Salem Witch Trials: Betty and Abigail

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Who would like to take a late night trip back to Salem sixteen ninety one, sixteen ninety two? Who's up for that? A late night trip back to Salem sixteen ninety one, sixteen ninety two, as we continue to explore, research and study everything we can about the Salem Witch Trials. I hope you're ready, because that's what we're going to do, a late night trip to Salem.

0:48 And we'll do that right after I say good evening. Everyone. Welcome. It is Friday, March the seventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten twenty six PMS Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. But we're not going to stay in Abilene, Texas. No, we are going to go back to Salem. Now. We've been doing this series on the Salem Witch Trials. Each episode has had its own kind of unique feel. I've kind of been doing something a little different. I've been trying to present things as a narrative. We did our first kind of sermon review in this series where people were defending, you know, well a certain individual connected with well, I think connected with the witch trials, and that man's name is Cotton Mather. That kind of sermon review was a disaster in many ways. They didn't really provide any meaningful evidence that I could really spend time refuting.

1:51 And the way it was presented was just kind of an a monotone reading, almost like a one long run on sentence. It was very difficult to kind of wrap my hands around what to do with that, So that that did not go well. But I am really enjoying trying to present things in a narrative form. So let's go back to Salem, and we're gonna look at what leads up to the Salem witch trials. We've looked at possibly how Cotton Mather set the he wrote the blueprint, he wrote the script. We talked about how what happened four years earlier in Boston may have played a major role in what happens in Salem.

2:37 We talked about all of that. But now we're gonna talk about something that maybe you've never heard and maybe you're not aware of when it comes to the Salem witch trials. We're gonna go back to. The very beginning. And this beginning, well, it begins as a game. It begins as a secret ritual, one that no Puritan girl should ever have attempted. But when their innocent fortune telling took a terrifying turn, two young girls found themselves caught in a nightmare of their own making.

3:29 They had played with something forbidden, and when fear took hold, they did what children often do when they're about to be punished. They blamed someone else. This is the story of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, two girls whose innocent curiosity may have unleashed one of the deadliest witch hunts an American history. Now, as we have already discussed and talked about the Salem witch Trials, the hysteria really kicks in January. What sixteen ninety two, and two girls are at the very beginning of this. They're the starting and they're their names are Betty and Abigail. Betty Parris and Abigail Williams. They are the two girls who are first afflicted.

4:24 And there are the two girls who make the first accusation. So, if you're gonna study the Salem witch Trials and you're gonna say what starts actually in Salem. Let's forget what comes before Salem, but we're going to just start right there. Salem village. You got these two girls, Betty Paris and Abigail Williams, and they're very much involved and what began as a game, a secret ritual that no Puritan girl should have ever attempted. But these innocent girls, this innocent fortune telling, well not innocent girls, right, We probably shouldn't say that, Phil because we believe all children are born sinner, so maybe we definitely need to be very specific when they're innocent fortune telling? And is there any fortune telling that's innocent? Oh, we could go lots of directions with this, but it does take a very terrifying turn. And these two young girls they find themselves caught in a nightmare of their own making because they had played with something forbidden.

5:22 And when fear takes hold, they do what children often do. And well, they blame someone else. It's winter sixteen ninety one. Now let me make this very clear. I cannot be very specific on the date of this. Now January sixteen ninety two seems to be when they first start claiming to be afflicted and showing these symptoms and then they ultimately, after being pressured, make their accusation. But it may have actually started in the winter of sixteen ninety one, right leading into January of sixteen, so somewhere maybe late sixteen ninety one, the Massachusetts Bay colony is gripped and a cold, bitter season. It's cold, according to everything we know about that time, and the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, two young girls, his nine year old daughter Betty and his eleven year old niece Abigail, where their seeking entertainment.

6:28 They're bored. I mean it's sixteen hundreds, okay, They're in Salem Village. It's freezing cold outside, and they are living their life as a Puritan and a Puritan household. It's somewhat strict, you know, no singing, no dancing, no play. That isn't for God's glory. But the girls they've heard whispers of something different, something that offers a glimpse into maybe their future, a game that from what we can tell that the other girls in Salem Village had talked about a fortune telling ritual. Now we don't know exactly. We maybe could try to spend some time trying to figure out where the origins of this ritual is how does it end up in Salem? Who do they hear it from? Is it you know they're talking to the other girls when of the other girls share this? But we seem it seems to be pretty certain that Betty and Abigail know about this ritual. Now, it's very simple. It's a very simple ritual.

7:39 You take a. Glass of water, you crack an egg into it, and you watch the shapes that form in the liquid. Those shapes, if you can read them correctly, they might tell you who you will marry. Two young girls, it's cold, I wonder who I'm going to marry. Oh, well, there's an egg, let's do it. Okay, maybe they're in their room, maybe everyone's sleeping, maybe they're there by candlelight. Okay, crack the egg. They crack it, and oh what does it say? What does it say? Is it going to say who they're going to marry?

8:21 Or does it end up telling them something much darker. The girls gather. Around the glass, They lean in, watching, waiting, and then one of them gasps. A shape appears. It's not a ring, it's not a heart, it's a coffin, a sign of death. The moment hangs in the air. They look at each other. They're terrified. Did they just see their fate or had they done something far worse?

9:08 Had they invited the devil into their home? Now I imagine being a child and a world where everything you do is watched by God, where any mistake could be a sign of Satan's influence, where disobedience isn't just wrong, it's a sin. Betty and Abigail, they knew the rules. Fortune telling was strictly forbidden in Puritan society. It was considered witchcraft.

9:48 Now it is interesting a side note to leave this narrative. My first trip in Salem. When I park the car, it's night. I get out of the car. What is the very first thing I see? Fortune teller place where you can go in and get your fortune told, Like right across the street from where apart. That's the very first thing I saw in Salem, my first trip ever there. Kind of ironic, isn't it all? Right? Well, so they know the rules. Fortune telling was strictly forbidden in Puritan society. It was considered witchcraft for two young girls and a Puritan household. If you got caught performing this ritual, performing magic It wasn't just a mistake.

10:39 It was a sin, and a sin that could bring public shame. It could bring punishment or even maybe something worse like death, like what happened in Salem, or what happened in Boston four years before this. Well, this would be three years before what happened in Boston, and these girls would have known it. So what would happen if Betty's father, the Reverend Samuel Parris, found out? What would happen if he found out?

11:20 Because the Reverend Samuel Parris has in his. Library a book written by Cotton Mather that outlines well about how to identify a witch, what you should do, and outlines what happened in Boston. They probably had heard the stories heard about the execution, that it just happened a few years before in November. Samuel Parris wasn't just a father. He was the minister of Salem Village, a man who preached against the devil's tricks every week, a man who warned his congregation that Satan was always looking for a way in. Now, if Paris discovered that his own daughter and niece had performed a ritual, a practice condemned.

12:20 By the church, what would he do. Would he punish them, would he whip them? Would he shame them before the entire village? Maybe maybe they found another way out not long after the ritual. Now let's just say we can't be dogmatic, but let's say the ritual happens somewhere in December of sixteen ninety one. Well, it's not long after the ritual. Something strange happened. In fact, January sixteen ninety two. From all that I currently know at the top of my head, here Betty Parris and Abigail William began to act differently. They screamed in pain, They contorted their bodies. They claimed they were being attacked by invisible forces. Samuel Parris called in a doctor, but he couldn't find nothing physically wrong with the girls.

13:27 So what was his conclusion? It's witchcraft? Oh no, no, no, no, no, it's witchcraft. Okay, Now are the girls the witch? Well no, no, no, no, no no, they're not going out like that. Okay, they're the ones being afflicted. But who's to blame? The girls hesitated? Then finally they spoke the name Tishiba. Why Tishuba, Why blame tish Well, she's an outsider Tishiba was an enslaved woman from the Caribbean.

14:07 Different race, different culture, different beliefs, and in Puritan society, anyone who was different was suspicious or viewed as dangerous. She told stories and legends. Tishaba likely shared folk tales from her culture with the girls. Puritans associated any non Christian storytelling with paganism and witchcraft. She was an easy scapegoat. The girls knew that accusing another Puritan might backfire, but blaming Tishiba, a servant with no power, that would be safe.

14:50 Blaming her took the attention off of themselves. Now, if their father had discovered that they had practiced fortune telling, they could be severely punished. But by accusing Tishaba, they made themselves the victim instead of the sinners. Now we don't know did. They get caught, were they had had He found out that they had done this, and then they were like, oh no, what we're going to do? What do we go? And so then they start exhibiting these signs and then he's like, what is going on, what's going on, what's going on? What's going on? Calling the doctor it's witchcraft? Okay, doctors, my daughters. According to this doctor, and according to everything I know from Cotton Mather, my daughters are the victims here.

15:31 They're not the they're not the cause, they're the victims. And they finally point out Tishaba. Well then it makes it. Tishaba's right here in this house. That's why the girls did this. It couldn't be my girls did something wrong. No, no, no, my girls are being tormented. They're being influenced by a witch who's in the house. Whatever their original intent, the moment Betty and Abigail pointed to Tishaba, the wills of hysteria began turning. When questioned, Tishuba, perhaps to save herself, confessed.

16:14 She told elaborate stories of witches flying through the air and a black man in the woods, forcing her to sign Satan's book. We're going to talk more about Satan's book in a different episode now. Depending on how you hear the story about Tishaba, she signed her name in the book, and then she would claim she saw other names written down in the book. Right, But she was very she wasn't very forthcoming in the information, right, she confessed, so they didn't immediately have her killed. But she kept also like kind of just slowly but surely revealing more information of some of the names she saw in the book.

16:55 By doing this, she was useful, So we can't kill her. She's the one who saw the names in the book, and so then she could point out other people as she felt was necessary to keep herself alive. And she survives the witch trials. She's never killed, and she sold to a different owner, and she escapes all of this. Suddenly the girls weren't just victims, they were prophets. They named more witches. Other girls joined in, and within weeks the entire town of Salem was hunting the devil's servants.

17:41 By the time the. Trial ended, nineteen people had been hanged, one had been pressed to death, and over a hundred more had been accused. And to think it may have all started with two young girls, a game they should have never played, and a fear they could not escape. Now, history often focuses on the trials, the executions, the judges, and the accused, But tonight we've stepped back to the very beginning, the very moment that it all began. Two girls, a forbidden game and a choice that changed history forever.

18:42 Two girls, a. Forbidden game and a choice that changed history forever. Is it that simple? Is it that simple? I cannot be dogmatic about this. Let me make it very clear. I cannot be dogmatic about it. Right, there's lots of theories about what these girls were doing. I do know this. This is where I can be assertive and somewhat dogmatic and somewhat like No, I do know this. They lived in. Boston, they moved to Salem Village. There's a high probability they were there in the Boston case where the woman is accused and executed for being a witch, because these other girls in Boston are, you know, claiming to be tormented, right, We've talked about that case.

19:30 So they're all there. They moved to Salem. When they moved to Salem, what does their father, the reverend, what does he bring with him? We think he brings it with him or he obtains a copy once he gets to Salem at some point, but he has Cotton Mather's book. This book not only outlines the details of the case in Boston, outlining what the symptoms these girls had, which these girls begin to demonstrate the almost the exact same symptoms. It's almost like they read a page from the book. Right, they blame a woman at the very type of woman that was kind of blamed in Boston. I mean, the stories are so that the things are so similar. So we do know that to be a fact.

20:13 We know the book is in the house. We know that their father would be Betty's father would be preaching these types of sermons about this type of thing. We know he was preaching sermons like this right before, within a month before this all starts. So we don't know, like if it's winter sixteen ninety. One, when do the girls do this, and we don't know what it does to them? Do they now? Are they overcome with fear? I don't know. Do they convince themselves? Mean, now, think about this, this is a hypothesis. Do they play this game, play this little fortune telling ritual? They are scared to death because.

20:57 In their mind they see a confin. There's no tangible proof that they actually saw a coffin, but I mean it could have been late at night, could have been a candle. They're all in there. They know they're not supposed to be doing this. They already know they're doing something taboo, and they look at it and maybe it scares them to absolute death. They're like, oh, we're going to die, and maybe it almost now it places this, We've been cursed, we're going to die, We've done something, we're gonna be We're gonna be taken by Satan, and maybe they start those acting out. It's almost kind of like a psychological thing, dealing with their guilt and their fear and their concern and they can't go tell anyone, and so they start acting out like this. Everyone say, oh, oh, no, you're being afflicted. You're being afflicted by a witch.

21:44 Okay. Well the minute they hear I'm being afflicted by a witch, well, now, okay, I haven't done something wrong. Something's being done to me. Well maybe that explains why I saw a coffin when we cracked the egg in the water. Maybe that's okay, Okay, okay, we didn't do it. It's being done to us. Okay, who did it? What do we do? Tshaba? She did it? Because I mean, who else are you going to blame? You're gonna blame your dad, the minister, You're gonna blame your mom. Well, no, you're gonna blame you may not even at that moment and even think about blaming someone outside of the house. Because the girls may not even understand what spectral evidence is that Cotton Mather, you know, supported, They may not even know that. They may think, well, it have to be someone nearby, Well, who who better than Tishaba? She's right here? I think then it begins to make sense. Two girls, a forbidden game and a choice that changed history forever. Had they truly been bewitched?

22:49 Or had they, out of fear, guilt and desperation, woven a lie so powerful that even they believed it, a lie that would bring death to many and spare only themselves because they don't get in any trouble, they don't get whipped, they don't get shamed, and most importantly, they don't get killed. So what do you think did Betty and Abigail knowingly start the trials? Were they just scared children who had no idea what they were about to unleash? Were they just bored?

23:33 Were they familiar with what happened in Boston and that book and their dad's and their house, about the case in Boston and the young girls? And because they followed the same symptoms almost identical in many ways, maybe not completely identical, but there's a lot of similarities. Let me say that. I mean, it's almost like they're following it pretty closely. I mean, in other words, it's not going to be perfect because they're young girls, so they're not going to do everything, maybe exactly the same because they're trying to act it out, or maybe they just think we are cursed, and all their minds can think of is this is what happens when when you know the devil is messing with you because they've heard this story, and then they that's just what they fall into that basically the same pattern. And then the next thing, you know, when the when the adults finally you know, examined them, Well, the adults give them the out.

24:27 This is a witch. Yeah, you're right, it's a witch. You're right, you're right, it's a witch. It's not us, it's not us. We didn't do it. This is being done to us. Okay, good, good, good, good now. And then they may have thought it was over, and then they start getting questioned, well, who did this? Who did this? Who did this? They got to come up with an answer, They got to come up with an answer quick, did it all? I mean, isn't it insane that something like that could spark what it turned into one of the most infamous tragic events in early American history, especially as something connected to Christianity.

25:08 I mean, I mean, this is a horrible thing that happens. Could it have started that way? Whatever your thoughts are, it's a fact that started with those two girls, Betty and Abigail. Always will go down. I mean, they forever have lived in history, three hundred and thirty three years. Those are the girls. Those are the girls. Whenever they walked, wherever they went, those are the girls. Those were the girls who were first afflicted. They're the girls who made the first accusation. They'd either be viewed as heroes, victims, prophets. Because they were naming the witches, they become the ones. They go from victim to the ones with power. They now can determine who's guilty and who's not. And to Tisha Buzz's credit, I mean, at least from a practical standpoint, she realizes that it's almost like Tisha, buta catches onto the game really quick.

26:03 Oh if I. Can name others, then I then well, now she doesn't get the same power because you know she's a slave, right, She's an outsider. So she's already going to be seen as dangerous, but she preserves her life. But the girls, Betty and Abigail, what they kind of like, all they gotta do is point. All they got to do is say them. They just got to say a name. And once they say a name, there's a high probability that that person's gonna end up with a rope around their neck. They're going to be hung, They're going to be killed. Can you imagine? So what I want you to do right now, late at night, go get you an egg. I know they cost about ten dollars an egg now, but get an egg, get a glass of water, turn down the lights, crack.

27:01 It and see what you see. You say, this is ridiculous, Nobody would ye. Well, then that would be seen as you're doing something demonic, you're doing something satanic. But ladies and gentlemen, it's not that far fetched. I have heard Christians find fear that this is satanic, and this and this and this, and the devil is here, and the devil is in that, and the devil's here and it creates. I mean, I mean all the way up up to when I was a teenager, the Great Satanic Panic of you know of the eighties.

27:41 I live through that. If you play that, if you take the album and and you make it go backwards on your turntable, you'll hear messages from Satan. The Illuminautien is everywhere, Taylor swiftness of the Devil. Disney movies have hidden me from the occult. The Devil is everywhere. And whenever you kind of see guys, what are you doing? Oh, you just don't understand Satan and you and it's always like you're in league with the devil if you don't go with everyone's you know, paranoia, hysteria, insanity, fraudulent information. In many cases, an egg being cracked into water and you're like, oh, oh I can oh, oh that's a ring. Oh I'm going to get married. Oh that's a heart, Oh oh oh that's a coffin.

28:37 I'm cursed. I'm going to die now. If you're just playing it as a game, okay, but this was like witchcraft. Betty and Abigail, remember those names. But again, Betty and Abigail, their father Pastor. They come from Boston. He has Cotton Mathers. But all that's why we've talked about the case in Boston We've talked about Cotton Mather, now we have to go with well, these two girls heroes victims are villains, Heroes victims villains. Thank you for joining me for this late night trip to Salem the winter of sixteen ninety one to January sixteen ninety two.

29:45 God bless