Speaker 1: The body of Bridget Bishop was left hanging from the
Speaker 1: gallows for days. It was standard practice for the execution
Speaker 1: of felons. By leaving the results of their crime out
Speaker 1: in the public for everyone to see, it was thought
Speaker 1: that fewer people would be tempted to follow the same
Speaker 1: immoral path. We don't have any records about when Bridget's
Speaker 1: body was cut down or where it was buried, but
Speaker 1: executed criminals were usually buried near the place of death.
Speaker 1: It wasn't respectful or sacred, and that was the point
Speaker 1: in the Puritan mind. People evil enough to do horrible things,
Speaker 1: they didn't deserve a proper burial. Bridget's death might not
Speaker 1: have left a physical trace, but it certainly had a
Speaker 1: social impact. In the two weeks that followed her execution,
Speaker 1: reports of a flictions almost stopped entirely. Yes, there were
Speaker 1: a handful of exceptions, but the overall effect was like
Speaker 1: pulling the emergency brake on a speeding car. People took
Speaker 1: notice of how deadly the game had become, but nothing
Speaker 1: lasts forever. However nice it would have been for everything
Speaker 1: to grind to a permanent halt. I think all of
Speaker 1: us are very aware that no such thing was about
Speaker 1: to happen, and one of the few instances where people
Speaker 1: still reported afflictions from a witch. A community even deepens
Speaker 1: its roots into the soil of insanity and chaos, they
Speaker 1: find themselves a witch detective. Weeks earlier, when Bray Wilkins
Speaker 1: and his grandson Daniel were sick and witchcraft was suspected,
Speaker 1: Mercy Lewis offered to come and help. She was the
Speaker 1: refugee from Maine that had moved to sale In village
Speaker 1: years before along with George Burrows, but in she lived
Speaker 1: and worked in one of the Putnam households, and if
Speaker 1: you remember, it was she who pointed the finger at
Speaker 1: John Willard, the village deputy constable and husband of wilkins granddaughter,
Speaker 1: as the suspect. So when new afflictions were reported inside
Speaker 1: a Putnam house, Mercy Lewis was called in to offer
Speaker 1: her observations. She immediately identified two witches at work, Rebecca
Speaker 1: Nurse and Martha Carrier, and while both of these women
Speaker 1: were already in jail, these new accusations would simply be
Speaker 1: added to their records for when their own trials began.
Speaker 1: But the momentary pause was only localized to Salem far
Speaker 1: to the north. On the day after the execution of
Speaker 1: Bridget Bishop, the French and Wabanaki launched an attack on
Speaker 1: the town of Wells. Garrison and ships in the harbor
Speaker 1: were able to repel the attack, but the enemy managed
Speaker 1: to capture a prisoner, who was then tortured to death
Speaker 1: in full view of the defenders. Observant participants in the
Speaker 1: Salem situation couldn't help but see the symbolism. They had
Speaker 1: struck a blow against the devil on June tenth, only
Speaker 1: to be hit back the following day. I can imagine
Speaker 1: it was frustrating to the powers that be, but also
Speaker 1: more than frightening to the rest of the community who
Speaker 1: were waiting with bated breath for it all to end.
Speaker 1: But the attack on Wells, along with the subsequent torture
Speaker 1: and murder of that single captive, also sent a powerful
Speaker 1: message to the people of Salem that was difficult to ignore. Monsters,
Speaker 1: it seems, could be found anywhere. This is unobscured. I'm
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky. While Bridget Bishop had been executed for capital crimes,
Speaker 1: she wasn't the first to die. If you remember, it
Speaker 1: was Sarah Osborne who passed away first. While waiting in
Speaker 1: jail for her own trial, And even though the community
Speaker 1: slipped into a two week pause in the chaos on
Speaker 1: June tenth, that didn't mean more deaths weren't coming. On June,
Speaker 1: a prisoner named Roger tooth Acker died while sitting inside
Speaker 1: the Boston Jail, adding one more name to a list
Speaker 1: that was just beginning to grow. Tooth Acker was Martha
Speaker 1: Carrier's brother in law, but had also worked as a
Speaker 1: folk healer throughout Essex County. If people needed help with
Speaker 1: a sitcow or a mysterious ailment, they would call on
Speaker 1: him to use whatever tools he had at his disposal.
Speaker 1: Here's historian Maryland k Roach. Some people did practice a
Speaker 1: lot of folk magic, maybe more in England because they
Speaker 1: weren't all Puritans. Well, they weren't all Purans hereies. They
Speaker 1: were white witches, a blessing witches so called, meaning they
Speaker 1: did only the good magic. But if you have the
Speaker 1: idea that the source of it is really only pretending
Speaker 1: to do good for a while, until you're really thoroughly
Speaker 1: caught in this clutches, it's not something you should be
Speaker 1: fooling around with. Understandably, that gray area between witchcraft and
Speaker 1: Puritan piety was an unsettling place to be for many
Speaker 1: of the people in the area. Roger Toothaker was essentially
Speaker 1: dabbling with magic as far as they were concerned, and
Speaker 1: that was the devil's work. Yes, he thought of himself
Speaker 1: to be one of the good guys, but enough people
Speaker 1: disagreed that he was arrested, examined, and in jail. By May,
Speaker 1: I have a feeling tooth Acker new it was coming. Though.
Speaker 1: Back in February, if you remember from episode one, the
Speaker 1: Paris family's neighbor, Mary Sibley, had baked a witch cake
Speaker 1: to try and cure the first two afflicted girls, but
Speaker 1: the results were disastrous. Reverend Paris and his peers viewed
Speaker 1: the use of magic, even white magic meant to help others,
Speaker 1: as an invitation to the devil. By May of Roger
Speaker 1: Toothaker found himself in jail, but the long wait for
Speaker 1: his own trial only brought him sickness and death. Like
Speaker 1: Sarah Osburne before him, his life was snuffed out by
Speaker 1: the grinding gears of the witch hunt, long before he
Speaker 1: would ever have a chance for freedom and justice. As
Speaker 1: you might expect, people were beginning to have doubts it
Speaker 1: was one thing to throw accusations around the village, but
Speaker 1: when those words began to draw real blood and take lives, well,
Speaker 1: it felt like a bridge too far for many people.
Speaker 1: Most of that doubt manifested as murmurs and whispers around
Speaker 1: the community, but it had official representation too. Immediately after
Speaker 1: the trial and conviction of bridget Bishop, one of the
Speaker 1: nine judges, resigned his post. For anyone concerned about the
Speaker 1: trials getting out of hand, Nathaniel salt Install had been
Speaker 1: their source of hope, but he took that pipe dream
Speaker 1: with him when he quit, and the road ahead looked
Speaker 1: a lot less promising As a result. What happened in
Speaker 1: the days to come was a battle of wills between
Speaker 1: those with spiritual authority and those with legal power. Religious
Speaker 1: leaders like Cotton Mather, Samuel Willard, and William Millbourne all
Speaker 1: came forward with concerns for how the trial should be
Speaker 1: handled and laced throughout. All of their arguments were liberal
Speaker 1: amounts of theology. So when the Governor's Council met three
Speaker 1: days after the first public execution, Phipps and a handful
Speaker 1: of the magistrates reached out to the ministers, then asked
Speaker 1: for their full official response. Gathered together, they told them
Speaker 1: and discussed the challenges we all face. Then, when you're ready,
Speaker 1: bring them to us for a discussion. What they came
Speaker 1: back with was a written response known as the Return
Speaker 1: of Several Ministers. It was polite and supportive of the
Speaker 1: overall mission of the Oyer and termin Or trials, but
Speaker 1: the letter addressed a bigger concern, namely, Chief Judge William
Speaker 1: Stowton believed that specters could not impersonate innocent people, and
Speaker 1: the ministers disagreed. There's a lot of theology at play here,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get too deep into the
Speaker 1: nitty gritty of it all, but essentially, people were worried
Speaker 1: about wrongful accusations and convictions. Thanks to the trust the
Speaker 1: authorities replacing in the accusations of the afflicted girls, as
Speaker 1: well as allowing Mercy Lewis to serve as a witch finder,
Speaker 1: it had become all too easy to imagine that innocent
Speaker 1: people might get caught in the crossfire. Stoton believed that
Speaker 1: if someone witnessed the spectral image of a witch, then
Speaker 1: the person they saw was the person to laim. The ministers,
Speaker 1: though disagreed, they believed that the devil could impersonate innocent people,
Speaker 1: literally putting on their appearance as a disguise, just to
Speaker 1: get those people in trouble. So obviously, the next question
Speaker 1: was even trickier, how can you tell? It was bad
Speaker 1: enough that no one except a handful of the accused
Speaker 1: could actually see the specters of their attackers, but now
Speaker 1: they had to play detective and figure out which ones
Speaker 1: were the devil in disguise and which ones were real witches.
Speaker 1: And the solution, according to the ministers, was to avoid
Speaker 1: prosecuting virtuous people, people with blameless reputations and no history
Speaker 1: of any wrongdoing. It was a cop out answer, though,
Speaker 1: because Stoton believed that very few people were actually of
Speaker 1: unblemished reputation. He and his fellow judges were part of
Speaker 1: that select few, naturally, But outside of that, it was
Speaker 1: difficult to imagine anyone without a sordid path, even Rebecca Nurse,
Speaker 1: who was a full member of the Salem Village Church
Speaker 1: and well respected, and as she was about to find out,
Speaker 1: when your fate rested on invisible evidence, it was hard
Speaker 1: to see anything other than darkness. Ask most people today
Speaker 1: if they know anything about the Salem Which Trials, and
Speaker 1: the most common answer you'll get from non historians is
Speaker 1: that it was really just one big mess that revolved
Speaker 1: around property line disputes. And hopefully over the last few
Speaker 1: episodes I've put that rumor to rest for you at least.
Speaker 1: But here's where I'm going to contradict myself for a moment.
Speaker 1: When we talk about Rebecca Nurse, we have to talk
Speaker 1: about property lines. Keep in mind, these Puritan settlers were
Speaker 1: certainly focused on the mission of establishing God's kingdom in
Speaker 1: the New World. They were deeply religious people, but they
Speaker 1: were also a notoriously difficult to get along with. That's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons they left England after all. So
Speaker 1: you can imagine living in a community in a strange place,
Speaker 1: constantly afraid of the world around them, that these settlers
Speaker 1: were on the edge and cranky about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: Back in episode one, we talked about the differences between
Speaker 1: the Putnam's and the Porters, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: repeat myself here, but let me sum it up by
Speaker 1: saying that the Porters were the wealthy family that lived
Speaker 1: on the edge between Salem Town and Salem Village. They
Speaker 1: figuratively rode the fence, so to speak. They benefited from
Speaker 1: the high society of the town, but also benefited from
Speaker 1: the resources and expansive land of the village. Keeping the
Speaker 1: two communities together as a single legal entity was in
Speaker 1: their best interest. But inside Salem Village was another family,
Speaker 1: the Putnam's, who didn't have a vested interest in the town.
Speaker 1: They wanted autonomy and a break from the wealthier Port community.
Speaker 1: So there is this tug of war between the two families,
Speaker 1: and then the town family showed up. They were a
Speaker 1: family from England with seven children, three daughters and four sons,
Speaker 1: and when they arrived they purchased a tract of land
Speaker 1: along the western edges of Salem Village, or maybe it
Speaker 1: was the eastern edges of tops Field, because that's where
Speaker 1: the conflict began five decades before the Salem which trials
Speaker 1: a sloppy Massachusetts clerk, as Stacy Shift puts, it, drew
Speaker 1: part of tops Fields boundary lines right over the existing
Speaker 1: lines for Western Salem. It created a small bubble of
Speaker 1: land between the two communities that technically belonged to both,
Speaker 1: and that's the land that the Town's bought. Now, as
Speaker 1: the conflict went on and grew between the Porters and
Speaker 1: the Putnam's. The Putnam started to feel the need to
Speaker 1: expand farther west and get away from the porters. The
Speaker 1: trouble was the towns were there, sort of walling them in,
Speaker 1: and as a result, the Putnam's resented them, and this
Speaker 1: led to all sorts of conflict. There was a horse
Speaker 1: theft that forced the towns to sue the Putnams. They
Speaker 1: fought over firewood, something that every family needed an abundance
Speaker 1: to survive the cold New England winters, and they bickered
Speaker 1: about where each family might grace their livestock. Honestly, anything
Speaker 1: that could have been fought over probably was, and it
Speaker 1: went on for years. All the town kids grew up,
Speaker 1: of course, and married into the surrounding community. Daughters, Mary,
Speaker 1: Sarah and Rebecca became Mary sty Sarah Klois, and Rebecca Nurse,
Speaker 1: all three names that should ring a bell by now,
Speaker 1: because by June of they were all in jail and
Speaker 1: no wonder. Up until July, more than half of all
Speaker 1: the witchcraft accusations had originated from a Putnam house. You
Speaker 1: don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to understand why Rebecca
Speaker 1: was particularly annoying to the Putnam's. Because she married into
Speaker 1: a Salem Town family, aligning herself with the wealthier reporters
Speaker 1: by association. Her husband, Francis, was an artist there, but
Speaker 1: years after their marriage they leased a large three acre
Speaker 1: farm in the middle of Salem Village, pushing the thorn
Speaker 1: right back into the heel of the Putnams. By the
Speaker 1: time the witch trials had ramped up, Rebecca was an
Speaker 1: old woman in her seventies. But despite doing well for
Speaker 1: herself and building a reputation as an upstanding member of
Speaker 1: the local church and an elder in the community, Rebecca
Speaker 1: was still accused of witchcraft. Why while outside of the
Speaker 1: decades long feud between her own family and the Putnams
Speaker 1: of Salem Village, there might be two other reasons for
Speaker 1: the way some in the community turned on her. Here's
Speaker 1: Emerson Baker Rebecca Nurse. Her case is another key turning point.
Speaker 1: Why would this wonder this, this elderly sainted grandmother who's
Speaker 1: a member of the Salem Town Church up here in
Speaker 1: Saint why would she be accused of witchcraft? Well, again,
Speaker 1: note she's a member of the Salem Town Church, not
Speaker 1: the Salem Village church. In other words, Rebecca didn't go
Speaker 1: through the rigorous membership gauntlet that the strict conservative Salem
Speaker 1: Village Church required. Instead, she had become a full member
Speaker 1: in the less strict Salem town where the halfway Covenant
Speaker 1: was accepted. Despite that she was enjoying all the benefits
Speaker 1: of full membership right there in Samuel Paris's congregation. To
Speaker 1: a lot of people, it didn't seem fair. The second reason, though,
Speaker 1: was rooted in bigotry. If you remember, it was known
Speaker 1: that Rebecca had taken in an orphaned Quaker neighbor out
Speaker 1: of the goodness of her heart, but that child represented
Speaker 1: something evil in the minds of her accusers. That's because,
Speaker 1: in pursuit of their mission to build a Puritan Kingdom
Speaker 1: of God in the New World, any other version of
Speaker 1: Christianity was the enemy. Catholic, Quaker, it didn't matter. They
Speaker 1: were forces of the devil. So Rebecca, through her Christian charity,
Speaker 1: had done something that many in the commune nity equated
Speaker 1: with being a traitor. Add to this the fact that
Speaker 1: her husband, Francis, was part of the committee that was
Speaker 1: trying to remove Reverend Paris from his job as village minister.
Speaker 1: And we have a recipe for division and in fighting
Speaker 1: it was a bigger version of the story that most
Speaker 1: of the victims were living through that spring and early summer.
Speaker 1: But Rebecca had a few advantages over her fellow jail mates.
Speaker 1: Her family had decades of experience fighting back, they were
Speaker 1: well connected, and they were tenacious. Unfortunately, they were going
Speaker 1: to need every bit of that in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: The pump had been primed. If anyone was to blame
Speaker 1: for getting the community in an uproar about Rebecca Nurse
Speaker 1: and her sisters, it was Reverend Samuel Paris. Of course,
Speaker 1: he felt threatened. Rebecca and the others didn't care for
Speaker 1: his highly concern port of hand on the rudder, and
Speaker 1: they wanted him gone. Paris responded with scathing sermons from
Speaker 1: the pulpit through March, April and May. Paris used his
Speaker 1: position at the head of the congregation to so discontent
Speaker 1: and fear. He preached about the devil among them, and
Speaker 1: about how anyone might be working for the enemy, even
Speaker 1: the neighbors they had known for so long. So when
Speaker 1: the Oyer and Terminer moved on from bridget Bishop and
Speaker 1: began to hear testimony and depositions in regards to Rebecca Nurse,
Speaker 1: there were plenty of people to come forward. Mercy Lewis
Speaker 1: reported seeing Rebecca's specter attacking a Putnam boy, then another Putnam,
Speaker 1: John Jr. Claimed that his infant son died just three
Speaker 1: days after he had a public disagreement with the old woman.
Speaker 1: Thomas Putnam, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and Reverend Paris were among the
Speaker 1: respected adults who put pen to paper and wrote out
Speaker 1: their testimony against Rebecca. They were bringing out the big guns,
Speaker 1: so to speak, with the aim of damn the old
Speaker 1: woman in the eyes of the judges and jury. But
Speaker 1: they were in for a surprise. Maryland k roach once again.
Speaker 1: The nurse family circulated a petition among neighbors, and lots
Speaker 1: of people signed it. It wasn't just them, so people
Speaker 1: put their names on it. This was incredibly significance. Here's
Speaker 1: historian Richard Trask on exactly why. Of the documents that survive,
Speaker 1: we have maybe about twenty of them in which either
Speaker 1: one person, a couple, or a bunch of people would
Speaker 1: send in a deposition or a petition saying that we've
Speaker 1: known her all of our life and she never looked
Speaker 1: like she was a witch. Er, never deported her any
Speaker 1: more than a good Christian. Forty people signed the one
Speaker 1: to Rebecca Nurse. The judges went into the official Oyer
Speaker 1: and Terminator trial for Rebecca Nurse, assuming she would play
Speaker 1: along like everyone else, but backfired. If they were going
Speaker 1: to have a cloud of witnesses to her evil nature,
Speaker 1: then Rebecca's family would bring an army of their own,
Speaker 1: and they made huge advances too. Some of the character
Speaker 1: witnesses who stepped forward to defend Rebecca Nurse also brought
Speaker 1: unusual stories that cast doubt on the testimony of the
Speaker 1: afflicted girls. Much of it centered around Elizabeth Hubbard, the
Speaker 1: teenage girl who had seen that wolf following her that
Speaker 1: cold winter night many months before. One man claimed that
Speaker 1: during a visit to the home of Elizabeth's uncle, Dr Griggs,
Speaker 1: the girl had talked about denying the Sabbath. Another man,
Speaker 1: sixty year old farmer named Clements Coldham, recalled giving Elizabeth
Speaker 1: a ride home on his horse when the girl claimed
Speaker 1: that they were being followed by the devil. After a while,
Speaker 1: she told Coldham that she wasn't afraid because she and
Speaker 1: the devil were on good speaking terms. A similar story
Speaker 1: with a similar message was told about one of the
Speaker 1: other afflicted girls, ab Gail Williams and a farmer named
Speaker 1: Robert Molton believed that Susannah Sheldon had lied to the
Speaker 1: court when she told them that the devil had dragged
Speaker 1: her over a stone wall, because he was there that
Speaker 1: day and he watched her climb the wall all on
Speaker 1: her own. Rebecca's own daughter, Sarah Nurse, testified that she
Speaker 1: had watched another of the accusers, Sarah Biber, actually pulled
Speaker 1: straight pins out of her clothing and then prick herself
Speaker 1: in the knee before crying out that Rebecca had attacked her.
Speaker 1: It was all a farce, she said, and in a
Speaker 1: shocking move against her own family, John and Rebecca Putnam
Speaker 1: stood up in her defense as well. One of the
Speaker 1: charges against Rebecca Nurse had been that she had killed
Speaker 1: their daughter and son in law, but the grieving parents
Speaker 1: made it clear that the younger couple had died from
Speaker 1: a fever and not witchcraft. It was amazing, really, in
Speaker 1: the face of the frightful charge of witchcraft, Rebecca's family
Speaker 1: not only mounted a solid defense of her character, but
Speaker 1: they attacked the very truth of the accusers at the
Speaker 1: same time. It was a one to punch that was
Speaker 1: sure to set their friend and matriarch free. Armed with
Speaker 1: all of that testimony, the jury was sent away to
Speaker 1: make a decision. Here's Richard Trask once again. At first
Speaker 1: the jurors came back with a not guilty, and it
Speaker 1: was pandemonium in the courthouse. The afflicted children who were there,
Speaker 1: and also some older afflicted ones started going into profound
Speaker 1: fits and so forth. WILLIAMS. Stouton, he was the chief
Speaker 1: justice of the panel, He said, um, have you considered
Speaker 1: some testimony of someone who said this of that? And
Speaker 1: the jurors asked Rebecca Nurse a question I confessed, which
Speaker 1: had given testimony that she was one of us. Rebecca
Speaker 1: said why she is one of us? And she was
Speaker 1: asked what did that mean? And she didn't say anything,
Speaker 1: and because she couldn't hear, she was almost deaf. After
Speaker 1: what must have seemed like an eternity, the members of
Speaker 1: the jury slowly walked back into the courtroom. I can
Speaker 1: imagine the room was blanketed with a tense silence as
Speaker 1: each of them took their seat, and then they announced
Speaker 1: that they had made their decision. Rebecca Nurse. They said
Speaker 1: it was guilty. Jun was a busy day for the
Speaker 1: court of Lawyer and Terminer. Not only had they heard
Speaker 1: the case against Rebecca Nurse, but others were brought to
Speaker 1: trial as well. One of them was Sarah Good, the grumbling, homeless,
Speaker 1: pipe smoking woman that everyone loved to hate. She'd been
Speaker 1: in jail for months, her infant child had died, and
Speaker 1: her five year old daughter, Dorothy, was still in a
Speaker 1: Boston jail, the same jail that had already claimed the
Speaker 1: lives of Sarah Osburne and Roger Toothaker. But her trial
Speaker 1: couldn't have been a stronger contrast to that of Rebecca Nurse.
Speaker 1: There was no large collection of friends and family mounting
Speaker 1: a passionate defence. There were no prominent members of the
Speaker 1: community calling the accusations of the afflicted girls. Into question.
Speaker 1: It was just Sarah Good against the court, and she
Speaker 1: can't have felt a lot of hope about that. One
Speaker 1: of the witnesses brought to the courtroom that day was
Speaker 1: none other than Tituba, the slave woman from the Paris household.
Speaker 1: She was asked to repeat for the benefit of the jury,
Speaker 1: of course, the story she told that first examination months earlier,
Speaker 1: on March one. Of course, she had been given plenty
Speaker 1: of opportunities to keep her story straight thanks to the
Speaker 1: repeated visits from the magistrates over those long months in jail.
Speaker 1: Thomas Newton, the Attorney General overseeing the trial, even submitted
Speaker 1: a document as evidence that came straight from Sarah's little girl, Dorothy.
Speaker 1: Despite her young age, someone had managed to convince the
Speaker 1: child to give to stimony against her own mother, and
Speaker 1: as the court proceeded, Sarah had to listen to those
Speaker 1: words as they were read aloud. Local heavyweights contributed their
Speaker 1: own testimony against her too. Thomas Putnam and Ezekiel Chiever
Speaker 1: reaffirmed their earlier testimony, and Reverend Samuel Paris described the
Speaker 1: torment that his daughter and niece had gone through, and
Speaker 1: by doing so, Paris gave the courtroom clear permission from
Speaker 1: the church to view Sarah Good as the enemy. She
Speaker 1: was found guilty and charged with three separate counts of witchcraft,
Speaker 1: but she wouldn't be the only one that day. A
Speaker 1: woman named Susannah Martin was also brought to the trial,
Speaker 1: and there were plenty of witnesses available to paint her
Speaker 1: in a dark light. She was like Sarah Good in
Speaker 1: many ways. She was poor and alone, but she was
Speaker 1: also an old widow from Amesbury, a community far to
Speaker 1: the north. When she was led into the courtroom, the
Speaker 1: afflicted girls fell into terrible fits. Former sale and village
Speaker 1: minister Dale Debt Lawson would later record that some of
Speaker 1: them even vomited blood. It was sometime during this chaos
Speaker 1: that one of the afflicted shouted out to the courtroom
Speaker 1: that they were being attacked by someone new, Samuel Willard.
Speaker 1: There must have been a sharp intake of breath at
Speaker 1: the sound of his name. Willard was not someone they
Speaker 1: would have suspected of witchcraft. Not only was he the
Speaker 1: minister of the Boston First Church, but he was a
Speaker 1: close friend and adviser to many of the judges in
Speaker 1: the trial. Thinking quickly on his feet, Stoughton suggested to
Speaker 1: the girl that she was mistaken, that she had confused
Speaker 1: John Willard with the good reverend. She was quickly removed
Speaker 1: from the courtroom, while word was passed among those seated
Speaker 1: in the crowd that it had been a mistake. It
Speaker 1: seems they were just as quick to dismiss charges against
Speaker 1: one of their own as they were to declare women
Speaker 1: like Sarah Good as guilty. Two other women were put
Speaker 1: on trial during the same session as the others. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Howe and Sarah Wild's I'd have seemed like disconnected players
Speaker 1: in the drama, but that was far from true. In fact,
Speaker 1: they were both deeply connected to the woman whose conviction
Speaker 1: began the day, Rebecca Nurse. Elizabeth Howe was Rebecca's sister
Speaker 1: in law, as well as being close friends with her
Speaker 1: sister Mary Esty. And if you remember that old property
Speaker 1: line issue between tops Field and Salem Village, it was
Speaker 1: Sarah Wild's husband that had drawn it up. While both
Speaker 1: of the women had accusations of witchcraft hovering over them,
Speaker 1: it's clear looking back that there were other issues at
Speaker 1: play as well. Both were declared guilty, putting the final
Speaker 1: count for the session at five convicted witches. But the
Speaker 1: family of Rebecca Nurse wasn't ready to quitch just yet.
Speaker 1: After the court adjourned, they approached one of the jurors,
Speaker 1: a man named Thomas Fisk, and pleaded their case. Amazingly,
Speaker 1: they managed to get a collection of documents along with
Speaker 1: a written statement from Fisk that might serve to free
Speaker 1: Rebecca from the charges. With that precious cargo of paper
Speaker 1: an ink in hand, they saddled their horses and rode
Speaker 1: hard for Boston. It was time to confront the governor.
Speaker 1: They must have had connections. Perhaps the Nurse family brought
Speaker 1: along some of their wealthy porter allies, or maybe they
Speaker 1: already had a history with the governor. Whatever the reason was,
Speaker 1: they managed to get access to William Phipps just as
Speaker 1: they had hoped. They confronted him inside his Boston home
Speaker 1: and then spread out all of their documents for him
Speaker 1: to look over. They explained the issue at hand and
Speaker 1: how the spectral evidence and pins and lies had all
Speaker 1: been disproven, And then they told Phipps about the not
Speaker 1: guilty verdict that came before the guilty They explained the
Speaker 1: confusion that had led to the guilty verdict, how her
Speaker 1: lack of hearing and a misunderstanding about a question led
Speaker 1: them to doubt her character, and all they wanted was
Speaker 1: a fair decision. Bipps was instantly sympathetic. He reviewed the
Speaker 1: documents and listened to their testimony, and right there inside
Speaker 1: his Boston home, he reversed the court's ruling, issuing a reprieve.
Speaker 1: Rebecca Nurse was free for a moment, anyway. When the
Speaker 1: news of the reprieve made its way to Salem, the
Speaker 1: afflicted and their support network exploded in anger. Robert Califf
Speaker 1: was a Boston merchant whose record of the trials has
Speaker 1: come to be an essential document for understanding what happened
Speaker 1: off the books and behind the scenes. He later wrote
Speaker 1: that when the news of the reprieve became known, the
Speaker 1: accusers renewed their dismal outcries against her, insomuch that the
Speaker 1: Governor was by some Salem gentleman prevailed with to recall
Speaker 1: the reprieve. In the clinical, detached tone of the time,
Speaker 1: we can see Rebecca's last hope for justice slip away.
Speaker 1: On July nine, Sheriff George Corwin headed to the execution
Speaker 1: site for the second time in five weeks. Sarah Good,
Speaker 1: Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wilds, and Rebecca Nurse all
Speaker 1: rode in the back of his wagon, all hope for
Speaker 1: salvation driven from their minds. They were lost and they
Speaker 1: knew it. Beneath the gallows, each of the women had
Speaker 1: their skirts tied around their legs, and then the Salem
Speaker 1: town minister, Nicholas Noys, spoke with each of them in turn.
Speaker 1: When he reached Sarah Good, though, he used the moment
Speaker 1: to lecture her and beg for a confession. Here's Emerson Baker.
Speaker 1: She says, you know, basically, come come, women. You know
Speaker 1: you're gonna die, but you might as well clear your conscience.
Speaker 1: She says, you know, I'm no more which than you are,
Speaker 1: and if you kill me, God will give you blood
Speaker 1: to drink. So take that. That's actually a quarter out
Speaker 1: of revelation where one of the sort of plagues that
Speaker 1: will come to the earth is the waters will turn
Speaker 1: to blood and you'll have to drink it. So, on
Speaker 1: the one hand, one initially saw that, I thought, Wow,
Speaker 1: Sarah Good, that's pretty good. She was showing noise. You
Speaker 1: know what, I'm a perfectly good purit and here i
Speaker 1: am facing death and I'm going to quote scripture to you.
Speaker 1: But it's more complicated than that, because, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: back in this early sixteen sixties, when the Massachusetts government
Speaker 1: is executing Quakers in Boston for simply trying to proselytize
Speaker 1: the faith, an Englishman writes a book about their behaviors
Speaker 1: and tells the magistrates that they have to stop what
Speaker 1: you're doing or God will give them blood to drink.
Speaker 1: So Sarah Good in that famous quote, was actually not
Speaker 1: just wasn't a biblical quote. She was actually quoting from
Speaker 1: a Quaker complaint against the magistrates of Massachusetts. So there
Speaker 1: may be a lot of reasons why Sarah I'm not
Speaker 1: even I'm not sure she was a Quaker necessarily, but
Speaker 1: she certainly lived in that part of Salem that was
Speaker 1: susceptible to where the Quakers lived. Um, so she certainly
Speaker 1: would have known about them, might well have even a
Speaker 1: Quaker sympathies. After their battle of words, Noise left Sarah
Speaker 1: Good and the others to their fate. Each of them
Speaker 1: was led up a ladder where a noose was tightened
Speaker 1: around their necks. Then, from the safety of the ground below,
Speaker 1: Sheriff Corwin began to push them off, one at a time.
Speaker 1: I imagine the crowd was stunned by the violence of
Speaker 1: it all. Execution by hanging was notoriously graphic, with sights
Speaker 1: and sounds that could unsettle even the strongest among them.
Speaker 1: These were women they had known for years, known and
Speaker 1: trusted and spoken with, and now they were writhing at
Speaker 1: the end of a rope as their lives slowly faded away.
Speaker 1: Historian Stacy Schiff suggests that they probably didn't leave the
Speaker 1: bodies up for long. It was July and far too
Speaker 1: hot to leave a corpse out in the sun. They
Speaker 1: would have been cut down a short time later and
Speaker 1: hastily buried right there on the hill, although local legend
Speaker 1: says that the families of those women, those who had
Speaker 1: them at least returned under the cover of darkness to
Speaker 1: take their love ones away for a proper burial. Rebecca
Speaker 1: Nurse was carried back to the family homestead in Salem
Speaker 1: Village and buried in an unmarked grave. The house and
Speaker 1: property are still there today, and if you're ever in Danvers,
Speaker 1: you can visit the museum that was once her home
Speaker 1: and stand beside the graveyard that took its place. It's
Speaker 1: a physical reminder of just how normal these people were
Speaker 1: and how tragic their final days turned out to be.
Speaker 1: Speaking of which, those words that Sarah Good tossed at
Speaker 1: Reverend Noise, the ones where she promised blood for him
Speaker 1: to drink, those words seemed to stick around. We know
Speaker 1: Samuel Sewell remembered them, as did those who heard them
Speaker 1: spoken prior to the execution, and I have to think
Speaker 1: that Noise himself never forgot them. Years later, on December seventeen, seventeen,
Speaker 1: Reverend Noise passed away. Legend says that he suffered a
Speaker 1: hemorrhage in his head or throat, and as a result,
Speaker 1: his mouth filled with his own blood. He drowned, just
Speaker 1: as Sarah Good had promised. 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. Looking back, it's easy to see
Speaker 1: countless examples of the authorities leading the witness. They suggest
Speaker 1: answers with their questions and give the accused just enough
Speaker 1: detail to reply with answers that fit their expectations. Maybe
Speaker 1: these men were just really bad at interviewing the accused,
Speaker 1: or perhaps they allow their bias to steer the ship.
Speaker 1: We might never know, But something else came out of
Speaker 1: the examination of Anne Foster and her family New Names
Speaker 1: From and Over. Mary Lacey Sr. Mentioned two of Martha
Speaker 1: Carrier's own children as one of their own, sending the
Speaker 1: court into a frenzy. The following day, eighteen year old
Speaker 1: Richard and sixteen year old Andrew were arrested and brought
Speaker 1: to town. What awaited them, however, was not the usual examination,
Speaker 1: we have come to expect their fate would be much
Speaker 1: more painful than anyone thus far. Torture Unobscured was created
Speaker 1: and written by me Aaron Mankey and produced by Matt
Speaker 1: Frederick and Alex Williams in partnership with How Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: with 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 for listening.