Need to catch up? Here’s a snapshot of where we are in the story of Salem.
SUMMARY
Six women are sharing a single cell in the dark, lice-ridden jail, with one man in the men’s cell. It’s so crowded that they’re being transferred to the equally dismal jail in Boston, where three other prisoners have been for weeks. None of the ten prisoners has had a trial yet, though, and won’t until the governor arrives from London.
The witchcraft hysteria is beginning to spread to nearby towns, with several people afflicted, and one person in jail. So the judges have realized that the witchcraft problem is bigger than they can handle, and they’ve enlisted the help of legal assistants in Boston.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK
The jail keeper finally took pity on the beggar Sarah Good’s baby and pushed two thin blankets through the jail cell’s bars.
The harsh John Proctor and his quarrelsome wife Elizabeth put their bickering aside and said an intimate farewell before she was sent to jail. One day later, John was examined and sent to jail as well.
The nervous Sarah Cloyce was also examined and sent to jail, where she was reunited with her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse.
Salem jail is now so crowded that several people had to be transferred to the jail in Boston.
WHO’S WHERE
ACCUSED
• Giles Corey (he doesn’t know it yet)
ARRESTED
• (No one new)
IN JAIL (10 people)
• NEW – 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.
• NEW – Elizabeth Proctor (quarrelsome) – an opinionated tavern owner, married to the respected but harsh John Proctor
• NEW – 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)
EXECUTED
• (No one … yet)
