Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer

arm,” she cried and fell into such violent fits that two men could scarcely restrain her, to the amazement of those still gathered in the house.
    Daniel Wescot and Jonathan Selleck decided not to move Kate until the following morning. All night long her torments continued. During brief gaps between spasms of agony she conversed with the apparitions. “Goody Clawson,” she asked in a woe-begone tone, “why do you torment me so? I never did you any harm in word or deed. Why are you all come now to afflict me?”
    A little later she declared, “I will not yield, for you are witches and your portion is hellfire to all eternity. Mister Bishop has often told me I must not yield and the minister from Norwalk has said the same, so I hope God will keep me from yielding to you.”
    Kate named five women whose specters she conversed with that night: Elizabeth Clawson, Mercy Disborough, Goody Miller, the little girl, and her mother. The girl she now addressed as Sarah.
    “Is Sarah Staples your right name? I’m afraid you tell me a lie. Tell me your right name!”
    This she repeated several times before declaring, “Yes, I must tell my master and Mister Selleck if they ask me, but I’ll tell no one else.”
    A short silence.
    “Hannah Harvey? Is that your name? Then why did you tell me a lie before? Well then, what is the name of the woman who comes with you?”
    Another silence.
    “Yes, I must tell my master and Mister Selleck if he asks me, but I’ll tell no one else. You will not tell me? Then I will ask Goody Crump.”
    “Goody Crump,” she said, turning in another direction, “what is the name of the woman who comes with Hannah Harvey?” She asked this several times and then declared, “Mary! Mary what? Mary Harvey? Well then, is Mary Harvey the mother of Hannah Harvey? Now I know it! Why did you not tell me before? There were more cats came at first, and I shall know all your names. What creature is that with a great head and wings and no body and all black? Hannah, is that your father? I believe it is, for you are a witch. Hannah, what is your father’s name? And have you no grandfather and grandmother? How came you to be a witch?”
    She stopped again and then resumed after listening carefully.
    “A grandmother? What is her name?” Another pause.
    “Goody Staples? What was her maiden name?”
    Mister Selleck most likely knew that the husband of a New Haven woman named Mary Staples had won a slander suit many years before against a neighbor who accused her of being a witch and a liar. It had been an ugly business. Goodwife Staples had angrily confronted the neighbor in church. Many witnesses, including the local minister, later testified in court for one side or the other. Staples had a daughter Mary whose married name was Harvey; Mary had a daughter named Hannah.
    Mister Selleck’s attention was drawn back to Kate’s fits. She began to sing songs and hum tunes, “gigs for them to dance by,” as she said. She then recited a great many religious verses and also the dialogue between Christ and the Devil as well as the Lord’s Prayer, the Commandments, and the Catechism (an outline of Puritan faith in the form of questions and answers that children in godly households learned by heart).
    Early the following morning Jonathan Selleck wrote to Nathan Gold, who had presided with him over the initial inquiry. “Yesterday,” he reported, “Mister Wescot brought his maid Kate down to my house to be examined, and I took her relation concerning how she had been afflicted of late, which is too long to relate, but I refer you to the bearer of this letter, my son John Selleck, who was a spectator with several others at the time. The poor girl was forced to stay all night and as yet has not come to her senses. But when she does I shall examine her about what she discoursed in her fits. She said in her fits last night that there was a creature she saw among them with a great head and wings, all black, and Kate asked