A (24:08)

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B (25:25)

Samuel Paris was originally from London. He immigrated to the colonies. He went to Harvard because, of course, he did. And he inherits a sugar plantation in Barbados from his father. Now he's well educated. He's inherited a plantation. He thinks he's going to be doing really well for himself, like he's settled in and he thinks he's going to have a very, very comfortable life. And that's the life he's expecting. However nature Gets in the way. So he's staying in Barbados for a whale and he's kind of just loving his life until the plantation is absolutely trashed by a hurricane. Like everything is destroyed. And he's like, fuck this for Game of Soldiers. He can't handle the heat anyway because he's too English. And so he's like, I got to get out of here. Gets the heck out of dodge and returns to the more temperate zone of Boston. Now, every time I try and do the Boston accent sidebar. Every time I try and do the accent, I can't. There's like a way that the mouth gets really wide and I can't seem to wrap around it in schmat. Wicked schmat. And like, like, I'm obsessed with like learning this. I really want to get that accent right because I think it's really fun. So if any dialect coaches or anybody wants to try and help me pronounce things in a Bostonian accent, I would greatly appreciate it. Because on top of everything else, right, I was given a basketball team to support, the Boston Celtics. And so I feel like I need to embrace that really. I have also been given an American football team. So a friend of mine, it was Sahar. It was Sahar again. She was like, yeah, your American football team is the Philadelphia Eagles because some of them didn't go to the president and they have a handsome quarterback. I don't actually know what the quarterback does. I don't know. I don't know the sport. Somebody will explain it to me one day and I may remember it. Whoms to say. Anyhoo, so Samuel Paris, he's living in Boston for a while and he's, he's fine. It's not going great. But then he's given the ministry in Salem Village. So Samuel, he's married to Elizabeth Edridge, who is by all accounts one of the most beautiful women in the village. Like this, this is documented. Like, this is a fact, right? Somebody took the tame to write this down in the 1600s. They're like, we need everyone to know how hot this is. Okay, thank you. He has an incredibly hot wife. Good day to you. So they're married and they have three children. Thomas, who's the oldest, Elizabeth, who's like nine, I think she's known as Betty and Susanna, who's the youngest. So in 1692, Samuel's 12 year old niece, Abigail Williams is staying with them too. So he's taken her in because now I'm not sure if he's just like the closest Relative or the only relative left, or whether he's just, like, the most, like, secure and stable, like, if that's how that happened. Or maybe it's one of those. I'm a minister. Look at how good I am. I took in my orphaned niece. So there's. There's illnesses spreading through, like, at this point, like, through New England and whatnot. Remember, all roads lead to dysentery. So the Paris household also has two enslaved servants, Right? Which feels like a weird phrase. An enslaved servant that. Okay, so you've got Tituba, who is a Native American woman who we actually know a few bits about her because he inherited her. Like, she's registered as. As property. Like, back in Barbados, like, as a child, actually. So when is. When his father dies, like, she's lusted, brings her back with him. So he brings back two people that were enslaved. He brings them back with him, one of them being a child, which is Tituba. So over the years, like, her representation through media over the years, like, she is presented as a black woman. Like, this has been a change and addition to the story. So, like, it's literally century, like, at least a century later, where the story changes, and they're like, oh, and she was black, and also she did voodoo. And it's like a. Yes, and. Because I think it was easier, that idea and that portrayal, and it's sort of easier to digest because when we talk about enslavement in America, our major focus is on chattel slavery, which is the worst, by the way. Oh, you can't compare contrast. Yes, I can. I'm a historian. I specialize in historical misinformation and propaganda. I know my shit when it comes to this specifically. Right. So because that is the focus, it's. It's easy to draw the eye away and to overlook all of the other shit that happened, like the enslavement of indigenous people, which was a common practice, especially women and children. Right. Because they were seen as easier to take. And so over the years, it was so easy to change the concept of who Tituba was, to also fit a narrative and play into the idea of sort of, ooh, the evil black voodoo practices and all this. Right. All of that. All of that. Just to demonize a people that were already being demonized and oppressed. And it's absolutely, totally makes me mad. But, yes, there were two servants in the household. Two enslaved servants. So you've got Tituba, and you also have a man called John, Indian. His race is unknown, but I feel like we could take a guess as to what that is. Now, there is no documentation, there is no official anything that shows that these two were married. But it does come up, like, in. In the sources, and it says, like, you know, that they were a married couple, that they were together. But there's nothing within their testimony together or within any information about the two specifically that suggests that they were actually a couple. Now, it would actually benefit Samuel Parris to say that they were a couple because it meant that under the eyes of propriety, shall we say, they can share a room. So it means those two are together, the enslaved people. They're in their own room. And he doesn't need to have a separate room for one than the other because, like, they can't share. Like, they might be. They're Puritans, you know, they're like, you can't do that. A man and a woman who are unwed sharing a room. What next? Showing their ankles. Shocking. So, yeah, there's no actual evidence to suggest that the two were actually married, but it is handy for the reverend if they are. And it's also a very convenient storytelling device. A husband and wife working together. No. So Samuel Parris, he's not exactly popular in Salem Village. So he's paid partly by the church and partly by the town. So, like, the church pay, like, a certain portion of his wages, and then the remainder of his wages is paid in firewood. So I think it's like 1691, there was, like, a really bad winter. It's really chilly. It's really. It's really stark. And everyone really needs that firewood. Everybody needs it. And he's out demanding it. So he's. He's seen as a bit miserly because he's taking firewood from other people. He doesn't, like, go out and chop his own, obviously, because he's irreverent. And so, like, there's actually this whole part of Tituba's testimony where she talks about trying to light fires in certain parts of the house and keep them going while using as little firewood as possible so that they can actually, you know, heat the houses but make it last. Like, in the Paris household, firewood had to be burned sparingly. Like, it's provided by the church community. And sometimes he had to actually go and beg for it because, like, he had no access to firewood otherwise. And so he's begging his congregation for firewood. And he was very vocal about his displeasure regarding the situation. So after that winter, and things aren't going great. In mid January 1692, Abigail, Samuel's orphaned niece, becomes ill with nine year old Betty falling ill soon after. And this isn't like, oh, they've got a cough or a sneeze, like weird shit is happening. The girls experienced violent fits and convulsions. They are screaming and crying out in pain. They, they say they feel like they're being pinched, poked and prodded. They think they're being choked. They're having trances and they're speaking nonsense. They're hiding under furniture. Like they're hiding under furniture and they're saying they're being pulled by like spirits and sort of ghostly apparitions. They're barking like dogs and they're shrieking, right? And so these fits just kind of happen sparingly and then they get worse. So they're happening in like quick succession at this point. They are just happening more and more and more and Abigail is the worst affected. So there's one tale of Abigail, like she's in the kitchen and she's making noises and she's flapping her arms and running around in a circle, right? And, and the whole thing is like as if she's going to take flight. Now this is the one part that I found really sort of odd in the whole thing. So like, Abigail, I don't think had been living with them for too long before this, but she's there and she's flapping her arms, right? And like my first thought when I hear that, when I hear a child is running around flapping their arms, I think of self regulation. Because, like, that is a really, really common thing for autistic children to do. And that's the arm and hand flapping. Like it's a form of regulation. Like you see, you see it even with, I call it like when, you know, when girls meet each other and they're like, oh my God. And they're jumping up and down and they're like wave flapping, they're flapping the hands. Like that's part of it. That's a regulation thing, right? That's, that's actually trying to calm yourself down and yeah, like, so my brain's like, what if it's just stimming? Like a lot of this could actually be answered by stimming, like for Abigail specifically, where it's like, oh, she needs to like move her body a certain way in order to feel certain pressures on it. The vocal stimming, which is like the noises and the barking and then the flapping, like that could be part of it or Something else I thought of when I was reading this was, it's just kids playing about. But obviously, Puritans don't believe in childhood or fun or playing. So they're just like, oh, it must be bewitchment. And so you've got Abigail doing this, and then Betty follows suit because Betty is younger, and there's always the possibility of learned behavior. But, yeah, naturally, because, again, they're like, clearly, something's wrong here. A doctor is called, right? Because everyone's freaked out, and the doctor's called. And he basically looked at the children and went, yep, that's a case of the witchcraft. The doctor couldn't find anything physically wrong with either of the girls, like, and came to the conclusion that Betty and Abigail were cursed. It was clear to the Reverend that they just needed to pray the sickness away because that works. Historically, Reverend Samuel Parris believed that prayer and religious devotion would banish any evil magics or spirits that were cast upon the two girls under his roof. However, some members of the town thought a different approach would be better. The best way they thought, to fight magic was with magic. So without his knowledge or consent, a woman came to the Paris residence, Mary Sibley. And with her, she brought old English folk magic. She shows up determined to lift the curse through folk magic. You know, the good kind. And she explained that the cure involved baking a witch cake, which is actually more like a biscuit or a cookie. Ingredients include rye flour and the urine of those afflicted. You heard me right. So Mary Sibley instructs Tituba to make the witch cake. So the girl's pea was to be mixed with the rye flour, baked into a cake biscuit, and then fed to the dog. The idea would be that the dog would then become linked, and this would be a transference of the ailment and all the witchy sort of stuff that goes with it. And after this, it would show who had cussed the girls like a sniffer dog, but for hexing. Because, remember, dogs were often recruited as witches familiars, and they would naturally be able to find them. Unfortunately, the dog eats the cake, and that's it. Nothing happens. There's no change. The fits continue, and the children are still cursed. What it does do, though, is intrigue the town. So the news of the witch cake spreads throughout the village, and the Reverend finds out and is absolutely livid. He is absolutely pissed that this has happened under his roof. Poor choice of words, I think. Anywho, he is mad about this. He's mad that the children were involved in this ritual, he's mad that sort of folky, witchy stuff was happening. And also I think because he was so self involved and he really believed that he should be held to a higher standard. The fact that nobody came to him to like ask his permission would have like made a heart like so much worse. You know, he would have been so mad. So they're not cured, but what happens is another girl is affected. So within a day of this happening, right, A third girl starts like showing these same strange symptoms. Because obviously people are talking about it now, right? People are chatting about it and the news is spreading, right? And the next girl is a friend of Abigail and Betty's. This is Anne Putnam Jr. She is the daughter of one of the most powerful Salem families who are also like super into the Reverend. Like there are a couple of big families in Salem and I see that there's two. And they're. I want to say, I don't want to say rivals, except I do want to say rivals. But you've got Ann Putnam Jr. She's 12. And she also shows signs of bewitchment and possession. But wait, there is more. Elizabeth Hubbard, a 17 year old girl who lives with the doctor, right? The one who came and like diagnosed the witchcraft. She's number four in this. She is an orphan. She lives with a doctor. She's basically a servant. I say basically she is a servant and she lives there, right? She's doing all the chores. She's living a very strict puritan life. And next thing you know, she's bewitched. She's endless. So because she's seen as a woman, she's 17, so she's seen as more grown up than the other three. This makes it stand out more because they're like, oh, it's spreading to adults now. And this affliction like this, this carries more weight than what happens to the girls. And so she says, right, the chi, she recognizes the demons that are tormenting her and she recognizes them as sort of these spectral ghouls, that they are manifestations of people from the village, which naturally, in this superstitious, very religious. I want to. I don't want to say closed off, but also I do within this sort of boiling pot. This sets people on edge, right? And it also brings suspicion and paranoia. And this spreads to other girls. They're having convulsions, they're being haunted by spectral ghouls who pinch them, bite them. And the community, no one questions the cause. They're like witches. It's witches. And of Course they have to be found out. They gotta snuff em out. They have to be hunted and they have to be destroyed. By the end of February, the fits, they're all common knowledge. Like, sermons are being interrupted, they're falling in the streets, right? It's happening in front of people, in public, not just behind closed doors in people's houses, right? It's everywhere. And so people are freaking out, they're getting angry, and they want a twisted form of justice and they want this done. No one more so than Reverend Samuel Paris. So he is like a dog of the bone. He wants to find out what's happening to his daughter, right? And at this point, this child is fully convinced that she is cursed. Like, she's exhausted, she's anxious and she's terrified. And she confesses to her dad, you know, that her and Abigail had done this, like, divination trick with a glass and an egg. And he is enraged that they did, like, this silly little, like, trick, right? It's one of those things, you know, like to find who's my future husband gonna be? And you, like, peel an apple, is with, you know, in one go, and however you, like, throw it and it lands on the floor. The initial is going to be your. Your husband's initial. Did nobody ever do that? Am I just like one of the three people that did that, or is that a common thing? That being said, it's kind of curly. So chances are it is going to end up as an S. Sometimes a J. But don't. Don't date people whose name begins with J. It's not good for you. So he is filled with fury, like fire and brimstone fury. And he is so angry. And, you know, he is the minister. He's doing this in his home. And Betty, this is what leads her to make the first accusation. You know, who could have done this to you? And she points at the nearest person. Who? The enslaved woman in their home, Tituba.

A (47:58)

AI Agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Mistakes just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation at rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com.

B (49:03)

Tilla Olich EG Go Punk I E Tull Building Ireland O riltis na Heeren this terrified child, desperate to give an answer, accuses the nearest person who doesn't fit in with the puritanical like way of being to Chuba, because she's not a churchgoer, she doesn't believe in the Christian religion. She's very much holding on to, like the belief system she had in Barbados, which is very much steeped in superstition and folklore. Like that's how she lived her life. And she looked different to everyone else, she sounded different to everyone else. Her culture was different, her religion was different, she was enslaved. So she didn't have anyone to fight for her. And she was low in status. A convenient scapegoat. Once Betty has pointed the finger at Tituba, the other girls follow suit. Abigail, she's like, this is definitely it. Followed by Ann Putnam Jr. And Elizabeth Hubbard, like Tituba now has been blamed for cursing four women and girls, right? She is like, her fate is sealed, right? She's in danger. But the girls go on to accuse two more women from the village, one a homeless woman who is clearly not following the standards of the puritanical society because not only is she homeless, she's got a four year old daughter and she's pregnant. Sarah. Good. Sarah was homeless. She lived on the streets of Salem and she didn't go to any of the sort of the church meetings because it was seen as indecent and wrong to go there and not be dressed correctly. And she didn't have appropriate clothes, she was too poor to have clothes for church and she would go begging from door to door. Another convenient target, the third person they name is Sarah Osborne. And just like the other two accused, she doesn't exactly meet the standards of the puritan lifestyle. Now, Sarah Osborne, she's an old lady, she's elderly, she's frail, but she has a scandalous history. So like she was originally married to like this wealthy landowner and this guy was related to the Putnam family, which is like one of the big families in Salem. And so when he dies, she inherited his land. So because she gets it because their sons were too young, so they weren't old enough to inherit. So she marries again. And so because she's married, all of her property becomes the property of her husband, who is a former indentured servant, right? So because he had come over as an indentured servant, this was seen as like a very low class thing to do because she was married to this like esteemed gentleman. And it was seen as shocking because to marry below her is one thing. Like that's bad, right? From this perspective, they don't like that. But on top of that. Like, he then this low guy gets the land that belongs to the family. So, yeah, there's this, like, issue, this sort of conflict between the Putnam family and Sarah Osborne. So, shockingly enough, she's one of the people who's named by Anne Putnam Jr. So they're all different. They're all very different. You know, one's younger, one has kids, one is older, like, one's enslaved. They're all outsiders. You know, they're all out with what society deems acceptable. So, like, these accusations, they're first sent to the people who are vulnerable, right? Who pose a threat in some way to the Puritan culture. Right. And so what happens is the reverend, like, he's got these allegations now. So he turns the civil court of nearby Salem. So, like the actual Salem town, as opposed to Salem Village, Right. He turns to that court with the help of the Putnam family, he reaches out to them to deal with this because he's. He's a preacher, right? So he can only, you know, give moral guidance. But the magistrates from Salem Town, Jonathan Corwin and John Haythorn, they actually held the authority to investigate and prosecute crimes, including the felony of witchcraft. So Jonathan Corwin, his family are powerful, they're merchants, and they're connected to, you know, the elite of the region. And then you've got John Hawthorne, who is basically a rich landowner and a very staunch Puritan who saw himself as a defender or of the faith. And, well, as far as the Putnams and of course, Reverend Paris are concerned, these two gentlemen are the perfect choices to lead the witch inquiry. And so on February 29, oh, a leap year, 1692, the magistrates receive formal complaints, like, official, like, it's stamped, about these three women from Salem Village. So the arrest warrants are issued, and Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne are all taken into custody and brought before the magistrates in the Salem meeting house for questioning. So from the start, Hawthorne's interrogations are aggressive, demanding that these women confess. Like, he has made a name for himself as a ruthless prosecutor. And so Sarah Good. So that's the homeless woman who's pregnant, right. She has a reputation for being sort of argumentative. Like, she'll snap back at you, right? And so she denies the charges. She's like, absolutely not. And then she is like, not me. It must be Sarah Osborne. So when Sarah Osborne then has to be interrogated, she also claims to be innocent. And shockingly, Hawthorne's attention turns to the only woman left, Tituba, who was questioned twice. The first time, she Denies it. And the next day she doesn't. She confesses. And there is a lot of evidence that suggests that in between these two confessions, right, she was tortured. Like, she got a beating and she was beaten until she would give them the answer that they wanted. And so not only in this confession does she, like, admit to seeing and speaking with the devil who threatened to hurt her if she did not harm the children. Like, on top of that, she also claimed that in Salem there was a conspiracy of witches, another one, right? Just like the Berwick witch trials back in Scotland. So she's like four or five witches, like, they're in Salem, or one of them is a man. And she can't name them, right? She can't name these people because, like, she's like, I didn't speak to them. I don't know their names. But she does point out, like, she identifies Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne as being the witches who were using their spirits to, like, attack the girls, right? So you have this, like, isolated community, right? You've got Reverend Paris sort of spinning this paranoia. You have these adolescent girls living this, you know, very patriarchal, hierarchical, strict, staunch life in this high pressure environment, right? You've got this, and you've got this woman who is completely vulnerable. She's got no social power. She's enslaved. And she is threatened and beaten and tortured into confessing. She says that she didn't want to be a witch, but they made her become one. And so she brings in this idea of this conspiracy of witches. And this confirms everyone's worst fear. You know, witches are real. They're working together, and they're here in Salem. And so the denial by Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, now, they mean nothing like Hawthorne's, like, doesn't matter now because she confessed. So Tituba Good and Osborne, they are interrogated for an entire week before being thrown into a prison to await trial. But now, because there's an idea of this conspiracy, the witch hunt is only just beginning. Now more children are showing these same symptoms that Betty, Abigail, Anne and Elizabeth had. And so they start having these symptoms and then they start naming new suspects. So you've got Martha Corey, who is seen as a scandalous woman in Salem because she has, quote, a sharp tongue and a strong will. Now, she has been married twice. The first time she gave birth to a baby boy whose skin tone was less like his father's and more like that of indigenous Americans. And so, like, adultery is bad in Salem because, you know, Puritans. But also, what's worse, they're like you did it with someone who wasn't white and like that is just more rage, right? So she's kicked out of the marital home and it's just, and it's a huge fcking scandal, right. She does end up remarrying a few years later to Giles Corey and becomes a church member. But yeah, so she's like you know, gossiped about on the regular, right. She's seen as still an outsider cuz she's not following like the very prim and proper life that you know, a good puritan woman should. And on top of this, right, so she dismissed like the fits. She's like oh these kids are having fits. Like that's not real. And she thought the witch trial thing was stupid, right? Cuz she's like they're just doing it, it's silly. And because she was mocking it and she saw it as nonsense, like that was enough for her to be picked. Her husband Giles would also be accused within that month. Then the Next was a 71 year old pillar of the community, Rebecca Nurse. Right. She had a large family, she was well known, she was respected by many. You know, not the Putnams though because she had been in this very long dispute with them over land. And so then they're like, she's definitely part of it. And of course the next person is Bridget Bishop, right? She, she, she was, yeah, not well received by the Puritans because she wore a bright red bodice instead of a black one. And she was married twice. She owned a tavern and held drinking parties late into the night. And also she had been like suspected of witchcraft before. Oh, she's beguiling people now. She's just serving them booze, pal. By April the jail cells are full, but they're, they're like arresting more people daily. You've got the former Salem minister George Barrows. Right. Like this is getting ridiculous because like the scale of this is threatening to overwhelm the magistrates. Like. And so because they're accusing so many people, they need like to fast track the legal process to get people brought to trial. In May, the governor William Phipps, he establishes the court of Oya in Termina. So this means to hear and determine. So you've got Chief Justice William Stoughton presiding over it, shockingly enough. Another very staunch Puritan and he was super convinced of the devil's power. So he's. Oh God. Like he studied theology in England. He's also Harvard educated because of course he is. And now he is Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and A very, very well respected public figure. So along with the magistrates, he's got, you know, like jurors mainly, sort of landowners from Salem and the surrounding areas. So these trials, they're not ordinary trials because you've got like little to no evidence. You're basically relying practically almost entirely on like the victim's testimony. And so you've got the girls who are there and they sit in and they watch every single trial. Like they make absolutely sure like that there is no doubt about this. So the. Each girl would be examined, they would take a statement from one and they would be like, oh, goody. Osborne would send the. This creepy shape into her window and torture me at night. And then so like they would do that, they'd bring the witch up and then they'd be like, what do you say about this? And they're like, I didn't do it, I don't know. And so when sort of the accused witch, shall we say, was speaking, the girls in sort of in the court that, you know, the afflicted, like, they would shake, some would scream. Like they would have like a visceral reaction to it. Now this could just be literally fear and gist. Like if you think someone attacked you and you see them, like your body shakes, that could be it. So like they would talk about, oh, I've seen this familiar, or I'm being pricked with pens. And they would do these performances at every single examination. So they would just, you know, claim that they would see like the apparitions or the familiars, and they would be choked and pricked and stabbed. And these dramatic scenes happening in the court, they were taken as fact. And so the first to stand trial under this system was Bridget Bishop. And so when she's brought out the girls, they start doing these like, fits and whatnot. And whenever she speaks, they claim that her words caused them pain, like real, actual physical pain. And even, even though they're like, she's hurting me when she talks, right, the judges like force her to confess. So like Bridget, obviously she denies any wrongdoing. And then her neighbors come in, right, and they're like, you know, she cursed our crops and killed our livestock and even appeared as like a ghoul in the night. It's sort of the same accusations that we've seen throughout the witch trials. It's like she made my cow sick and now it doesn't produce milk. Oh, the butter isn't churning or my beer has gone bad. Like that is. It's a consistent thing. You know, these crimes, they were accused of is like, they're so like explainable in so many other ways, but they just didn't have a way to explain it at the time. And in Salem's cauldron of fear, these like minuscule acts, right, they become significant all of a sudden. These are curses of an agent of the devil, right? So like her home is searched. So Bridget Bishop. And you know, there's these little fabric dolls in there, like they're called a poppet. There's, you know, sort of like a voodoo doll kind of thing. And they're like, oh, these were there. Now we don't actually know if they were actually found in her house or whether they were planted, but as far as they're concerned, they're like, these are real. And so Bridget Bishop is found guilty of witchcraft. And on 10 June 1692, she is taken to Gallows Hill and hanged and becomes the first woman to be officially executed in the Salem witch trials. But she is not going to be the last. So as the trials like really start getting momentum, so you've got like neighbours turning on each other. There's like past disagreements, like being attached to these claims. However, there are some accused that are so well liked in their community by their friends, by their neighbors that they just won't stand by and let them be like accused. Like they'll testify in their defense. So Rebecca Nurse is one of these people. So on the 29th of June, 1692, you know, the whole village, they have shown up to the meeting house in Salem because they want to see what's going to happen to 71 year old Rebecca Nurse. As Rebecca is brought into the courthouse in shackles, right? She's elderly, she's frail, she's in this like really simple dress and she's sort of shuffling in and loads of people there are there to support her. But the girls, they're in their like usual spot and they just start like acting out immediately. You've got Ann Putnam screaming. Abigail, she's screaming. One wails that she's like being pinched. And Rebecca, she's like pleading her innocence, right? Like she's claiming to be, you know, not a fcking witch. She's just a grandmother, right? And right. One by one people come forward. Like some are like, there to, you know, oh, she looked at my cow. Funny ones. But more people come to her defense. More than 39 of them, right, have signed a petition swearing to her good nature. And because of the amount of like, support she has, right. The jury, who are usually just like, what Done. They actually have to go deliberate, right? So they go, and by the time they come back, right, Rebecca Nurse, she's exhausted. She's terrified, right? And the jury come back with their. Their verdict. Rebecca Nurse is not guilty. And you've got this, like, moment where this sort of relief sort of fills the court, like. And it is. It does not last very long because after this, right, the girls just go absolutely mental, right? They're like, shrieking and screaming and, like, you know, having convulsions. And they're like, Satan is smiling and every. That's, like, the worst they've ever seen. And so the chief justice, right, William Staunton, like, he tells the jury they have to reconsider because of this just drama that is being performed in the courtroom, Right? Right. He tells the jury to reconsider. And so the jurors, like, whisper amongst themselves and return back with guilty, and she is condemned to hang. Right? Now, I understand that, like, there's a bunch of psychological reasons that this could be happening, but these little shits, right? I'm so mad at these girls. I'm so mad. Like, a lot of them don't know what they're doing, but it feels a little bit to me, like, you know, when you've done something and you've leaned into the lie a little too much and now you have to do that. Like, you meet someone and you pretend to have an accent that you don't have, and then every time you meet them, you have to pretend to have that accent. Yeah, like that. So, yeah, Rebecca is then led away, and then she goes back to the meeting house on the 3rd of July for her public excommunication. And this is a deeply religious woman, right, who's lived her whole life by these rules. But. And for her, what's going to happen is she's excommunicated, right, which for her is a fate worse than death, because for her, that's eternal damnation. It's worse than death to her. And, like, just over two weeks later, like, she and four other convicted women, you know, they are carted through the town on the way to the execution site. And even before she dies, she protests her innocence. Sarah Good, she's there, too, but she is defiant as ever. Now, she had had her baby like she'd given birth. Now, the infant didn't survive. Shockingly enough, giving birth and present isn't, you know, the easiest thing to do in the 17th century, but, yeah, so Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, and two others are hung that day. And here's the Worst part about these gallows as well is that they're not properly made. And so those hanged, like they're there for minutes, like they are strangled as opposed to having the short drop and sudden stop of the neck break. And so they hang there being strangled slowly like it's, it's awful. So after they're executed, they're thrown into shallow graves, like they're just dumped in. Now, Rebecca Nurse's family, they sneak in, right, and they retrieve her body from the shallow grave and they bring it back to their family land and bury her there instead, like giving her as proper a burial as she can have. And it's actually her conviction and execution, which is like the worrying one because she's a pious, you know, respectable woman. Like, if she was convicted, like, who's safe, right? So summer of 1692 goes on and you've got the alleged victims are in, they're in there and they're continuing to do this performance, right? Like this is where doubt starts to creep in a little bit, like, because like after, after the execution of Rebecca Nurse, some people can't really believe that it happened or that, you know, they actually did it. And it's after this the accusations really start to go, like, out of control. So it's not just, you know, outcasts, outsiders, just people who aren't, you know, following the rules of the Puritan society of, you know, the staunch churchgoer. Like everyone is, is fair game at this point. So respected members of the community, you know, prominent, affluent, you know, these people are the ones that are, that are being accused in August. John Proctor, who's very affluent and also a very outspoken critic of the trial, like he goes to the gallows. And so him, the preacher, George Barrows, who shocks everybody because he recites the Lord's Prayer just before his death. Like there was this belief that a witch could not, you know, could not recite the Lord's Prayer. They couldn't do it because, you know, of their like, devil connection. And so when Proctor Barrows and two other men, when they are hanged that day, when this happens, it sows the seeds of doubt in, in people's minds. You know, the idea is floated that perhaps, you know, this isn't exactly a righteous purge after all because of all of these, you know, very, you know, prominent people with influence and resources. If they are the ones being attacked, perhaps this is something more political as opposed to religious. So a lot of these, like, higher ranking families, they've fled, like out of fear or out of like, worry, you Know of, of like a member being accused. And so while this happens, the public confidence in this whole process is starting to wither away. But the trials aren't done yet. And this is going to be, this is going to be a hard 1. On the 19th of September, 1692, in this field opposite the jail, there is a man lying flat on his back. 80 year old Giles Corey, that's right, Martha's husband, second husband, he's lying on his back, he's there on the ground, his arms are splayed and across his chest there is a rough plank of wood and on top of the plank there is a pile of, of heavy rocks. And so for two days Sheriff Corwin has been demanding, you know, a confession from him one way or the other. And Giles has been refusing. And every time he does, another heavy stone is added. The whole point of this actual torture is to press the plea from the suspect. So this young man is holding this big rock and he is yet again told to drop it onto the chest of this 18 year old man. So it thuds on him. At this point his skin is pale and his lips are blue like this man is like his lungs are being crushed. And so John Corwin, he's demanding, he's demanding this, this confession and sort of jails. His mouth starts to move and he leans into him and in what I could only say the best fuck this for a game of soldiers. His words are more weight because see, he has to plead guilty or not guilty. If he doesn't plead one way or the other, he can't be like he can't be tried, right? But if they try him, he's going to be found guilty and everything in his quite considerable estate will be seized. But by not pleading and not being tried, it means that his lands like instead of being seized will go to his sons like they will inherit it, right? This is, this is not great for Corwin because he's been doing really well financially accusing people of witchcraft because he's been, you know, getting his goods in. And so the fella who's holding rocks, he's getting ready to put the last one on because he's like more weight. And this shows you what a sadistic motherfucker this guy Corwin is, right? So instead of dropping another rock on him, right, he steps on the board that is on this 80 year old man's chest which is also again let, lest we forget, covered with rocks, right? So he ends up like shifting, you know, his weight, demanding a plea from this, this guy and like There was onlookers here, people are watching this happen and they are fcking shocked, right? And yeah, people are praying. Some people, like, can't watch it anymore. And then, unsurprisingly, because his lungs are fcking crushed, Giles Corey dies. So he's got no conviction of witchcraft, his estate isn't seized and his sons manage to get it. And this pisses off the accusals so much. Like, everyone knew who Giles Corey was, right? And he stopped the court's ability to charge him. He refused to recognize their authority over them, right? He defied them effectively. And after the hanging of Rebecca Nurse, right, Giles Corey being pressed is just. It's a flashbulb moment for the village's attitude to the trials. Like, there is a massive turn at this point, but yet, you know, the gallows are still seeing victims swinging because, like, three days after Giles Corey is pressed. So 22 September 1692, seven women and one man are hanged at Gallows Hill. One of them is Martha, right? Martha, who again, was mocking the whole idea of the witch trials. She had refused to, like, attend them, called the girls liars and basically spoke out about it, right? So, yeah, I feel like her execution was more of a revenge because they couldn't get the husband to stop. Now Martha, she is hung along with the sister of Rebecca nurse, Mary Eastie, who is like, please see reason. And shockingly enough, no, they don't. So when they're executed, the Salem death toll rises to 22. So you've got 19 who were hanged, two died in prison and one was crushed to death by stones. There are so many people still awaiting trial. You've got some who had been found guilty and were waiting for their execution date. And, like, this was getting huge and it was becoming very difficult for the wider community to, like, live with. One of the people struggling to stomach the trials at this point was Increase and Cotton Mather. Like two of the most influential ministers in New England. This father and son duo, they're just like getting very uneasy with this, right? So Increase Mather, like, he. He's seeing this as chaos. Like, he is publicly condemning the use of, quote, spectral evidence. Like, he says it's better that 10 suspected witches should escape than one innocent person being condemned. Like, he even appeals to the governor directly. So Governor Phipps, he's like begging him to put an end to this madness. Like, he'd been away though, because he'd been away on this, like, awful, brutal military campaign in Quebec because there's this war with the French with King William. So, as in William and Mary. And so he comes back and the colony is just. It's wild, right? His special court has executed dozens of people, mainly on nothing more than sort of wild accusations by children. Because, like, these trials kept happening, there wasn't an end in sight. Like, it wasn't slowing down. It was supposed to, like, rid the town of evil, but it just seemed to be snowballing and, like, it didn't really seem to, like, be as huge of a problem until the governor's wife was accused. So, like, on top of this, it was too expensive, right? It was expensive to keep doing this, and it was attracting too much attention. And there were like a couple hundred people in the prison, like, at this point, and that's a substantial percentage of the population, and that's not including those who had already been put to death. So first thing Governor Phipps does is he stops the use of the spectral evidence because he's like, this can lead to miscarriage, justice, right? So he needs, you know, physical, reliable evidence. And without that, it's very difficult for the court to convict. And so these cases fall apart and trials collapse. He disbands. The second thing he does is he disbands the Court of Oyer and Terminer, removing the authority of the judges, many of whom have been a bit too zealous in the pursuit of witches. In its place, he creates a new court to review the cases, effectively ensuring that no more innocent people are condemned. And so the executions are over and the panic fades away. And so you've got these people questioning the whole validity of the process. And, like, you've got some who are like, we've still done the right thing by Salem. Like, you've got these two sides. One is clearly right and one is clearly batshit fcking crazy. They're like, it's totally okay that we murdered all these people without any actual evidence whatsoever. So, like, in the years that followed, like, a few of the judges would apologize for the part they played. Like, they'd be like, oh, whoops, we accused all these women. What they wouldn't do, though, is, like, deny witchcraft. They're like, oh, no, witchcraft is real. We just may have accidentally, you know, killed a few innocent people on the way. Then, of course, you have this very important apology from Anne Putnam Jr. Because, like, she was the one who accused the most number of people, like, especially those who were put to death. So, like, in her mid-20s, she stands up in front of her congregation and says that she wants to lie in the dust for the Part that she played in the witch trials, right? So she's unmarried, in her mid-20s, which in the Puritan existence is uncommon. And so she feels like her involvement in this has resulted in her life not going as planned. And so a decade after the Salem witch trials, the Massachusetts General Court declares the trials to be illegal and overturns the convictions of those sentenced. And then nine years after that, so almost 20 years later, right, a formal act of restitution is passed to compensate some of the families of those affected. But, like, this is 20 years on, right? These. These apologies, these exonerations, they're coming, like, far too late, right? You know, you're closing the door after the horse is bolted. Like, that being said, this, like, marks the last ever execution for witchcraft on US Soil. And like, we don't know, like, why the girls made these allegations, right? We don't. We don't have that now. So this could be haired mentality. This could be, you know, the nature of the life in which they grew, that sort of. That pressured, staunch existence and a genuine fear of the occult. And they might not have understood why, like, this was happening. And, you know, you've got this sort of mass hysteria happening. But there's also this. There's also this theory, like, they all went mad from, like, what is it, a mushroom or something? There is. There is a theory on. On that causing it particularly, but I feel like that's been. I need to look into this. But something I also want to do at some point is I want to cover specific people who were accused. Like, I want to do like a whole episode on oh, Goody Proctor or like a Goody Nurse and all this kind of stuff, and take the time to discuss what happened to these people, because I think it's fair, because it's too easy to just one event that's all bunched up is just a thing, and to forget the people who were hurting it, People who lost their families, their lives, their livelihoods, all of it. And I really want to do that at some point. But I wanted to talk about Salem because you can't talk about witch trails and not mention Salem at one point, because it's the most famous one. But, you know, centuries later, we're still talking about it. But yeah, I want to go deeper into it and really. And really, you know, give them the respect that they didn't have in life, clearly. But so ends my story of the Salem witch trials. If you liked my retelling of this, feel free to rate and review five stars. If you didn't like it. You can shut your mouth. Ah. Now, I've actually been struggling to get this episode written because I had to pare down so much information to make it shorter. And I'm still an hour and a half in, right. And that's with me cutting it down. And I'm using scraps of notes because. Yeah, so my mum came to visit and she's not been well since she came to visit. So she was supposed to be doing the kids Halloween costumes and I would do the helping parts. I do the wee bits. But because she's not well, she's resting and I've done. I'm gonna. I'm gonna apologize to every cosplayer who has ever made anything, ever. When I share this, which I eventually will, you're gonna see how bad a job I did. But I've spent the weekend trying to make costumes and I have inhaled so much glue and spray paint over the last couple of days that I'm worried from my own health insanity. Like, I can feel myself losing breath. So, like, if I sounded like I was running out of breath through this. Yep, that's been happening in the past. I'm fine. I'm fine. And so it was a bit of a struggle to get this finished. And anyway, I look forward to doing a lot of stuff next month with you. And. Yeah, let's give some women some fucking justice. You can catch me on all of the socials. And let's do. Let's do. Let's do. Let's do some recommendation time. I'm gonna recommend for reading the Defense of Witches by Mona Cholly. Chole. Chole. I'm not sure how to pronounce that surname, but it is a name. So we've got that for reading, for listening. You know what? I've been listening to a lot of Sabrina Carpenter this week. And I was listening to Tears, actually. And all I keep thinking of is how funny it is because it's like, do the bare minimum. Wow. I'm so amazed by it. And I get that that's the joke, but it's fucking funny to me. And so finally, for watching. You know what I was watching this week is I was watching not the house in Haunted Hill, which also I love. Which Bonus. Go watch the House on Haunted Hill. That is a good thing to watch. You can watch the Vincent Price version or the later version, which is also good. But I. It's one of my favorite horror movies, actually. But I've been watching the Haunted House, the Not Bly man or the other one what's the name? The Haunting of Hill House. It's the Haunting of Hill House. Okay, that is that. Yeah. So. Thank you. It's. It's 11 o' clock at night. I need to go to bed. I've been up very early. I'm very tired. And the. And the clocks went forward. Anyhow, I look forward to seeing you all soon. Adios. Au revoir. Au vuitize, my friends. Bye. Bye. Plumeri Dianadori ineltori altieri bonishtori Lawshroin August nis mowen tastian thuwen lederhud shkilina August tahi galair khun kaurulin na milta tih ohogol thawn dawan toga agath a nish tara rash aguas togun chah ohg thu tila olich eg gov punk I E tul Building Ireland Naharon AI agents are.

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