreadful: of a wheel within a wheel, at which our ears do tingle …”

In another part of Salem, the cruel magistrate John Hathorne writes an arrest warrant in a slow and deliberate hand, then signs it with a flourish before giving it to the Marshall and “any or all constables in Salem or Topsfield or any other Towne.” They are to arrest nine people and bring them to Ingersoll’s Ordinary tomorrow morning for examinations. The Marshall doesn’t speak; he just looks at the paper and then at the judges. There are already 14 people in jail, and some have been moved to Boston due to overcrowding. Where will they put nine more?

In the Salem jail, Mary Warren has now spent two nights sleeping on the jail cell floor, and she’s bleary-eyed when the judges come to question her again. She’s been evasive for weeks. First she was afflicted, then she was suddenly cured when her masters beat her, then she said the other girls were lying, then the girls accused her of being a witch herself, then she almost confessed, and now she’s re-joined them and is afflicted again. What’s the truth?

The judges show her a large Bible. ”Is this like the book you signed?” they ask. ”Was it a Bible that your master handed you?” Mary says that it was the Devil’s book she’d seen, but she didn’t know it until she held it. And she didn’t sign it, not really. She just made a mark, accidentally.

The judges pounce. Wrong! It’s impossible to afflict others unless you sign the Devil’s book on purpose. But Mary is steadfast. Her masters, the Proctors, tortured her, she said, threatened to drown her, or burn her with hot tongs. They forced her to leave her mark. The judges step back. Once again they are unsure, and once again they leave her in jail.

LEARN MORE: What is a wheel within a wheel?

Thomas Putnam’s letter is referring to the Bible’s book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was a prophet who had a vision of a wheel within a wheel, and with rims that were high and dreadful. People have been trying to understand this vision for 2600 years, but it’s generally thought to mean that God was angry with Jerusalem, and as punishment would allow it to be destroyed (with the promise of rebuilding).

The phrase “wheels within wheels” is also used to describe a situation that’s complicated and affected by secret influences.

illustration of biblical vision of wheels — *Engraved illustration of the “chariot vision” of the Biblical book of Ezekiel, chapter 1, after an earlier illustration by Matthaeus (Matthäus) Merian (1593-1650)*

Tomorrow in Salem: SENT TO JAIL: the flamboyant Sarah Wilds and the pious Mary Esty

by Marjorie

Apr 20: A minister works for the Devil, and the servant Mary Warren’s story changes again

Today in Salem: A stunned silence has descended on Salem since yesterday’s court appearances. It’s enough that the wild child Abigail Hobbs has confessed to being a witch. But the Devil had recruited her in Maine. And she was accused by someone who used to know her there – the servant and war refugee Mercy Lewis. Just how far afield is the Devil working?

Mercy is a servant in the Putnam family, and has often told stories about the wild child she knew in Maine. So 13-year-old Ann Putnam, the afflicted girls’ leader, has heard all about Abigail’s dangerous behavior. But she’s also heard stories about the minister there, Reverend George Burroughs.

The Putnam family remembers Burroughs well. He’d been the minister in Salem Village until 9 years ago, when the Village stopped paying him and the Putnams had him arrested for an unpaid debt. He’d left for Maine with bitterness on all sides, and has been ministering to a flock that, until recently, included Abigail Hobbs and Mercy Lewis.

This very night, Rev Burroughs’ specter attacks Ann Putnam, and her visions electrify her family. “A minister?” she shouts. ”Recruiting children’s souls for Satan?” The specter boasts that he’s the one who recruited the wild child Abigail Hobbs, not the Devil. Burroughs is more powerful than any witch or wizard. The Putnams are not surprised.

In Salem jail, the Proctors’ servant Mary Warren is picking dirty straw from her hair. Yesterday she’d fainted in terror during the court hearing, but now, after sleeping on the floor of the jail cell for the night, she’s had a chance to think about which side she’s on: afflicted, or accused.

The two magistrates keep their arms crossed when they question her. She did call the afflicted girls liars, she says, but the Devil had forced her to. And yes, she did sign the Devil’s book. But she didn’t know that’s what it was. Her master John Proctor (who was in jail himself) had just handed it to her. In fact, Mary says, it’s impossible for her to be a witch, because she’s still afflicted herself. Why, just last night she was visited by the specter of the cantankerous Giles Corey.

Mary chokes on Giles’s name and falls to the floor, gasping and crying, then describes exactly what the specter was wearing. The magistrates send for Corey, who’s in his own jail cell, but no sooner does Mary see him than she convulses again. The real Giles Corey, as all can see, is dressed exactly as Mary had said. Of course, they’d been in court together yesterday. And he’s wearing the same clothes now. But surely he could have found a way to change his clothes since then?

The magistrates just look at each other and turn to the wild child Abigail Hobbs. She fully confessed yesterday, but gives them a few more details about the specters she’s seen and who she herself has tormented. It’s enough to make the trip worth it for the magistrates. But they’re still not sure about Mary’s changing story, and they leave her to spend another night on the jail cell floor.

WHO was George Burroughs?

Age about 42. George Burroughs was the minister of Salem Village until 9 years before the Trials began. He lived in Maine when he was accused of witchcraft, but the people of the Village remembered him well. They’d been dissatisfied with him as the minister, and refused to pay him. So when his wife died suddenly, he had to borrow money to pay for her funeral. With no salary, Burroughs couldn’t repay the debt, so he resigned and left, which would come back to haunt him.

The court ordered them to settle their differences, and the Village agreed to pay him everything it owed, minus the amount of his debt. But when Burroughs arrived with the paperwork, he was arrested instead. Eventually the case was dropped, and the Village paid Burroughs some of what they owed. But it left bitterness for everyone involved. So when he was accused of witchcraft, there was already animosity on both sides.

Burroughs landed in Falmouth, Maine (now Portland), where he lived when an Indian attack destroyed the settlement. It was here that Burroughs met the families of Mercy Lewis and Abigail Hobbs. The attack drove the Hobbs family to Salem. But the Lewis family was killed, so he took Mercy in as a servant for a time, before sending her to another unknown family, and then eventually to Salem. He himself then moved further south to Wells, Maine, where he lived at the time of the accusation.

Burroughs’ history with Salem Village was troublesome enough. But people also suspected his physical traits. He was dark-skinned, very short, and muscular. He was also much stronger than he looked, even preternaturally so. His trial included testimony from people who’d heard that he could lift a 7-foot musket by inserting one finger into the barrel, then raising it to arm’s length. It was also said that he could “take up a full barrll of molasses wth butt two fingers of one of his hands in the bung and carry itt from ye stage head to the door att the end of the stage wth out letting itt downe.” Case files: George Burroughs

George Burroughs’ descendants include Walt Disney.

Tomorrow in Salem: Two wheels and nine arrests

by Marjorie

Apr 19: A storm of accusations

Today in Salem: The normally cantankerous Giles Corey is swaying in front of the judges, his hands tied, bewildered. Prophesies? Suicide? He was just arrested yesterday afternoon, not knowing why he’s been accused. Now the cruel magistrate Hathorne is leaning in, relentless in his questions.

Just last week, Giles had helped escort his gospel woman wife Martha from the jail in Salem to Boston, and promised to visit her next week. Now the judges want to know: Was he really just promising a simple visit? Or was he prophesying his own arrest? Does he realize that prophesies are a kind of magic? Giles protests, saying he’d run out of money for the ferry and was just telling his wife goodbye.

More important, several witnesses testify they’ve heard Giles say he’s tempted to do away with himself. The judges remind him that self-murder is a much greater sin than witchcraft. If Giles is willing to take his own life, wouldn’t he be even more willing to practice witchcraft? Giles denies everything.

The afflicted girls writhe and convulse as usual through more questions about his wife’s criticisms, his lame ox, and what was that ointment Martha had in their house? The judges send Giles to jail to wait for trial.

Giles had been arrested with three other people, and now the judges turn their attention to the wild child Abigail Hobbs. The afflicted girls are suddenly quiet, staying calm throughout her examination.

“I have been very wicked,” Abigail says. “I hope I shall be better, if God will help me.” She goes on to admit to everything: signing the Devil’s book, using her specter to hurt the girls, and – most alarmingly – that this began in faraway Maine. The Devil has been operating on a far grander scale than the judges and ministers of Salem had realized. This would change everything. (What the judges don’t know is that Abigail’s statement today will set off a chain of events that, by tomorrow night, will link the witches’ and the Wabanakis’ assaults on New England. During the next seven weeks, fifty-four people will be formally accused of witchcraft, a sharp increase from the ten who’d been complained against in the seven weeks that ended two days ago.)

With the slave Tituba and the 4-year-old Dorcas Good, Abigail Hobbs becomes the third person to confess to witchcraft, and is sent to jail.

When the third prisoner, the Proctors’ servant Mary Warren, approaches the bar, the afflicted girls – her former friends – are so violently seized that only one of them can speak.

Everyone in the Village knows the story: Mary had been afflicted herself, but soon was cured. Then she said the other girls were lying, and now the girls have turned around and accused her of witchcraft.

How is this possible? The judges demand an answer. How can Mary be afflicted, then an afflicter? She must have been a witch the entire time. Mary crumples to the floor, trying to confess through gritted teeth. The afflicted girls say that specters are trying to prevent Mary from confessing, and her distress is so acute that the judges send her away to recover before they ask more questions.

Finally, the unruly Bridget Bishop approaches the bar. If Giles was bewildered, Abigail forthcoming, and Mary paralyzed with fear, Bridget is nothing short of exasperated. She rolls her eyes when the girls convulse, which only makes things worse.

“I am innocent to a witch,” she says. “I know not what a witch is.” But the judges turn it back on her. If she doesn’t even know what a witch is, how does she know she isn’t one? After more shrieking and accusations from the girls, Bridget is sent back to jail to wait for future trial.

Tomorrow in Salem: A minister works for the Devil, and the servant Mary Warren’s story changes again

by Marjorie

Apr 18: Summary: This WEEK in Salem

Things are about to get real in Salem. Need to catch up? Here’s a snapshot of where we are.

SUMMARY

Four people are accused but still free, and ten people are in jail, some of them in Boston because it’s so crowded in the Salem jail.

With the jails so crowded and more accusations rolling in, the judges are becoming even more alarmed. They cannot start trials and clear the jails until the governor returns.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK

The constable’s two-month-old baby died, his first and only child, and he and his wife are heartbroken. Why did this terrible thing happen? He can only think of one possible cause: he’d said he wasn’t surprised that the nervous Sarah Cloyce and her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse, were witches. Their specters must have wreaked revenge.

Three more people were accused: the Proctors’ servant Mary Warren, who used to be afflicted and has now called the other girls liars. Those same girls have now accused her.

The unruly Bridget Bishop was also accused. She’s disliked and disreputable, and has been in and out of court for fighting with her husband and stealing brass, among other things.

Last, we’ve met the wild child Abigail Hobbs, who’s 15, wanders through the woods at night, and claims she’s made a pact with the Devil. She’s also been accused.

WHO’S WHERE

Accused

NEW – Bridget Bishop – an unruly woman who’s been in and out of court for years

NEW – Abigail Hobbs – a wild child who wanders through the woods at night, disobeys her parents, and claims she’s made a pact with the Devil

NEW – Mary Warren – the Proctors’ servant, who’s been afflicted, cured, and is now accused

Giles Corey (cantankerous) – the gospel woman Martha Corey’s husband

Arrested

(No one new)

In Jail (10 people)

Sarah Cloyce (nervous) – Rebecca Nurse’s younger sister. She’d stormed out of church, which sparked people to question whether innocent people were being accused.

Elizabeth Proctor (quarrelsome) – an opinionated tavern owner, married to the respected but harsh John Proctor

John Proctor (harsh) – a farmer and tavern owner, opinionated and sometimes overbearing, but respected

Martha Corey (gospel woman) – a slightly arrogant church member

Dorcas Good (4 years old) – the daughter of the beggar Sarah Good

Sarah Good (beggar) with her baby – a vagrant who smokes a pipe and has a terrible temper

Rebecca Nurse (beloved) – a 70-year-old grandmother who is well-loved throughout the community

Sarah Osborne (sickly) – a scandal-ridden woman who married her servant and is trying to take her sons’ inheritance

Tituba (slave) – the minister’s slave who was the first to be accused and the first to confess

A woman in a nearby town, where the affliction has spread.

Tried & sentenced

(No one … yet)

Died

(No one … yet)

Tomorrow in Salem: A storm of accusations

by Marjorie

Apr 17: The wild child Abigail Hobbs

Today in Salem: The forest floor is thick with pine needles, cushioning her steps and releasing their fragrance as she walks silently between the trees. Heel toe, heel toe she thinks, moving slowly to avoid any twigs or stones that could snap or slide and give her presence away. Abigail Hobbs likes the idea of being a ghost, gliding through the forest undetected, able to vanish like that.

Her brother has taught her this, how to weave through the woods as silently as an Indian, leaving no footsteps or tracks behind. During the day she practices, looking down at her feet and closing her eyes, memorizing the forest path she’s created. At night she re-traces her steps, walking deeper and deeper into the dark woods, sometimes for hours before returning home.

She began wandering the woods when she was much younger, when they lived in Maine and the woods were thick with Wabanaki Indians ready to attack. Now she’s 15 and living near Salem, but she’s even more brazen, sometimes spending the night in the woods and not coming home until late the next day.

Abigail’s parents have given up on taming her. When they try, she talks back boldly, and she’s earned a reputation of being rude and disrespectful. And when her friends ask why she isn’t afraid to be in the woods, especially at night, Abigail says she’s sold her body and soul to him. She isn’t afraid of anything, she says. She’s made a deal with the Devil.

Now it’s catching up to her. Today it’s the Sabbath, and the afflicted girls can’t stop squirming and scratching and whispering. It’s no surprise to anyone when, after the Meeting, the girls say Abigail’s specter is tormenting them. The only question is why it took so long

WHO was Abigail Hobbs?

Age 15. Abigail and her family were from Maine, where Indian attacks had decimated the English settlements. It was here that she began wandering the woods at night. When her family, neighbors, and friends asked why she wasn’t afraid of being attacked, she said she “sold her selfe boddy & Soull to the old boy” and has “seen the divell and . . . made a covenant or bargin with him.”

When life in Maine became too dangerous, the Hobbs family moved to Topsfield, Massachusetts, which is next to Salem. Abigail continued roaming the woods at night, and developed a reputation of being rude and disrespectful to her parents. She even sprinkled water in her stepmother’s face in a mock baptism, and openly defied her parents in public.

Even though she was a teenager, no one was surprised when Abigail was finally accused of witchcraft. But, like some of the other accused, she soon realized that the best way to avoid being hanged was to confess and accuse others of witchcraft. It was only a delay, though, and eventually her execution was scheduled. She got lucky again, though, when the governor paused the trials and signed a reprieve for her and others.

Later, when Abigail was 32, she married Andrew Senter and had at least two sons, Andrew and Thomas. We don’t know how long she lived after that. Case files: Abigail Hobbs

READ MORE: Who were the Wabanaki Indians?

The Wabanaki, or “People of the Dawn,” are the first people of the area known today as Northeastern New England and Maritime Canada, and have lived there for more than 12,000 years.

During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, Maine was sandwiched between New France (Canada) to the north, and British America to the south. By then, the native Wabanaki people had become more dependent on European guns and ammunition for hunting. When the English made it illegal to sell ammunition to the Wabanaki, and France stepped in to give it to them anyway, an alliance was born, most of it centered in Maine, with English settlers being the common enemy of both. The attacks were constant and merciless, with the Wabanaki people suffering as much as the English.

The Wabanaki people have continued to struggle in Maine. Until the 1950s, Wabanaki children were often taken away from their communities and sent to boarding schools, where they were forced to assimiliate into White American culture. Others were separated from their families through adoption, foster care, and placement in orphanages. In fact, in the mid-1970s, Maine had the second highest rate of Indian foster care placement among states. As late as the 1990s, Indian children in Maine were still being placed with and adopted by non-Native families without notification to the tribe, as required by the law.

Since then, Maine has established a commission — the first in the U.S. territory — that collaborates with tribal nations to focus on Indian child welfare. But, with only 8,000 tribal members alive today, it may be too little too late.

Tomorrow in Salem: Summary: This WEEK in Salem

Today in Salem

Telling the story of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, one day at a time

Category Archives: April

Apr 30: ARRESTED: Widows, a burglar, and a minister

Apr 29: The resistance takes root

Apr 24: the cantankerous Giles Corey writes a new will

Apr 23: Newly accused: the former constable John Willard

Apr 22: SENT TO JAIL: the flamboyant Sarah Wilds and the pious Mary Esty

Apr 21: Two wheels and nine arrests

Apr 20: A minister works for the Devil, and the servant Mary Warren’s story changes again

Apr 19: A storm of accusations

Apr 18: Summary: This WEEK in Salem

Apr 17: The wild child Abigail Hobbs