The New World Times

By Anne M.

   Girls who found themselves in Salem during the winter time would experience the boredom of staying inside the house and doing chores all day. They might become so bored that they start making mischief.

    It all started in the house of Reverend Samuel Parris. Living in this house were his nine- year- old daughter Elizabeth (Betty) Parris, Betty’s eleven-year-old cousin Abigail Williams; and his two other children, Sussanah and Thomas Parris. Betty was a very obedient and timid child who was extremely scared of the Devil. This fear most likely stemmed from her father’s speeches and sermons. In contrast, Abigail was a bolder girl who, instead of being scared of the Devil, felt protected by her close connection to God through her uncle. In fact, Abigail was fascinated by the Devil. Also living in this house were Tituba and John Indian. They were both slaves that Samuel Parris had previously acquired from the island of Barbados. During the winter season, John Indian would help Rev. Samuel Parris with the outdoor work. This left Tituba, Betty, and Abigail with the chores inside the house. This was an extremely boring task.

    But sometimes, Samuel Parris and his wife Elizabeth Eldridge would go out to socialize. During these times, Tituba, Betty, and Abigail would sit by the fire and tell each other stories. It happened to be that Tituba had learned a lot about black magic while she was growing up in Barbados. Tituba told intriguing tales about black magic. She also taught the girls charms, spells, and tricks that she had learned while she had lived in Barbados. The girls felt extremely guilty about these sessions of storytelling, as Samuel Parris had made it quite clear that they were not allowed to discuss black magic. But Betty and Abigail found Tituba’s stories so interesting and intense that they urged Tituba to tell them more.

    The storytelling continued, and the girls became extremely frightened, and were filled with guilt. Having grown up with the minister, both of them knew the importance of being obedient. They had both grown up hearing sermons that were meant to create fear in them. They also had to endure the pressure of living in the house of Samuel Parris. There had been a lot of controversy about him lately, and if he lost his job as the minister, the family might not have enough money to support themselves. Betty and Abigail felt so nervous and fearful that they decided to tell some of their friends about Tituba’s stories, thinking that they might feel better if they confided in a few other people.

    Soon, these other girls also started coming to the storytelling sessions. Among Tituba’s new listeners was Ann Putnam Jr., the twelve-year-old daughter of the main supporters of Samuel Parris. Also attending these sessions were sixteen-year-old Mary Walcott, eighteen-year-old Susan Sheldon; seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard, the great-niece of the village physician, William Griggs; eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Booth; twenty-year-old Mary Warren, who was a servant in the tavern that was run by John Proctor; and nineteen-year-old

Mercy Lewis, who lived with the Putnam’s.

    On the twentieth of January in 1692, Betty and Abigail were trying out one of Tituba’s black magic fortune telling tricks. They were supposed to drop an egg white into a glass of warm water. Then, the egg white would take the shape of a man that one of the girls would marry. Betty and Abigail were waiting for the egg white to become the shape of a man’s face, but when Betty peered into the glass, she saw the shape of a coffin instead. She became hysterical. She started ranting and raving, and sometimes she would start crawling and barking like a dog. She also started having very severe seizures and spasms. Betty never recovered from her illness, and soon some other girls, including Abigail, started experiencing similar symptoms. Doctor Griggs, the village physician, examined the girls and several weeks later he had concluded that the girls were physically healthy. He claimed that the girls were “under an evil hand”, hence making the first formal claim of witchcraft. The claim of witches being in the region caused the whole village and town of Salem to panic. The people needed to find out who the witches were, if there were any, and to kill them before it was too late.

    On the twenty-fifth of February in 1692, Mary Sibley, the aunt of Mary Walcott, asked Tituba and John Indian to help her determine whether the girls were actually being afflicted by witches. She ordered the two slaves to bake a witch’s cake which would be made from a batter that was mixed with Abigail and Betty’s urine. The cake would then be fed to Samuel Parris’s dog. If the dog turned into a “familiar”, an animal possessed by the spirit of a witch, then it would prove that there was witchcraft at play. The dog’s reaction remains unknown. However, Samuel Parris found out about Mary Sibley’s attempts at witchcraft in his own house. He became furious, and denounced Mary Sibley for getting the attention of the devil. Mary Sibley confessed to the violation of trying to use witchcraft. The Mary Sibley incident made the afflicted girls even more frightened that their own wrong-doings would be revealed. Perhaps the girls thought that if they blamed other people for their crimes, then they would never be discovered, and so they started accusing others.

    On the twenty-ninth of February in 1692, the girls started making accusations. The first three people that were accused were Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Besides Tituba, thirty-nine-year-old Sarah Good was the first person to be accused. Ann Putnam Jr. swore to the magistrates that she had been tortured by an apparition of Sarah Good. She said that she had seen Good torturing the other girls too. The other afflicted girls all agreed to this. The judges and the people of Salem all agreed to this as well, because Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba were all disliked in Salem.

    Sarah Good was a pregnant widow with a four-year-old child when she was accused of being a witch. When she was a teenager, her father had committed suicide and brought suspicion to her family. Her family had also been a part of many land disputes. Sarah Good was homeless at the time of the witch trials, and attracted a lot of suspicion, both because of her past and because of her present state. No one in Salem hesitated to think that Sarah Good might have been innocent. When Sarah Good was first examined by the magistrates, she denied all the charges against her. But she announced that Sarah Osborne was the one who was afflicting Betty and Abigail, confirming the girls’ accusations.

    Sixty-nine-year-old Sarah Osborne was an invalid who also came under suspicion because of land disputes. At first, Sarah Osborne pleaded innocent, but then she switched tactics and said that she had been haunted by an Indian which pinched her in the neck. She said that Tituba had haunted her for months, and had ordered her to stop attending church. This only drew more suspicion to Sarah Osborne.

    Tituba came from the Barbados island, and she was Indian. There had been a war going on between the people of Salem and the Indians, and the people of Salem thought of the Indians as witches. Therefore, they also thought of Tituba as a witch. Tituba did not deny that she was a witch. In fact, she completely admitted to being a witch. She said that the devil came to her and bid her to serve him. The devil, as she described, was a tall man in black with white hair. Tituba told of making her mark of agreement in red in the devil’s book, which had nine names in it, including the names of Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.

    The Salem Witch Trials started when two girls, Betty and Abigail, began experimenting with Tituba’s black magic fortune telling tricks. When dropping an egg white into a glass of warm water, the girls were expecting to see the face of one of their future husband’s. Instead, when Betty peered into the glass, she saw the shape of a coffin. Betty flew into hysterics, and it was soon after determined that she was being tortured by a witch. Thus, the accusations began. Neighbors turned on neighbors, and friends accused friends. There were many trials, and many people were killed. The boredom of two girls had caused the death of many innocent people.