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

A PAPER

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.

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.

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.

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

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. On his own, the

Devil could only perform illusionary wonders. Witches were considered to be agents of the Devil who performed wonders by the power of the Devil. Only through covenant-making could a witch secure the power of the Devil. Therefore, a witch’s biggest crime during the Salem witch-trials was not maleficum itself, but rather being in league with the Devil. They could not be blamed for executing the order of the Devil, but they could be blamed for choosing to be in league with the

Devil. These understandings were displayed during the course of the trial. People believed that witches were causing fits (real wonder) and that the specters were illusions created by them.

8 Breslaw, 355. 9 Perkins, 11.

The court granted specters as legitimate evidence during the proceeding. According to the court record, Sarah Bibber saw Sarah Wildes upon a beam, and Bibber fell into a fit. Wildes was in front of the interrogator, so it was not physically possible to be upon a beam. Since no other people witnessed Wildes upon a beam, the appearance of Wildes upon a beam was an illusionary wonder. Against Wildes's denial of her involvement in the fits and the appearance, the court credited Bibber's confession. Based on Puritan ideology, I conjecture that they probably understood Wildes's appearance as illusionary and believed that Wildes caused the illusions by corrupting Bibber's eyes or mind. The acceptance of spectral evidences was one of the distinguishing features of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

Various clergies challenged the usage of spectral evidences. According to Reis, "The clergy… had expressed ambivalence about spectral evidence, ultimately advising the court that the devil had power to assume an innocent, nonconsenting person's shape."10 Although they challenged the usage of spectral evidence, they still believed in the Devil's ability to appear in specters. Their motion to challenge spectral evidence failed. Perhaps the court believed that they did not have a strong case without spectral evidence. The court had a religiously motivated and strong will to purge the evil out of the community, and unexplainable mysticism was considered to be the Devil's work. It is probable that these factors moved the court to accept spectral evidence.

Clergies, whose influence came from Puritan heritage, believed that Devil's work was a will of God to test their children and punish the wicked. They derived this conclusion from the interpretation of Deuteronomy 13, which starts by saying, "If there arise among you a prophet, or

10 Reis, 137.

a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder….”11 The clergies contextualized this verse into their context, and they believed that witches had arisen among them. As Exodus 22:11 says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Thus, clergies approved the court's effort to weed out witches from their community by executing them. Their zeal came from the vision of establishing a holy kingdom, so anything that was against the church was viewed as defilement that needed to be purged. Therefore, laxity in Christian life and unchristian conducts were also considered as evidence against an accused witch. Sarah Wildes's past history provided more evidential support against her.

The two groups of the prosecutor's witnesses came forward to speak against Sarah

Wildes. The first group was the family of the first wife of Sarah’s husband. The second group was Sarah’s neighbors who had conflict with her. Since the witnesses lived in close proximity to each other, they all knew each other and probably had heard similar rumors about Wildes.

Furthermore, these witnesses shared a similar ideology concerning witchcraft, since their information on the Devil came from clergies of similar backgrounds. Due to the rumors about

Sarah Wildes and the ideologies that would frame such a woman as a witch, it is probable that they presupposed that Wildes was a witch. Such a presupposition might have altered their stories in order for them to be consistent with social expectations. For Sarah Wildes, only her family was willing to testify in defence of her innocence. They were unsuccessful.

John Gould, a brother of John Wildes's first wife, and Zacheus Perkins testified against

Sarah Wilde. According to the deposition, Gould told the court about an incident that happened to Mary Reddington, a sister of John Wildes's first wife. By the time of the trial, Mary passed away, but her grievances against Sarah had lived on. According to Gould, about 15-16 years

11 This paper uses the KJV for scriptural references.

prior to the deposition, Sarah Wildes "did strive two or three times to pul her doune of her horse," and Mary felt into a brook.12 Sarah also caused a death of one of Mary's hens. Thomas

Dorman also testified that he lost six cattle about six years ago, and he suspected that Sarah was behind it. Perkins testified that Sarah bewitched cartloads of hay. They blame these incidents on

Sarah. Perkins concluded by saying, "I did thinke that it was don by WichCraft."13

The testimonies concerning loss of livestock, unusual behavior of a horse, and cartloads of bewitched hay were evidence that supported the belief that Sarah was a witch. According to

Keith Thomas, "The charge of witchcraft was normally leveled, not just when the accuser felt that the witch bore a grudge against the victim (or his family), but when he felt that the grudge was a justifiable one. The witch, in other words, was not merely being vindictive. She was thought to be avenging a definite injury..."14 Sarah had an animosity against Mary Reddington, and the cart incident happened right after a quarrel between Sarah and Zacheus Perkins. The testimonies concerning conflicts and quarreling presumed to provide an adequate motivation for

Wildes to use maleficum. The defense, however, tried to discredit the prosecution’s witnesses by pointing out that they had a vendetta against Sarah Wildes.

John Wildes testified for his wife Sarah. John also heard the rumors, and he tried to resolve the situation by confronting John Reddington, Mary’s husband, and threatening to have him arrested him for his wife's defaming of Sarah. John Wildes was a wealthy farmer who seemed to have the resources to put his words into action. Reddington, on the other hand, could not afford to be sued and pay the legal fees. Also, John Wildes testified against John Gould in a

12 "John Gould and Zecheus Perkins v. Sarah Wilds" in Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html. 13 Ibid. 14 Breslaw, 67.

treason trial, which further angered the former in-law's family.15 From John Wildes's testimony, it is reasonable to believe that the accuser’s personal vendetta shaped the testimonies of the former in-laws and their friends. John Wildes's testimony, however, provided more reason to suspect that Sarah was a witch, because John’s testimony proved that the conflict between these two groups was real. In other words, Sarah was more than willing to cause harm against her in- laws and other neighbors. Since unusual damage was incurred, Sarah was highly suspected of witchcraft.

Sarah Wildes's personal history and her immodest clothing also contributed to the case against her. According to Diane Foulds, “For one thing, it had hardly been a year since his late wife, Priscilla Gould Wildes, had passed away. Her sister, May Gould Reddington, couldn’t comprehend what John saw in Sarah, a brash and ostentatious creature who paraded around in clothing far above her station.”16 The former in-law's family thought that Sarah Wildes was not worthy to take the former place of John Wildes's wife. Furthermore, the court's record indicates that she was charged with wearing a silk scarf in May of 1663.17 Wearing modest clothing was considered as a mark of a virtuous woman, and New England communities expected women to have this mark. Sarah Wildes was thus perceived to be a social misfit.

Puritans expected a virtuous woman to dress in modest clothing, and this understanding seemed to derive from Proverbs 31:30, which states: "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised." New England Puritans interpreted the

Bible in plain and literal way. A pious woman (or a woman who fears the LORD) was expected to wear modest clothing because beauty was considered to be vanity. The famous New England

15 "Sarah Wildes," last modified February 11th, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Wildes. 16 Foulds, 116. 17 "Sarah Wildes."

Puritan Cotton Mather taught that seeking beauty was not a sign of a pious woman.18

Furthermore, "For a woman to wear what is not evidently consistent with modesty, gravity, and sobriety is to wear not an ornament, but a defilement and she puts of those glorious virtues when she puts on the visible badges of what is contrary thereunto...."19 Sarah Wildes was known to dress immodestly and she had a history of conviction for wearing a silk scarf. This conviction was not unusual in New England communities. Mather supported such actions; he noted that

God was “…punishing the strange apparel in her neighbourhood."20 Sarah Wildes's former apparel worked against her, but that was not the only trouble that she had with the civil law.

Sarah Wildes was sentenced to be whipped for fornication with Thomas Wordell in

November 1649. Although it happened 46 years before the trial, her neighbors, and especially her animosities, would never fail to remind the community about her fornication. When the witch-hunting in Salem was intensified, her apparel and sexual immorality worked against her.

These images fit the image of a typical early modern European witch - one who was morally weak and sexually inclined.21

Elizabeth Symonds also testified against Sarah Wildes, and she recounted an incident that happened about 12 years before the trial. Her mother suspected that Sarah Wildes was behind John and Joseph Androus (or Andrews), brothers of Elizabeth Symonds who faced troubles while getting home with a load of hay. Elizabeth’s mother alleged that Sarah threatened her during the confrontation. Afterward, Elizabeth saw a specter besides her bed at night and suffered pain. She remembered seeing a cat during one particular night. According to her

18 According to Cotton Mather, "The usage of artificial painting is practiced by many women who think thereby to be valued for a beauty, which they are not really the owners of. But a virtuous woman will not be guilty of such a vanity." in Breslaw, 297. 19 Breslaw, 298. 20 Ibid., 299. 21 Levack, 138. Also, Breslaw, 293.

confession, the cat "crope up t[o] my breast and lay apon mee and then I could not move nether h[and] nor foot nether Could I speeake a word I did strive to cale to m[y] husban but I could not speake and so I lay all night,"22 The paranoid was a probable cause, for the early modern

Europeans tended to fear a witch’s power to cause maleficum. Elizabeth was probably paranoid, for she heard her brother's story of the cartload of hay, saw the confrontation, and was certain of

Wildes being a witch. Sleep paralysis is common even today, and it can happen when a person has great stress.

John and Joseph Andrew also testified against Wildes and confirmed Elizabeth

Symonds’ story. The Andrews brothers provided more detail about the cart incident, and they added one more story to support the charge against Wildes. The brothers and Sarah Wildes quarreled one time when they borrowed a scythe. John Wildes Jr., a son from John's previous marriage, granted to lend a scythe to the Andrews brothers. After they finished gathering hay,

Sarah arrived at their worksite to confront them for borrowing the scythe without proper permission. After the confrontation, as they went back to their home, a wheel from a cartload of hay fell off. They mended the problem. When they were back on the road, they saw a big dog and said that it was "…glance from a stump or root of a tree along by me and the oxen began to jump."23 Based on these incidents, the Andrews brothers suspected that "Gooddy willes who now stands Charged with High suspition of several acts of witchcraft had a hand in our Mishap at that time."24

22 "Elizabeth Symonds v. Sarah Wildes" in Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html. 23 "John Andrew and Joseph Andrew v. Sarah Wilds" in Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html. 24 Ibid.

Several witnesses concluded that Sarah Wildes was a witch who was behind the appearance of the dog (Andrews brothers' testimony), the cat and other creatures (Symond and

Hobbs's testimony). Puritans had a peculiar understanding of the Devil's appearance through animals. According to Perkins, "though God hath reserved to himself alone the power of abolishing and changing nature, the order whereof he set and established in the creation, yet the alteration of the ordinarie [sic] course of nature, he hath put in the power of his strongest creatures, Angels, and Devils."25 Puritans believed that the Devil may transform into a creaturely form; the Genesis 3 account where Satan appeared as a snake supported Puritan belief. If the unusual creatures seen in the witness accounts were the Devil himself, then it was concluded that

Sarah Wildes was the one who called upon the Devil. There was another possible explanation under Puritan belief. Puritans believed that a sorcerer could perform magic like the magicians at

Pharaoh's court who turned their staffs into serpents. According to Perkins, these types of magic were illusions; they simply corrupted the senses of the eyes or mind. Thus, the second possible reason for such unusual appearances of those creatures was that Sarah Wildes created the illusions by corrupting people’s senses. Either scenario was a possibility within Puritan belief, but it did not matter whether Sarah Wildes was called upon the Devil or performed a magic.

Either act could only have been done by a witch.

The testimonies proved that Sarah Wildes made a covenant with the Devil. Based on these testimonies, Sarah Wildes performed witchcraft. The power to perform witchcraft came from the Devil. There was only one way to ascertain such power. According to Perkins, "The ground of all the practices of Witchcraft, is league or covenant made between the Witch and the

25 Perkins, 12.

Devil."26 The testimonies pointed out that she made a covenant with the Devil. In this covenant, witches "...vow and promise to renounce the true God, his holy word, the covenant he made in

Baptisms, and his redemption by Christ...... "27 If the court found a woman guilty of witchcraft, she would be executed on the basis of a literal interpretation of Exodus 22:18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” She would be excommunicated because she renounced the true God.

However, prior to the execution, the church would provide a last chance for her to repent and be saved.

The court assumed that she made a covenant by signing the book, and she worked as an agent of the Devil to enlist others to join. According to the court records, the interrogator asked,

"Here is a clear evidence that [you have] been not only a Tormenter [but that] you have caused one to sig[ne the] book, the night before last [What] you say to this?" Presumably, tormenting and allurements were common methods for recruiting witches, and women were considered to be easier targets. They were considered to be weaker vessels than men and more prone to depend on others. As a result of this belief, women were either adherent to God or to the Devil.

Recruitment of witches was a great threat to the community. According to Reise,

"Satan's grand design, the clergy taught, was to overthrow God's kingdom."28 Reise also states,

"The raging battle between God and Satan filled Puritan sermons."29 Ministers placed fear among their hearers by teaching about the Devil's activity and raging war against the New Land.

Ministers taught hearers in spiritual sense, but women internalized their teaching.30 According to their teaching, Satan increased his dominion through enlisting more people to his side via

26 Perkins, 16. 27 Ibid., 17. 28 Reis, 65. 29 Ibid. 30 Reis, 38.

tormenting or alluring. The allurement came by a false promise. Hence, the religiously driven witch-hunting at Salem focused on the covenant with the Devil. European witch-hunting concerned public safety and focused on maleficum. Thus, a witch was convicted based on the magnitude of the harm. Witch-hunting in Salem, on the other hand, used maleficum as one of the supporting evidences for a person’s covenant with the Devil. The interrogator's goal was to establish the case that the suspected witch made a covenant with the Devil. In the case of Sarah

Wildes, the interrogator also sought to receive a confession - which she eventually signed in the book.

The court seemed to prefer repentance over the elimination of a witch. A pardon was given to those who confessed in accordance with Puritan ideology. For example, Abigail Hobbs was convicted of a witch, but her life was spared. The following are elements that worked in

Abigail’s favor. First, she answered her prosecution properly (probably with a lot of imagination) and admitted to signing the book and making covenant with the Devil. These answers supported the court's assessment and ideology about witchcraft. Abigail’s answers boosted the court’s sense of confidence in what they did during her case. Second, Abigail repented by saying, "Yes, I did

[make a covenant with him], but I hop God will forgive me."31 The interrogator replied by saying, "The Lord give you Repentance."32 Reclaiming a soul meant one less person on the

Devil's side. They endeavored to eliminate the forces of the Devil; reclaiming a soul was a part of that work and they believed that God's grace was sufficient to forgive any sin. Lastly, Abigail gave the names of other witches and became an important asset for the witch-hunting. The community was on a mission to eliminate the Devil's power, and they needed more names to

31 "Examination of Abigail Hobbs, April 19, 1692" in Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html. 32 Ibid.

accomplish this task. Other women who were spared had similar elements in their confessions as that of Abigail Hobbs. On the other hand, adamant denials, like that of Sarah Wildes, were never successful in court.

Sarah Wildes rejected the charge against her by saying, "[I n]ever saw the book in my life [and I never] [saw these per]sons before..." That might have been a true statement, but it was not the answer that the court was seeking. According to Reis, "Vehement denial contradicted the court's proceedings, and invalidated notions of proper female decorum."33 Interestingly, witches were punished not on the basis of the nature of their crimes, but rather on the basis of their contumacy against the courts. When accused witches cooperated with the courts, they had a better chance of having their lives spared. As the result of her denial, Sarah Wildes was easily found guilty of witchcraft. On Tuesday, July 12, 1692, William Stoughton signed a warrant for the execution of Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, Susanna Martin, Elizabeth How and Rebecca Nurse.

They were scheduled to be executed on the following Tuesday morning.

When the execution day arrived, they were transported to be hanged. According to

Roach, all prayed that "God would prove their innocence-from prison by cart through the streets of Salem to be hanged."34 Sarah Wildes was not a saint, but that did not mean that she was a witch. At that point, only God may revert the imminent death that would fall upon them, so they prayed for their vindication. Rev. Nicholas Noyes was at the gallows, and he asked them to pray for repentance. According to Roach, "It was customary for the dying to attempt facing in a spirit of forgiveness lest their souls appear before Heavenly judgment seething hatred."35 They wanted their truth to be vindicated, but a minister wanted their lie to be repented. Sarah Good

33 Reis, 142. 34 Roach, 201-202. 35 Roach, 202.

complained and said, "I am no more a witch than you [Rev. Nicholas Noyes] are a wizard and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink."36 Sarah Wildes, along with the others, were killed on that day by the sins of the community.

The court eventually admitted their mistake of framing innocent people as witches. The court rehabilitated the victims and compensated the surviving families. The name of Sarah

Wildes was included in the report of the committee on the reversal of attainder and action of the general court. According to the record, the court paid 14 pounds. Sarah Wildes was cleared of her charge.

In sum, Sarah Wildes was one of many innocent people who died in connection with the witch-hunting in Salem. She was caught between the times. There were fears in the community.

Some had lost their family members and fortunes from Indian attacks, famines and diseases. The life of the New Land was hard. On the spiritual side, the people’s hope of establishing a holy city seemed to fade away as their spirituality declined. Clergies blamed their congregations, and congregations blamed their clergies. Under these pressures, witch-hunting was a way for them to relieve these tensions. In case of Sarah Wildes, their neighbors found their relief of fear and anger through her death. Her lifestyle, character, personality, and marriage set her on a collision course with her frustrated community. To her church, she was a social misfit and a impious member. To her neighbors, she was a mean and grumpy old woman. These characteristics were good enough for her, and for any person that fit such a pattern, to be an accused witch in 17th century New England.

36 Ibid.

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