Mercy Lewis
Mercy Lewis was still accusing people of being witches as late as January 1693. As she told it, one dark night when the moon slid behind the clouds, the spirit of Mary English had approached her to say the courts were about to free all the witches, so Mercy might as well become a witch, too, by signing the Devil’s book. That way, his witches would stop afflicting her with such terrible fits.
Because Lewis was an orphan, she didn’t have a dowry to offer in marriage. She apparently did get married at about age 27 though, but not before she had an out-of-wedlock child in 1695.
THE INNOCENT
Most of the accused witches who were still alive lost everything they owned. They lost their health. They lost their property. They lost their good reputations. And they lived in poverty. Once everybody in jail was finally acquitted, nobody could go home until they paid for their food and lodging. Now, how were they supposed to pay these bills if their farms had lain fallow because nobody was working the land, or if they couldn’t work for wages while they were in prison? Some people had no way to come up with the money, and one woman named Lydia Dustin died in prison as a result. Here is the fate of some of the rest.
Tituba
The person who probably spent the longest time in jail was Reverend Parris’s slave Tituba. Parris had reneged on his promise to pay for her release, and she was locked up for about 13 months until a new master bought her for 7 pounds sterling around May 1693. This was quite a bargain. The average price for a slave fresh off of a slave ship from Africa that year was 26.02 pounds sterling. Tituba’s unknown owner might have bought her husband, John Indian, too. There are no records to tell us what happened to either one of them after that.
Dorcas Good
Little Dorcas, the four-year-old daughter of convicted witch Sarah Good, had always been a perfectly healthy, normal child. But after she was shackled in heavy irons in a stinking, dung-filled, lice-infested stone prison for eight long months, and after receiving barely enough to eat or drink, and after being terrified by jailers and so-called witches and a slew of other criminals, and after she was coerced into accusing her mother of witchcraft, and after crying her eyes out when her mother was carted off to be hanged, and by the time a Salem man finally paid her bond so that she could be released from jail, it was too late. She had gone insane.
Sarah Osborn
Jail fever ran rampant among the prisoners, and at least six adults and one suckling infant died in prison. The infant was Sarah Good’s other child. Sarah Osborn, the sick old woman who was among the first three people accused of being a witch, died of the fever in prison, too.
Mary Watkins
In July of 1693, a suicidal maidservant named Mary Watkins was freed pending the payment of her jail fees. Watkins had been accused as a witch after she had accused her mistress. By July she didn’t have a penny to her name and couldn’t pay her fees, so when August finally rolled around, she was more desperate than ever to be free. Maybe Tituba’s way out would work. She could file a petition to be sold! According to Robert Calef’s written account, “She was continued for some time in prison, and at length was sold to Virginia,” where she became an indentured servant.
Philip and Mary English and their Heirs
In 1693, wealthy Anglican merchant Philip English and his pregnant wife, Mary, came home to Salem only to discover that High Sheriff George Corwin had run off with everything they owned. There were no sheep on their land, no ships in their harbor, no family portraits in their parlor, and no wine in their wine cellar either. English was able to go back to his shipping business anyway since he still had a few ships hidden away at sea. But soon after she gave birth to a son, Mary died.
English filed claim after claim to get his property back, but when Sheriff Corwin died, the executors of Corwin’s will gave English only 60 pounds sterling for items he had listed as being worth over 4,000 pounds sterling. In today’s money, 60 pounds would be worth about $3,000, and 4,000 pounds would be worth about $200,000. But English’s property was really worth considerably more money than that. Besides other items, English had originally owned 21 ships, not counting the ones that were hidden at sea. His stolen ships alone must have been worth an enormous fortune. English’s heirs eventually received 200 pounds sterling from the General Court as tiny restitution for everything he had lost.
Elizabeth Proctor
Sheriff Corwin’s other victims received even less help than English. The prosperous Proctor family was completely ruined. After John was hanged, Elizabeth Proctor was freed from jail with her newborn baby, but she never got one bit of their property back. A fake will disinherited her, and the court offered little help because she had been accused as a witch and was “dead in the law.” It was not until December 1711 that the General Court granted Proctor’s relatives 578 pounds and 12 shillings.
Mary DeRich
Rich people weren’t the only ones who were robbed. Mary DeRich lost her bed and cooking pot—everything she owned—and she had no way to earn a living either.
The Family of George Burroughs
When Burroughs was arrested for witchcraft in Maine, his third wife sold every single thing he owned, even the books in his library, and loaned out the money for interest. Then she fled with her own baby girl, leaving Burroughs’s seven other children behind to fend for themselves without a cent. At the time, the oldest boy was only 16, wars were raging all around them, and the papers that proved they owned land in Falmouth had been burned along with the town. About 20 years after Burroughs was hanged, the government awarded his children some money as compensation for his wrongful death.
Salem Village, Salem Town, and the Future
It would take another 300 years, but on May 9, 1992, the state of Massachusetts, the city of Salem, and the town of Danvers (originally known as Salem Village) finally dedicated a memorial in honor of the slain “witches.” It is called the Salem Village Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial of Danvers.
These days we can go to Salem for a Halloween extravaganza, a supernatural ghost tour, or a peek inside a witch’s dungeon. We can visit accursed cemeteries and listen to scary tales (some true, some false) in a carnival setting where souvenir brooms and costumed witches abound. But never again will we allow witchcraft, the Devil, and the lure of superstition to rule the day in America.
OR WILL WE?
NOTES
Devil, the leader of the Invisible World: Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World, 95. According to Mather, the Devil was a black man who walked the streets with a chain lengthened by God so that he could move farther and farther to punish the wicked. His chain made a dreadful noise and brimstone made a “hellish and horrid stench in our Nostrils.”
Disease in the New World: Perhaps 90 percent of the coastal Indians died from smallpox after settlers brought the disease to America on their ships. The Europeans thought the Indian deaths were God’s will, since they meant that more land would be available for “civilized” European settlement.
“Here are but”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, 175.
“under an Evil Hand”: Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 19.
Witchcraft punishable by death: “Yf any man or woman be a witch (that is) hath or consulteth wth a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death.” The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, “Capitall Lawes established by the Generall Court, the First of December, 1642,” 77.
Tales in Mather’s book: Linder, “Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689).” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_MATH.HTM
Cures with folk magic: In his 1651 book The Art of Distillation, John French tells how to distill snake and adder oil to cure deafness. His recipes for the cure of other ailments included the use of spirits from mummies or the brains of young men who had died violent deaths. And when people with rheumatism or other aches and pains added baked snails to a gallon of strong ale, they were cured—or so they thought.
Examination of Sarah Good: Linder, “The Examination of Sarah Good, March 1, 1692.” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_GOOX.HTM
Tipping point in witch hunt: “Once started, the alarm spread rapidly, and in a very short time a great number of people fell under suspicion, and many were thrown into prison on very frivolous grounds, supported, as such charges usually were, by very unworthy witnesses.” Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World.
“with all her naked”: Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, 31-32.
Martha Cory’s mistake: “By accusing her, the Putnams demonstrated that they would willingly attack anyone who openly questioned their motives and authority.” Smith and Pollack, “Biography: Martha Cory.”
“I know what”: “Giles Cory and the Salem Witch Craft Trials,” Cory Family Society. Last modified February 1, 2010. http://coryfamsoc.com/resources/articles/witch.htm
Ann testifies Cory prayed to Devil: Linder, “The Man of Iron: Giles Corey.” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/gilescoreypage.HTM
“I can say before”: Madden, “Examination of Rebecca Nurse of Salem Village.”
“I cannot help”: Ibid.
Church services: Former reverend of Salem Village Deodat Lawson would have said that the white angel was really the Devil: “Satan endeavours to Transforme himself to an Angel of Light, and to make his Kingdom and Administrations to resemble those of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “A Brief and True Narrative by Deodat Lawson, 1692,” in Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706, 163.
“Oh! Her spirit…” Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, 71.
“a dead man”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Letter from Thomas Putnam to Judge Samuel Sewall–Extract,” The Salem Witchcraft Papers, 246.
Number of new accusations: “Before the end of April 15 new complaints were filed, doubling the number of accused witches in just 10 days. Between Monday May 2 and Monday June 6 another 39 people were charged.” Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 122.
Witchcraft accusers and victim statistics: Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, Appendix B, 609-612.
Victims not officially listed: Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 321.
Dogs hanged: “Giles Cory and the Salem Witch Craft Trials,” Cory Family Society. Last modified February 1, 2010. http://coryfamsoc.com/resources/articles/witch.htm
“scragged,” “broken in her mind”: Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, Appendix A.
“I am innocent”: Ibid., 81-82.
“two men told”: Linder, “The Examination of Bridget Bishop, April 19, 1692,” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_BISX.HTM.
“He did torture”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Deposition: Mercy Lewis vs. George Burroughs,”
in The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. I, 168.
“Because I am”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Examination of George Jacobs, Sr. 10 May 1692,” in The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. II, 474.
“bitch witch”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Confession of Sarah Churchill,” in The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. I, 211.
“You tax me”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Examination of George Jacobs, Sr. 10 May 1692,” in The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. II, 474.
“self-denying, generous”: Linder, “George Burroughs.” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BBUR.HTM
“Oh dreadful! dreadful!”: Woodward, Records of Salem Witchcraft, 109.
“Suspected to have”: “Statement of Elisha Hutchinson” Essex Institute Fowler Papers Vol. 16, 11. Available online at http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/BoySal1R?div_id=BoySal1-n22.2&print=yes
“a Choice Child”: Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 150.
“he was the Cheife”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Elizar Keyser v. George Burroughs,” in The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. I, 176-177.
“He told me”: Woodward, Records of Salem Witchcraft, 114.
“immediately there appeared”: Ibid., 109.
“could tell his thoughts”: Ibid., 127.
“Mr. Burroughs carried”: Ibid., 118.
“the awfull Frowne”: Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 297.
“plumped or sunk”: Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692, 151.
“When Witches were Tryed”: Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World, 215.
“At the time”: Ibid., 215-216.
Nathaniel Saltonstall’s resignation: “Giles Cory and the Salem Witch Craft Trials,” Cory Family Society. Last modified February 1, 2010. http://coryfamsoc.com/resources/articles/witch.htm
“At the Trial of Sarah Good”: Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World, 357.
“No, I have none”: Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, 107-108.
“If it was the last moment”: Rosenthal, Salem Story, 101.
“I am no more”: Linder, “Sarah Good,” http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_Bgoo.HTM
Reverend Noyes’s death: Scott, “Salem Witch Trials: The 20 Victims”
“If they were let alone”: “Salem Witch Trials: The World Beyond the Hysteria,” Discovery Education. http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/people/proctor.html.
John Proctor’s petition: “SALEM-PRISION, July 23, 1692.” (excerpt) “Reverend Gentlemen, our Accusers and our Judges, and Jury having Condemned us already before our Tryals, being so much incensed against us by the Devil, makes us bold to Beg and Implore your Favorable Assistance of this our Humble Petition, That if it be possible our Innocent Blood may be spared. We know in our own Consciences we are all Innocent Persons. Here are five Persons who have lately confessed themselves to be Witches, and do accuse some of us of being along with them at a Sacrament, which we know to be Lies. Two of the 5 are Young-men who would not confess any thing till they tyed them Neck and Heels till the Blood was ready to come out of their Noses. My son William Procter, when he was examined, because he would not confess that he was Guilty when he was Innocent, they tyed him Neck and Heels till the Blood gushed out at his Nose, and would have kept him so 24 hours, if one more Merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him, and caused him to be unbound. They have already undone us in our Estates, and that will not serve their turns, without our Innocent Bloods. If it cannot be granted that we can have our Trials at Boston, we humbly beg that you would endeavor to have these Magistrates changed, and others in their rooms, hoping thereby you may be the means of saving the shedding our Innocent Bloods. Desiring your Prayers to the Lord in our behalf, we rest your Poor Afflicted Servants. JOHN PROCTER, etc.” Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World. http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Bur5Nar.html
“I fear not but”: “Salem Village Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial to Danvers,” Salem Witch Trials. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/Commemoration.html.
“It is a shameful thing”: Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Volume 3, 116.
Corwin stealing goods: Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, 237.
Noyes refuses to pray: Ibid., 242.
Petition for George Burroughs: Linder, “George Burroughs.” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BBUR.HTM.
“What I said”: Hutchinson, The History of Massachusetts Bay, 493. Accessed via http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/244jacob.html.
Margaret Jacobs risks life: Compiled by T. B. Howell, Esq. A Complete Collection of State Trials, Volume VI. London: T.C. Howard, 1816, 665-666.
“with and for her”: Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 256.
“The accusers said”: Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World. http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Bur5Nar.html
“His tongue being forced”: Ibid.
“the Devil hindered it”: Rosenthal, Salem Story, 149.
“I Petition to”: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Mary Easty Petition,” The Salem Witchcraft Papers, 304.
“Marth
a Cory, protesting”: Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World, 367.
Alice Parker: Scott, “Salem Witch Trials: The 20 Victims.”
“the Devil hindered”: Rosenthal, Salem Story, 158.
“What a sad thing”: Hill, A Delusion of Satan, 188.
“It cannot be”: Linder, “The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary.” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.htm
“better that ten”: Mather, Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits, 66.
“very much dissatisfyed”: Letter of Thomas Brattle, 77.
Theory of Putnam working with judges: Hill, The Salem Witch Trials Reader, 183.
“for sport”: Hurd, History of Essex County, 1186.
“Would you have”: Gildrie, Salem, Massachusetts, 1626-1683, 135.
Reversal of Attainder: Boyer and Nissenbaum, “Reversal of Attainder—October 17, 1711,” Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. III, 1017.
“the blame and shame”: Roach, The Salem Witch Trials, 557.
“Satan the devil”: Fowler, An Account of the Life, Character, &c., of the Rev. Samuel Parris, 15.
“the great Black Man”: Lawson, A Brief and True Narrative, 160.
“and he was a Lyar”: Ibid.
“I desire to”: The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, July 1858, vol. 12, 246.
Average price of a slave: Derks and Smith, The Value of a Dollar, 28.
“She was continued”: Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World, 384.
English’s property: English made an extensive list of hundreds of items stolen by Corwin and then wrote: “The foregoing is a true Account of What I had Seized and Embezeld whilst I was a prisoner in 1692 & whilst on my flight for my life besides a Considerable quantity of household goods & other things for all which I Never Reseved any other satisfacon for them Then Sixty Pounds 3s payd Me by the Administrators of George Corwine Late Sherife desesd and the Estate was seisd & Tackin away Chiefly by the Sherife and his under offisers not withstanding I had given fore thousand pound Bond with Surety att Boston.” Boyer and Nissenbaum, The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vol. III, 991, and Hill, A Delusion of Satan, 206.
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