Witchcraft In Salem Village (with illustrations)

Witchcraft In Salem Village by John Fiske was published in Boston and New York in 1902. This account of the remarkable witchcraft delusion and the witch trials in Salem is reprinted from the author's New France and New England. (76 pages)

Illustrations are included at the end of the book.

The Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text.

Excerpts:

.....An ancestor of mine (my great-grandfather's great-great grandfather), Dr. John Fisk, one of the most eminent physicians in the colony, then lived in Wenham, within four miles of Mr. Parris's meeting-house. The family tradition has it that he was skeptical about witchcraft. His uncle, Thomas Fisk, was a firm believer in witchcraft, but disapproved of spectral evidence. He was foreman of the jury in the trial of Rebecca Nurse, and the verdict was Not Guilty, whereat the girls began screaming and rolling about as if all Bedlam were let loose. The judges then told the jury that they must have overlooked one fact, — that in an unguarded moment the prisoner had really confessed her guilt! It seems that one of the prisoners. Deliverance Hobbs, had gone clean daft with fright, confessed herself a witch, and joined the accusing girls as a sort of king's evidence. When she was brought in to testify against Rebecca Nurse, the old lady exclaimed: "What! do you bring her? She is one of us." Of course she meant one of us prisoners, but the atrabilious chief justice was sure she meant one of us witches, and he insisted that the jury should go out again. They were not convinced, but presently returning to the court-room asked the accused to explain what she meant. She made no reply, and the jury at length reluctantly accepted this silence as a confession of guilt. Afterwards she explained that, being somewhat "hard of hearing and full of grief," she did not realize what was asked of her. She was sentenced none the less, and after being excommunicated from the church with elaborate ceremony was taken to the gallows. Thomas Fisk, the juryman who held out longest, made a written statement afterward in which he declared that what finally overcame him was her sudden silence at the critical moment. The whole incident is a pretty clear case of judges brow-beating Jury.
.....The case of Mary Easty, sister of Rebecca Nurse, still further illustrates the fierce persistency of the accusing girls and the completeness of the influence which they exercised over a large portion of the community. Mary Easty had been arrested soon after her sister, but had borne herself so well upon examination that after two months' imprisonment she was set free on May i8. Evidently, the accusing girls made up their minds that it would not do to allow this sort of thing. One day elapsed, during which they had plenty of time to interchange messages with one another and with Mrs. Putnam. On the 20th, at about nine o'clock in the morning, Mercy Lewis, being at John Putnam's house, was suddenly seized with the paroxysms above mentioned. Let us observe the rapidity with which the desired effects were produced. A neighbor named Samuel Abbey was sent in all haste to Thomas Putnam's house, to bring little Ann to see what was the matter. The distance was about a mile. He found Abigail Williams with Ann, and brought the two girls back with him. On the way, they both exclaimed that they saw the apparition of Goody Easty afflicting Mercy Lewis. When they arrived upon the scene, they found Mercy in convulsions, apparently choked and strangled, and catching for each breath as if it were the last. The two girls exclaimed, "There are Goody Easty and John Willard and Mary Whittredge afflicting poor Mercy Lewis!" After this had continued for some time, a messenger was sent up to Captain Jonathan Walcott's to get his daughter Mary. The distance was a mile and a half. She arrived about one o'clock, and immediately cried out that she saw the spectre of Mary Easty standing over the patient and tightening a chain about her neck. Presently a messenger was sent to the house of Dr. Griggs, three and a half miles distant, to get Elizabeth Hubbard, who upon her arrival immediately saw Goody Easty, as she said, torturing Mercy in a most dreadful manner. Occasionally Mercy would grow tired, but as her convulsions ceased, Elizabeth Hubbard would be seized with fits and would ask the spectre why she had brought with her a coffin and winding-sheet. By eight o'clock in the evening the room was full of neighbors, who were so impressed by the acting of the girl that some of them were afterward ready to testify that they saw the winding-sheet, the coffin, and the devil's autograph book, and heard words uttered by the spectre as well as by the girls. About eight o'clock two messengers went to Salem town to apply to Justice Hathorne for a warrant for the arrest of ......