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For centuries, witch
hunts raged through Europe

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and the Americas.

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Everybody believed in
the existence of witches.

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The trials catch fire.

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...causing the deaths
of tens of thousands

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of innocent people.

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It was extraordinary.

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♪ ♪

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To this day, the most
infamous hunt of all

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ravaged a small
religious community

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in colonial Massachusetts.

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Salem was a community
that was already

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riven with hostility
to one's neighbors.

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♪ ♪

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The horrors begin when
children in the minister's

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house have violent fits,
an affliction that seems

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to be caused by the devil.

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Triggering a savage, unstoppable
panic that saw hundreds

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accused of witchcraft by their
neighbors, friends, and family.

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This great network
of witches all working

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together across the area.

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They know at the end
of this that they could

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be judged guilty of witchcraft,
and they'll be hanged.

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Once you've
crossed that line, you

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have actually executed
someone, it's very difficult to stop.

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It could never go
back to the way it was.

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This was a war zone.

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This is the story of
the Salem Witch Trials.

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♪ ♪

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Salem is a Puritan community.

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-The Puritans were a dissenting
branch of the Anglican Church

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who fled England
in the early 1600s.

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-They were concerned
that living in England,

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the hierarchy of the Church of
England, the Anglican Church,

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was telling them what to do,
was making them believe things

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that they didn't
actually want to believe.

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So off they go to America
to found their own church

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and to own their own doctrine.

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As the Puritan
population increased

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over the coming decades,
they established multiple colonies

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in what would become the
Northeast of the United States.

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Really, the locus
of Puritan influence

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and the locus of the
congregational church

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was in Massachusetts, was in
places like Boston and Salem.

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The community at Salem
is a congregation-less

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community, which means
that the people there

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have a belief that the
congregation itself should

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be able to shape
how the church works.

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Puritans in Salem
Village have the power

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to elect a new minister
to lead their congregation.

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They nominate the recently
ordained Samuel Parris.

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Samuel Parris arrived
in Salem Village

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in 1689.

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He's come to Salem
from Barbados.

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He has had a bit of a career
as a merchant before then.

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He's not actually
very successful.

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He comes to New England to
try his luck at something new,

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at something different in
this new colony that's just sort

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of building itself up
in the 17th century.

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He sails first to
Boston, where he

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lives for a couple of
years with his family,

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and then to Salem Village.

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Salem Village is a kind of

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an appendage to Salem Town.

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Salem Town is the much
more prosperous community.

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Salem Village was fractious.

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This was not
considered a destination

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for an ambitious
minister like Parris.

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He enters into the
community, and he

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starts sifting out the most
godly people around him

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to join his sort of
special congregation

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of particularly pious villagers.

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I think he's quite an
embittered individual,

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and I think he tends to
take that frustration out

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through very, very sort
of impassioned preaching.

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Because he's a
new minister, he's

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very keen to prove his place
in the village and his utility

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to the local community.

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Parris has overseen
the church in Salem

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for two difficult years.

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When this highly
religious community

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is thrown into disarray,
young girls in nearby villages

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have been
experimenting with magic.

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They had been doing
something known

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as the egg and glass.

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The idea was that
you would take an egg,

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and you would then
drip the white of the egg

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into a bowl of water and
look at the shapes it makes.

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You were asking God to
give you some insight into what

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shape your future would take.

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What starts off as
playing around with

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fortune telling
becomes more sinister.

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What they saw in the water
was the shape of a coffin.

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They start feeling very worried.

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This kind of divination
was regarded

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as demonic.

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It's impossible to
know if Samuel Parris's

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daughter, Betty,
and niece Abigail

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took part in these rituals.

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But something terrible
happens shortly afterwards.

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Betty Parris starts
showing strange symptoms

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of affliction.

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This then spreads to Abigail.

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They start saying
that their muscles hurt,

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and they start screaming.

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You can imagine how
distressing that would

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have been for their family.

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This upheaval is coming
from right inside the

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house of the minister.

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The Reverend Samuel Parris

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calls in the doctor.

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He says, it is supernatural.

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I can't cure it, so it
must be witchcraft.

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The people of Salem,
they're very religious.

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They believe in God.

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But that means they
believe in the devil, too.

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They're kind of on the
lookout for witchcraft.

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There had certainly
been plenty of cases

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in Europe involving

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what was known as bewitchment.

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What was happening
to Betty and Abigail

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seemed to follow
this recognized model.

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There was an
established precedent

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for blaming this on witches.

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When the community has

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decided to accept the idea

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that these girls are
being attacked by witches,

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the next stage in the
process is then saying,

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who is it who is
doing this to you?

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Who is afflicting you?

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The names that come up are two

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women of middling age

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who were unpopular
within their community,

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Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.

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The other name
we have is Tituba.

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Tituba was a servant in
the house of Samuel Paris.

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I think her name was
probably originally

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something like Tata Bay.

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She comes from a grouping
on the South American mainland

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called the Tetebetana.

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-There was that ethnic
difference compared

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to the people surrounding her.

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And it's kind of
that classic idea

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of assuming that
people who are different

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are more likely to be
in league with things

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that are deemed evil
and unfamiliar to you.

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Abigail and Betty
might have picked on

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Tituba as well because
Betty's father Samuel may

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have been critical
of a woman of color

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who lived in his community.

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I can imagine him
bullying Tituba.

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I can imagine him
speaking critically about her,

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maybe thinking she wasn't
a good enough Christian.

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So it's really no
surprise to Samuel

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when Abigail and Betty start
pointing the finger at Tituba

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and saying that she's a witch.

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♪ ♪

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The affliction starts spreading
from Abigail and Betty

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to their friends,
the Putnam family.

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They start exhibiting
the same symptoms.

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They start
screaming in the night.

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They start convulsing.

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They start pointing the finger
and saying that they, too,

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are bewitched by the people that

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Abigail and Betty
have suspected.

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♪ ♪

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First of March,
1692, the accused

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are dragged in
front of magistrates.

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A confession is needed
before they're sent to trial.

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For all the women,
it's a terrifying ordeal,

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especially Tituba, the woman
of indigenous or African heritage.

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Tituba begins by

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denying that she
did anything at all.

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She's in front of these
powerful white men.

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She's probably been hurt,
and she's certainly been

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enslaved by powerful white men.

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This is a very bullying
power relationship

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that she's in in this room.

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These women were
looking for ways

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to try and save themselves.

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Therefore, they might
come to say the things

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that people wanted to hear,
confess to imaginary crimes.

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♪ ♪

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In the end, during
her questioning,

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Tituba starts to say,
I did hurt the children.

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She said, the devil came to me,
and the devil kept saying to me,

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you must hurt the children.

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You must hurt the children.

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He threatened me, she said.

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He said he would kill me.

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He would tear me to pieces.

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He would cut my head off.

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With Tituba's
confession secured,

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the magistrates also questioned
the other two women accused

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of being witches, Sarah
Good and Sarah Osborne.

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As part of this questioning,
Sarah Good's young

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daughter, Dorothy, was
asked about whether her mother

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was, in fact, a witch.

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She was only four.

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What was she expected to say?

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And of course, she says,
yes, my mother is a witch.

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And she admits
witchcraft herself,

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which is particularly shocking.

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♪ ♪

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The people of Salem
send the suspects off

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to Boston, the capital of
the colony of Massachusetts,

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to await trial.

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They're kept in chains.

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There are women.

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There are some children,
like Dorothy Good.

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There are people who
are absolutely desperate.

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Although the accused
women have been jailed,

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it will be many months
until a trial can proceed.

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The colony of
Massachusetts, it's

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governed under a charter
from the British government.

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And the charter has expired.

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The governor and many of
the leading men of the colony

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have gone off to England
to secure a new charter

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to make sure that its
legal processes can

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continue to function.

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♪ ♪

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Although the Salem
town magistrates

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can question suspects,
they can't really

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start any trials until the
governor arrives from England.

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It gives more space and
time for the afflictions to spread

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and the concern of
the community to grow.

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During that time,

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questions keep on being asked.

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A lot of other names
start getting mentioned.

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And these women who are
sitting around in these jail cells

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happen to keep
remembering other people who

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might have been involved.

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Things start to spiral.

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♪ ♪

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Months pass.

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The people of Salem village
grow ever more convinced

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that witches walk amongst them.

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Further accusations
are coming from the

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supposedly afflicted girls.

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Samuel Powers is preaching about

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witchcraft to the congregation.

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And the contagion
seems to be continuing.

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There are stories of
more girls getting afflicted.

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The suspects also carry
on being questioned.

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And they carry on telling
stories about the witchcraft

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that they've
supposedly committed.

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They name new suspects
back in Salem village,

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people like Bridget Bishop.

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And then these people are
brought in for questioning, too.

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♪ ♪

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Most news is spread
by word of mouth.

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People communicated
at the marketplace

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when they were trading.

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♪ ♪

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About 75% of those
who are accused

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are female.

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And that's because women
are seen as particularly

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prone to becoming witches.

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They're seen as
gateways of the devil.

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They're seen as people
who might fall prey

261
00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:29,480
to these sort of demonic lies.

262
00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:32,360
♪ ♪

263
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,720
Samuel Powers also asked
the previous minister of Salem,

264
00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,480
Diodat Lawson, to come
and visit and see what

265
00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:41,320
he thinks of the situation.

266
00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:45,240
And then he goes to
the Powers household.

267
00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:48,120
And he sees Betty
Powers in one of her fits.

268
00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:51,720
She's running around
the room screaming.

269
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:56,760
She's trying to climb
out of the window and fly.

270
00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:00,440
And he writes an
account of what he saw

271
00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,040
and what he experienced
while he was in Salem Village.

272
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,440
As a minister and
trusted member of society,

273
00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:12,320
Lawson's vivid account adds
credibility to the witch hunt.

274
00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:16,760
The first accused
witches were the outsiders.

275
00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:18,680
They were those
you might consider

276
00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:21,640
the usual suspects
in witchcraft.

277
00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:26,240
But as the accusations grow,
more and more prominent people

278
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,360
are actually
drawn into this net.

279
00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:31,160
The sorts of people
who would not

280
00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:34,400
expect to be giving
themselves up to the devil.

281
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:36,834
They're not people
who might be seen as

282
00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:40,400
outsiders or scapegoats
like the Native American

283
00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:42,840
Tituba or the homeless
person Sarah Good.

284
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,040
These are prime, upstanding
members of Samuel Powers's

285
00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:50,640
congregation, people
like Rebecca Nurse,

286
00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:52,960
who's been a member
of the church all her life

287
00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:57,440
and is seen by her neighbors as
being a pious and good person.

288
00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:00,480
She's a pillar of the
godly community.

289
00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:03,720
You would expect her to
be protected from accusation.

290
00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:06,547
But nevertheless,
she's named as a witch.

291
00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,000
As the accusations spread,
they dig deeper and deeper

292
00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:11,920
into Salem's community.

293
00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,800
We have to begin
from the important fact

294
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:23,240
that everybody believed
in the existence of witches.

295
00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:25,880
And so as these
rumors begin spreading,

296
00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:27,680
there's a sense of crisis.

297
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,400
There's a sense that Satan
is actually successfully waging

298
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:34,720
this war on their community.

299
00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:38,440
Salem was a community

300
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,800
that was already
riven with division.

301
00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:42,960
You've got the tension

302
00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:47,400
between Salem
Village and Salem Town.

303
00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:52,080
Salem Village is
more backward looking,

304
00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,400
much poorer than Salem Town.

305
00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:57,760
Salem Town is wealthier.

306
00:15:57,840 --> 00:15:59,320
It's fancier.

307
00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:03,880
It's becoming more interested
in the refinements of society,

308
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:05,710
the kind of things that
Puritans disapprove

309
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,320
of very strongly indeed.

310
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:09,920
And then you've got Paris.

311
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,200
Rather than smoothing things
over and calming things down,

312
00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:17,640
he really intensifies the
factions and the resentments.

313
00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:20,514
And I think the fact that
the afflictions of the children

314
00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:22,074
start in his household
suggests that he very much is

315
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,040
at the center of a
lot of this concern.

316
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,320
Within Salem Village,
there is a division

317
00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,640
between two of the
prominent families.

318
00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:33,240
And those are the
Putnams and the Porters.

319
00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:39,840
The Porter households
and their allies

320
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:44,240
were much more politically
linked to Salem Town,

321
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,840
whereas the Putnams
are inward looking,

322
00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,880
much more linked to Paris
as the Salem Village minister,

323
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:51,920
much more older
fashioned in their emphasis

324
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,120
on Puritan godliness.

325
00:16:55,760 --> 00:17:00,440
The accused witches tended
to come from the Porter network,

326
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,760
whereas the afflicted tended
to be much more closely linked

327
00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:07,280
to the Paris Putnam faction.

328
00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:11,360
-The villagers are
turning on each other.

329
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,360
But beyond the village,
there are even worse threats.

330
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:16,440
There are Native
American peoples

331
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:19,834
who the villagers have
taken their land, essentially,

332
00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:21,920
and they've dispossessed them.

333
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,000
There's also famine,
because they don't know

334
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:26,120
which kind of crops to grow.

335
00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,200
The Native Americans
aren't helping them anymore,

336
00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:29,280
naturally enough.

337
00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:30,840
There's disease.

338
00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,520
There are wars to
the north in Maine.

339
00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,520
And some of the people who
are doing the accusing in Salem

340
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:40,400
Village are probably
refugees from the war.

341
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:43,440
We're dealing with people
who are really traumatized.

342
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:50,320
♪ ♪

343
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:54,560
-All of these factors are
then feeding into the division

344
00:17:54,640 --> 00:18:00,320
at Salem and perpetuating
this mood of suspicion,

345
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:03,312
potentially of hostility
to one's neighbors.

346
00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:06,200
Between January
and May, we end up

347
00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:10,640
with 81 people accused
of witchcraft, 49 of whom

348
00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:11,600
are imprisoned.

349
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:14,360
♪ ♪

350
00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:18,480
-This is developing into
a massive social, cultural,

351
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:20,120
political crisis.

352
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,960
Several months after
the first accusations,

353
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,120
Governor Phipps arrives
with the new Massachusetts

354
00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:30,200
charter in hand.

355
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:33,440
He now has the power
to open the courts.

356
00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:37,280
And the accused will either
find justice and freedom

357
00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:41,600
or a brutal death.

358
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,840
♪ ♪

359
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:49,400
When the governor
arrives back from

360
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,314
England with the new charter,
he has a range of pressing matters

361
00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:52,640
to deal with.

362
00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:55,800
There are Native American
wars going on to the north.

363
00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,000
There are wars between
the English and the French.

364
00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:00,960
And he has to go in
person to intervene.

365
00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:05,680
So, he's not present in
the colony of Massachusetts

366
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,280
for quite some
time after his arrival.

367
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:13,200
However, he's briefed
about the people awaiting trial

368
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,880
for witchcraft in Boston jail.

369
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,000
And on May the 27th,
he sets up a special court

370
00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:21,880
to deal with them, a court
of our own termina, which

371
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,640
means to hear and determine.

372
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:27,720
Which is basically
an old English method

373
00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:29,560
for dealing with a
legal emergency.

374
00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:30,994
It's a bit of a challenge
in the Middle Ages

375
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:32,840
for things like
popular rebellion,

376
00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:36,480
when you've suddenly got a
really unusual number of trials

377
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:37,769
that you need to get through.

378
00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:41,040
♪ ♪

379
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,594
The trials are held
in the meeting house,

380
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,080
so essentially the
community's own church.

381
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:49,160
It's a packed room.

382
00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:50,120
It's a hot room.

383
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:52,560
It's a noisy room. It's crowded.

384
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:54,800
It must have felt
incredibly intimidating.

385
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:57,520
This is a spectacle that

386
00:19:57,600 --> 00:19:58,874
a lot of villagers, some of whom

387
00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:02,440
are accused, are
coming to watch.

388
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:06,360
Governor Phipps won't
lead the court himself.

389
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:07,840
He won't be the judge.

390
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:12,040
He asks his friends,
the intellectuals,

391
00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:15,400
the important men in the
community, to help him.

392
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:18,800
There's also a lot
of potential for the

393
00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:21,400
judge to steer things in
the way that he wants.

394
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,640
♪ ♪

395
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:29,120
As the court assembles
in Salem town,

396
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,840
the accused witches
are led from jail,

397
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,400
desperately hoping
they will find mercy.

398
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:37,280
The accused people have to

399
00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:39,400
defend themselves.
They don't have lawyers.

400
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:41,994
They would have
been reliant on their

401
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,560
own words, their own denials.

402
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,800
♪ ♪

403
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,760
You get this very, very
dramatic, peculiar situation

404
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,560
where the afflicted girls,
including Betty Parris

405
00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:58,194
and Abigail Williams, are
brought into the courtroom

406
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,720
♪ ♪

407
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,440
They might writhe
or whimper or babble.

408
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:06,520
They actually throw fits

409
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:07,720
in front of the court.

410
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,240
They make new accusations.

411
00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:11,280
They say things like,
she's attacking me.

412
00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:12,560
She's screaming at me.

413
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:13,640
She's hitting me.

414
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,880
If the accused witch in the dock

415
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:24,000
raises an arm, the afflicted
individuals would react to that.

416
00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:29,240
It's quite hard for us to
imagine how sensational that

417
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,640
would have been and how
much their performance kind

418
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:36,920
of convinces people that
they're being attacked by witches.

419
00:21:38,360 --> 00:21:39,514
The suspects must
have been frightened.

420
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:41,120
They must have
been terribly upset

421
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:42,840
by this public humiliation.

422
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:46,240
It must have been an awful,
traumatic experience for them.

423
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:49,889
They know at the end of
this that they could be judged

424
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,520
guilty of witchcraft, and
that they'll be hanged.

425
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:55,142
Your options when
it came to defending

426
00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,880
yourself against a witchcraft
charge were pretty limited.

427
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:04,520
But there was an idea that
those who confessed to the crime

428
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,920
had at least shown
some kind of repentance,

429
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:08,920
some kind of remorse.

430
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:11,634
If you confessed, you
lost your reputation.

431
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:13,680
Not only had you
told a lie before God,

432
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:15,160
but all your
neighbors would then

433
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:16,800
judge you to be a witch.

434
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:18,440
You'd be permanently tainted.

435
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,880
But also, the people who
confess will be spared.

436
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,440
They will be judged guilty,
but they won't be executed.

437
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,360
And of course, it's a massive
inducement to confess.

438
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,120
The judges don't seem
to have spotted that one.

439
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:38,440
But it's something that really
makes the trials catch fire.

440
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,800
Tituba, the first person
accused of witchcraft

441
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,720
by the Paris family,
finally takes the stand.

442
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,920
♪ ♪

443
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:57,720
Tituba did admit
that she was a witch,

444
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,480
whether she believed
herself to be one or not.

445
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:05,560
When she introduced
this idea that there

446
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,640
might be this great network
of witches all working together

447
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:11,240
across the area.

448
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:16,000
♪ ♪

449
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:19,640
And she was spared.

450
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,920
Therefore, she was
not to be executed.

451
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:23,440
She was returned to jail.

452
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:25,270
Of course, that was
a punishment in itself.

453
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:26,600
But it did save her life.

454
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,520
♪ ♪

455
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:31,640
Those who confessed to the

456
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:33,040
crime might well have helped

457
00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:35,440
out the authorities by
giving details about what

458
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,920
happened, naming other names.

459
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,600
As one person after
another confesses and is

460
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:45,000
spared, the number of witchcraft
suspects and convicted witches

461
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:46,280
starts to grow again.

462
00:23:46,360 --> 00:23:51,840
♪ ♪

463
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,160
As well as sparing
confessing suspects,

464
00:23:56,360 --> 00:23:57,874
the court also makes
another fatal decision,

465
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:00,880
which is to admit what's
called spectral evidence.

466
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:03,160
♪ ♪

467
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,400
And this is essentially
evidence based

468
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,680
on the visions of the accusers.

469
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,200
Spectral evidence
draws on this idea

470
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:17,840
that the devil has the
power to cause hallucinations

471
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:19,280
in people's minds.

472
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:22,520
Spectral evidence
was basically evidence

473
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,280
that wasn't visible to
most of the townspeople

474
00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:28,800
but was, in fact,
visible to the accusers.

475
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:34,480
♪ ♪

476
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,640
Sometimes these spirits
admitted their culpability

477
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:38,960
to earlier crimes.

478
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:42,800
Sometimes other spirits
accused the supposed witch

479
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:44,200
of a particular crime.

480
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,120
This now is an absolute
nightmare when it

481
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,680
comes to evidential standards,
because what you have here

482
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:53,480
is a form of evidence
that is basically

483
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:55,160
impossible to disprove.

484
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,480
♪ ♪

485
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,400
So spectral evidence
allows the trials to escalate,

486
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,880
allows them to move further
into the realm of fantasy

487
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,640
and away from anything we
would consider valid proof.

488
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:13,640
♪ ♪

489
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,280
Other members of the
community are essentially

490
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,880
allowing this to happen by
not protesting loudly against it.

491
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,120
There are cases
of brave individuals

492
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,760
who'd fight to defend
their loved ones,

493
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:31,560
but it was potentially a
pretty dangerous business.

494
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,640
♪ ♪

495
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:36,120
Trials are doing
very, very quick

496
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:38,520
by comparison with today.

497
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,120
It can be as little
as 15 minutes

498
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:43,600
to determine whether
somebody lives or dies.

499
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,360
On the 2nd of June,
the court of Oyer and

500
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,120
Terminer renders
their first verdict.

501
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,920
♪ ♪

502
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:56,920
It's Bridget Bishop,

503
00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:59,040
and she's sentenced
to be hanged.

504
00:25:59,120 --> 00:26:00,520
♪ ♪

505
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,480
On the 2nd of June,
the court makes its first

506
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:15,160
conviction of Bridget Bishop.

507
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:16,080
♪ ♪

508
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:17,920
She says not guilty in court.

509
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,600
She's condemned to die, but
she maintains her innocence

510
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:24,240
to the gallows, and that's
quite disturbing for people.

511
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,600
♪ ♪

512
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:28,520
Having an execution of
someone for witchcraft

513
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,040
is dramatic enough,
but she's not

514
00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:33,204
going to the gallows as
a kind of a penitent sinner

515
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:34,680
admitting her guilt.

516
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,120
She's actually saying,
you guys got it wrong.

517
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,320
♪ ♪

518
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,440
The same day, one
of the judges actually

519
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:51,440
resigns from the court.

520
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:52,770
So there are already some signs

521
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,280
that things aren't going well.

522
00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,120
Now an actual
execution has happened.

523
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:00,640
Things have got serious.

524
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:04,960
People are getting murdered
because of these accusations.

525
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:07,400
♪ ♪

526
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:09,634
On the 29th of June, one of

527
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:10,834
the original
suspects, Sarah Good,

528
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,400
is arraigned and
formally charged,

529
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:16,394
and she's charged
alongside four other women...

530
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:21,480
Rebecca Nurse, Susanna Martin,
Elizabeth Howe, and Sarah Wild.

531
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:27,080
♪ ♪

532
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:29,240
At that trial, all
five of the women

533
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,640
are found guilty and
they're sentenced to death.

534
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:37,760
♪ ♪

535
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,600
The five women are
executed on the 19th of July.

536
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,520
Sarah Good turns on the
crowd and the ministers

537
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:51,840
and the judges, and
she says to them,

538
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,160
I'm no more a witch
than you are a wizard,

539
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,720
because she is an innocent
woman about to be hanged.

540
00:27:57,800 --> 00:27:59,800
God will give
you blood to drink.

541
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,840
And that sounds
very much like a curse.

542
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:08,680
But at the same time, it also
feels like a bit of a prophecy

543
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,920
that this is all going to come
to a very bad end indeed.

544
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,160
♪ ♪

545
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,240
There's also growing
doubts over what's

546
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,880
going on now that it's
proving just so serious.

547
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:31,040
♪ ♪

548
00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:33,720
A number of ministers
are asked for their

549
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,400
opinion of the trials,
and in particular, the way

550
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,040
that spectral
evidence is being used.

551
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:41,480
Some people are concerned
that the accused people might

552
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,800
actually be making up
evidence of seeing the specters

553
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:46,440
of the accused witches.

554
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,280
♪ ♪

555
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:51,840
And they want people
like Cotton Mather, who

556
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,360
is a university
intellectual and somebody

557
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,360
with wide experience in the
field of judging the demonic.

558
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,680
Cotton Mather was regarded
as one of the foremost

559
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:03,680
authorities on witches.

560
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,960
He wrote widely on the
subject, and he wrote widely

561
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,080
from a position
of real authority

562
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,320
as being one of the senior
ministers in Massachusetts

563
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:12,480
at the time.

564
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:15,240
♪ ♪

565
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:17,714
So Cotton Mather
and a number of other

566
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:19,194
ministers write a
letter to the court

567
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,360
in which they sum
up their opinion

568
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,560
on this type of evidence.

569
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:26,480
It is, however, a
very equivocal letter.

570
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:29,600
They say on the
one hand that there

571
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,000
are some doubts about
this kind of evidence

572
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,920
and that exquisite
caution, as they put it,

573
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:38,120
should be used in judging
the accused people.

574
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,840
But at the same time, they
give the court a pat on the head

575
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:42,800
and they say, well,
you should just continue

576
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:44,240
doing what you're doing.

577
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:46,634
Because of course,
the ministers do

578
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,474
believe that there are witches
in the Salem community.

579
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:53,400
♪ ♪

580
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:54,600
Very important that

581
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,760
a group of men
of Puritan ministers

582
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:02,280
with such influence in
the colony say, be careful.

583
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:05,680
But then they're
also saying, but it's a

584
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:07,160
jolly good thing
to hunt witches.

585
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,360
So it's a very, very difficult
situation for the authorities.

586
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:17,280
♪ ♪

587
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:19,834
Meanwhile, some people
are asking questions

588
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:21,640
about why the
accusers are making

589
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:23,800
the accusations that they are.

590
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,600
Perhaps things have gone
out of hand and gone too far.

591
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,360
♪ ♪

592
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,360
That's part of this
beginning of perhaps doubt

593
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:36,560
about the validity
of the testimony

594
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:38,520
and the validity of
the spectral evidence.

595
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,600
♪ ♪

596
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,440
Yet even though there
are doubts about the

597
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,040
process of the convictions,
on August the 19th,

598
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:49,400
a further five
people are hanged.

599
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,400
And one of them is even a
former minister, George Burrows.

600
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,640
He's Samuel Paris' predecessor.

601
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,280
♪ ♪

602
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,760
Burrows is being accused
partly because he's

603
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:04,674
drifted from the position
that Samuel Paris feels

604
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:06,480
the church should be occupying.

605
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:10,160
George gives supposedly

606
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:13,080
this quite impassioned speech

607
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,920
where he talks about
what's happened,

608
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,960
closes it with a
perfect recitation

609
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:20,280
of the Lord's Prayer.

610
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:24,040
♪ ♪

611
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:25,840
This was an old
stereotype about witches

612
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:28,040
that they couldn't get
through the Lord's Prayer

613
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:29,680
without at some
point tripping up.

614
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,160
♪ ♪

615
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:34,760
George recites it perfectly.

616
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,960
And this also may have
generated some doubts

617
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:39,560
in the minds of the onlookers.

618
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,800
♪ ♪

619
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:44,760
The crowd start to murmur.

620
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,120
And they move
towards almost a riot.

621
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,240
And they say the
execution should be stopped.

622
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:57,520
But who should come
along but Cotton Mayer,

623
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:00,994
who has come to the executions
to watch justice being done.

624
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,280
♪ ♪

625
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,560
He gives almost a sermon
to the crowd in which he says

626
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:08,099
that these people
are indeed witches

627
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:09,594
and that there's
nothing wrong here.

628
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,720
The execution should continue.

629
00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:14,114
And of course,
because he's a minister,

630
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,204
he's a powerful, important
figure in the community,

631
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,280
the crowd accept his authority.

632
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,440
The executions proceed,
and the five people are killed.

633
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:27,520
♪ ♪

634
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:33,760
The bodies aren't
even buried properly.

635
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:37,840
They're thrown into a
nearby crevice in the rock

636
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:39,754
and partially covered by earth.

637
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,800
♪ ♪

638
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,360
As doubts about
the witch trials grow,

639
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:52,120
some villagers courageously
decide to take a stand.

640
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,880
But the repercussions of
their actions will prove deadly.

641
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,920
♪ ♪

642
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,040
On the 18th of September, 1692,

643
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:13,194
one of the witchcraft suspects,

644
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,240
Giles Corey, refuses
to plead at his trial.

645
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:21,360
And the courts at
this time had a slightly

646
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:26,080
strange idea that if people
refused to enter a plea,

647
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:30,760
you could subject them to
torment to compel them to do so.

648
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:32,920
And this is what
happens to Giles Corey.

649
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,280
♪ ♪

650
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:39,920
It's an act of defiance
to not submit a plea

651
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,880
and allow yourself to
be subjected to torture.

652
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:44,960
♪ ♪

653
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:49,200
And it may be that he would
have imagined that he was going

654
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:54,040
to be found guilty either way,
that the outcome was inevitable

655
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:55,840
and that he had
no control over it.

656
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,360
-The 18th to the 19th
of September, 1692,

657
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,840
he has heavy weights
piled on top of him.

658
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,400
♪ ♪

659
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:16,240
That would have
been like a suffocation.

660
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:18,000
It's like a slow death.

661
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:21,080
♪ ♪

662
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:22,994
When they ask him,
what do you want to say to

663
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,440
the court, he says, more weight.

664
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:27,000
He had nothing to lose.

665
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:28,560
He's going to die anyway.

666
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:30,320
But he can die
with his own dignity,

667
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,080
and he can die with his
own sense of innocence.

668
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,920
♪ ♪

669
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,560
But one effect of him
dying without entering a

670
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:48,120
plea is that his estate
remained his own property

671
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:50,960
and passed to his
descendants, to his son-in-laws.

672
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:53,920
If he had died having
been convicted of witchcraft,

673
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,200
his estate would become
the property of the authorities.

674
00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:59,600
♪ ♪

675
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,600
Without a plea,
trial, or conviction,

676
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,640
the execution of
Giles Corey is unlawful.

677
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,440
His death sends shockwaves
through the community.

678
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,800
Days later, his
wife, Martha Corey,

679
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:19,080
is also executed, sent to the
gallows, guilty of witchcraft.

680
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,880
♪ ♪

681
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:25,240
It's an absolute disaster

682
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,280
for the community
of Massachusetts,

683
00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:29,240
and it will leave
a terrible legacy.

684
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:35,080
♪ ♪

685
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:36,480
It's been seven months now.

686
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,600
We've had 185 people accused.

687
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:41,680
59 have gone to trial.

688
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:43,440
19 were hanged.

689
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:44,640
Others died in prison.

690
00:35:46,720 --> 00:35:50,520
This then takes on a life of its
own, spreads geographically.

691
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,200
Across communities

692
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,640
like Beverly, Molden,
Gloucester, Andover,

693
00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:01,400
Ipswich, Marblehead,
Charlestown, and Boston itself,

694
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,600
people are being
accused of witchcraft.

695
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:09,400
♪ ♪

696
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,509
The witch hunts spread
across New England.

697
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:16,280
They continue to attract the
attention of religious experts.

698
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,440
Including a clergyman
and scholar from Boston,

699
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:23,200
Increase Mather, whose
son, Cotton Mather,

700
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,920
is already deeply involved
with the trials in Salem Village.

701
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:30,840
♪ ♪

702
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,920
Increase Mather writes
a letter to express some

703
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:40,040
of his doubts, to say that
maybe some of the evidence,

704
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,800
maybe some of the
accusations, don't carry the water

705
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,440
that we once thought they did.

706
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:49,920
After all, spectral evidence
is a pretty slim reed

707
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:51,400
to hang people on.

708
00:36:53,720 --> 00:36:55,960
Increase really
begins to call on the

709
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:58,880
governor, Phipps, to
come and sort stuff out.

710
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:03,520
♪ ♪

711
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:06,440
Phipps and Increase
Mather go back a long way.

712
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:08,360
They came together
on the ship from England

713
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:10,480
with the new charter.

714
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,640
William Phipps really
respects Increase Mather.

715
00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:17,160
And what he sees in Increase's
letter really concerns him.

716
00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:22,840
♪ ♪

717
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,560
There's also a rumor
going around the colony

718
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:30,440
that somebody has named
Mary Phipps, governor's wife,

719
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:31,560
as a witch.

720
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:34,040
♪ ♪

721
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,960
And it would make sense,
from Satan's perspective,

722
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:42,640
not to limit himself to the
older, less affluent women

723
00:37:42,720 --> 00:37:45,800
that were so often
associated with witchcraft.

724
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:48,354
If Satan really meant
business, he would go

725
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:49,840
after the elites among them.

726
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:53,240
So there are a couple
of powerful motives

727
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:57,360
for William Phipps to want to
put an end to the witch trials.

728
00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:00,720
It's a huge crisis, and he needs
to do something immediately.

729
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:04,320
♪ ♪

730
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:11,320
♪ ♪

731
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,440
Governor Phipps
decides that public opinion

732
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:22,080
has shifted enough to call
a stop to these proceedings.

733
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,360
Governor Phipps
dismantles the courts

734
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,320
responsible for the
brutal witch trials.

735
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,000
The remaining accused
are safe from execution.

736
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:35,840
The people still
in jail are released.

737
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,880
Tituba was kept in
prison for at least a year.

738
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:43,240
There's a statement
from the jailer

739
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:45,560
where he says that
he hasn't been paid.

740
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:47,960
And we know that
somebody paid that bill, which

741
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:53,040
leads us to think that maybe,
in the end, Tituba was freed.

742
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:55,480
♪ ♪

743
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:57,680
Samuel Parris's
role in the witch trials

744
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:01,320
had created such bad
blood within the village.

745
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:03,994
Parris, by that point,
is very embittered.

746
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,625
He feels that he's
failed as a minister.

747
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:09,480
The family members
of some of the executed

748
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,200
actually successfully
pushed him out of the village

749
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:13,640
and out of his ministry.

750
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:17,600
So what's left at Salem?

751
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:20,040
Not very much.

752
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:25,800
A dislocated community
where neighbors are not

753
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:27,960
speaking to each other.

754
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,000
The whole church
structure has fallen apart.

755
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,880
♪ ♪

756
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,294
The economic
impact of that would

757
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:36,120
have been very significant.

758
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:42,320
The pendulum of support
swings towards the families

759
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:43,600
of the accused.

760
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:47,960
It becomes an episode
the whole community

761
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:49,960
really wants to forget about.

762
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:53,720
There is a legacy of guilt

763
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,080
and unease over
the whole affair.

764
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:58,960
♪ ♪

765
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:00,720
It could never go
back to the way it was.

766
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:06,840
♪ ♪

767
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,840
In January 1697,
the general court

768
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,440
orders a day of
prayer and fasting

769
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,400
to reflect back on the
history of the witch trials.

770
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:19,920
♪ ♪

771
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,760
Then another of the judges
publishes a public apology

772
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:25,920
for his role in the trials.

773
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:33,480
♪ ♪

774
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:37,480
In 1752, Salem
Village rebrands itself.

775
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:39,240
It calls itself Danvers.

776
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:42,720
It's caused a lot of
division, a lot of friction.

777
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,640
And then in the 20th
century, it's revisited.

778
00:40:46,720 --> 00:40:49,320
♪ ♪

779
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,680
In 1957, the state
of Massachusetts

780
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:57,360
apologized for the witch trials.

781
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:01,680
That happened partly because
of a play, "The Crucible."

782
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:06,320
And that play is really the
reason why the Salem witch

783
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:08,280
trials are so famous today.

784
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:12,240
♪ ♪

785
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:15,520
Historians have been
trying ever since to explain

786
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:17,000
these terrible events.

787
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,320
This started with
two young girls being

788
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:23,560
sick at the house of a minister.

789
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:25,800
♪ ♪

790
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,800
People have wondered
whether the girls were psychotic.

791
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:30,920
Were they lying?

792
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,720
Did they make
the whole thing up?

793
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:36,640
A lot of the blame
is placed on the girls

794
00:41:36,720 --> 00:41:38,560
who made the
original accusations.

795
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:44,000
But that exonerates the
men who led the trials,

796
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,040
who rendered the judgment.

797
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,000
These men were the
literal adults in the room,

798
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,400
and they have
blood on their hands

799
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:55,200
far more so than the young,
powerless, original accusers.

800
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:59,840
♪ ♪

801
00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:02,560
It's retained this status
as a sort of almost

802
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:07,800
archetypal witch hunt, in part
because it was extraordinary

803
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:11,680
and it was extreme and
it happened so rapidly.

804
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:14,080
It provided this
really vivid example

805
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,800
of how witch hunts
can snowball and how

806
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,400
on the basis of some
slightly strange behavior

807
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,160
from two adolescent
girls, hundreds of people

808
00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:28,920
can be accused and a proportion
of them can be executed.

809
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,640
You can see that the
community's misogyny

810
00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:36,120
and racism is reflected
in their choice of suspects.

811
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:40,600
Tituba, a Native American
woman previously enslaved.

812
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,360
Sarah Good, a very poor woman,
somebody who was homeless.

813
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,040
Sarah Osborne, a
woman who was regarded

814
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:52,120
as being insufficiently
submissive to those around her.

815
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:54,760
Dorothy Good, she's
gone through seriously

816
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,720
traumatic things
within this jail

817
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,000
and allegedly is insane
by the time she's allowed

818
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:01,320
to leave when she's five.

819
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:05,560
♪ ♪

820
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,680
The lessons that
colonists learn from Salem

821
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:10,120
aren't entirely clear.

822
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:15,680
Even the regret over the trials
didn't shake anyone's belief

823
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:19,720
in the existence of witches,
didn't make them apologetic

824
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,120
or regret the wars
against Native people

825
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:23,360
on the northern frontier.

826
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:29,360
What Salem did was make
them regret the amount of authority

827
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:33,640
that they invested in the
young female accusers.

828
00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:36,280
That to them was the
lesson from Salem,

829
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:40,440
not to trust the word
of young women

830
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:41,680
quite like they had before.

831
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:42,760
♪ ♪

832
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:44,760
♪ ♪