Hi, During our ongoing discussion about Rebecca Chamberlain and the charge of Mischief I forwarded a response I received from this list to my sister, who is really the Genealogist in my family. Following is what she sent me. Check out the URL. Among those listed is Rebecca Chamberlain, although she is listed with the maiden name Shelley. There is some confusion about what her maiden name was. I'm not sure there is really anything new here for me, but I hope someone finds info helpful in their search. George. George, the individual who steered you towards the quarterly recs is correct, ancestry.com only has up to 1686 published, same is true for other sites BUT I did some google searching along this line and check this out... http://www.progenealogists.com/witchesamerica.pdf Don't believe we've ever seen this.

That's what I would like to find out. Did it have anything to do with the Witchcraft hysteria? No one has been able to find any documented proof that Rebecca Chamberlain was accused of Witchcraft, but apparently there isn't any question that she died in prison in September 1692. So, why was she there? Mischief? She was living in Billerica with her husband William Chamberlain. He didn't die until years later. She was the mother of a number of children, and I believe they were respected members of the community. Curious. Thanks to everyone for their input. This is interesting. As has been suggested, maybe we'll find that charging people with Mischief was a regular event and really has nothing to do with Witchcraft. The timing was just coincidental. George >>> Date forwarded: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 17:20:50 -0700 From: Jma8763@aol.com Date sent: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 19:20:48 EST Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Mischief To: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com Forwarded by: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com > Hi all, > > I find all this "Mischief" info fascinating, but I guess it also has > me > confused! I thought that being a witch was a crime in and of itself, > and that those accused were charged with various counts/accusations of > Witchcraft?? Were there also those charged with crimes of different > names, but that MEANT they were accused of witchcraft??? > > THANKS! > Joan > > In a message dated 11/4/2002 6:32:56 PM Eastern Standard Time, > sorcha432@hotmail.com writes: > > > > That's quite useful information, but I can see that mischief could > > be linked to witchcraft, and, iirc, sometimes was. After all, most > > of the complaints against witches seem to involve damage of persons > > or property. I can also see that elderly persons, especially women, > > might not keep up their property as well as their neighbors might > > like, and thus complaints might follow. > > > > > >

Hello all! On Monday, October 28, 2002, at 02:18 PM, Helen Graves <hgraves@psln.com> wrote: > I am interested in obtaining a copy of Marilynne Roach's book signed > by the author. > > Unfortunately, I live out in California and could not attend the > book-signing yesterday. While I can order the book via booksellers, I > would like a signed copy. Any suggestions on how to obtain one? I have corresponded off-list with the author, who has given me this information about obtaining autographed copies directly from her: > I could mail them a copy, autographed and inscribed to whomever they > wished (if they send a clearly printed name to ensure proper > spelling). This would cost $35. for the book + $4. for S&H (bound > printed matter rate which the PO tells me can take 8 days coast to > coast) > + $1.75 Mass. 5% sales tax for Massachusetts sales. $39. total (or > $41.75 total in Mass.) check or money order to: > > Marilynne K. Roach > P. O. Box 1114, Watertown, MA 02471 > > An e-mail note to mkr12y@yahoo.com might help in case of delays due to > re-ordering (if it comes to that). I hope that helps! Cheers, Margo Margo Burns, List Owner of the Salem-Witch List at rootsweb.com margo@ogram.org

Hi all, I find all this "Mischief" info fascinating, but I guess it also has me confused! I thought that being a witch was a crime in and of itself, and that those accused were charged with various counts/accusations of Witchcraft?? Were there also those charged with crimes of different names, but that MEANT they were accused of witchcraft??? THANKS! Joan In a message dated 11/4/2002 6:32:56 PM Eastern Standard Time, sorcha432@hotmail.com writes: > That's quite useful information, but I can see that mischief could be linked > to witchcraft, and, iirc, sometimes was. After all, most of the complaints > against witches seem to involve damage of persons or property. I can also > see that elderly persons, especially women, might not keep up their > property > as well as their neighbors might like, and thus complaints might follow. >

Jenny Gibbons wrote: >"Mischief" is causing damage to another person's property, according to >Black's Law Dictionary. The damage can have been caused deliberately (in which case it's sometimes called "malicious mischief") or through negligence. For instance if your cows destroyed part of a neighbor's crops, that could be considered mischief. The Oxford English Dictionary confirms that the legal term "mischief" meant tangible damage as early as the 16th century. That's quite useful information, but I can see that mischief could be linked to witchcraft, and, iirc, sometimes was. After all, most of the complaints against witches seem to involve damage of persons or property. I can also see that elderly persons, especially women, might not keep up their property as well as their neighbors might like, and thus complaints might follow. I'm curious: who got the property after Goody Chamberlain died in prison? Carol Karlsen has piointed out that often civil complaints were followed by neighbors or (male) relatives taking over (female-owned) property that otherwise the male relatvies or neighbors would not have gotten their hands on. Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

>Unless the charge of Mischief means turning over people's trash cans or >causing other mayhem, until I can find what Mischief means I think the conclusion that she was there for some reason related to Witchcraft is the best assumption right now. If only I can find some other reference. Since Mischief may not be Withcraft, looking for general prison/arrest records rather than info related specifically to the Witchcraft trials may shed some light. I'd recommend looking through the records of Middlesex County courts to see what you can find about prosecution of people charged with mischief. There must be some people in the sourt records whose cases were actually prosecuted and the record survived. There should be a description of the crime and testimony from witnesses. As far as lists of "witches": I'm persuaded that no "list" will ever be complete because we know that we do not have complete records. For example, records are clearly incomplete for two of the women I'm iinterested in. The case of Goody [possibly Ann] Glover is known from the accounts of Cotton Mather and Robert Calef, not court records, yet she was hung. The court records must have been lost. In letters my ancestor, William Morse, wrote to the magistrates with regard to the prosecution of his wife, Elizabeth Morse, he mentions earlier cases in which Elizabeth was accused and they, in turn, countersued for libel and won. Records of these earlier cases have not survived. I vaguely recall reading about other accused women whose surviving records referred to earlier court actions that have not survived. In short, I doubt we shall ever have a complete list. Honestly, sometimes I wonder that anyone had time to hunt and plant or bake and brew, when one considers all the time they spent taking each other to court. People today talk about how we have become a litigious society; I think our ancestors set an example we've been following ever since! While I think Mary Beth Norton is probably right in suggesting that ongoing conflict with Indians heightened the tensions of life in early New England, I don't think this explains how quick people were to take each other to court. That goes deeper into the workings of English society, I think. But I hope that you will look further into charges of mischief and what they involved. There may be a link with witchcraft, or they may refer to stirring up tensions in the village through malicious gossip or something like that. Surely, a browse through the Middlesex Court records would be enlightening. (And compaerison with other counties would be useful, too. I wouldn't assume "mischief" meant exactly the same thing in every county.) Francine Nicholsn _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

Can someone tell me where I would find early Essex Co. "Acts and Resolves" covering years up to 1715? What is the access to them? -- Helen in Calif.

Thanks Jenny for the info. I hope I can find more on her particular case, if it's there to be found. George Date forwarded: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 15:27:55 -0700 From: "Jenny Gibbons" <jenny@panix.com> Subject: Re: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: SALEM-WITCH-D Rebecca Chamberlain Date sent: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 14:28:57 -0800 To: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com Forwarded by: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com > "Mischief" is causing damage to another person's property, according > to Black's Law Dictionary. The damage can have been caused > deliberately (in which case it's sometimes called "malicious > mischief") or through negligence. For instance if your cows destroyed > part of a neighbor's crops, that could be considered mischief. The > Oxford English Dictionary confirms that the legal term "mischief" > meant tangible damage as early as the 16th century. > > Jenny Gibbons > (jenny@panix.com) > >

I may be in error here, but I vaguely recall that David L. Greene did a monograph concerning Rev. Burroughs in The American Genealogist sometime during the early 80s. I regret that I cannot cite the specific reference; perhaps another may. Rick (a descendant of Susannah Martin, via Peaslees and Paiges of NH)

"Mischief" is causing damage to another person's property, according to Black's Law Dictionary. The damage can have been caused deliberately (in which case it's sometimes called "malicious mischief") or through negligence. For instance if your cows destroyed part of a neighbor's crops, that could be considered mischief. The Oxford English Dictionary confirms that the legal term "mischief" meant tangible damage as early as the 16th century. Jenny Gibbons (jenny@panix.com)

Hi Helen - From Mary Beth Norton's book "In The Devil's Snare" ppg 16 - 17: "Whether because strife in the Village came to focus on the church or because the Villagers made inappropriate choices of clergymen, each of the first four ministers who served the Village failed to earn consistent support from his parishioners. The first minister, James Bayley - a young Harvard graduate when hired in 1672 - lasted the longest, until 1680. George Burroughs, who had fled Falmouth, Maine in 1676, during the First Indian War, succeeded Bayley, but in early 1683 agreed to return to his former congregation." I, too, am trying to trace Burroughs' during the relevant time period. Will share more info as I find it. Vicki Greenslit Brooker ----- Original Message ----- From: Helen Graves Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 8:53 PM To: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Rev. Burroughs in Casco Bay, Maine Has anyone on the list thoroughly researched the Rev. George Burroughs ? I need to know exactly when he was in Casco Bay, Maine. According to 'Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables' by Enders Robinson, he was the minister of Salem Village from 1681-1683. Then he went to Casco, Maine, and then to Wells where he was the minister, but no dates were given. Does anyone know EXACTLY when he was in Casco Bay and how long there, and then when did he arrive in Wells? Any help would be appreciated. -- Helen Greenslit Graves

We know she died in prison in September 1692 but I've found nothing about when she was put there. One of the frustrations with this is that I have not been able to find a reference to her in any of the lists of those accused of witchcraft. There seems to be a well established list, but I'm not sure what qualified you to be included. A specific charge? This leads me to believe that either, as you say, they weren't accusing people of witchcraft by that time, but needed some excuse to get her "off the street," and therefore she wouldn't appear on the list we all refer to, or the list is in fact specific to a particular accusation or charge, and do not include many other people. Makes me wonder how many others there were. She was an older woman, wife of William Chamberlain, both well respected members of Billerica. Unless the charge of Mischief means turning over people's trash cans or causing other mayhem, until I can find what Mischief means I think the conclusion that she was there for some reason related to Witchcraft is the best assumption right now. If only I can find some other reference. Since Mischief may not be Withcraft, looking for general prison/arrest records rather than info related specifically to the Witchcraft trials may shed some light. Thanks to all for your input. George Lewis Date forwarded: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 13:43:33 -0700 From: "Francine Nicholson" <sorcha432@hotmail.com> Date sent: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 15:43:36 -0500 Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: SALEM-WITCH-D Rebecca Chambers To: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com Forwarded by: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com > I can't help with sources but I expect you're correct in assuming that > your ancestor's "mischief" might have been a euphemism for witchcraft, > especially since Spetember, 1692 was a time when charges of witchcraft > were not being taken as seriously as they were earlier in the year. I > have a vague notion of "mischief" being a crime, though I'm not sure > it was a capital one (as witchcraft was). > > I wonder: how many people were impriosoned, tried, and convicted on > charges of "mischief" when people were really thinking--but souldn't > prove--"witchcraft. I've read of cases where people sued for civil > damage when someone accused them--but failed to prove--of being a > witch. Were such civil remedies also possible for charges of > "mischief"? > > Francine Nicholson >

Helen, Here is a website that should help you with the dates you are seeking: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BBUR.HTM While preaching in Casco, Maine (now Portland) in 1676, the entire settlement was broken up by an Indian assault. Burroughs escaped to an island in the Bay. He was rescued by aid from the mainland. He moved to the Village of Salem in 1680, where a year later his wife died. Burroughs ministered in the Village of Salem for only two years. He left as a result of a bitter dispute over his salary. He seems also to have had a more personal and heated dispute over money with John Putnam, the uncle of one of Burroughs' later accusers. As a result of these disputes, Burroughs left the Village abruptly. After leaving Salem, he returned to Casco, where he was again driven out by Indians in 1683, causing him to relocate to Wells, Maine. There he was given a grant of 150 acres of land, part of which he gave back to the city as population thickened. Burroughs had been serving as a minister in Wells for nine years when he was arrested for witchcraft. He was seized, taken from the table while eating, and hauled back to Salem on May 4 to stand trial. Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, 54-56, say that Burroughs graduated from Harvard in 1670 and went to Maine soon after and stayed there until the Indian attack of August 1676. Then he moved to MA, settling in Salisbury until he received the call from Salem Village. In 1683 his salary wasn't being paid, so he returned to Casco Bay, but on May 2, 1683, less than 2 months after his abrupt departure from Salem he returned to meet the freeholders of the Village for a final accounting, but he was arrested instead. He was in jail for short time and sued by John Putnam, but he was able to return to Maine where he stayed for 9 years until he was brought back to Salem on May 4, 1692. Leslie Hope -----Original Message----- From: Helen Graves [mailto:hgraves@psln.com] Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 5:49 PM To: SALEM-WITCH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Rev. Burroughs in Casco Bay, Maine Has anyone on the list thoroughly researched the Rev. George Burroughs ? I need to know exactly when he was in Casco Bay, Maine. According to 'Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables' by Enders Robinson, he was the minister of Salem Village from 1681-1683. Then he went to Casco, Maine, and then to Wells where he was the minister, but no dates were given. Does anyone know EXACTLY when he was in Casco Bay and how long there, and then when did he arrive in Wells? Any help would be appreciated. -- Helen Greenslit Graves

Has anyone on the list thoroughly researched the Rev. George Burroughs ? I need to know exactly when he was in Casco Bay, Maine. According to 'Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables' by Enders Robinson, he was the minister of Salem Village from 1681-1683. Then he went to Casco, Maine, and then to Wells where he was the minister, but no dates were given. Does anyone know EXACTLY when he was in Casco Bay and how long there, and then when did he arrive in Wells? Any help would be appreciated. -- Helen Greenslit Graves

For those of you who have copies of or who have looked at the book "Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables" by Enders A. Robinson, I would like to caution you that I have found that the INDEX OF NAMES in the back of the book is not complete. I discovered this when I looked in the index for the surname GREENSLADE and it was not there nor was the name Josiah BRIDGES. Yet, on pg 304 there is a pedigree chart which shows that Josiah Bridges was the son of Edmund Bridges, Sr. and that Josiah Bridges' second wife was Ruth GREENSLADE; the chart then shows that Ruth was the daughter of Ann GREENSLADE PUDEATOR. (Ann Pudeator was accused and then hung in Sept 1692). Josiah Bridges and his wife Ruth Greenslade are also mentioned in the text on page 304. Edmund Bridges, Sr., is not in the index, yet he is mentioned several times in the text and appears in the chart. Recently I decided to work on Josiah Bridges and his wife Ruth Greenslade. I went to pages listed for Edmund Bridges, Jr. (Josiah's brother) and for Ruth's mother Ann Pudeator and that's where I found the chart and mentions of Josiah and his wife Ruth. Otherwise, I would have missed this. This book does contain much genealogical data on the accusers and the accused, Sheriff Corwin, the magistrates, the Mather family, Lt. Gov. Stoughton, Gov. Phipps, and others, so I encourage anyone who is researching the witchcraft trials to read it, but not to rely 100% on the index of names in the back as you may miss something. -- Helen Greenslit Graves

>From : "upacreek" <upacreek@screaminet.com> Hi, >I have a great-grandmother who died in Cambridge Prison in September of >1692. She was put there on a charge of Mischief. I can't help with sources but I expect you're correct in assuming that your ancestor's "mischief" might have been a euphemism for witchcraft, especially since Spetember, 1692 was a time when charges of witchcraft were not being taken as seriously as they were earlier in the year. I have a vague notion of "mischief" being a crime, though I'm not sure it was a capital one (as witchcraft was). I wonder: how many people were impriosoned, tried, and convicted on charges of "mischief" when people were really thinking--but souldn't prove--"witchcraft. I've read of cases where people sued for civil damage when someone accused them--but failed to prove--of being a witch. Were such civil remedies also possible for charges of "mischief"? Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

Favorite Ancestor Feedback We continue with reader submissions to the questions "Who is your favorite ancestor? Why?" If you would like to contribute information on your favorite ancestor, please send your story in 300 words or less to Lynn Betlock at <A HREF="mailto:enews@nehgs.org"> enews@nehgs.org</A>. Thank you to all past and future contributors! Two family witches By Jean Owens of Landsdale, Pennsylvania Picking a favorite ancestor is a very tall order, so instead I have picked a favorite — but long and convoluted — story that I am sure has happened in many families with New England ancestors who arrived early and fanned out to settle New England and other parts of the country. To begin with in this season of Halloween I have chosen two family witches, Susanna North Martin and Mary Perkins Bradbury. Susanna was an ancestor on my grandfather's side of the family and Mary on my grandmother's. Actually, our direct descent is through sisters of these women. On my grandmother's side of the family we also count amongst our ancestors the Colbys, Sargents, and Bagleys. It is interesting that Orlando Bagley was the constable who arrested Susanna North Martin. The Sargents had accused her of witchcraft earlier in her life and been involved in a lawsuit over the matter. It seems likely that all of these people were acquainted with one another. Mary Perkins was more fortunate than Susanna in that she survived the ordeal by being rescued by family and friends and died in 1700 at the ripe old age of 85. Eventually, people moved on. The North descendents went to Rhode Island and the name turned into Gardner. The Gardners moved to Pownal, Vermont, and eventually Otsego County, New York, where Margaret Marilla Gardner married Lewis D. Smith; that was my grandfather's side. The people on my grandmother's side followed a different route. They migrated to New Hampshire and Maine and eventually Oneida County, New York, and areas farther to the north. Names changed again and eventually Mary Edna Morse was born in Oneida County. She also had relatives in Otsego County and eventually married George Smith. It took from the 1600s until 1910 to unite in marriage people who had actually started out in the same place in this country. I have always been fascinated by history, but being able to relate it to my own family makes it come alive. I'm sure that over time I will discover more of the interesting details of my family's background. I can't wait!!! He "contributed to the advancement of the neighborhood" By Claire C. Louden of Scottsdale, Arizona My favorite ancestor is Abraham Hazelton Read (1821–1892), born in Canada to Lotan and Elvira (Hutchins) Read. Fourth in a family of ten children, he came with his parents to Crawford County, Pennsylvania, in 1835. Here he helped clear land, purchased land, married the Scotch-Irish Lenora Allen, then with his wife and three children, left for Wisconsin in 1857. After spending three years in Grant County, he joined a small wagon train, forded the Mississippi River at Dubuque, Iowa, and continued on to Linn County, Missouri, where he is listed as a "laborer" in the 1860 census with possessions valued at $270. In 1862, he purchased eighty acres of land for $6.25 per acre. Finding wealthy slave-holding neighbors to the south, and conditions in this border state most unsettling, he took his family to Illinois, a free state, and remained there until after the close of the Civil War. Upon his return to Missouri, the original land purchase was sold for $11.25 an acre, and about 200 acres was acquired one and a half miles west. This turned out to be adjacent to the village of Forker and later, on the railroad — an ideal location. For a short time, A.H. Read owned the general store, helped build the community meeting house, and contributed to the advancement of the neighborhood. A structure, used as a home for the family, was erected along with a deep well for family and livestock. Sheds and other necessary buildings were built in due time. In 1877, the site for a new dwelling house was chosen about 400 feet east of the original structure, which, in turn became the barn. (Yankee ingenuity!) The new house had shutters on the windows, a one-room basement, and eave-spouting, which piped water in a cistern, furnishing water for household use. Drinking water still had to be carried from the deep well, some distance from the house. The youngest son became a victim of a drowning accident at age seventeen. The oldest son and the daughter were each given eighty acres of land, free and clear, when they were about twenty-one years of age. The son expanded his holdings, raised a large family, and now sixth-generation descendants live in the vicinity of this ancestor's foresight, thrift and hours of labor. The "being difficult" gene By Sharri Whiting of Amsterdam, Netherlands My late father was an irascible man, something that was whispered to "run in the family." When I began reading the records of the town of Dedham, [Massachusetts], I found evidence of that irascibility in the late 1630s, when my favorite ancestor, Nathaniel Whiting, grumbled that his mill at Mother Brook was being threatened by competition. Old Nathaniel turned up several times in those archives, always with his prickly personality showing through. He must have passed the "being difficult" gene down over three centuries to my father who passed it to . . . . NEHGS Contact Information We strongly encourage you to email this newsletter to others who might be interested. To subscribe, please visit <A HREF="http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=317597&s=56351935"> www.newenglandancestors.org/articles/research/?page_id=659&attrib1=1& seq_num=6</A>. To view the website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, please visit <A HREF="http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=317605&s=56351935">www.newenglandancestors.org/</A>. To become a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, please visit <A HREF="http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=317594&s=56351935">www.newenglandancestors.org/membership/main/</A>. If you have questions, comment or suggestions about the enewsletter, please contact Lynn Betlock at <A HREF="mailto:enews@nehgs.org">enews@nehgs.org</A>.

Hi, I have a great-grandmother who died in Cambridge Prison in September of 1692. She was put there on a charge of Mischief. This info comes from previous histories of the area, and I think from others who've come before doing genealogical research, but I have not been able to find an official record of this. It is assumed that she was put there because of the Witchcraft hysteria, but other than the reference to Mischief I can find no info that confirms that. First, does anyone knwo what a charge of Mischief means. Second, does anyone have any suggestions for where I might look to find official records, arrest, charges, court appearance, etc. Her name was Rebecca (Addington) Chamberlain, although there is some question as to whether that was her maiden name. Thanks George Lewis

I assume that the grantee indexes failed to show who the later owners acquired the property from? Another potential source of property records would be the early Massachusetts Acts and Resolves, which were also used to transfer confiscated properties (traitors being one group). They have name and subject indexes - your best bet would be to look under Salem ("cities and towns" - "towns" - Salem), since that will give you a birds eye view of Salem Acts and Resolves. Then look under any names that might be associated with the transactions. Good luck! _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

They Called It Witchcraft By MARY BETH NORTON THACA, N.Y. — In 17th-century New England, almost everyone believed in witches. Struggling to survive in a vast and sometimes unforgiving land, America's earliest settlers understood themselves to be surrounded by an inscrutable universe filled with invisible spirits — both benevolent and evil — that affected their lives. They often attributed the sudden illness of a child, a household disaster or a financial setback to a witch's curse. The belief in witchcraft was, at bottom, an attempt to make sense of the unknown. While witchcraft was often feared, it was punished only infrequently. In the first 70 years of the New England settlements, about 100 people were formally charged with being witches; fewer than two dozen were convicted and fewer still were executed. Then came 1692. In January of that year, two young girls living in the household of the Rev. Samuel Parris of Salem Village began experiencing strange fits. The doctor identified witchcraft as the cause. After weeks of questioning, the girls named Tituba, Parris's female Indian slave, and two local women as the witches who were tormenting them. Judging by previous incidents, one would have expected the episode to end there. But it didn't. Other young Salem women began to suffer fits as well. Before the crisis ended, 19 people formally accused others of afflicting them, 54 residents of Essex County confessed to being witches and nearly 150 people were charged with consorting with the Devil. What led to this remarkable outcome? Traditionally, historians have argued that the witchcraft crisis resulted from factionalism in Salem Village, deliberate faking, or possibly the ingestion of hallucinogens by the afflicted. I believe another force was at work. The events in Salem were precipitated by a conflict with the Indians on the northeastern frontier, the most significant surge of violence in the region in nearly 40 years. In two little-known wars, fought largely in Maine between 1675-1678 and 1688-1699, English settlers suffered devastating losses at the hands of the Wabanaki Indians and their French allies. Most of Maine was abandoned twice, in 1676 and 1690, not to be resettled thereafter for decades. The key afflicted accusers in the Salem crisis were frontier refugees whose families had been wiped out in the wars. These young women said they saw the Devil in the shape of an Indian. In testimony, they accused the witches' reputed ringleader — the Rev. George Burroughs, formerly pastor of Salem Village and of several Maine parishes — of bewitching the soldiers sent to fight the Wabanakis. It is worth noting that while Tituba, one of the first people accused of witchcraft, has traditionally been portrayed as a black or mulatto woman from Barbados, that was not the case. All evidence points to her being an American Indian. Her contemporaries uniformly referred to her as Indian. In addition, most slaves in Massachusetts at the time were indigenous to North America — transported from Spanish missions in Florida and the Georgia sea islands. To the Puritan settlers, who believed themselves to be God's chosen people, witchcraft explained why they were losing the war so badly. Their Indian enemies had the Devil on their side. His diabolical assistance allowed them to lay waste to frontier settlements — and then disappear. In late summer, some prominent New Englanders began to criticize the witch prosecutions. In response to the dissent, Gov. William Phips of Massachusetts in October dissolved the special court he had established to handle the trials. But before he stopped the legal process, 19 people (14 women, five men) had been hanged. Another man was crushed to death by stones for refusing to enter a plea and thereby acknowledge the court's authority over him. Eight more of the accused had been convicted but not yet hanged; they survived because Phips reprieved them several months later. The governor still believed in witches, but he concluded that much of the spectral evidence presented at the trials had been "the Devil's testimony" and so could not be trusted. Visions of witches had diabolical, not divine, origins. That made the identification of the spectral torturers suspect, for the Devil could appear in the shapes of innocent men and women. Accordingly, when the trials resumed in 1693 in the regular Massachusetts courts, the judges no longer accepted spectral evidence. Yet juries still convicted three more of the accused. Phips reprieved them, too. The war with the Indians continued for six more years, though sporadically. Slowly, northern New Englanders began to feel more secure. And they soon regretted the events of 1692. Within five years, one judge and 12 jurors formally apologized as the colony declared a day of fasting and prayer to atone for the injustices that had been committed. In 1711, the state compensated the families of the victims. And last year, more than three centuries after early Americans reacted to an external threat by lashing out irrationally, the convicted were cleared by name in a Massachusetts statute. It's a story worth remembering — and not just on Halloween. Mary Beth Norton, a professor of American history at Cornell University, is author of "In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692