Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem

by Henry Peterson

  CHAPTER IX.

  One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged Witches.

  Ah this was bad enough, but it was but the beginning of trouble. Titubahad spoken of two other women, but had given no names. The "afflictedchildren" were still afflicted, and growing worse, instead of better.The Rev. Master Noyes of Salem town, the Rev. Master Parris of Salemvillage, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, and his wife,--which last also wasbecoming bewitched, and had many old enmities--and many otherinfluential people and church members, were growing more excited, andvindictive against the troubles of their peace, with every passing day.

  "Who are they that still torment you in this horrible manner?" was thequestion asked of the children and young women, and they had theiranswers ready.

  There had been an old quarrel between the Endicotts and the Nurses, afamily which owned the Bishop Farm, about the eastern boundary of saidfarm. There had been the quarrel about who should be minister, in whichthe Nurses had sided with the determined opponents of Mistress AnnPutnam's reverend brother-in-law. The Nurses and other families werestaunch opposers of Master Parris's claim to ownership of the Parsonageand its grounds. And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusationsshould be made against opponents rather than against friends.

  Besides, there were those who had very little faith in the childrenthemselves, 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 RebeccaNurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the charges being made now againstthe members, often the heads, of the most reputable families in Salemtown and village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Before the coming ofthe winter snows probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prisonat Salem and Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge. Two-thirds of these werewomen; many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highestreputation for behavior and piety. Yet, they were bound with chains, andexposed to all the hardships that attended incarceration in small andbadly constructed prisons.

  A special court composed of the leading judges in the province beingappointed by the Governor for the trial of these accused persons, a massof what would be now styled "utter nonsense" was brought against them.No wonder that the official record of this co-called court of justice isnow nowhere to be found. The partial accounts that have come down to usare sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy. Let usrecur 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 _newlyentertained_. As this woman was passing by the meeting-house, she gave alook towards the house; and immediately a demon, invisibly entering thehouse, tore down a part of it; so that, though there was no person to beseen there, yet the people, at the noise, running in, found a board,which was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into anotherquarter of the house."

  A court of very ignorant men would be "entertained" now with such astory, in a very different sense from that in which the Rev. CottonMather used the word. The Court of 1692, doubtless swallowed the storywhole, for it was no more absurd than the bulk of the evidence uponwhich they condemned the reputed witches.

  One of the charges against the Rev. Master Burroughs, who had himselfbeen a minister for a short time in the village, was, that though asmall, slender man, he was a giant in strength. Several personswitnessed that "he had held out a gun of seven foot barrel with onehand; 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 theanswer was ready. "That was the black man, or the Devil, who looks likean Indian."

  Another charge against Master Burroughs was, that he went on a certainoccasion between two places in a shorter time than was possible, if theDevil had not assisted him. Both Increase Mather, the father, and hisson Cotton, two of the most prominent and influential of the Bostonministers, said that the testimony as to Mr. Burroughs' giant strengthwas alone sufficient rightfully to convict him. It is not improbablethat the real animus of the feeling against Master Burroughs was thebelief that he was not sound in the faith; for Master Cotton Mather,after his execution, declared to the people that he was "no ordainedminister," and called their attention to the fact that Satan oftenappeared as an angel of light.