A Storm of Witchcraft by Emerson W. Baker

A scion of one of Salem’s most prominent families, and a close ally of Parris, Thomas served as a key instigator of the witch trials he wrote many of the depositions for the afflicted, including his daughter and later his wife, Ann Putnam Sr.Īfter her parents died suddenly in 1699, Ann Jr. The 12-year-old daughter of Thomas Putnam and his wife, Ann Carr Putnam, became one of the most prolific accusers of the trials, naming and/or testifying against more than 60 people. She gave her last testimony before the court in early June 1692, and no record exists of her life after the trials. Abigail, on the other hand, played a prominent role in the Salem witch trials, accusing a total of 57 people of witchcraft.

Betty later married a shoemaker and had five children she died in 1760. Samuel Parris was dismissed from his job as minister in Salem Village, and settled with Betty and the rest of his family in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Betty and Abigail soon accused Tituba, the enslaved woman owned by Samuel Parris, whose subsequent confession launched a full-blown witchcraft crisis in Salem.īetty never attended the subsequent trials her parents sent her away to live with family to avoid the uproar. In January 1692, a doctor was called to the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, the Puritan minister of Salem Village (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts), after his nine-year-old daughter, Betty, and her 11-year-old cousin, Abigail Williams, began exhibiting strange symptoms, such as convulsing, barking and speaking unintelligible words. WATCH: The Salem Witch Trials on HISTORY Vault Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and Abigail Williams History Camp is a project of the nonprofit The Pursuit of History, founded by Lee Wright and Carrie Lund.An illustration depicting an officer leading away an elderly woman accused of witchcraft. He shows how the Puritan government’s attempts to suppress what had taken place only fueled the popular imagination and established the trials as a turning point from Puritan communalism to Yankee independence and reveals the ways their legacy remains with us. Baker investigates the key players in the Salem witchcraft crisis and illuminates why the tragedy unfolded as it did. Baker, historian and professor at Salem State University and the author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Witch Trials and the American Experience (2014), The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft & Conflict in Early New England (2007), and The New England Knight: Sir William Phips, 1651-1695 (1998).

A Storm of Witchcraft by Emerson W. Baker