It's April eighth, sixteen thirty eleven ships known as the Winthrop Fleet, led by one John Winthrop, are docked at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England. The Arbella, the flagship of the fleet, is loaded ready to depart, along with its three escorts, the Talbot, the Ambrose and the Duel. The air is unusually cold for the springtime, and oppressive gray clouds hang
ominously low overhead, then far off in the distance. A shining golden ray of sunlight breaks suddenly through a small gap in the clouds. For the throng of Puritan women, children and men that stand expectantly waiting to board the vessels. This is a divine blessing, an undeniable sign from God that they are making the right decision. Back then, England under King Charles the First was a dangerous place for Puritans. The Anglican Church of England, with Charles at its head,
had too many Roman Catholic rituals for their liking. For them, worshiping God was supposed to be a simple and austere act, not one framed by gold and idolatry. More pertinent for Charles. However, was the fact that Puritans also rejected the divine right of kings, the idea that monarchs are granted their power
by God and therefore only answerable to God. Their mere existence, as far as King Charles was concerned, an act of treason, and so many Puritans decided their best hope was to cut ties with England entirely and trust in their God to guide them to another world where they could live freely, unmolested by the English authorities. An early attempt was made to establish a community in the Netherlands, but there they still had to exist within the framework of an already
established nation. What they really needed was a blank slate, just as the founders of Jamestown had done in sixteen oh seven and the Mayflower Pilgrims of sixteen twenty. Clearly what they had to do was to take to the seas and strike out for the new World. In the late sixteen twenties, the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded. Its purpose, as the name suggests, was to develop a colony in the region of Massachusetts Bay, an area incorporating
the shoreline of what is present day Boston. Though ostensibly a business venture, it quickly became a popular means of escape to many Puritan families. In sixteen twenty nine, John Winthrop is elected its governor. Shortly before departing for Yarmouth to begin the journey to the Americas, he gives a rallying sermon at Holyrood Church in Southampton, at the time titled a Model of Christian Charity, but since immortalized as
the City upon a Hill. Puritans believe that they alone serve God correctly, and so only they, out of all people, will be accepted into the Kingdom of heavy It stands to reason that the success of their future colony will be evidence that their beliefs are indeed the true will of God. Winthrop's speech concludes with the words, we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.
The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. In other words, should things go well in the New World, their beliefs will be vindicated, and they will forever be a beacon of hope and truth to all who wish to follow them.
Should they fail, however, or should some unequivocal disaster before them, that too would be God's will and proof that they had in fact been wrong all along. After two months, enduring the cold and wet, seasickness, and gale force winds, in June sixteen thirty, Winthrop's fleet and the seven hundred Puritans traveling with it finally reaches its destination, a peninsula of the fledgling New England, known to many local communities
as Noomkeg. To these new arrivals, however, it is known as something different, inspired by the Hebrew word for peace, they call it Salem. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. The Winthrop fleet lands at Salem Town, the major port city of the region. Over the next fifty years, a further twenty one thousand more Puritans follow and quickly establish settlements throughout New England. In that time,
the city on the Hill weathers many storms. Most difficult of all is the war that breaks out in sixteen seventy five between the New England colonists and a number of indigenous communities. It claims the lives of thousands of native tribe members and immigrants alike. Many consider the war to be the last genuine opportunity that the indigenous communities have to eject the New England colonists from the continent.
They do not succeed, however. The war claims the life lives of ten percent of the Puritan's male adult population and the destruction of a third of their newly established towns, and leaves a long, terrifying shadow in its wake. A nervy paranoia pervades the homes and churches of New England. Then another war breaks out soon after. This time, the battle is more directly between French and English colonists, each aided by some local communities with whom they'd formed loose alliances.
For the Puritan settlers, of course, this isn't a sign that God didn't want them there after all, as John Winthrop had warned them to be vigilant for all those years ago, but rather just further proof that they were exactly where they were supposed to be. The settlers always considered the world beyond their villages and towns to be a strange and dark frontier, but there is no doubt now that the New world is but a proxy for Hell,
and the devil does not want them there. But it was their god given duty, their divine mission, to drive back that darkness. However, it manifested whether that meant resisting the French armies or purging their new home of the barbaric, ungodly savages that already lived there. It is amid this febrile atmosphere that in June sixteen eighty eight, Samuel Paris travels to Salem Village, a disparate community of roughly six
hundred people about five miles northwest of Salem Town. Paris is to be installed as its new minister, the fourth in fact, since the settling of the village, who had so far failed to unite the quarrelsome community. The problem, thinks Paris, is that the flock has simply lost its way. Is no nonsense approach, It's exactly what they need to be brought back into line. He begins by enforcing strict rules for membership. Only those who have fully committed to
their conversion are accepted into his congregation. He also lengthens the sermons. A typical Sunday involves a three hour sermon in the morning at the meeting house where the congregation gather, and another extended service in the afternoon, with only a short refreshment break in between. Anyone caught nodding off faces the wrath of the tithing Man, a stern ominous figure who tiptoes silently around the world hall as Paris's dark,
gloomy voice rings out. He carries a weirdly long stick with one end pointed and the other fixed with a bushy or feathery tail. Fall asleep and you get a tickle. Fail to wake and you get a sharp poke in the ribs. Minister Samuel Parris's changes do little to ingratiate him to his new community. Their disgruntlement only increases when
he demands full ownership of the parsonage. Ordinarily, this would be given back to the church when the minister moves on to a different post, but Paris elects to keep it solely for himself and his family. He also declares that you will not pay for firewood, and negotiates a
bonus for every outsider he brings into his flock. Despite all this, however, such as the vital importance of the church for most villagers, week after week, they dutifully trudge in to listen to Paris's sermons, but also, week after week, the divisions between those who support Paris and those who are beginning to despise him grow wider and wider. In October, at a town meeting, Paris's opponents take a vote to stop paying him entirely, so angered are they by his
practices and demands. But Paris remains defiant, as he repeatedly tells his congregation, any opposition to him is nothing but a conspiracy manufactured by Satan himself, and so things can continue into the bitterly harsh winter of sixteen ninety one. It's some time toward the end of the year when a knock comes at Samuel Parris's door. He opens it to find Sarah Good standing on his doorstep, shivering in
the cold, with little more than rags for clothes. Good looked considerably older than her thirty eight years, and life had left her angry and embittered. At the age of sixteen, her wealthy father committed suicide, leaving no will. Her father's property in Salem was divided between her mother and two brothers, with a small holding given to Sarah and her six sisters. But when Sarah's mother married again, her mother and new stepfather took it from her. Destitute and with nowhere to go,
Good had little choice but to marry for security. Then her husband died unexpectedly, leaving her with debts she couldn't pay. These debts were carried over into a second marriage to William Good. William found occasional work as a laborer, but the couple are frequently reduced to begging to survive. For
many Puritans, it is an unseemly practice. On Samuel Parris's doorstep, with snow all around, the shivering Sarah asks the minister if he has anything to spare, perhaps hoping a man of God might find it in his heart to grant her some charity. Paris eyes the woman suspiciously, then looks down the road toward the meeting house. I have not seen at my sermons these past few weeks, he says, Why is this? Sarah blows into her hands to warm them,
then looks down at her clothes. I haven't the proper attire, she replies flatly. Paris regards her sorry state for a moment, then shees her away. Sarah seems about to say something but instead simply turns around and walks off back into the cold. Some will say this is all that occurred, Others that Sarah Good muttered something under her breath that
day as she walked away from the Minister's home. One Sunday, during another endless sermon in early January sixteen ninety two, conditions have become so extreme that when the communion bread is passed around, it is frozen, and so it is with huge relief as the congregation huddles together, their teeth chattering and stamping their feet to keep them from going numb, when Minister Paris finally concedes it is too cold to
continue and sends everyone home. Back at the parsonage that afternoon, as a healthy fire burns in the hearth, Paris's niece, eleven year old Abigail Williams, and his nine year old daughter Betty, are in the kitchen together. Abigail tells Betty to fetch a glass of water while she hunts for an egg in the larder. Moments later, Abigail cracks the egg into a bowl and carefully separates the yolk from the white. Then, as Betty holds out the glass of water,
Abigail plops the egg white into it. Betty looks with confusion at the strange, viscous fluid now squirming about in the glass. Now says Abigail, would you like to play a game? For the young women of Salem Village? Opportunities for fun are thin on the ground. Puritans believe entertainment to be a sinful distraction from studying the scripture. There is no dancing or music, no parties or society events. This is especially true of the Paris household, whose patriarch
runs his family like his congregation. Family time is spent studying scripture by firelight and listening to him lecture, even after the long days of church services. Perhaps it is this, then, the cloistered monotony of their existence, that leads Abigail and Betty to play with the venus glass. In sixteen forty, the New England settlers drew up the Massachusetts Body of Liberties,
a legal framework for the colonists to adhere to. Number one on the list of crimes worthy of the death penalty was the worshiping of any other god other than the puritan's own god, and number two was being a witch or consulting with the devil. Such was the paranoia over witches at the time. Even small folk magics were condemned as heretical and blasphemous by ministers in the area.
Small folk magics like the Venus Glass. The Venus Glass, or Overmancy is used to determine the career of one's future partner with the use of an egg white poured into a glass of water. When the white separates from the water, the shape it forms is said to provide the answer. If the shape is a crown, your partner might be a king. If it is a cross, a minister perhaps, or a ship might suggest a sailor. Abigail and Betty stare at the glass of water as the
viscous albumen swirls about. Then Betty's face crumbles in horror because it isn't a cross or a ship that she sees, but a Coffin. A few days after Abigail and Betty's session with the Venus Glass, something peculiar comes over nine year old Betty. She seems preoccupied with something to the point of distraction, but won't say what it is. At times, Samuel Parris finds her sitting alone, staring silently into other times she forgets her errands. She becomes fidgety and restless
during prayer time. One night in the parsonage, the Paris family are gathered once again by the hearth as the orange light of flickering flames dance on their faces. Samuel is solemnly reciting the Lord's prayer when a bone splitting cry rings out. It is Betty, crying out in pain, as if the words are tormenting her. When Paris yells at her to stop it, she barks wildly at him like a dog in shock. Paris sends his daughter to bed,
completely bemused as to what is going on. Over the next few days, whatever dreadful malady has befallen the girl intensifies. She throws herself onto the floor and breaks into fits, or goes suddenly stiff, her body contorting into unnatural positions. During one especially violent outburst, she throws a Bible across the room. Then Abigail starts fitting too. Even stranger is when she has found one day to be covered in angry red welts, as if someone or something had bitten
and pinched her all over. Abigail claims to have no idea how the marks got there. At a loss with what to do, Paris seeks the help of Reverend John Hale from the neighboring village of Beverly. Hale suggests a simple course of prayer and fasting to remedy the situation, But no matter how hard he tries, Reverend Paris's prayers do nothing to halt the strange inflictions. Then, in late January,
disturbing news reaches the village of Salem. It was early in the morning of January twenty fourth when English settlers in the village of York, about fifty miles to the north, were startled awake by the sound of war cries. Before they knew what was happening, around three hundred Panawab scary men, a tribe local to the region, tore through the village, burning down houses and murdering villages. The attack, coordinated with the colonial French army, left one hundred men, women and
children dead, with another eighty taken prisoner. The town's minister, Shubbal Dammer, was stripped naked and his body mutilated before he died. News of the town's demise strikes fear through all in Salem. Here was yet more evidence of the demons that lurk on the horizon, just waiting for the right moment to strike. It was a fear some reminder how vital it was to remain vigilant at all times to even the slightest hint of a threat to their
lives and their mission. In mid February, a month after Betty and Abigail began acting strangely, Samuel Parris, disturbed by the manner in which York's minister Shibal Dummer was murdered, finally confides in his close friend Thomas Putnam about what has been going on in his home. The Putnams are a prominent family in Salem Village and vocal supporters of Paris. Putnam arrives at the parsonage accompanied by his daughter Ann Putnam Junior and his servant Mercy Lewis, both of whom
are friends of Abigail and Betty. He takes one look at the pale and exhausted young girls and tells Paris to call for a doctor at once. Doctor William Griggs was likely self taught with no official medical background. On the twenty fourth of February, he arrives at the Paris home to carry out an assessment. Samuel and his wife Elizabeth, watch on nervously as Griggs inspects Abigail and Betty while they lie silently in bed. Having finished, he bids Samuel
and Elizabeth to follow him into an adjoining room. He tells them solemnly that he found nothing physically wrong with the girls. Therefore, there can be only one conclusion. He says, an evil hand is upon them. In other words, the girls were under the curse of some kind of demonic spell placed by a witch. Samuel and Zabeth's eyes widen in horror. For the minister, it is his worst nightmare, but vindication too for his insistence that Satan is alive
and well in Salem. The following day, Minister Paris and his wife leave to attend a lecture in another town. In their absence, the explosive news spreads through the village. Mary Sibley, who lived close to the Paris, is especially disturbed. She takes it on herself to offer some advice. Shortly after Samuel and Elizabeth leave, she visits the parsonage where she speaks to the family's enslaved couple, John Indian and Tituba. John is an indigenous native of what is known today
as South America. Titchuba's origins have been much debated over the years, though it is generally thought that she was from the Carrabe Being. At some point she was abducted from her community and enslaved by a British plantation owner, before eventually being inherited by Samuel Parris. Mary Sibley tells them to make a witch's cake to combat the spell
and expose the demonic witch. A witch's cake is made by adding the urine of one suffering from a witch's curse to some rye flower, which is then baked into a biscuit. This is then fed to a dog. An active ingredient of a witch's curse is thought to be present in the inflicted's urine. If the dog exhibits the same symptoms after eating the biscuit as the person who has been cursed, it is confirmation that the curse is real.
Some also believe the witch will cry out in pain the moment the dog eats the biscuit, as if they themselves were being chewed up by the dog. John Indian dutifully collects urine from Abigail and Betty and hands it to Tituba. Who mixes it with rye flower before baking
the pungent mixture in hot ashes. Tituba is then said to have fed it to the family dog while she John and the Paris's other children, Thomas and Susannah nervously watched on for any sign of distress, but the dog simply gobbles it up, licks its lips, and ambles away. Perhaps they think with relief there is no witch after all. A short time later, a few miles away, a scream
rings out in the home of Thomas Putnam. Inside the Unham's home, Thomas looks on aghast as his twelve year old daughter Anne rides about on the floor, seemingly in the grip of the exact same thing that has afflicted young Betty, Parris and Abigail. As Anne screams out in pain, she also screams three names, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Titchuba. She screams for them to stop attacking her also, Thomas
Putnam would later state. Meanwhile, at the home of doctor Griggs two miles away, more screams are hurt, this time coming from Elizabeth Hubbard. Griggs is great niece with whom he and his wife Rachel had taken on as a servant. She too claims to be under attack from three witches. She also names them as Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Titchuba, or so it would later be stated, All three, as Elizabeth would later attest, appeared to her as ghostly specters
moving about the house. Like Sarah Good and Titchuba, The forty nine year old Sarah Osborne was also an outsider of sorts. When Sarah's first husband died in sixteen seventy four, his will dictated that she be entrusted with their land and money until their two young sons came of age to inherit it. Shortly after, Sarah took on a farm hand named Alexander Osborne, an Irish indentured servant. Sarah and
the younger Alexander became close. Sarah paid off his indenture and later married him, before trying to seize the control of the estate from her sons against her late husband's wishes. This brought her into direct conflict with Thomas Putnam and his brother John, who were the executors of her deceased husband's will. Later that day, Samuel and Elizabeth Paris return to find their daughter Betty and her cousin Abigail, seemingly
suffering even more from the apparent witch's curse. But now, as will also be stated later, the girls could apparently see exactly who it is that's tormenting them, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Titchuba. The next day, Abigail and Betty tell their parents that Titchubah made things worse by making
them eat a witch's cake. Moments later, Samuel and Elizabeth Paris watch on in horror as the girls seem suddenly to be in the grip of unseen hands that cantort and twist their bodies in hideously in human ways, go for breath, clawing at their throats as if they are being strangled. Samuel Parris is said to have beaten Titchiber savagely after hearing about the witch's cake. Minister Paris invites several men of high standing in the local community to
see Abigail and Betty's strange behavior for themselves. They two are in no doubt that the girls are clearly under the spell of something satanic. Titchiba is interrogated, and, despite her protestations, is accused of being a witch. Over the next few days, as the four girls, Betty, Abigail, Elizabeth, and Anne continue to seemingly suffer at the hands of the apparent witches. The townspeople begin to gossip among themselves, trading stories of their own experiences with the accused women.
Sarah Good has always been difficult and rarely thankful whenever anyone offers her charity or a place to stay with her husband, They say, isn't it strange how she goes around muttering to herself? And didn't she do it that one time after paying a visit to the Paris's home, Perhaps, they wonder, is that when she first cast her spell
on the minister's daughter and niece. As for Sarah Osborne, married to her own indentured servant, it's no surprise that a woman of such a subversive and antagonizing nature would be in league with the devil. And then there is Tituba, who knew what sort of things her people were capable of. On February twenty ninth, sixteen ninety two, a group of men led by Thomas Putnam ride out to Salem Town to pay a visit to the town's magistrates, Jonathan Corwin
and John Hathorne. The men on behalf of Salem Village request that Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good and Titchuba be charged with suspicion of witchcraft. Later that afternoon, three arrest warrants are duly issued, and by the end of the day all three women are arrested, taken into custody, and placed in the home of Nathaniel and Goody Ingersoll the village tavern to await inspection. The Salem witch trials have begun.
You've been listening to Unexplained Season seven, episode twenty five, The City upon the Hill, Part one of three, Part two will be released next Friday, July fifth. This episode was written by Ella McCloud and Richard McClain smith. Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are
also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
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