Category Archives: March

03/1692

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Mar 31: Lies and accusations

Today in Salem: George Jacobs Sr. already stands a menacing head and shoulders above the other men, and he’s known for his violent temper. So when he bellows and holds his walking stick in the air, the men next to him hunch down and move away.

“They’re lying!” he shouts. “The lot of them!”

It’s Lecture Day, a combination of town meeting and mid-week sermon that’s held every Thursday. Jacobs’ servant Sarah Churchill is in the balcony with the other servants, squeezing Mercy Lewis’s hand. Sarah is 20, and – like Mercy – is a refugee of the wars in Maine. They share the trauma of a brutal past, and Sarah’s abusive master makes her vibrate with fear. While Mercy is fortunate to work for a stern but tolerant household; Sarah is not.

Back in the parsonage, the Rev Parris’s 11-year-old niece Abigail Williams is describing a diabolical scene of 40 witches, right there in the house, mocking the Lord’s Supper with their own Devil’s Supper. Two of the Devil’s deacons are serving: the beggar Sarah Good, and a new specter: the angry Sarah Cloyce, the woman who ran out of church and slammed the door.

WHO was George Jacobs Sr.?

Age 80. Toothless, with long white hair, and so tall that he walked with 2 canes (or “sticks”). He was opinionated and abusive, and known for his violent temper. The gossip among the servants was that he used his walking stick to beat his servant, Sarah Churchill (who became one of his accusers). Soon the other servant girls claimed that Jacobs’ specter was beating them, too, sometimes with his sticks. During his trial, others reported that his specter had committed evil. Case files: George Jacobs Sr. 

WHO was Sarah Churchill?

Age 20-25. Sarah and her family were refugees from the Indian wars in Maine, and had ultimately settled in Salem Village. There she’d hired herself out to the prosperous farmer George Jacobs Sr. When she began feeling torments, it interfered with her work, and Jacobs lost his temper (even calling her a “bitch witch”).

Perhaps because of abuse from Jacobs, her symptoms went away. But then the other girls accused her of witchcraft (what else could explain her cure?). In a panic, Sarah confessed and accused others, but quickly realized she’d cornered herself with lies and false accusations. Throughout the Trials she saved herself with the delicate balance of a confessed witch who was also afflicted.

15 years after the Trials, Sarah married a weaver in Maine, after being fined for premarital fornication. She lived at least until age 59. Case files: Sarah Churchill

Tomorrow in Salem: the Darkness of Light

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Mar 30: The hysteria spreads

Today in Salem: Twelve miles away, an angry vagrant woman stands before the magistrates and hears the testimony of her accusers. If she had rocks in her pockets she would throw them, and it wouldn’t be the first time. She’s a beggar, and has been known to hurl stones and curses at people who won’t help her.

According to her neighbors, it’s because of her that cats have turned out to be dogs, pigs have died, people have fainted, and beer has disappeared. Finally, after many, many stories of her inexplicable mischief, her examination is over. The judges rule against her, and now, in the current hysteria, she is the first person outside of Salem Village to be jailed for witchcraft. The afflictions and accusations are beginning to spread.

LEARN MORE: What’s an “examination”? How did a person in Salem go from accusation to execution?

  1. COMPLAINT – An afflicted person would formally accuse someone by making a “complaint” to a Magistrate. At that time in Salem, women weren’t allowed to file complaints. Usually the accusing girls’ fathers or kinsmen did it for them.
  2. ARREST – The Magistrate issues an arrest warrant, and the sheriff or constable takes the accused person into custody.
  3. EXAMINATION – Witnesses submit depositions, and the accused person is given a chance to explain themselves. The Magistrates examine the evidence, and if it seems the person might be guilty, they’re sent to jail to await trial.
  4. GRAND JURY – The case is presented to the Grand Jury, and depositions are entered into evidence. If the Grand Jury believes that charges should be brought against the accused, then that person is sent to trial.
  5. TRIAL – The accused person is tried in court, where a trial jury decides the defendant’s guilt. If the person is found guilty, then he or she proceeds to sentencing.
  6. SENTENCING – The convicted defendant receives his or her sentence from the Court. In Salem, witchcraft was a capital crime. So each convicted defendant was automatically sentenced to be hanged.
  7. EXECUTION – The Sheriff and his deputies hanged the convicted witches.

Tomorrow in Salem: Lies and accusations

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Mar 29: Governor Phips heads for rocky shoals

Today in Salem: The governor has been wiping his lips ’til they’re chapped, still feeling the imprint where he’d kissed the King’s metal ring. William Phips bows to no one, no one except the King that is, and even that’s difficult.

With that unpleasant experience behind him, and a six-week sail to Boston before him, Phips has plenty of time to imagine his entrance into the city. The King himself has appointed Phips to be the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, and how glorious it will be to wield that power over the merchants and politicians of Boston. They’ve always been quick to remind Phips of his humble beginnings and lack of education, to snidely dismiss him as undeserving of an opinion never mind success.

It’s true that he is fatherless, from a poor family. It’s true that he had to teach himself to read at age 21, that he’s had to convince people at every turn to support and even fund his ventures. It’s also true that he’s captained large ships, discovered vast wealth, and met with three kings. And now he’s the Royal Governor.

Phips looks out over the bow of the ship, but there’s nothing to see but ocean; a flat expanse of gray that extends all the way to the horizon. No matter. He licks his chapped lips and rubs them again. It’ll be smooth sailing, with nothing but gentle breezes and calm water ahead.

WHO was William Phips?

Age 41. The Royal Governor of Massachusetts. He was a large, compactly built man, with a true rags-to-riches story. With ambition and confidence (even arrogance), he bluffed his way past 3 British kings to rise from a poor childhood in Maine, first working as a shepherd, then as an apprentice to a ship’s carpenter. He moved to Boston and within the next 8 years captained a royal ship, found great fortune through treasure hunting, was knighted by the king, won a major battle against the French, was made a magistrate, and finally was appointed to be the Royal Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

William Phips

Phips was intelligent and driven, but he was also said to be an ambitious, self-promoter who bluffed his way past 3 kings to find success.

Upon being appointed Royal Governor, Phips returned to Massachusetts from London to find Salem’s witch hysteria well underway. He’s best remembered today as forming the court that would bring many of the accused to trial and execution. His own wife was accused of witchcraft, and within months he disbanded the court and pardoned those still in jail awaiting trial.

Phips never expressed remorse or introspection about the trials. Three years after they ended, he contracted a fever and died. He was 44. Case files: William Phipps 

Tomorrow in Salem: The hysteria spreads

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Mar 28: The Nurse family demands answers

Today in Salem: Three hard raps on the Putnam’s door announce a visitor: Rebecca Nurse’s son-in-law. When the door opens, he steps in without being asked and immediately confronts Ann Putnam’s mother.

“Who said it first?” he demands. “Who accused Rebecca first?” Yesterday’s slammed church door was a wake-up call to the beloved Rebecca Nurse’s family, and the men are taking action, starting with the Putnams.

Ann’s mother touches her pregnant belly and sits in her chair by the warm hearth. Her cheeks are flushed, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s from warmth of the fire. “If Ann says Rebecca’s specter is tormenting her, then she’s speaking the truth,” her mother says.

Ann Putnam is 12, but she’s never been questioned about her accusations. Now she’s shrinking as the man turns to her. ”Yes,” she admits in a small voice. She had seen the specter of a pale woman, sitting in her grandmother’s rocking chair. But she never said it was Rebecca. Her mother had encouraged her.

“You’re mistaken, child,” her mother says. “You were so upset. It was Mercy who said Rebecca’s name first.” Mercy Lewis is the family servant, but she’s not going to accept the blame, not this time. She, too, has never been questioned, and this angry man frightens her.

“How can you lie?” says Mercy, looking at Ann. And so it goes, from Mercy, to Ann, to her mother in a round robin of finger pointing that will not end.

Tonight the moon is new, and the dark tavern is lit by more candles than usual. In the flickering light, two men lean in to share a rumor they’ve heard: that the quarrelsome Elizabeth Proctor is the next to be arrested. But when a woman at the next table defends Elizabeth, one of the afflicted girls points into the empty air.

“She’s right there,” she says. “There!”

“Old witch,” another girl says. “I’ll have her hang.”

The men look at them coldly. You’re lying, one man says. He doesn’t see any specter, and he doesn’t believe they do either. Later he’ll testify that the girls treated it like a joke. The other man will say that the girls said they did it for fun. They needed to have some fun.

Tomorrow in Salem: Governor Phips heads for rocky shoals

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Mar 27: A door slams, and eyes open

Today in Salem: It’s Easter Sunday, but not for the Puritans. While the Anglicans in Boston are celebrating the resurrection, Rev Parris is preaching about “dreadful witchcraft broke out here a few weeks past.”

Sitting in the women’s side of the Meeting House, the nervous Sarah Cloyce is clasping a piece of cloth to stop her hands from shaking. She is angrier than she’s ever been. Her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse, is in jail, sharing a cell with the gospel woman Martha Corey. Both are full members of the church, and both have been accused of witchcraft. So when Rev Parris says there are two “vehemently suspected” witches, Sarah knows exactly who he’s talking about, as does everyone else.

But then Parris starts talking about the traitor Judas Iscariot, and reads Christ’s words from the Bible. “Have I not chosen you twelve,“ Parris reads, “and one of you is a Devil?”

Sarah doesn’t remember unclasping her hands, or standing up in the middle of the sermon, or running past her husband and out of the Meeting House. All she remembers is the thundering slam of the door as she pulls it shut behind her.

closed door

WHO was Sarah Cloyce?

Age 50-55, née Towne. With Rebecca Nurse and Mary Esty, Sarah was one of three sisters to be arrested for witchcraft. Her dramatic exit from church – complete with a slammed door – can be thought of as the first public protest against the trials.

Popular myth says that Sarah’s husband helped her escape from prison; that they spent the winter living in a cave while they built a house. This myth probably grew out of people misinterpreting the phrase “escaped execution.”

The truth is that Sarah stayed in jail and was released after the trials ended, thereby escaping execution. Once released, she and her husband moved first to Boston and then to Framingham, where they built a house on Salem End Road. Case files: Sarah Cloyce

LEARN MORE: Why didn’t Puritans celebrate Easter? Did they celebrate other holidays?

The Puritans believed that the Church of England was too much like the Catholic Church. They wanted to purify the church (hence the name “Puritan”), and remove everything that even smelled of Catholicism, especially practices that didn’t come directly from the Bible. Therefore, since “Easter” isn’t mentioned in the Bible, they believed it was a Catholic invention, and therefore it was a sin to celebrate it. They also banned Christmas, and anyone who celebrated it paid a fine of five shillings.

So what holidays did the Puritans celebrate? Only four:

Election Day – When colonists elected their local leaders. Some people had to travel quite far, and might stay overnight. It was a festive day, and celebrations sometimes included rum, gingerbread, and fruitcake. The Puritan ministers didn’t entirely approve; in fact one prominent minister wrote that Election Day had become a time “to meet, to smoke, carouse and swagger and dishonor God with the greater bravery.”

Commencement Day – The day when ministerial students graduated from Harvard. It was a day of pride, and dinner, wine, and commencement cake were served. This holiday was typically celebrated in Cambridge by other ministers and notables.

Thanksgiving – As most Americans know, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth by the Pilgrims. But it didn’t become an official U.S. holiday until Abraham Lincoln was president, 240 years later. Before that, Puritans could declare a Thanksgiving any time there was something to be thankful for. During the year of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, the governor declared a day of Thanksgiving in July for his own safe arrival from England.

Training Day – The militia’s public display of firing guns, shooting cannons, and other military exercises. Prayers were offered before and after, followed by a festive dinner.

Tomorrow in Salem: The Nurse family demands answers

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Mar 26: 4-year-old Dorcas and her little snake

little girl

Today in Salem: The elderly jail keeper brings 4-year-old girl Dorcas Good into his kitchen, where two ministers and two magistrates are waiting. She’d been questioned at the examination with Rebecca Nurse, but the crowd was noisy and the girl intimidated. Sending her to stay with the jail keeper was the right thing to do at the time. Perhaps they can get more information from her this way.

One of the ministers is elderly, soft-spoken but eagle-eyed, and it’s he who first speaks to the little girl.

“Come here, child,” he says, “and tell me if you see things that others cannot.” Dorcas bites her lip and looks over at the cruel magistrate Hathorne, who is already leaning in and frowning. The soft-spoken minister raps the table with his knuckles, and she jumps a little, looking first at his face and then his hand.

“A little snake,” she says, and holds her own hand up. “It sucks on my hand.”

Now all four men are leaning in. Where? they ask, pointing to freckles and spots. No, no, no she says and points to her own knuckle, where the men can see a dark red spot the size of a flea bite.

The cruel magistrate Hathorne takes over from the soft-spoken minister. Did the black man give her the snake? Was it the Devil?

No no no, Dorcas says again. Her mother did.

The two magistrates exchange glances. Familiar spirits like snakes often drink nourishment from a witch’s wounds. Perhaps Dorcas is a witch, and her mother, the beggar Sarah Good, may be responsible.

Tomorrow in Salem: A door slams, and eyes open

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Mar 25: The harsh John Proctor and the Devil’s pitchfork

Map of Wooleston River and Salem

Today in Salem: Just over the Town border, the long Wooleston River splits into three tributaries and points like the Devil’s pitchfork straight at Salem Village. At the sharp point of one tine sits a tavern, where the harsh John Proctor has just walked in.

Proctor settles at a table with a younger man named Sam. It was Sam’s wife who’d convinced Tituba to make a witch-cake last month. And his niece is Mary Walcott, the latest girl to claim affliction by showing bite marks on her arms. Sam also lives just a stone’s throw from the Meeting House, and another throw from Ingersoll’s Ordinary. In short, Sam sees and knows everything.

Already impatient, Proctor asks a single question: What condition were the girls in last night? They had testified at yesterday’s examination and stayed overnight at Ingersoll’s, where Sam would have noticed them. Sam shakes his head and says they were in a bad way, including Proctor’s maid, Mary Warren.

wooden bridge

Proctor slams his mug onto the wooden table. He’s on his way now to fetch the little bitch, Proctor says rudely, and beat the devil out of her if he needs to. As for the other girls, hang them!

Sam sucks in his cheeks. Hang them? Including Sam’s niece?

Meanwhile Sam’s wife is crying in Rev Parris’s study. He’s just found out about her role in making the witch-cake, and is lecturing her at length about using “diabolical means.” He writes an explanation of what happened, followed by her confession and apology. The entire congregation will hear it read this Sabbath Day.

Tomorrow in Salem: 4-year-old Dorcas and her little snake

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Mar 24: JAILED: the beloved Rebecca Nurse and 4yo Dorcas Good

Today in Salem: How is it possible for a four-year-old girl to be a witch? The judges are intent on finding out, and will question little Dorcas Good as soon as they’re done with the elderly and beloved Rebecca Nurse.

Two days ago, Rebecca was sick in bed when kindly friends told her about the accusations. She could hardly speak, she was so astonished. Now she is standing in front of the normally cruel Judge Hathorne, who is speaking kindly to her. No one wants her to be guilty, he says, but if she is, then now is the time to confess. But Rebecca, in the soft voice of an elderly woman, says that she’s innocent before God. Over and over the judge questions her, but she doesn’t waver. “I am as clear as the child unborn,” she says.

The afflicted girls are shaking and suffering so badly, though, that some in the crowd start to cry. Soon the girls are shrieking so loudly that Rev Parris, appointed to take notes, gives up trying. Pandemonium breaks loose, and ends with the constable holding Rebecca’s head firmly between his hands, forcing her to look forward.

The judge sits back and narrows his eyes. It’s odd, he thinks, that Rebecca herself isn’t crying, even if it’s just from sympathy. He leans back in and asks Rebecca if the girls are genuinely suffering. But Rebecca is hard of hearing, and with the constable holding her head in place, she can’t lean in or cock her head. She can’t hear him, so she doesn’t answer. Her silence, with the girls’ torments, are enough. Beloved or not, Rebecca Nurse is sent to jail.

The constable holds little Dorcas Good’s hand and leads her to stand in front of the judges. Dorcas’s mother, the beggar Sarah Good, has been in jail for three weeks, but Dorcas is still hale and hearty.

The constable takes no chances and holds Dorcas’s head still, just as he’d held Rebecca’s. But the afflicted girls claim that Dorcas’s specter is biting them, and hold out their arms to show small bite marks. With almost no questioning, Dorcas is sent to stay with the Salem jail keeper.

Tomorrow in Salem: The harsh John Proctor and the Devil’s pitchfork

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Mar 21: EXAMINATION: the gospel woman Martha Corey

Today in Salem: Martha Corey is scooping salve from a wooden jar when the Constable knocks. It’s time. She rubs the salve on her wrist, where it’s been itching since last night. It can’t be nerves. She is a Gospel Woman, and would never do these things they’ve accused her of.

The Meeting house is packed with spectators when the Constable brings her in to face the magistrates, who go straight to the first piece of damning evidence. Two men had visited Martha last week to see whether she and her specter were wearing the same clothes. How did she know about it before they’d even arrived?

Giles crosses his arms and squints. He’s been curious about the same thing. So when Martha says Giles himself had told her, he immediately speaks from the crowd to deny it. More questions and more nervous answers follow until Martha contradicts herself, and the judges are satisfied that they’ve proved the first point.

stormy skies

On to the next piece of evidence: Yesterday, after services, when she was walking toward her husband Giles: His son-in-law heard her say that neither the afflicted girls nor the Devil could stand before her and that she would open the eyes of the magistrates to the truth.

At the mention of “stand before her” the afflicted girls fall, literally unable to stand. Still, Martha denies saying it, and even when several other people say they’d overheard her, she still denies it.

It’s obvious that she’s lying, and the judges decide to move on to the next and most damning charge: Her specter is tormenting the afflicted girls. Even now, when Martha clenches her hands, the girls clench theirs to the point of bruising. When she shifts her feet, the girls stomp loudly. When she bites her lip, they bite their own, hard. The cruel magistrate hammers and hammers, with the afflicted girls shouting their own answers: Did Martha’s specter bring a yellow bird to the services yesterday? Has she brought the Devil’s book for the girls to sign? Is the Devil whispering in her ear right his very minute? No, no, and no Martha says, but the judges again believe she’s lying, and send her to jail for a later trial.

Tomorrow in Salem: Summary: This WEEK in Salem

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Mar 20: Martha Corey and her yellow bird go to church

Today in Salem: It’s the Sabbath, and the men’s side of the Meeting House is quietly agog. Women are strictly not allowed to speak in church. And yet here is 11-year-old Abigail Williams, standing up and demanding that the minister state which Scripture he’s using.

angry yellow bird

If it’s possible to be frightened and angry at the same time, Mrs. Parris is it. Abigail has been living with the Parris family for some time now, and her public afflictions have only grown worse. Now Mrs. Parris, sitting on the bench behind her, touches Abigail’s shoulder until she quiets.

The calm is momentary, though, and soon Abigail cries out at the specter of the gospel woman Martha Corey, flying to a beam above their heads then sitting next to a yellow bird. Yellow is the Devil’s color, so it’s even more alarming when the invisible bird flies off the beam and perches defiantly on the preacher’s hat.

Abigail and her afflicted friends continue talking and seeing specters throughout the services, and all through it the gospel woman Martha Corey sits with her back straight and eyes forward.

Finally, mercifully, the services come to an end. Standing to leave and walking toward Giles, Martha can no longer stay quiet. She knows she’s appearing before the Magistrates tomorrow, and of course everything that has happened today will be thrown at her.

She is a Gospel Woman, she says to Giles, and would never do anything like this. These ridiculous girls can’t possibly win tomorrow. Even the Devil himself cannot win. Martha is a Gospel Woman, and she will open the eyes of the Ministers and Magistrates to the truth.

Tomorrow in Salem: EXAMINATION: the gospel woman Martha Corey