A Short History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Trials

Greater Salem, the province of Governors Conant and Endicott, is visited by thousands of sojourners yearly. They come to study the Quakers and the witches, to picture the manses of the latter and the stately mansions of Salem’s commercial kings, and breathe the salubrious air of “old gray ocean.”

The witchcraft “delusion” is generally the first topic of inquiry, and the earnest desire of those people with notebook in hand to aid the memory in chronicling answers, suggested this monograph and urged its publication. There is another cogent reason: the popular knowledge is circumscribed and even that needs correcting.

This short history meets that earnest desire; it gives the origin, growth, and death of the hideous monster; it gives dates, courts, and names of places, jurors, witnesses, and those hanged; it names and explains certain “men and things” that are concomitant to the trials, with which the reader may not be conversant and which are necessary to the proper setting of the trials in one’s mind; it compasses the salient features of witchcraft history, so that the story of the 1692 “delusion” may be garnered and entertainingly rehearsed.

The trials were all spread upon the records, word for word. Rev. Samuel Parris, stenographer to the court, says they were “taken down in my characters written at the time,” barring, of course, the evidence by affidavits, which were written, signed, and attested, and filed in the Clerk of Court’s office, where they may now be seen.

Great research has hitherto been made, keen, sagacious acumen employed, and much written; but the true criterion of judgment, a trial,—a word for word trial,—has not before this been published. Here, then, is the first opportunity of readers to judge for themselves.

The trials were unique. The court was without authority; none of the judges, it is said, was bred to the law; evidence was arbitrarily admitted or excluded; the accused were not allowed counsel in law or the consolation of the clergy in religion.

The careful reader may discover, between the lines, in questions, in answers, and in the strange exhibitions, the real state of mind pervading all, which has been mildly characterized as a “delusion”; also he may be able to compare the Mosaic, the 1692, and the modern spirit manifestations, and advantageously determine for himself what is worth while in modern spiritualism, mind-reading, clairvoyance, mesmerism, and the rest.

Though men of education, religion, titled dignity, and official station, of the professions and the élite, were responsible for the horrible catastrophy, and in one instance or more forced the yeoman jurors to convict (who at the end signed recantations and expressed their grief),—religion and education must not be undervalued; a religious education will yield the highest type of manhood.

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CONTENTS

PAGE Notice 3 The Introduction 9 The Witch, Her Antiquity, Legal Status 9 The Modern Witch; Her Persecution 10 Learned Men’s Views, Dissenters, Crone Lore 11 Ingersoll; The Four Ministers 13 The Witch School; “Who’s Who” 18 Unwarrantable Usurpation 21 Names of the Court and Jury 23 Names of Those Hanged 24 Rev. John Hale Converted 27 Lofty Character of the Condemned 28 Place of Execution; The Crevice 29 Mrs. Howe’s Case: 31 The Sunday Warrant; Her Examination 31 Indicted, Remanded to Salem Jail 35

Case Called June 29th. The Witnesses: Andrews, Thomas 57 Chapman, Simon and Mary 41 Cummings, Isaac, Sr. and Jr. 43-46 Cummings, Mary, Sr. 47-49 Foster, Jacob 53 Hadley, Deborah 40 Howe, James, Sr. (ninety-four years old) 46 Howe, John (brother-in-law) 52 Knowlton, Joseph and Mary 45 Lane, Francis 50 Payson, Rev. Edward 40 Perley, Samuel[1] and Ruth 37 Perley, Timothy[1] and Deborah 36 Phillips, Rev. Samuel 38 Safford, Joseph 54 Warner, Daniel, John, Sarah 41