The Prequel To Salem Witch Trials

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, March the fourth, twenty twenty five. It is currently seven thirty eight pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now tonight, I'm going to be presenting this in a very different way. Typically, I break things down, kind of do an outline form, work through points. It's very it comes across maybe very organic, very like, hopefully somewhat conversational. I ask a lot of questions, I try to make points. Tonight is going to come across more like I'm presenting a narrative. I'm gonna present this in a narrative form, and I hope it will be impactful and hopefully people will appreciate at least the attempt to do it in somewhat of a different way.

1:13 Can I pull it off? I don't know, but we're gonna I'm gonna do my very best. And then after I present this in kind of a narrative form, then we will return to the same material and then I will break it down in far more detail. Probably in a different episode. So I hope that I can accomplish this this evening. Now, as many of you know that the city that I have a strong connection to, I feel I can't explain it. From the very more very first time I drove into Salem, Massachusetts, I got this feeling that it impacted me in a way that I cannot explain. I just can't explain it. I mean, I my first night driving into Salem, it was nighttime, it was cold, it was October, and just before I saw anything before, It's just like, oh, there's something here. I'm not saying it was spiritual. I'm not saying it was supernatural.

2:13 I'm just saying that sometimes you drive into a city, you go to a location, and you just find yourself with some kind of connection. And I have a strong connection to Salem, Massachusetts. Everything that happened there, I feel like I feel it. I have an emotional connection to it, maybe more than the people can understand. And I feel it's more significant than I think a lot of people understand. And I feel that everything that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, I believe screams that every Christian, every church, every homeschooling family, should know everything that happened and Salem everyone should go visit it and learn the lessons, because I think there are lessons there for Christian. So I have continued my study of everything that's happened in Salem since my first time.

3:08 I mean I started my study of what happened in Salem way before I ever arrived in the city. But from the first time all the way to night. I've been to the city now multiple times, and I plan on going back multiple more times. I'll be going back to Salem this year at some point because I just love I mean, I love it. If I had the ability, I would probably live there because there's just something about the city. Now, if you don't know anything about Salem, Massachusetts, and if you don't know anything about what happened, let me just remind you briefly, and then we're gonna fall into a very important narrative that I want you to pay close attention to. All right, and if this is one of those maybe you just want to listen. You don't necessarily need to take any notes. I know I have a tendency to present things as if I want you to write them down. I want you I'm going to try not to do that. It's kind of built to my DNA to teach that way. I kind of teach it a very conversational way, wanting you to write things down, giving you questions. But I'm going to try to do this very different this evening now. For those who may not be familiar with this, and I think there's probably very few of you, the Salem Witch Trials were one of the most infamous episodes of mass hysteria and religious extremism and early American history. The Salem Witch Trials took place between sixteen ninety two and sixteen ninety

4:41 three and Salem Village which is now modern day Danvers, Massachusetts, and we talked about that in our last broadcast. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, mostly women, and the imprisonment of many others. This was all based on accusations of witchcraft rooted in Puritan beliefs, social tensions, and fear of the supernatural. The trials reveal the dangerous consequences of fear driven justice and unchecked authority. That is a very simple, simple description of the Salem Witch Trials.

5:28 There is so much to them, and so much I want to talk about it. But everyone, for the most part, I think everyone knows something about the Salem witch trials. They know something. Now, they may start talking about them, and you kind of go, well, okay, you got some of the information right. Sometimes they don't have all the facts. But I would say that most everyone knows about the Salem witch trials of sixteen ninety two. I think it's fair to say that if you don't know this, I think it's fair to describe it this way, that the Salem witch Trials is one of the darkest and most infamous events in American history. But what if I was to tell you, what if I was to tell you that to understand Salem, we have to understand something that happened before Salem. We have to talk about something that happened before Salem. And if you understand that, it may cause you to question everything you've ever heard about the Salem witch trials. And you may question it, and it may make this Salem witch Trials even that much more diabolical and that much more evil when you consider maybe what was going on. What if I was to tell you that, nearly four years before the first accusations in Salem occurred, there was another situation involving accusations of witchcraft.

7:04 What if I was to tell you that previous event involving accusations of witchcraft that occurred four years before Salem, What if I was to tell you it followed almost the exact same pattern, down to who was afflicted, down to who was making the accusations, down to the doctor making the diagnosis, down to the use of spectral evidence, and all the way down to the execution of well of different individuals. What if I was to say that it was so similar, almost identical, that it should make you to me, it gives me chills to think, wait a minute, so you're telling me four years before Salem, basically the same identical thing happened, almost down to the letter, like it makes you question everything. And what if I was to tell you that the Salem witch trials may have never happened if only people had learned from the mistakes of what happened, not in another country, not even in another state, but if the people would have learned what happened in Boston in sixteen eighty eight. Now, the

8:37 Salem witch Trials begin in sixteen ninety two in Salem Village, Salem, the city of Salem, right, and what if they would have learned what happened in Boston. Boston is not that far away from Salem. I mean, I mean, of course, now I make the trip and a car, but it's still not that far, right, It's still not that far. In other words, the people in Salem and Salem Village would have probably have had some understanding of what happened in Boston, because some of the people living in Salem at the time the witch trials began guess what they had lived in Boston when this had occurred, and they had moved from Boston to Salem, and they were in some cases positions of say leadership, they knew what happened in Boston. Tonight, I want to help you uncover kind of the forgotten prequel to Salem. I want to talk about the story of a woman. Her name is Anne or was Anne. I want to talk about everything that happened.

9:55 I want to talk about Barbados, how does that come into play in Boston and Salem. And I want to talk about how everything that happened to this woman, Anne Barbados, sixteen eighty eight, how all of this set the stage for what happened in Salem in sixteen ninety two. So I want to take us back in time. Let's go to Boston, Massachusetts. Boston. That's where my daughter lives. That's why I end up in Salem because if I go see my daughter, I'm like, well, it's great to see you. Can we go to Salem? All right? Hey? But hey, there's this to do in Boston. Can we go to Salem? Hey, but there's we could do this in Boston. Can we go to Sale? Hey, this is happening in Boston. Can we go to Salem? All right? I always want to go to Salem because I want to study the Salem Witch Trials, and I just want to experience the ambiance of the city. I want to just walk around Salem.

10:57 I just want to be there. But I missed this as well. Maybe all of my time I've spent in Salem, what I really needed to do was go walk around Boston. Now I've walked around Boston quite a few times. In fact, I may I walked past a very important something that kind of remembers what we're going to be talking about, and I didn't even realize I walked past it. Okay, because the more I study this I'm like, wait a minute, I was like, right there, I walked right past that place. What wait? I was right there? But I did not because this is kind of the forgotten prequel to what happened in Salem. To understand Salem, we have to go to Boston. We have to go to the year sixteen eighty eight. An Glover. She was an outsider from the moment she arrived in New England. She wasn't a Puritan, she wasn't English, she wasn't wealthy, she definitely wasn't powerful, and she wasn't even free. You see, before Anne Glover came to Boston, she'd already suffered greatly under the English.

12:19 She was originally from Ireland, but in the sixteen fifties, during Oliver Cromwell's conquest of Ireland, she and thousands of others were rounded up and forcibly deported to Barbados. Once she got there, she became an indentured servant on a sugar plantation, alongside enslaved Africans and indigenous laborers. It was a brutal world. It was filled with suffering, It was filled with diseases, it was filled with violence. The Puritan elite who controlled these plants saw their workers as disposable.

13:04 Many Irish servants died there. Anne's husband happened to be one of them. So she's an indentured servant and her husband dies. Now why did he die? According to some reports, he died because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith. He was Catholic. The Puritans don't like Catholicism. He won't renounce it. Many believe he was killed because he would not renounce his Catholicism. They had indentured servants. The people were being brutalized. It was slavery. I mean, everything about it is just vile. At some point, Ann and her daughter left Barbados and made their way to Boston. She worked as a housekeeper for the Goodwin family. Now this family is a well respect acted Puritan household. But despite living in Boston, Anne was never fully accepted because she was a Catholic and a Puritan society. She spoke primarily Irish with very broken English. To her employers, she was a foreigner. To her employers, she was strange, and to many she was dangerous. And then and the summer of

14:40 sixteen eighty eight, everything changes. Now, sixteen ninety two, January sixteen ninety two is when the Salem, when the hysteria of witchcraft and Salem begins. Right, But we're in the summer of sixteen eighty eight, right, and everything's about change. Now. What happened, Well, it started with Martha Goodwin, the eldest of the Goodwin children. She was just thirteen years old. She had an argument with Anne Glover's daughter over some possibly missing laundry. But what should have been a simple household dispute turned into something much, much darker. Not long after the argument, Martha and her siblings began exhibiting strange behavior.

15:36 They screamed, they towarded their bodies, They spoke in voices that supposedly were not their own. They fell into trances, and the parents panicked. Does that not sound familiar? Does that not sound very familiar? Okay, Remember I'm trying to do this as a narrative, Okay, because I want to right now. I could just break and go into all kinds of points here, but I'm not going to do that. A doctor and we'll talk about this doctor later. But this doctor was called in and guess what he could not find. He couldn't find a medical explanation. I don't know why why they're, you know, contorting themselves. I don't know why they're yelling. I don't I don't. I don't know why they're doing all of these things. I can't come up with a medical reason. I have no I have no explanation. So he reached a conclusion the children were not sick. They were under the influence of the devil.

16:39 They were under the influence of maybe a witch. Witchcraft is involved, And from that moment the search for the witch began. And since the children had quarreled with Anne Glover's daughter, suspicions and quickly fell on Anne herself. We gotta find the witch. So you've got these young girls, Well, we got to who's the witch? Who's Oh well, I wonder why Anne may get blamed. I wonder why she may get blamed. Well, they get in an argument with the daughter that there's some there's some questionable things going on here. And Glover was arrested and she was put on trial. But this was not a trial in the modern sense. There was no presumption of innocence, there was no solid evidence, but there was fear. There was a lot of fear. The authorities did not trust and Glow because she was Irish. They did not trust and Glover because she was Catholic. They did not trust and Glover because she had lived in Barbados, and in their eyes,

18:13 she was already guilty. There was no love thy enemy, There was none of that. There was nothing about honesty and justice and don't bear false witness and that you need witnesses and you need evidence. No, all of that was thrown out. Now, during her interrogation, she was ordered to recite the Lord's Prayer in English. Now, this was a common Puritan test because what they believed is if you could not recite the Lord's Prayer, you are a witch because you couldn't say the words of scripture without stumbling.

18:54 So you had to recite the Lord's Prayer, but you had to do it perfectly, no stummymbling, no hesitation, because if you could not, you had to be a witch, because a witch would stumble over sick because they couldn't say the words of scripture. So tell me right now, let's try it. Stand on a chair right now in your house and recite the Lord's Prayer perfectly, no stumbling, no missing any words, or you are a witch. And you deserve to die now. And Glover is going to have a problem because she didn't speak primarily English. She spoke primarily Irish, and she struggled with English words. To the Puritans, this was not a language barrier. No no, no, no, no no no. It was proof that she was in league with the devil. But that wasn't all. Investigator searched her home and they found small dolls or what was known as poppets. They immediately declared that these were tools of witchcraft used to curse the Goodwin children. We found the evidence. There's these dolls. We don't know what these dolls are for. They're for witchcraft and she's using it.

20:13 This is how she's tormenting, torturing the children. The Goodwin children are being tormented by this witch because she was mad, because the Goodwin children dared argued with her daughter, and so she's mad. And Glover was found guilty and on November the sixteenth, sixteen eighty eight, she was hanged in Boston. She was executed. She was killed. Now where the hanging took place, there's some speculation. Many believe it happened in the Boston Commons. There used to be like a large, large oak tree there that was there forever it got toard.

21:02 I can't remember when it got destroyed, what year it was. I think it was in the seventies or eighties when it got tore down by a storm. It's no longer there, but in the Boston Commons some people believe that's where it was. There's other possible locations, but there is a plaque. It was at different churches. It's been moved around Boston. I can't remember the name of the church right now that it's at, but I was. I was there. I was in Boston not too long ago, and I think I walked by the very church where the plaque is and I didn't see the plaque. I can't, I can't. I can't believe I missed it, right, But the plaque is there, and next time I'm Boston, I'm gonna have to go see it. But there's a plaque remembering her execution.

21:43 Now they and I think, I don't remember what year. I don't. Maybe it was the nineteen eighties, maybe it was the nineteen seventies. They declare an and Glover Day, and I think it's uh. I think the end Glover Day. I think it's November the sixteen every year. I don't know. I don't think they do a lot about it or mention it. Probably most people living in Boston don't even know it's Anglover Day. But is to remember because I believe she is the last woman to be executed for witchcraft and Boston. She's the last one because there's a whole lot of things messed up about the case. Now when you look at the case, just remember there's someone very much involved in this case, a puritan who writes a book. Right. Oh, and there is a family living in Boston at this time, and that family is going to be very important to what starts in Salem. Oh and the father of that family happens to have the book written by this puritan who was involved in this case.

22:48 And oh, by the way, that book kind of outlines what happened in this case. There's the connections here are fascinating. Now, if if that was the where the story ended, it might have been forgotten. But things kind of get even kind of more strange here because four years later, like if that would have just ended there in sixteen eighty eight, that would have been like, Okay, that's horrible that's bad. Horrible things happen, but things kind of get strange because four years later, in sixteen ninety two, I think to say, a similar case unfolded in Salem village. I think, as an understatement, a strikingly similar case unfolds and Salem village once again. It began with young girls showing strange symptoms.

23:43 Once again, a doctor blames witchcraft. Once again. The first accused were women from the margins of society, and once again one of them had a connection to Barbados, now in Salem. Her name was Titshaba, Tishaba, tit Uba tis Shabba. It's crazy the similarities. Four years later, Salem not that far removed from Boston, not that far removed in time. And remember a very important book has been printed that outlines what happened in Boston in sixteen eighty eight. You got people in Salem who was in Boston at the time this happened, who now play a part in all of this. You have young girls showing strange symptoms. You have again a doctor shows up and says it's witchcraft.

24:41 You have a woman being accused who's a margin of society, and once again Barbados comes into play, and this time her name is tis Shabba. The Tishiba was an enslaved woman in the household of Reverend Samuel Parris. No wait a minute, And Glover was basically a servant and a family and Glover is an outcast, and Glover is connected to Barbados. Oh wait, oh wait, and and Salem, oh wait. The first woman accused is an enslaved woman, Tishiba. And guess what, Just like Ann Glover, she was brought to New England from Barbados. You got say the same. They come from the same place, Barbados. They're both outcasts, they're both basically servants, slaves. Young girls basically accused them. The similarities here become it's almost like, if you're not careful when you read about this, you're like, wait a minute, is that that case or that they're so identical. Historians believe tis Shaba was maybe indigenous Arawak or of African descent, but in the Puritanize it doesn't really matter. She was seen as an outsider with strange beliefs, just like Glover, and when the girls accused her of bewitching them, Tishaba

26:16 does something different than Anne Glover and Glover would not confess, and Glover would not admit it. But Tishiba confesses. She's like, okay, okay, okay, okay, I will confess. I will confess. This is where the stories part a little bit. Now. Ann Glover's story should have been a warning, but instead it became a blueprint. The same fears, the same accusations, the same flawed justice system that condemned her resurfaced in Salem. So how come no one talks about Ann sometimes referred to as Goody Glover case? Today, nobody talks about it. Nobody talks about Ann Glover. Nobody If you go to Salem and you go to all the different museums and listen to the tour guides and to the people giving the presentations, and Glover gets forgotten, it's like nobody mentions her. And it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. The cases are so similar all the way down to how Anne is very much like Tishaba. Tisha Bug gets talked about obviously, but wait a minute, it was young girls, same symptoms. They all accuse someone who's an outcast. Now, maybe maybe because history doesn't like to admit when it repeats itself. I don't know why it's forgotten, but we should remember. Because

27:48 fear and hysteria never stay buried long. We should remember. We shouldn't forget. We shouldn't forget the connection here. Now, what I want to do now, that's just gonna runs it through as a narrative. I could have done less giving commentary there, but I just want you to see how the connection. I want to build on this, Okay, I want to build on this. I want to build on this connection. Right, So I want you to write down a couple of things. Now I'm going to break out of the narrative and kind of I want you to write down ang Glover. I want you to write that down. I want you to write down Barbados. And I want you to write down Tisshaba, right because Tisshububb is the Anglover is the Boston sixteen eighty eight, Tishaba January sixteen ninety two. All right, are you ready to go through some of this? Okay, let's just start with Now that's we looked at sixteen eighty eight. Let's jump to January sixteen ninety two. Let's go. Now we're four years basically removed from sixteen eighty eight. Now we're in sixteen ninety two. Let's go to j January sixteen ninety two.

29:01 All right, we have the onset of symptoms. Who are the accusers. Betty Paris nine years of age, and she's the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris. Now, Reverend Samuel Parris and his family, including Betty Paris, were living in Boston at the time of the trial and the execution. They were there, right, Abigail Williams, she's eleven years old. She's the niece of Reverend Paris. So you've got Betty Paris, the pastor's daughter, the pastor's niece. All right, these girls began exhibiting unusual behaviors, fits, convulsions, uncontrollable screaming, and trance life states. In fact, it almost reads verbatim as the thing that happened in Boston in sixteen eighty eight, almost to the it's as it's almost as if Betty Parris and Abigail william saw a video of it and said, hey, let's do the same thing. Now. I know, I don't want to be I don't want to make I don't want to be too dogmatic, but it's hard not to see the similar the similarities here is like, wait a minute, both young girls, both almost identical symptoms, right, Oh, and

30:37 they're gonna They're gonna basically accuse a very similar type of woman is what they're going to do. Right, So there's their symptoms. February sixteen ninety two. Now we go from January the escalations. You have escalation and initial accusations. Now you have additional accusers. You have and twelve years old. She's twelve years old. You have Elizabeth Hubbard seventeen years old. Guess what. So now you have more young girls. And this is crazy. You've got young girls in Boston. You got young girls that start in Salem, and then the next accusers in Salem are young girls. It's all young girls making all of these accusations. How does the community respond?

31:24 They're like, okay, what is going on? What was going on? They contact a local doctor and the doctor historically is assumed to be doctor William Griggs. He examined the girls, but he could find no physical element. He suggests witchcraft. Now, according to Manny, this is the exact same doctor who investigated and determined that the girls in Boston were being tormented by the devil or by a witch. It's witchcraft. Now four years later, same symptoms, it's witchcraft. Now from a medical perspective, you could see in his mind this may oh see, I know I was right in Boston.

32:13 I know because now the same symptoms are happening. There's no medical explanation. This confirms my diagnoses. This confirms it that this has to be witchcraft. So he would be can we say he would have a motivation to say it's witchcraft, because then it would confirm that, Hey, you remember that woman in Boston who was killed. Well, you know those girls were being tormented. They had the same symptoms, same symptoms. It's got to be it's got to be witchcraft. Now, under pressure to identify the source of their afflictions, the girls accused three women. Sarah Good, a destitute woman known for her unpleasant demeanor in tendency to beg So they're gonna go after the most vulnerable women in society, right, They're gonna go after Sarah Good. The woman's destitute, she's begging.

33:03 She's not known for being super nice, and well, oh that's her, that's her. And if she's the town or the village beggar, who's destitute, and probably the parents are like to stay away from her. That would be an easy one to blame. Sarah Osborne. She's an elderly woman, does not attend church, was involved in legal disputes over her late husband's estate, and most things we know about Sarah Osborne. She wouldn't play the Puritan reindeer games. She wouldn't go along with the Puritan games. And then Tishuba, she's an enslaved woman of indigenous descent owned by Reverend Paris.

33:49 Now remember Reverend Paris, his family lived in Boston when everything went down. Reverend Paris was greatly influenced by the Puritan minister who was a part of the trial in Boston and who wrote a book outlining it. And guess what we find out. Reverend Paris has that book in his house and it's his daughter and his niece who starts play. I mean, they follow the playbook to the letter, and nobody can't. Nobody's like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Does anybody find this kind of suspicious that these girls are like and know in their minds?

34:30 Oh oh, the witchcraft has spread. Now, note all the accusers are all young girls at this point. Oh, in fact, well, when you look at all the accusers, but they're all young girls. Now, I think this is interesting and significant and understanding how this all came about. The fact that all the initial accusers were young girls was unusual, and it did raise some skepticism. It did raise some, but not nearly enough. And those who raised skepticism, well, you know, we'll talk about what happened to them at some point. But there are several factors that may contribute to why their accusations were taking so seriously rather than dismissed as youthful imagination and mischief. I mean, maybe someone should have said, are the girls just I mean, it's January February, we're in Salem, it's cold, it's harsh winter. Maybe the girls a bored? Okay, maybe have they heard all of these stories about what happened to the girls in Boston. I think they probably very familiar with what happened to the girls in Boston, especially the pastor's daughter and his niece.

35:37 They and the very book that outlined what happened was in the very house, so they you know, they had heard about it. I mean, I don't think that's even wild speculation. But why is this unusual that these are all young girls making the accusation. Well, it's uncommon and legal precedent, it's very uncommon, and prior cases of witchcraft accusation in Europe and in New England, accusations came typically from adults, particularly neighbors or rival community members. It was an adult game. I'm gonna call it a game because in many cases it was like, Oh, I hate you, I accuse you of being a witch. Oh I want your land, I'll accuse you of being a witch. Oh I don't like you and my church, i'llccuse you of being a witch. Young children had testified in the past witch trials, but were rarely the sole indicators of accusations, as they were in Salem. You may bring the kids in at some point to confirm something or to say to give their account, but they were never the sole accuser in any way, shape or form. So this is already very very unique. Now you also had the Puritan views on children. Now, Puritan theology viewed children as inherently sinful, but at least it appears, according to some sources, that they felt that the children were innocent of worldly deceit, which is kind of crazy. Hey, they're inherently sinful, but they're actually innocent when it comes to worldly deceit, So meaning that maybe in the Puritan mind that children were

37:10 more likely to be seen as honest witnesses, which is just crazy. Hey, you're inherently sinful, but you make really good honest witnesses because you don't have any worldly deceit or the most ridiculous thing ever, kids lie, Kids deceive and lie really really really quick. Okay, so they come from the womb telling lies. I mean that's because we're inherently sinful. So maybe this explains it. Maybe maybe, but it's all very uncommon legal precedent. Definitely, maybe their views on children, maybe it explains it. I don't know. Another reason this may be in at least somewhat unusual suspicion from some Salem residents. Some in Salem village were skeptical of the young girl's credibility. John Proctor Laid, who was later executed, publicly doubted the girls and claimed they were fabricating their afflictions. John Proctor was like, hey, guys, what are you not seeing here? They're making this up? You die and so they kill him. So then at that point you're like, let's not say anything negative about these young girls. Now, at this point, you would think someone in Salem would have been like, hey, guys, four years ago Boston and I mean, are we not seeing a similarity.

38:30 But I think maybe in their minds, if they would have brought it up, it may have been in their minds. Oh, it's confirmation, it's spreading a set of going. Maybe the girls are just mimicking it. Maybe they've heard the story. Even Increase Mather now Mather is Cotton Mather's father, which he becomes Cotton Mather is critical in this whole story. An Increase Mather was a leading Puritan minister. He later criticized the trials the reliability of afflicted children as primary evidence. Well, I think that makes sense. If the children are afflicted by a witch, if the children are afflicted by Satan, they're your primary witnesses, they're the accusers. Can you trust anything they say? If they're being tormented by a witch or being influenced by Satan? You think those who are the last people you would want to listen to. You're like, Okay, we feel bad for you, you're the victim, but we can't believe a thing coming out of your possible lying mouth, because Satan is the father of lies. No, and witches are deceitful. No no, no no no no no no, We're not gonna trust you, but no, no, no no, the girls are like their words become gospel almost. Now, why were the girls believed instead of questioned? Well, some say we need to go back to what we've already covered, the trial and execution of Anne Glover in sixteen eighty eight, because it's a significant event in the history of witchcraft accusation and colonial America. So I'm going to go back

40:03 now through it, not just in a narrative form. I'm going to kind of now go it and form and outline so that you can really get this down. So we have Anne Glover, as we've already established, he was an Irish Catholic woman who, along with her daughter, worked as a housekeeper for the Goodwin family in Boston. So you may want to know again I told you to write down Ann Glover's name. She has a daughter. Now, this is the cultural context. As an Irish Catholic and a predominantly Puritan society, Glover was part of a marginalized community facing religious and ethnic prejudice. Right, the Puritans don't like them, and there was a lot of issues with the Irish in Boston as well. You can go study that history. Now, the inciting incident, as we've already discussed, it's the summer of sixteen eighty eight. Martha Goodwin, aged thirteen, accuses Glover's daughter of stealing law. This accusation led to a heated argument between Glover and the Goodwin's children. All Right, so Glover's daughter is accused of stealing by the Goodwin daughter who's thirteen, she stole it, and well then Anne obviously gets mad trying to take up for her child. Now, of course, probably not smart for Anne to try to take up for a child. They are the servants. They don't really have many rights or anything to say, say anything, and guess what happens. Well, the Goodwin children, well, right after the confrontation, they begin exhibiting strange behaviors. They fall

41:37 into fits, bizarre conduct, and the local doctor says it's witchcraft. Oh, how convenient. Right, because Glover primarily speaks Irish and spoke Irish and some broken Latin making communication during the trial, challenging initially her use of Irish was is construed as speaking the language of the devil. Hey, what is that language she's speaking? Oh, it's the devil. It was later recognized as her native tongue. An interpreter was eventually provided, so at least they do bring an interpreter. But Glover's Roman Catholic faith was highlighted during the trial. Reverend Cotton Mather.

42:23 There he is Cotton Mather. Remember that name, Cotton Mather, because he's another connection between what happens in Boston and what begins in Salem in January. Now you already see the similarities, right you see. Young girls are involved, Young girls have the exact same symptoms. Who gets blamed, these marginalized women with no power, no standing, no say so? Who are foreigners? Ooh? Who? They're scary, they're they're not like us. Oh you can see how this is all coming into play. And now we have an only that you've got the reverend and his family. It's his daughter and his niece who makes the accusations in Salem. They were living in Boston during this entire situation with Ang Glover, and they're influenced by Cotton Mather, who plays an important role in this entire trial. All right. So during the trial, Reverend Cotton Mather described her as a scandalous old Irish woman, very poor, a Roman Catholic, and obstinate in idolatry. Her inability to recite the Lord's Prayer in English was considered evidence against her, as it was believed that witches could not say the prayer correctly. All right, So she's in trouble.

43:41 She's in all kinds of troll Just remember, Cotton Mather is right here, all right. He's the bridge between Boston and Salem in my estimation. Now, the evidence that's presented in the trial, the authorities found small images or dawl like figures in their home, which were interpreted at tools of witchcraft. Glover allegedly admitted to praying to various spirits, which Matther constructed as demons. Now was she saying she prayed to different spirits or was she saying she prayed to the saints? I don't know. Now. Her mental competency, there were concerns about Glover's mental state. Five out of six physicians who examined her deemed her competent to stand trial, but there was at least one who was like I don't know what is going on here. Now, it may have been just majorly a language barrier, cultural barrier. They didn't understand, and maybe they didn't care to understand. Maybe she didn't even know what was really going on. Glover was found guilty of witchcraft based on the evidence and testimonies presented. On November the sixteenth, eighteen eighty eight, Glover was hanged in Boston. Reports indicate that she maintained her innocence regarding the children's afflictions, suggesting that her death would not cure them, and implying that other were responsible. Now, Anglover is recognized as the last person to be hanged for witchcraft in Boston. Her trial and execution a court occurred four years before the infamous Salem witch trials and

45:14 are considered a precursor to the events in Salem. In nineteen eighty eight, the Boston City Council proclaimed November sixteenth as Goodie Glover Day to honor her memory, making her the only victim of the witchcraft hysteria in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to receive such a tribute. The case of ang Glover underscores the intersection of religious and tolerance, cultural differences and the pervasive fear of witchcraft in seventeenth century New England. Now does all of that sound extremely familiar? How this all works together? Well, let's look at the similarities.

45:56 Let's really dig into the similarities, all right. The Salem witch trials sixteen ninety two, they absolutely mirror the Ann Goody Glover case Boston sixteen eighty eight, and they mirror each other in several key ways. These similarities suggests that events in Boston were widely publicized by Cotton Mather may have influenced how Salem's community interpreted, accused and persecuted alleged witches. Below is a detailed outline comparing the two cases. All Right, so I this is where I went to. I used AI to for a lot of this, to compile things, but this I needed AI. I'm like, okay, give me the two put them together. Put them together. Because of my mind, I'm like, this is crazy, all right. So AI is like, I'm here to help you, all right.

46:54 So AI gives me number one accusers, and we already know the similarity young girls with the supposed victims of witchcraft and in many the accusers. Goodie Glover k sixteen eighty eight. The Goodwin children, ages five through thirteen, exhibited fits, convulsions, strange speech, and transl like states. Their afflictions began after a minor household dispute between Martha Goodwin and Anne Glover's daughter. Cotton Mather personally observed and documented their symptoms. Here's the book. Everyone needs to write down the name of this book.

47:35 In Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions sixteen eighty nine, Cotton Mather m A. T. H. E. R. He writes a book immemorialble Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions. That book is absolutely key to understanding the Salem witch Trials. Now, so there's sixteen eighty eight and sixteen eighty nine. Sixteen eighty eight, you have the case of Goodie Glover, and Goodie Glover she's killed, she's you know, executed. Right, everything that happens there, you've got the same way. You've got young children supposedly being the victims here, and Cotton Mather is right there in the middle of all of this.

48:26 Now we jumped to Salem Witch Trials sixteen ninety two. The first accusers are Betty Paris nine Abigail William eleven, who exhibits similar symptoms to the Goodwin's children. I think similar is an understatement. It's almost identical. It's not similar, it's almost identical. In fact, you look at all the different I looked in multiple books in the way they described them, and it's like these sounds like the in some gives you may think it's the same case. Now, their symptoms spread to other young girls, including Anne Putman, Mercy Lewis, Mary Wilcott Walcott, and Elizabeth hu Hubbard. All of those are young girls too, twelve and seventeen. A local doctor, unable to diagnose a physical cause, blamed witchcraft.

49:16 Just has been done in Boston. Both cases began with young girls exhibiting mysterious affliction which were quickly attributed to witchcraft other than illness or psychological factors. And again many believe it's the exact same doctor. Many so we got the exact same doctor. So we got so much, so much going on here. And remember in Salem, it's very important to understand in Salem, those girls who make the accusations, they all lived in Boston before while that the anglover case was occurring. All right, so all right here, let me let me go back here. All right, So I think that's I think you can see the similarities here, all right. Both cases begin with young girls exhibiting mysterious affliction which were quickly attributed to witchcraft rather than illness or psychological factors. All right, So that's the accusers are young girls victims of witchcraft. You have a lot of similarities there, okay. Second accused marginalized non conforming women and Goodie Glover sixteen eighty eight. She's Irish Catholic woman. She's accused of bewitching the Goodwin children. She's poor, she's a widow, she's an immigrant. She does not conform to Puritan religious expectations.

50:38 She struggles to recite the Lord's prayer. And while they say, well she's guilty, now you've jumped to Salem. The first three accused women Tishiba, an enslaved woman from the West Indies, Sarah good a homeless beggar. Sarah Osborne. She doesn't conform to Puritan norms, and she doesn't like going to church, and she's the devil. All these women were outsiders in Puritan society, just like Goodie Glover. The first accused women in both cases were socially marginalized, poor, or ethnically different, making them easy targets for accusations. The similarity, I mean, it's like you're reading the same case now, except in Boston they accused one woman. Here, three women get accused.

51:20 But it's the same type of women, and it's young girls who are victims and young girls making the accusations. The investigation forced confessions and spectral evidence Goodie Glover case. Under interrogation, Glover confessed, but insisted that her spirits had acted independently. All right, so she confessed, But she tries to say, the spirits are doing their own thing. It's not me. She tried to come some way to get out of it. Right, My spirits are these spirits are doing things apart for me. It's not me that's doing it. Authorities dolls in her home, which were used as evidence that she performed witchcraft. Spectral evidence claims that spirits harmed others while the accused person was elsewhere, was used against her.

52:14 Spectral evidence is evil because anyone could say that person, they're a witch and they were tormenting me. When did they torment you? On Friday at two pm. Well, the woman you're accusing as being a witch who tormented you, she was one hundred miles away Friday at two pm. Doesn't matter. It was her spirit. Oh okay, Well she could do that, so spectral evidence could be used. Well, then the other person could. They couldn't even defend themselves even if they were nowhere to be found or nowhere near the event itself. Well, guess what Salem witch trials. Tishuba confessed after being pressured and claimed Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were also witches. Now, Tishuba, if you study her, she's pretty smart, even though she's a slave in this and you she maybe naive, and she kind of plays it really smart. She's kind of like, okay, okay, guys, okay, guys, I did it. But but up, up, up up. But I know things. I know things. I may know other witches.

53:14 I may know the other spirits. And so they're like, okay, well, we can't kill her. They kept her in prison, but they were like, we can't kill her. We need her because she kept kinda she'd kind of she would drag it out. Oh okay, okay, I can give you a little bit more. Well, I don't remember that right now. Well, we're gonna kill you, okay, okay, I'll give you a little like she kept always finding a reason for them to keep her alive. Well, sadly, she accused Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne while also witches. Hey what were the other names of the other women accused. Yeah, yeah, they're witches. They're witches. Go focus on them, because I've already confessed. I'll help you out kind of thing. The afflicted girls reported visions spectral evidence of the accused attacking them in dreams.

54:01 Many later accused, which is, were forced to confess or implic and implicate or implicate others under duress. So you get forced confession, you get later on other people who confess or like being forced or being you know, under duress. And I've been to the Dungeon Museum in Salem and I've seen the the the cells that they were held in. And you were held in a cell depending on the money your family had, if you came from a poor family, you were put inside these cells that were so small. Basically all you could do is stand, You couldn't sit. You were I mean, you talk about just a horrible situation and I saw some of that, and these women not good. So in both cases, interrogators pressure the accused into confessing, spectral evidence was accepted, and physical objects were used as proof of witchcraft. So's it's like am I in Boston or I'm in Salem? It's the same thing.

55:09 Outcome execution and a precedent for future trials. The Goodie Glover case sixteen eighty eight, Boston, and Glover was found guilty and executed by hanging on November the sixteenth, sixteen eighty eight. She warned that her death would not cure the afflicted children, and the Goodwin children continued having fits after her execution. Her case was publicized by Cotton Mather, making it a well known example of a successful witch trial. Now this is crazy. The children keep having symptoms. Nobody talks about that in history. But Cotton mathers like, this was successful. Why was it successful? Because if you can get a dad witch, it's successful. But wait a minute.

55:55 If the children are still having symptoms, then it wasn't obviously the woman you who killed? So who is tormenting them? Where it? Did? The kids try to make more accusations? There's a lot there. I don't know when it comes to the historical record, how long did the kids keep having? No more women were executed in Boston for witchcraft? So did they finally say, kids, snap out of it, come on, stop it? Well, did anyone go? Wait, I don't think Anne did this. I don't think maybe we messed up. No, Cotton Mather is like, I'm going to write a book and I'm going to tell everyone this is how you get rid of witches. Okay, the whole thing is crazy.

56:38 I mean, I mean, that's just it's just nuts nuts. Her case was publicized by Cotton Mather, making it a well known example of supposedly a successful witch trial. Now you get to the Salem witch trial sixteen ninety two, Tisshaba was spared. She later recanted her confession and was sold to a new owner. So she spared, She confesses, than after when everything starts dying down, you were cants and like, I didn't do anything. As she gets sold to a new owner, and she moves on with her life as a slave, of course, you know, as a slave in good Christian America. Okay, but we won't even get into all of that, Okay, Sarah Osborne, she dies in prison May the tenth, sixteen ninety two, and Sarah Good was hanged July the nineteenth, sixteen ninety two. So you got well, you got the hanging down, right, They got the hanging down pretty good. Okay. Nineteen others were executed, setting a new legal and social precedent for mass witch trials and the colonies. I mean, that's it's just crazy how that all plays out. Now, what is the similarity?

57:46 Both cases resulted in executions based on weak evidence, and in both instances, the accused deaths did not stop the afflictions. No one ever cut onto that. Again, it's the exact same thing. Boston. This woman is a witch, she's afflicting my children. Kill her, she dies, my children are still having the same symptoms. Nobody's like, well, maybe we messed up in Salem. Hey, this woman is a witch. She's afflicting these children. Kill them. The children are still being afflicted. Well, then we gotta find a new witch, kill a new witch now in Boston. For some reason. It's see, that's the mystery here in all of this. It's just like, well, okay, oops, I don't know if everyone just kind of said, well, did they finally go to the kids and say could you stop it now? Could you find something? Did the kids kind of laugh and go, okay, well, I mean I don't know. You figured in Boston they would have been kept killing people, but no, But in Salem they're like, oh well, let's kill some more witches. Let's kill some more witches. Now again the similarity. Here's Cotton Mather. I keep telling you his name. Cotton Mather had strong influence on Salem, all right, name of his book Memorable Providences, Goodie Glovercase, sixteen eighty eight. Cotton Mather published Memorable Providences in sixteen eighty nine, which describes in detail how to identify and persecute witches. Mather emphasized how young children could be afflicted by witches and how accused witches might confess

59:19 under pressure. Salem Witch Trials sixteen ninety two. Here we go. The Reverend Samuel Parris owned a copy of Memorable Providences and likely used it to interpret Betty and Abigail's symptoms. Now, remember, not only did he own a copy of the book, him and his family lived in Boston when the trial happened. In the execution occurred, then they moved to Salem. Now some will say, well, he just used a book to interpret the symptoms. I would say, how could the girls get the symptoms down almost identical to what happened in Boston? Did they hear the stories? The Salem Trials closely follow Mathers description of the Goodwin case from the Girl's Fits Say Please note that the Salem Trials closely followed the description from the Girl's Fits. The girls fits how they're described, it's the same way they play out in Salem. Well, how is that possible? They use spectral evidence and they force confessions? What is the similarity? Cotton Mathers book shape the Salem Trials, providing a blueprint for handling witchcraft cases based on what happened to Goodie Glover or a Glover in Boston. The Salem witch trials did not emerge in isolation.

1:00:52 Nothing ever emerges in isolation. Nothing ever emerges in isolation. There's always something that leads to it. There's always something that starts it. Let's and I'm not even saying the end. Then Glover case, there may have been something that led up to it prior to. We would have to go find what happened prior to. But there's no way to get around. Hey, you got this. I mean the connections there are just crazy, are just crazy. The Salem witch trials did not emerge in isolation. They follow an established pattern that had already played out in Boston with and Goodie Glover just four years earlier. The similarities between the two cases strongly suggest that the Salem trials were in part a continuation and an escalation of what happened happened in Boston. So I asked AI, Hey, give me some takeaways.

1:01:49 Here we go. This is what AI gives me. Both cases begin with young girls exhibiting supposedly mysterious fits. Both accused women are outsiders, poor, marginal lies, non puritan. Both trials used force, confession, and spectral evidence. Both executions failed to stop the afflictions, showing that these trials were not truly about stopping witches. Cotton Mather's book on the Goodie Glover case helped shape how Salem authorities handled their own witchcraft crisis. I think, I think that I think the first two girls were I don't know how they They had to be influenced. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. And only don't forget Barbados don't forget Barbados and Tishuba connected to Barbados, which is just fascinating.

1:02:39 It's fascinating. You got young girls, fascinating. They have the same symptoms, fascinating. The accusations go to marginalized women who from bar who came from Barbados, both of them are foreigners. The whole thing stinks. The whole thing seems like, give me a break. Now, here's what blows my mind. Here's what blows my mind is wait a minute, wait a minute. These young girls. Now you can argue whether you think they're innocent or guilty or playing everyone or whatever. These young girls ultimately become the reason and the source that all of these religious leaders, these civil leaders, the medical authorities, they all just fall into full blown witchcraft, panic. The devil is everywhere. The young girls are able to do this.

1:03:30 Now again, as Christians, we like to say, well, Christians, we have great insight, we have discernment, we have the truth. Our eyes have been opened. Really, because it doesn't look like their eyes are opened. Didn't like they have the truth, did not like they had discernment. Looks like they had a lot of fear. They had a lot of panic, a lot of prejudice and maybe some not so pure motives, because when you get into it, some of the people accused, it's like, well, this family's accusing that family and just happened to be there in a land dispute, or maybe this person doesn't like this person. Then there's a church dispute. You get into some of the accusations of people being killed, it's for some very sinful and ungodly things, which demonstrates what I know Christians. I know you don't like to hear this, but we love to run around claiming, Oh, we're not like the world, We're godly, we've been set free from the power of sin. If anyone's in Christ is a new creature, old things are passed away, all things have become new. And we say all of that is if it's true practically, But the reality is none of it's true practically. It's true positionally. Positionally, I am a new creature, the oldest passed away. All is new in Christ. Not in practice, I'm still a sinner. We like to believe that we've been set free from the power of sin. We've been set free from the power of sin. As far as us being condemned and going to hell. But in a practical sense, we've not been freed from the power of sin, because if we were freed from the power of sin, we could be perfect.

1:04:53 If we can't be perfect, that means there's something still in control that would be sin. So we're still sinners. And church history demonstrates vile, evil, disgusting things happening, backstabbing, lying, deception, murder, bearing, false witness, all of this nonsense happening inside the church. Now you can sit back and go, well, none of them were saved, and of course you are, but you're just as ungodly of them, just in a different way. The similarities are frightening. Now. I cannot dogmatically state that the two girls, let me go back here to the very beginning here. I cannot go back and say for sure that Betty Paris and Abigail Williams had read the book, Cotton Mather's book. I would be hard pressed for them to not have heard about it. Right, They're living in Puritan society, which is very close knit. That story in Boston had to go. We go the talk of the town that this woman is a witch. And you know, it's so similar it's hard to ignore that, well, their father is the pastor, and he had a copy of Cotton Mathers's book. They lived in Boston, and he had a copy of the book itself. If he had a copy of the book, you telling me that the girls

1:06:23 didn't hear about it. And he's the one preaching sermons. And he starts even before January night, sixteen ninety two, before the trials. He I mean, you can look up some of his sermons, Richard Paris. You can look up his sermons, and he's already talking about Satan and witchcraft. He's already dropping already the ideas before it starts. And it happens to be his daughter and his niece who starts supposedly having the symptoms and making the accusations. It's almost like they were being psychologically preconditioned exactly what to do now? Did do it knowing it? Did it start off like have a little fun, and then they were like, well, guys, you've got to name someone. Well let's see what do we do here? We either name someone or we got to come clean. Well, let's name Tisshaba. I mean, that's that's a good place to start, right, I mean, who's gonna she's the slave, she's from Barbados, she's a foreigner, she's she's you know, oh yeah, everyone, no one's gonna believe her. And of course she didn't have a she didn't have a chance, so she I mean, that's why she folded immediately and confessed. And she also, though, was very very very very very smart because she kept herself alive.

1:07:41 And then when it was all over, then she's like, I didn't I didn't. I didn't say one thing that was true. I lied about it all. Okay, she recants at all, but she was the only smart one able to stay alive. That the similarities are. It's like I'm telling you, you go to Salem, of all the times, all the things I've gone to, no one says and glover that poor woman, and no one says, hey, these girls, what in the world. I've heard all of the speculation about the young girls, that the two young girls in Salem, Betty and Abigail, always forget their name, Betty and Abigail.

1:08:27 I've heard every kind of theory. Well, maybe there was like there was this plant and the pollen of that plant caused these kinds of reactions. Maybe they had epilepsy, maybe they had. Oh, everyone tries to come up with a million ideas, and I'm like, well, or maybe maybe call me crazy. They were acting out they on Glover case and it sparked panic and twenty people died, twenty one if you count and Glover. But those two girls obviously weren't involved in that case. But the similarities are so perfect, and modern day Christianity is not. We've talked about all the similarities with the Great Satanic Panic of the nineteen eighties. Oh, I can go different times when everybody was screaming the Illuminati was going to destroy all of us. Ooh, Disney is gonna is out to get all of us, and watch out and hitting hidden messages and Disney movies and this, and Satan is this and demons here and this and this, and they're out to get us and we're all gonna be we're all gonna be possessed and oh my goodness, this and this and this.

1:09:38 It's always panic, panic, panic, panic, fear, fear, fear, fear. Now. I'm not saying there aren't spiritual things to be concerned about, but we had to handle in a reasonable rational way, not this irrationality. And Christians love to bear false witness. I've heard pastors. We accuse politicians, we accuse singers, we accuse actors of things, and come to find out none of it's accurate or true. We don't care. We never repent. Now and back then people died. Now, but it doesn't matter if people die or don't die. We're not to bear false witness. We're supposed to speak the truth. We are supposed to love our enemy. We're supposed to pursue things a correct way. We're not supposed to have a spirit of fear, but of the sound mind. I think the similarities, the similarities are absolutely fascinating. I think they need to be. Why no one explored, even AI acknowledged, nobody really, nobody really thinks about this puts it together, nobody.

1:10:49 But now you know, I guess the rest of the story, you know, the prequel sixteen eighty eight, sixteen ninety two. You gotta know both, and then you can go what and the world was going on here? And once people were overcome with fear, once people I mean, I put look, let me state it this way. The enemy the enemy to our theology, no matter how right our theology may be, no matter how good we are at exegeating scripture. The Puritans are always given a lot of you know, praise for their you know, exposition of scripture, and how much they were committed to the glory of God, and how much they were committed to the scriptures, and all the good things we can say, no matter how good your theology is, no matter how how committed you are to the scriptures. Look, here's the things always working against us.

1:11:52 Our own internal depravity, which will always go against our theology, no matter how good it is, always goes against it. Fear. Once we become fearful, once we become fearful, we will dehumanize and make other When once we become fearful, then whoever we feel fearful of, or whatever we become fearful of, we will dehumanize those people. They become the enemy. We dehumanize them. We no longer see them as people creating the image of God. There are our enemy that must be destroyed. And once that fear begins, it will override our theology. Our own internal depravity, our own fear, our own prejudice, our own sinful motives, all of that will triumph our theology over and over and over again. It always does. Now I believe, in fact, I was going to grab my Bible, but instead of reaching down, let me do this, because I believe I can pull this up really quick this way, and I can read it in a number of translations this way, all right, because I think this could be helpful, I'm going to read it from a number of translations. For the spirit of God gave us not let me read this again. For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self discipline. New Living Translation.

1:13:23 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self discipline. The ESV. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and of self control. The King James is what I know, and you know. Probably God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Cannot be controlled by fear. We need to exercise some control, some rationality thinking. We need to have love, not hatred, not prejudice, not bigotry. We need to have a sound mind, a sound mind. We may never be like the people in Salem or in Boston, but we will be like them, and I mean what made me stated this will never be like them in the exact same way because times have changed, but we will be exactly like them in different ways. Thanks for listening, God bless