Today in Salem: It’s the Sabbath, and the meeting house is humid with the prayers of so many worshipers. The afflicted girls, who always sit together at the front of the women’s section, are sliding on their bench to fill the gap left by the missing Susannah Sheldon.
Two days ago neighbors had found her with her hands tied tightly with rope. Has something else happened to her? That night they find her in a barn, with her head stuck behind a chest and her hands tied so tightly with a wheel band that they have to cut it to free her.
She sits up and collapses against the wall. Sarah Good, she chokes. Sarah Good did this. The men aren’t surprised. The beggar Sarah Good is coming to trial in two days. Her specter – and the Devil – must be furious.
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 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.
