Infamous America - SALEM Ep. 2 | "Deceivers"

Episode Date: October 10, 2018

The crisis escalates beyond the afflictions of four girls. Numerous people in Salem Village have frightening experiences with witchcraft, and the girls name four women as the sources of the devilry. Magistrates hold the first public examinations of the accused women and the results are explosive. For more details, visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quote, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, or Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Revelation 12.9. Tichiba sat in a stone cell in the Salem town jail waiting. She didn't know what would happen next, but it wouldn't be good. Soon enough, the door creaked open. Magistrates John Hathorn and Jonathan Corwin entered. They had more questions.

Tichiba had rocked Salem Village and in fact all of Essex County with her testimony yesterday. She had admitted to witchcraft and given terrifying details of her encounters with spirits and devils. She had confirmed the existence of two witches and then said there were two more somewhere in Boston. The crisis was growing and the magistrates pressed her further. What more did she know? How had the wicked spirits forced her to hurt Betty Paris and Abigail Williams and in the home of the minister, no less. Tichiba added to her confession, and the magistrates must have been stunned. She gave them details about the books she had seen, the devil's book, and the nine

signatures inside. Nine signatures, written in blood. Hathorn and Corwin left her cell, almost surely shaken by what they had heard. In one day, the number of witches in the area had tripled, at least. As they walked out of the jail, the situation had gone from bad to worse. This was like peering into a dark pool of water. There was no way to know how deep it was, or how long it might take to reach the bottom. If the two men had a sense that something extraordinary was beginning, they were right. If they thought they knew the depth of it based on previous cases of witchcraft, they had no idea.

The nightmare up the road in Salem Village was only getting warmed up. Welcome to infamous America, a show that explores some of the darkest and most controversial people and events in American history. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and in season one, we're telling the story of the Salem Witch Trials. In Chapter 1, two girls in the minister's home suffered fits that were diagnosed as witchcraft. Before long, two more girls fell ill with similar symptoms. The four girls named three women as their tormentors. In Chapter 2, both lists grow longer. More girls become afflicted, and they let loose a storm of accusations.

Townsfolk cram into the meeting house to watch the spectacle as the accused or examined, and the afflicted girls give them a show they'll never forget. This is Salem, Chapter 2. Deceivers. Tuesday morning, March 1, 1692, began, and badly and only grew more ominous as the hours passed. All four afflicted girls, Betty Paris, Abigail Williams, Anne Putnam Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard, suffered seizures before they were expected to face their attackers in court. Later that morning, Sarah Good must have been startled to receive a knock on her door. She could not have been expecting it,

as she surely didn't know that she had been formally accused of witchcraft the previous day. When she opened the door, Constable George Locker stood before her, his black cane in hand. He informed her that he had a warrant for her arrest, and she was required to go with him to Ingersoll's ordinary in the center of Salem Village. The charge was witchcraft, and she would be questioned by two magistrates who were on their way from Salem town at that very moment. Sarah Good, a disgruntled, haggard woman, probably gave the constable a piece of her mind, but she went with him as commanded. At the same time, Constable Joseph Herrick performed similar duties. He rounded up Tichiba and Sarah Osborne and took them to the home of Nathaniel Ingersoll.

Ingersoll was a leader in the community. He was a lieutenant in the militia and a deacon in the church. He also ran a licensed tavern out of his home that was allowed to serve meals, and it was called an ordinary. His home tavern was in the middle of the village, just down the road from the parsonage where Reverend Samuel Paris lived, and directly across the street from the meeting house where Paris held Sunday service. Sabbath worship was an all-day affair, and parishioners could walk across the road and refresh themselves at Ingersoll's tavern between Paris's sermons. When the two constables converged on the tavern with their charges, they quickly

realized the event would not be private. The examinations of Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne would be conducted in front of a packed house. Villagers crowded into the tavern until it was ready to burst. 80-year-old cramudgeon Giles Corey was among those who made the trip. He was determined to see every second of the proceedings, even though his wife Martha thought they were ridiculous and tried to stop him by unsaddling his horse. But Giles would not be denied.

He threw the saddle back on the animal and hurried to town. In a more private area of the tavern, Nathaniel Ingersaw's wife, Hannah, conducted a physical examination of the three women to check for marks of a witch. She didn't find any, but this result would soon become irrelevant. When the magistrates arrived,

they found a frenzied populace crammed into the tavern, eagerly awaiting the show. There was almost no entertainment in the Puritan colony. Londoners enjoyed live music and plays by Shakespeare. None of that existed in Massachusetts. The first organ would not arrive for 19 more years. This hearing was not only deadly serious, it was must-see TV. It was obvious to the magistrates that Ingersoll's ordinary was too small,

and they moved the hearing across the street to the meeting house. The magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, sat at a table in the front of the room under the elevated pulpit used by Reverend Paris. The afflicted girls were stationed near the front to view the magistrate, and the accused women. The setup of this first hearing established a dangerous precedent that did as much as anything

to fuel the events that would eventually become known as the Salem Witch Trials. By law and tradition, the magistrates should have questioned the three women separately and privately, but they didn't. This first proceeding was an extravaganza in which the magistrates questioned the accused

in full view of the public and the afflicted girls, and the girls reacted to every one. word and gesture of the accused. At the appointed hour of 10 a.m., the examinations began. The magistrates called Sarah Good forward. Sarah had experienced as much hardship as anyone, and she still had more to come. Her father had committed suicide when she was 18. Instead of inheriting his sizable estate, it all went to her stepfather. In her 20s, her first husband died. Again, instead of inheriting money or land, she inherited. She inherited

debts. She was destitute and her next marriage to William Good did not help her situation. William couldn't hold a job and eventually they were reduced to homeless beggars. Sarah often roamed from house to house asking for charity.

When she was denied, she cursed or threatened or insulted people for their lack of hospitality. In three cases, livestock had mysteriously died or vanished after her remarks. And just a couple weeks ago, As Reverend Paris had begun to seriously worry about the afflictions of Betty and Abigail,

Sarah Good had shown up at his door. Paris had given something to Sarah's young daughter, Dorkas, but that was all he was willing to do. Sarah was unimpressed by his donation, and she left his house muttering something under her breath that Paris couldn't quite make out. So it was probably no surprise to anyone in Salem Village that Sarah Good was the first person accused of being a witch. John Hathorne didn't waste a second getting to his point. He ripped off questions one after another to Sarah Good. What evil spirit did she have familiarity with?

Had she made a contract with the devil? Why was she hurting these girls? What creature did she use to hurt them? Sarah denied all involvement. She wasn't in league with the devil. She hadn't attacked anyone. She was falsely accused. Hathorn looked at the four girls.

He asked them to certify that Sarah Good was one of the first. of their tormentors. They all did. But Sarah denied all of it again. The girls immediately experienced tortures as the magistrates wrote in their notes. The girls said Sarah's spirit lunged out of her body at them. Hathorn pressed Sarah further. How could she account for what was happening to the girls? She couldn't. But finally she did admit that it looked like someone was hurting the girls. It was probably the other two women who had been arrested. Osborne, Sarah said. It was probably she. And the magistrates called forward, Sarah Osborne. Sarah Osborne also had a notorious reputation in Salem Village. When her first husband died,

she had the audacity to marry the Irishman who had been her indentured servant. It had been quite the scandal at the time. More recently, she had been sick and bedridden for more than a year by the time she was accused of witchcraft. Hathorn began the questioning with the same routine. Sarah Osborne denied she had hurt the girls, but they all confirmed her as an attacker. She was asked if she knew Sarah Good. She stuttered unconvincing answers

that amounted to the fact that she knew who Sarah Good was and had said hi to her over the ears, but nothing more than that. Then three people testified that Sarah Osborne said she was more likely to be the victim of witchcraft than a perpetrator. Hathorn pounced. What did this mean? Sarah relayed the story of having awoken in her bed one night to find the form of an Indian standing in her room.

Or at least she thought she saw it. It might have been a dream. The shape had pinched her and pulled her. Hathorne asked if there were any more instances, and she said no. But then people in the crowd shouted out that there had also been the episode with a lying spirit. The magistrates demanded, what was this about? Had the devil,

the prince of lies, the ultimate deceiver, contacted her. She said no, that it was just a voice she thought she heard. She went to Sabbath service the next day

and it never happened again. The magistrates made their notes and then they called a break for lunch. In the afternoon session, Tichiba would become the star of the show and her testimony would blow the roof off the place. After lunch, villagers pushed back into the meeting house.

The magistrates took their seats behind the table. The afflicted girls resumed their positions. Constable Joseph Herrick led Tichiba into the meeting house, and the girls immediately suffered painful fits. Hathorn questioned her like he had the two Sarahs. She denied hurting the girls, but she said she didn't know how the devil worked. Hathorn pressed her about the devil. Had she seen him?

Had he hurt the children? What shape did he take? The crowd sat there riveted. The girls watched her ready to respond. The magistrates studied the slave of the Salem Village minister, waiting for her answer. No one was prepared for the story she was about to tell. Tichibah began to explain the evil events that had occurred in the home of Reverend Samuel Paris. In mid-January, as she lay in bed, a tall man with white hair and black clothes appeared to her.

He said he was a god, and he was going to be. to kill Betty Paris and Abigail Williams, and she was going to help him do it. She must sign a document and serve him for six years. If she did, he would give her many nice things. If she didn't, he would kill her too. He returned the next day and tried to bribe her with three brightly colored birds, one white, one green, and one yellow. She said no, and he threatened her again. By now, Betty and Abigail had begun behaving strangely. They crouched under chairs and stools. They twisted into odd shapes and babbled phrases no one could understand.

The following day, the man-devil returned to Tichiba, and this time he had four witches with him. Two were Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. The other two she didn't know, but they were from Boston. The five spirits commanded her to hurt the girls, and when she refused, they dragged. her across the room and forced her to pinch them. And then there was more.

Witches could use animals to do their bidding. They were called witches familiars, and they sucked blood from the witch to gain nourishment. Now several of them appeared to Tichiba. The first was a hog. Next was a great black dog. Then there was a yellow bird, and then a pair of cats, one black and one red. Then the tall man in black appeared again, this time with a yellow bird. the book. Serve me, he repeated, until Tichiba finally relented and signed the book in her own

blood. The audience in the meeting house listened in rapt attention. The girls had calmed down during Tichaba's story. They watched like everyone else. And now she got to the worst of it. Just yesterday, the same day the four men from Salem Village had filed complaints with the magistrates, Tichiba had been assaulted in the Paris home by all the spirits. As she went about her daily chores, the man-devil and the four witches appeared and told her to hurt the girls again or suffer the consequences. At prayer time, Reverend Paris gathered the family and began to speak.

He and his wife couldn't see the spectres that swirled around them, but Tichiba, Betty, and Abigail could. The spirit of Sarah Good was there, with a cat at her feet and a bird in her hand. The two mysterious women from Boston were there. Their familiars were everywhere. Yellow birds flew above the family while they prayed. A yellow dog peered out from the shadows.

Red and black cats pawed at Tichiba and told her to serve them. A yellow bird with the head of a woman flapped into view and suddenly transformed into Sarah Osborne. A grotesque creature watched from the hearth. It was three feet high and hairy all over, with wings in a long nose. The man in black coaxed her. Did she want the creature for her familiar? What about the cats?

Maybe a bird. As she looked, the yellow bird in Sarah Good's hand pecked blood from between her fingers. Disgusted, Tichibah refused. She pushed the cats away, and then they nearly knocked her into the fire. She pinched them, and Betty and Abigail screamed in pain. When Reverend Paris finished the prayers, the witches forced Tichiba to pinch the girls directly, and then they quickly hauled her outside. In the frigid night air, they sat her on a pole between Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne,

and they flew across the village to the home of Anne Putnam Jr. The Putnams were holding a prayer service for Anne, who was wracked with pain and torments. No one saw Tichiba and the witches enter. Good and Osborne gave Tichiba a knife and told her. her to kill Anne. The adults in the room saw none of this, but Anne saw it all. The adults watched her terrified reaction as she fought off her attackers. Tichiba wrestled with the witches for control of the knife. They threatened to slash her throat or cut off her head, but she continued to battle them. Finally, they relented and flew away from Anne Putnam's house toward Boston.

The man in black took Tichiba back to the parsonage, and her day of terror was full. finally done. Her story had been incredible, but her examination was not nearly complete. Hathorne had more questions. Had Tichiba pinched Elizabeth Hubbard that morning? At the time, a pinch could be anything from squeezing someone with two fingers to a full-blown torture designed to produce serious pain. Tichabah said she thought she had. She thought the spirits of Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne had taken her to the home of Dr. Griggs and made her her injure Elizabeth, or maybe they had sent a spirit that looked like her. Hathorn continued to press the subject of the familiars. To Tichiba, the questions must have seemed endless.

Once she started answering, there was no way to stop, so she kept going. She said Sarah Good had sent the wolf after Elizabeth Hubbard. Sarah Osborne had two of the hairy creature she had seen near the Paris's hearth. She was told to describe the appearance of the witches and the man in black, and as she did, the girls launched into a new round of seizures. The magistrates quickly asked who was hurting the girls. Tichiba said it was Sarah Good, and at Good's name, Elizabeth Hubbard contorted into a painful posture. Who hurts the girls now, the magistrates wanted to know? Tichabra cried that she had been struck blind. She couldn't see. She was now afflicted as well. Jonathan Corwin wrote in his notes that she was taken dumb two or three times and couldn't speak.

At last, Tichiba said the attackers were good and Osborne, and the magistrates believed her. The examinations were finally done. After a day of dramatic testimony, Hathorne and Corwin reached the same conclusion. The three women should be held for trial. Three books formed a core of literature on witchcraft for the people of 16-9. The oldest was Heinrich Kramer's Malius Malifacarum, or The Hammer of the Witches, written in 1487. Kramer's dark tome talked about witches as women who made packs with the devil. They held secret meetings called Sabbaths, where they renounced their Christian faith and devoured babies and performed all manner of unspeakable acts.

They could use magic to hurt or heal. The second book was a discourse of the damned, Art of Witchcraft, by William Perkins in 1608. The gravity of this book came from its rational arguments, which would be relied on heavily in Salem. Perkins said, sure, there are frauds and liars and cheaters out there. Of course there were. But that didn't mean there weren't real cases out there as well. His underlying principle was this. You can't deny something exists. just because you don't understand it. A copy of his book was right there in Reverend Paris's study.

The third book was perhaps the most important because it was known and ignored by the judges in Salem. It was a guide to grand jurymen written by Puritan minister Richard Bernard in 1627. In the two-part volume, he outlined natural illnesses

that could be mistaken for witchcraft. He gave advice on how to to distinguish an actual account of witchcraft from a false accusation. And he detailed procedures to investigate cases of witchcraft. Bernard stated that a critical step in the process was to consistently question everyone separately, so they couldn't influence each other's testimony. That basic concept of investigation had been ignored by Hathorne and Corwin. They had allowed the first examinations to become a public spectacle, which would virtually guarantee confessions or or convictions from this point forward.

When the hearing concluded, most people filed out of the meeting house. The magistrates returned to Salem Town. Tichaba and Sarah Osborne would follow them there and be held in the town jail. Sarah Good was under guard at the home of constable Joseph Herrick in Salem Village. She was caring for an infant who was only a few months old.

Her other daughter, Dorkas, who was four or five years old, stayed with Sarah's husband William. Sarah Good would eventually go to the Essex County Jail in Ipswich. Many men of the town stayed behind after the hearing to hold a meeting. This was a brief reprieve in the hauntings of Salem, but when the meeting finished, witchcraft flared up again. William Allen and John Hughes were walking home in the dark.

They began hearing a noise. It repeated itself over and over again. They couldn't define it or pinpoint its source. Then they froze in their tracks. In the road ahead of them, they saw a strange beast crouched on the ground. They inched forward, and the beast flew apart and became three women who ran away and vanished. Alan and Hughes were convinced that three women were Tichiba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. At the same time in the home of Dr. Griggs, Elizabeth Hubbard screamed in terror.

Mary Sibley and her husband Samuel, the neighbors of Reverend Paris, who had seen, suggested the witchcake were caring for Elizabeth. She cried out that the specter of Sarah Good was standing on the table near Samuel, and she was nearly naked. Samuel roared that he would kill her, and he grabbed his walking stick. He couldn't see the spirit himself, but he swung the stick through the air where Elizabeth pointed. You've hit her right across the back, Elizabeth shouted. You've almost killed her. At the farm of Constable Joseph Herrick, a coincidence occurred that ended up supporting

Hubbard's story. Sarah Good snuck out of Herrick's home with her infant daughter and escaped from the farm. But she left so quickly she didn't take her stockings or her shoes, so her legs were essentially naked under her outer clothing. She slipped away into the freezing cold night, but with no shoes and an infant in her arms, she didn't get very far. Sometime that night, she returned on her own. One of her arms was bloody from the wrist to the elbow, which again,

seemed to support Elizabeth Hubbard's story. The next day, Sarah Good was taken to jail in Ipswich 10 miles away. She tried to escape three times, but the guard stopped her all three times. On the road, she cursed the magistrates and essentially dared them to prove she was a witch. While Sarah Good was in route from Salem Village to Ipswich, magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin walked into the Salem town jail to have another discussion with Tichiba. Hathorn and Corwin entered Tichaba's cell to learn more about her stunning confession. They pressed her for more information, and she gave it to them.

She described the pin and the stick that had been used to draw her blood so she could sign the devil's book. When she made her mark, she saw the marks of Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne there. Then she dropped a bomb on the magistrates. There were nine signatures in the book, some from Boston, some from Salem Town. This case had already been frightening enough, with four girls afflicted in a handful of witches in and around Salem Village. And Titchua's story the previous day had been unnerving to say the least. But now she said there was a whole coven of witches spread throughout the colony. They had even had a meeting in the home of Reverend Paris, but they had used their magic to keep him from seeing them.

While the men listened, Titiba suffered an affliction right then and there. When she recovered, she claimed good and Osborne had just attacked her. The magistrates had wanted more answers, and they got them. As they left her cell, they believed her story and admired her bravery. They believed she regretted her association with the devil, and now she suffered for it. Hathorne and Corwin exited the jail with an immense task in front of them. They were two of the most prominent men in Salem. They had both inherited wealth from their first.

fathers, which gave them position and status. They were related by marriage, and they lived just a block from each other in Salem Town. As men of authority, it was their duty to protect their people. It was their responsibility to track down the witches and end the crisis. The month of March 1692 flew by in an incredible speed as the witchcraft crisis in Salem Village spiraled out of control. Anne Putnam Jr. became the epicenter of the hysteria, and it radiated. out from there. As night fell on Salem Village, just 24 hours after the dramatic hearing at the meeting house, the two men who had seen a strange beast in the road continued to witness frightening scenes. William Allen was alone in his bedchamber when he saw Sarah Good before him surrounded

by an unusual light. She approached him and sat on his foot. He kicked her and she disappeared. John Hughes had been walking home after dark when he had seen a great white dog in his path. Later, in his bedroom, he suddenly saw a pool of light at the foot of his bed. In the middle of it, sat a big gray cat. The day after Alan and Hughes were haunted by animals, Ann Putnam Jr.'s attackers multiplied.

Now she was tortured by the young daughter of Sarah Good, five-year-old Dorcas. Little Dorcas thrust the devil's book at Anne and told her to sign it. Three days later, the specter of Elizabeth Proctor tormented her. Elizabeth was the third wife of John Proctor, and her grandmother had been accused and acquitted of witchcraft 30 years earlier. Elizabeth Hubbard, the fourth afflicted girl, had been to the Proctor's home on the very day she had been chased by Sarah Good's wolf.

While the situation in Salem Village worsened, the magistrates' continued to question the three accused women in the Salem town jail. They had moved Sarah Good from Ipswich, and now they tried to gather more information. In general, Good and Osborne adamantly denied all association with witchcraft. But some of Good's answers were evasive and contradictory. Hathorne and Corwin came away convinced that Tichiba was telling the truth, and Sarah Good was trying to hide something. While events deteriorated in Massachusetts, Reverend Inquist,

Increase Mather and newly minted Governor William Phipps began their long voyage home from London to America with the new charter. Of course, no one in Salem or Boston knew of their success. And the two men knew nothing of the escalating crisis in their community. In Boston, Increase Mather's son held an important meeting with local ministers in the Harvard College Library. Cotton Mather had followed in his father's footsteps and was a 29-year-old rising star in the Puritan ministry. He presided over a large congregation in Boston, and he had called the ministers together for a solemn purpose. In Cotton Mather's words, they needed to judge the Reformation of our provoking evils and the most heavy and wasting judgments of heaven upon our distressed land.

In more plain language, they needed to figure out why God was mad at them. After much discussion, the ministers unanimously agreed that each congregation should assess its problems and seek God's help in solving them. In Salem Village, they didn't know why God was mad at them, but they were trying everything they could think of to make the witchcraft stop. They fasted and prayed fervently, and Reverend Paris took the most sizable action up to that point. He sent his daughter Betty to live with a distant relative in Salem Town.

She lived in Salem Town for the rest of 1692, as the situation in Salem Village became worse by the day. Her afflictions did not stop immediately, but there were no more warrants for arrest sworn out in her name. As Betty moved away to try to get clear of the crisis, the crisis in Anne Putnam's house grew again. On Saturday, March 12th, Anne had been badly tortured by a new specter. She had been able to identify it as Martha Corey, the woman who had tried to stop her husband from going to the hearing by unsaddling his horse. With this accusation, a new line had been crossed. Martha Corey was the first full member of the Puritan Church to be accused of witchcraft.

This was a significant development, and it had to be treated with care. By 1692, the Puritan Church had been in steady decline for decades. The children and grandchildren of the original settlers were not as devout in their beliefs. The Puritan faith was demanding and strict and all-encompassing. The younger generations didn't want to go through the rituals required to become a full member. In response, many congregations began to offer a half covenant to keep from losing people altogether. Martha Corey was a full member. She had proved herself worthy to her congregation. But like the other women who had been accused, she had bits of scandal in her past that could have made her a logical choice for a witch.

During her first marriage, she had given birth to a mulatto son, which fueled endless rumors of infidelity. She had never been shy about voicing her opinions, and even now, in her 60s, she hadn't slowed down. Even with that, an accusation against her was a delicate matter. Anne's uncle and neighbor decided they needed to talk to Martha face to face, but they had to be cautious, because an agent of the devil could look like an innocent person. They had to be sure they were talking to the real Martha Corey, not her evil spirit. They asked Anne to describe the clothing of the spectre that had attacked her. Unfortunately for the two men, 12-year-old Anne couldn't see the specter's clothing that day.

She felt the presence of the spirit, and it whispered to her that she would be blind to the invisible world until later that evening. So she wouldn't be able to help the men at that moment. It was a tough break for the men, but they continued with their men. mission. When they arrived at the Corey Farm, Martha was alone and opened the door for them. She surprised them by saying she knew why they were there. They thought she was a witch. She told them she wasn't, and she couldn't help what other people said about her. They said she had been named by Anne Putnam, Jr. Martha asked them twice, did she tell you what clothes I had on? The men couldn't answer. Anne hadn't been able to tell them, so they

couldn't make a comparison. Martha smiled and shrugged off the accusation. She had no sympathy for the other women who had been accused. It wouldn't have taken much for the devil to tempt them, but she was a full member of the church. She had rejoiced in the word of God. The men left uneasily. When they returned to Anne's house, they found out she had been right.

She had been fine all day while they were in the presence of Martha Corey, but as soon as they left, Martha's spirit began attacking her again. And this was only the beginning of the wicked work of Martha Corey's spirit. Next, John Proctor's maid, Mary Warren, became afflicted, and she said Martha Corey's specter was attacking her. That Sunday, in the middle of Sabbath lecture at the meeting house, 40-year-old Bethshua Pope experienced a terrifying bout of blindness. At the Putnam home, Anne had another bone-chilling episode. She gazed across the room and saw the apparition of a pale woman sitting in a woman sitting in a woman sitting in her. in her grandmother's chair. She couldn't make out the features of the spirit, but she thought

she remembered where the woman normally sat in the meeting house. Anne's mother, Anne Putnam, Sr., and her maid, Mercy Lewis, tried to pinpoint who it was. They started suggesting names of women in the congregation. Thanks to their efforts, Anne Jr. finally landed on the right one. The spirit was that of Rebecca Nurse. The following day, Abigail Williams, twisted and convulsed in the home of Reverend Paris. She identified the spirits of Martha Corey and Elizabeth Proctor as her attackers. That day, Thomas Putnam, Anne's father, was concerned about the accusation against Martha Corey. He invited Martha to his home to see his daughter.

The second Martha walked in the door, Anne collapsed to the floor, contorting and choking. She shouted that Martha was the cause, and then her teeth immediately clamped down on her tongue as punishment. Most of the adults were stunned. Martha Corey was not. When Anne was able to talk again, she said there was a yellow bird sucking the skin between two of Martha's fingers. Martha challenged the girl by touching the spot where the bird was, and then it disappeared. Anne said it was Martha's spirit that had blinded Mrs. Pope yesterday, and Anne pressed her hands to her eyes to demonstrate how Martha had done it. But then she couldn't remove them. They were stuck. Family members tried to pry her hands away, but they wouldn't budge.

Finally, they relaxed on their own, and Anne could see again. But when she recovered her sight, she had a horrifying vision. She saw the image of a spit, with a man impaled on it, roasting over an open fire, with Martha Corey supervising. The Putnam's 19-year-old maid, Mercy Lewis, jumped into action. She grabbed a stick and swatted at the apparition. It went away, but then it came back. She hit it again, but this time she recoiled in pain as if she herself had been struck.

Now even Martha Corey was staring in awe. She hadn't moved a muscle. She couldn't see the gory image described by Anne. But the scene was becoming so extreme that the Putnam's yelled at her to leave. Later that evening, with Martha Corey gone, Mercy Lewis had her own terrifying experience. As she sat in a chair near the fireplace, it began to inch forward on its own. The chair crept toward the open flames, as if pushed by invisible hands. It took three adults to pull her back before she was thrust into the fire.

As they saved her, one man saw bite marks on her skin. Three days later, the affliction spread to a third member of the Putnam household. Anne Putnam, Sr. was beyond exhausted. She was 30 years old and pregnant with her eighth child, and for three days she had cared for her afflicted daughter and her maid. She reached her breaking point. When she laid down in the afternoon to rest, she immediately felt like she was being pressed and choked to death.

She saw Martha Corey's spirit attacking her, and again it took several men to save her. If they had not come to her aid, she said she would have been torn to pieces. The next day, an arrest one. warrant was issued for Martha Corey. In the second half of March, the crisis in Salem truly exploded. The spirits of Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse were everywhere.

They attacked more women, and the women of Salem weren't alone. Reports of witchcraft began to come in from Andover and Ipswich. The problem was spreading. Then came the second round of examinations, and they were worse than the first. next time on Infamous America Season 1, Salem. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review wherever you're listening.

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