Historic Events of Colonial Days

by Rupert Sargent Holland

The fear of witches, like the fear of the plague in the Middle Ages, spread over Massachusetts with amazing rapidity in that winter and spring of 1692, and found one of its chief centers at Salem. Men and women of standing and education were arrested, as well as those who had few friends and little learning, and the wildest and most improbable stories about their actions were told and were believed. As day followed day the three "afflicted children," John Rowley, Susan Parsons, and Mercy Booth, told more and more fantastic tales about Mistress Swan and Master Appleton, and Jonathan Leek spread these stories so thoroughly that soon there was not a man, woman, or child in Salem, or in the neighboring country, who had not heard how the accused schoolmaster and Ann Swan had bewitched the three. To hear a story about witchcraft at that time was usually to believe it, and many people had condemned the man and woman in their own minds long before the court took up the case against them.

Mat's family, and Joe's family, however, started out with the determination to save Mistress Swan and Thomas Appleton if it could be done. Then these two boys urged their schoolmates, none of whom could believe that the teacher they were so fond of was a witch, to ask their parents to speak kindly of the two accused persons, and so there was soon quite a little party in Salem who protested that the two were innocent. Of course there were many, largely of the more ignorant class, like Jacob Titus, the blacksmith, and people who had listened to Jonathan Leek and fallen under his influence, who felt certain that the schoolmaster and Ann Swan were able to ride about on broomsticks when they had a mind to. Strange to say, some of the ministers of Salem took this view too.

Mr. Hamlin went to the jail and talked with both the prisoners, he visited the houses of the three "afflicted children" and watched their strange performances, and he sought out Jonathan Leek, who had suddenly become a very prominent person, and listened to his oily and mysterious speeches. Then he wrote letters to friends in Boston, and after a while he began to find out facts that were scarcely creditable to Mr. Leek's reputation. He had been driven out of Boston because of the falsehoods he had uttered about people there; he was described as a cheat, a swindler, and a man who tried to get money from men and women by threatening to accuse them of various crimes. Mr. Glover helped in this work, and so did the two boys, and in addition the boys looked after the dogs in the schoolmaster's little hospital and reported to Master Appleton how his charges were getting on.

People were being condemned and hung as witches in Salem Village and other places, and things did not look too cheerful for Mat's two friends. Yet they were both full of patience and courage, and when people came to them and tempted them to admit that they had ill-treated the children, had used magic on them, or worked some spell over them, they always indignantly denied the charges and said such stories were utterly absurd. "I never raised a finger against a child in my life," said Mistress Swan at one such time, "and I never will, no matter what those three may say about me, or what you may do to me." And Master Appleton would say, "Yes, it is true I have cured a number of dogs, but not by sending their ills into these children. Surely you must know that I care as much for children as for animals! Otherwise you'd make me no better than an ogre."

"He is an ogre!" cried Jonathan Leek, when he heard what Master Appleton said. He pointed his lean hand at the crowd who had gathered around him. "Many a schoolmaster is an ogre in disguise, and chooses that work so that he may prey on children! I know; I have seen such men before." And his manner was so impressive as he said this that many people nodded their heads and murmured to each other that doubtless he was right.

So matters stood when the two prisoners, whose cases were so much alike that they were to be considered together, were put on trial in Salem. Mr. Hamlin and Mr. Glover were there, and their sons, and a lawyer they had engaged to represent them. The court room was full to overflowing, and very warm, for it was midsummer.

"How could any one believe those two guilty of such evil deeds?" said Mr. Hamlin to his friends, as he looked at the kind and gentle Mistress Swan and the frank-faced Thomas Appleton.

"People have believed such charges of men and women who look full as innocent," answered Mr. Glover.

Many there in the court room believed that these two were witches as they listened to the stories the three "afflicted children" told, and heard Jonathan Leek and other grown men and women testify as to strange doings they had witnessed. Through all this the two prisoners simply looked at their fellow-townsfolk, as if wondering that such stories could be told of them, and when they were asked by the judges if they had done any of these things, each simply denied all knowledge of such events.

Then Mr. Hamlin's lawyer rose, and he had neighbors of Mistress Swan tell how they had always respected her and how highly they thought of her, and how kind she had always been to their children. After that Mr. Hamlin told what he had discovered about the man Jonathan Leek, how Leek had demanded money from Mistress Swan, and how she had refused to give him any money, saying that her husband had never owed Leek anything as a result of their business dealings. Here the lawyer presented an account-book that showed that, as an actual fact, Jonathan Leek had owed Richard Swan money, instead of the account standing the other way about. Leek looked very angry and indignant as Mr. Hamlin and the lawyer related all these affairs to the court, and when the account-book was shown he jumped up, protesting loudly, saying, "Figures have nothing to do with the fact of this woman's being a witch!" But the lawyer retorted very quickly, "These figures have much to do with the reason why you charged this woman with witchcraft!"