A/N
Sorry that it's taken awhile to post this chapter, I had a bit of a hard time writing it as I had to do some research. This chapter is pretty heavy on the history of the Salem Witch Trials as it goes into details leading up to the events of the trials and how the trials occurred. Admittedly I did leave out some details of the events as I was unable to add them all to the story. I felt it would have taken far too long to explain every single theory behind why the trials occurred so I just included the main ones. Hopefully it's enough to give you an idea of what happened in 1692 to result in this witchcraft panic. It's a bit of a long chapter and might be a bit tedious, so my apologizes but the next chapters after this will be a little more action packed. Reviews are most welcome.
The Launchpad . . .
Lucy and Wyatt headed down the walkway leading to the central hub as they saw Agent Christopher, Mason and Rufus all gathered around Jiya's computer, the young woman pointing at something on the monitor.
"What have we got?" Lucy called out as the four of them turned around to face her and Wyatt.
"Looks like October 1692, somewhere in Massachusetts. . ."Mason began as Jiya suddenly interrupted.
"Salem, it's got to be Salem! It's the Salem Witch Trials, isn't it?" She asked, excitement in her voice as she looked up at Lucy, who nodded her head.
"Yes. Actually in 1692 Salem was divided into two different communities, Salem Town and Salem Village. Salem Village would go on to become modern day Danvers, while Salem Town would become modern day Salem. The trials took place in Salem Town with most of the accusations and victims coming from Salem Village and other neighboring towns. I'm impressed Jiya, how'd you know?" Lucy asked curiously as Jiya looked around at all of them, a sheepish expression on her face.
"Well I mean Halloween was only a few weeks ago and. . .uh. . .Hocus Pocus is kinda one of my favorite movies." She admitted, drawing smiles from everyone except for Mason.
"Hocus Pocus?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"For real?" Rufus asked in disbelief.
"Dude, great movie." Wyatt added as they all looked at him.
"What? I'm not allowed to like a Disney movie?" He said defensively.
"Just never really pictured you as a Disney guy." Rufus replied.
"Anyways. . ." Lucy interrupted as she looked at Mason.
"The movie's about three aging witches, the Sanderson sisters, living in Salem in 1693. They create a spell that when cast will allow them to become young again but the spell requires the sacrifice of a young child. They manage to lure a young girl away from the local village, back to their house where they proceed to suck the life force out of her, allowing the three of them to be young again. Her brother find's out and tries to stop them but they cast a spell on him, turning him into a immortal cat, so that he can't tell his father or the villagers what happened and he has to live with the guilt of knowing he couldn't save his sister. However, the girl's father and the villagers find out anyways, find the witches and hang them but not before the eldest sister, Winifred, casts a curse that states they will be resurrected when during a full moon on All Hallows Eve when a virgin lights a Black Flame candle. Fast forward 300 years to a teenage boy and his sister who stumble upon the Sanderson sister's house. The boy lights the Black Flame candle on Halloween during a full moon, accidentally resurrecting the witches and together him and his sister have to find a way to stop the witches before they destroy the town." Lucy explained.
"Something tells me that's not a very accurate portrayal of the real thing." Mason said dryly.
"No, no it was not." Lucy said, letting out a deep breath.
"I'm going to try and be as quick as possible about what we're going to be walking into but I need you guys to really pay attention. It's not like our other missions where we've kind of bumbled our way through and made things up as we went along. Things are a bit more serious this time and so it's important we understand what was going on in Salem Town and Village at the time, otherwise we could very well find ourselves being accused of witchcraft." Lucy said.
"Well this sounds more fun by the minute." Wyatt replied as she glared at him.
"Shutting up." He said hastily, putting his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.
"Alright. So the Salem Witch Trials took place from February 1692 to October 1692 in Salem Town, resulting in the deaths of twenty people and hundreds of accusations. There were various reasons for why the occurred as some say it was due to the rigid and strict religious beliefs of the Puritans while others look more towards the infighting that was occurring between Salem Town and Village at the time. In truth, it was a mixture of a lot of factors but these were the main ones."
"The Puritans were a religious movement comprised of Reformed Protestants that had emigrated from Europe to New England in the early 1630's as they were fleeing from Catholic persecution. They saw New England as a safe haven for them, a place where they could set up their own society and live by their own rules, free from the influence of the Church of England and it's Catholic practices. They settled in quickly as they began to form communities, including Salem Town and Village. They would eventually form the Massachusetts Bay Colony. However in 1684, England saw that they were becoming to self-governing and sought to take control. This resulted in a battle that was fought up until 1691, where the colonists gained their independence. They would be renamed the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691. They'd won their right to self govern, to live by their own religious ways and this would be a catalyst for things to come.
The Puritans lived under a theocracy where they believed that God was the ultimate authority and they were to live according to his will and his rules. They elected leaders who believed in the same ideology and it didn't take long for the colonists living in Salem Town and Village to begin displaying intolerance towards others. They believed that God's law was absolute, their interpretation the only right way to live, and those who did not agree with them were shunned, exiled or even executed. It was a rigid society where conformity was highly valued and anything construed as outside the norm was punished. Men were seen as superior and they viewed women as the weaker sex, inferior in almost every way. Women were meant to serve the men, to get married, have their children and submit. If a woman displayed any ambition other than this, she was viewed as strange or suspicious." Lucy said, Wyatt noticing her tensing ever so slightly as she talked about the women's role.
"They were also obsessed with the idea of sin and punishment for it. They saw sin everywhere, lurking behind every corner and so they would punish people for the slightest of grievances. If someone was caught sleeping in church, for example, it could be considered sinful behavior and could result in punishment. It's no wonder that when rumors of witchcraft began to swirl, the people began to panic. Sin was overtaking their town and so the desire to be rid of it overrode any common sense about whether a person was innocent or not. And so these were the people occupying Salem Town and Village at the time of the Trials. A society built on religious superiority, intolerance towards outsiders and fearful of everything that didn't fit with their beliefs." Lucy finished.
"So with tensions running high already due to these strict beliefs, divisions began to form within these two communities. Salem Village was made up of farmers and the lower class citizens, who were more eager to follow along with the strict Puritanism than those living in Salem Town were. Salem Town consisted of the wealthy and upper class citizens, who were a little more lax with religious rules. The people of Salem Village didn't like this and so it started to cause a riff between the two of them. Salem Village petitioned to have their own church, with their own Reverend so they wouldn't have to keep going into Salem Town and eventually their request was permitted. This is where Reverend Samuel Parris comes in and how the witchcraft accusations started. He would be the match that started the fire." Lucy said.
"Once the people of Salem Village had their own church they began to look for a Reverend. They went through a few before settling on Samuel Parris. Parris had come from Boston, along with his wife, their three children and two slaves from Barbados. Parris was a traditionalist, who stuck with the strict ways of Puritanism. While those in Salem Towne were relaxing their rules, in Salem Village he was hardening them, making sure the townspeople adhered to them. His sermons would focus on God and Satan, how Satan was at work every day to try and destroy them and that they all needed to be on their guard."
"Then in February of 1962, his daughter Elizabeth Parris and his niece Abigail Williams began displaying strange behaviors that were soon called afflictions. They began to have fits that went beyond epileptic seizures. The would scream, throw things about the room, utter strange sounds and contorting their bodies into strange positions. The good Reverend tried to pray it away but when that didn't work, he called in Doctor William Griggs, who declared they were suffering from the results of witchcraft. This led Parris straight to his slave, Tibuta, who he believed was practicing witchcraft, infecting his household." Lucy said.
"Why do I feel like things didn't end well for her?" Rufus interrupted.
"She wasn't killed but. . . she was beaten until she confessed to participating in witchcraft. She denied it for a long time but once she confessed, she began to spin these crazy tales of how she'd cast spells on the girls, and so on. . .That's when the people truly believed they had a problem and they needed to eradicate it. Parris led the charge, his speech becoming more erratic, sermons focused on how the town had been infected by the Devil and they needed to cleanse it." Lucy said.
"The hunt for witches was on." Agent Christopher interjected as Lucy nodded.
"Then just as the accusations began to start ramping up a man named Sir William Phips arrived from England. If you recall, the colony had gained it's right to self govern in 1691. They were to receive a new Governor and a new charter for the colony. It took them awhile but in 1692, Phips arrived at the colony, carrying with him a new charter and a Royal Decree naming him as the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts. He heard about the accusations of witchcraft that were running rampant through Salem Town and Village and so he immediately created a trial court that would be used specifically for cases of witchcraft. This court would be called the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer and it would be located in Salem Town." Lucy explained before letting out a deep breath.
"So, my explanation isn't as brief as I wanted it to but the context is crucial for us to be able to go in there safely." She apologized.
"If it means we come home alive, I don't care how long it takes for you to explain this." Rufus replied.
"It's actually pretty interesting." Wyatt admitted.
"Please, continue." Mason said as she nodded her head.
"So Phips appointed William Stoughton as the Chief Magistrate of this special court. A man named Thomas Newton prosecuted the cases and Stephen Sewall was the court clerk. These "trials" were shams, the confessions they gained from the victims were essentially tortured or beaten out of them. Spectral evidence was admitted, which basically was when a victim claimed that the accused's spirit visited them in a dream and hurt them. So physically the accused's body could be somewhere else at the time of the so called attack but they could still be found guilty. It was ridiculous, of course, but they continued to allow this type of evidence to be used for months. The result was a lot of innocent victims, mostly women, were sent to their deaths due to false testimony." She said.
"This does not sound like a place I want to visit." Rufus replied.
"Fortunately for us the last of the executions took place in September so the witchcraft frenzy was dying down. This was due in part to the fact that wealthy and more notable citizens in the community were being accused of witchcraft. What essentially brought the trials to an end and the court of Oyer and Terminer to close was when Governor Phip's wife was accused of witchcraft. That was pretty much the last straw." Lucy said.
"So Phips created this whole court, allowed innocent people to be killed but when his wife was accused he just brought it to a close? That's just. . .that's brutal." Wyatt said, shaking his head in anger.
"It's unfortunate that that's what it took to bring them to an end but if it hadn't hundreds more people could have been killed. These trials changed the face of Colonial America. It exposed the weaknesses of theocracy, of having a society completely reliant upon religion. If not for the governor things could have been a lot worse, especially if William Stoughton had anything to say about it. He was extremely upset when the court was closed as he wanted the trials to continue." Lucy said.
"So what does Flynn want? What's he have to gain by going back in time to the end of the trials?" Wyatt asked.
"October was when the Court of Oyer and Terminer was closed by the Governor. He was in Salem Town at the time, most likely to rescue his wife, and he wrote a letter stating it was to be closed. My best guess would be that Flynn is going to go after the Governor, try and overthrow him and let the trials continue." Lucy said.
"Then we can't wait any longer. You need to go now." Agent Christopher said as the three of them nodded.
"Let's go get changed." Lucy replied as the three of them headed off towards the Wardrobe Dock . . .