Rosalyn Schanzer - Witches - The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem

THE EXAMINATION OF SARAH OSBORN

The girls in the courtroom announced that Sarah Osborn was one of the three witches who were torturing them in this very room. Then they began to shake violently and tumbled to the floor.

When grilled by the furious magistrate, Osborn cried that she had never seen an evil spirit or met with the Devil in her life. She was not tormenting anyone!

“Sarah Good sayeth it was you that hurt the children,” argued the magistrate.

“I have not seen her for two years,” Osborn replied, insisting that for all she knew, the Devil had the power to make himself look exactly like her. Then he could go around in her shape to attack the girls, but she would have to take the blame.

Three people reported that the bedridden woman thought she was more likely to be the victim of witchcraft than to be a witch herself. When asked to explain, Osborn replied that she had dreamed she saw a black Indian who pinched her and pulled her to the door. Hathorn was not impressed. Implying that she was unfaithful to God, he asked why Osborn hadn’t come to church for the past two years. “Alas! I have been sick and not able to go,” she cried.

THE EXAMINATION OF TITUBA

The afflicted girls again began to writhe around, screech, and howl when the slave Tituba’s turn came to be questioned. At first she said she was completely innocent and that she and the children would never hurt each other. But a little later, she completely changed her tune and confessed that she was guilty!

The recorder who wrote down everyone’s testimony didn’t bother to say so, but it’s possible that the questioning stopped for a while and then started up again after a break, because many months later Tituba would reveal that she had lied when she told the court she was a witch. She claimed Reverend Parris had beaten her to make her confess and to make sure that she accused the two women Parris called her “sister-witches.” He even threatened not to pay any of the fees required to get her out of jail unless she told the magistrates that she was guilty. Tituba must have followed her master’s orders:

Magistrate (M): What doth the Devil look like?

Tituba (T): Like a man. Yesterday he told me to serve him & I told him no, I would not do such a thing.

Tituba charged that Sarah Osborn and Sarah Good were torturing the children and wanted her to hurt them, too. And she said she had seen two more witches from Boston just last night when she was cleaning. They told her she had to hurt the children, and if she refused they would hurt her themselves. At first she agreed to hurt Betty and Abigail, but afterward she was very sorry and told the women she wouldn’t do it any more.

T: The creature that looked like a man came to me just as I was going to sleep. He said he would kill the children and they would never get well if I would not serve him.

M: What other creatures hath appeared to you?

T: Sometimes a hog. Four times a great black dog who told me to serve him. I told him I was afraid, then he told me he would do worse tortures unto me.

Tituba said that the man had pretty things and offered her a little yellow bird if she would become his servant. Then he sent her two cats: one red and one black and as big as a dog. But when she said her prayers and tried not to pinch Betty and Abigail, the cats scratched at her eyes, pulled her across the room, and almost threw her into the fire. Tituba felt even worse when the man appeared with Dr. Griggs’s niece and made her pinch this girl, too.

M: Did you ever go along with these women Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn?

T: Yes, they are very strong & pulled me & made me go with them up to Mr. Putnam’s house to hurt his Child. The man pulled me, too. But I am sorry.

M: How did you get there?

T: We Rode upon a stick with Good & Osborn sitting behind me & taking hold of one another. I Saw no trees nor path, but was presently there. They Told me I must kill Thomas Putnam’s Child with the knife.

Ann Putnam Jr. confirmed Tituba’s story, saying that they would have made Tituba cut off her own head if the slave refused to kill her.

Then, said Tituba, Good had tried to give her the yellow bird or a cat. Tituba refused to take them, though she wished she could give the pretty bird to the children.

M: What did Osborn have?

T: She hath two creatures. One hath wings & two Legs & a head like a woman’s. The other thing was all over hairy, all the face was hairy & had a long nose & I don’t know what it is. It was about two or three feet high & walked upright like a man, and at night it stood before the fire in Mr. Parris’s hall.

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