WEBVTT - S1 – 9: Fight or Flight 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.880 Giles Corey was furious, partly at himself, but mostly at 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.159 the rest of the community. He had let slip a 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.320 small piece of information about his wife Martha's past, and 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.120 now that had snowballed into a massive attack on her character, 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.480 and he was going to stop it. Martha and Giles 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.360 Corey hadn't been married for a long time, and he 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.159 wasn't even her first husband, although that wasn't unusual in 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.240 a day and age when people died often and quickly 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.360 from any manner of illness. No, her first husband had 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.519 been a man named Henry rich and together they had 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:52.240 raised one son named Thomas. But Martha had a secret. 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.240 She had another son, one that was born three years 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:01.360 before her marriage to Henry rich In, born out of wedlock, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.120 mind you, and fathered by a local slave. And while 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.680 she and Henry raised Thomas, their white and proper son, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:12.600 inside the Rown home, this older son, Ben, lived in 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.600 a local boarding house where Martha would visit each day 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.119 and see to his needs. So when the very first 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.480 examinations took place back in early March and Tituba, Sarah 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.920 Good and Sarah Osborne were dragged into the meeting house 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.800 to account for the accusations leveled against them. Jiles Corey 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.039 knew that it was only a matter of time before 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.600 they came for his wife. Witch Hunts always began with 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:41.240 the outsiders and the rule breakers, after all, So he 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.360 stormed out of his house that very same day, ready 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.920 to go defend his wife's name in the meeting house 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.720 if it ever crossed someone's lips. He was an outspoken man, 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:54.280 known to be rough and cantankerous, and he was not 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.520 about to let his wife be thrown into the mix. 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.320 Martha rushed out to stop him. They worked well together 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.120 as a couple because she was just as strong willed 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.040 as he was. While he was grabbing whatever he might 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.360 need for his ride to the meeting house, she was 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:13.040 unbuckling his saddle. When it was loose, she tossed it 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.560 into the dirt. That was months ago. The little storm 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.200 that had blown in back in late winter had blossomed 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.960 into a September tempest, and it was threatening to devastate 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:28.240 countless lives in Salem. But this time Giles Corey wasn't 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.720 able to stomp out of his house and saddle his 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.040 horse for another ride to the meeting house. He couldn't 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.680 because he was in jail, along with a fresh crop 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.720 of newcomers, each with their own cloud of accusations hovering 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:47.520 over them. On the upside, Giles was finally reunited with Martha. 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.560 But that's about all the silver lining I can find. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.200 Anything else hinted at a darker future. The Court of 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:57.919 Oyer and Terminer had already met three times, and each 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:02.000 time had ended with the sentencing and execution of almost 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.680 everyone involved. The Corey's names were on the list for 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.600 the fourth session, and even though their trial had yet 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.600 to begin, they already knew how it would end, with 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.440 countless whispers and rumors swirling around them and no one 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.680 willing to step forward and defend them. They could see 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.520 no other way out, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't try. 0:03:25.560 --> 0:04:03.000 This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. As August gave way 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.480 to September, the wreckage of the trials was already beyond unbearable. 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.280 Eleven people had been executed for the crime of witchcraft, 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.040 and others had died in jail waiting for justice. One 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.640 didn't have to look far to see the effects of 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.800 the trials. I can't help but wonder if many were 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.479 full of regret for remaining silent. Silence in the face 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.120 of injustice has a way of acting like a stamp 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.359 of approval. What was happening there in Salem must have 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.679 felt less and less like justice with each passing day. 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.440 Some of the people in the community had to have 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.640 been worried the magistrates and their supporters, However, they didn't 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.039 see it that way. The King and Queen of Hell 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.320 had been defeated, and they had new leads for yet 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.520 more witches hidden within their community and the wider area. 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.719 Samuel Wardwell, the andover man who had defended himself against 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.000 accusations that he had somehow bewitched Joseph Ballard's wife Elizabeth, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.960 was arrested and thrown in jail, and the rumors were 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:09.880 pretty damning. Wardwell had a reputation for fortune telling and divination, 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.200 to activities that many people viewed as the skills of 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.279 a witch. He was proud of these skills too, and 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.920 bragged about them freely. He once shouted the devil take 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.880 you at another farmer who allowed his cattle to graze 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.280 on his land, and he even admitted to being baptized 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.440 by the devil himself in a local river, being careful 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.880 to wash away every bit of his earlier Christian baptism. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.799 So yeah, while many had already died and the community 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.440 was writhing with unease and remorse, their fear was just 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.760 a little bit stronger, and their superstitions were still in 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.760 the driver's seat. After all, how could you pump the 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.279 brakes when someone confesses to signing the Devil's book and 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.919 doing his evil work. That and over branch of the 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.840 witchcraft trials had become a monster of its own too, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.720 so many new accusations him to light that the magistrates 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.280 in Salem set up a separate examination location right there 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.920 in and Over. Anyone found worthy of participating in the 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.800 official oyer and Termina or trial would then be carted 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.000 off to one of the many area jails who were 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.359 helping Salem out. And the Oyer and Terminer was about 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.880 to resume for its fourth session beginning on September six, 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.760 a new wave of accused would begin stepping into the 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.239 courtroom to stand before the magistrates and make their case. 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.240 One of those, of course, was Martha Corey, who had 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.040 been in jail longer than anyone else, but another was 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:40.880 a local woman named Alice Parker. Alice was the husband 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.679 of John Parker, who worked as a fisherman just south 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.760 of what's referred to as Salem Neck, a peninsula of 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.919 land that pushes northeast from the rest of the city. 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.600 They rented a home there near the water, and, like 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.080 a lot of people in town, did their best to 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:59.719 just survive. Alice, though, was prone to seizures that were 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.360 refer to as catalepsy, a medical condition that was well 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.120 known at the time. Those who suffered from it would 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.840 have seizures that resulted in their bodies becoming rigid and unmoving, 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.760 while they would appear to everyone else as if they 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.240 were asleep or unconscious. In a community frightened by a 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:21.000 rash of witchcraft stories, though Alice Parker made people uncomfortable, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.000 it didn't help that she had a bit of a temper. 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.400 One of her neighbors was the Warren family, whose daughter 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.600 Mary had become a well known member of the group 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.840 of afflicted girls doing much of the finger pointing, and 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.320 years before Alice had caused a scene at their home. 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.280 With her husband out on the water much of the time, 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.360 Alice had asked Mary Warren's father to help harvest the 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.520 grass on her meadow. He agreed to help but when 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.800 the time came around, he never showed up. So Alice 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.000 paid them a visit and shouted at him, using threatening 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.600 words that seemed to take roots and hold on. And 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.040 Mary Warren remembered those words. She remembered them when her 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.680 sister became ill and lost her hearing. She remembered them 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.960 when her mother became sick and died. She remembered them 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.880 when her father also died. Even after leaving her childhood 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.360 home and moving in with the Proctors as a helper, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:20.880 she remembered those words. So when Alice Parker entered the 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.720 courtroom to hear the charges against her, those charges included 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.520 a description of that encounter years before and the detailing 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.080 of the fallout from that curse. According to Mary Warren, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.280 her entire family had been destroyed because of Alice Parker's 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.480 powers as a witch, and that was enough for the magistrates. 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.240 The jury considered the evidence and then returned with a verdict. 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:51.080 Alice Parker was guilty of witchcraft, but she wouldn't be 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:59.920 the last. Others stood before the court that week as well. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.240 After Alice Parker's conviction, Mary ste had her turn, hearing 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:09.560 the accusations and speaking for herself. Mary Esty, if you remember, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.440 was the sister to Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Klois. And 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.720 while Sarah would have her own trial soon enough, Rebecca 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.160 was already dead, executed for the very same crime for 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.400 which her sister Mary now stood trial. And I can't 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:27.880 imagine Mary not being acutely aware of that, still in mourning, 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:32.640 she was about to follow in her sister's footsteps. It 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.040 was to be expected, I suppose. Part of the evidence 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.840 that led to Rebecca's conviction was the fact that her mother, 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.719 Johanna Town, had been accused of witchcraft. Seeing as how 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.560 Rebecca and Mary shared that dark lineage, the court already 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.120 had a head start. Added to this was the fact 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.360 that Mary ste had worked tirelessly to defend her sister, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.520 something that made sense to a court that believed one 0:09:55.559 --> 0:10:01.280 which would gladly support another. There was more. Mary was 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.800 the wife of tops Field farmer Isaac ste and mother 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.160 of twelve children, Being much younger than her sister, she 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.440 was in her late fifties at the time of the trial. 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.600 But that's where the differences stopped. Mary and her husband 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.719 were just as connected to the wealthy Porter family and 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.200 just as hounded by accusations from the afflicted girls in 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.760 the area. Eight different men stood before the court that day, 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.480 validated the stories of Mercy Lewis, who claimed that Mary 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:34.160 ste had attacked her in spectral form. But remember, Rebecca 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.040 Nurse had come prepared, armed with a petition. She had 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.080 used her position and connections to reach for more help 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:45.119 than most people could have managed, and here in early September, 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.320 her sister Mary did the same. Not only did she 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:51.920 show up for her trial with a signed petition in hand, 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.320 but she also came with statements from her jailer swearing 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.880 to her good behavior and character. They spoke of her 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:03.560 unblemished reputation of Christianity, but all of it failed to 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.040 sway a jury and court of magistrates who were frightened 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:11.600 by the claims of the afflicted Mary Esty. Like her sister, Rebecca, 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:17.200 was convicted after her. The court handled the case of 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.760 seventy year old Mary Bradbury. She wasn't a local to 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.560 the area, having been brought south all the way from 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.600 Salisbury coastal town up near the border of modern Massachusetts 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.320 in New Hampshire. But Bradbury was a fighter and would 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.720 give the courts another challenge. Her husband was the wealthy 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:40.000 and respected Captain Thomas Bradbury, grand nephew of the Archbishop 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:45.120 of Canterbury, militia officer, and local magistrate and judge. These 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.520 were powerful connections and that's exactly what Mary would need 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.600 to defeat the charges against her. But those connections were 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:56.960 also a handicap. You see, the Puritan didn't care for 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.959 the Anglican Church, which meant that Thomas's great called the Archbishop, 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.120 was about as evil as one person could get. And 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.840 Thomas had friends who were Royalists, those who supported the 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.280 Anglican king. These were connections that had gone a long 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.720 way toward helping Thomas and Mary advanced through life, but 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.719 now they were going to hold them back. Mary had 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.200 the added problem of having prior accusations of witchcraft in 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:26.120 her past. While she had never been formally charged, those 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.640 old stories had more weight to them in light of 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.800 the new rumors. Many of the afflicted girls, including Ann Putnam, 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.280 Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Warren, all claimed to have been 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.240 attacked by her that year, and all of their stories 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:45.040 helped the Attorney General deliver yet another conviction. More quickly 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.200 followed after Mary Bradberry and Mary sty the court convicted 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:53.040 Samuel Wardwell and Ann Foster of Andover, along with Anne's daughter, 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:57.120 Mary Lacey, and Abigail Hobbs. The teenage girl who had 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.880 returned from Maine with stories of the devil and claims 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:02.760 of witchcraft, found herself on the wrong end of the 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.800 game she had started. Yes, her claims had put a 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:08.360 lot of other people in jail, but they had also 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:14.040 earned her a conviction. When Samuel Wardwell learned that three 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:18.520 other confessed witches and Foster, Mary Lacey, and Abigail Hobbs 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.880 were all sentenced to death by hanging, he had a 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.440 change of heart. Maybe it was the realization that no 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.559 confessing to witchcraft was not the guaranteed ticket to safety 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.080 that he had assumed it would be. Maybe it was 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.600 just the impending doom of the hangman's noose. Neither way, 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:41.280 he recanted his claims. It didn't work. On Thursday September, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.560 the court handpicked eight individuals from the fresh crop of 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.720 convicted witches and carted them off to the site of 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:54.680 their execution. Those eight were Martha Corey, Mary st Alice Parker, 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.960 and Samuel Wardwell, along with some that we know much 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:04.520 less about and Beauty Wilma Red and Margaret Scott. The 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.120 only account of their execution is from Robert Caliph, the 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.720 Boston merchant, who had written down an account of the 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.920 previous execution as well. According to Caliph, it was a 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.280 somber scene, with much weeping and heartfelt goodbyes from the victims. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.040 The Salem town minister, Nicholas Noyce, however, was one of 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.640 the few to appear unmoved by the occasion. What a 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.240 sad thing it is to see, he was said to 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.920 have announced, without remorse, eight firebrands of hell hanging there 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:41.120 sad Indeed, one by one the eight victims were pushed 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:45.320 off the ladder, and one by one they perished at 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:54.400 the end of the rope. But not Mary Bradbury. No, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.600 she didn't go to the gallows for a very simple reason. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.560 She escaped. Then, As hard as it might be to believe, 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.320 she wasn't the only one. It's not hard to imagine why. Really, 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.680 if you and I have been living in Salem at 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.080 the time of the witchcraft trials, any one of us 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.120 might have felt just nervous enough about the direction things 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:19.040 were headed to consider running away. Sure, the accusations had 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.000 first been thrown at the outsiders, and the others in 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:26.200 their community. But week by week, month by month, those 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:32.120 old norms were crumbling by September. Of anyone was fair game, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:37.240 poor or rich, alone or well connected, religious outsider or 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.880 full member. In the Puritan Church, if you lived and breathed, 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:45.320 there was a chance you might be accused, never mind 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.800 the fact that the trials had clearly been guided by 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:52.800 passion and fear rather than logic and fact. To most observers, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.800 and especially those who had gone through the examination process 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.960 and the Oyer and Terminer trial, there was very little 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.520 night at the end of the tunnel. So the Bradberry's 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.480 got creative. They were at the end of their rope, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.800 and with Mary's conviction and sentencing, things felt urgent. Many 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:15.680 people had simply accepted their fate, but not Mary's family. Instead, 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.760 they broke her out. Here's historian Mary Beth Norton to 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.560 explain how well if you pay attention to where they are, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.480 remember there are a lot of people in jail. They're 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.960 not just in Salem. The jail in Salem is too 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.120 small to hold them all. The jail in Salem Town, 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.320 as we're talking about, there's too small to hold them all. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.000 So they've been scattered around other places. And it happens 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.840 that a lot of the leading people who are accused 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.840 of being which is are sent to Boston. And I 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.320 am convinced that the Boston jailer had his hand out 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.720 for bribes, and that it was from the Boston jail 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:55.000 that a lot of these people escaped. It's not written 0:16:55.000 --> 0:17:00.320 down anywhere, but he basically took money to let will go. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.040 I think there's no question um in my mind. There's 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.760 no question my mind that he was. He was bribable 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.880 and probably earned a pretty penny from letting all these 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:14.040 wealthy people go, one of them being my very own ancestor, 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:19.719 Mary Bradberry, who was held and suddenly managed to escape. 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:25.280 Guess what, she had a wealthy husband. Another escapeee was 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.160 Captain John Alden, if you don't remember, he was one 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.119 of the arrests in late May. In fact, his arrest 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.160 happened so quickly that they wrote the arrest warrant after 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:37.919 he was in custody, because nothing says we're running this 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.919 thing entirely by the book, like breaking basic rules like 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.760 having a warrant for his suspect's arrest. Since that arrest, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.240 Alden had spent fifteen weeks in a Boston jail, waiting 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.400 for his turn to stand trial before the Oyer and Terminator. 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.640 From the jail, he would have heard the news week 0:17:55.720 --> 0:18:00.280 by week of each new trial, conviction, and execution. His 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.439 own approaching death was like the beating of a drum, 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.159 growing louder and more intense with each new day. And 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.879 then George Burrows was executed. Alden had served in the 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.959 militia on the main Frontier, where Burrows had been a minister. 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:17.920 The men had known each other, and that made the 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.920 minister's execution personal. If the court could not stop at 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.360 convicting a frontier fighting minister, how could John Alden expect 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:30.440 anything less for himself as a result. Sometime towards the 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:36.879 end of August, Captain John Alden vanished. That's the how, 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.720 But what about the why? Where did Alden and the 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.159 Bradberries get the idea in the first place. Well, it 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.840 turns out we might have one of the local ministers 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.120 to blame for that, and not just anyone, none other 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.520 than Samuel Willard. Willard, if you remember, was the minister 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.440 of Boston's Third Church, where three of the Oyer and 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:01.400 Terminer judges were members. Samuel Sewell Peter Sergeant, and wait 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.560 Still Winthrop. Early on, he had preached from the pulpit 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.600 about the need to be sober and vigilant as they 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.760 began their spiritual mettle with the devil. But as time 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.639 went on that changed. Maybe it had to do with 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.000 how the magistrates handled that group letter written by many 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.800 of the local ministers called the Return of Several Ministers. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.160 Their purpose had been to warn and guide the government, 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:29.400 but instead their words were twisted and used as justification 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.879 for many of the injustices that followed. Samuel Willard wasn't 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.080 the type of man who would handle that sort of 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:42.280 misrepresentation well, so he spoke out. But he wasn't disconnected 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.359 from the trials. In fact, Willard was tangled up in 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.840 it thanks to friendships and family. He was a close 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.240 friend of Captain John Alden, and his own brother, Simon, 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.680 was a lieutenant in the militia who testified against the 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:00.879 recently executed George Burrows. It's interesting to point out something else. 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.400 Burrows had been executed on August nineteen. Two days later, 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:10.679 on August Willard stood before his congregation and preached on 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:16.399 Matthew Chapter ten, verse twenty three, Across Town inside Boston's 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:21.480 first church minister, Joshua Moody, taught the exact same Bible passage. 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:26.840 What exactly does that specific verse say they that are 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:38.720 persecuted in one city let them flee to another? It 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.280 was hard to ignore the obvious. Granted, some people might 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:44.840 have just assumed that Willard and Moody were preaching from 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.320 a passage of scripture that they had both agreed upon 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.840 at their last Thursday lecture meeting. But if you were 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.200 deep in the tragic events personally, it was far from 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:58.600 a coincidence. And those people noticed. Two of the people 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.040 sitting in church that morning were Philip and Mary English. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.280 They were a power couple and quite possibly the wealthiest 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.000 citizens of Salem Town. Philip was a merchant who was 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:13.000 known to be impulsive, generous, and optimistic. He had arrived 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.159 in Salem in the sixteen seventies and quickly began to 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:21.000 grow his business empire. Early on, he formed a business 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:25.280 partnership with another already established merchant. In the process, he 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:28.000 fell in love with that man's daughter, Mary, and in 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.280 sixteen seventy five the couple were married. By sixteen ninety two, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.400 Mary was around forty years old and a full member 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:39.480 in the Salem Town Church, well respected among her peers. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.159 She was even the manager of the business for her 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.240 husband whenever he was away or at sea, and proved 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.280 herself to be every bit his equal. She was a 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:53.240 powerful figure in her own right. Philip did well for 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:56.360 himself over the years he served on juries and then 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:59.679 as a constable in sixteen eighty two. Nearly all of 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.640 the man registrates of six ninety two new Philip English 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.240 from those many official appearances in court, but also from 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.680 his business reputation. He was dripping with wealth, and those 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:16.280 men couldn't help but notice that English was so rich 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.000 that by six eighty three he was able to build 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:22.320 the largest mansion in the city of Salem. Remember this 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:24.280 was a time when most people lived in a one 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.919 room home, with the occasional two room house in the neighborhood. 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:32.480 Philip's Great House, as people called it, was an exercise 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:37.800 in opulence. But Philip English had a secret. I'll let 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:42.439 historian Emerson Baker clew you in. He's from the Channel Islands. 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.720 His first language is French. He comes over here as 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:51.720 Philip langlais not Philip English. Philip was an outsider. He 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.480 spoke the language of the evil Catholic French and identified 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:59.080 as an Anglican, not a Puritan. He tried to hide it, 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.520 as the change and his surname might suggest, but most 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:06.800 likely not well enough. Eventually the truth slipped out, and 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:09.480 for as successful as his wife, Mary turned out to be, 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:14.520 not everyone liked her either. Here's historian Marilyn k. Roach. 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:18.720 Marry English was the richest woman in Salem. Her father 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:21.040 had been a merchant who was lost at sea, and 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.720 she married his business partner, Philip English, who was from 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.640 the Isle of Jersey and had more of a French culture. 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.640 Some people, at least according to descendants, thought she put 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:36.800 on airs, but class and status and the responsibilities of 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.399 class were big in those days, not like now. But 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.160 she was accused even though she was a full member 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:49.360 of the Salem Church in town. The stories tell us 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:51.920 they came for the english Is in the dead of night. 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.520 Of course, they had a warrant, and behind it was 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:59.280 a whole slew of accusations. Mary's mother had once been 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.840 accused of which craft, making her a prime suspect. Some 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:06.560 of the afflicted girls, including Annie Putnam and Mercy Lewis, 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:12.240 even claimed to have seen Mary Specter visit and torment them. 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.920 The warrant had been issued on April and included other 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.359 names as well, names we should all recognize by now, 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:24.920 Mary Esty, Sarah Wild's, Abigail Hobb's parents, William and Deliverance, 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:29.080 all of whom work harded off to jail. By early September, 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:32.119 some of them would have been executed, and that obvious 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:34.840 fate hovered over all the rest like a dark cloud. 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:39.119 Most people settled in for a long stay in jail. 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:41.760 But I need to take your mental image of a 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:45.159 jail and throw it out the window. Here's historian and 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:50.760 Salem archivist Richard Trask. If you were rich, you would 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:53.680 treated differently, and you could take care of yourself much 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:56.760 better in jail, because in jail you had to pay 0:24:56.800 --> 0:24:59.680 for your own fees. If you wanted to eat them 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:02.560 might have been a common pot in which you could partake. 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:05.440 But if you wanted to eat often your family brought 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:08.200 to the food. They'd bring you a fresh straw, so 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:10.920 that you would have a mattress that would have fresh 0:25:10.920 --> 0:25:13.719 straw in it. He wanted a stool so you didn't 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:16.880 go on the cold ground all the time. That could 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:20.399 be brought in. Of course, Philip English could pay for 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:24.119 anything his wife Mary might need in jail. Money has 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:26.679 always been the same as power, and he used it 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:29.440 to give her a better experience. But when the next 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:32.440 round of warrants went out in early May, Philip's own 0:25:32.520 --> 0:25:35.960 name was listed among the new suspects. Rather than caring 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:38.480 for his wife from the outside of a jail, he 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:43.080 was moved inside to sit beside her. Actually, his arrest 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:45.639 took a bit of time. The warrant was issued in 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:49.920 early May, but he couldn't be found anywhere in Salem Town. Finally, 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:53.480 a woman named Susannah Sheldon came forward and claimed to 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:56.720