Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern SpiritualismPutnam, Allen
Religion
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism
Putnam, Allen
Spiritualism; Witchcraft -- New England
without, is felt precisely as it would be if fingers had nipped the flesh.
One's bruised spirit acting outwardly may discolor portions of the body
precisely as would an external pinch, grip, or blow. The accusing girls
may have actually perceived and positively _known_ that pain-producing
forces issuing from the forms of the accused women, were distorting and
convulsing their own bodies and the bodies of other sensitive ones, while
yet the women's wills may not have sent the forces forth; those accused
ones may have been but the wearers of bodies, or possessors of
God-bestowed organisms and temperaments through which either Tituba's tall
man or some other spirit, or even some impersonal natural force, gained
access to the spirits of the girls, and, through their spirits, caused
their bodies to manifest signs of intense sufferings. Spiritualism is
inviting physiologists and psychologists into new and interesting fields
for exploration.
The foregoing facts and views invite to very lenient judgments, whether
pertaining to the accused women or to their youthful accusers.
Many things during the examination of Sarah Good were culled from Tituba's
statements, and used with design to show that Sarah Good was a witch.
Tituba charged that woman with hurting the children, and of being one of
five who urged her to do the same. Good rode on a pole with the latter to
Mr. Putnam's, and then told the slave that she must kill somebody. She
came and made Tituba deaf at prayers. She had a yellow bird which sucked
her between her fingers; also she had a cat, and she appeared like a wolf
to Hubbard. Tituba saw Good's name in the book, and the devil (no, the
tall man), "told Good made her mark." Even her own little daughter,
Dorothy Good, testified that her mother "had three birds, one black, one
yellow, and that these birds hurt the children and afflicted persons."
Deliverance Hobbs saw Good at the witch's sacrament.
Abigail Hobbs was in company with, and made deaf by her, and knew her to
be a witch.
Mary Warren had the _book_ brought to her by Sarah Good.
Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Sarah Vibber,
and Abigail Williams (all of them members of the necromantic _circle_),
were afflicted by Sarah Good, and _saw her shape_.
Richard Patch, William Allen, John Hughes, had her appear to them
apparitionally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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