The Afflicted Girls of Salem

When drawing roles for our witch trial, I drew the role of one of three afflicted girls. I immediately recognized the title and knew who the role was referring to, but I wasn’t sure of the specifics surrounding the afflicted girls. I decided that in order to better my understanding of my role, it was necessary that I research the afflicted girls and all their facets. In this blog post, I discuss who the afflicted girls were, their symptoms, their reach in Salem, and then conclude by offering a variation of explanations for why the girls behaved this way. 

As previously discussed in class, there was an onslaught of mysterious fits in Salem Village, the most notable being Abigail Williams (Samuel Parris’s niece) and Elizabeth Parris (his daughter). They threw objects, screamed, rambled hysterically, and distorted their bodies (A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials). Deodat Lawson’s account states that Abigail Williams claimed to have seen Goodwife Nurse in the room and that she refused to sign the “Devil’s book.” William Griigs—the local doctor—came to examine them and determined that they were “under an evil hand.” Soon thereafter, the girls named three witches: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, and then the number of accusations skyrocketed (The Salem Witch Trials: A Brief History with Documents, 2011)

These girls came to be known as the afflicted girls—those who displayed symptoms of being tortured by Satan and, particularly, witches. Some of the most notable afflicted girls were Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam Jr, Elizabeth (Betty) Parris, Mary Walcot, Abigail Williams, and Mary Warren (Salem Witch Trials Accusers). They ranged between the ages of nine and twenty, and some, such as Elizabeth Parris, were from or served prominent families in Salem (Salem Witch Trials: Who Were the Main Accusers?). Many of the afflicted girls were orphans from the Indian attacks who had come to live in Salem with relatives or family friends and thus were left with little to no dowry (The Salem Witch Trials: A Brief History with Documents, 2011). 

The girls’ fits often included symptoms such as rigidity, convulsions, screaming, barking, hiding under furniture, claiming to have been bitten, choked, scratched, etc. When in court, they would react upon the accused witch’s entering as they state that she was (grievously) tormenting them. In particular, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, and Elizabeth Parris were all at Goodwife Corey’s examination where she was torturing them. They claimed that during their fit, they saw ‘something like her’ come at them with a book, presumably the Devil’s book (The Salem Witch Trials: A Brief History with Documents, 2011). The girls grew into extremely influential individuals during the trials, often accusing people who did not fit the status quo of their community. Interestingly, they became somewhat experts on the subject as they advised villagers on whether a witch was injuring someone in their family (Salem Witch Trials Accusers). However, the girls were overconfident as they began accusing affluent members of the community—such as the Governor’s Wife, Mary Phips—which then caused the trials to come to a halt (Possessed: The Salem witch trials | Penn Today). 

Many years later, people are still questioning if these fits were valid and what could have possessed the girls to falsify such symptoms. One theory offered is that many of these girls—those who were orphaned—felt much anger and resentment and attributed those feelings as belonging to the Devil. So they accused ‘witches’ of afflicting them with that emotion (The Salem Witch Trials: A Brief History with Documents, 2011). One of the more popular theories is that the girls suffered from Convulsive Ergotism—ergot is found in rye, which the Puritans ate frequently. This ergot infestation would have caused symptoms similar to the girls.’ One theory I found particularly interesting involves a book called Memorable Providences, written by Cotton Mathew in 1689. The book described the symptoms of witchcraft and was found in Samuel Parris’s Library. The symptoms of Abigail and Elizabeth align with the symptoms described in the book, begging the question of whether they read the book and fabricated the whole ordeal (The Afflicted Girls of Salem Village).