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Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of

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Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion Advised. Hello, Mira Hear. This is

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Speaker 1: the final episode of season one of History on Trial.

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Speaker 1: I'm still figuring out what's next for the show. If

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Speaker 1: you'd like updates, you can follow our instagram at History

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Speaker 1: on Trial or subscribe to the newsletter via our website

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Speaker 1: historyon Trial podcast dot com. I'm so grateful for your

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Speaker 1: support throughout the season. On a cold February day in

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Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two, Mary Sibley set out to break the law.

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Speaker 1: She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she

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Speaker 1: reasoned to herself that she was doing it for the

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Speaker 1: right reasons. She was doing it to protect the children

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Speaker 1: her poor little neighbor girls, Betty and Abigail, who had

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Speaker 1: been suffering so terribly for months. Since early January, Betty

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Speaker 1: and her cousin Abigail had been subject to strange fits.

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Speaker 1: Their bodies would hunch and contort, assuming bizarre, painful positions.

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Speaker 1: They muttered and babbled, speaking words no one could understand.

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Speaker 1: They sometimes seemed gripped by a fear so intense it

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Speaker 1: paralyzed them, stopping their breath. Doctor after doctor had examined

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Speaker 1: the two young girls. They had prescribed remedies and treatments,

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Speaker 1: all to no effect. People had begun to wonder whether

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Speaker 1: the cause could be something stranger and darker than a

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Speaker 1: simple sickness. Maybe the girls were bewitched. Betty's father, Samuel Parris,

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Speaker 1: focused on prayer to heal the girls, but Mary Sibley

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Speaker 1: did not think prayer would be enough to fight a witch.

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Speaker 1: She thought you had to act like one. The witchcraft

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Speaker 1: was illegal, many people held onto folk practices to protect

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Speaker 1: against dark magic. They hid horseshoes or eel spears in

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Speaker 1: the walls of their houses and carved daisy wheels into

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Speaker 1: their door frames to prevent spirits from entering. The magic

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Speaker 1: Mary Sibley was about to propose would be more dangerous

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Speaker 1: than a hidden horseshoe, more intentional, riskier. If Mary was caught,

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Speaker 1: she might be called a witch herself, But her heart

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Speaker 1: likely ached for the two frightened girls. So Mary snuck

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Speaker 1: over to the Paris's house one day and had a

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Speaker 1: whispered conference with John Indian, the Paris's enslaved man, about

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Speaker 1: how to make a witch cake. It was simple. Mary

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Speaker 1: told John take ryemeal, mix it with Betty and Abigail's urine,

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Speaker 1: and then bake the mixture into a cake and feed

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Speaker 1: the cake to a dog. The cake, thinks to the urine,

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Speaker 1: would contain the essence of the witch. When the dog

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Speaker 1: ate the cake, the witch would suffer and perhaps be exposed.

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Speaker 1: John Indian and his wife Titchiba, also enslaved by the Parises,

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Speaker 1: knew that their owners would not like the witch cake.

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Speaker 1: Samuel Parris was a minister, an un compromising man who

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Speaker 1: had made his hatred for witchcraft of any sort known.

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Speaker 1: So John and Titchiba waited until a night that Samuel

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Speaker 1: and his wife Elizabeth were out. Then they made the cake.

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Speaker 1: At first, the charms seemed to have backfired. Betty and

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Speaker 1: Abigail's suffering intensified, their torments increased, But then suddenly, as

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Speaker 1: if a veil had lifted, the girls could see they

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Speaker 1: could see the source of their misery. The witch cake

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Speaker 1: had not hurt the witch, but it had revealed her.

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Speaker 1: Soon after, Betty and Abigail told the Parises that it

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Speaker 1: was Titchiba herself who was hurting them. Betty and Abigail's

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Speaker 1: identification of Titchiba on February twenty sixth sixteen ninety two

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Speaker 1: was the first claim of witchcraft in the Salem Outbreak,

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Speaker 1: but it would not be the last. Within months, dozens

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Speaker 1: of Bay Colony residents would find themselves caught up in witchcraft,

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Speaker 1: either afflicted by a witch, accused of being a witch,

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Speaker 1: or both, and then in June the trials began. By

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Speaker 1: that point, the outbreak had ballooned to such proportions that

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Speaker 1: it seemed no one was safe, not respectable pious citizens,

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Speaker 1: not children, not even as the trial of George Burroughs

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Speaker 1: would show, a minister. The Salem witch Trials are one

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Speaker 1: of the most notorious episodes in American history. Their alien

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Speaker 1: nature fascinates us, the strange superstitions, the archaic language, the

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Speaker 1: gruesome details. But at their heart, the trials are a

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Speaker 1: timeless story about what happens when fear and anger overrun

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Speaker 1: a community and all hell breaks loose. Welcome to History

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Speaker 1: on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week the

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Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay Colony v. George Burroughs. When the Puritans, English separatists,

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Speaker 1: who felt that the Church of England still cleaved too

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Speaker 1: closely to Catholic traditions, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in

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Speaker 1: the sixteen twenties, they hoped to build what colonial leader

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Speaker 1: John Winthrop called a city upon a hill, a shining

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Speaker 1: paragon of prosperity and obedience to God. On paper, George

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Speaker 1: Burroughs looked like the ideal citizen of such a place.

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Speaker 1: Born in sixteen fifty two, Burroughs was the grandson of

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Speaker 1: a minister and the son of a merchant, giving him

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Speaker 1: both ecclesiastical and worldly credit. Burroughs grew into a handsome,

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Speaker 1: dark haired man, short but strong. Following in his grandfather's footsteps,

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Speaker 1: Burroughs studied to become a minister. In sixteen seventy, he

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Speaker 1: graduated from Harvard College. Three years later, he married Hannah Fisher,

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Speaker 1: the daughter of a prominent family. But despite this elite pedigree,

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Speaker 1: Burroughs struggled to find his footing. Maybe it was his

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Speaker 1: quick temper, maybe it was his slightly unorthodox religious beliefs,

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Speaker 1: or maybe something else entirely, but either way, Burroughs did

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Speaker 1: not hit the ground running. He didn't get his first

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Speaker 1: posting until more than four years after graduation, and even

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Speaker 1: then it was a less than desirable position in the

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Speaker 1: frontier town of Falmouth, Maine, near present day Portland. Maine

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Speaker 1: was looked down on by many Massachusetts Puritans thanks to

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Speaker 1: the area's practice of welcoming Protestants of all stripes. Burroughs, however,

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Speaker 1: seemed to fit in well on the rough and tumble

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Speaker 1: Frontier and bought property there, seemingly hoping to settle down.

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Speaker 1: But the frontier was a dangerous place. Native American raids

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Speaker 1: were common. King Philip's War, the most devastating conflict of

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Speaker 1: the colonial period, broke out a year into Burrows's time

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Speaker 1: in Falmouth. In sixteen seventy six, Falmouth was burned to

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Speaker 1: the ground and Burrows and many others barely escaped. Burroughs

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Speaker 1: and his family joined the flood of refugees traveling south

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Speaker 1: into Massachusetts. Many refugees were too frightened to ever return north,

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Speaker 1: but Burroughs held on to his main homestead while he

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Speaker 1: waited for the fighting to settle down. He served as

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Speaker 1: assistant pastor in Salisbury, Massachusetts, but the position was not

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Speaker 1: a permanent one, and Burrows needed a better way to

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Speaker 1: support his growing family. In sixteen eighty, Burroughs received an

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Speaker 1: offer from Salem Village. The village was an inland satellite

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Speaker 1: of the larger Harbourside community of Salem Town. Today, the

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Speaker 1: village is called Danvers and the town is called Salem.

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Speaker 1: Salem Village had only recently won the right to hire

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Speaker 1: their own minister, but attracting a minister was easier said

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Speaker 1: than done. The village was relatively close to the frontier,

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Speaker 1: and as a small agricultural community, couldn't afford to pay

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Speaker 1: their minister much. But there was something else too, something

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Speaker 1: that caused Salem Village to churn through ministers. At a

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Speaker 1: time when the average tenure for a Massachusetts minister was

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Speaker 1: twenty two years, Salem Village's first three ministers would last

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Speaker 1: an average of less than five. The problem was that

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Speaker 1: the people of Salem Village were petty. Salem, the name

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Speaker 1: given to the area by its first English settlers in

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Speaker 1: the sixteen twenties, was a derivative of the Hebrew word shalom,

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Speaker 1: meaning peace. Sixty years later, the village's residents were not

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Speaker 1: doing the name proud. Arguing seemed to be the village pastime,

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Speaker 1: with a specialty in power struggles, where property lines were

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Speaker 1: whose pig had escaped and eaten a vegetable garden? Who

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Speaker 1: got to choose the minister? Everything and anything, no matter

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Speaker 1: how trivial became hotly contested. This last problem, choosing the minister,

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Speaker 1: was an especially thorny one. The first minister, James Bailey,

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Speaker 1: had endured years of fighting between villagers who supported him

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Speaker 1: and village who did not, before quietly stepping down. George

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Speaker 1: Burrows had been a year behind Bailey at Harvard, and

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Speaker 1: perhaps Bailey warned him about the difficulties of the Salem role.

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Speaker 1: For Burroughs ultimately accepted the village's offer on the condition that,

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Speaker 1: quote in case any difference should arise in time to come,

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Speaker 1: that we engage on both sides to submit to counsel

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Speaker 1: for a peaceable issue. Unfortunately for Burrows, the villagers were

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Speaker 1: not particularly interested in being peaceable. Not long after his arrival,

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Speaker 1: the residents once again split into factions for and against

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Speaker 1: their minister. As a result of all this fighting, the

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Speaker 1: village was slow to pay Burroughs's salary. Due to the delay,

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Speaker 1: Burroughs did not have enough money to pay for his wife,

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Speaker 1: Hannah's burial when she died in sixteen eighty one. He

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Speaker 1: had to borrow money from a villager named John Putnam

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Speaker 1: to cover the costs. Throughout sixteen eighty one, Burroughs held

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Speaker 1: multiple town meetings to try to resolve the villager's various

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Speaker 1: differences with Whate, but to no avail. In April sixteen

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Speaker 1: eighty two, villager Jeremiah Watts wrote to Burrows that quote

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Speaker 1: brother is against brother, and neighbor against neighbors, all quarreling

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Speaker 1: and smiting one another. Charming. In March sixteen eighty three,

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Speaker 1: a very fed up Burrows moved his family, including his

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Speaker 1: second wife, Sarah, back to Maine, choosing an active warzone

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Speaker 1: overstaying in Salem. The villagers, furious at his departure, tried

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Speaker 1: to sue Burrows for desertion of duty. The court told

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Speaker 1: them that they didn't have much ground since they'd never

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Speaker 1: paid Burrows most of his salary. Eventually, Salem agreed to

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Speaker 1: pay Burroughs' salary less the amount he owed John Putnam

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Speaker 1: for Hannah's burial, But when Burrows returned to Salem to

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Speaker 1: collect his money, John Putnam filed his own suit against

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Speaker 1: the minister for non payment of a loan and had

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Speaker 1: him arrested. Villagers who had supported Burrows were outraged and

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Speaker 1: posted the minister's bond to keep him from being jailed.

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Speaker 1: Putnam agreed to drop his suit, and the village offered

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Speaker 1: Burrows fifteen pounds, less than half of what they owed him. Burrows,

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Speaker 1: thoroughly exhausted with the situation, accepted and returned to Maine.

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Speaker 1: He was probably delighted to be done with Salem, but

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Speaker 1: Salem was not done with him. Nine years later, George

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Speaker 1: Burrows would be arrested in Maine and dragged back to

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Speaker 1: the village accused of being a witch. Salem struggled to

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Speaker 1: find a good replacement for George Burrows. It took them

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Speaker 1: a year to hire their next minister, who didn't stay long.

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Speaker 1: In July sixteen eighty nine, the village's fourth minister, Reverend

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Speaker 1: Samuel Parris, arrived after months of contract negotiations. These protracted

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Speaker 1: negotiations were an omen of difficulties to come. If the

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Speaker 1: residents of Salem had hoped that Reverend Paris would succeed

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Speaker 1: in bringing their community together, they were sorely mistaken. Paris

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Speaker 1: was a stubborn, demanding man who had entered the ministry

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Speaker 1: only after destroying his inherited family business through mismanagement. Within

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Speaker 1: six months of Paris's arrival, Salem had once again split

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Speaker 1: into factions for and against the minister. By late sixteen

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Speaker 1: ninety one, the anti Paris faction had won control of

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Speaker 1: the town council and voted to withhold the minister's salary

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Speaker 1: and cut off his firewood allowance. In return, Paris began

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Speaker 1: delivering spiteful sermons. Quoting Psalm one ten, the lords said,

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Speaker 1: unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until

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Speaker 1: they make thine enemies thy footstool. It was Paris's daughter

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Speaker 1: Betty and his niece Abigail Williams, who lived with the family,

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Speaker 1: who first began to show symptoms of being bewitched sometime

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Speaker 1: in January sixteen ninety two. It was not hard for

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Speaker 1: the girl's community to accept the existence of witches in

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Speaker 1: their midst. The seventeenth century belief in the supernatural was

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Speaker 1: intimately tied to religious belief. Marilyn k Roach explains in

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Speaker 1: her book The Salem Witchcraft Trials quote, with good and

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Speaker 1: evil so obviously present in the world, to question the

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Speaker 1: devil's reality was to doubt God's few doubted. Since there

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Speaker 1: was a devil, it followed that some wicked or foolish

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Speaker 1: mortals would pay allegiance to him in return for the

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Speaker 1: power to work evil magic. This power could be used

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Speaker 1: to disrupt victim's lives. If you wronged a witch, they

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Speaker 1: might make your beer barrels leak, or said insects to

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Speaker 1: eat your crops. Their power could even kill. As John Godfrey,

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Speaker 1: a Bay Colony resident who was oft suspected of being

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Speaker 1: a witch, put it quote, it were hard to some

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Speaker 1: witches to take away life, either of man or beast,

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Speaker 1: Yet when they once begin it, then it is easy

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Speaker 1: to them. But people were not powerless against witches. They

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Speaker 1: could use magical protections of their own, like Mary Sibley's witchcake,

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Speaker 1: although most ministers frowned on such measures, recommending prayer instead.

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Speaker 1: If prayer or shunning the witch failed, there was the

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Speaker 1: legal system. Between fourteen hundred and seventeen seventy five, approximately

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand people were prosecuted for witchcraft worldwide, and

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Speaker 1: fifty thousand of them executed. Because witches were blamed for

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Speaker 1: bad things happening, it follows that the number of witchcraft

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Speaker 1: accusations rose when times were hard. Sixteen ninety two was

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Speaker 1: a decidedly hard year for the Massachusetts Bay Colony five

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Speaker 1: years earlier. Fed up with the colonies in subordination to

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Speaker 1: royal authority. King James the Second of England had merged

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Speaker 1: Massachusetts with the other northeastern colonies to create the Dominion

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Speaker 1: of New England. The dominion was ruled by the iron

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Speaker 1: fisted Sir Edmund Andros, who dismantled the colonies representative government.

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Speaker 1: Even worse, Andros ordered that the dominion enact a policy

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Speaker 1: of tolerance for all Protestants, a serious blow to the

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Speaker 1: Puritan hierarchy. Many feared that these changes signaled the end

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Speaker 1: of John Winthrop's dream of a city upon a hill.

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Speaker 1: After three years under Andros, the colonists rebelled and won

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Speaker 1: backed their independence. But this victory came with problems of

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Speaker 1: its own. To establish a new government, the colony needed

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Speaker 1: a new Royal Charter, which meant sending representatives to England

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Speaker 1: and enduring lengthy negotiations until the new charter arrived, The

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Speaker 1: provisional government had no real power. They could not establish courts,

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Speaker 1: for example, which created problems for morale. As historian Emerson W.

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Speaker 1: Baker notes in his book A Storm of Witchcraft quote,

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Speaker 1: the legal system acted as a safety valve for the colonists,

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Speaker 1: mediating differences and resolving conflicts between individuals and within communities.

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Speaker 1: Without a functioning legal system Bigger continues quote, a significant

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Speaker 1: number of disputes and conflicts continued to fester and grow

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Speaker 1: without resolution. The lack of formal government also meant that

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Speaker 1: the British military officers who had helped defend the northern

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Speaker 1: frontier for the dominion, began abandoning their posts, leading to

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Speaker 1: renewed attacks in Maine. By sixteen ninety, every settlement north

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Speaker 1: of present day Portland had been abandoned. Salem Village was

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Speaker 1: less than fifty miles from the southern edge of Maine,

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Speaker 1: and villagers must have feared that the war would reach

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Speaker 1: them soon. On top of all of this, the weather

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Speaker 1: was terrible, crops were failing, and the economy was tanking.

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Speaker 1: So much uncertainty and suffering made for a frightened and

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Speaker 1: angry populace desperate for something or someone to blame for

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Speaker 1: their problems. It was fertile ground for a witch hunt.

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Speaker 1: These high stress levels may also explain the symptoms experienced

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Speaker 1: by the afflicted. Though no single cause can explain every case,

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Speaker 1: various theories about predominant causes have been suggested. Today, the

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Speaker 1: most widely accepted theory is a condition called conversion disorder.

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Speaker 1: We still have much to learn about conversion disorder also

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Speaker 1: called functional neurological symptom disorder, but for the purposes of

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Speaker 1: this episode will stick to the basics. Conversion disorder occurs

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Speaker 1: when your brain converts mental health issues like acute stress

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Speaker 1: or trauma into physical symptoms caused by the disruption of

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Speaker 1: regular brain or nervous system function. Symptoms can include seizures, ticks, tremors,

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Speaker 1: unexplained pain and weakness, sensory impairments like tunnel vision or

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Speaker 1: double vision, and speech impairments. These symptoms are almost exactly

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Speaker 1: what early sufferers in Salem experienced. Emerson Baker argues that

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Speaker 1: conversion disorder helps explain why the outbreak began in the

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Speaker 1: Paris household. For Betty Paris and Abigail Williams were quote

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Speaker 1: perhaps the children in the village under the greatest stress.

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Speaker 1: It must have been almost unbearable to reside in the

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Speaker 1: parsonage while an agitated Reverend Paris prepared to battle Satan

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Speaker 1: and his allies. Betty and Abigail were not the only

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Speaker 1: stressed residents of Salem that winter. The area was filled

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Speaker 1: with refugees from the frontier, traumatized by the violence they

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Speaker 1: had experienced. Other accusers were servants or orphans, young women

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Speaker 1: whose lives were bleak and futures were even bleaker. Once

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Speaker 1: words spread of the initial afflictions, a vicious cycle could

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Speaker 1: have been triggered. Mass psychogenic illness, if not recognized and treated,

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Speaker 1: Baker writes, can worsen and spread. This is not surprising,

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Speaker 1: as an unresolved emergency naturally leads to more anxiety, which

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Speaker 1: is the very source of the illness. Of course, no

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Speaker 1: one in Salem was diagnosing the afflicted with conversion disorder. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they put the symptoms into the cultural context that they

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Speaker 1: lived in, one in which witches were real. When adults

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Speaker 1: she trusted told nine year old Betty Paris that the

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Speaker 1: cause of her suffering was a witch. She had no

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Speaker 1: reason to doubt them. She had likely grown up hearing

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Speaker 1: stories about witches, how they tormented you or tempted you

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Speaker 1: to join them in their wicked ways. It was easy

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Speaker 1: for her to parrot these stories back to her parents

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Speaker 1: and to identify women who were outsiders as the witches,

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Speaker 1: and so the witch hunt began. After identifying Titchiba as

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Speaker 1: a witch, Betty and Abigail accused two more women Sarah

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Speaker 1: Good and Sarah Osborne. Soon, two other girls, Elizabeth Hubbard

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Speaker 1: and Anne Putnam Junior, also began displaying symptoms and accused

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Speaker 1: of the same three women. From there, the outbreak grew exponentially.

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Speaker 1: Not all of those who claimed to be afflicted. Eventually

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Speaker 1: there would be more than seventy of them fit the

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Speaker 1: profile of someone with conversion disorder. There is substantial evidence

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Speaker 1: that some later sufferers were knowingly fabricating their symptoms. In

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Speaker 1: the chaos of the outbreak, it was hard for people

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Speaker 1: to tell where the fear ended and the lies began. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty people would be accused

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Speaker 1: of witchcraft. After someone was accused, a complaint would be

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Speaker 1: sworn against them. Most of the afflicted were women who

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Speaker 1: were not allowed to make legal complaints, so often a

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Speaker 1: male relative would make it for them. Then the accused

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Speaker 1: would be arrested, imprisoned, and questioned. Reverend George Burrows entered

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Speaker 1: the ranks of the accused on April twentieth, sixteen ninety two,

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Speaker 1: when twelve year old Anne Putnam claimed that his spectral

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Speaker 1: form appeared before her and demanded that she sign the

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Speaker 1: Devil's Book and become a witch like him. When Anne refused,

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Speaker 1: Burrows's spirit tortured her mercilessly. This was a typical pattern

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Speaker 1: of behavior for a witch, but Burrows's status as a

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Speaker 1: minister made this case distinct. Anne herself was shocked, telling

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Speaker 1: the specter that it was quote a dreadful thing that he,

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Speaker 1: which was a minister that should teach children to fear God,

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Speaker 1: should come to persuade poor creatures to give their soul

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Speaker 1: to the devil. But she refused to let the specter's

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Speaker 1: title intimidate her, declaring quote, I will complain of you

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Speaker 1: though you be a minister, if you be a wizard.

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Speaker 1: Burroughs soon became a popular figure to accuse. It seemed

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Speaker 1: natural to the afflicted that the witch's society would mirror

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Speaker 1: their own, and so the witches required a minister. On

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Speaker 1: April twenty second, a number of the afflicted reported seeing

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Speaker 1: Burroughs's specter lead a witch's sabbath in Reverend Paris's pasture,

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Speaker 1: giving a sermon in which he urged his fellow witches

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Speaker 1: to establish the Devil's kingdom in New England. That Burroughs's

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Speaker 1: corporeal self was in Maine that day was no alibi

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Speaker 1: distance was not an obstacle for witches, whose spectral forms

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Speaker 1: could travel with supernatural speed. On April thirtieth, Anne Putnam's

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Speaker 1: father Thomas, swore a complaint against Burrows, and a warrant

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Speaker 1: was issued for his arrest. Burroughs was arrested on the

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Speaker 1: evening of May second in his home home in Wells, Maine,

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Speaker 1: and taken to Salem. Even while he was imprisoned, Burrows's

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Speaker 1: alleged assaults on the afflicted continued unabated. On May seventh,

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Speaker 1: his specter tortured Mercy Lewis, an orphaned teenager who had

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Speaker 1: once worked as a servant for the Burrows family and

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Speaker 1: was now working for the Putnams. The next day, he

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Speaker 1: threatened eighteen year old Susannah Sheldon with death if she

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Speaker 1: testified against him. The day after that, he appeared before

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Speaker 1: Mercy Lewis again, mister Burrows. Lewis later recounted quote carried

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Speaker 1: me up to an exceeding high mountain and showed me

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Speaker 1: all the kingdoms of the earth, and told me that

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Speaker 1: he would give them all to me if I would

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Speaker 1: write in his book, and if I would not, he

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Speaker 1: would throw me down and break my neck. Shortly after

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Speaker 1: taking Mercy Lewis up a mountain, George Burrows was examined.

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Speaker 1: Because the colony was still waiting for its new Royal charter,

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Speaker 1: which was now on its way from England, no formal

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Speaker 1: court could be established, but preparations for future trials could

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Speaker 1: be made, including gathering evidences. Two local magistrates, Jonathan Corwyn

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Speaker 1: and John Hawthorne, set about taking depositions and examining the accused.

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Speaker 1: These examinations were not neutral fact finding missions. The afflicted

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Speaker 1: were often present and writhed in the audience. Corwin and

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Speaker 1: Hawthorne usually placed the burden of proof on the accused,

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Speaker 1: asking them to somehow prove that they were not witches.

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Speaker 1: Anything the accused said was used against them. Because of

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Speaker 1: Burrows's role as a minister, his examination was conducted carefully.

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Speaker 1: William Stowton and Samuel Sewell, two future members of the

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Speaker 1: trial court, joined Corwin and Hawthorne for it. The four

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Speaker 1: men first questioned Burrows privately, away from the afflicted. The

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Speaker 1: questions focused on Burrows's religious practice. He admitted that he

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Speaker 1: had not taken communion in some time, and that not

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Speaker 1: all of his children were baptized. Troubling admissions for a

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Speaker 1: Puritan minister. Burrows also denied that his house in Maine

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Speaker 1: was haunted, but did admit that there were toads around it,

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Speaker 1: toads everyone knew were a sign of witchcraft. When Burroughs

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Speaker 1: entered into the Salem Village meetinghouse for his public questioning,

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Speaker 1: the afflicted present were quote grievously harassed with preternatural mischiefs.

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Speaker 1: The young women gave accounts of Burrows's diabolical activities. Several

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Speaker 1: of them also told of visits by the ghosts of

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Speaker 1: Burroughs's first two wives, Hannah and Sarah, who apparently accused

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Speaker 1: their husband of murdering them. As Marilyn Roach observes quote

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Speaker 1: in the flood of detail, and amid the traumatic spectacle

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Speaker 1: of the afflicted, the magistrates overlooked or ignored the contradictions

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Speaker 1: in the stories given by the supposed ghosts of Burroughs's wives.

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Speaker 1: For these specters told Susannah Sheldon that he had smothered

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Speaker 1: and choked them, but told Anne Putnam that he had

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Speaker 1: stabbed and strangled them. But this was not a time

377
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 1: to be caught up on small things like inconsistent goods hosts.

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Speaker 1: George Burrows was held over for trial and sent to

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Speaker 1: jail the Salem in Boston jails, where most of the

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Speaker 1: accused were held, were notoriously terrible. One former inmate called

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Speaker 1: the Boston jail quote a grave of the living the

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00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 1: suburbs of hell. Disease and lice ran rampant, Cold and

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00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 1: damp permeated the cells, and overcrowding exacerbated the problems. The

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Speaker 1: day after Burrows's examination, Sarah Osborne, one of the first

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Speaker 1: to be accused, who had spent nine weeks in these conditions,

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00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: died in the Boston jail. In Maine, Burrows's children were

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Speaker 1: suffering too, Apparently deciding that her husband's chances of exoneration

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00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 1: were slim, Burrows's third wife, Mary, abandoned her seven step children,

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00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:53,639
Speaker 1: sold all of burrows possessions, and left The Burrows children

390
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 1: were on their own, though their father sent them quote

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00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 1: solemn and safery written instructions from prison. Their only hope,

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Speaker 1: and Burrough's only hope, was that the trial court would

393
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: be just and merciful. But was that too much to

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00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:16,680
Speaker 1: hope for? On May fourteenth, sixteen ninety two, Sir William

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00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: Phipps arrived in Massachusetts Bay, ready to begin his term

396
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 1: as governor and stepped straight into a crisis. Phipps had

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Speaker 1: been in England helping negotiate the colony's new charter, which

398
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: he was now tasked with administering. He had expected to

399
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 1: return to a colony in turmoil, perhaps, but the situation

400
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 1: was far worse than that. By this point, forty people

401
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 1: had been accused of witchcraft and sat awaiting trial in jail.

402
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 1: The outbreak seemed to be spreading. The accused were not

403
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,400
Speaker 1: limited to Salem Village, but now came from across the colony.

404
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 1: Phipps needed to nip the scandal in the bud before

405
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,120
Speaker 1: word got back to England and through the colony's ability

406
00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: to lead itself back into question. Technically, it was the

407
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: responsibility of the colony's legislature to establish a court, but

408
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 1: the legislature wouldn't be meeting until June eighth. Phipps didn't

409
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: want to wait. Besides his fear of news reaching England,

410
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: he also knew that the colonists were skeptical of his

411
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,679
Speaker 1: new government's authority. This was a chance to show the

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00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: frightened colonists that he could protect them. So on May

413
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, Phipps created a special emergency Court and assigned

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Speaker 1: nine men to sit as judges. These judges were not

415
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: trained jurists. Instead, they were drawn from the colonies, political, mercantile,

416
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: and military elite. Two of the judges would be Salem's

417
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: local magistrates, John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin, and five others

418
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 1: had participated in at least one of the preliminary hearings.

419
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,360
Speaker 1: Despite their lack of formal legal training, these men now

420
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:52,400
Speaker 1: had to figure out how to try a witch They

421
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: looked to English precedent for help, using language from England's

422
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 1: Witchcraft Act of sixteen oh four for the indictments, and

423
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:04,000
Speaker 1: studying contemporary legal sources to establish trial procedures. These sources

424
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:07,400
Speaker 1: recommended a similar standard of evidence in witch trials as

425
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 1: for other crimes, either a voluntary confession plus evidence of witchcraft,

426
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 1: or the testimony of two credible witnesses who had witnessed

427
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: the same supernatural event. But, as Marilyn Roach points out, quote,

428
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:25,880
Speaker 1: since magic left so few material clues, courts could give

429
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:31,240
Speaker 1: more weight to circumstantial evidence than they usually would. This

430
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 1: flexibility was especially important for the Salem trials. Historically, most

431
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 1: witch trials involved claims of magical damage that people could

432
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: see a burnt field a dead milk cow, But most

433
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: of the cases in Salem involved spectral attacks, incidents where

434
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,959
Speaker 1: the witch's spectral form allegedly attacked the victim. Even if

435
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 1: other people could see the victim's visible suffering, they could

436
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: not see the witch's specter. Could a victim's word alone

437
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: be used as evidence. This was a hotly debated issue.

438
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: Many legal authorities cautioned against using this so called spectral evidence,

439
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 1: so did local religious leaders. In a letter to the legislature,

440
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 1: a group of ministers that included Increase and Cotton Mather,

441
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: two of the most prominent ministers in the colony, cautioned

442
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: against putting too much weight on spectral evidence. Quote blessed

443
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 1: by too much credulity for things received only upon the

444
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: devil's authority, there be a door opened for a long

445
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: train of miserable consequences. In the same letter, the ministers

446
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: also warned against relying too much on folk tests, such

447
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: as throwing a witch into the water to see if

448
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: she would float. However, both religious and legal authorities did

449
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: believe that certain folk tests carried some weight. The court

450
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 1: in Salem would eventually begin employing the touch test, in

451
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: which the accused witch was required to touch an afflicted

452
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: person if the victim's suffering stopped. This was taken as

453
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: pre that the witch was guilty. Despite the Minister's cautions

454
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: against spectral evidence and folk tests, they also acknowledged the

455
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 1: need for quote speedy and vigorous prosecution, and it was

456
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: this need that the judges would prioritize. The first trial

457
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 1: of Bridgitt Bishop occurred on June second. By the time

458
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: that George Burrows's trial began on August fifth, eight more

459
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: witches had been tried. All of them had been found

460
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:32,480
Speaker 1: guilty and sentenced to death. Six of them had already

461
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: been hung. The day before his trial, Burrows was examined

462
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 1: by a group of men who were looking for a

463
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: devil's mark, a spot where a devil or a witch's

464
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 1: familiar nursed from the witch's body. Benign growths like warts

465
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: and moles were often interpreted as devil's marks. No mark

466
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 1: was found on Burroughs's body, but George Jacobs Senior, examined

467
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 1: at the same time, was not so lucky. The examiners

468
00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: claimed to have found three spots which looked quote natural.

469
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 1: On Friday, August fifth, George Burrows's trial began. Though the

470
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 1: outbreak had begun in Salem Village, the trials and executions

471
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: took place in Salem Town, which is now the location

472
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 1: most associated with the events of sixteen ninety two. The

473
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: trials were always well attended, but Burrows's trial was particularly crowded,

474
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: full of people who wanted to see for themselves if

475
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: the minister was indeed a witch. There was a prosecutor

476
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: present at these trials, but his role was more clerical,

477
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: focused on organizing the trials and writing indictments. The judges

478
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,719
Speaker 1: were the ones who asked questions of witnesses. A jury

479
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: composed of twelve men determined the verdict. The defendant did

480
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: not have counsel so had to represent themselves. A number

481
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: of written depositions about supernatural actions were submitted as evidence

482
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: in Burrows's case. Some of the afflicted testified in person,

483
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 1: although Cotton Mather notes that it cost the court a

484
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 1: wonderful deal of trouble to hear them, for when they

485
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:02,959
Speaker 1: were going in to give their depositions, they would for

486
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 1: a long time be taken with fits that made them

487
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: uncapable of saying anything. When Chief Justice William Stoughton asked

488
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,479
Speaker 1: Burroughs what he thought was the cause of these fits.

489
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: Burroughs said, he supposed it was the devil. How comes

490
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 1: the devil so loath to have any testimony borne against you?

491
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: Stoton retorted as in the examinations the judges, especially Stoughton,

492
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:29,320
Speaker 1: seemed to presume guilt and contorted defendant statements to suit

493
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: this conclusion. Many of the afflicted mentioned being visited by

494
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 1: the ghosts of Burroughs selected murder victims, including his first

495
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:40,280
Speaker 1: two wives. Now at the trial. The afflicted claimed that

496
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: the ghosts had appeared once more, quote, crying for vengeance

497
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: against him. This was next level spectral evidence specters testifying

498
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: against specters, and was apparently too far even for the

499
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,920
Speaker 1: sale of judges. They excluded this testimony, but evidence of

500
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: Burrough's supernatural abilities continued to pour. In. Of particular interest

501
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:04,800
Speaker 1: to the court were stories of Burrow's extraordinary feats of strength,

502
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 1: which Caughton Mather believed quote could not be done without

503
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: a diabolical assistance, as quote, he was a very puny man,

504
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: yet he had often done things beyond the strength of

505
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 1: a giant. These feats included carrying a full barrel of

506
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: molasses which could weigh nearly five hundred pounds with only

507
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: two fingers, and lifting an enormous gun which one witness,

508
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:30,720
Speaker 1: Simon Willard, said he could barely hold with only one hand.

509
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: Burroughs denied that he had lifted the gun as described,

510
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 1: saying that a Native American man had helped him. The

511
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: men testifying against him denied seeing this Native American, but

512
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: did say that quote they supposed the black man, as

513
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: the witches call the devil, and they generally say he

514
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 1: resembles an Indian, might give him that assistance. Once again,

515
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 1: burroughs attempts to defend himself had been turned against him,

516
00:33:56,120 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 1: twisted to serve as further proof of his guilt. After this,

517
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 1: the trial turned to something less supernatural, Burrows's reputation for

518
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: mistreating his wives. The exact nature of this mistreatment is unknown,

519
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: but many people thought that Burroughs was too harsh on

520
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: his wives. Though none of this testimony related directly to witchcraft,

521
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,799
Speaker 1: Cotton Mather said that it quote not only proved him

522
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 1: a very ill man, but also confirmed the belief of

523
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 1: the character which had already been fastened on him. In

524
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,560
Speaker 1: other words, it proved that he was the kind of

525
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 1: person likely to consort with the devil. Even Burroughs's former

526
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:38,359
Speaker 1: brother in law, Thomas Ruck, spoke out against the minister. Ruck,

527
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: who was the brother of Burroughs's second wife, Sarah, described

528
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,759
Speaker 1: an instance where Burroughs had seemed to travel faster than

529
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 1: was possible and had known the contents of Ruck's conversation

530
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,440
Speaker 1: with his sister even though he had not been present

531
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,759
Speaker 1: for it. When Ruck asked how Burroughs could possibly know

532
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: their thoughts, saying quote, the devil himself did not know

533
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,759
Speaker 1: so far, Burroughs allegedly replied, qu my God makes known

534
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 1: your thoughts unto me. These words from another minister might

535
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 1: have been taken as testimony to the power of the Lord.

536
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 1: In George Burrows's case, The judges instead decided that, by

537
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 1: the assistance of the black Man, Burrows might put on

538
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 1: his invisibility and, in that fascinating mist gratify his own

539
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:24,800
Speaker 1: jealous humor to hear what they said of him. Desperate

540
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 1: to defend himself, Burrows handed a paper to the judges

541
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 1: which he said was an argument against the possibility of

542
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 1: witches using spectral forms. The judges, instead of considering the

543
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 1: arguments therein only asked Burrows about authorship, for they recognized

544
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 1: the text as being copied from a book by Witchcraft's

545
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: skeptic Thomas Ady. Burroughs denied having copied it from a book,

546
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 1: but admitted that he had read the argument in a

547
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: manuscript and transcribed it. Exactly what was said in this

548
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 1: exchange is unknown, but Cotton, Mather and the judges were

549
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: suspicious and only saw this as further evidence of Burrows's duplicity.

550
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:06,200
Speaker 1: In Mather's words, quote, faltering, faulty, unconstant, and contrary answers

551
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:10,760
Speaker 1: upon judicial and deliberate examination are counted some unlucky symptoms

552
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 1: of guilt in all crimes, especially in Witchcraft's. Now there

553
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,760
Speaker 1: was never a prisoner more eminent for them than George Burroughs,

554
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: both at his examination and on his trial. With the

555
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 1: testimony concluded, the jury quickly delivered their verdict on the

556
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: charges of Witchcraft. Reverend George Burrows was found guilty and

557
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:42,240
Speaker 1: sentenced to die. He denied the truth of the allegations,

558
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,120
Speaker 1: but said that he understood the jury's decision given all

559
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:49,800
Speaker 1: the testimony against him. George Burrows took the news stoically. However,

560
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 1: Burrows said he had been condemned by false witness. Reverend

561
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:59,360
Speaker 1: John Hale, a minister from nearby Beverley, who attended Burrows's trial,

562
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:04,239
Speaker 1: was disturbed by this possibility. Hale confronted one of the witnesses,

563
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 1: telling her, quote, you are the one that brings this

564
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 1: man to death. If you have charged anything upon him

565
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:13,959
Speaker 1: that is not true, recall it before it be too late,

566
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 1: while he is alive. The witness told Hale that she

567
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: had quote nothing to charge herself with. Upon that account,

568
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 1: there were indeed false witnesses in the Salem witch trials.

569
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,320
Speaker 1: Though most scholars agree today that some of the cases

570
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 1: were genuine in the sense that their sufferers genuinely believed

571
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: that they were being afflicted by witches, they also agreed

572
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:40,279
Speaker 1: that other cases were falsified. Multiple witnesses would later apologize

573
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 1: for lying during the trials. Some did so for attention,

574
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: others out of spite, and others did it to save

575
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: their own lives. Imprisoned witches were interrogated mercilessly by judges

576
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 1: and other authorities. Physical torture was not unheard of. The

577
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: reasons to confess were toofold for these witches, first to

578
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:03,400
Speaker 1: end the tormant and second to delay their trial. Only

579
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,560
Speaker 1: accused witches who refused to confess were tried in the

580
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,919
Speaker 1: summer of sixteen ninety two, and every one of them

581
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:14,320
Speaker 1: was convicted. Though most confess witches were eventually tried, not

582
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:18,360
Speaker 1: a single one of them was ever executed. One of

583
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:22,240
Speaker 1: these confessed witches was Margaret Jacobs. The sixteen year old's

584
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:25,839
Speaker 1: entire family, including her mentally ill mother Rebecca, and her

585
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:30,120
Speaker 1: grandfather George, had been accused of being witches. When Margaret

586
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:33,440
Speaker 1: herself was accused, she would later say she was told

587
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,640
Speaker 1: that quote, if I would not confess, I should be

588
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 1: put down into the dungeon and would be hanged. But

589
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 1: if I would confess, I should have my life terrified.

590
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,480
Speaker 1: She confessed and named both her grandfather and George Burrows.

591
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:52,120
Speaker 1: In her confession. The lies, she said were quote wounding

592
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: of my own soul, and after her grandfather and Burrows's

593
00:38:55,960 --> 00:39:00,360
Speaker 1: convictions in early August, her quote, soul would not suffer

594
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: me to keep it in any longer. On the evening

595
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:07,839
Speaker 1: of August eighteenth, Jacobs went to visit George Burrows, apologize

596
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 1: for her lies and ask for his forgiveness. He granted it,

597
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 1: and the two prayed together. Though Margaret Jacobs's confession may

598
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: have brought some peace to George Burrows, it would not

599
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 1: change his fate. When Jacobs went to the judges and

600
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 1: told them that she had lied in her testimony, they

601
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 1: did not believe her and threw her in jail the

602
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:33,800
Speaker 1: next day, August nineteenth. The five witches convicted in early August,

603
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:38,279
Speaker 1: Martha Carrier, George Burrows, George Jacobs Senior, John Willard, and

604
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 1: John Proctor were taken to the gallows in a cart.

605
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:46,439
Speaker 1: A large crowd gathered to watch, including Cotton Mather. All

606
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,600
Speaker 1: five of the condemned declared their innocence and asked Mather

607
00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 1: to pray for them, which he did. They forgave their accusers,

608
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,720
Speaker 1: asked for their own sins to be forgiven, and prayed

609
00:39:56,719 --> 00:40:00,839
Speaker 1: that they would be the last innocence to die. When

610
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,320
Speaker 1: George Burrows was led up the latter to the gallows,

611
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:07,160
Speaker 1: he gave a short sermon. His speech, Robert Caliph, a

612
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:10,919
Speaker 1: critic of the trials, later wrote, quote was so well

613
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 1: worded and uttered with such composedness, and such at least

614
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:19,399
Speaker 1: seeming fervency of spirit as was very affecting and drew

615
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 1: tears from many. Burroughs concluded by reciting the Lord's Prayer,

616
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 1: A feat that many believed a witch incapable of unease

617
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 1: rippled through the crowd. What if they had gotten it wrong,

618
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:34,759
Speaker 1: What if they were about to execute a truly innocent man?

619
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:40,440
Speaker 1: But there was no room for uncertainty. Burroughs's fate was sealed.

620
00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 1: Hanging in the manner most likely employed at Salem was

621
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,399
Speaker 1: not a quick death. The drop was not long enough

622
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: to break the neck, so the condemned person slowly strangled

623
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,919
Speaker 1: to death. As the crowd watched burrows struggle, they grew

624
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 1: more and more uneasy. Once his body fell still, it

625
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: seemed almost as if they would move to stop the

626
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:05,320
Speaker 1: remaining executions. But then Cotton Mather, mounted on a horse,

627
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: spoke from his perch, this man is no ordained, Minister

628
00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 1: Mother said. If Burrows's speech had touched them, wasn't that

629
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: just more proof of his diabolical powers. The devil has

630
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,240
Speaker 1: often been transformed into an angel of light. Mother reminded

631
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:25,360
Speaker 1: the crowd, just as in his trial, Burrows's own words

632
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 1: had been turned against him. The executions continued. The dead

633
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:33,400
Speaker 1: were cut down from the gallows and buried in a

634
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: shallow grave. Tradition has that the families some the executed

635
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: snuck to the burial site at night and took their

636
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,840
Speaker 1: loved ones for reburial. Burrows had no one to perform

637
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 1: this service for him. His children were still in main

638
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 1: struggling to survive. The condemned had asked that theirs be

639
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:54,319
Speaker 1: the last innocent bloodshed, but it was not to be.

640
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:59,240
Speaker 1: The trials raged on for another two months. Every single

641
00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:01,960
Speaker 1: person who pleaded not guilty was convicted by the court.

642
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,960
Speaker 1: In September, eighty one year old Giles Corey refused to

643
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: enter a plea, meaning that he could not be tried.

644
00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 1: In an attempt to get Corey to either plead or confess,

645
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 1: officials stacked increasingly heavy stones on his prone body. After

646
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: enduring two days of this torture, Corey died. Besides Corey,

647
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 1: nineteen people were executed between June tenth and September twenty second,

648
00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two. Five more of the accused died in prison,

649
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: along with two infants born to imprisoned women. By the

650
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 1: time of the last executions, however, serious doubts were starting

651
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 1: to arise about the validity of the trials. Observers were

652
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: troubled by the fact that not a single confessed wish

653
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 1: had been executed, while every accused person who claimed innocence

654
00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 1: was convicted. More and more people began to criticize the

655
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 1: use of spectral evidence and the touch test. Sir William Phipps,

656
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 1: the colonial governor, began to worry that the court he

657
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 1: had established to shore up the political uncertainty in the

658
00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:06,719
Speaker 1: colony might in fact be a destabilizing force. In a

659
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 1: letter to the English Privy Council on October twelfth, Phipps

660
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 1: tried to evade responsibility for the trials, writing that he

661
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,200
Speaker 1: quote depended upon the judgment of the court as to

662
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 1: a right method of proceeding in cases of witchcraft. But

663
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 1: on inquiring into the matter, I found that the devil

664
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,800
Speaker 1: had taken upon him the name and shape of several

665
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: persons who were doubtless innocent. He had good reason to

666
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:31,440
Speaker 1: believe in their innocence. One of the most recently accused

667
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: was his wife. On October twenty ninth, Phipps halted further arrests,

668
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,680
Speaker 1: released many of the accused, and disbanded the special Court.

669
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:42,799
Speaker 1: In January, a new court was convened to try the

670
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: remaining prisoners. This court cleared most prisoners of charges or

671
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,600
Speaker 1: found them not guilty. In February, Phipps commuted the death

672
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:55,280
Speaker 1: sentences of all the surviving convicted. Phipps also took measures

673
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,640
Speaker 1: to suppress the story of the trials. In his October

674
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 1: twelfth letter, he explained that I have also put a

675
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,360
Speaker 1: stop to the printing of any discourses, one way or

676
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,919
Speaker 1: other that may increase the needless disputes of people upon

677
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: this occasion, because I saw a likelihood of kindling an

678
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:16,320
Speaker 1: inextinguishable flame if I should admit any public and open contests. However,

679
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 1: Phipps did commission one account, a highly whitewashed version of

680
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: events by Cotton Mather called The Wonders of the Invisible World.

681
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 1: In fairness to Mather, he was a faithful transcriptionist of

682
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: the examinations and trials. It was his framing that was

683
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: spectacularly biased. Mather's account was sent to England, where it

684
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:38,840
Speaker 1: was accepted as true, but those on the ground in

685
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 1: New England knew better. Many people now believed that the trials,

686
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: even if well intentioned, had been a grievous mistake. Consequently,

687
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: Phipps's publication ban was not obeyed for long. By the

688
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:55,360
Speaker 1: mid sixteen nineties, increasingly critical accounts of the trial were emerging.

689
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:59,520
Speaker 1: The most famous of these was by Robert Caliph, hilariously

690
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 1: titled More Wonders of the Invisible World. Some of these

691
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:06,760
Speaker 1: criticisms came from the very authorities who had led the trials.

692
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:11,320
Speaker 1: In January sixteen ninety seven, the Colonial legislature, which counted

693
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: many of the trial judges as members, declared a day

694
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,840
Speaker 1: of fasting and prayer in contrition for the trials. Judge

695
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 1: Samuel Sewell gave a public apology at a fast day service.

696
00:45:21,719 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 1: Twelve former jurors provided a statement of apology to be

697
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: published in Robert Califf's book. Not everyone involved in the

698
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 1: trials repented of their rules. Chief Justice William Stoughton, who

699
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:35,840
Speaker 1: went on to become Governor of the Colony, defended his

700
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:39,600
Speaker 1: actions until his death in seventeen oh one. Samuel Parris,

701
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:43,680
Speaker 1: whose devisive leadership style had likely helped spark the witchcraft hysteria,

702
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:47,320
Speaker 1: only issued a half hearted apology in November sixteen ninety

703
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:49,439
Speaker 1: four as part of a campaign to keep his job.

704
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: No one bought it. In the early seventeen hundreds, more

705
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 1: and more formal apologies for the trial began occurring. Some

706
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:02,279
Speaker 1: were institutional, like the three and seventeen eleven exonerations of

707
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: most of the accused by the legislature, who also granted

708
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:09,759
Speaker 1: reparations for lost property to surviving accused or their families.

709
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 1: Others were more personal. In seventeen oh six, and Putnam Junior,

710
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:18,920
Speaker 1: George Burrows's first accuser, publicly apologized for her role in

711
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 1: the trials and was welcomed into the Salem Church. Not

712
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 1: everyone would be satisfied by these efforts at atonement. George

713
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:31,279
Speaker 1: Burrows was cleared by the seventeen eleven declaration, but only

714
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:35,719
Speaker 1: his third wife, Mary, received financial recompense. His children, who

715
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 1: had been orphaned after Burrows's execution and Mary's abandonment, received nothing.

716
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:43,359
Speaker 1: They would petition the legislature for a portion of their

717
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:47,759
Speaker 1: father's estate until as late as seventeen fifty. Some families

718
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 1: did not even receive the comfort of a posthumous exoneration.

719
00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:54,280
Speaker 1: Several names slipped through the cracks during the petition process.

720
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 1: The final accused to be formally exonerated by the Massachusetts

721
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:03,879
Speaker 1: legislature was Elizabeth Johnson on July twenty eighth, twenty twenty two.

722
00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:08,880
Speaker 1: The discontent sparked by the Trials had deep ramifications for

723
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 1: New England society. Many colonists faith in their rulers was

724
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:16,720
Speaker 1: irreparably shaken. In trying to show strength in the face

725
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:19,759
Speaker 1: of a crisis, Phipps and his government had acted hastily

726
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,840
Speaker 1: and ended up making the problem far worse. Instead of

727
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:26,480
Speaker 1: acting as a guiding hand, the government had provided the

728
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:30,319
Speaker 1: spark to the tinder pile. Distrust in the government was

729
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:34,239
Speaker 1: a natural result of such a disaster. This skepticism of

730
00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: a royal authority's ability to protect them and represent their

731
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: interests laid the early groundwork for the American Revolution. Even

732
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:45,960
Speaker 1: before the Revolution, the trial had become a potent political symbol.

733
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 1: In seventeen forty one, rumors of a conspiracy amongst enslaved

734
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: people to burn down New York City led to mass

735
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:57,360
Speaker 1: arrests and the execution of more than thirty people. Josiah Cotton,

736
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,040
Speaker 1: Cotton Mather's first cousin, published an an anonymous letter in

737
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 1: Boston and New York papers saying that quote the late

738
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:08,840
Speaker 1: terrible combustions at New York revived the remembrance of the

739
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:12,880
Speaker 1: tragedy at Salem. Over the centuries, the meaning of the

740
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:15,680
Speaker 1: trials has been adjusted based on who is speaking and

741
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 1: what they're speaking about. By the twentieth century, the Trials

742
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 1: were most often used as shorthand for political persecution. This

743
00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: association was cemented by Arthur Miller's nineteen fifty three play

744
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: The Crucible, which used the Trials as an allegory for

745
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:35,719
Speaker 1: Joseph McCarthy's attacks on alleged communists. As Miller observed, the

746
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:38,480
Speaker 1: Red Scare of the mid twentieth century had much in

747
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: common with the Witch Scare of the late seventeenth They

748
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,160
Speaker 1: were both times in which Americans fears about a changing

749
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 1: world led them to turn on one another, encouraged by

750
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:52,440
Speaker 1: cynical politicians who capitalized on these fears for personal gain.

751
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:56,439
Speaker 1: These two periods are not unique in American history. While

752
00:48:56,440 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 1: writing his book on the Trials, Emerson Baker saw parallels

753
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,279
Speaker 1: to the surge of Islamophobia in the wake of the

754
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:07,920
Speaker 1: nine to eleven attacks. I Am Afraid, wrote Thomas Braddle,

755
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:10,719
Speaker 1: a critic of the Trials in October sixteen ninety two,

756
00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 1: that ages will not wear off that reproach, and those

757
00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:18,040
Speaker 1: stains which these things will leave behind them upon our land.

758
00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:22,279
Speaker 1: Rattle was right to worry. More than three hundred years later,

759
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 1: we still remember the injustices committed during the Salem which trials.

760
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:32,360
Speaker 1: What's more, we still enact those same injustices. We employ outdated,

761
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 1: dubious forensic techniques such as blood spatter analysis, in the

762
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:39,400
Speaker 1: same way that the Salem judges relied on the dubious,

763
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:43,799
Speaker 1: outdated touch test. We convict people based on thin or

764
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:48,920
Speaker 1: fictitious evidence. We let our fear overcome our better judgment.

765
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:52,840
Speaker 1: We've come so far in so many ways since sixteen

766
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:56,120
Speaker 1: ninety two, but we haven't fully shaken off the legacy

767
00:49:56,200 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 1: of Salem. Our legal system is now as it was then,

768
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 1: shaped not just by law and precedent, but also by

769
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:08,280
Speaker 1: an aggregate of personal choices. Bad choices like the judge's

770
00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:12,920
Speaker 1: decision to admit spectral evidence, but also brave choices like

771
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 1: Margaret Jacob's choosing at great risk to her life to

772
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 1: tell the truth. Don't worry, by the way, Jacobs was

773
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 1: eventually acquitted of witchcraft, but only after spending seven months

774
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,799
Speaker 1: in jail. Most of our choices aren't as dangerous or

775
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:33,320
Speaker 1: dramatic as Margaret Jacobs's. But every choice we make matters,

776
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:37,560
Speaker 1: whatever our role in society, whatever our connection to the

777
00:50:37,640 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: legal system. We have the power to make the right decisions,

778
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 1: to choose compassion, to choose justice. Thank you for listening

779
00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:52,440
Speaker 1: to History on Trial. To see images of people and

780
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:56,240
Speaker 1: places in this episode, check out our instagram at History

781
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 1: on Trial. My main sources for this episode were Emerson W.

782
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 1: Baker's book A Storm of Witchcraft, The Salem Trials and

783
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 1: the American Experience, Marilyn k Roach's book The Salem witch Trials,

784
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,400
Speaker 1: a day by day chronicle of a community under siege,

785
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:15,319
Speaker 1: and the Salem Witchcraft Papers collected by Paul Boyer and

786
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:19,920
Speaker 1: Stephen Nissenbaum and adapted by the University of Virginia. Again.

787
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 1: This is the final episode of season one. It has

788
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:25,279
Speaker 1: been such a privilege and a pleasure to get to

789
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,920
Speaker 1: learn more about these stories and to share them with you.

790
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:32,040
Speaker 1: To stay updated on what's next, please follow our instagram

791
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:35,439
Speaker 1: at History on Trial or subscribe to our newsletter, which

792
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:37,920
Speaker 1: you can sign up for on our website History on

793
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:42,560
Speaker 1: Trial podcast dot com. Special thanks to my producer, Jessefunk,

794
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:45,760
Speaker 1: who has edited and produced all the episodes this season,

795
00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:51,600
Speaker 1: and to my friends, family and partner for their support.

796
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:56,320
Speaker 1: History on Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward.

797
00:51:56,880 --> 00:52:00,080
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with

798
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:05,799
Speaker 1: supervising producer Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams,

799
00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:09,760
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show

800
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:13,839
Speaker 1: at History on Trial podcast dot com and follow us

801
00:52:13,840 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 1: on Instagram at History on Trial and on Twitter at

802
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:23,560
Speaker 1: Underscore History on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by

803
00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:27,920
Speaker 1: visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

804
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:29,040
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.