Speaker 1: There were a lot of rumors about Abigail. Some were small,
Speaker 1: as you might expect. She was rude, she was unseemly,
Speaker 1: she was irreverent. But there were other more specific rumors,
Speaker 1: and those were the kinds that spread like fire in
Speaker 1: a dry barn. They whispered that she lay out alone
Speaker 1: in the woods at night, that she was disobedient at home,
Speaker 1: that she openly mocked the traditions of the Puritan faith,
Speaker 1: even going as far as to use the Lord's name
Speaker 1: in vain, That she made a pact with the devil.
Speaker 1: And all of it was true. Abigail's family lived in
Speaker 1: the village of Topsfield, roughly five miles north of Salem Village.
Speaker 1: They were part of that larger Salem community in which
Speaker 1: the same way Beverly and over when Um and others were,
Speaker 1: But they hadn't always been in Topsfield as far as
Speaker 1: I can tell. Abigail was born there, but at the
Speaker 1: age of four, ten years before the events of her father, William,
Speaker 1: packed the family up and headed north to Fallmouth, Maine.
Speaker 1: Over the next seven years, though tragedy crashed against her
Speaker 1: family like ocean waves. The Native American attacks on those
Speaker 1: northern frontier communities were brutal and deadly. Abigail lost siblings,
Speaker 1: she lost her mother, and finally her father lost their land,
Speaker 1: forcing them to return to tops Field and defeat. But
Speaker 1: they didn't come alone. William had remarried, so his new wife, Deliverance,
Speaker 1: came home with them. All of this is context. It's
Speaker 1: stage dressing. If we want to understand who Abigail was.
Speaker 1: These are stories that we need to hear because they
Speaker 1: help us see her experience. But the one thing they
Speaker 1: don't explain is why she being so hard into these rumors.
Speaker 1: You see, These stories of Satanic packs and sleeping in
Speaker 1: the woods weren't rumors told about her. These were things
Speaker 1: she said about herself. Abigail Hobbs was a witch, and
Speaker 1: she was proud of it. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky.
Speaker 1: To take our next step forward into Salem, we need
Speaker 1: to travel somewhere else Maine. Now I know what you're thinking.
Speaker 1: I'm here for the Salem, which trials, not the history
Speaker 1: of Maine, and I can understand. But as I've often repeated,
Speaker 1: context is everything. No historical event takes place inside a vacuum.
Speaker 1: And if we're ever going to fully understand what happened
Speaker 1: in Salem. We need to cast a wider net. Believe me,
Speaker 1: we'll be better off for it. Maine was founded decades
Speaker 1: before as a separate colony from the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
Speaker 1: and the two regions grew differently as well. Massachusetts expanded fast,
Speaker 1: allowing cities to form, which attracted better off families and
Speaker 1: people who were less adventurous. Early settlements in Maine, however,
Speaker 1: tended to stick to the Rocky Coast. They were less
Speaker 1: city like, functioning more as outposts to gather materials needed
Speaker 1: in the more urban communities around Boston. Here's Marybeth Norton,
Speaker 1: professor of an American History at Cornell University. Maine in
Speaker 1: the sixteen seventies and sixteen nineties was really where the
Speaker 1: action was as far as profit to be made in
Speaker 1: New England. In Boston, people had bought land, they had
Speaker 1: set up sawmills. Boston had a very vigorous ship building
Speaker 1: industry that the sawmills in Maine were providing the timber
Speaker 1: for the very well developed pines were perfect for ships.
Speaker 1: Mass These early main communities places like Falmouth up in
Speaker 1: Casco Bay and Wells York and Saco all served as
Speaker 1: borderland between the safer realm of Massachusetts and the evil
Speaker 1: of the frontier up north. More than anywhere else the
Speaker 1: settlers could think of was darkness and danger. Around sixteen
Speaker 1: fifty two, a group of settlers in Maine decided to
Speaker 1: petition parliament back in England for the ability to rule themselves.
Speaker 1: But when word of their plans got out, the government
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts became worried. They were getting rich off of
Speaker 1: those Maine frontiersmen, and they didn't want to lose that.
Speaker 1: So they examined their own charter and somehow found a
Speaker 1: loophole that gave them authority over Maine. Convenience I know,
Speaker 1: but don't go assuming that the government of Massachusetts rushed
Speaker 1: in to grab control of Maine because they loved the place. No,
Speaker 1: they loved the resources that flowed out of it and
Speaker 1: the wealth it pumped into their economy. But Maine itself
Speaker 1: was something straight out of their Puritan nightmares. To the
Speaker 1: Puritans in Boston and Salem, Maine was a godless land.
Speaker 1: The settlers there rejected English communal order and were less
Speaker 1: interested in building the Puritan city on a hill that
Speaker 1: was so important to the folks in Salem. Abigail Hobb's
Speaker 1: new stepmother was a great example of this. Here was
Speaker 1: an adult woman living in Puritan New England, and she
Speaker 1: had never been baptized by the Church. Maine came with
Speaker 1: another challenge as well, proximity to the Native American tribes
Speaker 1: to the north. Not just proximity, but conflict. As you
Speaker 1: might imagine, the English settlers were spreading out, taking over
Speaker 1: more and more land that belonged to the people who
Speaker 1: already lived there. They justified it with law and religion too,
Speaker 1: claiming that the Crown had given them authority over every
Speaker 1: single person within their territory, whether they were English or not.
Speaker 1: So as the Native Americans watched their lands get swallowed
Speaker 1: up by a hungry colonial enterprise, they felt the need
Speaker 1: to do something. Some of them fell in line and
Speaker 1: accepted it, believing that being nice to the English would
Speaker 1: benefit them in the long run. Others went looking for
Speaker 1: powerful friends to help them, eventually connecting with the French
Speaker 1: settlers far to the north. But there was a third
Speaker 1: group that wanted none of that, and they lashed out
Speaker 1: in the only way they could think of, with violence. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, if Massachusetts hadn't rushed in and taken control
Speaker 1: of Maine. Those frontier settlers would have had to defend themselves,
Speaker 1: but that's not how it happened. Massachusetts got greedy, and
Speaker 1: because of that they were responsible for that defense. In
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy five, war broke out between the English colonists
Speaker 1: and the Native Americans around them, who were led by
Speaker 1: a man named Meta Coom. He preferred to call himself
Speaker 1: by a more English title, though, so he went by
Speaker 1: the name King Philip. The three year conflict then became
Speaker 1: known as King Philip's War. It was a bloody, violent
Speaker 1: time too. Both sides took hostages, both sides went back
Speaker 1: on their promises that could have ended the fighting. There
Speaker 1: were stories of Native children having their head smashed in
Speaker 1: and of pregnant English women being murdered and sculped. Both
Speaker 1: sides crossed the line of human decency far too often.
Speaker 1: Mary Beth Norton once again. The Indian War then finally
Speaker 1: came to an end more less with a truce in
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy eight. It was devastating to the English who
Speaker 1: had settled in Maine and New Hampshire. They had abandoned
Speaker 1: their communities in that period. They moved back in and
Speaker 1: then the Second War started in six and it all
Speaker 1: happened all over again, so it was devastating. It was
Speaker 1: devastating war. Basically, the Indian Wars devastated the economy of
Speaker 1: Maine and Maine in a lot of ways never really recovered.
Speaker 1: People didn't come back until the seventeen twenties, and when
Speaker 1: they did a lot of the entrepreneurial energy was gone.
Speaker 1: So it was really very bad. Abigail Hobbs family were
Speaker 1: some of the people displaced by that war. They had
Speaker 1: left hops Field in sixteen eighty two looking for a
Speaker 1: better life. Most of the land in and around Salem
Speaker 1: was owned by a small handful of wealthy families like
Speaker 1: the Porters, and Putnam's Maine had represented their chance to
Speaker 1: get out from under the thumb of the one percent
Speaker 1: and make a better life for themselves. Elsewhere, the Indian Wars,
Speaker 1: as they called them back then, ruined all of that.
Speaker 1: Another person affected by the war was George Burrows. Now
Speaker 1: if that name sounds familiar, that's because Burrows served as
Speaker 1: minister of the Salem Village Church years before Samuel Parris,
Speaker 1: way back in sixteen eighty one. But he started up
Speaker 1: in Falmouth Maine, where he was the minister there. An
Speaker 1: attack on Falmouth back in August of sixteen seventy six
Speaker 1: left dozens of settlers dead and sent a wave of
Speaker 1: refugees south to say For territory. Burrows managed to escape
Speaker 1: along with a three year old girl named Mercy Lewis,
Speaker 1: whose entire family had been killed. After living and working
Speaker 1: for a time in the town of Salisbury, he and
Speaker 1: Mercy traveled farther south, eventually arriving in Salem Village in
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty one. After his time serving as the second
Speaker 1: minister of the church in Salem Village, Burrows actually returned
Speaker 1: to Maine. The war was over and many people were
Speaker 1: beginning the long journey back north to reclaim their lost
Speaker 1: land and try rebuilding, and George Burrows went along with them.
Speaker 1: Money flowed back north as well. Folks in the Salem
Speaker 1: area felt safe to reinvest money in Maine, including the Putnams.
Speaker 1: And here's the amazing part of it all. If you
Speaker 1: were to look at a list of the people settling
Speaker 1: in or working with those settlers up in Maine, a
Speaker 1: whole slew of Salem names would jump off the page
Speaker 1: at you. Heck, when the conflict resurfaced in the late
Speaker 1: sixteen eighties. It was the Salem magistrates John Hawthorne and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Corwin who took a trip north to inspect the situation.
Speaker 1: People in Salem were fully aware of the danger lurking
Speaker 1: just beyond their borders. Here's Marybeth Norton once again. What
Speaker 1: happened was all the people who had been settling in
Speaker 1: Maine had to somewhere if they weren't killed, and so
Speaker 1: they filtered down into Massachusetts. They filtered down, especially into
Speaker 1: Essex County, which is the northernmost county of Massachusetts, the
Speaker 1: northeastern most county, and so a lot of the people
Speaker 1: came to live in marble Head, or came to live
Speaker 1: in Salem, are came indeed to live in Salem Village.
Speaker 1: All of that is context. You can't understand Sale and
Speaker 1: Village in without understanding Maine. In the decades leading up
Speaker 1: to it. They weren't too disparate, places that never bumped
Speaker 1: into each other. These were sibling communities joined at the
Speaker 1: hip through family ties, military service, and economic needs. Every
Speaker 1: person inside Sale and Village was acutely aware of what
Speaker 1: was happening to the folks in Maine, even more so
Speaker 1: when those refugees began to flood back toward them. Oh
Speaker 1: and one last thing I want to point out. On
Speaker 1: January six, just days before Betty Paris and Abigail well
Speaker 1: Illiams were about to fall into fits for the first time,
Speaker 1: a Native American raid destroyed another settlement in Maine. Not
Speaker 1: Falmouth far to the north though no this raid happened
Speaker 1: much closer in the southern town of York. From the
Speaker 1: perspective of the people in Salem, the conflict and danger
Speaker 1: was headed right toward them. So keep all of that
Speaker 1: in mind as we move forward, because the next events
Speaker 1: might very well take place in Salem, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're isolated. And some historians think that everything that
Speaker 1: was about to happen could be blamed on Abigail Hobbs, who,
Speaker 1: thanks to the wild stories she was telling her friends,
Speaker 1: ended up being arrested on April nineteen. Her examination happened
Speaker 1: a short time later, and it came with some interesting revelations.
Speaker 1: Standing before the magistrates, Abigail Hobbs spoke before they could
Speaker 1: ask her any questions. I will speak the truth, she said.
Speaker 1: I have seen sights and have been scared I have
Speaker 1: been very wicked. I hope I shall be better if
Speaker 1: God will help me. What sights did you see, Hawthorne asked,
Speaker 1: I have seen dogs and many creatures. What dogs do
Speaker 1: you mean, Hawthorne asked, ordinary dogs. Abigail shook her head,
Speaker 1: I mean the devil. The magistrates pressed on. Where had
Speaker 1: she seen them, they asked, and Abigail replied that her
Speaker 1: encounter had taken place in the woods in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day years ago, back when she lived at
Speaker 1: Casco Bay. That was where she'd put her hand on
Speaker 1: his book when they carried her off to jail a
Speaker 1: short while later. The name Cascoe Bay still hung in
Speaker 1: the air like a neon sign, pointing at the danger
Speaker 1: that lurked the north, but Abigail had also made it
Speaker 1: clear that it was spreading south and might already be
Speaker 1: among them. She claimed that a shape shifting man had
Speaker 1: visited her at her home here in Tompsfield. He had
Speaker 1: alternated between the form of a cat, a dog, and
Speaker 1: a black man with a black hat, and this man,
Speaker 1: she claimed, had offered her fine clothes and the power
Speaker 1: to harm others in town, a power that she had
Speaker 1: readily accepted. If the news from the frontier was frightening
Speaker 1: to the people of Salem Village. It was made even
Speaker 1: more so by the actual presence in their homes of
Speaker 1: people who had lived through the horrors of it all.
Speaker 1: One of the most prominent of all of them was
Speaker 1: the little girl who George Burrows had rescued from Falmouth
Speaker 1: back in sixteen seventy six. Mercy Lewis my sixteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: Though she was a nineteen year old woman living in
Speaker 1: the home of Thomas and Ann Putnam along with their
Speaker 1: violently afflicted daughter Annie, it's easy to believe that over
Speaker 1: their time together, Mercy had been filling Annie's head with
Speaker 1: horrifying tales of del buls who attack in the night.
Speaker 1: But she had more to contribute than just tails. Mercy
Speaker 1: Lewis was having fits of her own, and one of
Speaker 1: the incidents that was recorded down Mercy claimed the Putnam's
Speaker 1: house had become filled with the spirits of witches and
Speaker 1: that they were trying to force her to partake of
Speaker 1: some twisted red communion. Suddenly, the figure of a white
Speaker 1: man appeared in the room, brightening off the witches and
Speaker 1: casting a brilliant light across her face, and Putnam not
Speaker 1: one to be showed up soon had a powerful vision
Speaker 1: of her own. During hers the people around her heard
Speaker 1: her shout, Oh, dreadful, dreadful. Here is a minister. What
Speaker 1: are ministers witches too? Obviously this caught the attention of
Speaker 1: the people around her, A minister implicated in assisting the
Speaker 1: devil himself. Well, it was unheard of, and yet here
Speaker 1: it was spelled out right in front of them. A
Speaker 1: moment later, the minister's invisible spirit conveniently identified itself to
Speaker 1: them all as well. It was their former minister and
Speaker 1: hero of Maine, George Burrows. But George Burrows wasn't the
Speaker 1: spotless minister we might assume him to be. Here's Stacy Schiff,
Speaker 1: Pulitzer Prize winning author of several historical works, including The Witches.
Speaker 1: Burrows is the ex minister who leaves the community on
Speaker 1: bad terms and is as much a hero in his
Speaker 1: new community in todays southern Maine as he had been
Speaker 1: a persona on grata in Salem. He was clearly a
Speaker 1: very stubborn and difficult man, and possibly an abusive husband
Speaker 1: when he was in Salem. Stories of how he had
Speaker 1: mistreated his wives will trail him even when he when
Speaker 1: he moves to Maine with Burrows, there's this terrific, vexed
Speaker 1: history with the community. There seems to be a certain
Speaker 1: amount of getting back at him by women who may
Speaker 1: have been friends with his dead wives. The day after
Speaker 1: Annie Putnam's vision of George Burrows, original afflicted girl Abigail
Speaker 1: Williams and her friend and Mary Walcott, both had a
Speaker 1: frightening experience as they sat in Ingersoll's ordinary with a
Speaker 1: number of their neighbors. They claimed that the spirits of
Speaker 1: William and Deliverance Hobbs, parents to Abigail Hobbs, were there
Speaker 1: and attacking them. One of the men in the room,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Hutchinson, actually drew his sword and started swinging it
Speaker 1: at the empty air in an attempt to kill the spirits.
Speaker 1: As he did, the two afflicted girls recounted the blow
Speaker 1: by blow action that only they could see. Goody Hobbs
Speaker 1: had been injured, they claimed, and there was blood all
Speaker 1: over the floor. Think about this moment from a different perspective, though,
Speaker 1: Salem feared that the warfare of the North would spread
Speaker 1: down to their own safe space, that before long, they
Speaker 1: too would be battling with the Devil's forces. The Native
Speaker 1: Americans who plagued their borders. So when you find a
Speaker 1: scene in a public tavern where weapons are drawn and
Speaker 1: flashing through the air, it's their greatest fears come to life.
Speaker 1: Between this highly public display of panic and the new
Speaker 1: accusations brought up by Annie Putnam and her friends, the
Speaker 1: momentum of the witchcraft panic began to accelerate. Within ten
Speaker 1: days of Abigail Hobb's examination, fifteen new names were submitted
Speaker 1: as potential witches. Some seemed connected to pass suspects, while
Speaker 1: others were more shocking to hear. Giles Corey and Mary
Speaker 1: Warren were taken from their homes and then examined and jailed.
Speaker 1: Their connections to Martha Corey and the proctors, both of
Speaker 1: whom were already in jail, were just too close to overlook.
Speaker 1: Rebecca Nurse's two younger sisters, Mary Etsy and Sarah Klois
Speaker 1: were also imprisoned. Nathaniel Putnam had his black slave Mary arrested,
Speaker 1: and another woman who had been acquitted of witchcraft years before,
Speaker 1: name Bridget Bishop, was also arrested for a second time.
Speaker 1: After a brief examination, she was jailed for trial, along
Speaker 1: with two other members of her family. Ship was married,
Speaker 1: so she's not alone in the world. That's Maryland ka Roach,
Speaker 1: historian and author of Six Women of Salem. She's been
Speaker 1: suspected before, however, of witchcraft, but she has survived that.
Speaker 1: That's not as much paperwork on it as you'd like surviving.
Speaker 1: She was confrontational. Some of the neighbors thought, I'd say
Speaker 1: she stuck up for herself. This is her third husband.
Speaker 1: The second husband would hit her now and then, but
Speaker 1: she hit him back then. The crisis burst beyond the
Speaker 1: Salem boundary. Arrests were made throughout Essex County, in the
Speaker 1: towns of reading, Amesbury, Beverly, and more over in Topsfield.
Speaker 1: Both William and Deliverance Hobbs were arrested. The logic was simple.
Speaker 1: If their daughter had consorted with the devil, who could
Speaker 1: be more to blame than they, But the most dramatic
Speaker 1: arrest would be the most unexpected. Rather than dismissing the
Speaker 1: accusations against George Burrows, the magistrates all agreed that it
Speaker 1: would be best to bring him in for questioning, but
Speaker 1: he was far to the north of them in Wells, Maine,
Speaker 1: and they feared that making a public declaration might tip
Speaker 1: him off. And give him the chance to run. So instead,
Speaker 1: they gathered a group of men and gave them their
Speaker 1: assignment in secret. They were to ride north, capture him,
Speaker 1: and then bring him back for examination. George Burrows was
Speaker 1: a wanted man. Salem Village didn't sit around waiting for
Speaker 1: Burroughs to arrive before making their minds up about him,
Speaker 1: and we have a number of the locals to thank
Speaker 1: for that. One was a young woman named Sarah Churchill
Speaker 1: who worked as a servant in a local household, but
Speaker 1: she was also a refugee from Maine. For a while,
Speaker 1: Churchill experienced some of the same afflictions as the others,
Speaker 1: but her employer beat her until it stopped. That's how
Speaker 1: John Procter had handled Mary Warren, but when her symptoms stopped,
Speaker 1: the judges decided it was because she had given in
Speaker 1: to the demands of the devil. When Churchill's afflictions did
Speaker 1: the same, she stood at risk of the same assumption.
Speaker 1: To help her case, she played along with the magistrates
Speaker 1: and gave them whatever they wanted. In jail across town,
Speaker 1: Mary Warren was doing the same. She rolled on her employers,
Speaker 1: the proctors, and said that they threatened to force red
Speaker 1: hot fireplace tongs down her throat if she didn't sign
Speaker 1: The Devil's Book. Even Mercy Lewis got back into the spotlight,
Speaker 1: she claimed to have been attacked by the specter of Burroughs,
Speaker 1: who she knew very well. She said that he tortured her,
Speaker 1: that he threatened to kill her, and that he carried
Speaker 1: her up to a high mountain and offered to give
Speaker 1: her everything she could see in exchange for her mark
Speaker 1: in the Devil's Book, Mercy claims she refused, echoing the
Speaker 1: willpower of Jesus. In a similar situation in the Bible,
Speaker 1: one young woman, Sarah Morrell, seems to only have been
Speaker 1: arrested because she too was a refugee from Maine. It
Speaker 1: was ironic, really, Salem had been set up as a
Speaker 1: place of peace, a city on the hill, as a
Speaker 1: beacon of hope, and yet it was quickly becoming a
Speaker 1: dangerous place to live. May nine saw a number of
Speaker 1: arrivals in Salem village. William Stoughton, the Massachusetts Chief Justice,
Speaker 1: and Samuel Sewell, who was a young judge from the
Speaker 1: Massachusetts General Court and a dedicated record keeper, Together with
Speaker 1: John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin, these four brought the entire
Speaker 1: authority of the colony to bear on the next examination.
Speaker 1: Here's Emerson Baker, professor of American history at Salem State
Speaker 1: University and author of A Storm of Witchcraft. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: I really think the judges like Stowton were filled with
Speaker 1: incredible self loathing. Stowton had been a minister, he had
Speaker 1: been a minister in England. He's basically kicked out with
Speaker 1: a restoration because he was a Puritan. And he comes
Speaker 1: back to New England. And he comes back and he's
Speaker 1: he's hailed as this wonderful leading figure the colony. He's
Speaker 1: asked by several towns, please be our minister, please please
Speaker 1: please be our minister. And he says, no, I'm not worthy.
Speaker 1: I'm not worthy of being a minister. I can't do it.
Speaker 1: Samuel sewell as well too. You can see his struggles.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want to become a member of the church
Speaker 1: because it doesn't think he's worthy. My God, the guy
Speaker 1: was brilliant student at Harvard. He could recite the Bible
Speaker 1: backwards and forwards. Read his two volume diary, and you
Speaker 1: know he's an incredibly devout Puritan. But he thinks he's
Speaker 1: not worthy. That examination was of the other new arrival
Speaker 1: in town, George Burrows. By the time he was escorted
Speaker 1: into the Sale and Village meeting house, Stowton, Hawthorne, Corwin
Speaker 1: and Sewell had already questioned him privately. They had focused
Speaker 1: on the last time he had taken communion and where
Speaker 1: George must have understood the seriousness of his situation. When
Speaker 1: he answered that it had been such a long time
Speaker 1: that he couldn't remember, it didn't help his case for sure.
Speaker 1: The afflicted girls appeared grievously tortured when Burrows stepped through
Speaker 1: the meeting house door. One girl shouted out that Burrows
Speaker 1: had killed his two wives, and that their spirits had
Speaker 1: appeared right there in the room, with them wrapped in
Speaker 1: their winding sheets, and laying the blame for their death
Speaker 1: on their husband's head. Burrows was offered a chance to
Speaker 1: respond to the girls, but all he would say was
Speaker 1: that he understood nothing of it. After that, testimonies continued.
Speaker 1: Men who had known Burrows in Casco Bay reported that
Speaker 1: he had in human strength that he was able to
Speaker 1: hold a seven foot rifle with one hand while other
Speaker 1: men struggled to hold it with two he was able
Speaker 1: to lift barrels of molasses and cider by himself to
Speaker 1: unload the boats that supplied the coastal town. Of course,
Speaker 1: Burrows tried to defend himself, but his explanations and protests
Speaker 1: fell on deaf ears. The truth of the matter was
Speaker 1: a lot more simple. He had lost his case before
Speaker 1: he even entered the room, and the examination was for
Speaker 1: no other reason then to just go through the motions
Speaker 1: and make it official. When the examination was over, Burrows
Speaker 1: was walked out of the crowded meeting house and into
Speaker 1: an already crowded jail. He was their biggest catch of
Speaker 1: the season, so to speak, and represented a major victory.
Speaker 1: But all of that was about to change. The new
Speaker 1: day would bring a new tragedy, and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: anyone in Salem was prepared. On the day after burrows arrest,
Speaker 1: the crisis claimed its first life. Sarah Osburne, already weak
Speaker 1: with an ongoing illness when she had been jailed on
Speaker 1: March one, died in her Boston jail cell. She had
Speaker 1: been held there in horrible conditions for nine weeks without
Speaker 1: ever getting a trial. The news had to have struck
Speaker 1: the people of Salem village with a painful blow. Whatever
Speaker 1: you could say about how they were handling the situation,
Speaker 1: with all of their warrants and examinations and constables carting
Speaker 1: suspects off to jail, there were real people involved, real lives,
Speaker 1: real neighbors, real people who they had known for a
Speaker 1: long time. But now those people were being turned into
Speaker 1: something else, something less than human. That's something we're all
Speaker 1: very good at. We always have been, if we're honest
Speaker 1: about it. People have a knack for isolating certain individuals
Speaker 1: or cultures and then stripping them of their humanity. When
Speaker 1: things get rough and a community faces a crisis, it's
Speaker 1: the dehumanized who are always the most vulnerable to violence.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot about the events in Salem
Speaker 1: that are singular. They are special and unique and one
Speaker 1: offs that don't repeat themselves again. But this the dehumanizing
Speaker 1: of the other to the point where lives are lost.
Speaker 1: This is something that's tragically commonplace to our modern world.
Speaker 1: Sarah Osborne was one of the first to step into
Speaker 1: a local jail to await a full hearing before a
Speaker 1: lawful court, but she was certainly not the last. Day
Speaker 1: after day, new members of the community were accused of
Speaker 1: allegiance to Satan. They were questioned by the wealthy, powerful
Speaker 1: men of the colony and then torn from their lives
Speaker 1: and their families. The fits and accusations of the afflicted
Speaker 1: would continue, The jails in Boston, Salem, and Ipswich would
Speaker 1: continue to fill up, and the community would continue to wait.
Speaker 1: The man they had pinned their hopes on, Sir William Phipps,
Speaker 1: was rumored to be on his way. Phipps was the
Speaker 1: newly appointed governor of Massachusetts. He'd sailed to England to
Speaker 1: retrieve a newly approved colonial charter. It was that magical
Speaker 1: piece of paper that would help them fight off their
Speaker 1: enemies and a abolished true justice with the righteous hand.
Speaker 1: And so they waited. But thankfully they wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: wait long. That's it for this week's episode of Unobscured.
Speaker 1: Stick around after this short sponsor break for a preview
Speaker 1: of what's in store for next week. Next time on Unobscured,
Speaker 1: we might look on Alden's capture by the French with
Speaker 1: pity and see his release and plans to return to
Speaker 1: his son to be noble. The magistrates, though, saw it
Speaker 1: as a sign that he was in league with the
Speaker 1: devil the French word Catholic, and they had allied themselves
Speaker 1: with the Native Americans, two groups of people viewed as
Speaker 1: tools of Satan by the Puritans. John Alden wasn't the
Speaker 1: only suspect to leave the meeting house in shackles that day, though.
Speaker 1: One of them was Martha Carrier from nearby and over
Speaker 1: Accusations about her involvement in witchcraft began after she used
Speaker 1: to leave town after her family contracted smallpox, which upset
Speaker 1: her neighbors, never mind the fact that the outbreak was
Speaker 1: really the fault of Phipps and his failed military expedition.
Speaker 1: Everyone was carted off to jail that afternoon, but unlike
Speaker 1: all the previous examinations that had taken place, these suspects
Speaker 1: could at least see the light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel. With the oyer and terminer announced, they knew
Speaker 1: their time in jail wouldn't go on for months. Finally
Speaker 1: there was an end in sight, but that tunnel would
Speaker 1: be much more dark and dangerous than any of them
Speaker 1: could have imagined. Unobscured was created and written by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey and produced by Matt Frederick and Alex Williams
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works, with research by Carl
Speaker 1: Nellis and original music by Chad Lawson. Learn more about
Speaker 1: our contributing historians further reading material, resource archive, and links
Speaker 1: to our other shows at history Unobscured dot com. Until
Speaker 1: next time, thanks for listen. Name