One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged Witches.
Ah this was bad enough, but it was but the beginning of trouble. Tituba
had spoken of two other women, but had given no names. The "afflicted
children" were still afflicted, and growing worse, instead of better.
The Rev. Master Noyes of Salem town, the Rev. Master Parris of Salem
village, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, and his wife,--which last also was
becoming bewitched, and had many old enmities--and many other
influential people and church members, were growing more excited, and
vindictive against the troubles of their peace, with every passing day.
"Who are they that still torment you in this horrible manner?" was the
question asked of the children and young women, and they had their
answers ready.
There had been an old quarrel between the Endicotts and the Nurses, a
family which owned the Bishop Farm, about the eastern boundary of said
farm. There had been the quarrel about who should be minister, in which
the Nurses had sided with the determined opponents of Mistress Ann
Putnam's reverend brother-in-law. The Nurses and other families were
staunch opposers of Master Parris's claim to ownership of the Parsonage
and its grounds. And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusations
should be made against opponents rather than against friends.
Besides, there were those who had very little faith in the children
themselves, and had taken a kind of stand against them; and these too,
were in a dangerous position.
"Who torments you now?" The answer was ready: Martha Corey, and Rebecca
Nurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the charges being made now against
the members, often the heads, of the most reputable families in Salem
town and village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Before the coming of
the winter snows probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prison
at Salem and Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge. Two-thirds of these were
women; many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highest
reputation for behavior and piety. Yet, they were bound with chains, and
exposed to all the hardships that attended incarceration in small and
badly constructed prisons.
A special court composed of the leading judges in the province being
appointed by the Governor for the trial of these accused persons, a mass
of what would be now styled "utter nonsense" was brought against them.
No wonder that the official record of this co-called court of justice is
now nowhere to be found. The partial accounts that have come down to us
are sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy. Let us
recur to the charges against some of these persons:
The Rev. Cotton Mather, speaking of the trial of Bridget Bishop, says:
"There was one strange thing with which the Court was _newly
entertained_. As this woman was passing by the meeting-house, she gave a
look towards the house; and immediately a demon, invisibly entering the
house, tore down a part of it; so that, though there was no person to be
seen there, yet the people, at the noise, running in, found a board,
which was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into another
quarter of the house."
A court of very ignorant men would be "entertained" now with such a
story, in a very different sense from that in which the Rev. Cotton
Mather used the word. The Court of 1692, doubtless swallowed the story
whole, for it was no more absurd than the bulk of the evidence upon
which they condemned the reputed witches.
One of the charges against the Rev. Master Burroughs, who had himself
been a minister for a short time in the village, was, that though a
small, slender man, he was a giant in strength. Several persons
witnessed that "he had held out a gun of seven foot barrel with one
hand; and had carried a barrel full of cider from a canoe to the shore."
Burroughs said that an Indian present at the time did the same, but the
answer was ready. "That was the black man, or the Devil, who looks like
an Indian."
Another charge against Master Burroughs was, that he went on a certain
occasion between two places in a shorter time than was possible, if the
Devil had not assisted him. Both Increase Mather, the father, and his
son Cotton, two of the most prominent and influential of the Boston
ministers, said that the testimony as to Mr. Burroughs' giant strength
was alone sufficient rightfully to convict him. It is not improbable
that the real animus of the feeling against Master Burroughs was the
belief that he was not sound in the faith; for Master Cotton Mather,
after his execution, declared to the people that he was "no ordained
minister," and called their attention to the fact that Satan often
appeared as an angel of light.