An Essay on Demonology 11

An Essay on Demonology 11

Her two sisters, she said,

seeing her pitied had become actors also, with her, without being

moved to it by her; but when she saw them follow her, they all joined

in the secret and acted in concert, and thus during eight months their

parents were kept in constant painful anxiety, and they were

considered as objects of pity and compassion. They had no particular

spite against Mrs D--y, but it was necessary to accuse some person,

and the eldest having pitched upon her, the others followed. The

woman's complaints about the same time the girl pretended she was

struck, proceeded from other causes which were not then properly

inquired into. Once, at least, they were in great danger of being

detected in their tricks; but the grounds of suspicion were overlooked

through the indulgence and credulity of their parents.

 

 

 

 

SALEM WITCHCRAFT.

 

 

I shall now detail an impartial history of the memorable trials and

executions for supposed witchcraft at Salem, in 1692. A controversy

respecting the settlement of a minister had subsisted in Salem for

some time prior to this melancholy catastrophe. They had also recently

been deprived by death of several of their most distinguished and

influential characters, who had been considered as the fathers and

governors of the town for half a century. Unfortunately, two or three

ministers in the town, and several in the vicinity, were, with a large

proportion of the inhabitants, bigoted and superstitious believers in

the doctrine of witchcraft, and they aggravated the general prejudice

and fanaticism. From preconceived opinions and strong prejudices, it

was scarcely possible that the trials should be impartially conducted.

It seemed not to be recollected, that in the trials of witches no

other evidence should be received than in the trials of murderers and

other criminals; and that no convictions should be made, but through

the most substantial human testimony, rejecting all diabolical or

witch evidence, which can, on no principle, be deemed legal in any

case. In the language of the late Dr Bentley, in his History of Salem,

'The spark fell upon inflammable matter, and behold, how great a

matter a little fire kindleth.' But it would be unjust not to make due

allowance for the times in which they lived, and the melancholy

delusions which prevailed from the war of prejudice, and the slavish

effects of the most imbecile apprehensions. These errors, like those

of a thousand years ago, are equally opposed to the progress of

knowledge, and to a pious confidence in the wisdom and goodness of an

Almighty Providence. The authorities from which the following history

is derived, are, Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, Dr Cotton

Mather's Magnalia, Wonders of the Invisible World, by the same author,

Historical Collections, and More Wonders of the Invisible World, by R.

Calef, of Boston, published in 1700.

 

In a letter of Thomas Brattle, F. R. S., dated October 8, 1692,

published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,

we have the following account.

 

'As to the method which the Salem justices do take in their

examinations, it is truly this; a warrant being issued out to

apprehend the persons that are charged and complained of by the

afflicted children as they are called, said persons are brought before

the justices, the afflicted being present. The justices ask the

apprehended why they afflict those poor children, to which the

apprehended answer, they do not afflict them. The justices order the

apprehended to look upon the said children, which, accordingly, they

do; and at the time of that look (I dare not say by that look, as the

Salem gentlemen do) the afflicted are cast into a fit. The apprehended

are then blinded and ordered to touch the afflicted; and at that

touch, though not by that touch (as above) the afflicted do ordinarily

come out of their fits. The afflicted persons then declare and affirm,

that the apprehended have afflicted them; upon which the apprehended

persons, though of never so good repute, are forthwith committed to

prison on suspicion for witchcraft.'--'Such was the excess of their

stupidity, that to the most dubious crime in the world, they joined

the most uncertain proofs.'--'A person ought to have been a magician

to be able to clear himself from the imputation of magic.'

 

The first instance of reputed witchcraft in the town of Salem, took

place in the family of Mr Parris, minister of Salem, and very soon

after, one or two in the neighborhood were afflicted in a similar

manner, and a day of prayer was kept on the occasion. The persons who

complained of being afflicted, were a daughter and a niece of Mr

Parris, girls of ten or eleven years of age; and these were soon

followed by two other girls. They made similar complaints, and

exhibited antic gestures and tricks, similar to those of Goodwin's

children, two or three years before. The physician, unable to account

for the complaint, pronounced them bewitched. They named several women

whose spectres they saw in their fits, tormenting them, and in

particular Tituba, an Indian woman belonging to Mr Parris's family.

She had been trying some experiments, which she pretended to be used

in her own country, in order to find out the witch; upon this, the

children cried out against the poor Indian as appearing to them,

pinching, pricking, and tormenting them, and they fell into fits.

Tituba acknowledged that she had learned how to find out a witch, but

denied that she was one herself. Several private fasts were kept at

the minister's house, and several more public by the whole village,

and then a general fast through the colony. This probably had a

tendency to bring the afflicted into notice; which, with the pity and

compassion of those who visited them, encouraged and confirmed them in

their designs, and increased their numbers. Tituba, as she said, being

beat and threatened by her master to make her confess, and to accuse

her sister witches, as he termed them, did confess that the devil

urged her to sign a book, which he presented, and also to work

mischief with the children, and she was sent to jail. The children

complained, likewise, of Sarah Good, who had long been counted a

melancholy or distracted woman, and also Sarah Osborn, an old

bedridden woman, both of whom being examined by two Salem magistrates,

were committed to jail for trial. About three weeks after, two other

women of good character, and church members, Corey and Nurse, were

complained of and brought to their examination, when these children

fell into fits, and the mother of one of them joined with the children

and complained of Nurse as tormenting her, and made most terrible

shrieks, to the amazement of all the neighborhood. The old women

denied everything charged against them, but were sent to prison; and

such was the infatuation, that a child of Sarah Good, about four or

five years old, was committed also, charged with being a witch and of

biting some of the afflicted, who showed the print of small teeth on

their arms; and all that the child looked upon, it is said, fell down

in fits, complaining that they were in torment. Elizabeth Proctor,

being accused and brought to examination, her husband, as every kind

husband would have done, accompanied her to her examination; but it

cost the poor man his life. Some of the afflicted cried out against

him, also, and they both were committed to prison. Instead, says

Governor Hutchinson, of suspecting and sifting the witnesses, and

suffering them to be cross-examined, the authorities, to say no more,

were imprudent in making use of leading questions, and thereby putting

words into their mouths, or suffering others to do it. Mr Parris was

over-officious; most of the examinations, although in the presence of

one or more of the magistrates, were taken by him. They allowed of

such as the following trivial replies to their examining questions.

John the Indian. 'She hurt me, she choked me, and brought the book a

great many times. She took hold of my throat, to stop my breath. She

pinched and bit me till the blood came. I saw the witches eat and

drink at such a place, and they said it was their sacrament; they said

it was our blood, and they had it twice that day.' Upon such kind of

evidence, persons of blameless character were committed to prison;

and, such was the dreadful infatuation, that the life of no person was

secure. The most effectual way to prevent an accusation was to become

the accuser; and accordingly the number of the afflicted increased

every day, and the number of the accused in proportion; who, in

general perished in their innocence. More than a hundred women, many

of them of fair characters and of the most reputable families, in the

towns of Salem, Beverly, Andover, Billerica, &c, were apprehended,

examined, and generally committed to prison. Goodwife[A] Corey, as she

was called, was examined before the magistrates, in the meeting-house

in the village; the novelty of the case produced a throng of

spectators. Mr Noyes, one of the ministers of Salem, began by prayer.

Several children and women were present, that pretended to be

bewitched by her, and the most of them accused her of biting,

pinching, and strangling, and said that they did, in their fits, see

her likeness coming to them, and bringing a book for them to sign. She

was accused by them, that the black man, meaning the devil, whispered

to her now while she was on her examination. The unfortunate woman

could only deny all that was laid to her charge, and she was committed

to jail. A miserable negro slave was accused by some of the girls, but

on examination she extricated herself by her native cunning. Question

to Candy. 'Are you a witch?' Answer. 'Candy no witch in her country.

Candy's mother no witch. Candy no witch, Barbadoes. This country,

mistress give Candy witch.' 'Did your mistress make you a witch in

this country?' 'Yes, in this country mistress give Candy witch.' 'What

did your mistress do to make you a witch?' 'Mistress bring book, and

pen, and ink, make Candy write in it.' From this testimony, Mrs

Haskins, the mistress, had no other way to save her life but to make

confession.

 

[A] Goodwife, Goody, and Goodman, were vulgar terms applied to

heads of families by the lower class.

 

In April, 1692, there was a public hearing and examination before six

magistrates and several ministers. The afflicted complained against

many with hideous clamors and screechings. On their examinations,

besides the experiment of the afflicted falling down at the sight of

the accused, they were required to repeat the Lord's Prayer, which it

was supposed a real witch could not do. When Sir William Phipps

entered upon the office of Governor, in May, 1692, he ordered the

witches to be put in chains; upon that it was said the afflicted

persons were free from their torments. In May, Mrs Carey, of

Charlestown, was examined and committed. Her husband published the

following facts.

 

'Having for some days heard that my wife was accused of witchcraft,

and being much disturbed at it, we went to Salem by advice to see if

the afflicted knew her. The prisoners were called in before the

justices, singly, and as they entered were cried out against by the

afflicted girls. The prisoners were placed about seven or eight feet

from the justices, and the accusers between the justices and the

prisoners. The prisoners were ordered to stand directly before the

justices with an officer appointed to hold each hand lest they should

therewith afflict the girls; and the prisoners' eyes must be

constantly fixed on the justices; for if they looked on the

afflicted, they would either fall into these fits, or cry out of

being hurt by them; after examination of the prisoners, who it was

that afflicted these girls, &c, they put them upon saying the Lord's

Prayer as a trial of their guilt. When the afflicted seemed to be out

of their fits, they would look stedfastly on some one person, and not

speak, and then the justices said they were struck dumb, and after a

little time they would speak again; then the justices said to the

accusers, which of you will go and touch the prisoner at the bar?

Then the most courageous would venture, but before they made three

steps would fall on the floor as if in a fit. The justices then

ordered that they should be taken up and carried to the prisoner,

that she might touch them, and as soon as this was done the justices

would say they are all well, before I could discern any alteration,

but the justices seemed to understand the manner of the strange

juggle. Two of the accusers who pretended to be bewitched, were Abigail Williams, niece of Mr Parris, aged eleven or twelve years, and Indian John, the husband of Tituba, who was now in jail.