The Penguin Book of Witches

by Katherine Howe

  5.Elizabeth Hubbard.

  6.Sarah Good was imprisoned overnight at the constable’s house. Watchers reported the following morning that she had disappeared from the room for a time “both bare foot and bare legde,” and so was thought to have sent her spirit out in the night to accost the afflicted girls. See Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 29.

  EXAMINATIONS OF SARAH GOOD, SARAH OSBURN, AND TITUBA, TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1692

  1.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the University of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ec ca/medium/ecca1011r.jpg.

  2.Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 27.

  3.A common belief about witchcraft involved the use of spirit familiars to do evil works. Accounts vary as to whether the familiars are devilish imps that attend on the witch, or whether the witch is able to transform herself into the form of an animal; examples of both metamorphoses appear in the historical record. In either case, the question of craft and technique remains at the center of early modern assumptions about how witchcraft works.

  4.Sarah Good was a beggar. Good would have approached the parsonage hoping to be given something to eat for herself and her child, but in a culture that examined every turn of personal fortune for signs of God’s approval or disfavor, begging for sustenance would have been shameful not only from an economic standpoint but from a social one. Good received something for her child and went away with thanks—but her thanks may not have been sincere, or the Parrises may have found her thanks insufficiently humble for their taste.

  5.The afflicted girls are asked to identify if it is Sarah Good who is hurting them, and they identify her not only by sight, but by acting out their torments for the benefit of the onlookers.

  6.So far Sarah Good’s crime is one of attitude rather than commission. She is pressed to explain her muttering when she goes away from someone’s house, but this time instead of claiming she was saying thanks, she dismisses the question by saying she was speaking her commandments, or a psalm. It is tempting to regard this answer as the Puritan equivalent of “it’s none of your business.”

  7.Worshipful.

  8.Hathorne.

  9.In 1710, William Good would file for restitution for the death of his wife, but in this instance he appears as a witness against her, again with complaints of her attitude toward him. If she isn’t a witch yet, he fears she will “be one very quickly.”

  10.Sarah Osburn posits that the Devil might be doing harm in her shape, but if so it’s nothing to do with her.

  11.The children are all saying that they know Sarah Osburn and that they recognize her clothes.

  12.“A thing like an Indian all black”—this example supports Mary Beth Norton’s persuasive thesis that much of the volatility of the social world that coalesced in the Salem panic can be attributed to lingering fears connected to the Indian wars along the Maine frontier. The slippage of language used to describe Indians with that used to describe the Devil, together with the recognition that Puritan New Englanders would have regarded any unconverted people as devilish apostates, suggests a tangling of these concepts in the Salem Village mind. See Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 58–59.

  13.A signal element of Osburn’s suspicion is that she has not been present at church services for over a year. Parris was an unpopular minister, and Bother and Nissenbaum point out that a faction of villagers preferred to travel to Salem Town for meeting rather than stay in the village. In neighboring Marblehead, more villagers skipped church than not. But in the village, skipping out on meeting was sufficient to draw suspicion, particularly from a minister who felt as beleaguered as Samuel Parris.

  14.OED, 1901, defines “ken” as an archaic word meaning “to (be able to) distinguish (one person or thing from another).”

  15.Tituba and the two Sarahs were initially imprisoned in Boston rather than in Salem Town.

  16.Original document reads “hure,” which could be either “her” or “here,” depending on the accent.

  17.In the transitional handwriting of this time period distinguishing a “c” from an “r” can be difficult. Most transcriptions agree that Tituba is talking about having seen cats of various colors, rather than rats.

  18.Ann Putnam Jr.

  19.Lieutenant.

  20.To “ride upon sticks” (either branches or brooms) shows up frequently in woodcuts and other descriptions of witches flying in the medieval and early modern period. It is an example of witchly behavior drawn from the English tradition rather than the African, yet another error of attribution in later characterizations of Tituba as practicing Caribbean magic.

  21.Tituba says that a wolf was set upon Elizabeth Hubbard, and upon hearing that suggestion, members of the audience agree that yes, sure enough, Elizabeth Hubbard complained yesterday of a wolf. The spectacle feeds upon itself.

  22.A man in black clothes, as distinct from “a black man.” Norton points out the differences between attribution of whether the blackness refers to raiment, to skin, or possibly to moral character. The black clothes and white hair in this instance could suggest Samuel Parris or any number of powerful Puritan men.

  TWO EXAMINATIONS OF TITUBA, AS RECORDED BY JONATHAN CORWIN

  1.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the University of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/NYPL/LARGE/NYPL03A.jpg.

  2.A lentoe is a lean-to, the term for a low-ceilinged add-on room, commonly used to enlarge living space in early North American houses. The lean-to often became the kitchen or storage area. See David Freeman Hawke, Everyday Life in Early America (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), 53.

  3.Earlier Tituba had only identified two other witches, but now her account has raised the number to four.

  4.At this point Tituba suggests that the witch conspiracy extends beyond the bounds of Salem Village, for the other people she does not recognize, coming as they do from Boston. Tituba actually lived in Boston with Samuel Parris before his household moved to the village parsonage, so her reference to that town comes as no surprise.

  5.The yellow bird appears frequently in Tituba’s account, often offered as a present or as part of a selection of “pretty things.” Though the usual interpretation of the yellow bird is as another incarnation of the devilish spirit familiar, traditions in early and mid-eighteenth-century American portraiture use delicate animal pets, such as hummingbirds and squirrels, to denote refinement in the portrait sitter. It’s possible that the “yellow bird” is a goldfinch or canary, and a coveted class signifier, though such an interpretation is difficult to prove.

  6.Mr. Griggs’s maid is Elizabeth Hubbard, the eldest so far of the afflicted girls.

  7.The testimony shifts between first and third person. This passage describes Tituba saying that Sarah Good came to her while Samuel Parris was praying and would not let Tituba hear the prayers.

  8.Marion Starkey and her “slave voodoo” assertion would have done well to review this testimony. Though Tituba is being figured as other in the course of this testimony, as someone who belongs to another country, Tituba is confessing here to practicing English witchcraft, which she learned only upon her arrival in New England.

  9.The Proctors, John and Elizabeth, lionized in The Crucible, whose servant Mary Warren would shortly join the ranks of the afflicted, and who later would be accused themselves.

  10.Another shift in point of view as Jonathan Corwin slips into his own voice to describe the behavior of the afflicted girls while Tituba is talking. Tituba is asked who is hurting them, and she accuses Sarah Good, which the children confirm.

  11.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the University of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and
Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/NYPL/ LARGE/NYPL04A.jpg.

  12.The two examinations taken down by Jonathan Corwin occur one day apart. The first will strike a reader as largely similar, with only a few shifts in descriptive detail, to the foregoing account by court reporter Ezekiel Cheever. Many of the examinations were recorded simultaneously by different people, usually Cheever or Samuel Parris himself. The difference between the two examinations transcribed by Corwin will at first appear subtle, but on closer examination the substance of Tituba’s confession, and the opening that it creates for a conspiracy, will become clear. Jonathan Corwin’s house is still standing, and is operated as a museum in Salem. Called the Witch House, even though no accused witches lived there, Corwin’s house is the only extant physical structure in modern-day Salem with a legitimate tie to the witch trials.

  13.Tituba’s seeming pining for fine things is a poignant detail. One is reminded of Reginald Scot’s complaint that too many of the people accused as witches, whom one would expect to have bartered away their souls in exchange for fine things and ease from labor, are instead impoverished people with nothing to show for their supposed diabolical covenant.

  14.Already in the span of one night the supposed witch conspiracy has grown from four people (Tituba, the two Sarahs, and the “black man” from Boston), to five, to nine.

  15.Tituba concludes her dramatic confession, which involves riding through the night on a stick and making her mark in blood in the Devil’s book, by claiming that there are nine witches total, but she knows only a few of them. Some of them live in Boston, but some of them live “here in this town.” Recall that Perkins asserts that the identification of a witch by another confessed witch is very strong, nearly conclusive, evidence of guilt. Tituba has confessed, has confirmed the guilt of accused suspects, and has opened up speculation about the other members of the invisible diabolical conspiracy in their midst. The Puritans believed in “worlds of wonder,” invisible realms of spirit that cannot be perceived. It would come as no surprise to frustrated and scared Salem Villagers that evil spirits were operating in their midst. The accusations had come about only after careful consideration of all other possibilities, including prayers, fasting, and the consultation of medical professionals. Instead of creating circumstances by which the witch trials might be contained, such as the examination of suspects in private, the community has inadvertently crafted a scenario in which fears will be heightened.

  THE SUSPICION OF MARTHA CORY, MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1692

  1.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the University of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/essex/eia/large/eia01-1.jpg.

  2.Martha Cory seems to believe that her church membership, or her being a “Gospel woman,” should suffice to prove that she couldn’t possibly be a witch.

  3.The direct transcription of testimony is occasionally interrupted by marginal comments on the goings-on in the examination room. In this case, the court reporter Ezekiel Cheever has interrupted her by calling her a liar, and Edward Putnam has chimed in as well.

  4.Cheever and Putnam break into the proceedings again. From such interruptions we can glean to some extent the uncontrolled and combustible atmosphere that surrounded the examinations.

  5.“All this assembly” is a vague assertion, but nevertheless creates a strong impression of a crowd being present for Martha Cory’s examination. At the very least John Hathorne, Ezekiel Cheever, Edward Putnam, Giles Cory, and several others who either sign the document or are named therein are present.

  6.Martha Cory’s sarcasm! She’s saying that if one of the children knew what clothes she was wearing without having seen her, it must be because the child “was wiser than anybody.”

  7.The collected assembly here also includes the afflicted little girls, who testify to a spirit seen whispering in Martha Cory’s ear.

  8.Martha Cory urges the magistrates not to give credence to what “distracted children” say.

  9.In response to Martha’s dismissal of them, the afflicted girls act out even more strongly.

  10.“Improve” in this usage means “to disapprove as bad; to disallow; to reprove, rebuke; to blame, censure, condemn.” OED, 1899.

  11.“Crossly” might be Henry Crosby, husband of Deliverance Cory, Giles Cory’s daughter by his first marriage. See Rosenthal, Records, 148.

  12.Just the number of people referenced by name in this examination adds up to thirteen people. It wouldn’t take many more to make a small crowd.

  13.Part of the spiritual trap confronted by accused witches during the Salem episode is that lying is a mortal sin. If Cory bows to the pressure being applied to her, she will have endangered her immortal soul. This steadfastness would lead many of the Salem accused who went to their deaths without confessing to be lionized as Christian martyrs by nineteenth-century dramatists. See Rosenthal, Salem Story.

  14.Hathorne points out that inconstancy of opinions is a “note of distraction,” and that the girls’ very consistency in accusing her should give weight to their accusations.

  15.Martha Cory laughs at the magistrates and ministers, having publicly questioned their authority. In doing so she is upending the social hierarchy in place in her culture. Like Sarah Good, Martha Cory’s error here is of attitude. Her unconcealed contempt renders her threatening, and in a symbol-ridden society such as hers, could itself be taken for a sign of diabolical influence.

  16.An uncredited member of the assembly has suggested that Martha Cory should do as Tituba has done, that is, confess and then help them discover her confederates.

  17.Tituba’s confession is explicitly alluded to as a rationale for the spread of accusations to others.

  18.John Hathorne is being sneaky in his questioning. He has asked her how long she agreed to serve the Devil. Was it ten years? If she says no, then he can catch her out by saying, “Ah! So if it wasn’t ten years, how long was it?” By denying the question she will inevitably be answering the question in the affirmative.

  THE ACCUSATION OF REBECCA NURSE, THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1692

  1.Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 47.

  2.Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 61.

  3.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the University of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ecca/medium/ecca1072r.jpg.

  4.An obsolete usage of “amazed,” defined by the OED as “driven stupid; stunned or stupefied, as by a blow; out of one’s wits.” OED, 1884.

  5.Demon?

  6.Though the accusations against Rebecca Nurse stemmed from children, Ann Putnam Jr. and Abigail Williams, it is the subsequent accusations from girls in their late teens like Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott that draw the serious attention of the court. See Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 63.

  7.“Professor” can be understood to mean a professor of the faith. Rebecca Nurse was a covenanted church member in Salem Town, though she attended meetings in Salem Village because it was closer to her home. The Rebecca Nurse homestead in Danvers, Massachusetts, remains extant and is open for tours in the summertime.

  8.Hathorne wants to know if Rebecca Nurse could be a witch without knowing it.

  9.And.

  10.In the aftermath of the Salem panic, apologists would insist that the girls had indeed been bewitched but were mistaken in their attribution of who was responsible.

  11.Belie, that is, tell a lie against myself.

  12.Shorthand.

  13.“Praetermitted” means “passed by, disregarded, overlooked; omitted.” OED, 2007. The recorder is remarking that the scene of Rebecca Nurse’s examination was so wild and noisy that much of the commentary was impossible to hear, and therefore left o
ut of the court record.

  WARRANT FOR THE APPREHENSION OF RACHEL CLINTON, WITH SUMMONS FOR WITNESSES, AND OFFICER’S RETURN, TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1692

  1.Rachel Clinton’s earlier witch trials and overall unfortunate life receive thorough treatment in John Putnam Demos’s Entertaining Satan. She is notable not only for her dramatic plunge down the class hierarchy but also for her tendency to express her anger in physical confrontation.

  2.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the University of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/Suffolk/ small/S001A.jpg.

  3.“Unlike the Salem Village arrest warrants, bond (‘recognizance’) for prosecution is posted here. Such bonds were a normal part of the legal process in Massachusetts Bay, and why bond was not required in the original cases is a matter of speculation. However, it may be that if bond had been required at the outset there would have been fewer complaints and the spread of the episode might not have occurred.” See Rosenthal, Records, 164.

  DEPOSITION OF THOMAS KNOWLTON JR. VERSUS RACHEL CLINTON

  1.Transcribed from a document in Witchcraft Collection, unbound manuscripts, #4620, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

  2.Probably “scolding.”

  3.Pricked? Pinched? The subsequent use of “pins” suggests “pricked.”

  4.Probably “Rachel.”

  BRIDGET BISHOP, TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1692

  1.Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 112–13.

  2.Transcribed from an image of the original document in the Univer- sity of Virginia’s online Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ecca/medium/ecca1125r.jpg.

  3.Bridget Bishop sustained a conviction years earlier for arguing with her second husband, Thomas Oliver. See Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 359, note 2. Norton also notes that previous accounts of the Salem crisis conflate Bridget Bishop of Salem Town with another “Goody Bishop,” whose first name was Sarah, and who lived in Salem Village. Reportedly, the two are unconnected.