Betty And Abigail Williams: The Salem Witch Trials

INTRODUCTION
The Salem witch trials took place in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than two hundred people were accused of performing witchcraft and twenty of the two hundred were executed. Abigail Williams aged 12 was the initial accuser of the Salem Witch trials. She was the first person alongside her cousin Betty to accuse a women of being a witch. This was the start of the trial.
Abigail Williams born in 1680 lived with her uncle Reverend Samuel Parris, not much is known as to why she stayed with her uncle, many historians believe it was because her parents died, not much is known on Abigail Williams other than the fact that she was a servant and was the initial accuser of the Salem Witch trials.
At age 12 Abigail and her 9 year old cousin Betty showed signs of hysteria in mid-January 1692. She and Betty were the
first two afflicted girls in Salem Village.
Abigail William’s hysteria problems began when some of the afflicted girls were experimenting with fortune telling techniques, such as the “Venus-glass” this is where the girls would drop egg whites into glass water and interpret whatever shapes or symbols appeared in hopes that they could learn more about their future, the girls became terrified when they saw a coffin shape inside the glass. Shortly after this incident in mid-January Abigail Williams and Betty Parris began acting strangely, throwing hysterical fits, screaming out in pain and saying that evil spirits were pinching their necks. Shortly after the girls expressed what they were feeling other afflicted girls began to show the same symptoms. At the end of February Doctor William Griggs was called in, he could not find any problems with the girls and stated that they must be bewitched. Shortly after the doctors statement Abigail and the other afflicted girls named three women who they suspected were bewitching them: Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. The women were then arrested and examined on March 1st were Tituba claimed she was a witch and that
there were other witches in the village of Salem. After news of this a witch hunt spread throughout the entire colony and any suspicious activities in the village were examined and reported. Reverend Deodat Lawson, the previous Salem minister was in charge of reporting all the suspicious activities. He witnessed and published an account on Abigail Williams’s first fits, he stated that she was the initial accuser and she was the reason for the start of the trials. According to Lawson’s account Abigail Williams also stated that she saw witches eating and drinking flesh and blood which lead to Abigail being one of the eye witnesses at most of the cases. Abigail gave testimonies at 7 cases and was involved in 17 capital cases.
There have been many arguments as to whether or not Abigail Williams was to blame for the start of the Salem witch trials, because in many historical books and biographies on her she is seen to have done all she said and did in attempts for attention and was known for telling lies. Other historians argue that it was a continuation of the 300 year gender massacre that happened in Europe three hundred years prior to the Salem witch trials leading the idea of witch craft in society already before Abigail and the other girls became afflicted. The trials cannot entirely be blamed on a 12 year old girl, there were many other reasons as to why the trials began and even after the trials ended in 1693 the colony admitted the trials were in fact mistake.
The start of the trials and how they began will be examined and Abigail Williams’s motives will be explored and discussed to answer the following question, given that Abigail Williams was the initial accuser of the Salem witch trials. Was she to blame for the start of the trials?