Who are the afflicted children in the Salem witch trials?
Friday, February 22, 2008, 05:14 PM -
History of Salem, Massachusetts,
Witchcraft historyPosted by The Historian
The central characters of the Salem witchcraft episode are the so-called "afflicted children" responsible for most of the accusations and much of the spectral evidence testimony presented against the victims. They are often referred to as children because---with the exception of two individuals---all of this group were under the age of twenty at the time the episode began.
Why were children regarded as reliable sources of intelligence about suspected witches? Quite simply because, in English tradition, there was a long-standing precedent of using children to identify likely suspects.
In her book, A Mirror of Witchcraft, historian Christina Hole, mentions English villages during the Cromwelliam era which used children with "spectral sight" as witch-finders. Some of these children became quite famous in their own time and their activities were published in contemporary accounts of the English witch hunts of the 1650's.
Closer to New England, bewitched children had been used as sources of supernatural information in the famous Hartford witchcraft trials of the 1660's, and in the popular, published Cotton Mather account of the Goodwin children and Mary Glover in Boston in 1688.
The first two "afflicted" persons were Parris' daughter and neice, nine-year-old Elizabeth "Betty" Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams. After days of displaying characteristics of aberrant behavior including claims of sharp pain, paralyzation, choking, crawling under furniture, staring-into-space, making non-sensical noises and crying out, they were prayed over by Reverend Parris and several local ministers. When this failed to cure them, the local physician, Dr. William Griggs was called in to examine the girls. His diagnosis was that their malady was of a spiritual nature. They were under the "evil hand" of witchcraft.
Ultimately the group of "afflicted" would grow to include many more children. All of these would claim to be "tortured, wasted, pined and consumed" by the spells and invisible specters of local residents who were witches. Altogether, the "afflicted children" would accuse over two hundred individuals, most of whom would escape prosecution. Nearly fifty would save their lives by confessing to the crime of witchcraft, and begging the community's forgiveness.(This group would be asked to turn "state's evidence" and help the court ferret out more suspects.) Twenty would lose their lives through the actions of Salem's Court of Oyer and Terminer, nineteen by hanging and one (Giles Corey) by the torture of pressing.
Besides Elizabeth Parris (9) and Abigail Williams (11), the other afflicted children included: Elizabeth Hubbard (18); Mary Warren (17); Mercy Lewis (19); Mary Walcott (16); Elizabeth Booth (16); Elizabeth Churchill (20) and Susannah Sheldon (18). Three middle-aged women were also adult participants as afflicted witnesses to spectral evidence. These were Ann Putnam, Sr., Gertrude Pope and Sarah Bibber.