Salem: House of No Mercy

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Tuesday, April fifteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently five h five pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I'm about to get in the car, so since you're here, you want to get in the car with me. We're going to take a drive. Now. It's gonna be a very very very very long drive since we're starting in Abilene, Texas, and we need to end up in Massachusetts. We need to end up in the Boston area, so we get a long long ways to go, so we'll just kind of have to fast forward this, all right. We get in the car, or we drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive. Okay, Hey, hey look it's Boston all right. Now we're gonna leave Boston.

0:58 Are you ready? Are you ready? Now? We can I know it was a long drive that took forever. I was. Are you okay? Are you awake now? Oh? Will stop? Okay, we'll get some snacks. Okay, are you refreshed or do you need a stretch. Okay, let's stretch man. That was from Abilene to Boston. That's a long drive. Okay, I'm ready to go. All right, all right, are you ready? Now? We're in the car. Right, you're there. We're in the car. We're driving north on Route one through Massachusetts. The GPS says Salem is twenty minutes away, and you're like, okay, that's where we're going. Salem. Fine, we're gonna We're gonna get He's taking us on a road trip to Salem.

1:39 You're happy, You're excited because you've heard all of these episodes where I've been talking about what happened during in Salem and the Salem witch Trials sixteen ninety two to sixteen ninety three. You're like, yes, finally I'm going to see Salem. And all of a sudden, no, I don't. I don't keep driving towards Salem. Instead, I take an exit and you start looking at me like where are we going? Where are you taking me? And I look at you, I'm like, well, didn't your mom tell you not to get in a car with a stranger. You just the only thing you know about me is I'm a podcaster. You got in the car and drove all the way from Texas to Massachusetts with me. That was kind of suspicious behavior in your part, not my part.

2:19 That was on you. You got in the car with me, Okay, But we take the detour. We take an exit to a town called Danvers. D A n V E R S. Danvers. Do you know anything about Danvers? It's kind of a when you talk about Salem, you talk about the Salem witch Trials, you talk about Massachusetts, you talk about Boston, you talk about that area Danvers. I mean it's kind of a quieter name, a quieter town. So we take the exit and we end up in Danvers and we kind of whind through neighborhoods, colonial style homes, old stone walls, clipped yards, and then we make a final turn. Danielle Drive, looks like just another suburban street. You're kind of getting worried.

3:15 You're like, where are we going? Like, we're not even going into the center of town. We're in this street, Danielle drive. Oh, maybe maybe he knows someone here. You have no clue what's going or maybe you're like, let me out of the car, stop right here, where are we going? You don't have a clue. You got in the car with me. We've been in the car along time together, Okay, but we're Danielle drive. I'm not saying a word to anybody, because you know, why would I give it away? That would be that would be I mean, that's a that's a boring road trip when you know where you're going. So sh I'm not gonna tell you anything. And I keep looking and I'm driving, and tucked away there on the southwest side of Hawthorne Hill stands a small marker. Well, according to some, there's a small marker there.

4:05 According to some, I don't know. Because now all of my trips to Salem, I drive right past the exit where it says Danvers. I go right past it. I go right to the town of Salem, the city of Salem, That's where I go right. I never take the exit into Danvers. I don't. The next time I go, which should be sometime this year, I'm going to do everything in my power to take the exit into Danvers. In fact, I was just on the phone with my daughter. I'm like, hey, when are you head to to Salem again? Because she lives, you know, in that area. She said in a few days and so I told her, when you go take the exit into Danvers, go to Danielle Drive and tell me if there's an actual marker there. The claim is there is a marker, but all the photographs I've ever seen, I've never seen a historical marker. So maybe it's somewhere near there, but it's but it's the street. My understanding is right there, on the southwest side of Hawthorne Hill, there's supposedly a marker, and it may be one that many drive right past without even noticing it. And I bet many people in the area have never even stopped to see the historical marker. I mean, think about where you live. How many historical markers do you drive past?

5:24 How many of the historical markers and the area which you lived you have literally stopped the car and went up and read everything on them. I mean, if you won't give me the end, I'll ask your kids. Your kids probably never even stopped at one of these historical markers. If you see a historical marker, you should always stop, because if you don't know history, we're doomed to repeat history the only way. I mean, historical markers are free. They don't cost you any money. You don't have to pay to get in, and in fact, you can just take a picture of it of your phone and then you can read it whenever you want. Okay, stop at historical markers. But if there's a historical marker there in Danvers on Danielle Street on the southwest side of Hawthorn Hill, if there is one there, I bet you many people drive past. And when people are there, oh it's October.

6:13 We're going to go to Salem, the Salem Witch Trials. We're going to go to the Salem Which Museum. Many who go there, bro they don't even take an exit into Danvers. They just go straight to Salem. I made the same mistake all the times I've been to Salem. I did not take the exit into Danvers. I've done the same thing countless times. Next time, Noe, Danvers is where we're going. Now, what is this on this historical marker. It's one that many may drive past without even noticing. And it is a sign that tells you something very few truly understand when it comes to the Salem Witch Trials.

6:55 Because this area right here on the southwest side of Thorn Hill, Danielle Street, this is where it happened, not in the courtrooms, not in the jails, but right here. Now, Just imagine I pulled the car over, I tell everyone to get out. I'm like, right here, it's right here, and you and from the pictures I've seen, it's just trees. There's nothing there what I have seen. Again, I'll be able to tell you for sure. But can you imagine we just get out and you're like, we're like in the middle of nowhere and you're just having me point to the woods. You're like, I'm getting in the car.

7:39 You start screaming for help. No, calm down, this is where it happened. And you're like, what happened? And I'm like the Salem witch trials. You're like, no, the Salem witch trials happened in a courtroom. They happened in jails. They happened where people were being hung. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no. Because right here, southwest side of Hawthorn Hill, Danielle Street, a house used to sit right here, and it was inside of that house where the whispers of accusations grew louder and louder and louder, Because in that house, it was a house where theology and fear and grief fed each other. It was a house that produced more accusations, more imprisonments, more deaths than anything anywhere else, any other place.

8:41 That house. It's not standing there today. It's gone now. It's just trees. From what I know, from what I can tell, I'll be again when next time i'm there. But if we were standing there, looking all all those trees, and I was like, this is where it happened you again, and of course I wouldn't explain anything, because I would want to be as mysterious an as you know, scary as possible. You'd be like, what is he's lost his mind? Everybody would think you're looking at something. But in my mind, I would be looking at something. I won't be looking at the trees. I won't be looking at Danielle Street. I'll be looking at a house and a house that was right there in sixteen ninety two, in sixteen ninety three, because it was in that house where theology and fear and grief fed one another. It was the house. Inside that house was produced more accusations, and because of what was done in that house, more in prisonments, more in deaths, more deaths came from what was said in that house, because if I stood there, I would then just be all dramatic and say, I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, the home of Thomas Anne and Anne Putnam Junior and the home of Mercy Lewis. Now you'd be looking around, going I don't see anything. I would be like, really see it. Right here is the home of Thomas Anne

10:13 and Anne Putnam Junior and the home of Mercy Lewis. Now. They didn't light the first match when it came to the Salem witch trials, but what burned in that house, in this house, I would be pointing to it lit up all of Salem, and in some ways the light still shines bright if anyone really wants to study the story, because in a reality and in a real way, this is the story of the House of No Mercy, the House of no Mercy. There's a little play on words there, because Mercy Lewis lived in that house, so there was a mercy there, but there wasn't mercy in the meaningful way.

11:12 Today and this episode, we're going to enter the house that shaped the crisis more than any other, a house where fear overtook reason and where grief, faith, and power all collided. Some called it the epicenter of the accusations. Others saw it as a righteous household defending God's people. History may call it many things, but I'm going to refer to it again not only as the House of No Mercy this entire episode. I'm going to call this the story of the House of No Mercy. In our recent episodes, we've walked through some of the darkest corners of Salem. We watched Mary Sibley's witch Cake open the door to fear. We listened to Mary Walcott's steady voice and rise in the courtroom. We stood with George Burrows as he spoke the Lord's Prayer on the gallows and was still murdered. But there was another voice in that courtroom, a voice that cried out not just against neighbors, but against a former minister. A voice that describes Satan's book, Black Sabbaths and ghostly torment. A voice that helped bury the last hope of mercy for George Burrows. Yeah, now, voice buried the last hope of mercy for George Burrows.

12:41 He's the former minister who's killed. He was the one who stated the Lord's prayer, which they said a witch couldn't do, didn't matter, because well, someone's voice buried the last hope of Mercy, and that voice belonged to Mercy Lewis. But her story doesn't begin in Salem, and it doesn't end there either. This is not just the story of an accuser. It's the story of a survivor of war, of trauma, and of hysteria. And it's the story of a girl who vanished when the fires died down and somewhat scandalous as well. Now we've mentioned Mercy Lewis many times so far in this journey through the Salem witch Trials.

13:31 I've talked about her. I've even told a little bit of her story. So I'm going to repeat some things, but I'm repeating it to build this narrative so you know the full story of Mercy Lewis, but mainly so that we can get to that house. I mean, we just drove from Abilene, Texas to Danvers and we got out of the car. This house, this home of the Putnams. That's this is what you need to know. So we're gonna build this and as I've I been, as I'm all doing, and as I have been doing. I try to do these episodes in a narrative way, but as you can tell, I come in and out of the narrative. Some people like that I come in and out. Some people hate it. If I had money, I would do a full production. I would dramatize this. I would have voice actors and music and sound effects. But it's just me in an empty room. But hopefully I'm still telling the story of Salem in an interesting way, in a way that shows you we need to learn these lessons.

14:30 Stop at historical markers. Now, let's talk about Mercy Lewis. She was born around sixteen seventy five, not in Massachusetts, but on the northern frontier and a small coastal town. Now, if I saw the name of this town, I would say foul Mouth, but it's foul meth, foul Mouth, foul meth Maine. It's spelled fa lmo ut h, but it's foul meth. The way now, I don't know how they would look when you get up to Boston in that area.

15:11 The way they say things look, I don't know what's going on up there. They pronounced that. Some of the names of towns they say I'm like, how do you get that from that? Like, so, who knows how they say things up there? I don't know. Okay, I could. I could probably call my daughter and ask her and say, how does how do you see this exactly? But you know what your tour guide is from West Texas, Okay. So Foulmouth, Maine. Now at the time, again, she's born around sixteen seventy five. She at the time, the region was violent and unstable. It was a borderland between English settlers and some of the French aligned tribes at that time.

15:52 And I think the one of the tribes is is it's like wab A n Aki Wabanaki tribe believe. I think it's how it said. And I think there were one of the tribes that were aligned with the fringe. Now in sixteen eighty nine, again, she's born in sixteen seventy five. In sixteen eighty nine, she's now around the age of fourteen. And this is when the nightmare shows up. This is when her life is about to be tragedy. I mean, she's about to encounter some tragedy in her life, right because it's it's sixteen eighty nine, and this is one of those cases where you don't go to sleep and have a nightmare. This is where you wake up and experience a nightmare. Now King William's war ignited and a brutal series of attacks occurred. One of the deadliest rays fell on Falmouth. The town was burned. Mercy's parents were killed, neighbors were slaughtered. The violence was swift and personal.

16:57 She survived, but from that day for word, Mercy Lewis was now an orphan of war. Her family is all dead, she's an orphan, she's young. Well she's an orphan of war. But now she's about to move to Salem and a new war is going to begin. In fact, she's going to enter right into the midst of a war because Mercy is sent to live in Massachusetts, and eventually she is placed in the home of Thomas and Anne Putnam and Salem village. You talk about how life can work for some people, and it's just so like, I know, I'm leaving the narrative. But sometimes just whenever you study history, don't even need to study history. You can just you can be you can be sitting on a bus talking to someone sitting on an airplane, just you could be talking to just any stranger and have them tell the story of their life. Isn't it crazy how different people's lives lives. Some people's lives, they have their mother, their father all the way into their adulthood. They have a good relationship, they were never molested, they were never abused.

18:09 The life is good. They are married. They have this, they have this, they have this, they have this, they have this. And in other people's lives, it seems from one tragedy to another, tragedy to another tragedy. It's filled with pain, trauma, suffering and mercy. Lewis I mean her family is slaughtered, and of all the places she has to end up, she has to end up in Salem. I mean for crying out love. And now see what Christians would say, Well, I'm so glad she entered into Salem because this is where the righteous people are, this is the Puritans, godly theology. I'm so glad she ended up.

18:50 And she probably would have been better to find herself in a village of atheists and then instead of ending up in Salem. But if I say that, I offend a lot of people. But she finds herself in a new war because she sent to live in Massachusetts. She eventually is placed in the home of Thomas and Putnam and Salem Village. There she becomes a servant, living and working beside Anne Putnam Junior, another young girl who would soon become central to the witch trials. Now, the Putnam household was deeply religious, deeply political, and increasingly suspicious. Reverend Samuel Parris was warning of Satan's schemes. Disputes with neighbors simmered over land and land inheritance and church leadership, because you know, good Christians become political and divisive and fighting and suspicious and backbiting and gossip. And I know Christians want land, they want my I know it's hard to believe all of this, but whenever you study church history, you know what you find when you find Christians sinners.

19:58 I know it's shocking, but it it's true. No matter, even though we want a claim that when everyone becomes a Christian they're a new creature, everything's passed away. That's only true positionally. Practically, we're not new. We are sinners. We are sinners, and all of that sinful nature is still working. And you see it right here the town. And we could talk about a lot of the things going on in the town. I think a lot of what happened in Salem had more to do with church disputes than anything else. But that's just some of my own hypotheses there. But all of this is simmering over now. Mercy is still young, she's obviously still traumatized, and she enters a new war. And she doesn't choose to enter this war. She finds herself in it. Now, this one is fought in sermons, in whispers, and eventually in court, and eventually with a rope tied around people's necks or in one case, a whole lot of heavy rocks to crush someone today, but for the most part with sermons, so in church, whispers, accusations, court, and then a rope.

21:09 And she's right in the midst of all of this in March of sixteen ninety two. Right, we just came out of March. We're in April here. But March of sixteen ninety two, after the first fits of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis begins experiencing her own violent affliction. So somewhere in March she starts having her own afflictions. She screamed of invisible tormentors. She claims spirits clawed at her. She said, Witch has tried to force her to sign the Devil's Book, and the courts listened. Now I know I keep mentioning the Devil's Book over and over and over again. We do need to talk about this Devil's Book at some point, since it's such a It's mentioned many times. Whenever if you visit Salem or you start studying Salem, the Devil's Book shows up. So we do need to do some speaking of it at some point.

22:14 I haven't forgotten now over the next several months. So this all begins in kind of March. Okay, we make it. We can talk about all the significant things that happen in April. April is an interesting April is interesting in the history of Salem. If you go to April sixteen ninety one, you really start laying down the foundations and some of the fighting and struggles and disagreements happening in Salem sixteen ninety two. April of sixteen ninety two, you have accusation. That's kind of where the accusations explode, and then the court, the whole legal system starts getting involved. So April is big in sixteen ninety two, and then April sixteen ninety three is where everything really kind of starts coming to a crashing hall. Everything begins to fall apont.

23:00 So at sixteen April sixteen ninety one, you really start laying the groundwork. Sixteen ninety two April boom, everything's going crazy, accusations, the legal system now starts taking over. And then by sixteen ninety three everything starts imploding and collapsing on itself. So April is a very interesting month in the history of Salem, if you really want to put it all together. So she screamed of invisible tormentors, she claimed spirits claud at her. She said, witch Is tried to force her to sign the Devil's Book, and the court listened. Now, over the next several months, Mercy Lewis became one of the most and this is true of many of the girls. I'm just going to say one of the prolific accusers and Salem. I don't want to say one of the most, because I think others are far more prolific. So she's one of the prolific accusers and Salem. She gave testimony depositions connected to over fifteen people, and that's a small number compared to some of the others who was accusing a whole lot more. Now, she wasn't just reacting, though she wasn't actively shaping the narrative. Her words helped convince not only the marginalized, but also the respected. So she in some ways she didn't just react. In some ways you could say she was kind of actively shaping the narrative like she seemed. I don't know, how do we see she seemed maybe more precise, maybe is a good

24:35 way to put it, but we know this. She definitely she was able to not only convict or help people be convicted, but she didn't have to just go after the marginalize, the widow, or the woman of questionable character. She could go after the respected. That's why she is, in a sense buries all hope for the former minister who would have been more respected and the and she was able to go after some of the more respected people who were being accused. Now, just to remind ourselves and to remind you, remember, I've told you the story of George Burrows, the Harvard trained minister accused of leading Satan's army. But it was Mercy Lewis who gave some of the most vivid and dramatic testimony. She said he appeared to her in spectral form, that she said, he boasted of his powers, mocked her prayers, and urged her to sign the Devil's book her. It was her courtroom testimony that helped Sill his fate. But Burrows was not her only target. He is the most famous, right, And that's why in a lot of these stories, these narratives I'm trying to tell you, trying to tell you, these historically accurate stories of what happened, George Burrows gets mentioned.

25:52 If any, if any of the accusers accused George Burrows. He's such a central character because he's a minister. Witches are not supposed to say the Lord's prayer. He recites it flawlessly. Supposedly, Cotton Mather is there, you know, the great Puritan that all the pastors, even those on sermon audio, try to defend Cotton Mather as being the great guy. And he's the one. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no, he's just that's Satan appearing as an angel of light. Kill him and he dies. I mean, come on now, I mean, we don't even get me started on how pastors defend Cotton Mather. The whole thing is ridiculous, Okay, And so many times when I hear pastors try to defend Cotton Mather, the first thing I think of. One, Clearly, these pastors have never been to Salem. Two, I don't think they have a clue what actually happened during the Salem witch trials. And I get really irritated by it, as someone who has spent so many years of my life reading and studying what happened in Salem.

26:45 So he she just accuses him of I mean, she tells an elaborate story. I mean like he's the general of Satan's army. He's tormenting her, mocking her prayers, he's bragging about his powers. He's like sign Devil's book, signed the Devil's book. I mean like, and again, this is all he appears to her, in spectral form, not physical form. Just his spirit is supposed to be doing all of these things. So because remember he's often like what where it wasn't he in Maine? When all these accusations and they go get him and bringing back, but he wasn't her only target. Mercy also accused Mary Esty, sister of Rebecca, nurse Bridget Bishop, the first one to be executed, Giles Corey, who would be crushed to death under a pile of rocks, Susannah Martin, a respected widow, and many others She claimed their specters attacked her, bit her tried to pull her soul from her body. Her accusations weren't wild or hysterical, though, that's I guess it's kind of Remember we've talked about some of those who were more theatrical. They were when she actually gave her accusation or gave her testimony. She was calm, composed, detailed, and in some ways that's what made her more dangerous. She could be seen as maybe more believable. Some maybe laugh at the theatrics of the others. Now,

28:15 the theatrics worked on many scared them to death, but for others that were like, come on, are y'all falling for this? Hey? Are you falling for these teenage girls? You know, looking like they're putting on a high school play. I mean, they wouldn't have said it that way, but I mean that's what it would look like. She was older, than most of the afflicted. She had status because she was in the Putnam home, and it appears from what we can tell that she obviously may have been I can't say the best, but she seemed very good at knowing how to speak in court, like when to speak, how to speak. Again, she's older, so that gives a little bit more. The others are younger and more emotional and theatrical. She's older and more convincing. Maybe I don't know if that's a fair Again, sometimes it's hard when you're talking about these historical accounts. You were trying to put flesh on these stories. But we don't want to embellish.

29:15 We want to be as fair as possible. I'm doing my very best to do that. Now, this is where this all comes down to, and this is always hard with all of these stories. Was Mercy Lewis a manipulate or or manipulated? I mean she had survived horrors most of Salem couldn't imagine, and then she was placed in a house full of spiritual warfare. That's all she heard about, revenge and rising power. Did she see herself as a part of the holy battle and this was a war she could help when did she relive old traumas every time someone raised their voice in court, or did she learn that being an accuser meant being safe. We talked about this. If you were making the accusations, you were safe. Now, if you werecanted of your accusation, then you were accused.

30:15 So that remember we talked to that whole story, right, We've told a lot of these stories, and yeah, you seem the safest if you were making accusations because you were being tormented. You're the victim. So if you're making the accusation I'm being tormented by the witches, well then you're not a witch because you're being tormented by the ways. If you didn't get an accusation out quick, then there's someone could turn on you. So I mean she survived, her family's dead. That she figures out like, I'm not gonna lose. I'm not going to die in this war either. I don't know. I have to do a lot of speculating here. I cannot say for sure. Now, by early sixteen ninety three, the trials begin to fall apart. Around April I think was when they really begin to fall apart.

31:02 Actually a little before April, but the execution stopped, Thank goodness, the court lost its grip, Thank goodness. Then something weird happens. Mercy Lewis just disappears. Gone. Now some believe she moved to Boston. This is where it gets scandalous, especially in seventeen oh one, because from what we can tell seventeen oh one, she gives birth to a child, an illegitimate child.

31:57 She gives birth to a child, she's not married. This is enormous scandal and Puritan society. I just saw that, you know, it was still happening in seventeen oh one. I know, I know sometimes people like I wish we could go back to the days when our country was so moral, and it's always it just cracks me. I'm like, oh, you want to go back to the time when I don't know, we enslaved people and we sold human beings as property or out. Let's go back to the wonderful, good old moral times when we denied people basic rights because of the color of their skin. Oh, let's go back to the good old times when the KKK was, you know, burning crosses and lynching people. Oh, let's go back to the good old days when I don't know, we were stealing land from the Native American trial. Let's go back to the good, okay, because no matter which error you go back to with sinner's sin now, no matter how scandalous it was, well when people were I know, I know this is shocking, they still were engaged in physical intimacy, I know. And it shouldn't be shocked because if you opening your Bible, the Genesis, just look at everything going on in Genesis, because humans are sinners. Now in some ways this is kind of sad though, right, This is where it kind of hits me, because all these people, all these girls, who make all these accusations and get people literally killed supposedly fighting spiritual warfare, they themselves were sinners. Same thing is true during the Great

33:31 Satanic Panic, which we talked about in previous episode, all the people running around, Oh no, this rock band, they're evil, and oh it's gonna destroy everything. Satan is everywhere, Satan, Satan Satan, Satan. Music is evil, music is evil. Burn records, burn books, ban this, do this. MTV is the in guess what. Many of those preachers who yelled and screamed were caught up in scandal. Many of the parents who yelled at scream their marriages fell apart, sin all the people. Sometimes those who raise the voice condemning are the ones who, well, guess what it's not if they're still sinners, whether it's ever found out or not, because we're all sinners. But the thing is, she accused others, they die, she disappears, but clearly things weren't so spiritually right, or maybe they were spiritually right. She just sinned, because spiritually right people sin as well. Correct. After that, it's all we basically know seventeen oh one, and we're not even for sure if it's Boston, but it seems to be some historical evidence to say she gave birth to an illegitimate child, and that's the scandal. But then after that, I mean, she literally vanishes from the historical record as far as we can tell. Now, someone may be able to do some deep research and find more, but we know this.

35:03 She doesn't confess because none of the people really did. Hey, I know, twenty people died, but hey, you know, you know, oops, upsy, you know, it's kind of it's just so messed up in so many ways. Well, I mean, the one girl did okay, and Putnam Junior does, I think she's she's she makes her confession, but other than that, nobody does. So I shouldn't say nobody. One person did no confession. But in this case, Mercy doesn't confess, she doesn't apologize. There's no she doesn't even attempt to clear her own name, or she doesn't even come to try to clear anybody else's name. In some ways, she was one of the loudest voices. Then she just disappeared. Now, Mercy Lewis lived through war, she lived through loss, she lived through terror.

35:56 She was a child of fire, placed in a village of fear. She accused more people than a lot of the other girls did. Her words carried a lot of weight, some cases meant more weight. And then she simply disappeared. Was she a monster, a manipulator, or just another casualty of fear, theology and trauma? The one thing I do know is we're never going to know. Her story reminds us that some of the most dangerous testimonies don't come from liars. They come from those who believe they've seen the truth. Maybe she truly believed what she said. That still can be the most dangerous testimony. When people are convinced they have the truth when they are convinced. Now that's the story of Mercy Lewis, the war orphan turned into courtroom witness. Her cries helped condemn a minister and many more. But this is the thing I want you to know about Mercy Lewis. Remember we came to Danvers and we got out of the car and I'm like, this is the home. I really want to drive this, this point home because we need to talk about this home, this household, because see, Mercy Lewis's story doesn't unfold in isolation.

37:24 She lived in a house where fear didn't just grow, it was cultivated. She lived in a home where theology, vengeance, and power mixed behind closed doors. A home that sent more people to prison and to the gallows than any other home. So I think now we need to conclude this episode well telling the story of the Putnam Household. Aren't you glad you got in the car? I know you've been worried, but yet now this is the home of the Putnam's right here and Danvers, Danielle Street, right here here. Look at it. There it is. I know it's not really there, but see it in your mind. See the home. Think of sixteen ninety two what the home would have looked like. There's the activity. There they are, there's Mercy, there's Anne Putnam Junior. There's Anne. There they are, there's Thomas. There's the family. See them. Maybe maybe it's night and there's just a light inside the house, maybe a lantern or something, and let's walk up and listen.

38:24 And they're talking about who's possibly a witch who was in this house in sixteen ninety two. The Putnam household in Salem Village modern day Danvers was one of the largest and most prominent in the area. Here's who lived under the roof during the trials. Thomas Putnam Senior, a prominent landowner, militia officer, and staunch supporter of Reverend Samuel Parris. Because there's a lot of these people likes you know, it's it's typical church garbage, right. Oh, we're for the pastor, we don't like the pastor, and the church is divided.

39:04 Some want him to go, some want him there. Okay, well, I wonder if if that leads to any accusations. Okay, well we can get into a lengthy discussion about that. But he's on Samuel Parris's side. Okay, Remember Paris. Okay, wait, we can get in. Well, you can go back and listen to everything. But he's instrumental Paris. It's his household where everything starts. Right, it's the Paris household where everything starts, it says daughter. It's his niece, right, and he's got the book by Cotton Mather and he was in Boston when there we could put it on. I mean, Paris is instrumental in starting the fire, right, He's the one his household strikes the match, sets the fire ablaze. But I think it's the Putnam who goes picks up the fire and spreads it all over Salem. Okay, So you have Thomas Putnam Senior, you have and Putnam. You have Thomas Putnam Senior, and Putnam Senior his wife deeply religious and afflicted herself, and Putnam Junior, their twelve year old daughter, one of the most prolific and influential accusers and the entire witch crisis. I mean she is the one, all right.

40:15 Then you have Mercy Lewis, their teenage servant, war orphan and active accuser. You have other children. The Putnam's had several other children, though Anne Junior was the only one known to be directly involved in the trials. I don't know anything about the other kids. They don't They just stayed out of it. Okay, I don't know what they were doing. I don't know how old they were or anything. Now, this one household generated more formal accusations than any other in Salem. I want you to just consider the numbers, the accusations, the deaths, and the land. All right, let's try to break this down. And Putnam Junior, she accused sixty two individuals, gave formal testimony at many of the most pivotal trials. Her accusations led to at least twenty imprisonments and over ten executions. So just their one daughter, twenty people in prison, over ten people dead. So I think maybe I don't know if we have an exact number.

41:16 I think the other numbers, maybe it's harder to put them just on her. So let's just say ten twenty imprisonments, ten executions, only twenty people not only I hate to say the word, only twenty people die. She makes up half of their deaths comes from her one family, one daughter. Thomas Putnam Senior. He filed complaints and depositions against forty three people. That's crazy. He acted as an official witness or coordinated in many of the early proceedings. He was right there in they of the early proceedings, and he often amplified his claims through legal channels. He sometimes who was working through legal channels to keep this going, keep this happening. He was the one making sure he was.

42:09 In many senses, if the reverend's house started the fire, Thomas is the one keeping it going. And then you've got Mercy Lewis. She accused or supported accusations against somewhere between fifteen to twenty individuals, including George Burrows, Mary sd Sarah Good, and Giles Corey. Her testimony helped convict multiple people, and Putnam Senior, while less prominent, she also reported afflictions and supported claims made by her daughter. So basically, almost everyone in the household accused someone everyone did. Now that kind of makes you feel bad for Mercy because she's caught up in this, right, It also makes you feel bad for Anne Putnam Junior because she's caught up in the middle of this. And again, I still believe Thomas is the one driving this. I cannot prove that historically, but it just sounds like man. This man was wiping out everybody, and he was using his daughter and his servant to pull this off. In total, the Putnam household contributed to accusations that resulted in dozens imprisonments. At total, their house is responsible for fourteen of the executions fourteen fourteen out of twenty. The Putnam household is right there.

43:34 That come on, now, come on, you see why we drove to this area. And I can't even begin to calculate how many families and lives were ruined. Because once you get accused of being a witch and Puritan society, I mean, you just as well pack up and move. Okay. Now did the Putnams benefit from all of this? Now? Okay, I gotta be careful here. I gotta be careful here, because this is one of the most persistent questions. Did the Putnams gain from the deaths of those accused? Now, if you go to Salem and you listen to some of the tour guides, sometimes, depending on how they're telling the story, I'm sometimes like, whoa did they? Didn't they?

44:23 I'm not so sure? So we know they land was confiscated, We know that land confiscation did occur, and theory land from executed witches could be seized, and practice it was often left in legal limbo are reclaimed by families. So there's some debate here if you go to some of the I think when I was at the Dungeon Museum, where you go, it's crazy to see it's basically the recreation of what they're these Geil cells when these people were put in prison, what they look like, and and and the size of your cell depending on how much money your family had. It was really crazy the way it went down. But the family basically had to pay for you to be in jail. It was nuts. And how much money you had determine if you were poor, sorry, and you were basically in a prison cell that you couldn't even lay down in. All you could do was stand.

45:16 It was crazy. Yep. The Dungeon Museum is crazy. But when they tell the story, they talk about the land confiscation. But they seemed to, if I remember correctly, told it like, hey, if you were accused of being a witch, that could take your land immediately. So there's a little bit of debate. I cannot be for sure exactly how it goes down. Now. Thomas Putnam was known to have long standing land disputes with several families he or his daughters accused. That seems to be factual. He wanted land, and then these people ended up being accused of being a witch by either him or someone in his house, including the Porters, which was in some ways their chief political rivals. Now, some will argue there's no chief, or let me state it this way. Some would argue there is no direct evidence that Thomas Putnam directly acquired confiscated land. There seems to be some strong circumstantial evidence that some of the accusations were aimed at weakening rival families or removing obstacles to property expansion. So it still seemed like it could have been strategic calculated. Hey, these people trying to get the land, well they're now they're worried about dying and being accused of me, of which this weakens they can't expand what they're trying to do, or they have to pull back from trying to get the land, and then he could move in or expand or whatever the case may be. Now, again there's a lot of that circumstantial, A lot of

46:46 it's circumstantial, So maybe it wasn't so much about what the Putnams could gain. Maybe it was more about what their enemies could lose. Maybe it was more strategy. Not that we're gonna gain it, but they're gonna lose it, and there are enemies and we don't want them to have it. So what was driving the Putnams? I mean, I mean, come on, this is Salem witch trials HQ. Right, here's the Putnam home. I mean, come on, it's crazy. Some have debated their motivations. In fact, they've been debating their motivations of what three centuries, ever, how long it's been.

47:30 Here's some of the possible theories. All right, here's some of the possible theories. All right, And here's I guess maybe here's maybe the most credible theories. Number one, religious zelotry. They're religious zelots. First, the Putnams were deeply devoted to Puritan theology. Thomas and a senior were strong supporters of Reverend Samuel Parris, the minister who helped ignite the witch panic. Paris preached about spiritual warfare, covenant breaking, and the devil's war on the church, messages that lended powerfully with the Putnams. They didn't just believe which has existed. They believe they were fighting a holy war. Now guess what happens. This is where it gets complicated, because I don't know if you realize this. As believers, as Christians, we like to synctify our motives. We like to sanctify what we do.

48:27 We always like to make what we do sound more spiritual and more godly, when in many cases what we're doing is selfish. But we can't see the selfishness of it because we always give our actions and our feelings and our thoughts and our perspective religious justification. I hold this political point not because of your own bias, your own likes or dislike. No, because of God. I don't like this music, not because it's against your taste. You just hate it. It's loud, you know what, your kids to listen to it. You're like, it's ungodly. But if you like something, it's okay. We Christianity gives you the power and the ability to dress everything up you do, even your sinful motives, and we can dress them on, making them it's just righteous indignation, it's just godly. It's not that I'm trying to gossip or slender I'm just trying to warn people. How about sheep's wolves and sheep's clothing.

49:23 You can justify anything as a believer, because as long as you can put God to it and say God is on my side, you can do anything. And Christians love to do that with their politics. Oh God's on my side, so you say this and you do this, and oh it's just ridiculous the game Christians play. So maybe they were religious. They had religious zealous They were very zealous and their religious beliefs, very zealous about Puritan theology. Maybe they really believed they were fighting a holy war. But that belief of it can lead you say and doridiculous things like burning records and books and banning and accusations and blaming everyone for being a Satanist or a part of the Illuminati, or every other nonsense Christians have done throughout church history. So some believe maybe they're religious zelotry zealousness that led to it. A second possible thing that motivated them was social and political power. The Putnams had enemies, especially the Porter family, who were wealthier, more moderate, and critical of Paris's ministry. See this all comes down.

50:39 I still believe all of this comes down to a church split. You got the Putnams, they're pro they're pro Pastor Paris. Right, you got the Porters, who's not pro Pastor Paris. Just lo and behold, spiritual warfare breaks out? What everyone starts being killed? And isn't it amazing? Hmm? Well where did the accusations first begin? In? The Paris family? Who comes out fanning the flames and defending the Satan has really an attack? Oh? The Putnams? Who do they support Parish? Isn't it interesting? So these were like the two opposing factions. Right in this corner, we have the Putnams.

51:25 In this corner, we have the Porters. I hate to break it down to such a crass way, but that's what it really turns into in the middle, or all the innocent people getting accused and dying. Okay, that's the sad part. The good Christian families are at war, and it's the marginalized people who get slaughtered in the end. Between many of the people the Putnams accused were either connected to the Porters or at odds with the Putnams, but fueling the trials, the Putnam's consolidated power in the church let me stay this way not but by fueling the trials, fanning the flames, the Putnam's consolidated power in the church and in local politics. Because see, hey, if there's really a spiritual war going on, and Paris is in the midst of this war, fighting this war, then we got to support Pastor Paris. He knows there's a war going on. He's in the middle of it. He's he's God's warrior to fight the evil witches. His stuff is so messed up, all right, So the first possible reason is their own religious zealous zelotry. I'll use that word.

52:42 Social and political power Number three Psychological and emotional trauma personal grief mayl played a role in sixteen ninety and Putnam Senior lost several children in infancy. The family experienced repeated misfortunes, felled crops, legal disputes, and some historians believe that the emotional trauma fed a sense of cosmic injustice and the idea that unseen forces were working against them. Now you get paranoia, Why is all this happening? Why are our kids dying? Why are people? Why are we in legal disputes? Why did the crops fail? Satan? Satan now you may not, they may not have been able to verbalize that yet. But once then all of a sudden in the Paris family, like the witches are here, our kids are being tormented by witches. That that's the reason, that's what's happening. Satan is after That's why we're suffering.

53:41 Now you give your you get purpose to your suffering. You give reason for your suffering. Some people like to have a reason, whether it's true or not. They like certainty. They're like an explanation. They don't like the unknown and not knowing Satan is doing it. We're under attack and they just happened to become the center of all the accusations, or most of them, come on. That makes perfect sense to me. How about number four, Mercy Lewis and class tension. Let's not forget the role of Mercy Lewis and the Putnam servant. She was a war orphan who had been violent, who had seen violence firsthand in Maine, and now she lived in a house where religious fear and personal grievance mixed.

54:24 Was she trying to please her masters? Was she expressing trauma and the only way she knows how? And a society that validated spiritual affliction. Hey, I've suffered trauma, I've been Maybe she's like, I'm suffering this Satan. Maybe the Putnams already gave this idea or suffering because of Satan. You suffered because of Satan. Satan's out to kill us all. Oh wait, which is wait, wait, wait, wait, what's going on in our pastor's household? Old? Their daughters are his daughter and his niece is being tormented by devil, by devils or by witches. That explains everything. That explains why you're suffering. And I'm suffering because Satan is here. I remember that this already started way earlier than sixteen ninety two.

55:08 Cotton Mather what happened in Boston, that the entire region was under attack by Satan. Christians lose their ever living mind with this stuff. I mean we saw it in the eighties, saw it with the Illuminati being everywhere, Christians always next to it, were we always have something to be a fearful of. There's always got to be a boogeyman. And then Christians lose their ever living minds. Or maybe did Mercy. She saw an opportunity to gain attention, purpose, and even vengeance. In a world that had offered her nothing but loss. So maybe maybe some of it driven by Mercy Lewis because of the things that happened to her.

55:50 How about this is simply grabbing at opportunity and revenge, And maybe this is maybe the simplest explanation revenge. Some people the Putnamen's accused had wronged them in business, land disputes and church conflicts. Now they don't need proof, They just need a symptom and a name. They felt like they've been wronged in business by some of these people. They've been wronged in land disputes, and and they're sick and tired of the church conflict because they want this pastor and other people want someone else and they're tired of it. Well, now they don't need any proof. They don't have to go to court. All they got to do well, well, ultimately they'll go to court, but they don't have to go to court about the business issues of the land issues. They don't have to fight it out in church conflicts. All they have to do is like that person is a witch. Boom, goodbye. And when accusations became power and power became influenced, the trials may have become less about the devil and more about control.

56:56 This one family, one house. Remember we're in Danvers Ron Danielle Street. Look, everyone this house helped shape the course of the entire crises. Their words maybe first spoken in this house that we're looking at. It sent ministers, widows, neighbors, and even friends to the gallows. And long after the execution stopped, the questions remained. Were they sincere? Were they victims of fear or were they using fear? That family everything?

58:01 I mean, I don't know what else I can say to you other than it's just crazy how that all played out, how it all played out. I'm going to see here. I think I may have I got to look here in some of my notes, I may have here. Yeah, I don't think I have. I don't think I have here. I don't think I have everything that happened to the Putnams. But I think you get a pretty good idea of how it all played out, pretty good idea. I'll stop there because we're at fifty yeah, fifty eight minutes. If I try to go into everything happened, we know what happened to Mercy. She disappears and has a child out an illegitimate child. There you go. That's the story of the the House of No Mercy, the Story of No Mercy.

59:15 Thanks for listening, God bless