A Break With Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials (27 page)

It was my invention, for the sake of story, to have Susanna ask for and receive permission from her parents to stay in Salem. Sister Mary's marriage to fictional Thomas Hitchbourne, Susanna's stay with the Putnams, and Susanna's involvement in the letters of Reverend Pike and Thomas Brattle are all my own inventions. Pike and Brattle did write letters that led to the end of the witchcraft business, but historically they did so on their own. But if someone like Susanna stepped forward with information to encourage the letter writers, it could have been kept secret. No one really knows what individual small acts of courage contributed to the resolution of the witch hysteria in Salem.

We do know that Phillip English did send corn and flour to Salem from New York during the terrible winter of 1692–1693. And he did steal the body of Sheriff George Corwin after that man died.

I chose Joseph and Elizabeth Putnam as the family Susanna would stay with because history tells us that Joseph Putnam had the spirit of American independence even in that dark and unenlightened time. Historically, he did go to his brother's house and tell his sister-in-law, Ann Putnam, that if she touched anyone in his house with her foul lies, she would be sorry. And he did keep his horses saddled in the barn at all times, ready to flee with his family if arrested. From the outset, he did not believe in the witch hysteria.

In 1718, another son was born to Joseph and Elizabeth Putnam. Young Israel became one of the foremost generals in the American Revolution. Known as "Old Put," he was a member of the Sons of Liberty, and when news of the Battle of Lexington reached him as he was plowing his fields in Connecticut, he left the plow, unhitched a horse, and rode one hundred miles in eighteen hours to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill.

History tells us that in 1692 there was a young girl named Abigail Hobbs in Salem who defied restrictions and lived in the woods and eventually confessed to witchcraft. And that John Dorich was one young boy the girls allowed to participate in their circle. That elderly Mary Bradbury was accused of haunting ships at sea but escaped, is also historically accurate, as is my account of John Alden, who was accused of witchcraft, made a prisoner in his own home, and who eventually escaped.

I have used these characters at will, working with the facts documented about them and filling in my own motivation. The idea of making Joseph Putnam the leader of a Salem resistance movement against the witch hysteria is my own. There definitely was a core of people working to bring sanity back to Salem, and given Joseph Putnam's bravery and streak of independence, I decided to make him the catalyst in this movement.

In doing research, one discovers many things. I became fascinated by some of the similarities between the era of the Salem witch trials and today's world. Then, as now, if a person was well placed, like Phillip English, he could work out an arrangement to be allowed certain freedoms while under arrest. And those named as witches were often persons of "no account," like Tituba, who was a black slave; Sarah Good, whose husband was landless; Bridget Bishop, who went against the strictures of society; and others who were considered outcasts.

But most of all, I was intrigued by the idea that you could "cop a plea" in those days, just like today. Those who admitted to the charge of witchcraft were allowed to go free, part of that deal being that they named others. Those who denied the charge were imprisoned.

Other intriguing facts my research uncovered revises the long-held opinion we all have about Puritans. They were not people who walked around in somber-colored clothing, denying themselves life's pleasures. Yes, they worked hard and spent long hours at Meeting. But they were human, they liked their fun, and they took it wherever and whenever they could.

One has only to delve into the court cases of the time or read current scholarship to learn that the power exerted over them by parents and ministers and magistrates was often in theory only. Episodes of behavior that went against community regulations are rife in court cases, which show constant trials and convictions for sexual offenses committed by both married and single persons.

Paternity cases, fornication, or in the instance of married couples, adultery, were all part of the social fabric of the times and common causes for concern. But even the known list of court cases does not take into account occurrences in which the parties did not get caught. And frequently the only proof was a child born out of wedlock, or a baby that was not full term, born to a couple after marriage.

In other words, the Puritans were people just like us. Except that their laws were stricter, and they had to be more inventive about not getting caught. Thus, I allowed Johnathan and Susanna to hold hands, to kiss, to be off alone on walks, under the distant approval of a benevolent Joseph Putnam.

As for clothing, here again we have harbored stereotypical views. Yes, jewelry was forbidden, as were some of the more outlandish headdresses, lace ruffs, and billowing skirts worn at the same time in England. But the fabrics used by the Puritans were varied. For warmth, many layers of clothing were necessary and while black connoted authority and dignity, many colors were allowed in daily garb, from orange-brown to blue and green and yellow and purple. The tones were muted, however, since color was achieved from the use of vegetable dyes.

Why then, did Bishop's "red bodice," documented in history, get her into trouble? I put it down to the general atmosphere of intolerance that prevailed in Salem at the time—intolerance for everything and everyone who did not subscribe to the very repressive "norm."

I have formed my own theories about the witch trials. I believe the girls in the circle were caught in the web of their own mischief; that, having indulged in forbidden pleasures, they had to go along with the diagnosis that the evil hand was on them or admit to their activities, which would have incurred terrible punishment.

It makes sense to me that once the ministers and magistrates paid mind to every word the girls uttered, these teenagers could not let go of their newfound fame. Performing in Ingersoll's Ordinary, being excused from chores and from attendance at Meeting, being relieved of all the restrictions of a harsh society, they found power and notoriety they could not give up. So the witchcraft hysteria gained in momentum.

People were arrested, imprisoned, hanged. Then it was too late for the girls to speak out. Their jump to celebrity status could be likened to that of an ordinary teenager in today's world suddenly being on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

And the whole business was fed by ancient beliefs and fears and local hatreds. Did not Ann Putnam, the younger, confess in 1706 that she had indeed dissembled?

One important aspect of the Salem witch trials of 1692 is that the people of Massachusetts Bay Colony—with the exception of Governor William Phips, who wrote two letters to England—solved the matter themselves.

And, although twenty-four people died as a result of this hysteria (nineteen were hanged, one was pressed to death, and four died in prison), the elders of the colony eventually came to their senses without intervention from the Mother Country.

Using such facts, I wrote my story, but it is just a story. For the real facts about Salem during the witch trials, there are many scholarly books you can read. And you can visit the town of Salem, where you can explore the wonderful historic sites and form your own opinion about the witch trials, especially during this year of 1992 as the town marks the three-hundredth anniversary of those events.

A historical novel like this one would be impossible to write if one could not refer to the scholarly writings of men and women who have researched the period. The books and papers I used as references for this work are listed below. There are many more books to be read on witchcraft in England and America and on the time period involved in my novel, as well as original papers to be studied, if one is so inclined.

Original Papers

English, Mrs. Philip. 1943. "Facts about the Life of Philip English of Salem." Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. Photocopy.

Books

Brown, David C.
A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria oj 1692.
Worcester, MA: Mercantile Printing Company, 1984.

Demos, John.
A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Karlsen, Carol F.
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England.
New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987.

Leach, Douglas Edward.
Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip's War.
New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1966.

Morgan, Edmund S.
The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1958.

Richardson, Katherine W.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1983.

Rutman, Darrett B.
The Morning of America, 1603—1789.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971.

Rutman, Darrett B.
Winthrop's Boston: A Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630—1649.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965.

Snow, Edward Rowe.
Disaster at Sea.
Three volumes in one:
Marine Mysteries and Dramatic Disasters of New England
(1976);
Sea Disasters and Inland Catastrophes
(1980);
Pirates, Shipwrecks and Historic Chronicles
(1981). New York: Avenel Books, Compilation, 1990.

Starkey, Marion L.
The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1949; New York: Anchor Books, 1969.

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