"Nemo repente fuit turpissimus."
('No one ever became thoroughly bad in one step.')
— Juvenal (A.D. 60-130?), Satires, 2, 83
Item 12C: Scrapbook containing mixed cuttings and hastily scrawled notes, apparently relating to the Salem Witch Hunts. The following excerpts highlighted, apparently focusing on the cases of Sarah & Dorothy Good
Dorothy Good was the daughter of William and Sarah Good. Both Dorothy and her mother were accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem at the very beginning of the Salem witch trials in 1692. Only four years old at the time, she was interrogated by the local magistrates and confessed to being a witch and incriminated her mother. Dorothy was in custody for nearly 9 months, from March 24, 1692, when she was arrested until she was released on bond for £50 on December 10, 1692. She was never indicted or tried.
Her examinations by the magistrates were conducted on March 24, 25, and 26, according to Rev. Deodat Lawson:
//The Magistrates and Ministers also did informe me, that they apprehended a child of Sarah G. and Examined it, being between 4 and 5 years of Age And as to matter of Fact, they did Unanimously affirm, that when this Child, did but cast its eye upon the afflicted persons, they were tormented, and they held her Head, and yet so many as her eye could fix upon were afflicted. Which they did several times make careful observation of : the afflicted complained, they had often been Bitten by this child, and produced the marks of a small set of teeth, accordingly, this was also committed to Salem Prison; the child looked hail, and well as other Children. I saw it at Lievt. Ingersols After the commitment of Goodw. N. Tho: Putmans wife was much better, and had no violent fits at all from that 24th of March to the 5th of April. Some others also said they had not seen her so frequently appear to them, to hurt them….
On the 26th of March, Mr. Hathorne, Mr Corwin , and Mr. Higison were at the Prison-Keepers House, to Examine the Child, and it told them there, it had a little Snake that used to Suck on the lowest Joynt of it Fore-Finger ; and when they inquired where, pointing to other places, it told them, not there, but there, pointing on the Lowest point of the Fore-Finger ; where they Observed a deep Red Spot, about the Bigness of a Flea-bite.//
In 1710, when the survivors of the witch trials were requesting restitution, William Good submitted a request for compensation, describing his daughter's ordeal: "a child of 4 or 5 years old was in prison 7 or 8 months and being chain'd in the dungeon was so hardly used and terrifyed that she hath ever since been very changeable haveing little or no reason to govern herself."
‘Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society’’
Thomas Szas
Sarah Good
Sarah Good was born July 14,1653 to John Solart, a wealthy innkeeper from Wenham, Massachusetts, and his wife, Elizabeth. A large family by modern standards, she had six sisters (Abigail, Bethia, Elizabeth, Hannah, Martha, and Mary) and two brothers (John, Jr., and Joseph). In 1672, her father committed suicide by drowning…
…Sarah Good was first married to Daniel Poole of Salem, a former indentured servant with very little money. Poole died in 1683, leaving behind a considerable amount of debt. Good then married her second husband, William Good. William and Sarah were forced to deal with the debt, and when they failed to pay Good's creditors, they were thrown into poverty. William was sent to jail and they were forced to hand over a portion of their property to the creditors. William and Sarah later sold the remainder of their land in an effort to settle the remainder of their debts. Good was now homeless and forced to seek shelter from her neighbours, continually moving from house to house with her young daughter, Dorothy.
Sarah Good was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Good was described by the people of Salem as being filthy, bad-tempered, and strangely detached from the rest of the village. She was often associated with the death of residents' livestock and would wander door to door, asking for charity. If the resident refused, Good would walk away muttering under her breath. Although she maintained at the trial that she was only saying the Ten Commandments, those who turned her away would later claim she was chanting curses in revenge. Also of note is that when asked to say the Commandments at her trial, she could not recite a single one.
On March 1, 1692, Good was tried for witchcraft. When she was brought in, the accusers immediately began to rock back and forth and moan, seemingly in response to Good’s presence. Later on in the trial, one of the accusers fell into a fit. When it had stopped, she claimed Good had attacked her with a knife; she even produced a portion of it, stating the weapon had been broken during the alleged assault. However, upon hearing this statement, a young townsman stood and told the court the piece had broken off his own knife the day before, and that the girl had witnessed it. He then revealed the other half, proving his story. After hearing this, the judge simply scolded the girl for exaggerating what he believed to be the truth.
Others who testified in Good’s trial claimed to have seen her flying through the sky on a stick, presumably to get to her “witch meetings.” Even her husband testified against her, stating he had seen the Devil’s mark on her body, right below her shoulder. He also told the court he had reason to believe she was either presently a witch, or would soon become one. Dorothy was later forced to testify against her, saying that she was a witch and she had seen her mother consorting with the devil.
Although both Good and Sarah Osborne denied these allegations, Tituba admitted to being the “Devil’s servant.” She stated that a tall man dressed all in black came to them, demanding they sign their names in a great book. Although initially refusing, Tituba said, she eventually wrote her name, after Good and Osborne forced her to. She also said that Good had ordered her cat to attack Elizabeth Hubbard, causing the scratches and bite marks on the girl’s body. She spoke of seeing Good with black and yellow birds surrounding her, and that Good had also sent these animals to harm the girls. When the girls began to have another fit, Tituba claimed she could see a yellow bird in Good’s right hand. The young accusers agreed.
… Sarah Good was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death. Good was pregnant with a second child at the time of her trial. She gave birth while awaiting her execution; the infant died shortly thereafter in the Ipswich Jail. Dorothy was later accused of witchcraft herself. Mary Walcott and Ann Putnam Jr. claimed she was deranged, and repeatedly bit them as if she were an animal. Dorothy received a brief hearing in which the accusers repeatedly complained of bites on their arms. She was then convicted and sent to jail, becoming at age five the youngest person to be jailed during the Salem Witch Trials. Two days later, she was visited by Salem officials. She claimed she owned a snake—given to her by her mother—that would talk to her and suck the blood from her finger. The officials took this to mean it was her "familiar," which is defined as a witch’s spiritual servant. Dorothy was released from jail several months later, and evidently suffered from psychological issues for the remainder of her life…
…On July 19, 1692, Sarah Good was hanged along with four other women convicted of witchcraft. While the other four quietly awaited their ill-fortuned death, Good firmly proclaimed her innocence. Reverend Nicholas Noyes was persistent in his attempts to force Good to confess but was unsuccessful. With a noose around her neck on Gallows Hill, Good declared: “You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink" (Chadwick, 1969). Coincidentally, Noyes experienced a severe brain hemorrhage 25 years later, choking on his own blood as he died.