Chapter C: W. Upham (10)

"_The humble petition of Mary Easty unto His Excellency Sir William
Phips, and to the honored Judge and Bench now sitting in judicature in
Salem, and the reverend Ministers, humbly showeth_, That, whereas your
poor and humble petitioner, being condemned to die, do humbly beg of
you to take it into your judicious and pious consideration, that your
poor and humble petitioner, knowing my own innocency, blessed be the
Lord for it! and seeing plainly the wiles and subtilty of my accusers
by myself, cannot but judge charitably of others that are going the
same way of myself if the Lord steps not mightily in. I was confined a
whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for, and
then cleared by some of the afflicted persons, as some of Your Honors
know. And in two days' time I was cried out upon (by) them, and have
been confined, and now am condemned to die. The Lord above knows my
innocency then, and likewise does now, as at the great day will be
known to men and angels. I petition Your Honors not for my own life,
for I know I must die, and my appointed time is set; but, the Lord he
knows it is, that if it be possible, no more _innocent blood_ may be
shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided in the way and course you go
in. I question not but Your Honors do to the utmost of your powers in
the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches, and would not
be guilty of innocent blood for the world. But _by my own innocency I
know you are in the wrong way_. The Lord in his infinite mercy direct
you in this great work, if it be his blessed will, that no more
innocent blood be shed! I would humbly beg of you that Your Honors
would be pleased to examine these afflicted persons strictly, and keep
them apart some time, and likewise to try some of these confessing
witches; I being confident there is several of them has belied
themselves and others, as will appear, if not in this world, I am sure
in the world to come, whither I am now agoing. I question not but you
will see an alteration in these things. They say, myself and others
having made a league with the devil, we cannot confess.... The Lord
above, who is the searcher of all hearts, knows, as I shall answer it
at the tribunal seat, that I know not the least thing of witchcraft:
therefore I cannot, I dare not belie my own soul. I beg Your Honors
not to deny this my poor humble petition from a poor, dying, innocent
person. And I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your
endeavors."

Calef says, that, "when she took her last farewell of her husband, children, and friends," she "was, as is reported by them present, as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could well be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present." We can readily credit that account to its fullest possible import; for her deportment and language, throughout all the scenes in which she is presented, bespeak a strong, clear, discriminating intellect, a true and brave heart, elevated and generous sentiments, firm faith in God, and broad charity toward man. A most welcome child found entrance to some bright home above when her tried spirit gained release from its mortal form.

SUSANNA MARTIN.

The person bearing the above name was a widow residing in Amesbury, who had been tried for witchcraft more than twenty years before, and therefore obviously in 1692 was well along in life. Her answers in court, however, bespeak a prompt, self-possessed, shrewd, and seemingly merry prisoner. A few of her replies, together with the questions which elicited them, are as follows:--

"Ann Putnam threw her glove at her in a fit. 'What do you laugh at?' said the court. _Ans._ 'Well I may at such folly.'

"'Is this folly to see these so hurt?' 'I never hurt man, woman, or child.'

"'What do you think ails them?' 'I do not desire to spend my judgment upon it.' 'Do you think they are bewitched?' 'No; I do not think they are.' 'Well, tell us your thoughts about them.' 'My thoughts are mine own when they are in; but when they are out they are another's.' 'Who do you think is their master?' 'If they be dealing in the black art, you may know as well as I.' 'How comes your appearance just now to hurt these?' 'How do I know?' 'Are you not willing to tell the truth?' 'He that appeared in Samuel's shape can appear in any one's shape.'"

One R. P., dated Salisbury, August 9, 1692, and forwarded to Jonathan Corwin, a document ranking among the ablest on record against the legal proceedings of that day, in which he says, "I suppose 'tis granted by all that the person of one that is dead cannot appear, because the soul and body are separated, and so the person is dissolved, and so ceaseth to be; and it is certain that the person of the living cannot be in two places at one time." That writer conceived that man's personality ceased at death; therefore he logically inferred that the personality of the prophet Samuel had gone out of existence, and said, "The witch of Endor raised the DEVIL, in the likeness of Samuel, to tell Saul his fortune." We find in many places the cropping out, in those days, of the same idea. Susanna Martin indicated her belief that it was the devil who appeared to the woman of Endor, and not the glorified Samuel. Premises deemed valid by some men in 1692, would, if applied in that direction, support the conclusion that the Moses and Elias who appeared to Jesus and others on the mount of transfiguration were nothing but the devil in the shapes of those old prophets. Belief that the devil personated Samuel is to us no more unphilosophical than is Upham's conclusion, that "by the immediate agency of the Almighty the spirit of Samuel really arose." Paul taught that there _is_--not that there is to be hereafter, that there is now--"a spiritual _body_." All clairvoyants to-day can see such a body belonging to a human form, and sometimes see it being far away from the form to which nature attached it. Each human being now possesses both a natural or physical and also a spiritual _form_. That position of R. P. and Susanna Martin was unsound which held that the physical body was essential to personality. Also, since the Almighty originally infused through nature, elements and forces which admit of the return of spirits by natural processes, it is as unphilosophical to hold that Samuel was raised by the immediate agency of the Almighty, or miraculously, as it would be to ascribe an American traveler's return home from Europe to the _immediate_ agency of the same Being. Natural laws and forces permitted, under possible conditions, the return of Samuel himself. Such conditions existed often in and around the hospitable and sympathetic woman of Endor, who was no _witch_, in the now common meaning of that word; who was not called such in the Bible,--but only a person who had a _familiar_ spirit, that is, a spirit so constantly present, and having such ability of communion with her, as made the spirit seem to her like one of her family--her familiar. A spirit thus attendant on a mortal may be either good, bad, or indifferent, and may be cognized by those persons whose constitution and development are such that their inner senses can report to their external consciousness. The existing properties of that woman, which permitted some special spirit to frequently dwell and commune intelligibly with her, and be cognizable by her inner senses as a dweller in her household, as her familiar,--such properties would enable her to perceive the form and hear the voice of another spirit, who might be called to her presence for an urgent purpose, as naturally as the outer eye which sees one external form is competent to see another. Samuel, when wanted, came and was seen by the clairvoyant woman, but not by the external eyes of either Saul or his attendants. The case was very like what occurred at the first examination under an accusation for witchcraft at Salem Village. Sarah Good then said, "None here see the witches"--that is, none see spirits--"but the afflicted and themselves,"--that is, none but the afflicted and the accused, of which she was one. In other words, the actual doers of the marvelous works, the spirits, are seen only by the accusers and the accused--the clairvoyants here. It is true that in the more modern instance the spirits seen were often, though not always, those of living persons. But this does not affect the principles of explanation. Those persons who are so unfolded as to see spirit-forms can sometimes see them, whether they be still attached to the outer ones or be liberated. Spirits, both some who had been entirely liberated from the flesh, and other flesh-clad ones whose encasements were translucent, could be seen by members of the accusing "circle," and by some others of like combinations, even when the court and the mass of attendants upon it might fail to see anything of the kind. The horses and chariots of fire were as clearly seen by Elisha on the hills of Dothan, while his servant was blind to them, as they were after the young man's inner eyes were opened so that he too saw the helping and protecting hosts. The change was in the young man himself, and not up on the hills. Departed spirits are where they feel our aspirations for their presence, and the opening of our inner sight, at any time or in any place, might render them visible.

Returning to Susanna Martin, we find that one William Brown, of Salisbury, made deposition in 1692, "that, about one or two and thirty years ago, his wife met Susanna in the road, who 'vanished away out of her sight,' ... after which time the said Martin did many times appear to her at her house, and did much trouble her.... When she did come, it was as birds pecking her legs, or pricking her with the motion of their wings; and then it would rise up into her stomach with pricking pain, as nails and pins, of which she did bitterly complain.... After that it would up to her throat in a bunch like a pullet's egg; and then she would turn back her head and say, 'Witch, you shan't choke me.'"

Much more testimony was adduced to show that this woman's apparition was very frequently seen; and not only seen, but was a source of exceeding sufferings to many people. This argues nothing against her character, but plainly hints that the relation of her inner to her outer form was such that the former could be seen and felt by many persons who either constitutionally or from sickness, or both, were very sensitive. Such persons often saw her spirit-form, and suffered from its psychological action. That peculiarity perhaps made her so luminous as to be observable, and therefore accused, by "the circle," and the accusation brought her to the gallows.

MARTHA CARRIER.

The faculties and manifestations which nearly two centuries ago were deemed to constitute witchcraft, and the mode of eliciting proof of that crime then, stand forth very conspicuously in the history of the wife and children of Thomas Carrier of Andover.

_The Examination of Martha Carrier, May 31, 1692._

"_Q._ Abigail Williams, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier of Andover.

"_Q._ Elizabeth Hubbard, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier.

"_Q._ Susan Sheldon, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier; she bites me,
pinches me, and tells me she would cut my throat if I did not sign her
book. Mary Walcott said she afflicted her, and brought the book to
her.

"_Q._ What do you say to this you are charged with? _A._ I have not
done it. Susan Sheldon cried, she looks upon the black man. Ann Putnam
complained of a pin stuck in her. _Q._ What black man is that? _A._ I
know none. Mary Warren cried out she was pricked. _Q._ What black man
did you see? _A._ I saw no black man but _your own presence_. _Q._
Can you look upon these and not knock them down? _A._ They will
dissemble if I look upon them. You see you look upon them and they
fall down. _A._ It is false; the _devil is a liar_. I looked upon none
since I came into the room. Susan Sheldon cried out _in a trance_, I
wonder what could you murder thirteen persons! Mary Walcott testified
the same: that there lay thirteen ghosts! All the afflicted fell into
intolerable outcries and agonies. Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam
testified the same: that she had killed thirteen at Andover. _A._ It
is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks, who are out of
their wits. _Q._ Do not you see them? _A._ If I do speak you will not
believe me. You do see them, said the accusers. _A._ You lie; I am
wronged. There is a black man whispering in her ear, said many of the
afflicted. Mercy Lewis in a violent fit, was well, upon the
examinant's grasping her arm. The tortures of the afflicted were so
great that there was no enduring of it, so that she was ordered away,
and to be bound hand and foot with all expedition; the afflicted in
the mean while almost killed, to the great trouble of all spectators,
magistrates, and others.

"_Note._ As soon as she was well bound they all had strange and sudden
ease. Mary Walcott told the magistrates, that this woman told her, she
had been a witch this forty years."

The foregoing record shows the fearful ordeal to which any one might be subjected upon whom an accusation of witchcraft fell, and the hopelessness of escape where spectral evidence was admitted and held to be reliable. Here was a woman who, it seems, had been conscious of spirit presence with her for "forty years," and her constitutional properties which permitted this were so luminous in the spiritual atmosphere, or medium of vision by inner eyes, that the clairvoyant girls readily caught sight of her, readily felt influences from her, and therefore accused her of tormenting them.

The general character and deportment of this woman prior to her arrest may not have won public approbation. When in presence of the magistrates she was self-possessed and not lacking in boldness; for otherwise she would not have told the judge that his own presence was the only black man she had seen there. She told her examiners that it was shameful for them to mind "these folks, who are out of their wits." She said to the girls, "You lie; I am wronged." Her presence permitted extraordinary visions, contortions, sufferings, and outcries, and probably emanations from her were special helps to the unwonted outflow.

_In trance_, one saw thirteen dead bodies, and charged the accused with having murdered them. It was _in trance_ that this was seen and said. If _entranced_, was the girl, then, a voluntary seer and speaker? No. Supermundane force was in action there. Entrancements and obsessions came upon all those youthful accusers fitfully--and the forms of the girls generally were tools operated by wills entering from outside. The tongue of that entranced accuser, like Ann Cole's, probably was "improved to utter thoughts that never were in her own mind."

Four of Mrs. Carrier's children were brought into court in company with herself, either as accused ones or as witnesses against some members of the family. "Before the trial," says Drake, "several of her own children had frankly and fully confessed not only that they were witches themselves, but that their mother had made them so." The artlessness and simplicity of their _confessions_ render them not simply entertaining, but more instructive than almost any other statements made at the examinations and trials. Little Sarah was asked,--

"How long have you been a witch? _A._ Ever since I was six years old. How old are you now? _A._ Near eight years old; brother Richard says I shall be eight years old in November next.

"Who made you a witch? _A._ My mother; she made me set my hand to a book. How did you set your hand to it? _A._ I touched it with my fingers; and the book was red; the paper of it was white. She said she never had seen the black man ... that her mother had baptized her, and the devil or black man was not there, as she saw. Her mother said, when she baptized her, 'Thou art mine for ever and ever. Amen.'

"How did you afflict folks? _A._ I pinched them. She said she went to those whom she afflicted--_went_, not in body, but in her spirit. She would not own that she had ever been at the witch-meeting at the Village."

The _confessions_ (?) are beautiful and precious; they are robed in all the appropriate naivete of any school-girl's _confession_ that herself was a--_pupil_. Not a tinge of shame, sorrow, or humiliation is visible anywhere about them. Not a sign appears, that, in little Sarah's comprehension, there was anything more censurable, as in fact there was not, in her being a witch, than there is in the child of to-day being a Sunday school scholar. Disclosure of common occurrences at her home, which inborn faculties there as naturally brought into view, as other faculties there and elsewhere cause the limbs of childhood to expand and its intellect to unfold, constituted her confession of the witchcraft that pertained to her mother and herself.

The common mind, if not cautioned, will almost perforce attach meanings to the testimonies of Martha Carrier's children which never belonged to them. The detailings of facts and experiences not rare in that mediumistic family, were no confession of anything like what the public in any age has been accustomed to designate by the term witchcraft. In biblical times the occurrences might have been called prophecies--true or false--and to-day they would be regarded as spirit manifestations, or near kindred to such.

The little girl's _confessions_ are _precious_ as well as beautiful; they are instructive comments upon the creed held by the adults of her day; they give some support to the position that compact with some spirit was an element in preparation for working marvels. Her mother baptized her, and made her virtually sign a book, and then claimed her own child as hers "for ever and ever, Amen." The little child herself seems to have regarded this ratification of her mother's spirit claims upon her spirit as having made herself a witch; but such a witch as she was not ashamed to be, and saw no harm in being. Indeed, how can any other than perverted vision see harm in the girl's filial compact? Her clairvoyant and other mediumistic faculties had become so unfolded when she was about six years old, that she and her mother, as freed spirits, could, in conscious companionship, roam in spirit realms; and she, no doubt, felt that forces emanating from the mother aided in her unfoldment, and continued to have much sway over her in her mental journeyings and operations. She might with much propriety say that her mother made her a witch. And her case shows that the process for producing a witch might be much simpler and much less horrifying than the public in her day had any conception of. Indeed, witchification was then, and now is, a growth or unfoldment from God's plantings much more than a manufacture by the devil's or any mother's hands. She saw no devil, no black man--but only her own mother was concerned in making her a witch; and the mother probably made her a witch by processes as natural and legitimate as those by which she had previously made her a child.

The girl's power for afflicting was mental; her journeyings and pinchings were mental; and yet, no doubt, her grip was as sensibly felt by the nerves of those whom she pinched as would have been firm graspings of their flesh by her fingers of bones and muscles. It is the spirit only which feels hurts of the body, and a pinched spirit imprints the hurt on the flesh it is animating. This little girl's statements confirm Tituba's, and give credibility to the many declarations of the accusing girls that they were pinched, bitten, and tortured by persons whose outer forms were remote from them at the time. We live amid mysteries which one by one are getting revealed as time rolls on.

An instructive instance of the warping force of these prevalent beliefs in shaping the diction of the most erudite describers of witchcraft facts, is found in Lawson's summary of events, where, when commenting upon testimony like that given by little Sarah, he says, "Several have _confessed_ against their own mother, that they were instruments to bring them into _the devil's covenant_." But the girl's testimony mentioned a covenant with her mother _alone_, saying that the devil was not there, as she saw. It was Lawson, and not the girl, who brought the devil into this case.

The same writer further says, "Some girls of eight or nine years of age did declare that after they were so betrayed by their mothers to the power of _Satan_, they saw _the devil_ go in their _own shapes_ to afflict others." But the statement of Sarah is, that she herself went forth and afflicted in her spirit-form, and not that the _devil_ went in her shape. The cultured of that generation had _devil on the brain_ so severely, that they persistently brought him in even where the facts as presented by the witnesses plainly excluded him.

Richard Carrier, eighteen years old, son of Thomas and Martha, was examined.

"Have you been in the devil's snare?--Yes.

"Is your brother Andrew insnared by the devil's snare?--Yes.

"How long has your brother been a witch?--Near a month.

"How long have you been a witch?--Not long.

"Have you joined in afflicting the afflicted persons?--Yes.

"You helped to hurt Timothy Swan, did you?--Yes.

"How long have you been a witch?--About five weeks.

"Who was in company when you covenanted with the devil?--Mrs. Bradbury.

"Did she help you afflict?--Yes.

"Who was at the Village Meeting when you were there?--Goodwife How, Goodwife Nurse, Goodwife Wildes, Proctor and his wife, Mrs. Bradbury, and Corey's wife.

"What did they do there?--Eat, and drank wine.

"Was there a minister there?--No, not as I know of.

"From whence had you your wine?--From Salem, I think it was.

"Goodwife Oliver there?--Yes; I knew her."

Statements by this witness, and also his probable circumstances and condition, seem worthy of special note. Frankness glows on all that he said. He was stating facts, which, in his apprehension, were harmless, and why should he not let them out? He knew, probably, that his mother had all through his life been accustomed to see and act through other than her physical organs, and was conscious that during the last five weeks at least himself had been doing the same. The abilities came unsought into action--were outgrowths from the natures of his mother and himself, and were not crimes. His long familiarity with the ostensible workings of such powers through his mother had shown him that they were neither diabolical nor censurable; and why not admit possession of them, and the acts they produced, whether through himself, his mother, or any one else? Neither the mother nor children in that family were afraid of ghostly beings, because able to confer with them intelligibly and sympathetically; and the ready admission by Richard that he had aided in hurting Timothy Swan, and been at a great witch-meeting, where they ate, and also drank wine, was no confession of any crime, but simple statement of facts. He was a medium, and also a frank and truthful witness.

He granted that he had been in the devil's snare. How much did this import? He and his brother Andrew both had been caught in it--one about four, and the other five, weeks prior to his statement. As certain atmospheric and other physical conditions often produce epidemic or wide-spread physical health or disease either, and certain public mental and moral states often act powerfully upon many minds, the great public excitement engendered by the arrest and prosecution of witches may well be deemed adequate to have unfolded latent mediumistic susceptibilities very widely; and it is not surprising that the children of a Martha Carrier should have such susceptibilities suddenly brought to their own cognizance, nor that they should as suddenly become well-fledged clairvoyants competent to wing their way widely and rapidly in the airs of a world in which spirits dwell; nor that they should be psychologized by spirit beings, and made to take part in any work, malignant or benevolent, which their controllers were bent upon executing. By being caught in the devil's snare, they probably meant neither more nor less than that they became mediums. All conditions like theirs the public was charging the devil with producing, and the young Carriers assented to that being done in their own case. Most things not of the earth, earthy, were then charged to the devil; and the mental powers of these children were not competent to show that their slippings out from their hampering bodies were effected without his aid.

Frequent mention occurs of witch-meetings at Salem Village, on the Green, or the minister's pasture, near Deacon Ingersoll's.

If any accused one had been seen in the company of assembled witches there, the fact was excessively damaging. Richard Carrier acknowledged having been there, and freely mentioned what persons were in the assemblage--but did not see a minister.

The records have not led us to suppose that Mrs. Carrier ever stood very high in public estimation. It is not improbable that influences from outside of her had often, during the forty years through which she had experienced them, made her life eccentric, and many of her actions mysterious. Even the aged and charitable Francis Dane said, "That there was a suspicion of goodwife Carrier among some of us before she was apprehended, I know; as for any other persons, I had no suspicion of them." We must infer from that statement that she was noted for some peculiarities which were not universally regarded with favor; suspicions hung around her.

She was accused by one of causing grievous sores in himself, of sickening his cattle, and working many injuries; by others also of hurting and bewitching them, and of having attended a witch-meeting. The accusing girls, as seen above, were most excessively agonized when in court with her. She may justly be regarded, we think, as being socially among the lower class of persons then accused; and yet we have met with nothing which will justify an inference that she was altogether unworthy of esteem, or even that she was emphatically bad in any respect. Mather called her _rampant hag_, and hence much of Christendom has been influenced to contemplate her with aversion. But whatever may have been her character, the sufferings of herself and family draw forth our sympathies.

If she said she had been a witch forty years, she meant only that for "forty years" she had been conscious of the ongoing of occult processes within and around herself. We doubt whether she applied the word _witch_ to herself, but can readily believe that she confessed to such experiences and performances as were in her day often called witchcrafts. That she detailed some experiences to Mary Walcott, which the latter termed witchcrafts, is highly probable. Neither the accused nor the accusers were accustomed to speak of seeing the devil; but it was the black man, or some other defined spirit,--not the devil,--according to their own statements. Yet when recorders and reporters undertook to give us either the substance of what was said, or a nearly verbatim report, they generally substituted devil for black man, or for any other unseen occult operator, whatever his, her, or its moral purpose or character. So, too, all specially marvelous works were called witchcrafts.

The little Carrier children were very instructive witnesses. Too young and inexperienced to do otherwise than answer simple questions directly in such language as was common, they show us of to-day, better than do older witnesses, what was probably common application of some terms of very frequent use in descriptions of things marvelous. When by implication charged with being themselves witches, their answers conceded the truth of the charge. One of them, eight years old, said she had been a witch ever since she was six. Another, eighteen years old, had been a witch about five weeks, and said that brother Andrew had been such "near a month." Little did these frank and no doubt truthful young confessors of family and personal experiences deem that they were exposing themselves, and their mother also, to punishment by death. What they confessed to were frequent sights and sounds in their home, which came as naturally and innocently before them as the visits and words of friends and neighbors. Community called such matters witchcrafts, and why should not these children do the same? Their mental powers were not expanded enough to even entertain the slightest apprehension that what they were saying could imply that they had made a compact with the devil, or that a simple, true statement of their unsought experiences could bring harm to themselves or any one else. Equally incompetent were such little ones to comprehend the nature of that devil who existed in the conception of the magistrate when he asked whether the devil had insnared the witness and brother Andrew. They, no doubt, held the common notion that any worker whatsoever from realms unseen by the external eye was the devil; and having had experience--at least one of them had--that her own spirit had gone forth from her body and pinched certain persons, she understood that she had performed a part in works which were imputed to the devil. Still neither of these children confessed, or could be "insnared" to own, that they had seen _the devil_.

They, obviously, and their mother, we do not doubt, often as naturally and innocently beheld spirit forms and scenes, and just as innocently held converse with spirits, as they surveyed the scenes and forms of the outer world, or went in company with embodied people to their congregations in the meeting-house or elsewhere. The words of babes and sucklings, at a witchcraft trial, revealed the existence of finer natural laws and forces, and their operation also, upon and through some human beings, than science then dreamed of, or is yet quite ready to recognize. Very much in witchcraft times was charged to the devil which should have been credited to God. The erroneous entry of many heavy items on the great account-books, in the days of the fathers, calls for immense labor and study for their proper and equitable adjustment now. Martha Carrier and her children were probably posted on the wrong side of the moral Ledger when Cotton Mather labeled her "Rampant Hag;" and there they have stood ever since.

REV. GEORGE BURROUGHS.

Having come to the last of the accused whose case our leading purpose induces us to notice at much length, we present here a specimen of indictment for the crime of witchcraft.

"THE INDICTMENT OF GEORGE BURROUGHS.

Essex } _Anno Regni Regis et Reginae Willielmi et_
ss. } _Mariae. Nunc Angliae, &c., quarto._

"The jurors of our sovereign lord and lady, the king and queen,
_present_--That George Burroughs, late of Falmouth, in the province of
Massachusetts Bay, in New England, clerk, the 9th day of May, in the
fourth year of the reign of our sovereign lord and lady, William and
Mary, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland
king and queen, defenders of the faith, &c., and divers other days and
times, as well before as after, certain detestable arts, called
witchcrafts and sorceries, wickedly and feloniously hath used,
practiced, and exercised, at and within the township of Salem, in the
county of Essex aforesaid, in, upon, and against one Mary Walcutt, of
Salem Village, in the county of Essex, single woman; by which said
wicked arts the said Mary Walcutt, the 9th day of May, in the fourth
year abovesaid, and divers other days and times, as well before as
after, was and is tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed, wasted, and
tormented, against the peace of our sovereign lord and lady, the king
and queen, and against the form of the statute in that case made and
provided.

"Witnesses: MARY WALCOTT, SARAH VIBBER,
MERCY LEWIS, ANN PUTNAM,
ELIZ. HUBBARD.

"Indorsed by the grand jury, _Billa vera_."

Three other similar indictments accompanied the above, for witchcrafts practiced by Burroughs upon Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, and Ann Putnam severally.

S. P. Fowler, in the edition of "Salem Witchcraft" edited by him, says, on page 278,--

"The trial of Rev. Geo. Burroughs appears to have attracted general notice from the circumstance of his being a former clergyman in Salem Village, and supposed to be a leader amongst witches."

Fowler adds, that--

"Dr. Cotton Mather says he was not present at any of the trials for witchcraft; how he could keep away from that of Burroughs we cannot imagine. His father, Dr. Increase Mather, informs us that he attended this single trial, and says, 'Had I been one of George Burroughs's judges, I could not have acquitted him, for several persons did upon oath testify that they saw him do such things as no man that had not a devil to be his familiar could perform.'

"Burroughs was apprehended in Wells, in Maine; so say his children. They also inform us that he was buried by his friends, after the inhuman treatment of his body from the hands of his executioners at Gallows Hill, in Salem.

"He is represented as being a small, black-haired dark-complexioned man, of quick passions and great strength. His power of muscle, which discovered itself early when Burroughs was a member of Cambridge College, and which we notice in the slight rebutting evidence offered by his friends at his trial, convinces us that he lifted the gun, and the barrel of molasses, by the power of his own well-strung muscles, and not by any help from the devil, as was supposed by the Mathers, both father and son. Alas, that a man's own strong arm should prove his ruin!"

We shall show shortly that this commentator here overlooked an important point. Burroughs himself made statement, in his own defense, that an Indian stood by and lifted the gun; therefore the chief question is not whether Burroughs was himself strong enough to lift it as alleged, but whether he told the truth when he said that he had help. The chief question bears upon his veracity, not upon his strength. The Mathers believed him on that point.

The allegations in the indictment were for witchcrafts invisibly practiced upon members of the famous CIRCLE, and not for visible feats of strength. All the girls testified to seeing and suffering from his apparition. Also some who confessed to having been _witches_ themselves (for some accused ones were over-persuaded to speak of their own clairvoyant observations and experiences as witchcrafts, and therefore of themselves as witches),--some such testified thus, as Mather says (p. 279, _Salem Witchcraft_). "He was accused by eight of the confessing witches as being head actor at some of their hellish rendezvous, and who had promise of being a king in Satan's kingdom now going to be erected; he was accused by nine persons for extraordinary liftings, ... and for other things, ... until about thirty testimonies were brought in against him."

Mather's account of the witchcraft at Salem was drawn up at the request of William Phips, then governor of the province; and two prominent judges at the trials indorsed it as follows:--

"The reverend and worthy author having, at the direction of his
Excellency the governor, so far obliged the public as to give some
account of the sufferings brought upon the country by witchcrafts,
and of the trials which have passed upon several executed for the
same:

"Upon perusal thereof, _we find the matters of fact and evidence truly
reported_, and a prospect given of the methods of conviction used in
the proceedings of the court at Salem.

"Boston, Oct. 11, 1692.

"WILLIAM STOUGHTON,
"SAMUEL SEWALL."

Manifestation of one class of phenomena presented at those trials has not been noticed in the preceding pages; viz., the appearance of the spirits of particular departed ones to many of the accusing girls. It is obviously true that those clairvoyants were very much oftener beholders of the spirits of those still dwelling in mortal forms than of those who had escaped from thralldom to the flesh. Still there were then some cases in which the spirits of some who had been known in that vicinity, and whose bodies were moldering beneath its soil, were both seen and heard. Among others, two former wives of Burroughs were named. Mather says (p. 282), "Several of the bewitched had given in their testimony that they had been troubled with the apparitions of two women, who said they were G. B.'s two wives; and that he had been the death of them.... Now, G. B. had been infamous for the barbarous usage of his two successive wives, all the country over. (p. 286.) ... 'Twas testified, that, keeping his two successive wives in _a strange kind of slavery_, he would, when he came home from abroad, pretend to tell the talk which any had with them; that he has brought them to the point of death by his harsh dealings with his wives, and then made people promise that, in case death should happen, they would say nothing of it; that he used all means to make his wives write, sign, seal, and swear to a covenant _never to reveal any of his secrets_; that his wives had privately complained unto the neighbors about _frightly apparitions_ of evil spirits, with which their house was sometimes infested," &c.

Some of these allegations probably rested on firmer bases of facts than have generally been perceived. Though we regard Burroughs as having been one of the kindest and best of men, we do not entirely withhold credence from the general import of such allegations regarding him. They point both to extraordinary unfoldments within him, and to probable handlings and control of his outer form at times by some intelligence not his own. "_Strange kind of slavery_" would naturally result, in those days, from a husband's telling his wife, on returning to his home, what conversation she had held with others during his absence, _if his statements were true_; but if not true, the wife would only laugh at his pretensions, and make no complaints to neighbors. If both true and oft repeated, such mysterious utterances might well enslave, worry, and bring close to death's door a sensitive wife; and the husband, however affectionate and kind, may at times have been as powerless to shape his course of procedure as is the dried leaf when whirled onward by strong autumnal breezes. Acts not his own the world would hold him responsible for; and no wonder that, in his age, a spiritualistically unfolded, an illumined man, and one also whose form might be moved, as was that of Agassiz, by will not his own, should strive in all possible ways to prevent wives, and any other people who knew them, from revealing any of his peculiar and marvelous _secrets_; no wonder that he sought to make his wives "write, sign, seal, and swear" never to do it; because the noising abroad of such powers as he possessed, and such performances as were attendant upon him, if publicly known, would be profaned, would destroy his usefulness, and endanger, if not take, his life. Thanks that, in our day, danger of a hangman's rope does not threaten one because of his high spiritual illumination.

George Burroughs was graduated at Harvard College in 1670; had been a preacher for many years prior to 1692, and, during some of them, ministered to the people at Salem Village. But before the outburst of witchcraft there, he had found a home far off to the north-east, on the shores of Casco Bay, in the Province of Maine, where he was then humbly and quietly laboring in his profession, but not in impenetrable seclusion. Clairvoyants are masters of both seclusion and space to a marvelous extent. Throughout a region far, far around, wherever the special light pertaining to the mediumistic or illuminated condition revealed its possessor and put forth its attractions, there the opened inner vision of the accusing girls might make them practically present. Emanations from one residing at Falmouth or at Wells might readily meet and blend with those from sensitives at their home in Salem. Thought flies fast and far. With equal speed, and quite as far, can the unswathed inner perceptives of an entranced or illumined mortal be attracted. Old memories and undissolved psychological attachments may have operated in this case. One of the accusing girls had lived for a time in the family of Burroughs while he resided at the Village. Chains of association are never broken and rendered forever unusable, though they often become exceedingly attenuated, and cease to retain recognition in our ordinary conditions. Several of the accusing girls alleged that Burroughs was one, and a leading and authoritative one, in the band of apparitional beings from whom their torments came. He was "cried out upon," arrested, tried, condemned, and executed.

The opinions of different writers as to the real character and worth of this man have been very diverse. While some have accounted him an hypocritical wizard, others have deemed him a man of beautiful and beneficent life. Mather regarded him with aversion, and says, "Glad should I have been if I had never known the name of this man." Afterward the same author charged Burroughs with "tergiversations, contradictions, and falsehoods." Sullivan, in his History of Maine, says, that "he was a man of bad character, and of a cruel disposition." Hutchinson asserted, on insufficient grounds, that when under examination, "he was confounded, and used many twistings and turnings." But Fowler says, "All the weight of character enlisted against him fails to counteract the favorable impression made by his Christian conduct during his imprisonment, and at the time of his execution." Calef says, that, the day before execution, Margaret Jacobs, who had testified against him, came to the prisoner, acknowledging that she had belied him, and asking his forgiveness; "who not only forgave her, but also _prayed with and for her_." The same adducer of "_Facts_" states that, "when upon the ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his innocency, with such solemn and serious expressions as were to the admiration of all present; his prayer (which he concluded by repeating the Lord's prayer) was so well worded, and uttered with such composedness and such (at least seeming) fervency of spirit, as was very affecting, and drew tears from many, so that it seemed to some that the spectators would hinder the execution. _The accusers said the black man stood and dictated to him._ As soon as he was turned off, Mr. Cotton Mather, being mounted upon a horse, addressed himself to the people, partly to declare that he (Burroughs) was no ordained minister, and partly to possess the people of his guilt, saying that the devil has often been transformed into an angel of light; and this somewhat appeased the people, and the executions went on." His prayers, and his whole deportment and spirit during these last trying scenes, indicate his possession of a calm, strong soul, which bore him, on the wings of innocence and piety, into a region of serenity which his traducers and murderers were unfited to enter and knew not of. The brief account which Upham's researches enabled him to furnish of this man's life prior to the witchcraft mania presents still further evidences of his sterling worth. That author says, "Papers on file in the State House prove that in the District of Maine, where he lived and preached before and after his settlement at the Village, he was regarded with confidence by his neighbors, and looked up to as a friend and counselor.... He was self-denying, generous, and public-spirited, laboring in humility and with zeal in the midst of great privations." Land had been granted to him, and when the town asked him to exchange a part of it for other lands, "he freely gave it back, not desiring any land anywhere else, nor anything else in consideration thereof."

Scanning Burroughs as well as accessible knowledge of him now permits, we judge that he was a quiet, peaceful, persistent laborer for the good of his fellow-men,--a humble, trustful, sincere servant of God,--a rare embodiment of the prevailing perceptions, sentiments, virtues, and graces which haloed the form of the Nazarene.

Why did the people of his time take his life? What were the accusations against him? In addition to the testimony that he was felt by many of the girls as a tormenting specter, he was accused of putting forth superhuman physical strength. Cotton Mather says,--

"He was a very puny man, yet he had often done things beyond the strength of a giant. A gun of about seven feet barrel, and so heavy that strong men could not steadily hold it out with both hands, there were several testimonies given in by persons of credit and honor, that he made nothing of taking up such a gun behind the lock with one hand, and holding it out like a pistol, at arm's end. In his vindication he was _foolish enough to say that an Indian was there, and held it out at the same time_; whereas, none of the spectators ever saw any such Indian; but they _supposed_ the black man (as the witches call the devil, and they generally say he resembles an Indian) might have given him that assistance."

That paragraph is very instructive. All subsequent historians, beginning back with Calef, have mentioned, what is no doubt true, that Burroughs was a small man, and yet was constitutionally very strong--was remarkable for physical powers even in his college days; and they have fancied that on that ground they have satisfactorily accounted for his marvelous exploits; they seemingly overlook the fact that it was Burroughs himself, and not other people, who said that "an Indian," invisible to others, stood by and held the gun out. Historians have explained the good and true man's seeming physical feats at the expense of his _veracity_. Heaven help the innocent when in the hands of such traducing commentators. The question is not what Burroughs could have done unaided, but it is whether _he told truth_ when he said an Indian helped him. His whole character and life argue that he would not have spoken as he is alleged to have done, unless he had been conscious of the presence of an Indian within or by himself, putting forth, in part at least, the strength which raised and supported that heavy gun. He said that such was the fact. What though all spectators failed to see the Indian? It was a disembodied Indian--a spirit Indian--and therefore necessarily invisible by external eyes. The non-perception of him by other men standing by is no evidence that the spirit Indian was not there; for spiritual beings are discernible by the inner or spirit optics alone, and not by the outer; so taught Paul.

The fact that bystanders supposed the devil helped Burroughs, or performed the lifting feat through him, implies that they, as well as he, believed that something more was done than mere human strength accomplished. In the present day, when spirits are very often putting forth strength through forms of flesh which executes performances quite as marvelous as any which were alleged to have been enacted through Burroughs, his assertion that a foreign, hidden intelligence worked within and through his form, conjoined with the belief of beholders that some spiritual being was operating therein, any array of facts now, proving, even to perfect demonstration, that the little man was enormously strong, though it may indicate that he did not require foreign aid to lift and hold out the gun, does nothing toward impeaching his own veracity when he said he had help. Surely one _can_ have help in the performance of what he could do alone. If any man says he had help in a particular case, his ability to have performed the special feat alone affords no indication that his statement is untrue; and yet the spirit of witchcraft history implies that it does.

Prove Burroughs to have been constitutionally as strong as the strongest mortal that ever lived,--yes, as strong as the strongest of all created beings,--ay, as strong as the Omnipotent One himself, and even then you have done nothing which shows or tends to show that another intelligent worker may not have co-operated with him in the performance of marvelous feats. We say again that the question raised by his statement is not whether he, in and of himself, was competent to his seeming feats, but it is whether an Indian spirit did or did not help him. Burroughs says he had help from such a one. Bystanders supposed that the devil helped him; but he who sensed the helper's presence called him an Indian; and he was a much more trustworthy testifier as to that helper's proper classification in the scale of being, than a combined world of men devoid of spirit-vision, putting forth only their inferences regarding an unseen personage. Imputation of this man's liftings to his constitutional strength solely is an imputation of false testimony to the truthful man himself, and historic arguments, if valid, make him a liar.

Who helped the little clergyman lift and hold the heavy gun? He says it was "_an Indian_." But Mather says, "none of the spectators ever saw any such Indian; but they _supposed the black man_ (as the witches call the _devil_, and they generally say he _resembles an Indian_) might have given him that assistance." That sentence illumines many a dark spot in our ancient witchcraft. The witches, or clairvoyants, whether accusers or accused, were not accustomed to speak of seeing _the devil_. It is fairly questionable whether any one among them ever spoke of seeing _the devil_, or of having any interview with _him_, or knowledge of _him_ obtained by personal observation. It was _man_ whom they saw. They spoke of the black _man_. Mather says that was their name for _the devil_. We doubt it. What they saw failed to present a semblance of Cloven-foot, with horns, tail, and hoofs, and did not suggest to them an idea of _the devil_. The substitution of devil for black man, or the regarding the two as synonymous, was Mather's work, and not that of the clairvoyants. And who was _the black man_? Mather informs us that those whose optics could see him "generally say he _resembles an Indian_." If he resembled an Indian, is not the inference very fair that he was an Indian? Yes. "Black man" obviously was applied by clairvoyants to designate any Indian spirit, and spirits of human beings probably were the only spirits whom their inner vision ever beheld. Thanks to you, Mather, for recording that explanatory sentence. The devil you fought against was your brother man--was earth-born--and when seen and conferred with not very formidable. Your clairvoyants, or witches, saw and heard occult men, women, children, beasts, and birds, but never spoke of seeing your ecclesiastical devil. The human beings whom they beheld varied in size from little children to tall men, and in complexion from black to white--even up to glorious brightness. Your informants never used the word _devil_ in their descriptions. You misreported them, as Cheever did Tituba; Calef followed your lead, and subsequent historians have copied from both you and him.

You also state that Burroughs was "_foolish_ enough to say that an Indian" helped him. Was it foolish in him to state the truth? Your own witnesses en masse say his helper _resembled_ an Indian--he said the assistant _was_ an Indian. Why didn't you take the words of your own witnesses as corroborative of the man's statement? They surely were so, and they give us a true presentation of the case. The reason of your course is obvious; the creed of your times deemed any spirit visitant or helper to be the devil himself.