Salem: Walcott

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon, everyone. It is Friday, April fourth, twenty twenty five. It is currently two twenty one pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if you're watching the news right now, or if you've been looking about, you know, look looking at what's going on currently in the United States of America, maybe looking at the stock market, maybe looking at these things called tariffs. You may be like, wow, what is happening? And you may have strong opinions, and we're not here to get into all the political arguments and division, but you may be like, man, I'm worried, I'm concerned. I don't know what's happening. Things seem crazy, things seem out of control, and I would very much understand that. So what can I offer you today, Well, I can offer you a trip back to Salem, you know, back to a time when things well, when everything made sense and everything was wonderful, and everything was great, you know, back to the good old Okay, all right, we're going back to Salem and we're going to continue our journey through the Salem Witch Trials and obviously even going all the way back to sixteen ninety one, sixteen ninety two, sixteen ninety three. Guess what we find. We find that

1:32 things were not wonderful or great. And to get a little bit philosophical here, maybe a little bit philological, because I think it's important. I think it is good to know this, and I was just mentioning this right before I went live on the air. I think this is very important for us to realize. It doesn't matter where you look in history. It doesn't matter if you go back to the sixteen hundreds, the fourteen hundreds, the six hundreds, it doesn't matter if you go bc AD. It doesn't matter where you go, what what era, whatever time. I know we always talk about the good old days, but when you go back, you find craziness, tragedy, fighting, arguing, division, evil, horrible things happening. Because it doesn't matter which era you go.

2:16 You know what, you know, you know what the problem is. It's us. It's us. It's the fact that human beings populate this earth. And wherever you find human beings, you find pain, you find tragedy, you find suffering, you find evil. Sometimes that evil is done, sometimes that wrong. Sometimes that tragedy happens in the name of a country, or in the name of a political ideology, or in the name of a political leader. Sometimes it happens even in the name of God. It even happens within the church, because it doesn't matter in the church. Outside the church, we are all depraved sinners. Now that that still leaves me with lots of philosophical questions, But there is something I won't say comforting, but it is good to know that there's at least maybe an explanation that it doesn't matter if I'm looking at twenty twenty five or sixteen ninety two, I see horrible things happening. At least I can explain why people do horrible things and why horrible things happen, and why crazy things occur, and why there's pain, suffering, death and all the other it's because human beings are sinful and because we live in a fallen world. At least it offers maybe some kind of explanation. But we're going to take a trip back to Salem and just well, once again, we're going to be confronted with the fact that even back in the so called good old days, things weren't so good because what are we going to find.

3:43 We're going to find human beings are going to find pain, suffering, and man, some just absolute craziness. Now, as I have been doing so, I'm going to continue the basic same structure. I'm going to do this as a narrative, like I'm telling a story. At least there'll be a couple of times I will just like all the time, I'll kind of leave the narrative, throw in some things weave back into the narrative. So far, I think the majority of people have appreciated this approach. It it changes things up a little bit. Now, if I really had, if I had the money and the team, that we could really produce this as a true narrative with sound effects and music and voiceovers and actors, and we could really really turn this into a very interesting production. I don't know why any podcast company hasn't decided to turn the Salem Witch Trials into a mass production of you know, broadcast.

4:44 I don't know why they haven't. I mean, you really, there's so many stories that you could tell. So maybe maybe there was a good podcast company out there that would really our podcast network and say hey, let's get together the team and let's do this. We can do this in a a dramatic production telling the story of the Salem witch Trials, because I think, well, it's a story everyone needs to know. So are you ready to go back to Salem? Here we go? Are you ready? The last time on this podcast when we were talking about Salem, we followed the story of Mary Sibley, a woman who, in her desperation, turned to a bit of old folk magic to try to help the afflicted girls of Salem. Her decision to bake a witch cake and her public confession in church marked one of the earliest turning points and what would become just one of many dark chapters in American history. Does everyone remember the witch cake?

5:51 Does everyone remember that story? Go back and listen to the witch cake crazy story. And Mary Sibley was the one who baked the witch cake and then she had to confess in church a lot, a lot of things and remember the sermon. Okay, there was a lot that we could talk about in that, but this is very important. Mary Sibley's story did not end with her repentance because standing nearby watching the collapse of control was her niece, A girl who would not confess, a girl who would not apologize, a girl who would speak then remain silent.

6:38 This is the story of Mary Walcott, the niece, the accuser, and the woman who just walked away and walked away far better than many of the other accusers. Many walked away in a way far better than many of the other people involved in the Salem witch trials. Now we have to talk about her, now, okay, we have to talk about her name, because if you look at her name, Mary, that's easy. Her last name w A. L. Cott. Walcott. That's how I would say it. And if I remember correctly, and I've been to Salem and numerous you know, visiting numerous places there telling the story of what happened. When they mentioned her name Mary Walcott, almost all, I think almost every single person who mentioned her name stated it that way. However, most will say that that's an incorrect way of pronouncing it. It's like Walkett Walkett. Some may even say Walkett, but I think Walkett is how many would probably say, is the correct way. I cannot promise you that I'm gonna say Walkett. I have a tendency to say Walcott, all right, that's how I would tend to say it. I just want to make sure because i'll get an email saying you're saying it incorrectly, and I'm acknowledging if I say Walcott, that's probably incorrect, even though I think many in Salem say Walcott. But I think it's Walkett. Some I think walkit. I think that

8:09 is incorrect. It's Walkett. I think is really the correct way. So I just want to make sure you know that it's spelled w A. L Cott. Walcott just looks the way. It just looks that way. But Walkette, I think is the correct way. Right. So just so that we get the name situation out of the way, so that I don't have to post a correction to my mispronunciations, which are frequent. Okay, So let's tell I'm going to read I'm gonna read it kind of the introduction again, but I wanted to just get that out of the way. So last time we followed the story of Mary Sibley, a woman who, in desperation, turned to a bit of old folk magic to help the afflicted girls of Salem.

8:55 Her decision to make a witch cake, and her public confession in church marked one of the early turning points and what would become a dark chapter in American history. But Mary Sibley's story did not end with her repentance, because standing nearby watching the collapse of control, was her niece. A girl who would not confess, a girl who would not apologize, a girl who would not speak, and in some ways she remained silent forever about everything that occurred. This is the story of Mary Walkett, the niece, the accuser, and the woman who walked away. Mary Walkett was born in sixteen seventy five sixteen seventy five. She was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Walkett, a military leader and key figure in Salem Village. So just to note that her father is a military leader, he's a captain, is that puts her not as a servant, not as someone who's poor, someone who could be, you know, maybe engrave danger in certain ways. I mean, she's kind of you know, she's in a I guess a position of maybe power influence.

10:12 She's in a good situation I think in some ways. But again, her father's name was Jonathan Walkett Walkett, a military leader and key figure in Salem Village. Her family was not marginal, I think that's the word I was looking for, or desperate. I think these are three things to know about the family. Influential, faithful, and well respected. So Mary Walkett come from a family that's very influential, faithful, and well respected. She was about seventeen years old in sixteen ninety two, living near the center of village life and intimately tied to the church. Her aunt, Mary Sibley was connected to Reverend Samuel Paris, and her household would have been one where theological talk, spiritual vigilance, and the threat of the devil was ever present. So just make sure you know Mary Walcott would have heard all of this discussion about the devil attacking this area. The devil is everywhere, the devil, the devil, the devil, the devil, the devil, there's a devil among you type of thing.

11:21 She would have heard this kind of discussion been around. It would have been very intimate, had intimate knowledge of it. Now, Mary wasn't afflicted when the first fits broke out in the Paris household, but in a sense she was there, watching, listening and absorbing the fear. And when her aunt stood before the congregation and confess to ordering and baking a witch cake. Mary learned an important lesson. Even good in tensions could bring condemnation, even if you mean to do right, even if you were trying to help. It could lead you to being condemned. It could lead you to standing in front of the church confessing. It could lead you to being well, are you a devil? Is the devil working in you? Are you a witch? Not long not long after that moment, Mary Walkett herself now begins to exhibit signs of affliction, convulsions, outbursts, claims of invisible tormentors.

12:41 She became one of the core group of girls whose testimony would steer the entire course of the Salem witch trials, because ultimately you get kind of a core group of these girls who make accusation after accusation after accusation after accusation. To sheer number by two or three of these girls is pretty staggering at how many people they accuse. And you got some just accusing everyone. You've got some who are very theatrical and their accusations. And we talked about we already talked about a number of these girls. So you know, she she sees all of this and the next thing, you know, well, she becomes well, she becomes a part in a sense of this core group. But unlike some of the other accusers, Mary wasn't impulsive or erratic.

13:34 She seemed more methodical, more reliable, maybe some would even say more frequent in her accusations. She testified against more than a dozen people Rebecca nor A nurse. Me get the names right, Rebecca Nurse, Mary Esty, Sarah good Susannah Martin, John Bridget Bishop, and there was a lot more. I could list a lot of the people she accused, right, So, but she seemed much more in control, much more. Do you want to be saying guided? Do you want to be saying lead? I don't know clearly. Maybe because she's seventeen, she's more methodical. Maybe maybe she you know, not everyone could be dramatic and theatrical. It's almost like each one kind of took their own role and they kind of approached it in their own way, all right, which I guess would make some sense because everyone is different, or maybe that says a lot maybe about their motivations or what they were trying to do. But again, some of the so we went through those those names, and so just well, let's just look at one of them. One of the most heartbreaking episodes of the trials involved Rebecca Nurse.

14:59 Because Rebecca Nurse would have been viewed as being a devout, elderly woman known for her charity, her wisdom, and her faith, many in Salem, even some judges, struggled to believe that she could be a witch. At one point, the jury even found her not guilty, only to reverse their decision under pressure. Hey, we don't find her guilty. Well, then all of a sudden pressure begins and they're like, well, you know, we've changed our minds kind of things. We'll tell the story of Rebecca Nurse and far more detail. And if you ever, it depends on which you where you go for the different memorials set up around Salem.

15:46 If you're in Salem, and I think it's the cemetery in Salem, right, Like, there's a gate that kind of walks into the cemetery. Right outside the gate, you'll see these they're like stones. It almost looks like a bench, but it's made out of rock, right, And they're made out of rocks. And if you walk up to each one, you'll see the name and the date and how they were executed. It's a memorial of all the people who were killed. So if you walk and you look at them. A lot of times people are new to Salem, they don't realize what they are. They just kind of go, oh, these are like benches, and they'll sit down on them, like these are the memorial stones for the people who were killed. Like, I don't know, maybe you don't sit on it, maybe you stand up, you know, what are you doing. I remember one of the walking tours I was on. We we kind of ended up right there at that memorial, right outside the cemetery. They were telling different stories about that cemetery and different things and people.

16:47 When we walked there, and the person the tour god gets talking. Some people just kind of went and sat on the stones, and I'm kind of looking, going, oh, what are the people? These people don't know, These people don't have a clue. It just seems so disrespectful. And finally the tour guide was like, and those stones here are the memorial stones for all the people who were executed and killed in the Salem witch trials. And then some people kind of stood up. I think others, you know, for some reason, disrespectful and didn't care, But I just remember going and seeing all the names, looking at all the names, and of course a name like Rebecca Nurse obviously you know just when you know the names, and if you ever go to Salem and you see any of the memorials set up, you'll be like, oh, I know these names because we heard the story. But when it comes to Rebecca Nurse, her story is somewhat heartbreaking because she's accused, she's basically found not guilty, and then they're reverse and why and what kind of help leads to this change? Well, among those whose testimony helped condemn her was the testimony of Mary Walkitt. Her claims of being tormented by Rebecca's specter added just enough weight to push the court over the edge. The voice of a seventeen year old girl silence the life of a seventy year old saint. That's what happens when paranoia, fear, conspiracy,

18:20 just insanity takes over a seventeen year old girl, ends the life of a seventy one year old woman who, by all accounts, would have been viewed as a saint, godly wise. But no, no, no, now, because a seventeen year old girl can just say her specter is haunting me, tormenting me. Well, kill kill the older woman. That's just insane. It's hard to wrap your mind. And all of this being done in the name of God, being done in the name of Jesus, being done in the name of religious people, which is demonstrates that Christians are no better than lost people were ungodly. We are just as prone to lying and deception. And now I know what people say, Well, the people who did this weren't Christians. That's always our go to answer. Well, I don't know, because on one hand we would say these people aren't Christians. On the other hand we got pastors defending Cotton Mathers. Sometimes I don't have a clue what Christians are going to say. Mary Walcott was also present in one of the most theatrical moments of the trials, during the interrogation of George Burrows.

19:30 We've talked about him now multiple times. He was the former minister of Salem Village. A dramatic test was conducted in court during his court case. Not only was there a dramatic thing at his execution, there was this dramatic scene that happened during his court case. During his interrogation, Burrows was told to touch the afflicted girls. As he he did, some of them immediately stopped convulsing. The implication was chilling. His physical touch broke the spell his spirit had cast on them. Mary was one of the girls present for this test. Her participation helped reinforce the idea that witchcraft could be verified through performance, not evidence, just reactions and interpretations to those reactions. So it's kind of crazy.

20:36 Like in some cases, if if a woman was being accused and if she motioned her hand towards the girls, ah, they would scream, fall around, start convulsing. We're being tormented. But on other hand, in this case, he touches some of the girls and immediately they stop and they're like, see, this is proof. This is proof. It's not the physical presence that's tormenting us. It's his spirit. It's a specter. He's a witch. He's guilty. So like, no matter what you do, you're once you got accused, you basically had no way to defend yourself. It didn't matter what you did, you're just done. You just as well saying oh I'm accused, where are you going? I'm going to gallows Hill, I'm gonna stop by the hardware store, bio Rope, I'm going to Gallow Hills, and I'm just gonna hang myself. Well, why, because there's nothing I can say or do. If I'm religious, I'm dead. If I'm not religious, I'm dead. If I move my hand, I'm dead. If I don't, If I touch whatever, it doesn't matter, because you guys don't care about truth. You don't care about honesty, you don't care about mercy, you don't care about God. You don't care about anything other than your ridiculous fear that the devil is everywhere and witches are taking over Salem. So he touches and the girls say, oh, we stop. Oh witch.

21:52 If he would have touched him and their convulsions would have got worse. Witch, you can't win. Hey, a witch can't recite the Lord's prayer, recite the Lord's prayer perfectly, and Cotton Mather may say, oh, he's appearing as an angel of light. Kill him anyway. Now we don't have any specific I want to just make sure we talk about this touch test, because a lot of people don't know anything about the touch test, Like a lot of people didn't know about the egg ritual. A lot of people didn't know about the witch cake. So let me do a little just to try to help you a little bit here. We don't have any specific surviving documentation that I'm aware of confirming that Mary Walcitt Walcut was personally touched during the touch tests of George Burrows. We know she was present, we know she demonstrated being afflicted, and we know she actively participated in that courtroom scene, so we can't. I cannot say he touched her. But there were those who were touched, and it seems like they kind of all followed like they're all being afflicted.

23:00 Then he touches some and then they all stop, and then they're like, oh see it's a specter that's doing it. It's not him, but that makes him guilty, which is just like, how do you even wrap your mind around this from a logical standpoint? I don't know. But the one thing I've learned and all of my years in Christianity is logic sometimes has no place. It's like we all have think many churches and many Christian homes have a sign above their door that says logic is not welcomed here, because just think of some of the crazy conspiracy and nonsense, nonsensical and ridiculous things that many Christians believe and think. So I cannot say he touched her. So I don't want anyone to say that I'm claiming that because I can't. I don't have any documentation to prove that. All right, we don't have any of that.

23:46 We do know that the touch test seem to have occurred during the preliminary examination and trials of several accused individuals, including George Burrows. The afflicted girls claim that if the accused touch them, the spectral torment would stop, which was taken as evidence that the accused had control over their spirits. Even try to wrap your again, they just try to wrap your mind around this and how it even is logical. So the afflicted girls claim that if the accused touch them, then the spectral torment would stop, which was taken as evidence that the accused had control over their spirits. But if so, if I touch you, then my spectral, my spectral spirit, my spirit stops tormenting you, So that shows that I have control over my spirit. So I don't know, It's like there's nothing you're doing. The girls are going to determine if you're going to be found guilty or not.

24:48 So if I touch them and then the girls want me, if that's what the court is going with. If I touch you and you stop convulsing, well then I'm guilty because it shows I have control over my specter, over my spirit. Well, then the girls are the ones making the determination. It's not evidence. The girls just decide if they want to play along or don't play along. Ultimately, in the case of Burrows, sources like Cotton Mather, there we go his name shows up again, and court transcripts such as those found in what is known as the Salem Witchcraft Papers, we may have to do a little bit of investigating into the Salem Witchcraft papers. They describe multiple afflicted girls falling into fits and their fits stopping when he physically laid hands on them. Afflicted girls present we seem to know this. Ann Putnam Junior, she was present, Mercy Lewis, which we will be talking about soon, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott, and Susanna Sheldon. These girls seem to all be present during Burrow's examination from what we can tell from what documentation does exist. So while Mary Walkett is not singled out as one of the girls who was specifically touched in that moment. Her name is included among the afflicted who claimed spectral torment by Burrows, and she was in the courtroom when those touch tests were administered.

26:18 So it's possibly likely that Mary was one of the girls included in the dramatic touch and be healed seen. But the trial records do not confirm by name. They don't confirm by name. I'm sorry, I just saw a notification. I guess we got temporary disconnected. I apologize for that, but everything will be uploaded and everything will be there. So the court records do not confirm her by name. Or let me stay it this way, the court records do not confirm which girls were touched and immediately cured in Burrows case. So I didn't say this girl was touched, this girl was healed. It's just the basic idea he touched the girls stopped. That was seen as evidence that well, his spirit's doing it. So Mary Walcott stood in that courtroom claiming to see George Burroughs specter tormenting her, and while we cannot confirm it was if she was one of the girls physically touched during the infamous touch test.

27:19 She was very much a part of the drama, adding her voice to the growing case against the former minister. And we all know ultimately that he well, he's going to be murdered. Okay, I'm not going to say executed. He was murdered, Okay for crying out loud because of the just this insanity that took place. Now, Mary wasn't acting alone. Her family's influence, I think, I think it's fair to say was felt throughout the trials. Her father, Captain Jonathan Walkett, was a head of the militia and was a known supporter of Reverend Paris. Her aunt Mary Sibley, had already been rebuked for spiritual era. The Walkheads were closely tied to the Putnams and Paris and other leading voices in the trials. So is it possible that Mary saw her role somewhat as redemptive restoring her family spiritual standing after her aunt's mistake. Was this a way to somehow be redemptive, redeemed the family name, or perhaps she simply stepped into the current of fear already flowing through her community. Either way, her voice was loud and her voice was believed. Now, Unlike some of the other accusers, like Anne Putnam Junior, who confessed and sought public forgiveness,

28:51 Mary walkeead never recanted. She never confessed, and she never offered even one word of regard. Read She married twice, had children, lived a quiet life in Massachusetts. There is no record of scandal, no public shame. Her role in the trial simply faded into the past. And yet that voice that faded into the past was a death sentence for many others who she ultimately had killed and murdered.

29:32 Mary Walcp may not have been the loudest girl in the room. She didn't give the most elaborate testimonies. Her words tended, it seems, from what we can tell, were always spoken calmly and consistently, and she sent helped send Rebecca Nurse, Mary Este and others to the gallows. Now she was a servant. She wasn't a social outcast. She was part of the inner circle, and her accusations carried social and spiritual weight. What she saw or claimed to see was trusted, and her silence in the years afterwards is its own testimony. She didn't need to confess, she didn't need to explain. She just lived her life. Now maybe what's perhaps most remarkable and most haunting about Mary Walkett's story kind of I think, is that ending itself.

30:45 It may, I think in some ways the way it ended is more haunting to me. Right, She didn't flee the colony in disgrace, She wasn't arrested, she wasn't accused in return. She didn't die young, she didn't fall into obscurity, she didn't show signs a public torment and being haunted by all of this, like all the others. I mean, I've already stated she married twice, she raised children, she lived, she never apologized, she never explained. She didn't even face public judgment. It wasn't even like it didn't seem like even people were like, oh, there she is now. Maybe because she was so steady and calm in her accusation, she didn't stand out. Maybe she wasn't theatrical. Maybe it comes with being from a family of means and power and respect. You see Ann Putnam junior, she's going to stand before the congregation at seventeen oh six and confess Mary Lewis, she's going to vanish with scandal attached to her name. Well, we'll talk about her even Betty Paris was rumored to have lived with regret, but Mary Walga just kind of like, well, oh well, it's over all right now, let's just move on. Maybe she believed what she said, Maybe she felt protected by her status or her family. Or maybe maybe just maybe she learned that silence.

32:19 Maybe silence is much safer than the truth. Maybe silence is better than the truth. Maybe it's just better not to say anything at all. But history, at least those who care to study it, history doesn't forget. Mary may have walked away, but her words remain. Her testimony helped condemn the innocent, and somewhat her silence and the aftermath kind of speaks volumes, doesn't it. I mean, you may not no remember Mary Walcat, you may not remember her, but if you go to Salem, you're gonna see the memorial stones, not of Mary Walcat, but of those well she helped kill, she helped have murdered. Maybe the most haunting voices of Salem are the ones that never spoke again but could have. I mean, the ones accused and died, They can never speak again. We have to speak for them.

33:47 But maybe the most haunting voices are the ones that well never spoke again, but could have could have done a lot of explaining, a lot of warning, could have could have said, hey, this is what happened, don't ever let it happen again. Now you could argue, maybe maybe you could be argued two different ways, right and modern times, she would have went on to write a book, have a podcast, YouTube channel, telling her story over and over and over and over and over again. Probably would have become filthy rich for telling the story over and over and over again and all the details and everything that happened. Well, that those dead would be still be dead. So in some ways that's kind of that would that would be kind of horrible as well. Right, On the other hand, the silence seems like a slap in the face because, I mean, come on, at some point that everyone realized what happened. Everyone, everyone had to start realize this whole thing was a mess, right, or maybe she just really believed.

35:04 But you know, but if she really believed, you think, then you know, she would have been speaking up. She would have continued to defend what happened. Yes, I accused those people, they were witches. The witches are still here. But no, and then amazing how quickly it all, It all exploded, People are being accused, people are being imprisoned, people die, and then all of a sudden, magically it is just over the witches, just all packed. Satan just packed up and left Salem, just left Massachusetts. He moved on somewhere else. I mean that just seems really the whole thing is just horrifying. But that is the story of Mary Walcat. Again, most would if you see it, many will say Mary Walcott. I probably typically would. I tried to purposely not kit Kat, a kind of going back and forth between those two. But there's the story. Now.

36:11 What we will try to do. I think next time is we'll try to meet another young woman whose voice echoed through the courtroom. This time, the story is not going to begin in Salem. It's going to begin in the war torn frontier of Maine. I think that's where we will go now. In the meantime, maybe you could reflect on how does belief, social standing, and fear combine to give someone extraordinary power? And when fear passes, what happens to those who spoke it into existence? Oh, in this particular case, nothing, They just walk on because of their position and power. I think I'll end with this, and I think this is true and much of what happened in Salem. Truth is not always the most influential, powerful, or loudest voice in the room. God bless,