February Greetings
Dear Salem Oracle Members,
HAPPY February, Imbolc, and Chinese Lunar New Year! It’s also a New Moon, so we have quite a few powerful energies brewing today as we kick off another month here at Salem Oracle. Thank you to all the new members. It’s wonderful to watch this community grow, and I cannot thank you enough for your support of this project.
In January we set the stage for the coming year. As a reminder, here are some of the major events that happened last month:
Two young girls begin to act strangely, exhibiting odd behaviors that baffle onlookers.
An attack by the French and Abenaki occurs about fifty miles north of Salem in York, ME.
The colony receives word that Sir William Phips is now the Captain General and Governor of Massachusetts Bay.
Several men in Salem Village meet to petition for a formal separation from Salem Town.
Usually when we tell the story of Salem we focus on the afflicted girls as the starting point, which is of course one of the most fascinating aspects. But as we take this day-by-day approach to our research and contemplations we can consider other elements as well. The larger political context of Salem and the colony both impact the everyday occurrences in the Parris household as the girls writhe in the fits. And we cannot overestimate how warfare on the frontier colors the lives, thoughts, and actions of those living in more populated and established areas like Boston and Salem. Warfare is never an isolated incident, and even though the raid in York occurs fifty miles away, it still causes alarm and fear for residents throughout the colony. From a Puritan perspective, it could also be seen, as Rev. George Burroughs writes, as evidence that “God is still manifesting his displeasure against this Land. He who formerly hath set to his hand to help us, doth even write bitter things against us.” All of these different elements come together to impact the initial unfolding events around the afflicted girls and the hysteria that will follow.
So let’s pay close attention to the details and the context in which all of these events occur. We will be rewarded for this meticulous research and deep contemplation down the line.
As we enter into a new month, what energy do we carry with us? With Imbolc we are halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. The days are growing longer once again (what a treat to have some lingering light after 5 pm!). There may still be snow and frigid nights, but the promise of spring is before us and perhaps the winter blues are beginning to lift. With the Chinese Lunar New Year we similarly embrace the opportunity to welcome in some fresh energy, saying goodbye to one year and hello to another. As we continue with our exploration of the Salem Witch Trials, let’s bring some of that freshness to our perspective. Where can we approach things in a different way or see them in a new light? The Year of the Tiger brings with it bravery, courage, and strength, which further deepens that fresh energy while grounding it like the firm imprint of a tiger’s paw in the earth. This project is a great undertaking, so let’s be steadfast in our journey into the past and face the darkness with a sense of bravery, peering into the unknown with strength and stability.
I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter. Our highlights include a new Spotify playlist to capture some February vibes, an overview of Mary Beth Norton’s In the Devil’s Snare, a glimpse into the online Salem Documentary Archive, and a 1947 radio program that brings the trial of Rebecca Nurse to life.
Thank you once again for your support! If you ever need me, I’m just an email or a DM away.
~Maya
February 1, 2022
In February 1692, the Parris family prays for the afflictions to cease to no avail…
…Sarah Good pays an unwelcome visit to the parsonage, the young girls are diagnosed as being "under an evil hand," a witch cake is baked, and the first accusations of witchcraft are made.
I’ve curated a special Salem Oracle February 1692 Spotify playlist to capture the mood of this significant month. Listen here and feel free to share with others.
Warfare & Witchcraft.
“Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study.”
LEARNING MORE about the significance of the January 25th raid at York, ME, inspired me to go deeper into the intersection between warfare and fears of witchcraft in Puritan New England. Mary Beth Norton’s In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, first published in 2002, is the perfect secondary source to accomplish this goal. First of all, Norton is awesome. She is an incredible historian, and I highly recommend anything she has written. And of course, I particularly love her work on the Salem Witch Trials.
Who is Mary Beth Norton? She is a professor emeritus in the History and American Studies departments at Cornell University, and her accomplishments could fill an entire book on their own. Trained at Harvard University, her areas of expertise include colonial history and gender history. She is often praised for her work on the Salem Witch Trials. Norton is not only well respected as an academic, she has also impacted popular perceptions of history through her appearances on various television shows.
When Norton first undertook a project on the Salem Witch Trials, she assumed she would apply a feminist lens and offer a new gendered interpretation of the trials. However, as her research continued she found she could not ignore the connections between the larger context of frontier warfare and the fear of witchcraft in New England. Norton isn’t the first historian to make this connection, but In the Devil’s Snare represents the first full-length book to dive into this impact of warfare on the witch hysteria of Salem in such detail.
Norton recreates the narrative of the Salem Witch Trials by framing it within this larger context of frontier wars, particularly King William’s War, which occurred in Maine between 1688 and 1697. The bloody raid on York in January of 1692 was an immediate precursor to the hysteria that emerges in the following months in Salem Village and the surrounding area. She reminds readers early on that the residents of Essex County lived “near the front lines of an armed conflict that today is little known but which at the time commanded their lives and thoughts.”
As she brings to light, many of those suffering afflictions and making accusations during the trials were orphans and refugees from such warfare in Maine. Trial transcripts reveal underlying anxiety about Indian attacks as descriptions of witch activity echoed that of bloodshed from previous raids and attacks. They feared not only the “visible” attacks by the Abenaki on the frontier but also the “invisible” attacks by spectral agents empowered by the Devil. The settlers saw these conflicts as God's punishment for their backsliding into sin and not fulfilling their Puritan vision. In their minds, this also created fertile ground for the conspiracy of witches and the Devil to grow and sabotage their communities even in more established locations like Salem Village and other settlements in Essex County.
We still do not understand the full impact of trauma on survivors. The fact that many people involved in the trials were refugees of warfare and that they had experienced bloodshed and tremendous loss, cannot be ignored. To what degree these experiences affected the trials is debatable, but there is no question that it had some kind of impact.
In the conclusion, Norton notes that she is not claiming warfare “caused” the witch trials, “but rather that the conflict created the conditions that allowed the crisis to develop as rapidly and extensively as it did.” Warfare is not the only factor at play in the larger context that led to the witch hysteria of Salem, but if you want to dive deep into this particular perspective, then I definitely recommend checking out Norton’s work. It provides one more piece to the puzzle of what lay beneath these infamous witch trials.
Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Vintage, 2002.
UVA’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive.
The mother of all online archives for Salem resources!
RATHER than highlighting one singular primary source this month, I wanted to draw our attention to one of the most incredible places to find documents relating to the Salem Witch Trials—The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. This archive is maintained by the University of Virginia, and it it simply amazing. It has been my go-to for years when I want to look up specific trial records, and it has many other primary sources as well.
We will continue to return to this online archive throughout the duration of the Salem Oracle project. If you are conducting research on your own, you will definitely want to know how to utilize the court records. From the home page, select “Court Records” under the “Documents & Transcriptions” heading. This will open a new page for 17th Century Documents. Click the first option for The Salem Witchcraft Papers and you will find verbatim transcriptions of the court records. On the left-hand side of the page is an alphabetical list of everybody who has records associated with the trials. You could spend hours, days, weeks, even months (maybe years!) going through all of these records.
This is great if you are focused on a particular person. For example, do you have a relative who was involved in the trials? Check out the court records and see if their name appears. You might find some interesting documents relating to your ancestors.
Something that I particularly love is that when you click on a name, you will find transcripts of the files as well as images of original documents. Seeing a side-by-side comparison of the transcripts will give you a new appreciation for the work of previous historians who only had these hand-written sources to work with and make you thankful that today you do not have to read through 17th-century handwriting to gain such information.
What might we find while utilizing the court records? Let’s take al look at a lesser-known figure in the trials—Mary Black, an enslaved black woman who was accused and examined of witchcraft in April, 1692. Below I’ve included an image of her examination alongside the transcription of this text.
The examination of Mary Black (a Negroe) at a Court held at Salem Village 22. Apr. 1692 By the Magistrates of Salem
Mary, you are accused of sundry acts of witchcraft: Tell me be you a Witch?
-- Silent.
How long have you been a witch?
I cannot tell.
But have you been a witch?
I cannot tell you.
Why do you hurt these folks
I hurt no body
Who doth?
I do not know.
[Benj'a Putnam] Her Master saith a man sat down upon the farm with her about a twelve month agoe.
What did the man say to you?
He said nothing.
Doth this Negroe hurt you?
Severall of them said yes.
Why do you hurt them?
I did not hurt them.
Do you prick sticks?
No I pin my Neck cloth
Well take out a pin, & pin it again.
She did so, & severall of the afflicted cryed out they were prick't. Mary Walcott was prick't in the arm till the blood came, Abigail Williams was prick't in the stomach & Mercy Lewis was prick't in the foot.
mr Samuell parris being desired to take in wrighting the Examination of Mary Black a Negro Woman delivered itt as aforesaid
And upon heareing the same and seeing what wee did then see togather with the Charge of the afflicted persons then present Wee Committed s'd Mary black.
Per us *John Hathorne
Jonathan. Corwin {Assis’ts
(Reverse) The Examination of (9) Mary Black 22. Apr. 1692
Cleerd by proclamacon
Jan'ry. 11. 1692
Mr Nathaniell Putnam of Salem Village
his negro
This source gives us a glimpse into her examination and displays how such instances were recorded. Some parts of her examination were written down word, while some sections are simply descriptions of what was happening. Together this paints a picture of how the events of the trials might unfold. And this just one example of the kind of incredible primary source you can find in this online archive. Mary Black’s record is sparse, so all we have is a copy of her examination and the follow up notes from when she was cleared by proclamation in January. But some records, such as that of Sarah Good, contains her arrest warrant, multiple examinations, a list of witnesses, summary of evidence, indictments, summons, depositions, and the warrant for her execution.
What else might you find in this archive beyond the court records? There are files for the quarterly courts of Essex County if you are interested in the larger political context of this region and era; record books of the Salem Village Church where you can see what Parris was preaching at different points during the trials; historical maps; links to other archival collections; books by contemporaries of the trials, such as John Hale, Increase Mather, and George Lincoln Burr; as well as relevant diaries, letters, and images. Like I said, it’s the mother of online archives for the Salem Witch Trials! Check it out and let me know what you think. Did you discover any interesting sources? Let’s explore them in a newsletter or bonus podcast episode.
Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive. https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html
Salem on the Radio.
The year is 1692, it’s the trial of Rebecca Nurse, and “CBS invites you to believe that our microphone is there waiting for the verdict. All things are as they were then, except one thing—CBS IS THERE!”
AND NOW for my favorite part of the newsletter—pop culture! Last month I stumbled across a depiction of the Salem Witch Trials that had never crossed my radar before, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you all. From 1947 to 1950 CBS ran a radio show originally called CBS Is There (later renamed You Are There). This show took historic events and dramatized them with “live radio” coverage.
On Monday, August 4, 1947, at 9 pm, they aired the episode “The Witchcraft Trials At Salem” for the first time.
The listener is transported back to the trial of Rebecca Nurse on June 29th, 1692, as the narrator proclaims, “CBS invites you to believe that our microphone is there waiting for the verdict. All things are as they were then, except one thing—CBS IS THERE!”
This is a really interesting dramatization of the trials as we are so used to seeing this historic event depicted in films, television, and plays, or reading about it in novels and stories. But as a radio drama it takes on a different light. It also carries with it the notion of being “fact” since it is presented as part of a newscast. They actually do a good job of sticking to real historical information that we know about the trials. Remember, this is 1947. It’s five years before The Crucible and many years before most of the influential histories of the 20th century will be released. This show most likely depended on Charles Upham’s 1867 Salem Witchcraft and primary sources to create the material for this program.
The show brings historical figures to life, and they are not afraid of casting some blame. Early on Reverend Samuel Parris speaks to the reporter, indicating his belief that those on trial represent a larger plot to overthrow the government and ministry. He claims that the suspected witches have been meeting and plotting to “blow up” all the churches and set up their own “diabolism.”
Coming with those hard-hitting questions, the CBS reporter asks Parris about his ongoing issues with the congregation and disputes over his compensation. The reporter also presses him on the fact that Francis Nurse (Rebecca’s husband) was one of the members of the community that disputed Parris’s claim that he owned the parsonage and surrounding area and that he was on the committee that failed to deliver firewood to the parsonage. This observance doesn’t make Parris too happy.
We also get to meet Dr. William Griggs who informs listeners about the strange behaviors of the afflicted girls that he observed firsthand. He even explains how the process of bewitchment might take place.
In the midst of these interviews, the reporter notes the larger political and cultural context of the era, as well as warfare in the colony. He comments, “the excitement over the witches brings to a head the anxiety and unrest which has been disturbing the people of Salem. Dissatisfaction with a succession of governors, high taxes, a high cost of living, and lately rumors of war. It’s easy to understand why the distracted Salemites feel, as one put it to me this morning, that ‘Satan is loose in New England.’ And why they’re not surprised to learn 150 of their own neighbors and even friends have been plotting with the Devil against them and their government.”
Then the microphone is placed right in the midst of Rebecca Nurse’s trial so we can hear how it unfolded. I pulled up Rebecca Nurse’s court records while listening to this part of the dramatization and determined that this “recording” of the trial is a combination of statements taken from the March 24 examination transcripts, depositions by accusers, and other descriptions of the June 29th trial. One aspect that it captures nicely is that in the meeting house the afflicted girls would just start crying out and collapsing into their “grievous fits.” It definitely has a different impact to hear their piercing screams interrupting the trial than just seeing a written description in a transcript or a secondary source. When these events actually unfolded in the meeting house in 1692, the outbursts must have been incredibly disruptive and alarming.
We also get a glimpse into the conditions of the prisons, with little four-year-old Dorothy (aka Dorcas) Good who just wants a piece of bread and can’t comprehend why she’s in a jail cell.
If you want to find out how things turn out at the trial of Rebecca Nurse, you can currently listen to a recording of this show via Youtube here. I’ve also embedded the video below.
When the radio show evolved into the TV series You Are There in the 1950s, CBS revisited the Salem Witch Trials once again, this time with narration by Walter Cronkite. But we’ll save that episode for another day!
Have you listened to the new podcast yet?
Check out the first few episodes of the Salem Oracle Podcast here and be sure to tune in every week for more updates on the Salem Witch Trials. Many members also have access to bonus episodes through their memberships. Sometimes we build on themes we start to explore in the public podcast, so always be sure to listen to both.
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