In this episode, we dig into Friday, March 25, 1692, as tensions surge in Salem Village and beyond. We discuss John Procter’s furious confrontation with Samuel Sibley at Walter Phillips’ Tavern over Mary Warren’s fits and his harsh skepticism toward the afflicted girls. Back in the village, we cover Ann Putnam Jr.’s reported violent spectral assault—attributed to Rebecca Nurse—with witnesses claiming visible bite marks and chain impressions, alongside Edward Putnam’s deposition against Nurse. In Salem Town, we examine Betty Parris’s severe seizures at Captain Stephen Sewall’s home and her account of a dark figure offering temptation, as well as the advice that seemed to end her fits. We also explore Rev. Samuel Parris’s discovery of Mary Sibley’s role in the witch cake and the church repentance he orchestrated.
00:00 Welcome and Date
00:23 Procter Confronts Sibley
01:34 Skepticism Turns Violent
02:08 Ann Putnam Chain Attack
02:49 Betty Parris in Salem Town
03:44 Temptation and Recovery
05:13 Parris Learns Witch Cake
06:20 Mary Sibley Public Rebuke
Deposition of Edward Putnam v. Rebecca Nurse
Deodat Lawson, Christ’s Fidelity the Only Shield
Deodat Lawson, A Brief and True Narrative
Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims
Find My Massachusetts Legislators
The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel
Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub
The Thing About Salem
The Thing About Witch Hunts
Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt
Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience
Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege
Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection