The girls did it, they named names after constant torment they singled out three women that lived in the village and all three were accused of practicing witchcraft. The first mentioned was Tituba who was known for her legends in Barbados and was associated with voodoo (Roberts 27). The second was Sarah Good; she smoked a pipe and begged from house to house. If anyone refused her, the craggy old hag went away muttering threats to her neighbors. The third woman was Sarah Osborne; she had not been to church in months and was said to be living in sin (Watson 116). She had
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moved in with a man before becoming his wife, which caused a scandal in the community two years earlier (Roberts 27).
During the preliminary hearings the girls continued with their weird fits and started rolling around on the floor in agony making is seem as though something invisible was making them act so strange. The people in the meeting house were convinced that the three women were responsible for the girls suffering. When Sarah Good was called to the stand she was asked, “Why do you hurt these children?” She replied, “I do no hurt them, clearly something is torturing the girls it was Osborne that did it” (Watson 116).
Tituba however took the stand and confessed that she had seen the devil. She told of things that inhabit the invisible world and the things that tie them to Satan. She talked about Good and Osborne and many other people in the village being involved with the devil’s conspiracy (Roberts 27).
The community looked at the girls as prophets, since they had a special gift and could see the evil lurking among them. If there were more witches as Tituba confessed then the girls must find the rest. The girls were able to come up with more suspects. Martha Corey a good woman known through out the community. The accused Sarah Good’s five-year-old daughter named Dorcas. Rebecca Nurse, Mary Esty and Sarah Cloyce who were all sisters. John Proctor, Giles Corey, Abigail Hobbs, Bridgit Bishop, Sarah Wild, Susanna Martin, Dorcas Hoar and Reverend George Burroughs. The list grew, madness spread beyond Salem Village, and the girls accused people they had never met (Roberts 28).
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The girls did every thing in their power to make people believe that the accused were really witches. Martha Corey told the judge “We must not believe these distracted children”. But the distracted children did more than speak. When the witch shifted her
feet, the girls shifted their feet. When she clenched her fingers, the girls cried that they were pinched. When she bit her lip, they screamed, bled and showed tooth marks (Watson 116).
When the two of the four young accusers were asked questions at Mrs. John Proctor’s trail they showed no mercy and had no intentions on backing down from their fictional fabrications. The judge asked both Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams if Mrs. Proctor had hurt them and they both answered to yes. No matter what little evidence there was, the girls were convincing by their words and actions alone (Roberts 29). At the hearings, the accusers sat through the interrogations, frequently interruption and changing their stories to fit the testimony. Onlookers coached and prompted the witnesses. The principle-investigating judge, John Hawthorne, showed extreme bias against the accused (Wilder 228).
Over the course of several months the girls kept spreading accusations and were identifying even more witches through out New England. People were being jailed and the prisons were overflowing with the accused. Over all twenty-two people were killed. Nineteen were executed by being hanged. One man was crushed to death under a pile of rocks, since he stood mute during his trial. Two others died while they were in prison and seven more were condemned. Not one suspect was ever acquitted before the court (Roberts 30).
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Eventually the subject just was not as exciting has it once was and people started thinking about how the evidence was not acceptable since the majority was based on testimony from the girls alone. What if the girls were lying? In October Governor Phips took note to the growing doubts releasing several suspects. Later fifty-two persons were
brought to trial and of those 49 were acquitted the other three were condemned for other reasons. Finally Governor Phips ended it by discharging every prisoner and he issued pardons to all people still under suspicion (Roberts 32).
Little is said about what happened to the girls after madness came to an end. However, Ann Putnam’s conscience kept bothering her through out her life as to what she had done. Her pastor Rev. Green urged Ann to write a confession, which was read before a large crowd at the meeting house. The pastor read her confession as she stood in front of the congregation.
I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that
befell my father’s family in the year about ninety-two; that I, then being in my
childhood should by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for the
accusing of several persons of a grievous crime, whreby their lives were taken
away from them, whom, now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they
were innocent persons. For which cause I desire to lie in the dust and beg for
forgiveness of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of
sorrow and offense, whose relations were taken away or accused (Yool).
The witchcraft hysteria in Salem Massachusetts was a brief moment in history. However this brief moment has lingered longer than some had hoped. The idea of witchcraft is as old has history itself and people still find it as intriguing today as they did some three hundred years ago (Robets 32). So the next time you see a child take a wild fit screaming and rolling around on the ground, maybe, must maybe there is a witch lurking near by.
Salem Witch Trials
Amanda Ragan
History 2010
Instructor: Dr. Schultz
February 17, 2000
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Works Cited
Olson, James S., Randy Roberts. American Experiences: Readings In American History,
Fourth Edition. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., 1998.
p. 23-34.
Sheffield, Erin. Erin’s Guide to the Salem Witch Trials. 14 Feb. 2000. <http://www.
Connections in History.com.
Watson, Bruce. “Salem’s Dark Hour”. Smithsonian. April 1992. V23. p116.
Wilder, T.E. “A Problem With Authority” Contra Mundum. No7 Spring 1993.
Yool, George. Ann Putnam, Jr. 14 Feb 2000. <http://www. Connections in History.com.
