Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern SpiritualismPutnam, Allen
Religion
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism
Putnam, Allen
Spiritualism; Witchcraft -- New England
We have now presented the full text of Tituba's testimony as recorded by
Corwin and printed by Drake. Severed from the leading and jumbled
questions which drew it forth, and reduced to a simple narrative, her
statement would in substance be nearly as follows:--
Something like a man came to me just as I was going to sleep the Friday
night before Abigail was taken ill, six weeks and a little more ago, who
then told me that he was God, that I must believe him, and that if I would
serve him six years he would give me many fine things. He said there must
be a meeting at my master's house the next Wednesday, and on the evening
of that day he and four women came there. Then I told him I could not
believe that he was God, and proposed to go and ask Mr. Parris what he
thought on that point; but the man held me back. They forced me against my
will and my love for Betty to pinch the children; we did pinch them. That
was the first night that Abigail was sick. Sometimes I saw the
appearances of dogs, cats, birds, hogs, wolves, and a nondescript animal,
some of whom spoke to me, and talked like the man. Yesterday, when I was
in the lean-to chamber, I saw a thing like a man,--the same that I had
seen before,--who asked me to serve him; and last night, when I was
washing the room, the man and the four women all came again, and wanted me
to hurt the children; and we all went up to Mr. Thomas Putnam's, and hurt
Ann, and cut her with a knife. I went to the Hubbard girl once, and
pinched her, and once the man brought her over to me, and I pinched her;
but I was not there when they say I was, though it may be that the man
sent my apparition over there then without my knowing it. I once saw what
looked like a wolf go out from Mrs. Good and run to the Hubbard girl. How
we travel I don't know; we go up in the air, and we are instantly at the
place we intend to go to; we see no trees, no roads. The man brings cats
or other things to me, and I pinch them; and by doing so the girls are
pinched. Sometimes I can see these things for a while, and then instantly
become blind to them. This morning the man came and told me the
magistrates had come to examine me.
Such are the principal points in Tituba's account of the origin and author
of the disturbance or "amazing feats" at Mr. Parris's house. In the main,
they are plain, direct, and seemingly true. They teach as clearly as words
ever taught anything, that "something like a man"--"a tall man with white
hair," dressed in "serge coat"--came and forced Tituba to pinch the
children at the very time when one of them was first taken sick. They
teach also that the same man appeared to Tituba several times, and was
with her on the day of her examination. The spiritual source of the first
physical manifestations which generated the great troubles at Salem
Village is thus set forth with such clearness as will command credence in
future ages, even if it shall fail to do so in this Sadducean generation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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