August 24, 1692 - Dorcas Good, four year old, is being put on trial. She was first accused of witchcraft by Ann Putnam. Dorcas Good is the daughter of the famed Sarah Good, one of the first recognized witches. She was tried and hung in June and July respectably. Sarah Good was a homeless woman who often begged door-to-door. When people refused her money, she would often mumble incoherently and leave. Some villages even associated her visits with the death of their livestock.
The young child, when interrogated, confessed that she and her mother were witches. The four year old has been put in prison, chained to a wall. Many people are protesting against this. How could a child so young be a witch? Perhaps most of the people accused did confess to practicing witchcraft but couldn't you say that they were tortured into it?
Maybe the words of the first wizard were the words of a human.
"Petition for bail from accused witches"
Title page of "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of...
House of Ann Putnam, Jr. Danvers circa 1891John Proctor was a wealthy farmer who greatly warned against listening to the young girls. Maybe he was right and there is no such thing as witchcraft. John proctor was one of the first to speak against the Salem Witch Trials and he paid for it.
Proctor wrote a letter to the Boston clergy, saying "we are all innocent persons." In this letter he wrote about the unfairness of the court proceedings and how torture was used to bring out confessions in accused. There has been no response to his letter. On August 5, John was found guilty. He was hung on August 19, 1692.
Another way to get out of the spotlight of being accused is to accuse others of witchcraft. Tituba, a Caribbean slave did that this past winter. In the process, however, she had to confess and...