And, when questioned about their behaviour, they replied: “We are no longer of you. Abigail and Betty, especially, went around in a kind of trance. The girls came to regard Tituba herself as a witch and, before long, their various parents noticed that they were no longer acting like God-fearing and normal youngsters. The girls and their friends used to meet in the Parris’ kitchen, when Tituba would hold them spellbound with stories of voodoo and witchcraft in the West Indies. The coloured couple proved to be willing and conscientious servants, and Tituba became friendly with Abigail and Betty. He had brought Tituba, and her husband John, back from Barbados, where he had previously and unsuccessfully worked as a trader. Tituba was the cook and maid-of-all-work to Abigail’s father, the Reverend Samuel Parris, a local preacher, and his wife.
The events which had brought it about had occurred earlier that winter, when Abigail, Betty and six other girls (who had not been called to court) came under Tituba’s so-called evil influence. The trial was held in the local chapel, and it opened in February, 1692. Indeed, Tituba and the other two defendants were on trial for their lives, accused of having practised black magic on the children and of spreading Satan’s message throughout the tight-knit and extremely puritanical community. They screamed and wailed and finally fell to the floor, still in convulsions and still crying out as if the devil had entered their souls.Īnd this, according to the villagers of Salem, Massachusetts, is exactly what had happened. The youngsters began to roll their eyes, tear their hair, and writhe in their seats. As the prisoners turned to face the spectators, Abigail and Betty suddenly and apparently became possessed. Then three women – a coloured slave known only as Tituba, a down-and-out called Sarah Ford, and Sarah Osburne, a woman with no religion – were ushered into the dock. Abigail Williams, aged 12, and her nine-year-old cousin, Betty Parris, sat with every eye on them, awaiting the arrival of the accused. Hysteria overtakes the witch trials in Salem, by Ken PettsĪs the self-proclaimed victims and main prosecution witnesses, the two young girls were given pride of place in the New England courtroom.
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