much to their disappointment, the people had been obliged to accept a
new charter under which the rule of the hierarchy was still restrained
by the appointment of the governor by the crown. The leaders, astute
as ever, succeeded in securing the appointment of Sir William Phips,
an ignorant and underbred sailor, hoping to be able to influence him
easily, and thus to continue their authority. The lieutenant-governor
was Stoughton, one of themselves, whose narrowness of mind and bitter
prejudices made him a man upon whom they could rely implicitly. But
before the charter arrived, the colony was thrown into a ferment of
excitement by the dreadful occurrences at Salem village (now Danvers),
which, to the minds of the majority of the population, indicated
unquestionably that the enemy of souls was making a most desperate
attack upon the community.
The trouble broke out in the family of the minister of the village,
Parris by name, who had shortly before had serious difficulties with
some of his congregation.[78] His daughter and his niece, girls ten or
eleven years old, began to make the same complaints that had been made
by the Goodwin children in Boston three years before. The physicians
found themselves at a loss, and hence were quite convinced that the
ailments were supernatural, and declared that the children were
bewitched. An Indian woman named Tituba, a servant in the house, tried
some experiments of a somewhat disgusting nature, which she claimed
would discover who the witch was that was tormenting them. When the
girls knew what she had done, they immediately cried out that Tituba
appeared to them, pricking and tormenting them, and straightway fell
into convulsions. The woman, alarmed at this, confessed what she had
been doing, but stoutly maintained that, though she knew how to find
out witches she herself was none. The condition of the children excited
much attention, and the more they were investigated the worse they
grew, and soon several others were seized with the same symptoms. These
all had their fits, and when in them would accuse not only the Indian
woman, but also two old half-witted crones in the neighborhood, one of
whom was bed-ridden as well as imbecile. The three were committed to
prison, where Tituba confessed that she was a witch and accused the
others of being her confederates. They soon had company in the jail, as
two others, women of character and position, Mistress Cory and Mistress
Nurse, were complained of; and when they were brought to examination,
all the children “fell into their fits” and insisted that the accused
were tormenting them. The women naturally denied this outrageous
charge, but in spite of their denial were committed to prison, and with
them, so great was the infatuation and panic, a little child of only
four years of age, who, as some of the girls insisted, “kept biting
them with her little sharp teeth.”
Panic, like rumor, thrives by what it feeds on; and from day to day new
victims were accused and committed, until the prisons were crowded.
More than a hundred women, many of them of good character and belonging
to respectable families in Salem, Andover, Ipswich and Billerica, were
arrested, and after an examination, usually conducted by Parris, were
thrown into the jails to await their formal trial.[79] Many of these,
in order to escape, confessed whatever they were charged with, and
generally in their confessions tried to win favor for themselves by
accusing some one else.[80] Neighborhood quarrels, old sores, spite,
envy, and jealousy added their bitterness to the prevailing madness.
It seems incredible that any rational beings could have been found to
give credence to the farrago of nonsense that was solemnly sworn to;
yet it was the most marvellous tales that found the readiest credence.
One confession may be cited as a sample, to illustrate what was the
force of panic terror in the midst of this apparently civilized
community.[81]
“The examination and confession (8 Sept. 92) of Mary Osgood, wife
of Captain Osgood of Andover, taken before John Hawthorne and other
their Majesties justices.
“She confesses that about 11 years ago, when she was in a
melancholy state and condition, she would walk abroad in her
orchard; and upon a certain time she saw the appearance of a cat,
at the end of the house, which yet she thought was a real cat.
However, at that time it diverted her from praying to God, and,
instead thereof, she prayed to the devil; about which time she
made a covenant with the devil, who, as a black man, came to her,
and presented to her a book, upon which she laid her finger, and
that left a red spot. And that upon her signing, the devil told
her he was her God, and that she should serve and worship him,
and, she believes, she consented unto it. She says further, that
about two years agone, she was carried through the air, in company
with Deacon Frye’s wife, Ebenezer Baker’s wife, and Goody Tyler,
to Five-Mile Pond, where she was baptized by the devil, who dipped
her face in the water and made her renounce her former baptism, and
told her that she must be his, soul and body, forever, and that she
must serve him, which she promised to do. She says ... that she
was transported back again through the air, in company with the
forenamed persons, in the same manner as she went, and believes she
was carried upon a pole.... She confesses she has afflicted three
persons, John Sawdy, Martha Sprague, and Rose Foster, and that she
did it by pinching her bed-clothes and giving consent the devil
should do it in her shape, and the devil could not do without her
consent. She confesses the afflicting persons in the court by the
glance of her eye.... _Q._ Who taught you this way of witchcraft?
_A._ Satan, and that he promised her abundance of satisfaction and
quietness in her future state, but never performed anything; and
that she has lived more miserably and more discontented since than
ever before. She confesses further, that she herself, in company
with Goody Parker, Goody Tyler, and Goody Dean, had a meeting at
Moses Tyler’s house, last Monday night, to afflict, and that she
and Goody Dean carried the shape of Mr. Dean, the minister, to
make persons believe that Mr. Dean afflicted. _Q._ What hindered
you from accomplishing what you intended? _A._ The Lord would
not suffer it to be that the devil should afflict in an innocent
person’s shape.[82] _Q._ Have you been at any other witch meetings?
_A._ I know nothing thereof, as I shall answer in the presence
of God and of His people: but said that the black man stood
before her, and told her, that what she had confessed was a lie;
notwithstanding, she said that what she had confessed was true,
and thereto put her hand. Her husband being present, was asked if
he judged his wife to be any way discomposed. He answered that
having lived with her so long he doth not judge her to be any ways
discomposed, but has cause to believe what she has said is true.”
When the new charter arrived and the new government went into
operation, the Governor and Council appointed Commissions of Oyer and
Terminer for the trial of witchcrafts. Their action was of more than
questionable legality, as by the charter the power of constituting
courts of justice was reserved to the General Assembly, while the
Governor and Council had only the right of appointing judges and
commissioners in courts thus constituted. The Court, however, was
established, and was opened at Salem in the first week of June
1692.[83] At its first session only one of the accused was brought
to trial, an old woman, Bridget Bishop by name, who had lived on bad
terms with all her neighbors, and consequently had no friends. She had
been charged with witchcraft twenty years before, and although her
accuser had acknowledged on his death-bed that his accusation had been
false and malicious, the stigma of the charge had always remained.
Consequently all the losses her neighbors had met with, in cattle,
swine, or poultry, all the accidents or unusual sicknesses they had
had, were attributed to her spite against them, and were now brought
forward as evidence against her. This testimony, together with the
charges made by the possessed children, who continued to reveal new
horrors from day to day, and the confessions of other women who to
save themselves accused her, was confirmed to the satisfaction of the
Court by the discovery of a “preternatural excrescence,” and she was
convicted and executed.[84] The further trials were postponed until
the end of the month, and in the interval the Governor and Council
consulted the ministers of the province as to the proper course to
pursue. In their reply they recommended caution and discretion, but
concluded their advice by saying, “Nevertheless we cannot but humbly
recommend unto the government the speedy and vigorous prosecutions of
such as have rendered themselves obnoxious, according to the direction
given in the laws of God and the wholesome statutes of the English
nation for the detection of witchcrafts.”[85]
The ministers had as little doubt of the laws of England being
available for their purpose as they had of what they considered to
be the laws of God; yet it is very doubtful whether, at the time of
Bishop’s trial and execution, there was any law in existence which
authorized their proceedings. The old colonial law was no longer in
force; and witchcraft not being an offence at common law, the only law
by which their action could be justified was the statute of James I.,
which must therefore have been considered as in force in the colony.
It is probable that the execution was utterly illegal. Before the next
cases were tried, the old colonial statute was revived and made again
the law of the province.
The trials were resumed in July, and were conducted in the same manner
as in the case of Bishop, but with even greater harshness. In one case,
that of Mrs. Nurse, the perversion of justice was most scandalous. The
accusations were so absurd, and her character and position so good,
that the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. So great, however,
was the indignation of the populace, and so serious the dissatisfaction
of the Court, that the cowardly jurors asked permission to go out
a second time, and then brought in a verdict of guilty, which was
accepted. The poor woman, whose deafness had prevented her hearing and
answering some of the most serious charges, was solemnly excommunicated
by Mr. Noyes, the minister of Salem, and formally delivered over to
Satan, and, with four others, was hanged. It was long remembered that
when one of them was told at the gallows by Noyes that he knew she was
a witch, and that she had better confess, and not be damned as well as
hanged, she replied that he lied, that she was no more a witch than he
was a wizard, and that, if he took away her life, God would give him
blood to drink;[86] and it was believed in Salem that the prediction
was literally fulfilled, and that Noyes came to his death by breaking a
blood-vessel in his lungs, and was choked with his own blood.
It would be needlessly revolting to relate the details of the
subsequent trials, in which the Court, driven by the popular panic
and the prevailing religious ideas, perverted justice and destroyed
the innocent.[87] Nineteen persons in all were executed, all of whom,
without exception, died professing their innocence and forgiving their
murderers, and thus refused to save their lives by confessing crimes
which they had not committed and could not possibly commit.[88] Besides
those who suffered for witchcraft, one other, Giles Cory, was put to
death with the utmost barbarity. When arraigned for trial he refused
to plead, and was condemned to the _peine forte et dure_, the only
time this infamous torture was ever inflicted in America. It consisted
in placing the contumacious person on a hard floor, and then piling
weight after weight upon him, until he consented to plead or was
crushed to death. A nearly contemporary account relates that when, in
the death agony, the poor wretch’s tongue protruded from his mouth,
the sheriff with his cane pushed it in again; and local tradition and
ballad told how in his torment he cried for “more rocks” to be heaped
on him to put him out of his misery.[89] This was the last of the
executions. The Court of Oyer and Terminer sat no more, and in the
interval between its adjournment and the opening of the sessions of the
“Supreme Standing Court,” in the following January, time was given for
consideration and reflection.[90]
But it may be questioned whether consideration and reflection would
have put a stop to the delusion without the operation of another and
more powerful cause. Thus far, the accused persons had been generally
of insignificant position, friendless old women, or men who had either
affronted their neighbors or, by the irregularity of their lives,
had lost the sympathy of the community.[91] But with their success,
the boldness or the madness of the accusers increased; some of the
most prominent people in the colony, distinguished in many cases by
unblemished lives, were now charged with dealings with the devil,
and even the wife of the Governor fell under suspicion. The community
came at last to its senses, and began to realize that the evidence,
which till then had seemed conclusive, was not worthy of attention.
Confessions were withdrawn, and the testimony of neighbors to good
character and life was at length regarded as of greater weight than the
ravings of hysterical girls or the malice of private enemies. So it
came about that before long those who were not prejudiced and committed
by the part they had played, acknowledged that they had been condemning
the innocent and bringing blood-guiltiness upon the land. Even Cotton
Mather, who had been largely responsible for the spread of the
delusion, was compelled to admit that mistakes had been made, though
he still maintained that if a further investigation had been held in
the cases of many who were set free, their guilt might have been made
apparent. Some that had served on the juries that had condemned the
victims put forth a paper admitting their delusion and begging pardon
of God and man for their mistake.[92] The impressive story of Sewall’s
penitence, and public confession of his fault in the South Church in
Boston, is well known; more consistent and logical was the declaration
of the stern-tempered Stoughton, that when he sat in judgment he had
the fear of God before his eyes, and gave his opinion according to the
best of his understanding; and, although it might appear afterwards
that he had been in error, yet he saw no necessity for a public
acknowledgment of it.[93]
Parris, whose part in these acts of folly and delusion had been the
most prominent of all, and who was strongly suspected of having
used the popular frenzy to ruin some of his personal antagonists,
was compelled to resign his position and leave the people whom he
had so grossly misled.[94] Noyes, whose delusion had been at least
sincere, made public confession of his fault, and was forgiven by his
congregation and by the community that had erred with him. Thus ended
one of the most painful episodes in the early history of New England.
The other colonies in America were not so entirely free from this
superstition that they should reproach the Puritans for it as a special
and peculiar product of their religious system. There were cases in New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, though there is no record
of any one having been put to death for the offence in those colonies.
In Pennsylvania, under the prudent instructions of William Penn, who
seems to have been less superstitious than the Massachusetts Quakers,
the jury brought in a verdict that the person accused was guilty of
“being suspected of being a witch,” and, fortunately, at that time
suspicion was not punishable.[95] In New York, a certain Ralf Hall and
his wife were tried in 1665, but were acquitted, and an attempt, in
1670, to create an excitement in Westchester over Katharine Harrison,
who had moved thither from Connecticut, was sternly suppressed.[96]
There were trials for witchcraft in Maryland in the last quarter of the
seventeenth century; and in Virginia in 1705, thirteen years later than
the Salem trials, a witch was ducked by order of court.[97]
It is hard to decide how much of all this was panic and how much
deliberate fraud and imposture. There is no reason to suspect anything
worse than pure superstition in the early cases in Massachusetts and
Connecticut; but the marvellous attacks of the Goodwin children in
Boston and of the Parris girls in Salem seem to belong to a different
category.[98] It is almost incredible that the girl who played so
cleverly upon the vanity and the theological prejudices of Cotton
Mather was not fully aware of what she was doing; and the fact that the
Parris children accused persons with whom their father had previously
had trouble, renders their delusion extremely suspicious. The great
St. Benedict is reported to have cured a brother who was possessed by
the devil by thrashing him soundly; and it is much to be regretted
that the Protestantism of the New Englanders prevented their knowing
and experimenting with the saint’s specific, which, in all ages of the
world, has been admitted to be wonderfully efficacious. It has been
held by many that the testimony at Salem was deliberately fabricated;
Hutchinson, writing at a time when men who could remember the trials
were yet living, is strongly of that opinion. The case does not,
however, seem as clear as that of the Goodwins; and of them Hutchinson,
as has been said, reports that they were estimable women who had never
acknowledged any deception on their part.
The phenomena of mental disease are so strange and complicated that
at the present day men are not as ready to set everything down to
fraud as they were a hundred years ago. It is possible to account
psychologically for all the phenomena recorded, without being obliged
to adopt any very violent hypothesis. Even if at the outset the
children in either case were pretending, it is quite as conceivable
that they should have passed from pretence of nervous symptoms to the
reality, as it is to think that absolute fraud would pass so long
undetected. The symptoms described are such as would be recognized by
any alienist to-day, and could be duplicated out of the current medical
journals. It may also be noticed that many of the possessed were girls
just coming to maturity, and thus of an age when the nervous system was
passing through a period of strain.
The rapidity with which the panic spread was most remarkable, and it
is painful to notice the abject terror into which the population was
thrown. Parents accused their children, and children their parents,
and, in one case at least, a wife her husband. Some men were tied
neck and heels until they would confess and accuse others.[99] It
was a period of the most pitiful mental and spiritual cowardice, and
those that were most directly responsible for the shameful condition
of affairs were men who, from their learning and their position,
should have been the leaders and sustainers of the popular conscience
in soberness of mind and charity. But the ministers of New England
had emphasized the necessity of a belief in witchcraft as a part of
the Divine revelation. The Old Testament spoke of witches, and had
said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” while the New Testament
supplied the idea of diabolical possession; hence they argued, with
a style of argument not yet disused, that any one who denied the
existence of witchcraft was a Sadducee and an impugner of the truth
of God’s Word. Soon the reasoning was extended to prove that any
one who denied that the particular phenomena under discussion were
caused by witchcraft was an enemy of religion. The ministers, as has
been said, have an unenviable prominence in the accounts of this
disastrous delusion. They were as forward in destroying the witches as
their predecessors had been in persecuting the Quakers. They hounded
on the judges and juries in their bloody work, they increased the
popular excitement by their public fasts and prayers and sermons, they
insulted the victims on the scaffold. It is no wonder that, under such
leadership, the population was excited to madness. It was only when
they found their own families and friends accused by those on whose
testimony others as innocent had been destroyed, that they were able to
recognize that the accusations were absurd and the evidence worthless.
Yet it may be said on their behalf that they were not really as far in
advance of the majority of their contemporaries as they imagined they
were, and it is to their credit that, when their eyes were opened, they
were opened thoroughly and not closed again. Cases of witchcraft now
disappeared from New England, while in other lands, where there was
the same sombre Calvinism but less enlightenment, as in Scotland, the
delusion continued for many years.[100]
The theological spirit now devoted itself to barren questions of
little moment, around which wordy battles raged and hatreds developed,
only less destructive than those in the previous century because
the divines were no longer the rulers of the state. Religion sank
into a barren formalism, which had no noble or time-honored forms to
redeem it from utter indifference. From this deplorable condition
it was roused by three influences which led to a spiritual revival:
the Episcopal movement in Connecticut, the preaching and writings
of Jonathan Edwards in western Massachusetts, and the preaching of
Whitefield. The dry bones once more lived, and the descendants of the
Puritans manifest by their earnest activity and deep spirituality how
stout and strong was the stock from which they have inherited many of
their most precious characteristics. They may be thankful that the old
bigotry has not returned, and that they are now saved from all danger
of interfering with public affairs by the complete separation of church
and state.
Panic terror of the supernatural, whenever it has occurred, has been
a parody of the prevailing form of religion. When the religious ideas
are at once narrow and introspective, when the social life is poor and
unsatisfying, and when there is also a profound ignorance of bodily and
mental physiology, we have the combined conditions for the ready and
serious development of religious panic. Such were the circumstances
of the witchcraft delusion that followed the religious revival due to
the preaching of the Franciscan friars; such were the circumstances in
Sweden in the seventeenth century, and in Scotland in the eighteenth;
such were the circumstances in New England at the period we have
considered. The isolated cases which appeared in various countries
from time to time were the result of superstition and ignorance. That
they did not cause a panic may be attributed in some cases to the
better social condition; in others, to the presence in the community
of men of sense and character who prevented the spread of delusion and
calmed, instead of exciting, the minds of their fellows. It is one
of the saddest features of the Salem trials, that though prominent
men whose influence might have been expected to be exercised on the
side of soberness, disbelieved in the reality of the “possession”
and criticised privately the methods employed, yet they allowed the
delusion to proceed to its tragical extent without interposing their
authority to prevent or at least to denounce it. Brattle, in his
account of the delusion, written in October 1692, mentions many by name
who agreed with him in condemning the proceedings of the justices in
Salem, and the judges of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, but looked on
while the unfortunates were tormented into confession and put to death
at the demand of popular frenzy.[101]