Today in Salem: The unruly Bridget Bishop is frightened and furious. Why, why is she the first to be tried? Nine people were arrested before she was. Are the judges that sure of her guilt?
The stakes are high. This is not a small hearing in the Village meeting house. It’s a trial, in a courtroom, with the colony’s Chief Justice and four assistant judges presiding. They have authority that the local magistrates do not. If these judges decide she’s guilty, she will hang.
The afflicted girls are the first to testify, swearing under oath that they have indeed been tormented by Bridget’s specter. At first they are calm as they relate their stories, but as they talk they grow more and more agitated until they are having the same dramatic fits that they did in the hearings.
Bridget stands taller when the first neighbor begins to testify. It’s impossible to defend herself against the afflicted girls’ wild stories of specters and ghosts. But she can argue with neighbors. And argue she does, using her right to defend herself and question members of the jury who don’t seem impartial.
It quickly becomes fruitless. The neighbors aren’t talking about things she’s done. They’re talking about things they think she’s done; suspicious things. Four men tell about Bridget’s maliciousness in their dreams. Another tells about a time her specter sat on his stomach and tried to choke him, with further tales of mischief she caused through the Devil’s imps.
“I never knew you” Bridget proclaims. “You are a stranger to me!” Not so. More than a few people know they’d lived next door to each other for years and had argued more than a few times.
Her credibility gone, Bridget listens angrily as neighbors talk about arguments with Bridget that later made children die, carts get stuck, and money disappear. The only tangible testimony comes from a neighbor who says that he’d found several poppets in her wall. The suspicious cloth dolls were made of rags and hog bristles, and were stuck full of pins that were pointing out every which way.
Can she explain it? She tries, but just as before, her stories are inconsistent, with obvious lies.
Now the judges take a surprising step back. The neighbors’ calamities may or may not have been caused by Bridget, who may or may not have used witchcraft. But it just doesn’t matter. The reason Bridget was originally arrested was because her specter was tormenting the afflicted girls. Their convulsions and seizures in court today are enough to prove her guilt.
The jury agrees. Bridget Bishop is found guilty, and she will be hanged. The only question is when.
LEARN MORE: What is a poppet?
A ”poppet” was a small doll that was meant to represent a specific person. In theory, anything that was done to the doll would also be done to the person. To inflict evil, pins were used to cast spells or inflict pain. To provide healing or joy, the poppet was stuffed or bound with medicinal herbs.
Voodoo dolls are one kind of poppet. Others kinds have been used in many other cultures and times.
The poppets in Bridget Bishop’s walls were the only ones known to be used during the time of the Salem witchcraft trials. But they’ve never been found. They were probably much like this one, which was found in a New England home of the same period and is on display today at the house belonging to one of the trial judges.
Tomorrow in Salem: AN ODD “EXCRESCENCE OF FLESH”: Bridget Bishop’s teat