WEBVTT - The Salem Wizard Trial 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.720 You are listening to History on Trial, a production of 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:12.319 iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion Advised. Hello, Mira Hear. This is 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.280 the final episode of season one of History on Trial. 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.520 I'm still figuring out what's next for the show. If 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.760 you'd like updates, you can follow our instagram at History 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.160 on Trial or subscribe to the newsletter via our website 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.360 historyon Trial podcast dot com. I'm so grateful for your 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:34.400 support throughout the season. On a cold February day in 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.600 sixteen ninety two, Mary Sibley set out to break the law. 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.879 She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.199 reasoned to herself that she was doing it for the 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.720 right reasons. She was doing it to protect the children 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.000 her poor little neighbor girls, Betty and Abigail, who had 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:57.640 been suffering so terribly for months. Since early January, Betty 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.200 and her cousin Abigail had been subject to strange fits. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.160 Their bodies would hunch and contort, assuming bizarre, painful positions. 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.280 They muttered and babbled, speaking words no one could understand. 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.160 They sometimes seemed gripped by a fear so intense it 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:19.600 paralyzed them, stopping their breath. Doctor after doctor had examined 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.560 the two young girls. They had prescribed remedies and treatments, 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.440 all to no effect. People had begun to wonder whether 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.200 the cause could be something stranger and darker than a 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:37.839 simple sickness. Maybe the girls were bewitched. Betty's father, Samuel Parris, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.600 focused on prayer to heal the girls, but Mary Sibley 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.240 did not think prayer would be enough to fight a witch. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.160 She thought you had to act like one. The witchcraft 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.720 was illegal, many people held onto folk practices to protect 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.920 against dark magic. They hid horseshoes or eel spears in 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.800 the walls of their houses and carved daisy wheels into 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.720 their door frames to prevent spirits from entering. The magic 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.880 Mary Sibley was about to propose would be more dangerous 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:12.040 than a hidden horseshoe, more intentional, riskier. If Mary was caught, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.040 she might be called a witch herself, But her heart 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:19.200 likely ached for the two frightened girls. So Mary snuck 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.320 over to the Paris's house one day and had a 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.840 whispered conference with John Indian, the Paris's enslaved man, about 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.840 how to make a witch cake. It was simple. Mary 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:34.359 told John take ryemeal, mix it with Betty and Abigail's urine, 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.240 and then bake the mixture into a cake and feed 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.239 the cake to a dog. The cake, thinks to the urine, 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.520 would contain the essence of the witch. When the dog 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.880 ate the cake, the witch would suffer and perhaps be exposed. 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.720 John Indian and his wife Titchiba, also enslaved by the Parises, 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.760 knew that their owners would not like the witch cake. 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.120 Samuel Parris was a minister, an un compromising man who 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.520 had made his hatred for witchcraft of any sort known. 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.480 So John and Titchiba waited until a night that Samuel 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.200 and his wife Elizabeth were out. Then they made the cake. 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:17.000 At first, the charms seemed to have backfired. Betty and 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:23.200 Abigail's suffering intensified, their torments increased, But then suddenly, as 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:27.200 if a veil had lifted, the girls could see they 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.040 could see the source of their misery. The witch cake 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.560 had not hurt the witch, but it had revealed her. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.760 Soon after, Betty and Abigail told the Parises that it 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:42.320 was Titchiba herself who was hurting them. Betty and Abigail's 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.440 identification of Titchiba on February twenty sixth sixteen ninety two 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.920 was the first claim of witchcraft in the Salem Outbreak, 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.280 but it would not be the last. Within months, dozens 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.080 of Bay Colony residents would find themselves caught up in witchcraft, 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.760 either afflicted by a witch, accused of being a witch, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:09.320 or both, and then in June the trials began. By 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.440 that point, the outbreak had ballooned to such proportions that 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.640 it seemed no one was safe, not respectable pious citizens, 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.480 not children, not even as the trial of George Burroughs 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:27.320 would show, a minister. The Salem witch Trials are one 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.520 of the most notorious episodes in American history. Their alien 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:36.640 nature fascinates us, the strange superstitions, the archaic language, the 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.760 gruesome details. But at their heart, the trials are a 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.400 timeless story about what happens when fear and anger overrun 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:51.320 a community and all hell breaks loose. Welcome to History 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.600 on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week the 0:04:55.600 --> 0:05:03.680 Massachusetts Bay Colony v. George Burroughs. When the Puritans, English separatists, 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.440 who felt that the Church of England still cleaved too 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.919 closely to Catholic traditions, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.360 the sixteen twenties, they hoped to build what colonial leader 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.800 John Winthrop called a city upon a hill, a shining 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:24.039 paragon of prosperity and obedience to God. On paper, George 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.000 Burroughs looked like the ideal citizen of such a place. 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.000 Born in sixteen fifty two, Burroughs was the grandson of 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.200 a minister and the son of a merchant, giving him 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:39.480 both ecclesiastical and worldly credit. Burroughs grew into a handsome, 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:44.880 dark haired man, short but strong. Following in his grandfather's footsteps, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.760 Burroughs studied to become a minister. In sixteen seventy, he 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:53.120 graduated from Harvard College. Three years later, he married Hannah Fisher, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:57.520 the daughter of a prominent family. But despite this elite pedigree, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.919 Burroughs struggled to find his footing. Maybe it was his 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.000 quick temper, maybe it was his slightly unorthodox religious beliefs, 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.440 or maybe something else entirely, but either way, Burroughs did 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.640 not hit the ground running. He didn't get his first 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.760 posting until more than four years after graduation, and even 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.960 then it was a less than desirable position in the 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:24.520 frontier town of Falmouth, Maine, near present day Portland. Maine 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.120 was looked down on by many Massachusetts Puritans thanks to 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:33.040 the area's practice of welcoming Protestants of all stripes. Burroughs, however, 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.480 seemed to fit in well on the rough and tumble 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:39.640 Frontier and bought property there, seemingly hoping to settle down. 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:45.000 But the frontier was a dangerous place. Native American raids 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.719 were common. King Philip's War, the most devastating conflict of 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.120 the colonial period, broke out a year into Burrows's time 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.919 in Falmouth. In sixteen seventy six, Falmouth was burned to 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:01.040 the ground and Burrows and many others barely escaped. Burroughs 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.119 and his family joined the flood of refugees traveling south 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.880 into Massachusetts. Many refugees were too frightened to ever return north, 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.440 but Burroughs held on to his main homestead while he 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.840 waited for the fighting to settle down. He served as 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.760 assistant pastor in Salisbury, Massachusetts, but the position was not 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.640 a permanent one, and Burrows needed a better way to 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:26.200 support his growing family. In sixteen eighty, Burroughs received an 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.800 offer from Salem Village. The village was an inland satellite 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.800 of the larger Harbourside community of Salem Town. Today, the 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.920 village is called Danvers and the town is called Salem. 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.400 Salem Village had only recently won the right to hire 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.200 their own minister, but attracting a minister was easier said 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.640 than done. The village was relatively close to the frontier, 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.120 and as a small agricultural community, couldn't afford to pay 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:56.560 their minister much. But there was something else too, something 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:01.000 that caused Salem Village to churn through ministers. At a 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.280 time when the average tenure for a Massachusetts minister was 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:09.000 twenty two years, Salem Village's first three ministers would last 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.400 an average of less than five. The problem was that 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:18.920 the people of Salem Village were petty. Salem, the name 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.560 given to the area by its first English settlers in 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.280 the sixteen twenties, was a derivative of the Hebrew word shalom, 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.720 meaning peace. Sixty years later, the village's residents were not 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.839 doing the name proud. Arguing seemed to be the village pastime, 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.200 with a specialty in power struggles, where property lines were 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.720 whose pig had escaped and eaten a vegetable garden? Who 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:46.120 got to choose the minister? Everything and anything, no matter 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:51.079 how trivial became hotly contested. This last problem, choosing the minister, 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.600 was an especially thorny one. The first minister, James Bailey, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.400 had endured years of fighting between villagers who supported him 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.840 and village who did not, before quietly stepping down. George 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.720 Burrows had been a year behind Bailey at Harvard, and 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.959 perhaps Bailey warned him about the difficulties of the Salem role. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.120 For Burroughs ultimately accepted the village's offer on the condition that, 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.240 quote in case any difference should arise in time to come, 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.840 that we engage on both sides to submit to counsel 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:26.880 for a peaceable issue. Unfortunately for Burrows, the villagers were 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:32.000 not particularly interested in being peaceable. Not long after his arrival, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.960 the residents once again split into factions for and against 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.880 their minister. As a result of all this fighting, the 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.720 village was slow to pay Burroughs's salary. Due to the delay, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.640 Burroughs did not have enough money to pay for his wife, 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.080 Hannah's burial when she died in sixteen eighty one. He 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.120 had to borrow money from a villager named John Putnam 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.120 to cover the costs. Throughout sixteen eighty one, Burroughs held 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.200 multiple town meetings to try to resolve the villager's various 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.439 differences with Whate, but to no avail. In April sixteen 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.560 eighty two, villager Jeremiah Watts wrote to Burrows that quote 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:12.359 brother is against brother, and neighbor against neighbors, all quarreling 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:17.440 and smiting one another. Charming. In March sixteen eighty three, 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.240 a very fed up Burrows moved his family, including his 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.400 second wife, Sarah, back to Maine, choosing an active warzone 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:30.120 overstaying in Salem. The villagers, furious at his departure, tried 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.400 to sue Burrows for desertion of duty. The court told 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.040 them that they didn't have much ground since they'd never 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.920 paid Burrows most of his salary. Eventually, Salem agreed to 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.320 pay Burroughs' salary less the amount he owed John Putnam 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.720 for Hannah's burial, But when Burrows returned to Salem to 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.600 collect his money, John Putnam filed his own suit against 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.240 the minister for non payment of a loan and had 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:58.200 him arrested. Villagers who had supported Burrows were outraged and 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.120 posted the minister's bond to keep him from being jailed. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.640 Putnam agreed to drop his suit, and the village offered 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:09.559 Burrows fifteen pounds, less than half of what they owed him. Burrows, 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:14.720 thoroughly exhausted with the situation, accepted and returned to Maine. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:19.079 He was probably delighted to be done with Salem, but 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:24.720 Salem was not done with him. Nine years later, George 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.080 Burrows would be arrested in Maine and dragged back to 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:36.040 the village accused of being a witch. Salem struggled to 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.240 find a good replacement for George Burrows. It took them 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.560 a year to hire their next minister, who didn't stay long. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.199 In July sixteen eighty nine, the village's fourth minister, Reverend 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:52.559 Samuel Parris, arrived after months of contract negotiations. These protracted 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.720 negotiations were an omen of difficulties to come. If the 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.920 residents of Salem had hoped that Reverend Paris would succeed 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.920 in bringing their community together, they were sorely mistaken. Paris 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.360 was a stubborn, demanding man who had entered the ministry 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:13.760 only after destroying his inherited family business through mismanagement. Within 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.760 six months of Paris's arrival, Salem had once again split 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:22.040 into factions for and against the minister. By late sixteen 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.520 ninety one, the anti Paris faction had won control of 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.840 the town council and voted to withhold the minister's salary 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:33.160 and cut off his firewood allowance. In return, Paris began 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:38.040 delivering spiteful sermons. Quoting Psalm one ten, the lords said, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.480 unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:46.319 they make thine enemies thy footstool. It was Paris's daughter 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.040 Betty and his niece Abigail Williams, who lived with the family, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.200 who first began to show symptoms of being bewitched sometime 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.440 in January sixteen ninety two. It was not hard for 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.600 the girl's community to accept the existence of witches in 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.920 their midst. The seventeenth century belief in the supernatural was 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.880 intimately tied to religious belief. Marilyn k Roach explains in 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:13.120 her book The Salem Witchcraft Trials quote, with good and 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.760 evil so obviously present in the world, to question the 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:23.000 devil's reality was to doubt God's few doubted. Since there 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.880 was a devil, it followed that some wicked or foolish 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.000 mortals would pay allegiance to him in return for the 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.800 power to work evil magic. This power could be used 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.320 to disrupt victim's lives. If you wronged a witch, they 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.400 might make your beer barrels leak, or said insects to 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.520 eat your crops. Their power could even kill. As John Godfrey, 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:47.480 a Bay Colony resident who was oft suspected of being 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.560 a witch, put it quote, it were hard to some 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.480 witches to take away life, either of man or beast, 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.440 Yet when they once begin it, then it is easy 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.880 to them. But people were not powerless against witches. They 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.640 could use magical protections of their own, like Mary Sibley's witchcake, 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:10.720 although most ministers frowned on such measures, recommending prayer instead. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.840 If prayer or shunning the witch failed, there was the 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:20.440 legal system. Between fourteen hundred and seventeen seventy five, approximately 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.000 one hundred thousand people were prosecuted for witchcraft worldwide, and 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:29.280 fifty thousand of them executed. Because witches were blamed for 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.360 bad things happening, it follows that the number of witchcraft 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:37.080 accusations rose when times were hard. Sixteen ninety two was 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:41.200 a decidedly hard year for the Massachusetts Bay Colony five 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.600 years earlier. Fed up with the colonies in subordination to 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.320 royal authority. King James the Second of England had merged 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.000 Massachusetts with the other northeastern colonies to create the Dominion 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.320 of New England. The dominion was ruled by the iron 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.640 fisted Sir Edmund Andros, who dismantled the colonies representative government. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.360 Even worse, Andros ordered that the dominion enact a policy 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.000 of tolerance for all Protestants, a serious blow to the 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.240 Puritan hierarchy. Many feared that these changes signaled the end 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.400 of John Winthrop's dream of a city upon a hill. 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.040 After three years under Andros, the colonists rebelled and won 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.600 backed their independence. But this victory came with problems of 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:26.360 its own. To establish a new government, the colony needed 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.120 a new Royal Charter, which meant sending representatives to England 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.360 and enduring lengthy negotiations until the new charter arrived, The 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.480 provisional government had no real power. They could not establish courts, 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:43.360 for example, which created problems for morale. As historian Emerson W. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.560 Baker notes in his book A Storm of Witchcraft quote, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.600 the legal system acted as a safety valve for the colonists, 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:56.040 mediating differences and resolving conflicts between individuals and within communities. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.920 Without a functioning legal system Bigger continues quote, a significant 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:05.160 number of disputes and conflicts continued to fester and grow 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.440 without resolution. The lack of formal government also meant that 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.600 the British military officers who had helped defend the northern 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.560 frontier for the dominion, began abandoning their posts, leading to 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:21.040 renewed attacks in Maine. By sixteen ninety, every settlement north 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.040 of present day Portland had been abandoned. Salem Village was 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.800 less than fifty miles from the southern edge of Maine, 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.680 and villagers must have feared that the war would reach 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:34.000 them soon. On top of all of this, the weather 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.800 was terrible, crops were failing, and the economy was tanking. 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.720 So much uncertainty and suffering made for a frightened and 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:46.440 angry populace desperate for something or someone to blame for 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:51.280 their problems. It was fertile ground for a witch hunt. 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:55.480 These high stress levels may also explain the symptoms experienced 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:59.600 by the afflicted. Though no single cause can explain every case, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.399 various theories about predominant causes have been suggested. Today, the 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.360 most widely accepted theory is a condition called conversion disorder. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.880 We still have much to learn about conversion disorder also 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.639 called functional neurological symptom disorder, but for the purposes of 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.600 this episode will stick to the basics. Conversion disorder occurs 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.440 when your brain converts mental health issues like acute stress 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.159 or trauma into physical symptoms caused by the disruption of 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:32.960 regular brain or nervous system function. Symptoms can include seizures, ticks, tremors, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.560 unexplained pain and weakness, sensory impairments like tunnel vision or 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.720 double vision, and speech impairments. These symptoms are almost exactly 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:47.760 what early sufferers in Salem experienced. Emerson Baker argues that 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.479 conversion disorder helps explain why the outbreak began in the 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:56.320 Paris household. For Betty Paris and Abigail Williams were quote 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.760 perhaps the children in the village under the greatest stress. 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.359 It must have been almost unbearable to reside in the 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:07.680 parsonage while an agitated Reverend Paris prepared to battle Satan 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.240 and his allies. Betty and Abigail were not the only 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.880 stressed residents of Salem that winter. The area was filled 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.159 with refugees from the frontier, traumatized by the violence they 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:22.879 had experienced. Other accusers were servants or orphans, young women 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:27.720 whose lives were bleak and futures were even bleaker. Once 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.160 words spread of the initial afflictions, a vicious cycle could 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:35.920 have been triggered. Mass psychogenic illness, if not recognized and treated, 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.679 Baker writes, can worsen and spread. This is not surprising, 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:45.040 as an unresolved emergency naturally leads to more anxiety, which 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.000 is the very source of the illness. Of course, no 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.600 one in Salem was diagnosing the afflicted with conversion disorder. Instead, 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.800 they put the symptoms into the cultural context that they 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:00.720 lived in, one in which witches were real. When adults 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.479 she trusted told nine year old Betty Paris that the 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.040 cause of her suffering was a witch. She had no 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.040 reason to doubt them. She had likely grown up hearing 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.680 stories about witches, how they tormented you or tempted you 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.439 to join them in their wicked ways. It was easy 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.760 for her to parrot these stories back to her parents 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.360 and to identify women who were outsiders as the witches, 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.679 and so the witch hunt began. After identifying Titchiba as 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.439 a witch, Betty and Abigail accused two more women Sarah 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.800 Good and Sarah Osborne. Soon, two other girls, Elizabeth Hubbard 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:40.639 and Anne Putnam Junior, also began displaying symptoms and accused 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:45.520 of the same three women. From there, the outbreak grew exponentially. 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.200 Not all of those who claimed to be afflicted. Eventually 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.679 there would be more than seventy of them fit the 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.480 profile of someone with conversion disorder. There is substantial evidence 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.800 that some later sufferers were knowingly fabricating their symptoms. In 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:02.359 the chaos of the outbreak, it was hard for people 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.600 to tell where the fear ended and the lies began. Ultimately, 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.880 more than one hundred and fifty people would be accused 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.800 of witchcraft. After someone was accused, a complaint would be 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:17.200 sworn against them. Most of the afflicted were women who 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.840 were not allowed to make legal complaints, so often a 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.000 male relative would make it for them. Then the accused 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:28.880 would be arrested, imprisoned, and questioned. Reverend George Burrows entered 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.240 the ranks of the accused on April twentieth, sixteen ninety two, 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.720 when twelve year old Anne Putnam claimed that his spectral 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.560 form appeared before her and demanded that she sign the 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.760 Devil's Book and become a witch like him. When Anne refused, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:47.080 Burrows's spirit tortured her mercilessly. This was a typical pattern 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.119 of behavior for a witch, but Burrows's status as a 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.800 minister made this case distinct. Anne herself was shocked, telling 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.320 the specter that it was quote a dreadful thing that he, 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:01.520 which was a minister that should teach children to fear God, 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.440 should come to persuade poor creatures to give their soul 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.080 to the devil. But she refused to let the specter's 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.080 title intimidate her, declaring quote, I will complain of you 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.959 though you be a minister, if you be a wizard. 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.280 Burroughs soon became a popular figure to accuse. It seemed 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.119 natural to the afflicted that the witch's society would mirror 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:25.240 their own, and so the witches required a minister. On 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.399 April twenty second, a number of the afflicted reported seeing 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.280 Burroughs's specter lead a witch's sabbath in Reverend Paris's pasture, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.479 giving a sermon in which he urged his fellow witches 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.320 to establish the Devil's kingdom in New England. That Burroughs's 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.840 corporeal self was in Maine that day was no alibi 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:47.119 distance was not an obstacle for witches, whose spectral forms 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:51.679 could travel with supernatural speed. On April thirtieth, Anne Putnam's 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.160 father Thomas, swore a complaint against Burrows, and a warrant 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.439 was issued for his arrest. Burroughs was arrested on the 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.240 evening of May second in his home home in Wells, Maine, 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.359 and taken to Salem. Even while he was imprisoned, Burrows's 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.960 alleged assaults on the afflicted continued unabated. On May seventh, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.919 his specter tortured Mercy Lewis, an orphaned teenager who had 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:16.439 once worked as a servant for the Burrows family and 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.560 was now working for the Putnams. The next day, he 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.560 threatened eighteen year old Susannah Sheldon with death if she 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.920 testified against him. The day after that, he appeared before 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:31.159 Mercy Lewis again, mister Burrows. Lewis later recounted quote carried 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.119 me up to an exceeding high mountain and showed me 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.480 all the kingdoms of the earth, and told me that 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:38.240 he would give them all to me if I would 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.639 write in his book, and if I would not, he 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.480 would throw me down and break my neck. Shortly after 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.199 taking Mercy Lewis up a mountain, George Burrows was examined. 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.400 Because the colony was still waiting for its new Royal charter, 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.479 which was now on its way from England, no formal 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.280 court could be established, but preparations for future trials could 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:03.200 be made, including gathering evidences. Two local magistrates, Jonathan Corwyn 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:07.560 and John Hawthorne, set about taking depositions and examining the accused. 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:13.360 These examinations were not neutral fact finding missions. The afflicted 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.639 were often present and writhed in the audience. Corwin and 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:21.000 Hawthorne usually placed the burden of proof on the accused, 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.560 asking them to somehow prove that they were not witches. 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:29.159 Anything the accused said was used against them. Because of 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:33.720 Burrows's role as a minister, his examination was conducted carefully. 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:38.000 William Stowton and Samuel Sewell, two future members of the 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.520 trial court, joined Corwin and Hawthorne for it. The four 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:45.800 men first questioned Burrows privately, away from the afflicted. The 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.800 questions focused on Burrows's religious practice. He admitted that he 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.960 had not taken communion in some time, and that not 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:56.480 all of his children were baptized. Troubling admissions for a 0:23:56.520 --> 0:24:00.360 Puritan minister. Burrows also denied that his house in Maine 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.880 was haunted, but did admit that there were toads around it, 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.800 toads everyone knew were a sign of witchcraft. When Burroughs 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:12.040 entered into the Salem Village meetinghouse for his public questioning, 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:17.560 the afflicted present were quote grievously harassed with preternatural mischiefs. 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:22.359 The young women gave accounts of Burrows's diabolical activities. Several 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:24.879 of them also told of visits by the ghosts of 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:29.560 Burroughs's first two wives, Hannah and Sarah, who apparently accused 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:34.320 their husband of murdering them. As Marilyn Roach observes quote 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:37.680 in the flood of detail, and amid the traumatic spectacle 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:42.400 of the afflicted, the magistrates overlooked or ignored the contradictions 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:45.640 in the stories given by the supposed ghosts of Burroughs's wives. 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:49.720 For these specters told Susannah Sheldon that he had smothered 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:52.800 and choked them, but told Anne Putnam that he had 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:56.920 stabbed and strangled them. But this was not a time 0:24:57.000 --> 0:25:00.400 to be caught up on small things like inconsistent goods hosts. 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:03.840 George Burrows was held over for trial and sent to 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.199 jail the Salem in Boston jails, where most of the 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:12.520 accused were held, were notoriously terrible. One former inmate called 0:25:12.560 --> 0:25:16.320 the Boston jail quote a grave of the living the 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:21.240 suburbs of hell. Disease and lice ran rampant, Cold and 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:26.480 damp permeated the cells, and overcrowding exacerbated the problems. The 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:30.920 day after Burrows's examination, Sarah Osborne, one of the first 0:25:30.920 --> 0:25:34.600 to be accused, who had spent nine weeks in these conditions, 0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:39.560 died in the Boston jail. In Maine, Burrows's children were 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:43.840 suffering too, Apparently deciding that her husband's chances of exoneration 0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:49.040 were slim, Burrows's third wife, Mary, abandoned her seven step children, 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:53.639 sold all of burrows possessions, and left The Burrows children 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:57.120 were on their own, though their father sent them quote 0:25:57.320 --> 0:26:01.960 solemn and safery written instructions from prison. Their only hope, 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:05.560 and Burrough's only hope, was that the trial court would 0:26:05.600 --> 0:26:09.399 be just and merciful. But was that too much to 0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:16.680 hope for? On May fourteenth, sixteen ninety two, Sir William 0:26:16.680 --> 0:26:20.320 Phipps arrived in Massachusetts Bay, ready to begin his term 0:26:20.320 --> 0:26:25.119 as governor and stepped straight into a crisis. Phipps had 0:26:25.160 --> 0:26:28.360 been in England helping negotiate the colony's new charter, which 0:26:28.359 --> 0:26:31.520 he was now tasked with administering. He had expected to 0:26:31.560 --> 0:26:34.920 return to a colony in turmoil, perhaps, but the situation 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:38.879 was far worse than that. By this point, forty people 0:26:38.920 --> 0:26:42.240