by Padre Art

Created on: February 25, 2009

Salem, Massachusetts, the witch capital of America, has memorialized executed witches by constructing a granite wall, with engraved quotes from some of the victims, near Old Burying Point on Charter street. This cemetery contains the graves of Mayflower pilgrims as well as some of the participants in the witch hunts of 1692.

In February 1692, Judges Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne (great-grandfather to author Nathaniel Hawthorne) traveled to the nearby Salem Village (now the town of Danvers) to examine three women accused by locals of being witches. These women were the homeless beggar Sarah Good, the elderly recluse Sarah Osborne and a slave named Tituba.

Tituba, born in South America then kidnapped and sold into slavery, was purchased by the Puritan preacher Reverend Samuel Parris while visiting the island of Barbados. The daughter of Rev. Parris, Betty, and his orphaned niece, Abigail Williams, all lived in a remote dwelling on the outskirts of Salem Village. The young girls were not allowed to play games since the Puritan ethic, as interpreted by Rev. Parris, made that the sin of idleness. so Tituba would entertain the young girls throughout the long winters with tales of witchcraft, black magic and demons that she had picked up in her travels through the islands.

The slave would even perform a little "white magic" for Betty and Abigail by dropping an egg white into a glass of water and would read their fortunes from the shapes that formed in the glass. That winter both Abigail and Betty began to behave in a very peculiar manner and the Rev. Parris decided they needed medical attention. The doctor could find no physical problems with the girls so came to the obvious conclusion that they were bewitched.

To test the diagnosis Tituba was ordered to bake "witch cakes" made from rye meal and urine from the two girls. These cakes were fed to a dog and when the dog started to behave in a peculiar manner similar to that of the girls then the diagnosis was confirmed. They were so declared after the test and questioned as to who it was that bewitched them. Betty and Abigail claimed that Tituba, the unpopular Sarah Good and the reclusive 71 year old Sarah Osborne were the culprits.

The two old women proclaimed their innocence but the slave Tituba confessed and confessed and confessed. For three days she told Judge Hathorne and Judge Corwin tales of red-eyed rats, a tall man in black and talking cats. She stated she had signed the tall mans book in blood where she

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