Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism Part 18

GILES COREY.

As renowned as any one among all sufferers under persecutions for witchcraft--a hero in the band--was Giles Corey, husband of Martha, more than fourscore years old, but still strong and resolute. He may have been wild and rough in youth and early manhood, but was efficient in business, and before the close of life was possessor of a very handsome estate for those times in that region. When the witchcraft prosecutions commenced, he sided with the mult.i.tude for a time; was vexed that his wife would not do the same, and, in his excitement, perhaps gave free vent to such hard epithets as his tongue had been allowed to put forth freely in his earlier years; some of which were soon brought to bear against his good dame, while she was subjected to examination. From some cause his sympathy with the prosecutors subsided when he saw his good wife maligned by them, and soon the witch detectors were after him also. He was arrested and imprisoned. His keen penetration perceived that acquittal, as things were going, was impossible, unless the accused pleaded guilty; which plea truth, honor, and manhood forbade him to make. To be tried and condemned would involve a forfeiture of his property, and take it from his children.

But no trial could be had, and of course no condemnation, unless he should plead either guilty or not guilty to the indictment. His decision was soon formed. Taken into court, he closed his lips, and no power there could open them. Neither _guilty_ nor _not guilty_ could be wrung from them. The large, strong, old man stood in calm majesty before the court, his silence challenging the whole civil power of the province to shake his purpose.

English custom in such cases--and he probably knew it--was to subject the recusant to lingering torture, trusting that pain or prostration would wring out a plea of either guilty or not guilty. Order was given by the court to lay this old man prostrate, pile over him heavy weights, and put him upon starvation diet for the purpose of bringing his stubborn will to subjection. But neither oppressing weights, the pangs of hunger, nor both combined, weakened the hold of that strong will upon its purpose. His only utterances then were, "More weight, more weight!"

Corey himself testified at his preliminary examination, and the court tried to make it evidence of diabolism, that, twice at least, when attempting to pray, there was more or less stoppage of his utterance.

Whether this was caused by the action of some outside intelligence bringing spirit forces to bear upon him is not apparent. The case as stated will hardly justify the presumption, though it suggests the possibility that it was. The dumbness that was formerly imposed upon the prophet Ezekiel and priest Zacharias, and that which frequently befalls mediums in our own age, teach that unseen intelligences sometimes can and do temporarily prevent the use of vocal organs by their legitimate owners.

The conclusive evidences which led to his commitment were spectral. His apparition had been seen by many, and had harmed them. Ann Putnam's sharp eyes were first in this case, as in most others, to see the witch. She saw this old man's apparition April 13; Mercy Lewis did on the 14th; and subsequently he was seen as a specter by, and gave annoyances to, eight other females and two males, who severally gave in depositions to that effect.

Was their perception of him nothing more than the product of the imagination of the witnesses? Were all the declarations false?

Possibly--but not probably; for both imagination and perjury are often charged with doing what clairvoyance legitimately sees and authorizes.

He was examined April 19, five days after his apparition was first seen.

Calef states that "Sept. 16th Giles Corey was prest to death." In a foot-note, p. 260 of _Salem Witchcraft_, we read that "Giles Corey was _executed_ Sept. 19, 1692, about noon." Perhaps these statements permit the conclusion that he was subjected to pressure from some hour of the 16th, Calef's date, till noon of the 19th, or about three days, when, according to Fowler, he died. "In pressing," Calef says, "his tongue being prest out of his mouth, the sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again when he was dying."

Corey's endurance and call for "more weight," says Upham, ii. 340, "for a person of more than eighty-one years of age, must be allowed to have been a marvelous exhibition of prowess, ill.u.s.trating, as strongly as anything in human history, the power of a resolute will over the utmost pain and agony of body, and demonstrating that Giles Corey was a man of heroic nerve, and of a spirit that could not be subdued." Hutchinson closes his account of this case with the remark that, "in all ages of the world, superst.i.tious credulity has produced greater cruelty than is practiced among Hottentots, or other nations, whose belief of a deity is called in question." And why "_greater_ cruelty"? Nowhere outside of Christendom was so cruel a devil conceived of as within it. And therefore greater incitements to cruelty were called up in those fighting against his minions than in any other men anywhere at any time. The creed devil-ward, and not general "superst.i.tious credulity," evoked in strong, good men, true to their ancestral and the _Christian_ world's faith, more than SAVAGE CRUELTY.

REBECCA NURSE.

The deluding and heart-steeling power of false conceptions of the devil, combined with clear faith that he could get access to external things only through human covenanters with himself, and also with belief that it was an imperative duty of Christian men to slay such persons as even spectral evidence or statements of clairvoyants pointed to as being in league with him, is perhaps manifested as strikingly and sadly in the case of Rebecca Nurse, as in that of any other person tried and executed at Salem--or indeed anywhere, in any age. The spirit-form or apparition of this venerable lady--venerable not only for years then bordering upon fourscore, but for a long life of active beneficence; for strong good sense; for Christian graces; for being the good wife of one and mother and mother-in-law of several as good, respectable, and useful men as the Village contained. Character and domestic connections so shielded her that nothing short of mighty power could fix upon her a blasting crime.

Her spirit-form or apparition had been seen by several members of the circle, and charged with having tempted them to evil and tormented them prior to the 23d of March; on the 24th she was brought before the magistrates and subjected to examination. The occasion was well fitted to put to severe test existing fealty to a fearful creed. Well might the magistrate then say to the prisoner, as he did, "What a sad thing it is that a church member ... should be thus accused and charged." Especially _sad_ it must have been in this case, because the accused had long been, and well deserved to be, regarded as one of the most venerable and esteemed of all the "mothers in Israel" residing in the region there and round about. Some sympathy was on her side, for when she said, "I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent, and G.o.d will clear my innocency,"

the magistrate responded, "There is never a one in the a.s.sembly but desires it."

This venerable matron was then, and for scores of years had been, beloved and respected wherever known for her beautiful domestic, social, and religious course. Even such a one, however, was drawn in and crushed by the fierce and whirling zeal that was impelling community into headlong and frenzied fight for G.o.d and Christ against the _Devil_. Age and virtue were insufficient to arrest or divert the rushing storm which hallucination devil-ward then generated and propelled. A benighting creed, like a huge nightmare, lay down upon, and held down, both reason and all the kindlier sentiments, while it evoked and allowed free play to harsh and murderous propensities. Whither either natural brilliancy or natural attraction drew clairvoyant eyes most intently, thither were the accusing girls swayed to lead the whelming force. Why should they lead to, or rather why fix upon, the beloved and venerated Mrs. Nurse?

We may not find in the old records as full and distinct evidence that she was const.i.tutionally impressible by either mesmeric or spirit force, as many others are now seen to have been--we may miss conclusive _proof_ that she was a magnet either drawing to or emitting from itself psychological forces unconsciously, and thence either becoming herself psychologized or yielding out substances from her own system which might cause, or be made instrumental in causing, marked changes in other human organisms. Still, several facts indicate that she may be a.s.signed a place among the sensitives.

Mrs. Nurse, Mrs. Easty, and Mrs. Cloyse--three sisters--whose maiden name was Towne, were eminently intelligent, efficient, respectable, and respected matrons, and yet were all accused, tried, and the elder two were executed because their spirit-forms or apparitions had been seen by clairvoyants. The records contain a statement made at the time, in these words: "It was no wonder they were witches, _for their mother was so before them_." Often "blood will out" whatever its quality. Three n.o.ble daughters bespeak a good mother, and yet, for some reason, Mrs. Towne had been called _a witch_. The properties of the parent reappeared in her children, and rendered them visible by the inner or clairvoyant sight of others. Perception of their spirit-forms and of influences thence emanating caused the accusing girls to name these good women as their tormentors. Visibility as spirits or apparitions, and effluxes from their systems, were their crimes.

Though members of the accusing circle had been demonstrative for several weeks, and probably had attracted to their bedsides or homes nearly every person in the town who could move abroad, yet, at the time of her examination, Mrs. Nurse had not been to see any of them. Her age and infirmities alone might well have excused her. But when asked why she had not visited the sufferers, she added to a statement of her years and debility, that "by reason of _fits_ that she formerly used to have," she had not been to see them. Remembrance of her own past fits--not recent--not impending fits--but fits which "she _formerly_ used to have,"

deterred her from going to the presence of the fit-afflicted. The question was repeated thus: "_Why_ did you never visit these afflicted persons?"

_Ans._ "Because I was afraid _I should have fits, too_." Why afraid of such result? Obviously she felt a secret apprehension that her coming in contact with emanations from these mysteriously fit-afflicted ones, or into close sympathy with them, would bring upon herself again such fits as "she formerly used to have." From this comes forth spontaneously the inference that she suspected that the nature and source of her own former fits, and of those then transpiring in youthful forms, were so nearly allied, that under the general law which makes like produce its like, she was liable to have again generated within herself, in her old age, such sufferings as she had experienced some time in previous years. In our view she was correct in her supposition that she herself was const.i.tutionally liable to just such handlings as the jumping-jack girls were receiving.

Her own fears bespeak the probability that Mrs. Nurse was very impressible by mind not her own--that she was highly mediumistic; and we ascribe her persecution to her impressibility. Natural law led to designation of both this woman and her sisters as the devil's covenanted servants. Their creed blinded her persecutors to moral perceptions in certain emergencies, and made them reason falsely concerning the source and purport of spectral data. The presumed mediumistic properties of her mother, together with her own apprehension that presence with the girls might bring renewal of her own old fits, indicate that she probably was quite mediumistic. There is, however, no clear indication that she was at any time so far developed as to see or hear spirits or specters, nor that her own selfhood ever yielded up to another's use her physical organs of speech or action.

Mr. Parris, who, by request from the magistrates, took minutes of the questions and responses at the trial of Mrs. Nurse, states that the tumult in court was very disturbing, and intimates that it was difficult to furnish a very reliable account of the transactions. Also Mrs. Nurse was quite deaf and otherwise infirm, so that it is doubtful whether she always correctly understood the questions put to her, or that she held her mental faculties under such control as enabled her to give pertinent answers at all times. She is reported as expressing belief that the accusing girls were "not acting against their wills." Therein, if she was correctly understood, she differed from the court and most beholders of the children. Then the court remarked, "If you think it is not unwillingly, but by design, you must look upon them as murderers." Probably all others made that inference, and yet the accused did not. She distinctly denied that she looked upon them as _murderers_, and only called them "distracted." Crazy, and yet voluntary, seems to have been the view she took of the girls; they were voluntary, but not responsible actors. Their own wills, guided by their own intellects in disordered condition, produced the fearful allegations. This was her charitable view.

The power of human will to resist fits like those which the afflicted endured is brought up for consideration when we find enfeebled Mrs. Nurse afraid that visiting the suffering girls might induce recurrence of such fits as she "formerly used to have." She seems to have surmised the probable existence of such contagion in the air surrounding the sufferers as in her weak state she might be unable to ward off; and it is possible that memories of her own success when she was strong, in baffling fit-producers may have persuaded her that young persons possess power to withstand such operators, whether intelligent or merely physical, even though the old may not.

What human wills can do deserves most careful notice, and was well ill.u.s.trated in the case of little Elizabeth Parris. She was only nine years old, and was one of the first, if not the very first, to be distressed by fits and pinchings at the Village,--was the one whom t.i.tuba loved, and was specially unwilling, and yet was forced, to pinch. Upham says, "She seems to have performed a leading part in the first stages of the affair, and must have been a child of remarkable precocity." Drake, in vol. iii., Appendix, says, "Parris appears to have been very desirous of preventing his daughter Elizabeth from partic.i.p.ating in the excitement at the village. She was sent by her father, at the commencement of the delusion, to reside at Salem, with Captain Stephen Sewall. While there, the captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure, as she continued to have sore fits. Elizabeth said that the great Black-man came to her and told her, that if she would be ruled by him, she should have whatsoever she desired, and go to a _golden city_. She related this to Mrs. Sewall, who immediately told the child it was the devil, and he was a liar, and bade her tell him so if he came again; which she did accordingly.... The devil ... unaccustomed in those days to experience such resistance ... never troubled her afterwards." It is generally true, that if one strenuously resist the visitings of any spirit, whether it be Gabriel or Beelzebub, the spirit cannot long maintain close access. If the account just given, relating to Elizabeth Parris, be correct, she both saw and heard what she, the actual and unsophisticated observer of his form and features, called the "black man,"--who, as Mather states clairvoyants generally say, "resembles an Indian." But Mrs. Sewall, adopting the usage of the time, ignorantly called this semblance of an Indian "THE DEVIL."

Yes, the little girl, after her removal from home and _The Circle_, and no doubt without young confederates, continued to have sore fits, and also to see and to hear with her inner organs of sense during quite a long time.

"The captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure." The discouragement shows that the process of cure was slow and prolonged; eventually, however, the desired result was reached. The remedy is indicated. Will-power wrought out the cure. The patient's own will was aroused and armed with a resolute purpose to close up, and to keep constantly and firmly closed, her own spirit loopholes through which only could she see or hear the black man, or be influenced by him. A strong will, steadily set against the entrance of a disembodied spirit, or against perception of such, generally, though not always, effects its purpose. The wills of companions and advisers, if working in harmony with the resisting one, greatly increase its resisting power. Mrs. Sewall, and the captain too, no doubt kept their wills set against the visiting black man, till will-force generated an aura whose outgoing waves he could not breast, and by which the girl's inner perceptives were firmly bandaged and made dormant. Were the fits and visions which the isolated child continued to have for a time after she was sent from home nothing other than her own voluntary pranks and feignings? She was not author of them. The black man, or Indian, then acted through and upon her till it was no longer in his power to perform mighty works there because of unbelief, which had grown up and hardened into an impervious wall of seclusion.

Knowledge, gained by our personal observation in 1857, enables us to state distinctly that the late Professor Aga.s.siz, a man strong in body, mind, and will, (while arrangements were being made for himself and several a.s.sociate professors for an investigation of spirit manifestations at the Albion in Boston,) demanded for himself at the very outset, and was granted, exemption from obligation to sit in a circle. Through all the sessions which followed he kept most of the time on his feet, walking vigorously back and forth, and manifesting symptoms of great uneasiness.

We then had heard that he formerly had been mesmerized, and therefore suspected that he feared that if he sat quietly down in the presence of mediums, he "should have fits too." His own account of his experiences under the hands of Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend we have given at length in a recent work, published by Colby & Rich, Boston, ent.i.tled "Aga.s.siz and Spiritualism." We now gladly use what seems fitting occasion to state our own belief, that his demand for personal exemption from compliance with a rule which it was customary, fair, and important to enforce upon every person present at a seance, and that his restlessness and disturbing movements all sprung from a motive much more in harmony with the high character and principles of that ill.u.s.trious man, than are disparaging ones which have often been ascribed to him. In our judgment, _self-protection_ was his motive, and not design to disturb harmony, and thus frustrate manifestations. His former experience had taught him that even over his firm mental resistance another's mind had entered his body and taken it out from under his own control; therefore he well might apprehend that, if not very cautious, he again "might have fits," or might become "a Saul among prophets."

We have already substantially said that the blinding, infuriating, and bloodthirsty beliefs of former days are perhaps in no case more distinctly and deplorably manifested than in the lawless, barbarous treatment to which good Rebecca Nurse was subjected by a court and people who sought to do, and believed that they were doing, acceptable service to G.o.d, or, at least, offensive service to the devil. Spectral evidence against her, and that alone, was allowed to outweigh the merits of a long and beneficent life. The jury first brought her in _not_ guilty. This verdict, surprising the court, induced it to express apprehension that the jurors had not given due weight to certain expressions which the prisoner had uttered; whereupon _the jury itself requested permission_ to retire and hold further deliberation; and even such a privilege was granted them! They retired, reversed their verdict, p.r.o.nounced her _guilty_, and she was sentenced to be hanged. Afterward the governor of the province granted her reprieve; and yet he soon revoked his own clement act. Probably neither jury, nor the governor, was convinced that she was guilty of the crime charged; nevertheless, both were forced by popular demand to let the reputation and life of this eminently good woman fall a sacrifice before infatuation and frenzy which the erroneous creed of the times engendered.

MARY EASTY,

a woman of strong character, good common sense, and capable of comprehending both the dangers besetting any one then accused of witchcraft, and also the purport and bearings of such questions as the court was accustomed to ask, is presented in the following account.

"The examination of Mary Easty, at a court held at Salem Village, April 22, 1692, by the Wop. John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin.

"At the bringing in of the accused, several fell into fits. 'Doth this woman hurt you?' Many mouths were stopt, and several other fits seized them. Abigail Williams said it was Goody Easty, and she had hurt her; the like said Mary Walcot and Ann Putnam. John Jackson said he saw her with Goody Hobbs.

"'What do you say; are you guilty?' _Ans._ 'I can say before Jesus Christ I am free.' _Response._ 'You see these accuse you.' _Ans._ 'There is a G.o.d.'

"'Hath she brought the book to you (the accusing girls)?' Their months were stopt.

"'What have you done to these children?' _Ans._ 'I know nothing.'

"'How can you say you know nothing, when you see these tormented and accuse you?' _Ans._ 'Would you have me accuse myself?' 'Yes, if you be guilty. How far have you complied with Satan whereby he takes this advantage of you?'

"'Sir, I never complied: but prayed against him all my days. I have no compliance with Satan in this. What would you have me do?'

"'Confess, if you be guilty.'

"'I will say it, if it was my last time: I am clear of this sin.'

"'Of what sin?'

"'Of witchcraft.'

"(To the children.) 'Are you certain this is the woman?'

"Never a one could speak for fits.

"By and by, Ann Putnam said that was the woman: it was like her; 'and she told me her name.'

"(The court.) 'It is marvelous to me that you should sometimes think they are bewitched and sometimes not, when several confess that they have been guilty of bewitching them.'

"'Well, sir, would you have me confess what I never knew?'

"Her hands were clenched together, and then the hands of Mercy Lewis were clenched.

"'Look: now your hands are open, her hands are open. Is this the woman?'