Salem Witch Trials: The Theatrical Accuser

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather around, get your tickets for the greatest spectacle on Earth, the Salem Witch Trials. Now do you find that disgusting? Do you find that kind of disgusting that someone would say, gather around, buy tickets to the greatest spectacle and be referencing the Salem Witch Trials where twenty human beings were killed. That sounds pretty messed up.

0:43 That sounds pretty disgusting, And I hope it bothers you as much as it bothers me, because today we're going to be talking about one of the accusers who turned it all into theater. They turn it all into a spectacle, and we will talk about them, and you will hear their story right after I say good afternoon everyone. It is Tuesday, March the eleventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently three four pm Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene.

1:25 Texas well. First it was Betty Paris, then it was Abigail Williams. That they were pretty much together Betty Paris and Abigail Williams. They were the first girls who were afflicted and the first girls who made the accusations that started the Salem Wish Trials. Now these two girls are known for well, one's the pastor's daughter, the other one is the pastor's niece. They are also the girls who did the egg ritual right, which probably scared them to death, all right, So we talked about them. Then after Betty and Abigail, there was Anne Putnam Junior. Now she is the accuser who ultimately apologized, and we talked about how she made we almost feel sorry for Anne, right though everything that happens to her after her life she basically lives in silence. Dies, She never gets married, dies at thirty seven, and you know, she apologized, and her apologies a little hard maybe to interpret, but it sounds like she she felt she was turned into an instrument, and we feel like that maybe her father definitely used her to go after his enemies. So we have Betty, who have Abigail, We have Anne Putnam Junior.

2:45 So now we're gonna go to the very next girl. I'm trying to follow these as in chronological order as much as possible. Today we're going to look at the next girl. And Wow, I struggle with the next girl, all right, I because she seems to be the one. I'm not saying she would say it, just like I introduced this, but she was kind of the one that kind of was like, Hey, everyone, gather around, get a ticket to the greatest spectacle on Earth. I present to you the Salem Witch Trials, and I'm going to tell you who is the witch and who should be put to death. She really kind of takes the stage. She demands your attention. Dare I say she demanded the spotlight.

3:33 We're going to refer to her as the theatrical accuser. The Salem Witch Trials were a storm of fear, of faith, and of accusation. But among the sea of accusers girls who pointed fingers and claimed affliction, one of them stood out from all the rest. One young woman didn't just accuse. She performed. She screamed, She collapsed, she convulsed, and she seized control of the entire courtroom with her dramatic, unrelenting displays of suffering. See, the other girls may make an accusation, this girl, no.

4:28 She did all of those things. She would scream. And when I say scream, it wouldn't just be like a yell. She would scream like as loud as she possibly could. She would collapse, she would have convulsions. But in all of this, and all of this, not only I mean, I feel clearly it was a performance. What's amazing is she this young girl. Now she's a little she's older than some of the others, she's seventeen, but she seizes control of the courtroom and she does so with kind of a dramatic, constant, dramatic, unrelenting displays of suffering. Her name was Elizabeth Hubbard. Now, while Betty Paris and Abigail Williams may have started the hysteria, it was Elizabeth who turned it into a spectacle. And that's the words of artificial intelligence. They artificial intelligence says Elizabeth is the one that turned it into a spectacle. Because I was trying to find a way to kind of describe Elizabeth when I was trying to research and put this together. Okay, Betty and Abigail, they're young, they're the first obviously, the pastor's daughter, the reverend's daughter, the reverend's niece. Oh, they do this egg ritual okay, it was something to grab onto. With Anne, it was very easy. She's the one who apologizes.

5:58 Okay. So I had a way to kindy to frame them, to kind of try to create build a narrative around them. With Elizabeth, I was at first, I was kind of like, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I'm d I kind of went back and forth, and I kept kind of writing it, then rewriting it and writing it, rewriting, and finally I'm like, wait a minute, Elizabeth is She's the She's the theater kid, right, She's the she would be in drama class, she would get an a. She's the performer. She's the theatrical accuser. Now I'm giving you my perspective. I'm going to try to be fair. I'm trying to be historically accurate. You may for each one of these girls. You're gonna form your own kind of You're gonna have your own feelings and opinions about them, right, you know you're gonna I kind of feel bad for Anne the way I mean I do.

6:48 I feel like she was used. I cannot necessarily prove it, but I feel like she was used by her father. That's my own kind of hypotheses. But for Elizabeth Man, you see, unlike the younger girls who often let others speak for them, and I think that's very important. The younger girls sometimes others spoke for them, so you kind of felt that they were being led, or maybe you kind of felt that they were being manipulated. When it came to Elizabeth Hubbard, she dominated the courtroom. Well, some girls would only weep, or they would whimper.

7:28 Not not Elizabeth. She would fall into violent fits. She would gasp for air as if you know she couldn't breathe. She would thrash about wildly, as if she was being pulled apart by invisible hands. Her words painted vivid, horrifying pictures of the witches who tormented her, leaving judges and jurors enthralled, terrified, and utterly convinced. She put on a show. I mean, it's like, wait, hey, what's going on today in Salem? Oh well there's a trial. Oh wait, who's testifying Elizabeth Hubbard?

8:09 Get me a ticket, as if you know you could buy a ticket. I want to go see that. Because everyone was in thraw and the judges, the juris, everybody, Oh what is happening. They and she She was the star of the performance. You see, Elizabeth Hubbard wasn't just another girl caught up in the hysteria. She was the most theatrical, the most dramatic, the most relentless accuser of them all, and her performances helped send innocent people to their deaths.

8:50 It would be one thing for someone to. Make an accusation, but she, in a sense, could not only make the accusation, but then demonstrate what was happening to her in real time. Right It's one thing to say, well, on this night, on this day, the spirit of this woman or the spirit of this person showed up and was afflicting me, and this is what happened. But it's another thing to say, Oh, I'm being tormented by this person's spirit, and they're here right now, tormenting me. Right now, I'm going to show you, right now, in real time, what it looks like. Now, she wouldn't explain what she was doing. It would just happen, and everybody's, oh, she's being tormented right now. The witches don't want her to testify.

9:36 The witches are trying to stop it. Satan is trying to stop this oh no, we're under attack, which would fall right into the paranoia and fear that everyone had. And if you didn't have the paranoia fear, by the time you were done listening to her, you were convinced that you were under attack. But who was Elizabeth Hubbard? How did she go. Further than the others, and what became of her after the trials ended. My goal today is we uncover the story of Elizabeth Hubbard Salem's most dramatic accuser. Now artificial intelligence refers to her as the most dramatic accuser. I like to say she's the most theatrical. I think she's the one that turns it into a spectacle. I like to use some of those terms.

10:30 You cannot if you're going to talk about Salem. You got to talk about. Anne because she accused like sixty three, sixty two, sixty three people. And then when it comes to Elizabeth, she's the most dramatic, but she accuses over forty herself. Just between Anne and Elizabeth, you have, you know, over one hundred people accused just those two girls alone. I mean again, you wouldn't want these two girls to be anywhere near you, because you know, don't make them angry. So let's look at her. Let's kind of go back and study and try to understand a little bit about her early life and her background. And again I'm trying to present this more as a narrative than I would typically do so in teaching. Now, Elizabeth Hubbard was born around and I say around because we cannot be dogmatic, sixteen seventy four or sixteen seventy five in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was orphaned at a young age, and she became the maid servant of her uncle, doctor William Griggs, the local physician in Salem village. Now, when we talk about the local physicians, remember the physicians play a big part in this. It happened in Boston. Also, it happened in Salem. When the people, when the when people are first, when the girls are first examine let me state that when the girls being afflicted are first examined, they would bring in a physician at least early on.

12:01 I don't know, I don't know if this maintained stay true through the entire Salem witch trials. But at the beginning, if you were afflicted, you were examined by a doctor. And then the doctors ultimately said they said it in Boston, they said it here. We don't know, we have no medical explanation. It's witchcraft. We don't know it's witchcraft now, I think after a while then it was like, if you have these afflictions, if you have these symptoms, we're not even going to bother calling in a doctor. We all know now this is witchcraft. Like, these symptoms became associated with witchcraft. So you know, if you have a seizure disorder. At that time, not so good for you. All right, so but let's continue. Living in the household of a doctor, Elizabeth would have been familiar with various elements and the community's reliance on medical explanations for unexplained events.

12:50 This proximity to medical practices may have influenced her perceptions and actions during the onset of the witchcraft hysteria. Now it would be awesome, so interesting. Is it possible, since her uncle is a physician, that he was intimately familiar with what had happened? I'm curious, hang on. Hang on, hand, hang on, hang on, give me a second, hang on, give me a second. Here, I don't. Think this is true. I'm gonna I'm doing research now in real time, was the physician in the Boston case.

13:36 I don't think he was. And give me one second, I'm doing some historical research. Really, I don't think he was. Okay, all right, good, all right. I wanted to make sure that he wasn't the physician involved in the Boston case that we've already talked about, because that would be really weird. But I think it's fair to say that he would. Have at least been familiar with what's going on. These other girls are showing these symptoms. Would he have been called in where another doctor had been called it, would he had consulted with anyone, because it sounds like the very first girls who were afflicted, Betty and Abigail, that possibly the same doctor that was in Boston in the Boston case four years earlier. Remember, there's some at least speculation about that. But I think he would have heard about what's going on, meaning Elizabeth would have probably heard what's going on, right. I think it's very fair to say she would have heard the stories. So I think that's going to have a great impact on her. So a little bit again about her past. She's born around sixteen seventy four to sixteen seventy five. She's orphaned at a young age as she becomes the maid servant of her uncle. Doctor William Gregg's the local physician in Salem Village right now. In the winter of sixteen ninety two, Salem Village was unsettled by strange occurrences. Girls including Betty Paris Abigail Williams, began exhibiting bizarre behaviors, screaming, contorting their bodies,

15:09 and uttering strange sounds. Unable to find a medical explanation, doctor Grigg Griggs, Elizabeth's uncle, suggested that the cause might be supernatural. So he was involved in and suggesting that it may be supernatural as well. So there were so again we have we have some connections, some correlation, right. He was one of the ones who suggested that Betty and Abigail something supernatural is going on here. Obviously that Elizabeth would be familiar with what was going on, she would be getting, you know, inside information. I think that would be fair. I think that's a fair assessment. I don't think that's speculating too much. And it was shortly after this, shortly after her uncle suggests that the cause might be supernatural.

15:59 That gets what happens. Elizabeth herself begins experiencing similar fits. What a coincidence? Isn't that interesting? Soon after, soon after her uncle's like, ooh, something supernatural is going on, Elizabeth begins having the almost identical fits. On February the first. Remember this all begins on in January of sixteen ninety two. Now we're February the first, sixteen ninety two, her first recorded episode occurred, marking her entry into the group of afflicted individuals. So less than a month after it starts, and not long after her uncle's like, Hey, I think what's happening here is supernatural witchcraft the devil. All of a sudden, Elizabeth begins having the exact same symptoms. I mean, come on now, right now, on February the twenty ninth, sixteen ninety two. So February the first she starts having symptoms, right, all right, yeah, make sure I get the dates right. On February the first, she starts having symptoms. On February twenty ninth, sixteen ninety two, Elizabeth Hubbard, along with Betty Paris, Abigail Williams, and Anne Putnam Junior, named three women as the source of their torment.

17:20 How convenient? Who are they? Going to go after class. Everyone should know. I know I'm supposed to say this as a narrative, but if we were to taking a test right now, everyone should pass this test. They everyone. All of these accusers accused the same three women, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tishiba. Everyone should remember Tishaba just because it's fun to say. Everyone should remember that. But Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tishiba? Why do they go after Sarah Good? Remember, she's homeless, she's poor, She's known as begging. She's an outcast. When people refuse. To help her, she would curse them under her breath, making her seem suspicious. And it seemed that there was a.

18:01 Belief at that time that poverty was possibly a sign of God's judgment, and Sarah Good fit the idea of an ungodly woman. She's poor, she's a beggar, she curses. They may have already accused her of being Basically, they probably already thought she was a witch. Why Sarah Osborne, Well, she had not attended church in years due to illness, which made her spiritually suspect. Because if you didn't show up to church, you know you may be a witch. She had married her indentured servant, which broke Puritan social norms. She was involved in a land dispute with the Putmans. Oh, imagine that she's in a land dispute with the Putmans.

18:43 Anyone who was in a land dispute with them got to accused of witchcraft, almost making her a political target as well as a religious one. I thought, I think she becomes a widow, or she is. Maybe she had married her indentured servant who died. I don't know. I'd have to go verify them, but I'm pretty sure she comes a widow. And then you have Tisheba. She was an enslaved indigenous or African woman, making her an easy scapegoat. She had told the Paris girls stories about magic, leading them to believe she had real supernatural power. Her later confession, whether coerced or strategic, validda, validated the accusations. Now Elizabeth Hubber's role in the accusation. Now she Elizabeth gets involved. Elizabeth is going all the others. Those three women get accused, but now Elizabeth gets in. Now she doesn't just name the three women, She was among those who testified against them in court during Tishaba's examination on March the first, sixteen ninety two. And just make sure you know this, many people say the trials officially begin on March the first, sixteen ninety two, three hundred and thirty three years ago, right, That's how come. That's why I were in March the eleven that we're talking about it, because once I realized March the first is the three hundred and thirty three year kind of anniversary of the beginning of the trials, then I was like, well, this is a perfect time to do all of this discussion about it. And the reason we say this kind of marks the beginning of the trial is because this is

20:13 when the first three women who were accused are kind. Of interrogated, examined. However, you would like to classify what happens, all right, But it was during the examination on March the first, sixteen ninety two, Hubbard testified that Tishiba had afflicted her since February the twenty fifth, So Elizabeth she steps in. She's the one testifying. She claimed that her symptoms stopped only after Tishiba confessed, further cementing Tishiba's guilt in the public mind. So Elizabeth seemed to be very like, she's the one driving it, she's the one giving specifics.

20:55 She and again she's older. She's older. I think she's seven. The other girls are younger, and they seem to be kind of being led, where Elizabeth seems to take the She's like, I'm gonna take the lead here. So why did all four of the Why so? Why did all four of the first accusers, Betty, Abigail, and Elizabeth target the same three women? It wasn't random. These women were already viewed as outsiders socially and spiritually, and that made them the perfect scapegoats and a town consumed by fear. And whenever fear takes over ladies and gentlemen.

21:38 It doesn't, it doesn't. Just it's not gonna just name three fear, never fear. Once fear begins, paranoia and fear, it's not gonna stop with just three names. It's gonna have four names, five names, ten names, twenty names, thirty names, and then next thing you know, it spirals out of control. Now, Elizabeth Hubbard wasn't just another accuser. She in many ways is the most theatrical of them all. While Betty Parris and Abigail Williams were younger and often seemed led by others. Elizabeth actively sought attention in the courtroom. Her outburst were among the most violent. Her descriptions of witchcraft were vivid and terrifying and lack and Unlike some of the younger girls who would merely point fingers, Elizabeth Hubbard collaborated closely with the judges. She would feed into their fears, and she shaped their verdicts, which is again crazy. Let's give some examples.

22:48 The trial of Rebecca Nurse, which occurred on March the twenty fourth, sixteen ninety two. The room is silent as Rebecca Nurse, an elderly, well respected woman, stands before the court. She raises her hand slightly, responding to a question from the magistrates. Suddenly, a scream shatters the silence. Elizabeth Hubbard convulses violently, collapsing to the floor. Her body twists unnaturally. She lets out a guttural moan, her arms jerk uncontrollably.

23:32 She's cursing me, she shrieks, She's upon me. Now there are gasp of horror from the courtroom. The magistrates already decline, already inclined to believe in the supernatural, see this as undeniable proof. Rebecca Rebecca Nurse, known for her piety, known for her kindness, is now painted as a malevolent force, capable of tormenting a young girl from across the room, and Elizabeth wasn't done. Later in the trial, she collapsed into a trance, lying motionless until the judges called nurses name.

24:17 Then suddenly she sprang up, screaming, she's trying to tear my soul from my body now. Unlike Betty Parris, who mostly remained in her home, or Abigail Williams, who would have fits but rarely spoke at length, Elizabeth Hubbard controlled the courtroom with her words and actions. She was the perfect storm, young enough to be believed, old enough to testify under oath, and dramatic enough to keep the judges hanging on every single word she I mean, there's no way to I mean, listen to that. That's just crazy, the thing she was doing. And she took over, took over. Well, the young younger girls were like illegally, they couldn't even testify under oath legally, the other girls because they were too young. Elizabeth can, she can and now, but she takes over.

25:15 I mean. In some ways I don't think I'm exaggerating this too much. Elizabeth Hubbard, she was the judge, she was the jury, She was the accuser. In a roundabout way, she was the executioner because she ultimately could lead someone right to their death. How about the case against Elizabeth Proctor? April fourth, sixteen ninety two. During Elizabeth Proctor's trial, Elizabeth Hubbard once again took center stage. Unlike the other girls who merely clutched their throats or claimed they were pinched, Hubbard fell into a violent, prolonged seizure. Her limbs flailing wildly, she screamed as this shoe, as if she was being physically beaten.

26:09 Despite standing several feet away from Proctor. She sends her specter to rip me apart. Hubber shrieked, pointing wildly at Elizabeth Proctor. She wasn't merely claiming she was afflicted. She was playing the role of the victim in real time, ensuring that no one in the courtroom could ignore her suffering. And when the other girl saw her, they followed suit, because how could they not. Her performance became more extreme than anyone else's, as she quickly became one of the most influential accuser of. The trials and what started happening. If the other girls were there, If Elizabeth does A, we will do it.

26:52 If Elizabeth does B will she? I mean she was the director, she was the judge, she was the jury, she was the accute us, she was the executioner, she was the drama coach. And I'm not trying to be, you know, disrespectful, but I mean, come on, this is so over the top. How could And again, remember it's the good Christians, It's the religious people who you know, we have so much insight and discern it. Her eyes have been open, we know the truth. Stop all of that nonsense. Clearly, these Christians were some of the most easily deceived people maybe on the face of the earth. Well that's a little that's a little hyperbole, but you get the idea. Now, how was Elizabeth Hubbard's behavior different from the other girls, Well, I think you I just tried to give you two examples, two different cases. She was more physically dramatic. While other girls may cry out in pain or faint, Hubbard's convulsions were violent, exaggerated, and designed to draw maximum attention. Unlike some of the younger girls, she threw herself into fense, seized up, and screamed at full volume. She was also a master storyteller. She didn't just accuse. She gave long, detailed testimonies about what the witches supposedly did to her.

28:18 She described spectral attacks in vivid, horrifying imagery, making her claims even more convincing. She controlled the courtroom. Many of the young girls followed her lead. When she screamed, they screamed. When she fell, they fell. Judges asked her questions directly, and her response shaped how the trials unfolded. The judges wanted to ask her questions because they were like, this is the one who knows she's experiencing it in real time, so they could ask her questions. I mean, she controlled everything. People's lives were literally in her dramatic theatrical hand ends.

29:04 Now. If Abigail Williams helped start, if Betty and Abigail Williams helped start the hysteria, Elizabeth Hubbard perfected it. She didn't just accuse people. She sold the illusion of witchcraft through her words, her body as She did it so convincingly that the court had no choice but to believe her. But what's most chilling about Elizabeth Hubbard. Unlike Anne, she never apologizes. Unlike Mary Warren, who we will talk about in another episode, because Mary Warren tried to stop it. We won't even give home man that story is so crazy, all right. But she played her role to the very end, and when the trials ended, she just disappears from history, leaving behind only the names of the people who died because of her words. When the trial ends, she just disappears, Like what happened to Elizabeth? What happened to Elizabeth Hubbard?

30:07 She just disappears. The only thing left behind is you go to Salem and you can see, well, you can see the memorial of the women who died. Elizabeth just disappears. The historical record concerning Elizabeth Hubbard's life after the trials is very uncertain. Some historians suggests that she may have moved to a different part of Massachusetts. She may have married a man named John Bennett in seventeen eleven. However, there's no confirmation of this. There is no confirmation. Unlike some of the other accusers, Elizabeth never publicly confessed. She never apologizes for her role in the trials. Elizabeth Hubbard's story, I think is a chilling reminder of how fear, social division, unchecked authority can lead to mass hysteria. She was not a leader in Salem. She was a follower, and yet her accusations had devastating consequences. I think she was the follower who becomes the leader. Nobody else just realizes she's the one doing the leading. Now we could ask ourselves, how do we identify scapegoating in our own time? This

31:37 idea of scapegoating is still I mean, it's still a part of our culture, right, you got again, what do you have to do? All you have to do is tell people you need to be afraid because of this threat. And then you identify who the enemy is. That that's the person you need to be scared of, that's the group, that's the and then everyone gets oh, they're out to get us. They're out to get us, they're out to get us, they're everywhere, they're everywhere, they're ever, Oh what are we going to do? And then well, then the escapegoat that becomes the scapegoat. How do we recognize when fear is being manipulated to target certain groups? How do you recognize that so many times people will say something about how bad this is or how bad this is.

32:22 It's never been like this, and you can just do sometimes five seconds of research and go, what are you talking about. That's not true, that's not true, that's not true. Everybody wants to. Talk about, Oh, remember the good old days, how great things were? Yeah, the good old days. Remember how wonderful it was. I don't know when Cain and Abel. Oh yeah, Caine killed his brother. Oh do you remember how wonderful it was. And you just go through Genesis when there was I don't know, incest, rape, I mean, slavery, all the wonderful things going on. In the book of Genesis. Now you know what the problem is is what sometimes Christians seem to forget. Depravity has always existed since the fall of man, and it always manifests itself in different ways in different times. Now, you may try to create a culture where you cover it up, but the depravity is still there. Because history, I think this is most important part. History shows us that fear never stops at just three names. Fear never stops with one group. Fear will constantly name more groups, more enemies. It will dehumanize them, and you will feel justified in attacking and destroying them, even if you are acting in a way that's completely contradictory to your own faith. And you will, in many

33:55 cases bear false witness, and you will lie, and you will slander all the name of Jesus, or you will you know, I don't know, fall down on the floor in the middle of a courtroom, convulsing and well, leading to people's deaths Now, I would say her story is one of fear, so one of influence. I think you could it also set. Her story is a clear reminder of the dangers of a society ruled by hysteria, ruled by fear, ruled by emotion. What do you make of Elizabeth? I mean, we have the historical record of her performances in these court cases.

34:40 We have it. And depending on where you go and Salem, there are some places that will reenact a scene from some of these trials. Some of them will be with Elizabeth. Uh, someone playing the part of Elizabeth and her yelling and screaming and falling on the floor and doing all of the crazy. Things she did. Because obviously it's a great thing to use at a museum or a tour when you're trying to show people what happened. It's the most spectacular, it's the craziest. You're just watching that and it's like some of like. Who would believe this? Who would believe this? Well, in sixteen ninety two, everyone seemed to believe it, and then she just disappears. You talk about like it's almost like she got out of town. And it's still crazy how many of these people just never said another word other than Anne Putmaan who apologized, and well you see how her life turned out. The one woman who apologized lived and basically as a mute, you know, basically lived in silence, and then dies at what thirty seven.

35:47 Everyone else just is like, we're getting out of town. We were getting as far away from this place as possible. But all of this happens because a young girls. So we've talked about Betty, we've talked about Abigail, We've talked about Anne Putnam junior, and now you know the story of Elizabeth Hubbard. What do you think about these girls?

36:28 And just remember, between Anne and Elizabeth, over one hundred people are accused. Just those two girls accuse over one hundred people. That is hard for me to wrap my mind around two girls, over one hundred accusations, and who knows how many people would have ultimately died if this did. All gets stopped. Remember this didn't get stopped because these the great Christians, the wonderful Puritans, were like, what are we doing?

37:10 This is ungodly. It got stopped because a political leader, a civil authority's. Wife gets accused and he's like, that's it, this is done, the end. No, no, no, no, no, no, what is going on here? This is going too far. And I think he was the political civil leader, civil authority in Boston, and I think it's his wife who gets accused, and then he's like, that's it, this is done. It wasn't that. It wasn't the church. You figured it out. It wasn't the Christians. It was when someone who's now, wait a minute, my family member is going to be accused. You guys are out of your ever living mind. And if you look at what happened of this was the you know, the city on the Hill.

37:53 This was the Puritans. What a great they are, such godly people. Look, by the time. The Puritan experiment is over, go to Boston, go to go to Salem, go to that area. Now is that the bastion of Christian philological purity. No, is that the headquarter. No, many of those places reject it out right now because of the insanity. That's the story. Of Elizabeth Hubbard. So what do you think You can just write down their names, Betty Paris, Abigail Williams, and Putnam, Elizabeth Hubbard. Come on, I bet you have some strong opinions. Now, we'll keep looking at the the afflicted and the accusers.

39:01 The next one is really crazy, and the next one is really Yeah, the next one is just nuts. What happens to her? Oh and we have to we will have to talk about a book that was written in the fourteen hundreds, which was the witch Hunter's Manual, which I think ultimately it's the book that kind of explains what happens, why the people act the way they do, and. Salem, we'll have to talk about that. We still need to talk about Satan's book. Oh man, that's that's the book that supposedly, if you're going to be a witch, you sign and that book plays a major part in the Salem witch trials. Is not an actual book, Okay, it's figment of everyone's imagination. All right, But all right, Well, we're gonna talk about the Book of the fourteen hundreds. That's a real book. That's a real book, and it had major influence. And if you look at the writing writings of Cotton, Mather may not cite the book, but it's very similar to the book written in the fourteen hundreds. But of course he wouldn't cite it because the book in the fourteen hundreds was Catholic, and of course the Puritans hated Catholics. In fact, if you were a Catholic, you pretty much were already.

40:11 Being accused of being a witch. So all right, so much more we could say. But there is the story of Elizabeth Hubbard, the most theatrical accuser of the Salem witch trials. Thanks for listening, God bless