... Betty, his daughter, who is in a state of comatose. Earlier, Parris had heard a commotion in the forest and discovered his niece, Abigail, and her friends: Betty, Mary Warren, and Mercy Lewis, and Tituba, his Caribbean slave, swaying and dancing in the forest to Tituba's Barbados songs. Parris is shocked by their anti-Puritan actions and sinfulness. He reprimands Abigail, but the ... -body Mrs. Putnam is convinced the devil is active in Salem, and she forces the notion upon Hale at every chance she can. On the other hand, Salem's resident logician, John Proctor, is irked by the inanity o...

• Word Count: 2297
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... Salem, to be hung. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens spent months in jails with any trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided. In 1688, John Putnam, one of the most influential elders of Salem Village, invited Samuel Parris to preach in the village church. A year later, after negotiations over salary, inflation adjustments, and free firewood ... was close at hand. Sudden and violent death occupied everyone's minds. Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-ol...

• Word Count: 1724
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... than seventy miles away that the devil was close at hand. Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to show signs of similar unusual behavior. When his own nostrums failed to affect a cure, William Griggs, a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the ... house her, and Osborn was old, quarrelsome, and had not attended church for over a year. The Putnams brought their complaint against the three women to county magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. At the e...

• Word Count: 1822
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School