"If after conviction he commits the like offence, and be convict and attaint of such second offence, he shall suffer death as a felon without clergy." Under the sanction of this authority, numberless old women were sacrificed, for the crime of having outlived the usual period of human life. Independently too, of this legal murder, the rabble frequently took it into their heads to erect themselves into a jury, and proceed to try the merits of some old beldame, by throwing her, bound hand and foot, into a river. If she swam, no doubt could remain of her supernatural powers. The poor creature was, therefore, obliged to go to the bottom, in order to elude the penalties of the statute. But the theatre on which this bloody spirit assumed its most terrific form was in Newengland; where an awful warning was exhibited of the extent to which popular infatuation, when unre strained, may triumph over the dictates of reason and of humanity. An historian of the present day has thus faithfully depicted the gloomy period to which we allude. "In Great Britain as well as in America, the opinion had long prevailed that, by the aid of malignant spirits, certain persons possessed supernatural powers, which were usually exercised in the mischievous employment of tormenting others; and the criminal code of both countries was disgraced with laws for the punishment of witchcraft. With considerable intervals between them, some few instances had occurred in Newengland of putting this sanguinary law in force; but in the year 1692, this weakness was converted into frenzy; and after exercising successfully its destructive rage on those miserable objects whose wayward dispositions had excited the ill opinion, or whose age and wretchedness ought to have secured them the pity of their neighbours, its baneful activity was extended to persons in every situation of life, and many of the most reputable members of society became its victims. "The first scene of this distressing tragedy was laid in Salem. The public mind had been prepared for its exhibition by some publications, stating the evidence adduced in former trials for witchcraft, both in old and Newengland, in which full proof was supposed to have been given of the guilt of the accused. after this, some young girls in Boston had accustomed themselves to fall into fits, and had affected to be struck dead on the production of certain popular books, such as the Assembly's Catechism, and Cotton's milk for Babes, while they could read Oxford's jests, or popish and quaker books, with many others, which were deemed prophane, without being in any manner affected by them. These pretences, instead of exposing the fraud to instant detection, seem to have promoted the cheat; and they were supposed to be possessed by demons who were utterly confounded at the production of those holy books. Sometimes,' says Mr. Hutchinson, they were deaf, then dumb, then blind; and sometimes, all these disorders together would come upon them. Their tongues would be drawn down their throats, then pulled out upon their chins. Their jaws, necks, shoulders, elbows, and all their joints would appear to be dislocated, and they would make most piteous outcries of burnings, of being cut with knives, beat, &c. and the marks of wounds were afterwards to be seen.' At length an old Irish woman, not of good character, who had given one of those girls some harsh language, and to whom all this diabolical mischief was attributed, was apprehended by the magistracy; and neither confessing nor denying the fact, was, on the certificate of the physicians that she was compos mentis, condemned and executed. An account of the circumstances of this case was published by a Mr. Baxter, with a preface, in which he says, 'the evidence is so convincing that he must be a very obdurate sadducee, who will not believe.' "Sir William Phipps, the governor, on his arrival from England, brought with him opinions which could not fail to strengthen the popular prejudice, and the lieutenant-governor supported one which was well calculated to render it sanguinary. He maintained that though the devil might appear in the shape of a guilty person, he could never be permitted to assume that of an innocent one. Consequently, when those who affected to perceive the form which tormented them designated any particular person as guilty, the guilt of that person was established, because he could not, if innocent, be personated by an evil spirit. "The public mind being thus predisposed, four girls in Salem, complained of being afflicted in the same manner with those in Boston, and the physicians unable to account for the disorder, attributed it to witchcraft, and an old Indian woman in the neigh. bourhood was fixed on as the witch. These girls were much attended to, and rendered of great importance by the public as well as private notice which was taken of them. Several private fasts were kept at the house of the minister whose daughter one of them was; several more public were kept by the whole village; and at length, a general fast was proclaimed throughout the colony, "to seek to God to rebuke Satan, &c." The effect of these measures, as well as of the compassion expressed for them by all visiters, and the deep interest taken by all in their pretended misfortunes, not only confirmed the girls in an imposture productive of such flattering attentions, but produced other competitors who were ambitious of the same distinction. Several other persons were now bewitched; and not only the old Indian, but two other old women, the one bedridden, and the other subject to melancholy and distraction, were accused as witches. It was necessary to keep up the agitation already excited, by furnishing fresh subjects for astonishment; and in a short time, the accusations extended to persons who were in respectable situations. The manner in which these accusations were received, evidenced such a degree of public credulity, that the impostors seem to have been convinced of their power to assail with impunity, any characters which caprice or malignity might select for their victims. Such was the prevailing infatuation, that in one instance, a child of five years old was charged as an accomplice in these pretended crimes; and if the nearest relatives of the accused manifested either tenderness for their situation, or resentment at the injury done their friends, they drew upon themselves the vengeance of these profligate impostors, and were involved in the dangers from which they were desirous of rescuing those with whom they were most intimately connected. For going out of church when a person of fair fame was believed to be strongly alluded to from the pulpit, a sister was charged as a witch; and for accompanying on her examination a wife who had been apprehended, the husband was involved in the same prosecution, and was condemned and executed. In the presence of the magistrates those flagitious persons, whose testimony supported these charges, affected extreme agony, and attributed to those whom they accused, the power of torturing them by a look and without appearing to approach them. The examinations were all taken in writing, and several of them are detailed at full length in Mr. Hutchinson's history of Massachusetts. They exhibit a deplorable degree of blind infatuation on one side, and atrocious profligacy on the other, which, if not well attested, could scarcely be supposed to have existed. One of them will be sufficient to convey an idea of the course which was pursued. "At a court held at Salem, 11th of April, 1692, by the hon. Thomas Danforth, deputy-governor. "Question. John, who hurt you? Answer. Goody Procter first, and then goody Cloyse. Q. What did she do to you? A. She brought the book to me. Q. John, tell the truth, who hurts you;" have you been hurt? A. The first was a gentlewoman I saw. Q. Who next? A. Goody Cloyse. Q. But who hurt you next? A. Goody Procter. Q. What did she do to you? A. She choked me and brought the book. Q. How oft did she come to torment you? A. A good many times; she and goody Cloyse. Q. Do they come to you in the night as well as in the day? A. They come most in the day. Q. Who? 4. Goody Cloyse and goody Procter. Q. Where did she take hold of you? A. Upon my throat, to stop my breath. Q. Do you know goody Cloyse and goody Proctor? A. Yes; here is goody Cloyse. Question by Cloyse. When did I hurt thee? A. A great many times. Cloyse. Oh, you are a griev ous liar. Q. What did this goody Cloyse do to you? A. She pinched and bit me until the blood came. Q. How long since this woman came and hurt you? A. Yesterday at meeting. Q. At any time before? A. Yes, a great many times. Q. Mary Walcott, who hurts you? A. Goody Cloyse. Q. What did she do to you? A. She hurt me. Q. Did she bring the book? A. Yes. Q. What were you to do with it? A. To touch it and be well. Then the witness fell into a fit. Q. Doth she come alone? A: Sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with goody Nurse and goody Corey, and a great many I do not know. Then she fell into a fit again. Q. Abigail Williams, did you see a company at Mr. Paris's house eat and drink? A. Yes, sir; that was their sacrament. Q. How many were there? A. About forty, and goody Cloyse and goody Good were their deacons. Q. What was it? A. They said it was our blood, and they had it twice that day. Q. Mary Walcott, have you seen a white man? A. Yes, sir, a, great many times. Q. What sort of a man was he? A. A fine grave man, and when he came he made all the witches to tremble. Abigail Williams confirmed the same, and said they had such a sight at deacon Ingersoll's. Q. Who was at deacon Ingersoll's then? A. Goody Cloyse, goody Nurse, goody Corey, and goody Good. Then Sarah Cloyse asked for water, and sat down as one seized with a dying fainting fit; and several of the afflicted fell into fits, and some of them cried out, Oh! her spirit is gone to prison to her sister Nurse. Q. Elizabeth Procter, you understand whereof you are charged; viz. to be guilty of sundry acts of witchcraft; what say you to it? speak the truth. And so you that are afflicted, you must speak the truth, as you will answer it before God another day. Mary Walcott, doth this woman hurt you? A. I never saw her so as to be hurt by her. Q. Mary Lewis, does she hurt you? Her mouth was stopped. Q. Ann Putnam, does she hurt you? She could not speak. Q. Abigail Williams, does she hurt you? Her hand was thrust into her mouth. Q. John, does she hurt you? A. This is the woman that came in her shift and choked me. Q. Did she ever bring the book? A. Yes, sir. Q. What to do! A. To write. Q. What, this woman? A. Yes, sir. Q. Are you sure of it? A. Yes sir. Again Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam were spoken to by the court; but neither of them could make - any answer, by reason of dumbness, or other fits. Q. What do you say, goody Procter, to those things? A. I take God in heaven to be my witness, that I know nothing of it, no more than the child unborn. Q. Ann Putnam, doth this woman hurt you? A. Yes, sir, a great many times. Then the accused looked upon them, and they fell into fits. Q. She does not bring the book to you, does "she? A. Yes, sir, often; and saith she hath made her maid set her hand to it. Abigail Williams, does this woman hurt you? A. Yes, sir, often. Q. Does she bring the book to you? A. Yes. Q. What would she have you to do with it? A. To write in it, and I shall be well. Did not you, said Abigail to the accused, Answer Procter. Dear child, Q. tell me that your maid had written? it is not so. There is another judgment, dear child. Then Abigail and Ann had fits. By-and-by they cried out, look you, there is goody Procter upon the beam. By-and-by both of them cried out upon goodman Procter himself, and said, he was a wizzard. |