Speaker 1: John Willard was making a name for himself. Unlike most
Speaker 1: of the people in Salem Village, he hadn't been born there.
Speaker 1: It was marriage that had brought him to the close
Speaker 1: knit community there west of Salem Town, and that was
Speaker 1: his first smart decision. He married into the Wilkins family,
Speaker 1: one of the prominent families in the area. By no
Speaker 1: means were the Wilkins on par with the Putnam's, but
Speaker 1: just like them, they chose to live far from Salem
Speaker 1: Town in the western bread basket of the community. Over
Speaker 1: the years, the Wilkins had built a micro village on
Speaker 1: a rise of land everyone called Will's Hill, and they
Speaker 1: started to shrug off outsiders. But not John Willard. The
Speaker 1: leader of the clan was an old man named Bray Wilkins.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was the loss of his timber business or
Speaker 1: the government seizure of all his company assets. Whatever the
Speaker 1: nudge was, Bray had become closed off to the outside
Speaker 1: world over time. When young Margaret Wilkins married someone from
Speaker 1: outside their community, she was the first to do so.
Speaker 1: But John Willard wasn't going to let that be a hindrance.
Speaker 1: He had plans to win them over. He bought property
Speaker 1: near the Wilkins Clan and started into a career in
Speaker 1: land speculation by dividing it into smaller lots and selling
Speaker 1: those off. He was trying to do right for his
Speaker 1: wife and new family, to make them proud and keep
Speaker 1: up with their ambitions. But not everything was storybook perfect.
Speaker 1: In fact, it seems that John had developed a bit
Speaker 1: of a reputation and it was catching up with him.
Speaker 1: Looking back, I wonder if he regretted coming to Salem Village.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of reasons why his marriage to
Speaker 1: Margaret was a good thing, but it toppled the first
Speaker 1: domino that set a whole series of events in motion.
Speaker 1: And now on May ten, Willard found himself trying to
Speaker 1: escape at all. John Willard, Deputy Constable to Salem Village,
Speaker 1: was on the run. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Minky,
Speaker 1: Like I said, John Willard had a bit of baggage. First,
Speaker 1: one of John's relatives had been tried for witchcraft back
Speaker 1: in his hometown of Lancaster in western Massachusetts, and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing had a way of following people around.
Speaker 1: As I've said before, the people of Puritan New England
Speaker 1: believe that a person could inherit the spiritual disposition of
Speaker 1: their direct ancestors in the same way that people inherit
Speaker 1: hair color or facial features. This wasn't a good thing
Speaker 1: for John at home, though. There was more trouble. John
Speaker 1: was known to beat his wife with a stick whenever
Speaker 1: she crossed him, and during his time in the Wilkins community,
Speaker 1: he had shown that same propensity toward abuse while watching
Speaker 1: over some of the Putnam children. All of those details
Speaker 1: make up a really good list of reasons why John's
Speaker 1: future might not be as bright as he hoped. But
Speaker 1: the real turning point arrived on March eight. That was
Speaker 1: the day he was selected to be a deputy constable
Speaker 1: for Salem Village. The rumors of witchcraft had started just
Speaker 1: a month before, so perhaps he was part of an
Speaker 1: effort to bolster the ranks of the village officials. We
Speaker 1: know that John Putnam Jr. Was also sworn in that
Speaker 1: same day, so that's probably the case. They knew they
Speaker 1: were about to become very, very busy. John Willard's role
Speaker 1: gave him a front row seat to the mess that
Speaker 1: was unfolding in the village. His name isn't on any
Speaker 1: of the legal documents, but As a deputy constable, he
Speaker 1: would have been responsible for helping Constables Herrick and Locker
Speaker 1: arrest and transport the accused witches, dragging them from their
Speaker 1: homes to the meeting house, and then from jail to
Speaker 1: jail when they were removed from Salem to Boston and
Speaker 1: back again. Maybe he was one of the men responsible
Speaker 1: for hauling the six Sarah Osburne from place to place,
Speaker 1: or the elderly Rebecca Nurse. Maybe he was one of
Speaker 1: the men who transported little Dorothy Good, imprisoned as a
Speaker 1: witch at just four years old. No record remains of
Speaker 1: exactly what touched John's heart, but something about it got
Speaker 1: to him. There was something about jailing so many vulnerable women, children, elders,
Speaker 1: and respected churchgoers that finally broke through his conscience. What
Speaker 1: he was doing was wrong, and everything about his position
Speaker 1: was suddenly filling him with doubt. And one of the
Speaker 1: things he felt the most doubt about was the truth
Speaker 1: of the accusations Annie Putnam and her friends were making.
Speaker 1: On April, he visited Putnam to confront her about the
Speaker 1: accusation she was making. Maybe he thought he could talk
Speaker 1: some sense into her, or at least figure out what
Speaker 1: the truth was in the middle of the chaos. Maybe
Speaker 1: he knew something about the girls that the others didn't.
Speaker 1: After all, he'd been a caretaker for the family, he
Speaker 1: knew the girl well. His visit backfired, though. The next day,
Speaker 1: Annie began to claim that she'd been attacked by his
Speaker 1: spectral shape for days and days, but that she had
Speaker 1: stayed silent about it, hoping that he would stop. When
Speaker 1: she begged him to leave her alone. Everyone seemed to
Speaker 1: take notice of this and began to look into John's
Speaker 1: behavior for proof of the accusations. It turns out John
Speaker 1: had already stopped serving warrants against accused witches. After his
Speaker 1: visit to Annie Putnam, those spurs of suspicion bloomed into
Speaker 1: full accusations. In the first week of May, girls all
Speaker 1: over Sale and village were attacked by his spirit. When
Speaker 1: he found out about the claims against him, John sped
Speaker 1: to Bray Wilkins house. He was positive the family patriarch,
Speaker 1: his wife's own grandfather, would know what to do. Bray
Speaker 1: later recalled that John came to my house greatly troubled,
Speaker 1: desiring me with some other neighbors to pray for him.
Speaker 1: But John caught Bray in the middle of trying to
Speaker 1: leave for a trip, and the older man brushed him off.
Speaker 1: A few days later, when the family was having dinner
Speaker 1: together in Boston, John glared at Bray across the table,
Speaker 1: perhaps fueled by what he perceived to be as betrayal,
Speaker 1: but Bray didn't notice. All he remembered from that night
Speaker 1: was the pain that suddenly bloomed in his bladder. Later,
Speaker 1: a doctor who examined him said that his affliction was preternatural,
Speaker 1: reminding him of the newest rumors of John Willard. When
Speaker 1: Bray had recovered enough to make the journey home to Salem,
Speaker 1: he arrived to find one of his grandchildren, seventeen year
Speaker 1: old Daniel, laid low by a mysterious illness of his own.
Speaker 1: That was enough evidence for the village. Hawthorne and Corwin
Speaker 1: scribbled out another of their warrants, this time for John Willard.
Speaker 1: No one had formally approached them to request it, but
Speaker 1: the rumors were just too enticing, so they handed the
Speaker 1: slip of paper to John Putnam Jr. Who had been
Speaker 1: selected alongside John Willard on March eight. When Putnam arrived
Speaker 1: at John Willard's home the next day he found it empty.
Speaker 1: He searched all over Will's Hill, asking from house to
Speaker 1: house for anyone who might know where John had gone,
Speaker 1: but no one had a clue. At the end of
Speaker 1: his visit, Putnam left with a clear message from the
Speaker 1: Wilkins family, John Willard had fled Salem. I want to
Speaker 1: switch is for a bit and talk about a place
Speaker 1: that isn't Salem. We've covered the differences between Massachusetts and
Speaker 1: Maine in the previous episode, but there's another colony that's
Speaker 1: going to come into play over the course of the trials,
Speaker 1: New York. Today. We picture New York City as a
Speaker 1: metropolis unlike any other. It's diverse and textured and full
Speaker 1: of countless languages, cultures, and attitudes. It has a powerful
Speaker 1: relationship with the waters that surround it, and the people
Speaker 1: who live there have a more international mindset than most
Speaker 1: of their fellow Americans. In the late seventeenth century, though,
Speaker 1: it was pretty similar to all of that, and all
Speaker 1: of it seems to be the fault of the Dutch.
Speaker 1: In the early sixteen hundreds, a lot of European powers
Speaker 1: were trying to colonize the New World. Most European countries
Speaker 1: tended toward authoritarian monarchies that persecuted religious outliers and expelled
Speaker 1: minority people groups, not the Dutch, though they were a
Speaker 1: different sort of country. The Dutch had discovered that a
Speaker 1: liberal government built around intellectual freedom and tolerance was much
Speaker 1: more powerful. They prioritized commerce over religion and welcomed all
Speaker 1: of those displaced minority groups into their own population, allowing
Speaker 1: them to reap the benefit of their talents and resources.
Speaker 1: It was that sort of attitude that was woven into
Speaker 1: the foundational elements of the New York Colony. Back then,
Speaker 1: of course, it was known as New Amsterdam, but things
Speaker 1: would begin to change in sixteen sixty seven. That was
Speaker 1: the year the Dutch handed control of the colony over
Speaker 1: to the English and renamed the territory in port after
Speaker 1: the brother of the King, the Duke of York. Goodbye
Speaker 1: New Amsterdam, Hello New York. But the English ran things
Speaker 1: very differently. Thanks to the English Civil War in the
Speaker 1: sixteen forties, the Crown lacked the funds to embark on
Speaker 1: proper royal colonies. Instead intended to give those opportunities to
Speaker 1: private companies founded by merchants and wealthy aristocrats with royal
Speaker 1: over site. Of course, that's why the Puritans of Massachusetts
Speaker 1: were able to do what they did. They received a
Speaker 1: commercial charter from the English government prior to the Civil War,
Speaker 1: and then all of the leaders of that company transplanted
Speaker 1: themselves overseas to live right in the middle of their investment.
Speaker 1: It was economic cover for a deeply religious experiment to
Speaker 1: live an unobstructed Puritan life far from the watchful eye
Speaker 1: of the King. New York didn't have that purposeful beginning.
Speaker 1: When the English took control in sixteen sixty seven, they
Speaker 1: had to send troops into the city to help it
Speaker 1: go smoothly. The Dutch had attracted a very diverse and
Speaker 1: liberal community there, and they chafed under the English yoke.
Speaker 1: The early governors of the colony even refused English shipping
Speaker 1: companies in favor of their old Dutch partners. It was
Speaker 1: a mess, and England felt like it was losing control.
Speaker 1: Massachusetts sent troops and supplies to help out in an
Speaker 1: effort to seem like a team player, but their time
Speaker 1: was running out. After the devastation of King Philip's War
Speaker 1: and the related conflict up and down the main coast,
Speaker 1: England decided enough was enough. The old way of running
Speaker 1: things was no longer working. In sixteen seventy nine, the
Speaker 1: Crown took New Hampshire away from the Massachusetts colony and
Speaker 1: issued them a new royal charter. Five years later, in
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty four, Massachusetts saw their own charter revoked, leaving
Speaker 1: them in a lawless chaos. Less than a year after that,
Speaker 1: King Charles the Second died before law and order could
Speaker 1: be restored. To help calm the colonies, Edmund Andros was
Speaker 1: sent to set up English military rule. Here's historian Emerson Baker.
Speaker 1: He was an Anglican with a Church of England, and
Speaker 1: Puritanism no longer was special. Massachusetts was no longer special.
Speaker 1: It was part of a super colony for stretch from
Speaker 1: New Jersey to Maine. Andros wasn't a well loved governor.
Speaker 1: He had previously been governor of New York and was
Speaker 1: very outspoken against Puritans. He raised taxes, revoked Puritan laws,
Speaker 1: and appointed his own judges and sheriffs. The worst blow, however,
Speaker 1: came when Andros forced landowners to essentially re buy their
Speaker 1: land from the Crown. The result was deep organized resistance.
Speaker 1: On April eighteenth of sixteen eighty nine, hundreds of armed
Speaker 1: Puritans flooded into Boston and captured Andros and his cadre
Speaker 1: of loyal officers. All of them were thrown into prison,
Speaker 1: and a new provisional government was set up on the
Speaker 1: foundation of the old Charter and Puritan law. It left
Speaker 1: Massachusetts defend for itself once again, and with the threat
Speaker 1: of the Native American attacks on the northern border, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be an easy task. But there was a new
Speaker 1: star rising in the Puritan sky. He was a son
Speaker 1: of Maine, a Puritan sympathizer, and a man willing to
Speaker 1: fight for a good cause. Folks, I'd like to introduce
Speaker 1: you to Sir William Phipps. William Phipps had the sort
Speaker 1: of upbringing that any hard working American today might connect with.
Speaker 1: We don't like the silver spoon elitists who don't have
Speaker 1: to work hard for their rewards. We want the scrapper,
Speaker 1: the fighter, the one who was going to scramble to
Speaker 1: the top of the pile. And William Phipps seems to
Speaker 1: fit that bill, at least at first Blush He was
Speaker 1: born on the coast of northern Maine around sixteen fifty
Speaker 1: two frontier parents. His father used the family home as
Speaker 1: a sort of hub for trading goods with the Native Americans,
Speaker 1: but passed away when William was just four. When his
Speaker 1: mother remarried, it was to his father's business partner, which
Speaker 1: consolidated what little wealth they had, and then life carried on.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of factors that might have helped
Speaker 1: Phipps become the man history knows him as being when
Speaker 1: of fourteen children taught him to fight for himself, and
Speaker 1: working hard on the edge of the frontier taught him
Speaker 1: that survival was much more important than social politeness. But
Speaker 1: every character trait can become a flaw if you twist
Speaker 1: it hard enough. At the age of eighteen, he quit
Speaker 1: his job as a shepherd and became an apprentice to
Speaker 1: a group of local shipbuilders. Shipbuilders who made frequent trips
Speaker 1: to Boston, which allowed him to rub shoulders with the
Speaker 1: sort of wealthy people who ran merchant companies. It's also
Speaker 1: how he met a Puritan minister named Increase Mather, a
Speaker 1: man roughly a decade his senior. William married into a
Speaker 1: successful merchant family and then proceeded to try his hand
Speaker 1: running his own business as a shipbuilder. It turns out
Speaker 1: he wasn't the best business man out there, and he
Speaker 1: never really achieved the level of success he aspired to.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was better at achieving debts and failures,
Speaker 1: much to the frustration of the people he dealt with.
Speaker 1: It's important to stop for a moment and call attention
Speaker 1: to one of his flaws. Phipps, it turns out, was
Speaker 1: much more of a man of passion and a man
Speaker 1: of learning. He wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 1: but he also wasn't educated and that sort of rubbed
Speaker 1: off in his business dealings. He was known as a
Speaker 1: rough talker who used abusive language like a weapon to
Speaker 1: demean and intimidate others, and he was a fortune seeker
Speaker 1: in fact. In Sight three, he managed to raise enough
Speaker 1: money in England to go on a literal treasure hunt
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, which failed, but somehow the fact that
Speaker 1: he survived the trip earned him enough attention to get
Speaker 1: a second round of funding. That new, better equipped expedition
Speaker 1: paid off, and he returned home with thirty tons of silver.
Speaker 1: In return, he was given the honor of knighthood. When
Speaker 1: he was ready to head back to Massachusetts, he expected
Speaker 1: that Governor Andros would welcome him with open arms as
Speaker 1: some sort of hero and give him a lofty position
Speaker 1: in the government, but instead Androws turned him away. Months later, though,
Speaker 1: Andros was in a prison cell and the Puritans had
Speaker 1: retaken control of the colony, so Phipps offered his help
Speaker 1: in their efforts against the Native Americans to the north.
Speaker 1: The next two years were a bit of a blur.
Speaker 1: Phipps led a small attack against French troops at Port
Speaker 1: Royal Way up in modern day Nova Scotia. They found
Speaker 1: the fourth there mostly unmanned and under extensive repairs, so
Speaker 1: their victory was incredibly easy. Phipps returned to Boston as
Speaker 1: a hero, and they rewarded him by sending him out
Speaker 1: to do it again. There was a major attack going
Speaker 1: on at the English settlement of Falmouth up in Maine.
Speaker 1: Everyone gathered in New York for a large multi colony
Speaker 1: gathering and insisted that they pushed back and end the
Speaker 1: struggle with New France for good, and they put Phips
Speaker 1: in charge. It looked impressive. Phipps had gathered over thirty
Speaker 1: ships and more than two thousand fighting men, but he
Speaker 1: also took his time doing so, wasting the better part
Speaker 1: of two months. At one point he sent one of
Speaker 1: his officers, Captain John Alden, over to marble Head, just
Speaker 1: up the coast from Salem Town, to take their cannons
Speaker 1: for use in the battle. But marble Head refused. Here's
Speaker 1: Emerson Baker once again. This takes place, and they lead
Speaker 1: in the fall of but for numerous reasons, a bad weather,
Speaker 1: poor planning, frankly the fortifications of Quebec. It fails disastrously.
Speaker 1: They lose hundreds of men. They bring back smallpox with
Speaker 1: him into the harbor. When they arrived, they talk about
Speaker 1: frozen dead being stacked on the ships like cordwood, and
Speaker 1: they lose hundreds of people. And of course, since Phipps
Speaker 1: was the man in charge of the entire operation, he
Speaker 1: was looked on as a failure to deal with it.
Speaker 1: He's skipped down. In fact, he was so embarrassed that
Speaker 1: he sailed back across the Atlantic to London, where his
Speaker 1: good friend Increase Mather was currently working to get the
Speaker 1: old Massachusetts charter restored by the King. Phipps arrival, whether
Speaker 1: or not it was born on the wings of failure,
Speaker 1: gave Mather an idea. What if Phipps a man he
Speaker 1: considered to be a friend could be appointed governor by
Speaker 1: the King. An ally he would be, so that's what
Speaker 1: they pushed for. Mather ditched over two years of diplomatic
Speaker 1: efforts to restore the old Puritan charter and instead seemed
Speaker 1: to have made a new deal, a new charter that
Speaker 1: was favorable to royal control, in exchange for Phipps in
Speaker 1: the governor's house. But of course that meant returning to Boston.
Speaker 1: Bipps loved the idea of being governor, but hated the
Speaker 1: thought of facing all of those angry colonists. He had
Speaker 1: already disappointed them once before with the failed Quebec incidents.
Speaker 1: Now he was bringing them a charter that was the
Speaker 1: opposite of what they wanted. That's probably all he thought
Speaker 1: about on that long journey back. By the time his
Speaker 1: ship was pulling into Boston Harbor on May fourteenth of
Speaker 1: six he had a plan. It wasn't honest, and it
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't legal, but he knew how he was going
Speaker 1: to prevent the crowds from showing him the same hospitality
Speaker 1: they extended to Edmund andros. He was going to lie
Speaker 1: to them. The arrival of increase Mather with a new
Speaker 1: charter was seen as good news in Boston, but of
Speaker 1: course they didn't know what that charter said yet. That
Speaker 1: was a bitter pill that needed a lot of sugarcoating
Speaker 1: and lies to go down smoothly. So Phipps stood before
Speaker 1: a massive crowd the night he returned and did just that.
Speaker 1: This new charter, he told them, would restore the old
Speaker 1: laws and freedoms that they had enjoyed under the first Charter.
Speaker 1: It was what the crowd wanted to hear, and it
Speaker 1: made him a hero for bringing that news to them.
Speaker 1: But I can't help but wonder if Phipps cast a
Speaker 1: knowing glance at Mather, because both of them knew how
Speaker 1: patently false that promise was. In fact, the new Charter
Speaker 1: required new laws to be established that matched English laws
Speaker 1: back home. It would take them a while to get
Speaker 1: things set up, sure, but when he was done, the
Speaker 1: Puritan experiment in New England would essentially be over. Massachusetts
Speaker 1: would become just one more royal colony. And Phipps needed
Speaker 1: this to work. He had his own plans and goals
Speaker 1: for his time in office, but that meant staying in
Speaker 1: office to see them through. Here's Emerson Baker once again,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that has no political experience whatsoever.
Speaker 1: He's pretty good at commanding a ship, but he's one
Speaker 1: of these fortune seekers, and frankly, one off one of
Speaker 1: his big personal goals would have been to make as
Speaker 1: much money off the office as possible. He's all about
Speaker 1: personal profit and advancement, and if you can cut a
Speaker 1: side deal, he can. When he goes to make a
Speaker 1: treaty with the Native Americans up at Pemaquid the end
Speaker 1: of the war, he also manages to get the leading
Speaker 1: stage him of Maine, Madakawando, to deed him several thousand
Speaker 1: acres of mainland as a part of the treaty. The
Speaker 1: same evening that Phipps arrived in Boston, Mercy Lewis and
Speaker 1: a companion visited Will's Hill, where Bray Wilkins still suffered
Speaker 1: enormous pain in his bladder and where young Daniel had
Speaker 1: fallen into paralysis without hesitation. Mercy identified the specter of
Speaker 1: John Willard afflicting them both. Two days later, Daniel would
Speaker 1: suffocate to death in his own bed. Mercy Lewis and
Speaker 1: Mary Walcott would report that they'd both seen John Willard
Speaker 1: choke him, though of course no one else could see
Speaker 1: anything but the dying boy, grasping for air until he
Speaker 1: was finally still. Samuel Paris would record the boy's cause
Speaker 1: of death in his church records as bewitched to death.
Speaker 1: The man hunt for Willard picked up steam after that.
Speaker 1: Now he was a murderer as well as a witch.
Speaker 1: A new warrant was issued that authorized anyone in or
Speaker 1: out of Salem to bring the former constable into custody,
Speaker 1: and with it word of his evil deeds spread far
Speaker 1: and wide. John Willard's goal had been to escape to
Speaker 1: the more liberal and irreligious New York, but he apparently
Speaker 1: took a detour along the way before heading south. He
Speaker 1: headed west, making his way out to his family land
Speaker 1: in Lancaster along the Nashua River. He apparently had the
Speaker 1: bright idea to till the family land there and plant
Speaker 1: the crops so that he could return when everything had
Speaker 1: blown over and have a harvest waiting for him. So
Speaker 1: the records about his capture have this head scratching detail
Speaker 1: written in Willard They say was captured while howeing his
Speaker 1: field that was May sixt The constables who found him
Speaker 1: put him on a horse and guided him back to
Speaker 1: Salem that very night in anticipation of his examination the
Speaker 1: following day, But when they arrived there were already too
Speaker 1: many people listed for examinations on so Willard would have
Speaker 1: to wait in jail for another day. As part of
Speaker 1: Willard's examination, a coroner's jury looked over the body of
Speaker 1: Daniel Wilkins, including Nathaniel Ingersoll, Joseph Herrick, and a handful
Speaker 1: of the Putnam clan. They reported finding a collection of
Speaker 1: bruises on the boy's back, along with cuts and puncture
Speaker 1: marks all over his body. In fact, it almost seemed
Speaker 1: as if someone had pierced Daniel with an all and
Speaker 1: when they rolled the body onto its front, they noted
Speaker 1: that blood flowed freely from the boy's mouth. This horrifying
Speaker 1: condition compelled these men to declare that he'd been the
Speaker 1: victim of violent and malicious witchcraft. Given what the Wilkins
Speaker 1: family knew about John's violent tendencies against his own wife,
Speaker 1: it seemed all too clear that this could be his handiwork.
Speaker 1: As a result, John was restrained with shackles to stop
Speaker 1: him from attacking the afflicted girls in the room, who
Speaker 1: screamed that his specter was torturing them. Oh, and when
Speaker 1: the chains clanked onto John's legs, they say old Bray
Speaker 1: Wilkins was suddenly relieved of the piercing pain in his abdomen.
Speaker 1: That you were fled from authority is an acknowledgement of guilt,
Speaker 1: Hawthorne declared. In other words, John Willard had made his
Speaker 1: confession through his actions. The previous afternoon in Boston was
Speaker 1: devoted to other matters, though, Phipps and the Council devoted
Speaker 1: their time to the ordering of the Massachusetts Militia and
Speaker 1: the naval fleet. They also ordered a public fast for
Speaker 1: May twenty six so that everyone in the colony could
Speaker 1: devote time to prayer for the new government. The next
Speaker 1: few days after that were taken up with an emergency
Speaker 1: as three French privateers rated up and down the coast.
Speaker 1: Time was slipping away from Phipps and it was starting
Speaker 1: to become clear that governing would be nothing more than
Speaker 1: handling one crisis after another. All the while, Hawthorne and
Speaker 1: Corwin continued to examine multiple accused witches every day, and
Speaker 1: the flow of prisoners to the Boston jail couldn't have
Speaker 1: escaped Phipps notice. On May he finally gave his first
Speaker 1: official orders regarding the trials, he instructed the prison keeper
Speaker 1: the buy more shackles. I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: that sort of response wouldn't have sat well with me. Finally,
Speaker 1: on ma Phipps and the Council met with Hawthorne and Corwin,
Speaker 1: who had traveled down to Boston for the occasion. Their
Speaker 1: main goal was to discuss judicial appointments and the schedule
Speaker 1: for when all of the governing bodies would start operating,
Speaker 1: but it looked like it was going to take a
Speaker 1: few weeks. That was time they didn't have. After three
Speaker 1: days of discussion, Phipps finally realized that the sale of
Speaker 1: matter couldn't wait for the General Court to be set
Speaker 1: up in operational so on, he declared that because they
Speaker 1: had no official Massachusetts courts ready to go, he was
Speaker 1: ordering a special court that would follow English laws in
Speaker 1: regards to the Salem troubles. Soon enough, the Oyer and
Speaker 1: Terminal trials would begin. You're probably wondering at this point,
Speaker 1: what in the world is an Oyer and Terminer trial.
Speaker 1: I'll let historian Richard Trask explain that to you. By May,
Speaker 1: the new Governor, William Phipps, comes together with a lot
Speaker 1: of the learned people in Massachusetts and establishes a court
Speaker 1: of Oyer and Termina to hear and determine these cases,
Speaker 1: because now the jails are being clogged by a number
Speaker 1: of people who have been accused, and at the preliminary
Speaker 1: hearing they've just been put in jail. So what they
Speaker 1: then do is have just the same legal system that's
Speaker 1: done in Old England. You have a grand jury that
Speaker 1: listens to the Attorney General of Massachusetts give the case.
Speaker 1: You have a pool of jurors from among the towns
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts who will be the jury. You have this
Speaker 1: eight or nine person special court court of Oyer and
Speaker 1: Termina who will be the judges, and they are supposed
Speaker 1: to have I think at least three or four of
Speaker 1: these magistrates there. They can ask questions and can kind
Speaker 1: of mole what they want to have happened. But it's
Speaker 1: basically the Attorney General who gives the information. So then
Speaker 1: you have the trial, and trials are very fast, usually
Speaker 1: within two days maybe three, All of the evidences in
Speaker 1: the jury goes out, makes us determination, and in almost
Speaker 1: every case the people have found guilty. So an Oyer
Speaker 1: and Terminer is essentially an English high court. The name
Speaker 1: literally means to hear and determine, and that's what they
Speaker 1: were calling into existence, an official, well staffed court that
Speaker 1: could hear these cases in an official capacity and then
Speaker 1: determined guilt or innocence. And for the nearly forty people
Speaker 1: still waiting in jail on May four, that sounded like progress.
Speaker 1: Of course, word got out that this new, more official
Speaker 1: version of justice was about to be implemented. But the
Speaker 1: people from the area around Salem didn't sigh with relief
Speaker 1: and let down their guard. No. Instead, in the two
Speaker 1: weeks between the order to establish the court and the
Speaker 1: date of the first session, new accusations flooded in. In fact,
Speaker 1: that figure of thirty eight nearly doubled just because the
Speaker 1: court had been announced. The new wave of accused came
Speaker 1: from Salem, as you might expect, but also from Topsfield,
Speaker 1: ip Switch, marble Head, and even Boston. The names were
Speaker 1: coming in so quickly that Hawthorne and Corwin couldn't keep
Speaker 1: up with their warrant process. Of course, that didn't mean
Speaker 1: the arrests were slowing down, and sometimes they put the
Speaker 1: cart before the horse. A great example is the story
Speaker 1: of Captain John Alden. Today, he would be perfect in
Speaker 1: the role of that sixty year old action hero. He
Speaker 1: was strong, brave, and a career fighter. He was a
Speaker 1: merchant who ran the dangerous route between the civilized Salem
Speaker 1: area and the wild Maine frontier, but also served in
Speaker 1: the militia for decades. In fact, when Phipps sailed up
Speaker 1: the coast to attack Quebec, Captain John Alden was right
Speaker 1: there with him. In time between that failed military expedition
Speaker 1: and the start of the Oyer and Terminer, Alden had
Speaker 1: managed to get captured by the French along with his
Speaker 1: entire ship, including his own son. Everyone had been taken
Speaker 1: back to French territory in the North in September, but
Speaker 1: at some point they picked John Alden as their representative
Speaker 1: to go to Salem and collect a ransom for the
Speaker 1: ship and the sailors. So that's why. On May thirty one,
Speaker 1: John Alden was in Salem village when a massive crowd
Speaker 1: of people surrounded the little meeting house, filling the room
Speaker 1: and spilling out into the grass surround it. John wandered
Speaker 1: over for a closer look. More people were being examined
Speaker 1: ahead of the Oyer and Terminer, and I can't help
Speaker 1: but assume that John was curious about who was inside
Speaker 1: at the front of the room. That's when a hand
Speaker 1: shot out of the crowd and grabbed him by the wrist.
Speaker 1: It was one of the local constables, and he informed
Speaker 1: Alden that he was up next for examination. It happened
Speaker 1: so quickly that his warrant was drafted after he was
Speaker 1: inside the meeting house. Rushing to make everything as official
Speaker 1: as possible, Alden was stunned as they dragged him into
Speaker 1: the meeting house and held him at the edge of
Speaker 1: the crowd. Hawthorn and Corwin were seated up front as usual,
Speaker 1: joined that day by a new judge, bartholem you Gedney.
Speaker 1: The usual crowd of accusers were seated near the front
Speaker 1: as well. When they were ready to begin, the judges
Speaker 1: asked the girls to look at the crowd and identify
Speaker 1: Captain John Alden, the man they had accused of sending
Speaker 1: his spectral form to attack them. The girls failed to
Speaker 1: point to the correct man, though much to John's delight.
Speaker 1: Rather than assumed that was because they really didn't know
Speaker 1: what Alden looked like, the judges assumed it was because
Speaker 1: the meeting house was so dimly lit, so they dragged
Speaker 1: the girls and a group of the accused outside into
Speaker 1: the daylight for a better look. Along the way, someone
Speaker 1: must have coached one of them, because they were finally
Speaker 1: able to point a finger at Alden. The actual examination
Speaker 1: didn't go any better for him. We might look on
Speaker 1: Alden's capture by the French with pity and see his
Speaker 1: release and plans to return to his son to be noble.
Speaker 1: The magistrates, though, saw it as a sign that he
Speaker 1: was in league with the nevill The French were Catholic,
Speaker 1: and they had allied themselves with the Native Americans, two
Speaker 1: groups of people viewed as tools of Satan by the Puritans.
Speaker 1: John Alden wasn't the only suspect to leave the meeting
Speaker 1: house in shackles that day, though. One of them was
Speaker 1: Martha Carrier from nearby and over. Accusations about her involvement
Speaker 1: in witchcraft began after she refused to leave town after
Speaker 1: her family contracted smallpox, which upset her neighbors, never mind
Speaker 1: the fact that the outbreak was really the fault of
Speaker 1: Phipps and his failed military expedition. Everyone was carted off
Speaker 1: to jail that afternoon, but unlike all the previous examinations
Speaker 1: that had taken place, these suspects could at least see
Speaker 1: the light at the end of the tunnel. With the
Speaker 1: oyer and terminer announced, they knew their time in jail
Speaker 1: wouldn't go on for months. Finally there was an end
Speaker 1: in sight, but that tunnel would be much more dark
Speaker 1: and dangerous than any of them could have imagined. I
Speaker 1: think it's interesting to point out just how upside down
Speaker 1: these examinations were. In typical Puritan society, women and children
Speaker 1: had almost no voice, and yet here was a group
Speaker 1: of young women who practically guided the entire debacle toward
Speaker 1: its dark destination. And I'm not alone in noticing that hypocrisy.
Speaker 1: Here's Jane Kaminsky, professor of American history at Harvard, with
Speaker 1: more thoughts on the matter. That is, to me the
Speaker 1: great mystery of the Salem proceedings. How in a world
Speaker 1: that devalues women's utterances and that tends to keep maybe
Speaker 1: especially young women within their channels, this group of adolescent
Speaker 1: that's anachronistic term, but women in their teens and early
Speaker 1: twenties come to be this, this sort of star witness
Speaker 1: coterie is completely ineffable. I think there is pretty convincing
Speaker 1: evidence that they are to a certain extent, coordinating with
Speaker 1: each other and engaging in deliberate fraud. It's also interesting
Speaker 1: to note just how frantic things became so early on,
Speaker 1: and how that chaos provided another reason for why these
Speaker 1: young women were able to take such control over the proceedings.
Speaker 1: It seems like a moment where the normal sources of
Speaker 1: authority holds so poorly, and the need for answers two
Speaker 1: questions that seem profound feels so urgent, and that people
Speaker 1: begin listening to unexpected witnesses who say they have answers.
Speaker 1: It's hard to be definitive about it, but looking back
Speaker 1: on this phase of the Salem Trials, it really seems
Speaker 1: like the magistrates were simply overwhelmed by it all. An
Speaker 1: ever increasing flow of suspects and a nearly constant barrage
Speaker 1: of new afflictions and unexplainable episodes combined to make it
Speaker 1: all just too much to handle logically. At some point
Speaker 1: they had to have just given in. When they were
Speaker 1: wrapping up the examination of Captain John Alden, they asked
Speaker 1: him to stand on a chair with his arms limp
Speaker 1: at his sides, and look toward the girls who had
Speaker 1: accused him. The moment his eyes fell on them. The
Speaker 1: girls toppled over and began to writhe on the floor
Speaker 1: in agony, just as they had done before in his
Speaker 1: presence and in the presence of so many other accused individuals.
Speaker 1: The newest judge at the front of the room ar
Speaker 1: aleam you. Gedney motioned towards the girls and glared at
Speaker 1: Alden as if to say, do you see what you
Speaker 1: have done? But Alden stood his ground. He turned his
Speaker 1: gaze from the girls and aimed his eyes straight at Gedney.
Speaker 1: After a brief pause to let this significant sink in,
Speaker 1: Alden spoke up in his own defense. If his gaze
Speaker 1: was so powerful as to afflict the girls over there,
Speaker 1: he suggested, why did Gedney not also fall over in pain.
Speaker 1: The stumping of the judges enraged Salem's junior minister, Nicholas Noyes,
Speaker 1: who launched into a tirade, fueling that Alden dared to
Speaker 1: speak of God while bringing calamity to the colony. With
Speaker 1: the minister on the side of the girls, the judges
Speaker 1: ordered George Herrick to escort John Alden to jail. Neither
Speaker 1: his standing in the community nor his wealth as a
Speaker 1: merchant would serve to render him free. Instead, like so
Speaker 1: many others, he was sent to Boston to away justice.
Speaker 1: Whether they believed God would finally step in and intervene,
Speaker 1: or their faith was in the newly appointed Governor Phipps,
Speaker 1: a higher power was about to take over the official
Speaker 1: trials we're about to begin. That's it for this week's
Speaker 1: episode of Unobscured. Stick around after this short sponsor break
Speaker 1: for a preview of what's in store for next week.
Speaker 1: Next time on Unobscured, Mercy Lewis and Annie Putnam both
Speaker 1: had claimed to see Bridget spirit in their home. They
Speaker 1: stated as if it were indisputable fact that she had
Speaker 1: bewitched her second husband, Thomas to death. It was damning
Speaker 1: evidence given the circumstances, but Bridget had also lied to
Speaker 1: the magistrates, and that didn't help her case. When they
Speaker 1: asked her if she was a witch, she denied it
Speaker 1: and claimed that she didn't even know what a witch was.
Speaker 1: She also claimed she hadn't known anyone else confessed to
Speaker 1: being agents of the devil, but that wasn't exactly true.
Speaker 1: On the morning of her examination back in April, she
Speaker 1: had been told that Abigail Hobbs and Mary Warren had confessed,
Speaker 1: and if Bridget was willing to lie about that, what
Speaker 1: else was she lying about? It was all word games.
Speaker 1: It was all a classic example of Bridget being considered
Speaker 1: guilty even before she was examined on April nineteenth. Nothing
Speaker 1: she could say would change the public perception of her.
Speaker 1: All she could do was deny it, as each question
Speaker 1: was fired at her, one by one. I am innocent.
Speaker 1: I Am innocent. I Am innocent. Unobscured was created and
Speaker 1: written by me Aaron Bankey and produced by Matt Frederick
Speaker 1: and Alex Williams in partnership with How Stuff Works, with
Speaker 1: research by Carl Nellis and original music by Chad Lawson.
Speaker 1: Learn more about our contributing historians further reading material, resource
Speaker 1: archive and links to our other shows at History Unobscured
Speaker 1: dot com. Until next time, thanks are listening.