Abigail Williams (1680 - 1697?) was one the key accusers in the Salem Witch trials incident which killed at least thirty-nine accused witches and left approximately 150 people imprisoned.
The Beginnings of the Witch Trials of 1692
Abigail came to live with her uncle, the local minister Samuel Parris after her parents were murdered in an Indian raid. When she was eleven, she and her cousin Betty Parris began showing signs of abnormal behavior. For example, she and Betty attempted to climb through the chimney, and it was also reported that Abigail's body bent in ways that weren't humanly possible. Reportes mention the girls having fits, running around in their rooms screaming. Abigail and her cousin Betty claimed that they pinched by invisible spirits that they could see. The girls that their pain that their bodies were in and their fevers were caused by witches tormenting them. However, recent discoveries infer that Abigail and Betty lied about being tormented by a witch, and were acting out for attention. Betty and Abigail's lies spared quickly soon other young girls started coming forward claiming that they were tormented as well most of these accusers who reported seeing witchcraft in the town were young children.
Along with Abigail and Betty other accusers who influenced the trials included: Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Susannah Sheldon and Mary Walcott. Most of these girls were teenagers when they accused innocent people of witchcraft with Abigail and Betty being the youngest accusers. During the trials several of the girls claimed to have been witnessed seeing the people they accused practicing and preforming witchcraft. These children were very convincing and managed to get the towns people to to believe their lies some of the people they accused didn't even know the girls and have never met them before. The town believed the children's claims more then the adults who were accused. The town of Salem believed these kids so much that they used them as ways to find witches in their town. However do to Betty Parris poor health getting worse her parents kept their daughter from being used to find witches and speaking in court during the trials. As the trials went on Betty's health got worse so she was moved to live with a distant cousin when her health got worse Betty so did her behavior she claimed to have to have even seen the devil. All of this worried Betty's parents so they moved her away to keep her out of the growing chaos in Salem. After moving in with her cousin Stephen Sewall Betty said that she still had a few visions but all of her fits soon stopped when she was moved out of Salem and her health started to improve. However as things started getting better for Betty the town of Salem was getting worse as Abigail and the other young girls still lead the trials by accusing more people.
While several women were accused of being witches Abigail and the other girls even accused several men of being warlocks. Abigail started the whole thing while Betty and the other accusers followed her because of her lies the people of Salem believed that their town was under the control of the devil. When the town began believing the lies of the kids who accused people they decided to conduct some tests to find out who was a witch. Many of the tests involved the accused people touching the girls who accused them or a test that involved them staring at the girls if child's fits stop when the accused touched them that meant the person was a witch. If the girls fainted when the accused looked at them during the staring test the person was seen a witch. Eventually it got to the point where people started asking for neighbors to spy on and report each other if they believed someone was a witch. Because of the kids lies some people even decided to take action to become witch hunters to find people they believed to be witches or warlocks. After Abigail lied about being tormented by witches and the governor gave promission for people to rat on their neighbors people who had rivalries with each other used this as an advantage to get revenge on their rivals by accusing them of witchcraft. With the growing chaos that Abigail Williams started neighbors could now accuse someone that they didn't like or people who didn't fit in with the community of being a witch or warlock.
The reason why the town believed Abigail and Betty because Salem was already on edge there was a lot of tension and stress going on in the town. With the town facing a lot of problems the last thing they needed was more trouble and they believed witchcraft would make things worse for the already troubled town. Another reason why the town was uneasy before the witch trials was because of a rivalry with other colonies Salem also had problems with hostile tribes and with the king of England. While the two girls lead to the deaths of innocent people their lies don't get all the accused people killed some of them were only punished or locked up until they were released. The people who were accused of witchcraft were placed in terrible living conditions when they were locked up after being accused.
Because of their claims, mass hysteria reigned. Approximately twenty people were put to death due to false accusations of them being witches. On February 29, 1692, three more women were found guilty of the crime of witchcraft. Of those three women included: Sarah Good, Sarah Osbourne, and Tituba, one of Parris' servants. Only Tituba confessed to the charges. Good was hanged, and Osbourne died in captivity. Tituba herself was sentenced to do hard time, but she was released a year later by being bailed out by an unknown person. However, the hunt for witches didn't cease and soon spread leading to the deaths of nineteen more people. Not only did the girls get people killed they destroyed the lives of the people who were accused and the lives their families. They caused families to break apart after they believed a family member was a witch or warlock.
Although Abigail started the trials and accused a few people once other people started following her she became less involved. She got things rolling then after that others being to carry out the rest of the trial. It's unknown what became of Abigail Williams after everything was said and done, and it's unknown if she was ever held accountable for these tragedies.
Trivia
- In Arhtur Miller's play The Crucible Arhtur portrayed Abigail Williams and John Proctor however in real life Arthur and Arthur and Abigail were never in relationship with each other.
- Unlike Arhtur Miller's play The Crucible Arhtur Miller was married to Elizabeth Bassett. There was also a huge age difference between Arhtur and Abigail in the real trials during 1692 Arthur was 60 years old and Abigail was 11 turning 12 at the time.