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Sarah Wildes: an Accused Witch and a Victim of Witch-Hunting in Salem

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Sarah Wildes: an Accused Witch and a Victim of Witch-Hunting in Salem SARAH WILDES: AN ACCUSED WITCH AND A VICTIM OF WITCH-HUNTING IN SALEM A PAPER BY KYUNG M. KIM SUBMITTED TO DR. MINKEMA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE CH 8000: WITCHCRAFT AND WITCH-HUNTING AT TRINITY EVANGELICAL DIVINITY SCHOOL DEERFIELD, ILLINOIS, MAY 2014 Puritans founded New England communities with a vision of building a holy kingdom. During the early period, religious life was closely tied with the socio-political life of the community. When this tie was threatened by new merchants and when ideas emerged into the community, the witch-hunting started. Other factors such as Indian attacks, famines and diseases contributed to the witch-hunting. These factors placed fear upon the community. Also, ministers were worried of spiritual and moral decline in the community. The hysteria at Salem was a complex event; thus, an investigation of an individual or incident is fitting for this subject. People of Salem would probably have traced their heritage back to Puritanism, and their ideology shaped their society and culture. This ideology was also evident in the Salem witch- huntings. One evidence is seen through the ratio of accused male witches to accused female witches. According to Brian Levack, "The image of the witch as morally weak and sexually inclined may very well have encouraged members of the educated and ruling classes to suspect and prosecute women as witch, especially when they were engaged in religiously inspired campaigns to reform popular morality."1 Levack’s statement also properly describes the New England community and their ideology. The promoters of Salem witch-hunting were religiously inspired groups who had a vision of establishing God’s kingdom; their Puritan perspective considered women as weaker vessels.2 For this reason, in Essex County between 1560 and 1675, 290 out of 313 accused witches were female.3 1 Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (New York: Longman Publishing, 1995), 138. 2 M. William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft; So Farre forth as it is Revealed in the Scriptures, and manifest by true experience (Essex, 1618), 39. Also, Elizabeth Reis, Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,1997), 94-95. 3 Levack, 134. 1 The witch-hunting in Salem began in the household of Samuel and Elizabeth Parris.4 In December 1691, two of their children became sick with peculiar fits, and doctors could not find an explanation. Other children also became infected with whatever plagued the Parris children. The adults concluded that these children were bewitched. Parris's family and their congregation earnestly prayed, but it was ineffective. Impatient with the ineffective methods of the clergy, Mary Sibley, a neighbor called on Parris’s house slaves, Tituba and her husband Indian John, to work some counter-magic. The fits, however, got worse. At the end of February in 1692, the afflicted children accused three women, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, of causing their afflictions. They were arrested on March 1, and while two Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne denied the charge, Tituba confessed that she consorted with the devil. She provided more names. Within a short time many people were accused of witchcraft, and in order to handle the crisis the governor setup a special Court of Oyer and Terminer in May. By the end of September, twenty- six people had been convicted and nineteen of them had already been hanged. Sarah Wildes (or Wilds) was one of them. She was summoned in April 21, 1692 and executed in July 19, 1692. Sarah Wildes was a natural suspect because she was a grumpy old woman with bad reputations within the community. During the course of her trial, testimonies and evidences against her came from three different types of people. First, there were the young girls who provided spectral evidences and displayed physical fits. Second, there was the family of the first wife of Sarah’s husband. Third, there was her neighbors, who had history of conflict with her. Her case is representational because other cases of witch-hunting in Salem shared common features with it. This paper summarizes and analyses the case of Sarah Wildes, focusing on its testimonies and proceedings. The paper demonstrates how the context, especially the religious 4 The paper borrowed Elaine G. Breslaw’s outline of the story of the witch-hunting in Salem in Elaine G. Breslaw, Witches of the Atlantic World (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 355-357. 2 context, shaped the ideology concerning the Devil and witches that were reflected in the case of Sarah Wildes. A warrant for Sarah Wildes was issued on April 21, 1692, and she was one of the nine people that were arrested. Sarah was from Topsfield, a town adjacent to Salem. Most of the people on the warrant were from the same town. Her name, along with others in the warrant, was mentioned during the interrogation of Abigail Hobbs, who was also from Topsfield. Abigail Hobbs was a 15 years old teenager. Prior to her arrest, she told people that she had sold herself to the Devil.5 She was an adolescent who misbehaved against her stepmother. She mocked baptism by flicking water in her stepmother's face and she publicly talked back to her. Such adolescent behavior made her a suspect for witchcraft. During her interrogation, she confessed that she encountered the Devil, which appeared in a form of many creatures and a likeness of a man. She confessed that the Devil offered her fine things if she enlisted herself to be a witch. The interrogator then asked Abigail, "And did you make a covenant with him?" She confessed, "Yes, I did, but I hope God will forgive me."6 According to Elizabeth Reis, a historian whose study was on gender and the witch-hunting in Salem, "The court demanded that women's confessions include testimony to their essential sinfulness, as well as admission of past misdeeds and alliances with the Devil, whether great or small, explicit or implicit."7 Abigail Hobbs met the demand of the court, and this made her a credible witness. Puritan ideology was behind the court’s demands and actions of taking her as a credible witness. She confessed and repented of her behavior. Unlike European witch-hunts, New 5 Marilynn K. Roach The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege (New York: Cooper Square, 2002), 76. 6 “Examination of Abigail Hobbs, April 19, 1692” in Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html. All the documents from this website were accessed on April 19, 2014. 7 Reis, 163. 3 England witch-hunts showed mercy upon confessors. New England Puritans viewed the world in a dualistic sense and concluded that a person either belongs to God or Satan. This understanding stemmed from covenant theology; a person is either in league with God or Satan. Since women were viewed as allegedly weaker vessels, they were thought to have had a greater tendency to seek a bond with either God or Satan. If a woman confessed and repented of her league with Satan, she was believed to be in league with God. That woman would receive mercy from the court, and her testimony would become credible, since her answers would have been consistent with the socio-religious ideology in New England. Abigail confessed that Sarah Wildes caused affliction on her stepmother. Abigail was known to misbehave against her stepmother, and when her stepmother was afflicted, people naturally suspected Abigail of witchcraft. It seems that she tried to shift the focus to Sarah Wildes. Abigail named Sarah Wildes since her stepmother previously told her that she suspected Sarah to be behind the specter of birds, dogs and cats that her stepmother witnessed. Perhaps Abigail's previous confession was borrowed from her stepmother's account. Her stepmother, whose name was Deliverance Hobbs, also confirmed Abigail's confession. The interrogator asked, "Was that true that Goody Wildes appeared to you and tempted you?" And Deliverance replied "Yes, that was true." The interrogation of Sarah Wildes began on Friday, April 22, 1692, at Salem village. According to the record, when she walked in to the court room, some people started to be afflicted. These sufferers were composed of adolescent girls, and they served as witch-o-meters throughout the witch trials. They fell into fits when they detected a witch in their presence. Some modern scholars suggest that they manipulated the adults by faking the fits in order to avoid punishments for their prior misbehaviors. Others suggest that they enjoyed receiving attention 4 from adults. Still others suggest that they had lyme disease. These are all possible explanations of their afflictions. Doctors at Salem during the witch-hunting were not able to provide explanations for the suffering. One physician, Dr. William Griggs, thought the "evil hand" was at work.8 The court concurred with the doctor’s opinion and they believed that witchcraft was behind the suffering. Allegedly, Sarah Wildes was one of the evil hands. The consensus among the early modern Europeans concerning witches is that they have power to cause maleficum. Puritans also concurred with this consensus, but their understanding differed in regards to the magnitude of witches’ power to cause maleficum. The Puritan understanding of God's sovereignty perceived the Devil’s power to be within God’s dominion; thus, the Puritan envisioned the Devil as weaker and more limited. William Perkins, a famous Puritan theologian, described the wonders performed by the Devil as "lying and deceifull."9 He divided the wonders into two types, illusionary and real, and claimed that the Devil was able to perform a real wonder only when God endowed His power upon the Devil.
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