WEBVTT - S1 – 3: By the Book 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.600 If what happened in the meeting house on the first 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:18.440 day of examinations was an explosion, the after shock echoed 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:23.160 far and wide. In fact, a number of reverberations can 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.680 still be found in the pages of history. That evening, 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.400 the three women were carted off to jail where they 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.720 could be held for further questioning and an actual trial. 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.600 Sarah Osburne and Tituba were taken to the Salem jail, 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.480 while Sarah Good was transported to the nearby Ipswich Jail, 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.600 where Constable Joseph Herrick, a relative of hers, could keep 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:49.400 an eye on her. After the magistrates and accused left 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.560 the meeting house, though, that's when the shock waves began 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:57.040 to spread. The place had been packed. Some estimates placed 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.760 the crowd at nearly six d people, more than the 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.160 real population of Salem Village itself. Those people left for 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:06.840 homes and taverns, taking the news of what they had 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.480 witnessed out into the world, and news, as we all know, 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.440 has a way of spreading like a wildfire. Some of 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.000 them stayed behind, though a small group of Salem village 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.479 men remained in the meeting house to discuss the matter 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.320 in a more official capacity. Among them were two Putnam's, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.759 the uncle and cousin of Thomas Jr. Father of one 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.640 of the afflicted, and they decided to send these two 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:36.000 men south to Boston for help. The most significant gathering 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.120 happened over at the home of Dr William Griggs. He 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.839 was the closest thing the village had to a medical doctor, 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.600 and was a good friend of the Reverend Samuel Paris. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.720 He was a devout Puritan, an educated man, and a 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:53.080 rational thinker, but he also suspected something less natural was 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:57.160 behind the events of the past few days. He and 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.880 a number of neighbors huddled together that evening inside griggs 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.040 house to discuss what they had learned. They arrived at 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.240 the meeting house that day believing that there might be 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.640 three witches in Salem Village, and left with news that 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.320 there were in fact five of them. Three were in custody, sure, 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.320 but there were still two at large, hiding in plain 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:22.079 sight and continuing their dark, dangerous attacks. Those attacks were 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.200 still hitting home too, quite literally. Living in the home 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.600 of William Griggs was his niece, Elizabeth Hubbard, who was 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.400 one of the four girls making all of the accusations. 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.400 So while the gathering was mostly a moment for everyone 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.000 to process and regroup. They were also watching over her, 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:43.639 making sure the witches left her alone. When the attacks 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.160 began again, there were fresh eyes packed inside the house 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.359 to witness it. This time, Elizabeth began to cry out 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.440 in pain. She claimed someone invisible was pinching and stabbing 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.880 at her with the sharp object. Everyone could see it too. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.600 The girl was writhing in pain and flinching away from 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.000 an unseen attacker. It must have been horrifying to watch. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.880 And then the girl froze and pointed toward the table 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:14.760 everyone had gathered around. There, she shouted, there stands Sarah Good. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.760 Elizabeth described how the invisible witch was standing naked on 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.280 the table. Her feet and legs were bare, as was 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:28.480 her chest. Oh, nasty slut, the girl cried out. If 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.320 I had something, I would kill you. Samuel Sibley was 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.880 seated at the table and watched it all in horror. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.240 His wife was Mary Sibley, the woman who had instructed 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.200 Tituba and John Indian on how to make the witch 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.760 cake just days before. Maybe he felt a need to 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.760 atone for his wife's sins, or perhaps he was just 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.520 so gripped with fear that he simply fell in line. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.440 Whatever the reason was, he stood up and swung his 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:58.520 walking stick at the empty air above the table. You 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.360 have hit her right across the back, Elizabeth declared, you 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:08.440 have almost killed her. Miles away in Ipswich, unaware of 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.440 what was transpiring inside the Grigs home, one of the 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.760 guards standing outside Joseph Herrick's barn glanced inside the check 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.240 on Sarah Good and felt the hair on the back 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.360 of his neck. Stand up. She was gone, vanished into 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.000 the night, as if she had magically melted into the air, 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.320 and all that was left of her or her shoes 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.599 and her stockings. When they found her the next morning, 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.839 everyone held their breath. There was blood on her arm, 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:44.360 as if she had been struck. This is unobscured. I'm 0:04:44.440 --> 0:05:18.840 Aaron Manky. The night of the gathering at Dr William 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.720 Griggs house, that moment of reflection and panic. After a 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.040 day of examinations inside the meeting house, everyone dispersed to 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.560 go home. Two of those men were William Allen and 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.919 John Hughes, who lived in the same direction. They bundled 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.440 up against the cold and then walked off into the 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.279 night down the road. After a few minutes of brisk, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.200 silent walking. Both of the men claimed they heard a 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.120 noise ahead of them down the road. It wasn't the 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.560 sound they could identify, and it kept repeating itself over 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.400 and over, but they needed to get home, so they 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.920 pressed on. That didn't mean it was easy, though. Soon 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.839 a dark shape began to materialize in the darkness ahead. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.000 They slowed their pace, believing there was some sort of 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.039 animal hunched over beside the road. A moment later, that 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.039 shape exploded upward, and as it did, it unraveled into 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.039 the forms of three people women. If the men had 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.640 to guess, they vanished almost as quickly as they had appeared. 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.360 But as they did, both men were certain they recognized 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.599 all three of them, Sarah Good, Sarah Osburne, and Tituba. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:32.080 Sarah Good, however, was miles away in an Ipswich jail 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.159 along with her baby. Actually that jail was the barn 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.279 belonging to her relative Joseph Herrick and his brother Zachariah, 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.920 and there was a bit of irony in her new situation. Remember, 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.920 Sarah and William Good weren't doing so well financially. They've 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.000 lost all of their land and had no way to 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.240 provide for themselves. Life was hard for them, to say 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:56.600 the least. Two years prior to the events of six two, 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.680 Sarah had approached Zachariah and asked if she and her daughter, 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.599 Doroth the might sleep in the barn for a few nights. 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.719 Sarah's sister had married into the Herrick family many years before, 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.000 and I have to imagine she felt that if anyone 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.600 was going to say yes, it would be the Herrick brothers. Instead, 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:18.320 they turned her away. That's when things got weird. Sarah, 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.320 known around the village to be a grumbler and all 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.240 around bitter woman, told Herrick that his heartlessness would cost 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:29.320 him dearly. Perhaps she hinted one of his best cows 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:34.040 might suffer. Zachariah's teenage sons escorted Sarah off their property, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.960 and a short time later two of Herrick's best cows disappeared. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.880 This night, though the Herricks had no choice. Joseph was 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.680 a constable for Salem and had been instructed to bring 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.119 Sarah Good and her infant back to his farm, where 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.280 she would be locked in the barn overnight. As the 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.680 gathering at Dr Grigg's house took place, complete with Elizabeth 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.800 Hubbard's claim of an invisible Sarah Good. The Herrick settled 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.440 in for what they assumed would be a calm, quiet night, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:10.080 but something went wrong. Sarah Good escaped. For whatever reason, 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.000 she slipped out of her shoes and stockings and carried 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.680 her infant out into the cold night air. Most historians 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.000 think that she was out looking for a place to hide, 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.880 but walking barefoot through the cold, snow and mud of 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:26.400 early March would have been painful. The guards noticed she 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:28.760 was gone, but by the time they summoned the courage 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.920 to inform Joseph Herrick, the sun had already come up 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.280 and Sarah Good had returned to her makeshift prison cell. 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.120 Joseph checked on her, found her arm covered in blood, 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.280 and probably wondered aloud about what the woman had done 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.600 to herself, And then he began his day. That new 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.080 day came with new news. Word reached Herrick about the 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.640 events at Dr Grigg's house the night before, and of 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.760 the appearance of Sarah Good without her shoes and stockings, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.320 and of how Samuel Sibley had struck her with his 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.320 walking stick. And I realize we look back on this 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.640 today with a bit of incredulity, But put yourself in 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.079 the mindset of a superstitious, fearful puritan in the middle 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.520 of a community at the beginning of a witch hunt. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.839 This was a red flag and a sure sign that 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.480 something evil was at work. Most people probably trying to 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:20.840 get on with their normal lives that morning. There was 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:22.680 always a lot to do to make sure your family 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.960 and livestock were taken care of, after all, but magistrates 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:30.560 John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin had servants for all of that. Instead, 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.120 they paid a visit to the Salem Town Jail. They 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:38.079 had some questions for one of the prisoners. Here's Pulitzer 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.600 Prize winning author Stacy Chief. The conditions in the jail 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.360 were really deplorable. New England jails had not been built 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.440 for long term stays. This was a culture that essentially 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.040 dealt with malefactors quickly and effectively. No one was really 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.000 mental to live in a jail the way these people 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.599 ended up staying in these jails. The Salem jail is 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.840 described as a suburb of Hell, and from the Boston 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.040 jail was described as a grave for the living. So 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:02.839 I think there you have it. Between the two, their 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.000 tiny spaces unventilated. An earlier prisoner had talked about the 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.400 fact that he couldn't breathe for the pestiferous stink. As 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.400 he puts it, the air is fitted their armies of life. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.720 And to add insult to injury, in colonial New England, 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.560 you paid for your keep in jail, So you paid 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:21.160 for your straw, you paid for your food, and you 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.280 paid for your shackles. This was the place Tituba found 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.400 herself the night after her examination in the meeting house. 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.120 She probably awoke the next morning full of uncertainty and fear. 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.440 Would they hang her without a trial? Would they drag 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:40.319 her back for more questions. Instead, Hawthorne and Corwin visited 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.720 her and began a new interrogation behind the closed doors 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.920 of the jail, But the magistrates were in for a 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:51.040 shock when they arrived. Titsuba began to writhe and convulse 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.320 in much the same way the four girls had done 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.719 so in front of everyone in the meeting house the 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.559 day before. When she could speak, she blamed the attacks 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.200 on Good and Osbourne, which gave Hawthorne an idea they 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.240 now had a direct line to the truth. They asked 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.320 Tituba about how the witches were attacking her, and she 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:16.040 described it in detail. Then, almost as an assigne, she 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.480 mentioned that the tall man had urged her to write 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.480 in his book, which struck a chord with the two men. 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:28.360 What book, they asked, Was it big or small? Titsiba 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.080 shook her head. He did not show it to me, 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:35.560 she replied, but had it in his pocket. After that, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.400 the questions flowed like a river, and Titchiba did her 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:40.880 best to keep up with the current. Did he make 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.920 you sign it? No, my mistress called me from another room. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.080 What did he say you needed to do with the book? 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.120 He told me to sign my name in it, she said, 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.360 And did you do that? They asked, yes. One time 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.480 I made a mark in the book with a red ink, 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.920 red like blood. Did he take that red ink from 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:05.320 your own body? No, but he said he would get 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.800 it out of me the next time he visited. And 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.839 then the magistrates dug deeper. They believe that Tituba had 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.520 seen the Devil's Book, his tool for recruiting humans into 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.600 his evil mission among them. So he asked about that. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:25.160 Did you see any other marks in this book? They asked, yes, 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:29.360 she said, a great many, some in red, some in yellow. 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.480 He held it wide open and showed me a great 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.400 many marks in it? What names were in the book, 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:41.439 they asked? Did he tell you Good and Osbourne? She answered, 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:46.360 but they were more I couldn't read. Hawthorne and Corwin 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.960 must have felt a chill run down their spines. More 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:54.280 names meant more witches. They had already found three, which 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.480 felt overwhelming as it was, But now they had learned 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.760 that there were more among them. They aid, it wasn't 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:05.640 an insurmountable number. How many marks do you think there were, 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.000 they asked her. Tituba looked at them both with fear 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.960 in her eyes. Perhaps she was afraid of her current circumstances, 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.240 or maybe she was afraid of what her answer might mean. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.280 I imagine she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:27.920 Then finally she answered them. Nine, she said, there were 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:37.040 nine marks. Hawthorne and Corwin were stunned. They had believed 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.920 all of the witches affecting the girls had been identified 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.720 and captured, and yet here was a frightening new revelation. 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.839 There were nine names in the book, Nine witches to 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.320 torment them, Nine individuals who had signed on to help 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.640 the devil destroy their great Puritan experiment in the New World. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.040 Of course, they wanted to know who those other witches were, 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.280 and they asked it, but to name them she shook 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.040 her head, though she claimed they had only made marks 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.160 rather than writing their own names down, so she didn't 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.280 know who they were. But there's something else going on 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.679 here that needs to be pointed out. You see, Puritans 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:19.800 were absolutely obsessed with books. Jane Kaminsky, Professor of American 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.480 History at Harvard University. I did a piece of work 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.400 at one point that I never published, about the image 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:31.040 of the Devil's book in the Salem, which trials looking 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.760 at the book trades in New England at the time. 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.400 You know, what does it look like. Oh, it's small 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.240 and they hide in it's red, it's not read. This 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.000 is a moment in the late sixteen eighties and early 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:49.840 sixteen nineties where small secular print materials, you know, histories, geographies, satires, 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:55.200 joke books, playing cards are coming into the bookstores and 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.320 the ports cities. So yeah, this idea of a book 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.120 used by the devil to establish contracts with human helpers 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.080 was a big deal. It spoke to the very nature 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.120 of Puritans as book people. Reading was central to their faith, 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:15.040 reading the Bible, reading sermon notes, reading educational books, and 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.760 while most of the women in Salem were unable to write, 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:23.280 they could certainly read. Here's Kaminski again. Women in Puritan 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:29.120 New England have an unusually high level of reading literacy 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.920 because it's thought to be so important for everybody to 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:33.800 be able to read the Bible, and for mothers to 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.040 be able to read the Bible to their children. But 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.320 they have a pretty low level of what's called sign literacy. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.800 So she can sign her name. She has some rudimentary 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.120 written literacy, but probably not the fluency to write an 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.520 entire document. The last detail these questions about the Devil's 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.080 Book revealed to us is the seriousness of the accusations 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.160 to a Puritan. Membership in the church was about confession. 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.640 She or the Halfway Covenant loosened those requirements a bit, 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.400 But whether you were confessing your sins and story to 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.520 a minister in private or while standing in front of 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.800 the entire congregation, you knew the final step was to 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.440 sign a covenant with your church. So the Devil's Book 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.960 was meant to be a shadow of all of that, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.440 the dark opposite to the light of God. If the 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.000 Puritans believe that you were a witch, it just made 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.680 sense that you had also signed a covenant with the devil. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.680 You had switched sides after all. Now, one of the 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.160 books that would have been familiar to Hawthorne and Corwin 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:38.840 was a sixty seven witchcraft reference work called Guide to 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.920 Grand Jury Men. It offered a lot of advice to 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.760 help the authorities properly examine accused witches, and one of 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.920 those pieces of advice was that someone of spiritual authority 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:53.520 must help the accused prepare for their examination. For Tituba, 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.920 that person had to have been her master, the Reverend 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:01.160 Samuel Paris. It would be a fair guest to assume 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.720 that preparing Tituba involved asking her questions and testing her 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.280 knowledge of the Bible, but not for Paris. The day 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.080 before her examination, he chose instead to simply beat her. 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.320 It wasn't justified, of course, but I have to wonder 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.280 if he did it out of anger over the witch 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.399 cake incidents and a bit of urgency from her living 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:25.600 under his roof and responsibility. So Paris beat her, Perhaps 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.199 that explains her wild stories the next day in the 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.480 meeting house, where she accused Sarah Good and Sarah Osburne 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.400 of being in league with the Devil. It certainly explains 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:38.160 her eagerness to please, to paint elaborate pictures full of rich, 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.040 powerful detail. He had asked for her cooperation at the 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:48.040 end of a painful switch, and Titsuba clearly delivered. I 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:49.800 think it's safe to say that we can look back 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.359 today on the interrogation and see the men essentially leading 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.800 the witness. They never said did you experience anything odd 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.000 the other day? Instead they asked estions out of the blue, 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:05.359 like was there a book and why did you sign it? Tituba, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.720 female heathen slave, the lowest of the low in their society, 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.840 was already in jail. So she would have done anything 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:17.399 or said anything to prevent execution. Any of us would have. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.720 And you can see them guide her answers over time. 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.200 First she never saw the book, and then the tall 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.159 man showed it to her. That evolved into holding it 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.200 and then reading it. It wasn't that she was slowly 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.800 remembering more and more detail. It's that she was paying attention, 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.120 listening to Hawthorne and Corwin as if her life depended 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.880 on it, and giving them the answers they were looking for. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.760 Emerson Baker, one of our guest historians throughout this season, 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.840 of Unobscured discusses this in his book A Storm of 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:53.720 Witchcraft One wonders. He wrote, what would have happened had 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.800 Paris and the judges not coerced Tituba into confessing the 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:02.439 Salem witchcraft outbreak might conceivably have been limited to three people, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.560 a fairly typical case of no particular note, and certainly 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.920 not a pivotal moment in American history. But that's not 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.040 what they did. Instead, they approached a volatile situation and 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:19.600 steered it in a different and arguably worse direction. It 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.359 would be the first of many wrong turns that would 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.280 get them lost in a dark forest of fear and panic. 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.800 Peace it seems would be a lot more difficult to 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:35.720 track down. At this point, It might be helpful to 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:39.560 step back and ask the question why why did the 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.880 people of Salem village believe the devil had singled them 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.640 out and made them the focus of his evil mock nations? 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.600 And the answer comes back to us from that vision 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:54.320 of Salem being a city on the hill. Historian Richard Trask, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.919 the whole purpose of it was to bring down the 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.440 Puritan commonwealth of Massachuset sits they looked at themselves as 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.680 being the elect of God. The new Israelites of old, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:10.560 who were establishing a city upon the hill. The devil 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.000 obviously would want to combat that type of thing, and 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.159 that's why they believe that the devil was coming to 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:21.320 Salem Village into all of mass Bay to bring God's 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.840 Kingdom on Earth down. To that end, Samuel Paris called 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.320 on all of Salem Village to fast and pray. He 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.120 held private gatherings at his house of the most devout 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.160 among them, and other neighboring ministers joined them, including John 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:41.000 Hale from Beverly. Even Paris's daughter Betty and her cousin Abigail, 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:45.280 the two original afflicted girls who had started everything, joined 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.880 them for these prayer meetings. Not long after, though, Paris 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.480 had Betty sent to Salem Town to stay at the 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.159 home of a distant relative named Stephen Sewell. Betty was 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.040 only nine years old, and while her affliction didn't stop 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.920 right away, she does seem to vanish from the court 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.680 documents after this. Some historians think it was a rare 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.120 moment of sanity when the community honored the tradition of 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:14.560 only allowing adults to testify. After Betty, Paris was moved 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.320 to a safe home in Salem Town. The three accused 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.040 witches were transferred to a jail in Boston, where they 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.879 would await a full criminal trial. The three remaining afflicted 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:28.600 girls seemed to become more calm, but then on March three, 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.280 Annie Putnam claimed she was tormented yet again, and this 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:37.160 time the attackers were new to her. One, she said 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.160 was a woman she couldn't see clearly, but the other 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.880 was clear. She claimed it was Dorothy Good, the five 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.600 year old daughter of Sarah Good. The little girl, according 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.480 to Annie Putnam, was holding the Devil's Book out to 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:54.880 her and demanding she signed it. Sadly, the people around 0:21:54.920 --> 0:22:00.199 her took her seriously. A week later, she managed to 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:05.480 put a name to that other attacker, Elizabeth Procter. Elizabeth 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.000 was the forty one year old mother of five children 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.560 and pregnant with her sixth. She and her husband, John 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.199 Procter owned a tavern north of the village at the 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.439 intersection of two busy roads. They were part of the 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:21.520 wealthy Procter family, members of the church, and owners of 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:24.520 a lot of land. There was a lot to respect 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.840 about Elizabeth, but there were other details about her that 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.800 might have made her an easy person to accuse of witchcraft. 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:35.320 The biggest of those was that her grandmother, goody Bert's 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:39.160 had been accused and tried for witchcraft roughly three decades earlier. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.720 The assumption was that if wealth and godliness could run 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.919 in families, then so too could allegiance to the devil. 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.000 Her husband, John was twenty years older than her and 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.800 had inherited all of his land from his parents, who 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:56.480 had moved to Massachusetts in the sixteen thirties. By sixteen 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:59.920 seventy four, he'd lost two wives and a number of children. 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.360 But Elizabeth seemed like the perfect balm for those wounds. 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:09.080 She was smart, rugal, and a formidable presence, and both 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:11.840 of them were a bit more progressive than their neighbors. 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:14.600 They were known to allow the local Native Americans to 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:17.240 drink in their tavern, which was a huge deal in 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.480 those days. The Native Americans were seen as agents of 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:23.480 the devil. They were the enemy who stood opposed to 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:27.520 the Puritan mission, and yet John and Elizabeth served them beer. 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:31.120 Hatred ran so hot that at one point someone took 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.600 them to court over it. The angry man Giles Corey, 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:37.600 had a bit of a reputation for being a hothead, though. 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:41.960 Here's Emerson Baker. He had been accused of setting for 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.199 arson on the house of his neighbor, John Proctor, and 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:48.919 he had also been convicted really of manslaughter back in 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:53.600 the sixteen seventies, of beating his simple minded teenage servant 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:55.840 to within an inch of his life. And then the fellow, 0:23:55.880 --> 0:23:59.400 poor fellow dies several days later, and they say, well, 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:06.000 it isn't murder, but you know, okay, pfine, Pfine. Proctor, however, 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.320 won the case and business stayed brisk at their tavern, 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:13.680 always busy helping patrons there. Elizabeth needed help around the house, 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:16.560 so she hired a young local woman named Mary Warren. 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:20.399 She had lost her entire family to tuberculosis years before, 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:24.520 so the proctors were all she had. That said, they 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.440 weren't exactly kind to her, which is why when rumors 0:24:28.440 --> 0:24:32.280 of Annie Putnam's accusations reached Mary Warren's ears, she might 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:36.040 have seen an opportunity. On March twelve, Mary claimed to 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:39.240 see a specter floating through the house, which eventually landed 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:41.800 on her lap. When she could make out a face, 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:44.200 she was shocked to see it had taken the form 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:49.280 of her employer, John Procter, The real man, however, was 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:52.440 not amused. He essentially told her to cut it out 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:55.199 and if she didn't, she'd receive a severe beating for 0:24:55.320 --> 0:24:58.199 her behavior. Then she did stop for a while, but 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:00.840 when John left town a day or so later, her 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:04.920 nightmarish visions miraculously returned, this time in the form of 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:09.720 a woman. It wasn't Elizabeth Proctor though. No this witch's 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:12.200