Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion Advised. Hello, Mira Hear. This is
Speaker 1: the final episode of season one of History on Trial.
Speaker 1: I'm still figuring out what's next for the show. If
Speaker 1: you'd like updates, you can follow our instagram at History
Speaker 1: on Trial or subscribe to the newsletter via our website
Speaker 1: historyon Trial podcast dot com. I'm so grateful for your
Speaker 1: support throughout the season. On a cold February day in
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two, Mary Sibley set out to break the law.
Speaker 1: She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she
Speaker 1: reasoned to herself that she was doing it for the
Speaker 1: right reasons. She was doing it to protect the children
Speaker 1: her poor little neighbor girls, Betty and Abigail, who had
Speaker 1: been suffering so terribly for months. Since early January, Betty
Speaker 1: and her cousin Abigail had been subject to strange fits.
Speaker 1: Their bodies would hunch and contort, assuming bizarre, painful positions.
Speaker 1: They muttered and babbled, speaking words no one could understand.
Speaker 1: They sometimes seemed gripped by a fear so intense it
Speaker 1: paralyzed them, stopping their breath. Doctor after doctor had examined
Speaker 1: the two young girls. They had prescribed remedies and treatments,
Speaker 1: all to no effect. People had begun to wonder whether
Speaker 1: the cause could be something stranger and darker than a
Speaker 1: simple sickness. Maybe the girls were bewitched. Betty's father, Samuel Parris,
Speaker 1: focused on prayer to heal the girls, but Mary Sibley
Speaker 1: did not think prayer would be enough to fight a witch.
Speaker 1: She thought you had to act like one. The witchcraft
Speaker 1: was illegal, many people held onto folk practices to protect
Speaker 1: against dark magic. They hid horseshoes or eel spears in
Speaker 1: the walls of their houses and carved daisy wheels into
Speaker 1: their door frames to prevent spirits from entering. The magic
Speaker 1: Mary Sibley was about to propose would be more dangerous
Speaker 1: than a hidden horseshoe, more intentional, riskier. If Mary was caught,
Speaker 1: she might be called a witch herself, But her heart
Speaker 1: likely ached for the two frightened girls. So Mary snuck
Speaker 1: over to the Paris's house one day and had a
Speaker 1: whispered conference with John Indian, the Paris's enslaved man, about
Speaker 1: how to make a witch cake. It was simple. Mary
Speaker 1: told John take ryemeal, mix it with Betty and Abigail's urine,
Speaker 1: and then bake the mixture into a cake and feed
Speaker 1: the cake to a dog. The cake, thinks to the urine,
Speaker 1: would contain the essence of the witch. When the dog
Speaker 1: ate the cake, the witch would suffer and perhaps be exposed.
Speaker 1: John Indian and his wife Titchiba, also enslaved by the Parises,
Speaker 1: knew that their owners would not like the witch cake.
Speaker 1: Samuel Parris was a minister, an un compromising man who
Speaker 1: had made his hatred for witchcraft of any sort known.
Speaker 1: So John and Titchiba waited until a night that Samuel
Speaker 1: and his wife Elizabeth were out. Then they made the cake.
Speaker 1: At first, the charms seemed to have backfired. Betty and
Speaker 1: Abigail's suffering intensified, their torments increased, But then suddenly, as
Speaker 1: if a veil had lifted, the girls could see they
Speaker 1: could see the source of their misery. The witch cake
Speaker 1: had not hurt the witch, but it had revealed her.
Speaker 1: Soon after, Betty and Abigail told the Parises that it
Speaker 1: was Titchiba herself who was hurting them. Betty and Abigail's
Speaker 1: identification of Titchiba on February twenty sixth sixteen ninety two
Speaker 1: was the first claim of witchcraft in the Salem Outbreak,
Speaker 1: but it would not be the last. Within months, dozens
Speaker 1: of Bay Colony residents would find themselves caught up in witchcraft,
Speaker 1: either afflicted by a witch, accused of being a witch,
Speaker 1: or both, and then in June the trials began. By
Speaker 1: that point, the outbreak had ballooned to such proportions that
Speaker 1: it seemed no one was safe, not respectable pious citizens,
Speaker 1: not children, not even as the trial of George Burroughs
Speaker 1: would show, a minister. The Salem witch Trials are one
Speaker 1: of the most notorious episodes in American history. Their alien
Speaker 1: nature fascinates us, the strange superstitions, the archaic language, the
Speaker 1: gruesome details. But at their heart, the trials are a
Speaker 1: timeless story about what happens when fear and anger overrun
Speaker 1: a community and all hell breaks loose. Welcome to History
Speaker 1: on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week the
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay Colony v. George Burroughs. When the Puritans, English separatists,
Speaker 1: who felt that the Church of England still cleaved too
Speaker 1: closely to Catholic traditions, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in
Speaker 1: the sixteen twenties, they hoped to build what colonial leader
Speaker 1: John Winthrop called a city upon a hill, a shining
Speaker 1: paragon of prosperity and obedience to God. On paper, George
Speaker 1: Burroughs looked like the ideal citizen of such a place.
Speaker 1: Born in sixteen fifty two, Burroughs was the grandson of
Speaker 1: a minister and the son of a merchant, giving him
Speaker 1: both ecclesiastical and worldly credit. Burroughs grew into a handsome,
Speaker 1: dark haired man, short but strong. Following in his grandfather's footsteps,
Speaker 1: Burroughs studied to become a minister. In sixteen seventy, he
Speaker 1: graduated from Harvard College. Three years later, he married Hannah Fisher,
Speaker 1: the daughter of a prominent family. But despite this elite pedigree,
Speaker 1: Burroughs struggled to find his footing. Maybe it was his
Speaker 1: quick temper, maybe it was his slightly unorthodox religious beliefs,
Speaker 1: or maybe something else entirely, but either way, Burroughs did
Speaker 1: not hit the ground running. He didn't get his first
Speaker 1: posting until more than four years after graduation, and even
Speaker 1: then it was a less than desirable position in the
Speaker 1: frontier town of Falmouth, Maine, near present day Portland. Maine
Speaker 1: was looked down on by many Massachusetts Puritans thanks to
Speaker 1: the area's practice of welcoming Protestants of all stripes. Burroughs, however,
Speaker 1: seemed to fit in well on the rough and tumble
Speaker 1: Frontier and bought property there, seemingly hoping to settle down.
Speaker 1: But the frontier was a dangerous place. Native American raids
Speaker 1: were common. King Philip's War, the most devastating conflict of
Speaker 1: the colonial period, broke out a year into Burrows's time
Speaker 1: in Falmouth. In sixteen seventy six, Falmouth was burned to
Speaker 1: the ground and Burrows and many others barely escaped. Burroughs
Speaker 1: and his family joined the flood of refugees traveling south
Speaker 1: into Massachusetts. Many refugees were too frightened to ever return north,
Speaker 1: but Burroughs held on to his main homestead while he
Speaker 1: waited for the fighting to settle down. He served as
Speaker 1: assistant pastor in Salisbury, Massachusetts, but the position was not
Speaker 1: a permanent one, and Burrows needed a better way to
Speaker 1: support his growing family. In sixteen eighty, Burroughs received an
Speaker 1: offer from Salem Village. The village was an inland satellite
Speaker 1: of the larger Harbourside community of Salem Town. Today, the
Speaker 1: village is called Danvers and the town is called Salem.
Speaker 1: Salem Village had only recently won the right to hire
Speaker 1: their own minister, but attracting a minister was easier said
Speaker 1: than done. The village was relatively close to the frontier,
Speaker 1: and as a small agricultural community, couldn't afford to pay
Speaker 1: their minister much. But there was something else too, something
Speaker 1: that caused Salem Village to churn through ministers. At a
Speaker 1: time when the average tenure for a Massachusetts minister was
Speaker 1: twenty two years, Salem Village's first three ministers would last
Speaker 1: an average of less than five. The problem was that
Speaker 1: the people of Salem Village were petty. Salem, the name
Speaker 1: given to the area by its first English settlers in
Speaker 1: the sixteen twenties, was a derivative of the Hebrew word shalom,
Speaker 1: meaning peace. Sixty years later, the village's residents were not
Speaker 1: doing the name proud. Arguing seemed to be the village pastime,
Speaker 1: with a specialty in power struggles, where property lines were
Speaker 1: whose pig had escaped and eaten a vegetable garden? Who
Speaker 1: got to choose the minister? Everything and anything, no matter
Speaker 1: how trivial became hotly contested. This last problem, choosing the minister,
Speaker 1: was an especially thorny one. The first minister, James Bailey,
Speaker 1: had endured years of fighting between villagers who supported him
Speaker 1: and village who did not, before quietly stepping down. George
Speaker 1: Burrows had been a year behind Bailey at Harvard, and
Speaker 1: perhaps Bailey warned him about the difficulties of the Salem role.
Speaker 1: For Burroughs ultimately accepted the village's offer on the condition that,
Speaker 1: quote in case any difference should arise in time to come,
Speaker 1: that we engage on both sides to submit to counsel
Speaker 1: for a peaceable issue. Unfortunately for Burrows, the villagers were
Speaker 1: not particularly interested in being peaceable. Not long after his arrival,
Speaker 1: the residents once again split into factions for and against
Speaker 1: their minister. As a result of all this fighting, the
Speaker 1: village was slow to pay Burroughs's salary. Due to the delay,
Speaker 1: Burroughs did not have enough money to pay for his wife,
Speaker 1: Hannah's burial when she died in sixteen eighty one. He
Speaker 1: had to borrow money from a villager named John Putnam
Speaker 1: to cover the costs. Throughout sixteen eighty one, Burroughs held
Speaker 1: multiple town meetings to try to resolve the villager's various
Speaker 1: differences with Whate, but to no avail. In April sixteen
Speaker 1: eighty two, villager Jeremiah Watts wrote to Burrows that quote
Speaker 1: brother is against brother, and neighbor against neighbors, all quarreling
Speaker 1: and smiting one another. Charming. In March sixteen eighty three,
Speaker 1: a very fed up Burrows moved his family, including his
Speaker 1: second wife, Sarah, back to Maine, choosing an active warzone
Speaker 1: overstaying in Salem. The villagers, furious at his departure, tried
Speaker 1: to sue Burrows for desertion of duty. The court told
Speaker 1: them that they didn't have much ground since they'd never
Speaker 1: paid Burrows most of his salary. Eventually, Salem agreed to
Speaker 1: pay Burroughs' salary less the amount he owed John Putnam
Speaker 1: for Hannah's burial, But when Burrows returned to Salem to
Speaker 1: collect his money, John Putnam filed his own suit against
Speaker 1: the minister for non payment of a loan and had
Speaker 1: him arrested. Villagers who had supported Burrows were outraged and
Speaker 1: posted the minister's bond to keep him from being jailed.
Speaker 1: Putnam agreed to drop his suit, and the village offered
Speaker 1: Burrows fifteen pounds, less than half of what they owed him. Burrows,
Speaker 1: thoroughly exhausted with the situation, accepted and returned to Maine.
Speaker 1: He was probably delighted to be done with Salem, but
Speaker 1: Salem was not done with him. Nine years later, George
Speaker 1: Burrows would be arrested in Maine and dragged back to
Speaker 1: the village accused of being a witch. Salem struggled to
Speaker 1: find a good replacement for George Burrows. It took them
Speaker 1: a year to hire their next minister, who didn't stay long.
Speaker 1: In July sixteen eighty nine, the village's fourth minister, Reverend
Speaker 1: Samuel Parris, arrived after months of contract negotiations. These protracted
Speaker 1: negotiations were an omen of difficulties to come. If the
Speaker 1: residents of Salem had hoped that Reverend Paris would succeed
Speaker 1: in bringing their community together, they were sorely mistaken. Paris
Speaker 1: was a stubborn, demanding man who had entered the ministry
Speaker 1: only after destroying his inherited family business through mismanagement. Within
Speaker 1: six months of Paris's arrival, Salem had once again split
Speaker 1: into factions for and against the minister. By late sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety one, the anti Paris faction had won control of
Speaker 1: the town council and voted to withhold the minister's salary
Speaker 1: and cut off his firewood allowance. In return, Paris began
Speaker 1: delivering spiteful sermons. Quoting Psalm one ten, the lords said,
Speaker 1: unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until
Speaker 1: they make thine enemies thy footstool. It was Paris's daughter
Speaker 1: Betty and his niece Abigail Williams, who lived with the family,
Speaker 1: who first began to show symptoms of being bewitched sometime
Speaker 1: in January sixteen ninety two. It was not hard for
Speaker 1: the girl's community to accept the existence of witches in
Speaker 1: their midst. The seventeenth century belief in the supernatural was
Speaker 1: intimately tied to religious belief. Marilyn k Roach explains in
Speaker 1: her book The Salem Witchcraft Trials quote, with good and
Speaker 1: evil so obviously present in the world, to question the
Speaker 1: devil's reality was to doubt God's few doubted. Since there
Speaker 1: was a devil, it followed that some wicked or foolish
Speaker 1: mortals would pay allegiance to him in return for the
Speaker 1: power to work evil magic. This power could be used
Speaker 1: to disrupt victim's lives. If you wronged a witch, they
Speaker 1: might make your beer barrels leak, or said insects to
Speaker 1: eat your crops. Their power could even kill. As John Godfrey,
Speaker 1: a Bay Colony resident who was oft suspected of being
Speaker 1: a witch, put it quote, it were hard to some
Speaker 1: witches to take away life, either of man or beast,
Speaker 1: Yet when they once begin it, then it is easy
Speaker 1: to them. But people were not powerless against witches. They
Speaker 1: could use magical protections of their own, like Mary Sibley's witchcake,
Speaker 1: although most ministers frowned on such measures, recommending prayer instead.
Speaker 1: If prayer or shunning the witch failed, there was the
Speaker 1: legal system. Between fourteen hundred and seventeen seventy five, approximately
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand people were prosecuted for witchcraft worldwide, and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand of them executed. Because witches were blamed for
Speaker 1: bad things happening, it follows that the number of witchcraft
Speaker 1: accusations rose when times were hard. Sixteen ninety two was
Speaker 1: a decidedly hard year for the Massachusetts Bay Colony five
Speaker 1: years earlier. Fed up with the colonies in subordination to
Speaker 1: royal authority. King James the Second of England had merged
Speaker 1: Massachusetts with the other northeastern colonies to create the Dominion
Speaker 1: of New England. The dominion was ruled by the iron
Speaker 1: fisted Sir Edmund Andros, who dismantled the colonies representative government.
Speaker 1: Even worse, Andros ordered that the dominion enact a policy
Speaker 1: of tolerance for all Protestants, a serious blow to the
Speaker 1: Puritan hierarchy. Many feared that these changes signaled the end
Speaker 1: of John Winthrop's dream of a city upon a hill.
Speaker 1: After three years under Andros, the colonists rebelled and won
Speaker 1: backed their independence. But this victory came with problems of
Speaker 1: its own. To establish a new government, the colony needed
Speaker 1: a new Royal Charter, which meant sending representatives to England
Speaker 1: and enduring lengthy negotiations until the new charter arrived, The
Speaker 1: provisional government had no real power. They could not establish courts,
Speaker 1: for example, which created problems for morale. As historian Emerson W.
Speaker 1: Baker notes in his book A Storm of Witchcraft quote,
Speaker 1: the legal system acted as a safety valve for the colonists,
Speaker 1: mediating differences and resolving conflicts between individuals and within communities.
Speaker 1: Without a functioning legal system Bigger continues quote, a significant
Speaker 1: number of disputes and conflicts continued to fester and grow
Speaker 1: without resolution. The lack of formal government also meant that
Speaker 1: the British military officers who had helped defend the northern
Speaker 1: frontier for the dominion, began abandoning their posts, leading to
Speaker 1: renewed attacks in Maine. By sixteen ninety, every settlement north
Speaker 1: of present day Portland had been abandoned. Salem Village was
Speaker 1: less than fifty miles from the southern edge of Maine,
Speaker 1: and villagers must have feared that the war would reach
Speaker 1: them soon. On top of all of this, the weather
Speaker 1: was terrible, crops were failing, and the economy was tanking.
Speaker 1: So much uncertainty and suffering made for a frightened and
Speaker 1: angry populace desperate for something or someone to blame for
Speaker 1: their problems. It was fertile ground for a witch hunt.
Speaker 1: These high stress levels may also explain the symptoms experienced
Speaker 1: by the afflicted. Though no single cause can explain every case,
Speaker 1: various theories about predominant causes have been suggested. Today, the
Speaker 1: most widely accepted theory is a condition called conversion disorder.
Speaker 1: We still have much to learn about conversion disorder also
Speaker 1: called functional neurological symptom disorder, but for the purposes of
Speaker 1: this episode will stick to the basics. Conversion disorder occurs
Speaker 1: when your brain converts mental health issues like acute stress
Speaker 1: or trauma into physical symptoms caused by the disruption of
Speaker 1: regular brain or nervous system function. Symptoms can include seizures, ticks, tremors,
Speaker 1: unexplained pain and weakness, sensory impairments like tunnel vision or
Speaker 1: double vision, and speech impairments. These symptoms are almost exactly
Speaker 1: what early sufferers in Salem experienced. Emerson Baker argues that
Speaker 1: conversion disorder helps explain why the outbreak began in the
Speaker 1: Paris household. For Betty Paris and Abigail Williams were quote
Speaker 1: perhaps the children in the village under the greatest stress.
Speaker 1: It must have been almost unbearable to reside in the
Speaker 1: parsonage while an agitated Reverend Paris prepared to battle Satan
Speaker 1: and his allies. Betty and Abigail were not the only
Speaker 1: stressed residents of Salem that winter. The area was filled
Speaker 1: with refugees from the frontier, traumatized by the violence they
Speaker 1: had experienced. Other accusers were servants or orphans, young women
Speaker 1: whose lives were bleak and futures were even bleaker. Once
Speaker 1: words spread of the initial afflictions, a vicious cycle could
Speaker 1: have been triggered. Mass psychogenic illness, if not recognized and treated,
Speaker 1: Baker writes, can worsen and spread. This is not surprising,
Speaker 1: as an unresolved emergency naturally leads to more anxiety, which
Speaker 1: is the very source of the illness. Of course, no
Speaker 1: one in Salem was diagnosing the afflicted with conversion disorder. Instead,
Speaker 1: they put the symptoms into the cultural context that they
Speaker 1: lived in, one in which witches were real. When adults
Speaker 1: she trusted told nine year old Betty Paris that the
Speaker 1: cause of her suffering was a witch. She had no
Speaker 1: reason to doubt them. She had likely grown up hearing
Speaker 1: stories about witches, how they tormented you or tempted you
Speaker 1: to join them in their wicked ways. It was easy
Speaker 1: for her to parrot these stories back to her parents
Speaker 1: and to identify women who were outsiders as the witches,
Speaker 1: and so the witch hunt began. After identifying Titchiba as
Speaker 1: a witch, Betty and Abigail accused two more women Sarah
Speaker 1: Good and Sarah Osborne. Soon, two other girls, Elizabeth Hubbard
Speaker 1: and Anne Putnam Junior, also began displaying symptoms and accused
Speaker 1: of the same three women. From there, the outbreak grew exponentially.
Speaker 1: Not all of those who claimed to be afflicted. Eventually
Speaker 1: there would be more than seventy of them fit the
Speaker 1: profile of someone with conversion disorder. There is substantial evidence
Speaker 1: that some later sufferers were knowingly fabricating their symptoms. In
Speaker 1: the chaos of the outbreak, it was hard for people
Speaker 1: to tell where the fear ended and the lies began. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty people would be accused
Speaker 1: of witchcraft. After someone was accused, a complaint would be
Speaker 1: sworn against them. Most of the afflicted were women who
Speaker 1: were not allowed to make legal complaints, so often a
Speaker 1: male relative would make it for them. Then the accused
Speaker 1: would be arrested, imprisoned, and questioned. Reverend George Burrows entered
Speaker 1: the ranks of the accused on April twentieth, sixteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: when twelve year old Anne Putnam claimed that his spectral
Speaker 1: form appeared before her and demanded that she sign the
Speaker 1: Devil's Book and become a witch like him. When Anne refused,
Speaker 1: Burrows's spirit tortured her mercilessly. This was a typical pattern
Speaker 1: of behavior for a witch, but Burrows's status as a
Speaker 1: minister made this case distinct. Anne herself was shocked, telling
Speaker 1: the specter that it was quote a dreadful thing that he,
Speaker 1: which was a minister that should teach children to fear God,
Speaker 1: should come to persuade poor creatures to give their soul
Speaker 1: to the devil. But she refused to let the specter's
Speaker 1: title intimidate her, declaring quote, I will complain of you
Speaker 1: though you be a minister, if you be a wizard.
Speaker 1: Burroughs soon became a popular figure to accuse. It seemed
Speaker 1: natural to the afflicted that the witch's society would mirror
Speaker 1: their own, and so the witches required a minister. On
Speaker 1: April twenty second, a number of the afflicted reported seeing
Speaker 1: Burroughs's specter lead a witch's sabbath in Reverend Paris's pasture,
Speaker 1: giving a sermon in which he urged his fellow witches
Speaker 1: to establish the Devil's kingdom in New England. That Burroughs's
Speaker 1: corporeal self was in Maine that day was no alibi
Speaker 1: distance was not an obstacle for witches, whose spectral forms
Speaker 1: could travel with supernatural speed. On April thirtieth, Anne Putnam's
Speaker 1: father Thomas, swore a complaint against Burrows, and a warrant
Speaker 1: was issued for his arrest. Burroughs was arrested on the
Speaker 1: evening of May second in his home home in Wells, Maine,
Speaker 1: and taken to Salem. Even while he was imprisoned, Burrows's
Speaker 1: alleged assaults on the afflicted continued unabated. On May seventh,
Speaker 1: his specter tortured Mercy Lewis, an orphaned teenager who had
Speaker 1: once worked as a servant for the Burrows family and
Speaker 1: was now working for the Putnams. The next day, he
Speaker 1: threatened eighteen year old Susannah Sheldon with death if she
Speaker 1: testified against him. The day after that, he appeared before
Speaker 1: Mercy Lewis again, mister Burrows. Lewis later recounted quote carried
Speaker 1: me up to an exceeding high mountain and showed me
Speaker 1: all the kingdoms of the earth, and told me that
Speaker 1: he would give them all to me if I would
Speaker 1: write in his book, and if I would not, he
Speaker 1: would throw me down and break my neck. Shortly after
Speaker 1: taking Mercy Lewis up a mountain, George Burrows was examined.
Speaker 1: Because the colony was still waiting for its new Royal charter,
Speaker 1: which was now on its way from England, no formal
Speaker 1: court could be established, but preparations for future trials could
Speaker 1: be made, including gathering evidences. Two local magistrates, Jonathan Corwyn
Speaker 1: and John Hawthorne, set about taking depositions and examining the accused.
Speaker 1: These examinations were not neutral fact finding missions. The afflicted
Speaker 1: were often present and writhed in the audience. Corwin and
Speaker 1: Hawthorne usually placed the burden of proof on the accused,
Speaker 1: asking them to somehow prove that they were not witches.
Speaker 1: Anything the accused said was used against them. Because of
Speaker 1: Burrows's role as a minister, his examination was conducted carefully.
Speaker 1: William Stowton and Samuel Sewell, two future members of the
Speaker 1: trial court, joined Corwin and Hawthorne for it. The four
Speaker 1: men first questioned Burrows privately, away from the afflicted. The
Speaker 1: questions focused on Burrows's religious practice. He admitted that he
Speaker 1: had not taken communion in some time, and that not
Speaker 1: all of his children were baptized. Troubling admissions for a
Speaker 1: Puritan minister. Burrows also denied that his house in Maine
Speaker 1: was haunted, but did admit that there were toads around it,
Speaker 1: toads everyone knew were a sign of witchcraft. When Burroughs
Speaker 1: entered into the Salem Village meetinghouse for his public questioning,
Speaker 1: the afflicted present were quote grievously harassed with preternatural mischiefs.
Speaker 1: The young women gave accounts of Burrows's diabolical activities. Several
Speaker 1: of them also told of visits by the ghosts of
Speaker 1: Burroughs's first two wives, Hannah and Sarah, who apparently accused
Speaker 1: their husband of murdering them. As Marilyn Roach observes quote
Speaker 1: in the flood of detail, and amid the traumatic spectacle
Speaker 1: of the afflicted, the magistrates overlooked or ignored the contradictions
Speaker 1: in the stories given by the supposed ghosts of Burroughs's wives.
Speaker 1: For these specters told Susannah Sheldon that he had smothered
Speaker 1: and choked them, but told Anne Putnam that he had
Speaker 1: stabbed and strangled them. But this was not a time
Speaker 1: to be caught up on small things like inconsistent goods hosts.
Speaker 1: George Burrows was held over for trial and sent to
Speaker 1: jail the Salem in Boston jails, where most of the
Speaker 1: accused were held, were notoriously terrible. One former inmate called
Speaker 1: the Boston jail quote a grave of the living the
Speaker 1: suburbs of hell. Disease and lice ran rampant, Cold and
Speaker 1: damp permeated the cells, and overcrowding exacerbated the problems. The
Speaker 1: day after Burrows's examination, Sarah Osborne, one of the first
Speaker 1: to be accused, who had spent nine weeks in these conditions,
Speaker 1: died in the Boston jail. In Maine, Burrows's children were
Speaker 1: suffering too, Apparently deciding that her husband's chances of exoneration
Speaker 1: were slim, Burrows's third wife, Mary, abandoned her seven step children,
Speaker 1: sold all of burrows possessions, and left The Burrows children
Speaker 1: were on their own, though their father sent them quote
Speaker 1: solemn and safery written instructions from prison. Their only hope,
Speaker 1: and Burrough's only hope, was that the trial court would
Speaker 1: be just and merciful. But was that too much to
Speaker 1: hope for? On May fourteenth, sixteen ninety two, Sir William
Speaker 1: Phipps arrived in Massachusetts Bay, ready to begin his term
Speaker 1: as governor and stepped straight into a crisis. Phipps had
Speaker 1: been in England helping negotiate the colony's new charter, which
Speaker 1: he was now tasked with administering. He had expected to
Speaker 1: return to a colony in turmoil, perhaps, but the situation
Speaker 1: was far worse than that. By this point, forty people
Speaker 1: had been accused of witchcraft and sat awaiting trial in jail.
Speaker 1: The outbreak seemed to be spreading. The accused were not
Speaker 1: limited to Salem Village, but now came from across the colony.
Speaker 1: Phipps needed to nip the scandal in the bud before
Speaker 1: word got back to England and through the colony's ability
Speaker 1: to lead itself back into question. Technically, it was the
Speaker 1: responsibility of the colony's legislature to establish a court, but
Speaker 1: the legislature wouldn't be meeting until June eighth. Phipps didn't
Speaker 1: want to wait. Besides his fear of news reaching England,
Speaker 1: he also knew that the colonists were skeptical of his
Speaker 1: new government's authority. This was a chance to show the
Speaker 1: frightened colonists that he could protect them. So on May
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, Phipps created a special emergency Court and assigned
Speaker 1: nine men to sit as judges. These judges were not
Speaker 1: trained jurists. Instead, they were drawn from the colonies, political, mercantile,
Speaker 1: and military elite. Two of the judges would be Salem's
Speaker 1: local magistrates, John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin, and five others
Speaker 1: had participated in at least one of the preliminary hearings.
Speaker 1: Despite their lack of formal legal training, these men now
Speaker 1: had to figure out how to try a witch They
Speaker 1: looked to English precedent for help, using language from England's
Speaker 1: Witchcraft Act of sixteen oh four for the indictments, and
Speaker 1: studying contemporary legal sources to establish trial procedures. These sources
Speaker 1: recommended a similar standard of evidence in witch trials as
Speaker 1: for other crimes, either a voluntary confession plus evidence of witchcraft,
Speaker 1: or the testimony of two credible witnesses who had witnessed
Speaker 1: the same supernatural event. But, as Marilyn Roach points out, quote,
Speaker 1: since magic left so few material clues, courts could give
Speaker 1: more weight to circumstantial evidence than they usually would. This
Speaker 1: flexibility was especially important for the Salem trials. Historically, most
Speaker 1: witch trials involved claims of magical damage that people could
Speaker 1: see a burnt field a dead milk cow, But most
Speaker 1: of the cases in Salem involved spectral attacks, incidents where
Speaker 1: the witch's spectral form allegedly attacked the victim. Even if
Speaker 1: other people could see the victim's visible suffering, they could
Speaker 1: not see the witch's specter. Could a victim's word alone
Speaker 1: be used as evidence. This was a hotly debated issue.
Speaker 1: Many legal authorities cautioned against using this so called spectral evidence,
Speaker 1: so did local religious leaders. In a letter to the legislature,
Speaker 1: a group of ministers that included Increase and Cotton Mather,
Speaker 1: two of the most prominent ministers in the colony, cautioned
Speaker 1: against putting too much weight on spectral evidence. Quote blessed
Speaker 1: by too much credulity for things received only upon the
Speaker 1: devil's authority, there be a door opened for a long
Speaker 1: train of miserable consequences. In the same letter, the ministers
Speaker 1: also warned against relying too much on folk tests, such
Speaker 1: as throwing a witch into the water to see if
Speaker 1: she would float. However, both religious and legal authorities did
Speaker 1: believe that certain folk tests carried some weight. The court
Speaker 1: in Salem would eventually begin employing the touch test, in
Speaker 1: which the accused witch was required to touch an afflicted
Speaker 1: person if the victim's suffering stopped. This was taken as
Speaker 1: pre that the witch was guilty. Despite the Minister's cautions
Speaker 1: against spectral evidence and folk tests, they also acknowledged the
Speaker 1: need for quote speedy and vigorous prosecution, and it was
Speaker 1: this need that the judges would prioritize. The first trial
Speaker 1: of Bridgitt Bishop occurred on June second. By the time
Speaker 1: that George Burrows's trial began on August fifth, eight more
Speaker 1: witches had been tried. All of them had been found
Speaker 1: guilty and sentenced to death. Six of them had already
Speaker 1: been hung. The day before his trial, Burrows was examined
Speaker 1: by a group of men who were looking for a
Speaker 1: devil's mark, a spot where a devil or a witch's
Speaker 1: familiar nursed from the witch's body. Benign growths like warts
Speaker 1: and moles were often interpreted as devil's marks. No mark
Speaker 1: was found on Burroughs's body, but George Jacobs Senior, examined
Speaker 1: at the same time, was not so lucky. The examiners
Speaker 1: claimed to have found three spots which looked quote natural.
Speaker 1: On Friday, August fifth, George Burrows's trial began. Though the
Speaker 1: outbreak had begun in Salem Village, the trials and executions
Speaker 1: took place in Salem Town, which is now the location
Speaker 1: most associated with the events of sixteen ninety two. The
Speaker 1: trials were always well attended, but Burrows's trial was particularly crowded,
Speaker 1: full of people who wanted to see for themselves if
Speaker 1: the minister was indeed a witch. There was a prosecutor
Speaker 1: present at these trials, but his role was more clerical,
Speaker 1: focused on organizing the trials and writing indictments. The judges
Speaker 1: were the ones who asked questions of witnesses. A jury
Speaker 1: composed of twelve men determined the verdict. The defendant did
Speaker 1: not have counsel so had to represent themselves. A number
Speaker 1: of written depositions about supernatural actions were submitted as evidence
Speaker 1: in Burrows's case. Some of the afflicted testified in person,
Speaker 1: although Cotton Mather notes that it cost the court a
Speaker 1: wonderful deal of trouble to hear them, for when they
Speaker 1: were going in to give their depositions, they would for
Speaker 1: a long time be taken with fits that made them
Speaker 1: uncapable of saying anything. When Chief Justice William Stoughton asked
Speaker 1: Burroughs what he thought was the cause of these fits.
Speaker 1: Burroughs said, he supposed it was the devil. How comes
Speaker 1: the devil so loath to have any testimony borne against you?
Speaker 1: Stoton retorted as in the examinations the judges, especially Stoughton,
Speaker 1: seemed to presume guilt and contorted defendant statements to suit
Speaker 1: this conclusion. Many of the afflicted mentioned being visited by
Speaker 1: the ghosts of Burroughs selected murder victims, including his first
Speaker 1: two wives. Now at the trial. The afflicted claimed that
Speaker 1: the ghosts had appeared once more, quote, crying for vengeance
Speaker 1: against him. This was next level spectral evidence specters testifying
Speaker 1: against specters, and was apparently too far even for the
Speaker 1: sale of judges. They excluded this testimony, but evidence of
Speaker 1: Burrough's supernatural abilities continued to pour. In. Of particular interest
Speaker 1: to the court were stories of Burrow's extraordinary feats of strength,
Speaker 1: which Caughton Mather believed quote could not be done without
Speaker 1: a diabolical assistance, as quote, he was a very puny man,
Speaker 1: yet he had often done things beyond the strength of
Speaker 1: a giant. These feats included carrying a full barrel of
Speaker 1: molasses which could weigh nearly five hundred pounds with only
Speaker 1: two fingers, and lifting an enormous gun which one witness,
Speaker 1: Simon Willard, said he could barely hold with only one hand.
Speaker 1: Burroughs denied that he had lifted the gun as described,
Speaker 1: saying that a Native American man had helped him. The
Speaker 1: men testifying against him denied seeing this Native American, but
Speaker 1: did say that quote they supposed the black man, as
Speaker 1: the witches call the devil, and they generally say he
Speaker 1: resembles an Indian, might give him that assistance. Once again,
Speaker 1: burroughs attempts to defend himself had been turned against him,
Speaker 1: twisted to serve as further proof of his guilt. After this,
Speaker 1: the trial turned to something less supernatural, Burrows's reputation for
Speaker 1: mistreating his wives. The exact nature of this mistreatment is unknown,
Speaker 1: but many people thought that Burroughs was too harsh on
Speaker 1: his wives. Though none of this testimony related directly to witchcraft,
Speaker 1: Cotton Mather said that it quote not only proved him
Speaker 1: a very ill man, but also confirmed the belief of
Speaker 1: the character which had already been fastened on him. In
Speaker 1: other words, it proved that he was the kind of
Speaker 1: person likely to consort with the devil. Even Burroughs's former
Speaker 1: brother in law, Thomas Ruck, spoke out against the minister. Ruck,
Speaker 1: who was the brother of Burroughs's second wife, Sarah, described
Speaker 1: an instance where Burroughs had seemed to travel faster than
Speaker 1: was possible and had known the contents of Ruck's conversation
Speaker 1: with his sister even though he had not been present
Speaker 1: for it. When Ruck asked how Burroughs could possibly know
Speaker 1: their thoughts, saying quote, the devil himself did not know
Speaker 1: so far, Burroughs allegedly replied, qu my God makes known
Speaker 1: your thoughts unto me. These words from another minister might
Speaker 1: have been taken as testimony to the power of the Lord.
Speaker 1: In George Burrows's case, The judges instead decided that, by
Speaker 1: the assistance of the black Man, Burrows might put on
Speaker 1: his invisibility and, in that fascinating mist gratify his own
Speaker 1: jealous humor to hear what they said of him. Desperate
Speaker 1: to defend himself, Burrows handed a paper to the judges
Speaker 1: which he said was an argument against the possibility of
Speaker 1: witches using spectral forms. The judges, instead of considering the
Speaker 1: arguments therein only asked Burrows about authorship, for they recognized
Speaker 1: the text as being copied from a book by Witchcraft's
Speaker 1: skeptic Thomas Ady. Burroughs denied having copied it from a book,
Speaker 1: but admitted that he had read the argument in a
Speaker 1: manuscript and transcribed it. Exactly what was said in this
Speaker 1: exchange is unknown, but Cotton, Mather and the judges were
Speaker 1: suspicious and only saw this as further evidence of Burrows's duplicity.
Speaker 1: In Mather's words, quote, faltering, faulty, unconstant, and contrary answers
Speaker 1: upon judicial and deliberate examination are counted some unlucky symptoms
Speaker 1: of guilt in all crimes, especially in Witchcraft's. Now there
Speaker 1: was never a prisoner more eminent for them than George Burroughs,
Speaker 1: both at his examination and on his trial. With the
Speaker 1: testimony concluded, the jury quickly delivered their verdict on the
Speaker 1: charges of Witchcraft. Reverend George Burrows was found guilty and
Speaker 1: sentenced to die. He denied the truth of the allegations,
Speaker 1: but said that he understood the jury's decision given all
Speaker 1: the testimony against him. George Burrows took the news stoically. However,
Speaker 1: Burrows said he had been condemned by false witness. Reverend
Speaker 1: John Hale, a minister from nearby Beverley, who attended Burrows's trial,
Speaker 1: was disturbed by this possibility. Hale confronted one of the witnesses,
Speaker 1: telling her, quote, you are the one that brings this
Speaker 1: man to death. If you have charged anything upon him
Speaker 1: that is not true, recall it before it be too late,
Speaker 1: while he is alive. The witness told Hale that she
Speaker 1: had quote nothing to charge herself with. Upon that account,
Speaker 1: there were indeed false witnesses in the Salem witch trials.
Speaker 1: Though most scholars agree today that some of the cases
Speaker 1: were genuine in the sense that their sufferers genuinely believed
Speaker 1: that they were being afflicted by witches, they also agreed
Speaker 1: that other cases were falsified. Multiple witnesses would later apologize
Speaker 1: for lying during the trials. Some did so for attention,
Speaker 1: others out of spite, and others did it to save
Speaker 1: their own lives. Imprisoned witches were interrogated mercilessly by judges
Speaker 1: and other authorities. Physical torture was not unheard of. The
Speaker 1: reasons to confess were toofold for these witches, first to
Speaker 1: end the tormant and second to delay their trial. Only
Speaker 1: accused witches who refused to confess were tried in the
Speaker 1: summer of sixteen ninety two, and every one of them
Speaker 1: was convicted. Though most confess witches were eventually tried, not
Speaker 1: a single one of them was ever executed. One of
Speaker 1: these confessed witches was Margaret Jacobs. The sixteen year old's
Speaker 1: entire family, including her mentally ill mother Rebecca, and her
Speaker 1: grandfather George, had been accused of being witches. When Margaret
Speaker 1: herself was accused, she would later say she was told
Speaker 1: that quote, if I would not confess, I should be
Speaker 1: put down into the dungeon and would be hanged. But
Speaker 1: if I would confess, I should have my life terrified.
Speaker 1: She confessed and named both her grandfather and George Burrows.
Speaker 1: In her confession. The lies, she said were quote wounding
Speaker 1: of my own soul, and after her grandfather and Burrows's
Speaker 1: convictions in early August, her quote, soul would not suffer
Speaker 1: me to keep it in any longer. On the evening
Speaker 1: of August eighteenth, Jacobs went to visit George Burrows, apologize
Speaker 1: for her lies and ask for his forgiveness. He granted it,
Speaker 1: and the two prayed together. Though Margaret Jacobs's confession may
Speaker 1: have brought some peace to George Burrows, it would not
Speaker 1: change his fate. When Jacobs went to the judges and
Speaker 1: told them that she had lied in her testimony, they
Speaker 1: did not believe her and threw her in jail the
Speaker 1: next day, August nineteenth. The five witches convicted in early August,
Speaker 1: Martha Carrier, George Burrows, George Jacobs Senior, John Willard, and
Speaker 1: John Proctor were taken to the gallows in a cart.
Speaker 1: A large crowd gathered to watch, including Cotton Mather. All
Speaker 1: five of the condemned declared their innocence and asked Mather
Speaker 1: to pray for them, which he did. They forgave their accusers,
Speaker 1: asked for their own sins to be forgiven, and prayed
Speaker 1: that they would be the last innocence to die. When
Speaker 1: George Burrows was led up the latter to the gallows,
Speaker 1: he gave a short sermon. His speech, Robert Caliph, a
Speaker 1: critic of the trials, later wrote, quote was so well
Speaker 1: worded and uttered with such composedness, and such at least
Speaker 1: seeming fervency of spirit as was very affecting and drew
Speaker 1: tears from many. Burroughs concluded by reciting the Lord's Prayer,
Speaker 1: A feat that many believed a witch incapable of unease
Speaker 1: rippled through the crowd. What if they had gotten it wrong,
Speaker 1: What if they were about to execute a truly innocent man?
Speaker 1: But there was no room for uncertainty. Burroughs's fate was sealed.
Speaker 1: Hanging in the manner most likely employed at Salem was
Speaker 1: not a quick death. The drop was not long enough
Speaker 1: to break the neck, so the condemned person slowly strangled
Speaker 1: to death. As the crowd watched burrows struggle, they grew
Speaker 1: more and more uneasy. Once his body fell still, it
Speaker 1: seemed almost as if they would move to stop the
Speaker 1: remaining executions. But then Cotton Mather, mounted on a horse,
Speaker 1: spoke from his perch, this man is no ordained, Minister
Speaker 1: Mother said. If Burrows's speech had touched them, wasn't that
Speaker 1: just more proof of his diabolical powers. The devil has
Speaker 1: often been transformed into an angel of light. Mother reminded
Speaker 1: the crowd, just as in his trial, Burrows's own words
Speaker 1: had been turned against him. The executions continued. The dead
Speaker 1: were cut down from the gallows and buried in a
Speaker 1: shallow grave. Tradition has that the families some the executed
Speaker 1: snuck to the burial site at night and took their
Speaker 1: loved ones for reburial. Burrows had no one to perform
Speaker 1: this service for him. His children were still in main
Speaker 1: struggling to survive. The condemned had asked that theirs be
Speaker 1: the last innocent bloodshed, but it was not to be.
Speaker 1: The trials raged on for another two months. Every single
Speaker 1: person who pleaded not guilty was convicted by the court.
Speaker 1: In September, eighty one year old Giles Corey refused to
Speaker 1: enter a plea, meaning that he could not be tried.
Speaker 1: In an attempt to get Corey to either plead or confess,
Speaker 1: officials stacked increasingly heavy stones on his prone body. After
Speaker 1: enduring two days of this torture, Corey died. Besides Corey,
Speaker 1: nineteen people were executed between June tenth and September twenty second,
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two. Five more of the accused died in prison,
Speaker 1: along with two infants born to imprisoned women. By the
Speaker 1: time of the last executions, however, serious doubts were starting
Speaker 1: to arise about the validity of the trials. Observers were
Speaker 1: troubled by the fact that not a single confessed wish
Speaker 1: had been executed, while every accused person who claimed innocence
Speaker 1: was convicted. More and more people began to criticize the
Speaker 1: use of spectral evidence and the touch test. Sir William Phipps,
Speaker 1: the colonial governor, began to worry that the court he
Speaker 1: had established to shore up the political uncertainty in the
Speaker 1: colony might in fact be a destabilizing force. In a
Speaker 1: letter to the English Privy Council on October twelfth, Phipps
Speaker 1: tried to evade responsibility for the trials, writing that he
Speaker 1: quote depended upon the judgment of the court as to
Speaker 1: a right method of proceeding in cases of witchcraft. But
Speaker 1: on inquiring into the matter, I found that the devil
Speaker 1: had taken upon him the name and shape of several
Speaker 1: persons who were doubtless innocent. He had good reason to
Speaker 1: believe in their innocence. One of the most recently accused
Speaker 1: was his wife. On October twenty ninth, Phipps halted further arrests,
Speaker 1: released many of the accused, and disbanded the special Court.
Speaker 1: In January, a new court was convened to try the
Speaker 1: remaining prisoners. This court cleared most prisoners of charges or
Speaker 1: found them not guilty. In February, Phipps commuted the death
Speaker 1: sentences of all the surviving convicted. Phipps also took measures
Speaker 1: to suppress the story of the trials. In his October
Speaker 1: twelfth letter, he explained that I have also put a
Speaker 1: stop to the printing of any discourses, one way or
Speaker 1: other that may increase the needless disputes of people upon
Speaker 1: this occasion, because I saw a likelihood of kindling an
Speaker 1: inextinguishable flame if I should admit any public and open contests. However,
Speaker 1: Phipps did commission one account, a highly whitewashed version of
Speaker 1: events by Cotton Mather called The Wonders of the Invisible World.
Speaker 1: In fairness to Mather, he was a faithful transcriptionist of
Speaker 1: the examinations and trials. It was his framing that was
Speaker 1: spectacularly biased. Mather's account was sent to England, where it
Speaker 1: was accepted as true, but those on the ground in
Speaker 1: New England knew better. Many people now believed that the trials,
Speaker 1: even if well intentioned, had been a grievous mistake. Consequently,
Speaker 1: Phipps's publication ban was not obeyed for long. By the
Speaker 1: mid sixteen nineties, increasingly critical accounts of the trial were emerging.
Speaker 1: The most famous of these was by Robert Caliph, hilariously
Speaker 1: titled More Wonders of the Invisible World. Some of these
Speaker 1: criticisms came from the very authorities who had led the trials.
Speaker 1: In January sixteen ninety seven, the Colonial legislature, which counted
Speaker 1: many of the trial judges as members, declared a day
Speaker 1: of fasting and prayer in contrition for the trials. Judge
Speaker 1: Samuel Sewell gave a public apology at a fast day service.
Speaker 1: Twelve former jurors provided a statement of apology to be
Speaker 1: published in Robert Califf's book. Not everyone involved in the
Speaker 1: trials repented of their rules. Chief Justice William Stoughton, who
Speaker 1: went on to become Governor of the Colony, defended his
Speaker 1: actions until his death in seventeen oh one. Samuel Parris,
Speaker 1: whose devisive leadership style had likely helped spark the witchcraft hysteria,
Speaker 1: only issued a half hearted apology in November sixteen ninety
Speaker 1: four as part of a campaign to keep his job.
Speaker 1: No one bought it. In the early seventeen hundreds, more
Speaker 1: and more formal apologies for the trial began occurring. Some
Speaker 1: were institutional, like the three and seventeen eleven exonerations of
Speaker 1: most of the accused by the legislature, who also granted
Speaker 1: reparations for lost property to surviving accused or their families.
Speaker 1: Others were more personal. In seventeen oh six, and Putnam Junior,
Speaker 1: George Burrows's first accuser, publicly apologized for her role in
Speaker 1: the trials and was welcomed into the Salem Church. Not
Speaker 1: everyone would be satisfied by these efforts at atonement. George
Speaker 1: Burrows was cleared by the seventeen eleven declaration, but only
Speaker 1: his third wife, Mary, received financial recompense. His children, who
Speaker 1: had been orphaned after Burrows's execution and Mary's abandonment, received nothing.
Speaker 1: They would petition the legislature for a portion of their
Speaker 1: father's estate until as late as seventeen fifty. Some families
Speaker 1: did not even receive the comfort of a posthumous exoneration.
Speaker 1: Several names slipped through the cracks during the petition process.
Speaker 1: The final accused to be formally exonerated by the Massachusetts
Speaker 1: legislature was Elizabeth Johnson on July twenty eighth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: The discontent sparked by the Trials had deep ramifications for
Speaker 1: New England society. Many colonists faith in their rulers was
Speaker 1: irreparably shaken. In trying to show strength in the face
Speaker 1: of a crisis, Phipps and his government had acted hastily
Speaker 1: and ended up making the problem far worse. Instead of
Speaker 1: acting as a guiding hand, the government had provided the
Speaker 1: spark to the tinder pile. Distrust in the government was
Speaker 1: a natural result of such a disaster. This skepticism of
Speaker 1: a royal authority's ability to protect them and represent their
Speaker 1: interests laid the early groundwork for the American Revolution. Even
Speaker 1: before the Revolution, the trial had become a potent political symbol.
Speaker 1: In seventeen forty one, rumors of a conspiracy amongst enslaved
Speaker 1: people to burn down New York City led to mass
Speaker 1: arrests and the execution of more than thirty people. Josiah Cotton,
Speaker 1: Cotton Mather's first cousin, published an an anonymous letter in
Speaker 1: Boston and New York papers saying that quote the late
Speaker 1: terrible combustions at New York revived the remembrance of the
Speaker 1: tragedy at Salem. Over the centuries, the meaning of the
Speaker 1: trials has been adjusted based on who is speaking and
Speaker 1: what they're speaking about. By the twentieth century, the Trials
Speaker 1: were most often used as shorthand for political persecution. This
Speaker 1: association was cemented by Arthur Miller's nineteen fifty three play
Speaker 1: The Crucible, which used the Trials as an allegory for
Speaker 1: Joseph McCarthy's attacks on alleged communists. As Miller observed, the
Speaker 1: Red Scare of the mid twentieth century had much in
Speaker 1: common with the Witch Scare of the late seventeenth They
Speaker 1: were both times in which Americans fears about a changing
Speaker 1: world led them to turn on one another, encouraged by
Speaker 1: cynical politicians who capitalized on these fears for personal gain.
Speaker 1: These two periods are not unique in American history. While
Speaker 1: writing his book on the Trials, Emerson Baker saw parallels
Speaker 1: to the surge of Islamophobia in the wake of the
Speaker 1: nine to eleven attacks. I Am Afraid, wrote Thomas Braddle,
Speaker 1: a critic of the Trials in October sixteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: that ages will not wear off that reproach, and those
Speaker 1: stains which these things will leave behind them upon our land.
Speaker 1: Rattle was right to worry. More than three hundred years later,
Speaker 1: we still remember the injustices committed during the Salem which trials.
Speaker 1: What's more, we still enact those same injustices. We employ outdated,
Speaker 1: dubious forensic techniques such as blood spatter analysis, in the
Speaker 1: same way that the Salem judges relied on the dubious,
Speaker 1: outdated touch test. We convict people based on thin or
Speaker 1: fictitious evidence. We let our fear overcome our better judgment.
Speaker 1: We've come so far in so many ways since sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, but we haven't fully shaken off the legacy
Speaker 1: of Salem. Our legal system is now as it was then,
Speaker 1: shaped not just by law and precedent, but also by
Speaker 1: an aggregate of personal choices. Bad choices like the judge's
Speaker 1: decision to admit spectral evidence, but also brave choices like
Speaker 1: Margaret Jacob's choosing at great risk to her life to
Speaker 1: tell the truth. Don't worry, by the way, Jacobs was
Speaker 1: eventually acquitted of witchcraft, but only after spending seven months
Speaker 1: in jail. Most of our choices aren't as dangerous or
Speaker 1: dramatic as Margaret Jacobs's. But every choice we make matters,
Speaker 1: whatever our role in society, whatever our connection to the
Speaker 1: legal system. We have the power to make the right decisions,
Speaker 1: to choose compassion, to choose justice. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to History on Trial. To see images of people and
Speaker 1: places in this episode, check out our instagram at History
Speaker 1: on Trial. My main sources for this episode were Emerson W.
Speaker 1: Baker's book A Storm of Witchcraft, The Salem Trials and
Speaker 1: the American Experience, Marilyn k Roach's book The Salem witch Trials,
Speaker 1: a day by day chronicle of a community under siege,
Speaker 1: and the Salem Witchcraft Papers collected by Paul Boyer and
Speaker 1: Stephen Nissenbaum and adapted by the University of Virginia. Again.
Speaker 1: This is the final episode of season one. It has
Speaker 1: been such a privilege and a pleasure to get to
Speaker 1: learn more about these stories and to share them with you.
Speaker 1: To stay updated on what's next, please follow our instagram
Speaker 1: at History on Trial or subscribe to our newsletter, which
Speaker 1: you can sign up for on our website History on
Speaker 1: Trial podcast dot com. Special thanks to my producer, Jessefunk,
Speaker 1: who has edited and produced all the episodes this season,
Speaker 1: and to my friends, family and partner for their support.
Speaker 1: History on Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward.
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
Speaker 1: supervising producer Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show
Speaker 1: at History on Trial podcast dot com and follow us
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