Salem Witch Trials and Executions
The pre-trial hearings in the cases of Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba set the stage for the social strife that would soon rip Salem apart. (See Chapter 3 for information on the circumstances that led to the arrests of these three women on witchcraft charges; also see Tituba's biography entry.) At first no one suspected that Tituba, Elizabeth (Betty) Parris, Abigail Williams, and the other young girls could be lying. After all there was "damning evidence": Tituba had confessed to practicing witchcraft, and the girls had clearly been bewitched by Good, Osborne, and Tituba. During the hearing on March 1, 1692, both Good and Osborne denied the charges against them, pleading for justice and fairness. Yet, according to court records, chief magistrate (judge) John Hathorne deliberately invited several girls to identify Osborne as a witch, telling "all the children to stand up and look upon her [Osborne] and see if they did know her which they all did and every one of them said that this was one of the women that did afflict them and that they had constantly seen her in the very habit [clothing] that she was now in."
The accusing girls were immediately seized by such severe fits that their mouths bled and their tongues became stiff.In desperation, Osborne at first pleaded innocent; she then shifted tactics, claiming,as quoted by Rice, she had been haunted by "an Indian, all black, which did pinch her in her neck." She went on to imply that Tituba had haunted her for several months, repeatedly ordering her to stop attending church.
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