Abigail, Anne and Betty were a part of a group known as the ‘Circle Girls’, along with six other young women. They would meet in the Parris household to listen to the songs play the games of the Caribbean house slave, Tituba. The girls’ falling ill was the catalyst for the hysteria that was to ensue. After the doctor’s diagnosis, the word witchcraft began to circulate and people began to panic. On February 29th 1692, most likely afraid of getting in trouble, Anne accused Tituba, Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman who married her servant, and Sarah Good, a homeless beggar, of using witch craft and cursing the girls. Miller includes these women in his play. It was an easy accusation; all three being lesser citizens and belonging to a minority group of lower class females in Salem. Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor, a respected farmer’s wife, of practising witch craft. This is what gave Miller the plotline regarding the affair between Abigail and John. Abigail did not accuse John, Elizabeth’s real husband, of witch craft. Miller came to his own creative conclusions.
Questioning began on March 1st and throughout Abigail and Betty would shriek and throw fits. Unlike Miller’s interpretation of the events however, Abigail was less of a leader than Anne Putnam. It was Anne who accused the first three women, followed by Martha Corey, an established member of the church, and Dorcas Good, the four year old daughter of Sarah Good, who would be chained to a prison wall for weeks. It was these bold accusations that sparked the fear that anyone in Salem could be a witch. Anne’s parents also accused dozens of witchcraft- many being enemies of the influential puritan family. It is said that people from neighbouring town and villages would come to the trials, just to see the theatrical performances put on by Anne and her Mother. They were dangerously talented actresses. Some historians believe that Anne was as much a victim as she was a villain. It is likely that she was manipulated by the adults around her to achieve their own ends. Most of the afflicted and accusers were in some way related to the Putnam family and Thomas Putnam was a chief filer of complaints in the village.
Anne was the only girl involved to make an official apology in 1706 in front of a church congregation. She accused sixty two people in total. Abigail accused forty one. Interestingly enough, when Sarah Good was being tried she showed no signs of remorse or weakness. Rev. Nicholas Noyes prompted her to confess, to which she replied: “I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.” She was hanged. Twenty five years later, Noyes died of internal bleeding. He choked on his own blood. Was this a chilling forecast or just a spooky coincidence?
On October 29th 1692, Governor Philips prohibits further arrests. Forty nine of the remaining fifty two people accused are released because their arrests are based on invalid spectral evidence. Tituba is released and sold to a new master. There is no documentation for her after this and we do not know what happened to her. In May 1693, Philips pardons those still in prison on witch craft charges. Five years later The General Court holds a day of fasting and soul-searching for the Salem tragedy. In 1702 the trials are declared unlawful and nine years later six hundred pounds are granted to the families of those hanged as compensation. The colony restores the rights and good names of those accused. In 1752 Salem village is renamed Danvers. It is not until 1957 that the state of Massachusetts formally apologises for the trials. On the 300th anniversary of the trials, a witch craft memorial designed by James Cutler is erected in Salem. It lists the many names of those affected by the tragedy.
The people involved in the trials, and the characters that feature in ‘The Crucible’, did not go on to live very happy or prosperous lives. In 1697, Samuel Parris was ousted as minister and replaced by Joseph Green. He left Salem to live in Stowe for a time, before moving onto other frontier towns. He died in1720. In 1699, Anne’s parents died within two weeks of one another. At aged nineteen, Anne was left to care for her nine siblings. She never married and she died at the age of thirty seven. Betty married Benjamin Barron in 1710. He was a yeoman, a trader, a cordwainer and a shoemaker. They had four children. Betty died six years after her husband in their Concord home on March 21st 1760. She lived the happiest life of all those affected. Abigail gave her last testimony on June 3rd 1692. After this she disappeared without explanation and there are no records indicating what happened to her. It is suggested that she moved to a city on the East coast, working as a prostitute and never marrying. But this is just speculation.
Learning about Salem and discovering the stories of the real people involved, makes Miller’s play more believable. I have a newfound respect for the characters, knowing that they lived and breathed before I did. In total, twenty people were found guilty and hanged. Six were found guilty and pardoned, two being pregnant. Mary Perkins Bradbury was found guilty of witch craft but escaped from jail. Five women confessed but were pardoned. Two men were pressed to death with heavy stones. Two people died in jail. Salem will always be remembered for its trials, and how such illogical madness began with just nine pre-adolescent girls.