Betty Parris - The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials

In the winter 1691, Elizabeth 'Betty' Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams undertook experiments in fortune telling, using a device known as a "venus glass." The girls mainly focused on their future social status, and specifically on the trade in which their husbands would be employed. These fortune telling secrets were shared with other young girls in the area. On one occasion, the glass revealed the horrendous specter of a coffin, which, as Rev. John Hale reported in A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, (1702) led to "diabolical molestation.".

Betty Parris' 'afflictions' are said to have begun in January, 1692. It was reported that Betty began to forget errands, was unable to concentrate, and seemed rapt in secret preoccupation. She could not concentrate at prayer time and barked like a dog when her father would rebuke her. She screamed wildly when she heard the Lord's prayer and was once said to have hurled a Bible across the room. After these episodes, she sobbed distractedly and spoke of being damned. She seemed to see damnation as inevitable, perhaps because of her practicing fortune telling, which was regarded as a demonic activity. Initially, Rev. Parris believed that prayer could cure her odd behavior, but his efforts were ineffective.

The 'affliction' that was said to be inflicted upon the girls manifested itself as odd postures, foolish and ridiculous speech, distempers, and fits. John Hale in A Modest Inquiry described the affliction that the girls suffered. He described their illness as looking as if they "were bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, necks, and backs turned this way and that way, and returned back again, so as it was impossible for them to do of themselves, and beyond the power of Epileptick fits, or natural disease to effect. Sometimes they were taken dumb, their mouths stopped, their throats choked, their limbs wracked and tormented so as might move a heart of stone to sympathize with them." The local physician, William Griggs, diagnosed Elizabeth Parris as being afflicted by the "Evil Hand," commonly known as witchcraft. Since the sufferers of witchcraft were believed to be the victims of a crime, the community of Salem set out to find the perpetrators.

On February 29, 1692, under intense questioning, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams girls named fellow villagers Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba as their tormentors. Elizabeth Parris testified at these trials that she was tormented by spectral visions of these women. During their trials, Elizabeth would cry out when the accused moved her arms, legs, or head, as if the accused was injuring her from across the room. Elizabeth Parris was also involved in the conviction of Martha Corey. At Martha Corey's trial, the afflicted girls sat together and proceeded to imitate Martha's every action.

Mrs. Parris, worried about the health of her daughter, protested against using her as a witch finder. At the end of March, Betty was sent to live with Rev. Samuel Parris' distant cousin, Stephen Sewall. On March 25, Elizabeth "related that the great Black Man came to her, and told her, if she would be ruled by him, she should have whatsoever she desired, and go to a Golden City". Mrs. Sewall told Elizabeth that it had been the Devil who had approached her "and he was a liar from the beginning, and bid her tell him so, if he came again: which she did".