61 pages • 2 hours read
Mary Beth NortonIn the Devil's Snare
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 8-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “All Sorts of Objections: September 6, 1692-May 1693”
New criticism of the trials came from Robert Pike, who was a member of the Governor’s Council. He said the afflicted could be “deluded” in their senses or seeing the devil himself, or Satan could be assuming the shape of innocent people. Given these possibilities, Pike claimed that it was better to allow a guilty person to go free than to execute an innocent person. Yet Cotton Mather continued to maintain that no one had been convicted solely on spectral evidence. The “rising chorus of criticism” (269), however, motivated Mather to write a book in defense of the trials.
The fourth and final session of the court convened on September 6 and lasted through September 17, with 15 cases seen before the grand jury and 14 trials. All 14 were convicted. While some of those convicted fit the profile of typical suspects, others did not. For example, Mary Bradbury had a sworn statement from her pastor attesting to her good character, and 115 people signed a petition for her release, all to no avail. On September 12 and 16, several accused witches, including Edward and Sarah Bishop and John Alden, escaped from the Boston jail. Another, Usher, fled from house arrest. Norton speculates that the conviction of Bradbury most likely convinced them that they had no chance of acquittal. Another accused, Giles Corey, refused to respond to the question about his willingness to be tried by God and country. The punishment for such a refusal in English law was to be crushed to death, and Corey was executed in that manner on September 19. On September 22, eight more people were hanged for witchcraft.
That fall, Increase Mather (Cotton Mather’s father) and Samuel Willard wrote that images of innocent people could be represented to others by the devil, that touch tests amounted to testimony from the devil, and that the afflicted were likely possessed or obsessed. Yet they excused the witnesses, judges, and juries from blame. Thomas Battle offered a stronger critique of the trials, rejecting touch tests and claiming that the afflicted and confessors were consorting with the devil. He highlighted the hypocrisy as well, such as the failure to arrest Thacher, who was related to a magistrate.
Still, there were many defenders of the trials. Cotton Mather, in his book, observed that New Englanders had settled in the devil’s territory. Here again, Norton points to the implicit connection between the devil and Indigenous peoples. Mather cited the trials of only the typical suspects and Burroughs, avoiding any discussion of cases like Rebecca Nurse’s.
Governor Phips and his wife had partaken in activities—such as consulting a fortune teller—that made them vulnerable to charges of witchcraft. Perhaps for this reason, Phips was supportive of the trials. However, “once public opinion turned sharply against the trials” (280), Phips changed his tune and successfully disassociated himself from them. He informed England about the crisis and ordered that there be no new arrests unless absolutely necessary. With many of the Andover confessors recanting their testimony and rebukes coming from ministers in other jurisdictions, Phips announced the termination of the court on October 29.
In December, the Massachusetts legislature passed a new law on witchcraft. In January, the legislature then established a “Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery” to deal with the remaining cases using the new stricter rules (291). While 52 people were tried in January and February, only three were convicted. Phips then granted reprieves to those three, and even Tituba was released. However, there were delays in the release of Tituba and others who could not afford to pay jail fees. The last recorded affliction was in the fall of 1693. Margaret Rule, also from Maine, was treated with prayers rather than criminal charges.
Conclusion Summary: “New Witchland”
The worldview of Puritan New Englanders was central to the witch crisis. Believing themselves to be a chosen people who were bringing God’s message to a heathen land, the Puritans attributed all consequences to God. Even “Satan could do no more than God allowed” (296). Thus, they believed that the devastating losses of people and property in King William’s War were the result of God’s fury, not the mistakes of their political and military leaders. The witchcraft outbreak in Essex County “became closely entwined in New Englanders’ minds” with the war (297). Although the war did not cause the crisis, Norton argues that the war created the conditions for the crisis to expand to such unprecedented levels. Ordinarily, magistrates were highly skeptical of charges of witchcraft, but the Massachusetts magistrates had personal motivations to find such a conspiracy of witches credible. The magistrates and judges were the political and military leaders who had failed to protect the frontier. If God had caused the military disaster to punish the colonists, then they were not responsible for their own errors.
Most people believed that the afflicted were indeed suffering. As a result, the magistrates assumed guilt though they could not extract confessions. When Abigail Hobbs confessed, she made the “crucial connection” to Maine “explicit” (301). The witches were allied with the Wabanakis, with Burroughs bewitching the troops and therefore causing the military losses. Norton emphasizes the significance of the role that confessors played in the trials. People learned that confessors were less likely to be tried, which most likely contributed to their increasing numbers. The accusers then claimed that specters confessed to them, and they therefore assumed the role of magistrates in the invisible world. Once people realized that the devil could assume the shape of an innocent person, support for the trials quickly evaporated. Critics focused on the accusers—young women who were relegated back to a subordinate role.
Norton explains that the accusers could be broken down into three groups: young girls under 13; older young people, including one male; and married women in their thirties. The legal proceedings depended on the latter two groups, especially the older young people. However, adult males, such as Thomas Putnam and Samuel Parris, gave credence to the allegations in their own testimonies. Norton emphasizes their complicity as well as those of the governor, council, and judges. They allowed the crisis to reach the extremes that it did. Speculating on an explanation for the behavior of the afflicted, Norton names post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the afflicted most likely contrived their symptoms on some occasions, but none ever admitted fraud. Given the unprecedented power that these young women had for the first time, they most likely exaggerated as well.
Epilogue Summary
Norton provides very brief accounts of what became of several participants in the crisis. Samuel Parris was “forced to leave Salem Village” in 1697 because the Nurse family led a campaign against him (309). Thomas and Ann Putnam, Sr., both died in 1699, while their daughter, Ann, Jr., later asked for forgiveness; she claimed she had been “an instrument for the accusing of several persons of a grievous crime” in a “great delusion of Satan” (311). In 1706, she said she believed those people were innocent. Mercy Lewis moved to an area outside of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while Abigail Hobbs married and remained in Essex County. King William’s War continued until 1699, while Governor Phips was recalled to England in 1694 and died the following year.
Chapter 8-Epilogue Analysis
By the fall of 1692, criticisms of the witch trials were increasing and coming from highly respected members of the community. Still, even these criticisms reflected The Centrality of Puritans’ Beliefs to the Witch Crisis. Increase Mather and Samuel Willard, both ministers, argued that the devil could appear in the form of innocent people to the afflicted. Once that view was accepted, public support for the trials evaporated. Battle, a stronger critic, attacked the evidence used and exposed the hypocrisy implicit in the crisis since those with ties to the government were spared arrest despite accusations. However, Cotton Mather continued to defend the trials, putting Governor Phips in a bind.
Phips was heavily involved in the decision-making throughout the crisis. Yet he concealed that fact from England, going so far as to lie about his whereabouts that summer. Although he, too, shared the worldview of the Puritans, he behaved as a politician in any age. When the trials were popular, he supported them, and when they became unpopular, he withdrew his favor and tried to hide evidence of his past support. When there was disagreement among ministers, he called for an end to arrests unless necessary, a position that pleased no one. He failed to win favor for his changing positions and was recalled to England in 1694.
Norton stresses the importance of The Connection Between the Wabanaki Attacks and the Witch Crisis in her conclusion. While she does not claim that the wars caused the crisis, she goes so far as to say that without the wars, there would not have been a witchcraft crisis in Essex County. It was the confession of Abigail Hobbs and allegations against George Burroughs that transformed the crisis into something unprecedented, as they linked the attacks in Maine to the spectral attacks in Essex County. Norton speculates that many accusers suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, especially since many of them, like Mercy Lewis, had some connection to the war being fought on the frontier.
The Gender and Power Dynamics During the Witch Crisis also played a role in the accusers’ behavior. Given the disruption to gender dynamics and their newfound empowerment, the accusers most likely exaggerated their nightmares and made claims that they knew would win them the community’s attention and approval. Ann Putnam, Jr., for example, later regretted her role in the crisis but did not admit to lying. She claimed to have been “deluded.” However, rather than blaming the accusers, most of whom came from powerless segments of society, Norton holds those in the highest positions of power most responsible for the crisis. There was continuity in the power dynamics during the crisis, and the male gatekeepers could have exercised more caution. Those in the highest offices not only failed to keep those on the frontier safe but were also complicit in enabling the witchcraft crisis, which resulted in the deaths of 23 innocent people and the imprisonment of more than 100.
