E3 Activity 2.2

What are the charges against Martha Carrier? What is the evidence against her?

• Martha Carrier is officially charged with killing her husband.

• Martha Carrier is officially charged with stealing her neighbors' cattle.

• Martha Carrier is officially charged with breaking Abigail's ankle.

• Martha Carrier is officially charged with “bewitching certain persons,” or witchcraft.

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What evidence does Cotton Mather include in his account that is not presented at the trial?

• Mather writes that Carrier,, or her spirit, bites, pricks, pinches, and chokes people.

• Mather writes that several of Martha Carrier’s children, with “much demonstration of truth,” confess that their mother makes them into witches.

• Carrier is accused killing peoples' cows and causing or preventing the healing of sores and wounds.

• When she looks at people, they fall down as if dead, but when she is bound, they feel at ease.

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What evidence do Benjamin and Sarah Abbot offer as proof that Martha Carrier is a witch? In what ways is this evidence subjective?

• Benjamin and Sarah Abbot are long time friends of Martha Carrier. Therefore, their evidence is subjective because they are trying to prevent her from being executed.

• Benjamin and Sarah Abbot saw Martha Carrier on their property. Days later, their cattle died. Everyone agrees that since she was the only one who was seen there, she killed them.

• Benjamin Abbot would never had sores on his feet and legs if Martha Carrier did not put a spell on him.

• Witnesses such as these create patterns out of random events to fit their preconceived beliefs regarding witchcraft. Martha’s “expressions [of] anger” may have been misinterpreted or misunderstood.

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How do the ideas presented in the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” help to explain the trial of Martha Carrier?

• The sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” solidifies the point that the Puritans think of the devil as a real and threatening being.

• "His anger is as great towards them as those that are actually suffering the execution of the fierceness of His wrath in hell."

• “[Men] deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way; it makes no objection against God’s using His power at any moment to destroy them."

• “God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment."

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What effect does Mather create with the cumulative sentence at the beginning of the essay?

• It shocks the reader with Carrier’s crime and downplays the information that she pleads “not guilty.”

• The shock value builds to the revelation that Carrier turns her own children, by their own admission, into witches.

• The targets of this blame become those marginalized by society—a woman such as Martha Carrier, in this case.

• The sores healing after Martha is arrested is not proof that she causes them.

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What words and phrases in paragraph 1 hint at the author’s true point of view about the trial of Martha Carrier?

• "Despite the fact that young girls made the accusations, it was the adults who lodged formal charges against their neighbors and provided most of the testimony."

• "Spectral evidence: Finally, in October, the governor of Massachusetts stepped in."

• "Fits identified as satanic possession had broken out among adolescent girls at earlier times in New England."

• Martha Carrier’s statement that she has been accused by “folks that are out of their wits.”

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How do some people in Salem accused of witchcraft avoid being hanged?

• People who deny being witches in Salem in 1692 are not hanged.

• People who confess to being witches in Salem in 1692 are not hanged.

• People who confess to dancing in the woods in Salem in 1692 are not hanged.

• People who confess to being witches in Salem in 1692 are hanged.

What pattern of accusations do you discern in paragraphs 6 and 7? What can be inferred from the pattern?

• First, the girls accuse their mothers so that they can go dancing in the woods. After that, they target anyone who crosses them.

• The girls identify which women in the village are evil based on their own intuition.

• Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne are safe targets because they have already been ostracized from the community due to religious beliefs, mental illness, and morality.

• The girls point at all of the people who have bit, pinched, and poked at them throughout their short lives.

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What does the word “matriarch” in paragraph 7 mean?

• The Puritans live in a society which fosters a deep respect for women.

• In the Puritan society, women were responsible for making the decisions for the whole village.

• Since women are responsible for having babies, they are valued to ensure that the Puritan population grows.

• “Matriarch” is used to describe a 71-year-old woman and is related to her having “a large family.”

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Based on details in paragraph 11, why might the girls of Salem have developed hysteria?

• Based on details in paragraph 11, the girls of Salem have likely developed hysteria because the devil came to them and spoke to them.

• Based on details in paragraph 11, the girls of Salem have likely developed hysteria because Puritanism was grim, and life could be “dreary” for girls in Salem. Rebelling against these limitations by experimenting with “magic” may have been “wonderfully scary.”

• Based on details in paragraph 11, the girls of Salem have likely developed hysteria because they were drinking alcohol.

• Based on the details in paragraph 11, the girls wanted to break free from the Puritan society, regardless of the circumstances.

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