The Crucible

29 speculation about the actual cause of her symptoms. . . . Theologian Cotton Mather had recently published a book called Memorable Providences describing the suspected witchcraft of a woman in Boston. Betty's behavior in many ways mirrored that described in the book. Closer attention was paid when Abigail Williams, 11-year-old Ann Putnam Jr. (called Ruth in Miller's play), 17year-old Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott (Susanna) began to exhibit similar symptoms. When Dr. Griggs could not cure the children, he naturally suggested that some supernatural force must be at work. An increasingly larger group, which also grew to include adults, began to complain of afflictions.

Sometime after February 25, Betty and Abigail named their tormentors with such consistent stories that it seems the girls must have been working their stories out together. The first people to be accused of witchcraft (Tituba, Sarah Osborn, and Sarah Good) were outsiders.

It was easy for the pious townspeople to believe that those who differed from them were influenced by the devil.

The antics in the court proceedings went much as Miller portrayed. Displays of the victims’ apparent affliction when in the presence of the witch were considered valid evidence of guilt. The fervor might have died down at that point but Tituba, who had been adamantly denying involvement in witchcraft, proclaimed that she had been approached by a tall man who asked her to sign his book. She stated that she and four others, including Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn, were in fact witches and flew through the air on poles. At this point, the witch hunting took off. Even the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good, Dorcas, was accused and jailed.

Bridget Bishop, the sixty-year-old owner of a house of ill repute was the first brought to trial. She was the most likely of the prisoners to be convicted considering her deviant behavior. . . . After her conviction however, one of the judges, Saltonstall, resigned in disgust. . . . Bridget Bishop was hanged on June 10, 1692.

As time went on the accused were not as disreputable as Bishop. Rebecca Nurse was actually found not guilty but Chief Justice Stoughton urged the jury to reconsider and she was condemned. John Proctor was actually a tavern owner (not a farmer as in the play) and was openly critical of the witch-hunts. He was an example of what would happen to those who spoke out against the proceedings. Proctor was hanged August 19, 1692. Doubt in the validity of the accusations finally began when the ex-Reverend George Burroughs was hung. He recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly, which was thought impossible for one in league with the Devil. Cotton Mather . . . was in attendance that day and his intervention [led] people back to supporting the trials. After all, an innocent person would not be convicted.

Giles Corey was, as the play reports, pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea to the charge of witchcraft against him. His wife Martha was hanged three days later with 7 other convicted witches.

Her group would be the last to die. Salem was regaining its senses.

Reverend John Hale and the villagers found it increasingly harder to believe that so many respectable people would turn to the Devil all at once. . . . Reverend Parris was replaced though he tried to blame those around him. Many of those involved also tried to place the blame on others. Those still in prison were released and in later years, the families of the executed were compensated. . . .