Dark days in Salem: the witchcraft trials by Deborah Kent

Author:Deborah Kent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
Published: 2020-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

A “bewitched” girl writhes on the floor as the accused woman denies the allegations. The witchcraft trials provided high drama, and townspeople flocked to the courtroom to watch each interrogation. Courtroom scenes were noisy affairs. Sometimes the horrifying shrieks and moans of the afflicted girls could be heard outside the meetinghouse.

The Raging Avalanche

The Sunday after Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse were arrested, Samuel Parris delivered a passionate sermon entitled, “Christ Knows How Many Devils There Are in His Churches, and Who They Are,” Parris warned that members of the church had become devils by working with Satan.10 Reverend Parris had barely begun to preach when a woman rose from her pew, walked out of the church, and slammed the door behind her. She was Sarah Cloyce, the younger sister of Rebecca Nurse. Sarah Cloyce paid a heavy price for her act of defiance. On April 4, Cloyce, like her sister, was arrested for witchcraft.

The afflicted girls had warned that a small army of witches was mustering in Salem Village. Now it seemed that more and more people in and around Salem Village heard the dreadful drumbeat. Seventeen-year-old Mary Walcott had fits. Two married women in their thirties, Bathshua Pope and Sarah Bibber, reported being pinched and tormented. Men, too, were among the afflicted. John Indian, the husband of the suspected witch Tituba, began to shriek and writhe. Farmer Benjamin Gould claimed that he woke one night to find the spectral forms of several witches hovering around his bed. Among them he recognized Martha Corey and her eighty-year-old husband, Giles. He also saw John and Elizabeth Proctor, and the sisters Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce. Soon Giles Corey and the Proctors were arrested and locked in jail with the others.

Mary Warren had stated that the afflicted persons dissembled, meaning that they had lied. Perhaps the girls wanted to punish her. Soon several of the afflicted girls as well as John Indian accused Mary of hurting them. Mary Warren, who had been among the afflicted only days before, found herself being questioned by the magistrates. As she declared her innocence, the afflicted girls shrieked and broke into violent convulsions. Overcome, Mary fainted. “I will tell, I will tell,” she muttered as she regained consciousness.11 Yet she could not explain what she wanted to reveal. She seemed to be choking, and she spoke no words. She was sent to jail, where her own torments resumed in full force. An accused witch, she was also among the afflicted.

When a few stones and clumps of snow begin to tumble down a mountainside, they can gather force and speed. Boulders and great masses of snow rush downhill in a deadly avalanche. In much the same way, the witchcraft accusations gathered momentum. They reached beyond Salem Village into the neighboring communities. Bridget Bishop was arrested in Salem Town. Three women from Topsfield were arrested—Sarah Wildes and Abigail and Deliverance Hobbs, a mother and stepdaughter. In Andover, Martha Carrier was arrested for shaking and threatening eleven-year-old Phebe Chandler while in spectral form.

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