r/Witches_of_Salem_MA

The Black Mass at Salem Village.

The second and third image depict the field North/North East of the Paris parsonage where the Black Mass allegedly took place.

In the spring of 1692, as the Salem witch trials gathered momentum, several of the afflicted girls and a handful of confessed witches began telling the magistrates about a terrifying gathering they claimed had taken place in an open field beside the home of the Reverend Samuel Parris in Salem Village.

Among those who described parts of the gathering were Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, Abigail Hobbs, and other afflicted witnesses. Betty Parris, whose strange fits had first sparked the crisis only weeks earlier, was one of the original afflicted children and claimed to see spectral figures, but by the time the story of this gathering was told in detail, she had already been sent away from Salem Village. Her surviving testimony does not include a full account of the event.

According to the witnesses, after darkness fell, the quiet pasture adjoining the Parris parsonage became the meeting place of the Devil’s church.
They said figures emerged silently from the darkness. At first there were only a few. Then more arrived, coming from every direction across the moonlit fields of Salem Village. Some were strangers. Others were neighbors whose faces they recognized immediately.

There was Sarah Good, ragged and defiant.

There was Martha Corey.

Then, to the horror of the villagers who later heard the testimony, the witnesses claimed they saw Rebecca Nurse standing among the assembly. Few accusations shocked Salem more deeply. Rebecca was known throughout the village as a devout, elderly woman of unquestioned character, yet the afflicted insisted that her specter had joined the Devil’s company.
As the gathering grew, another figure stepped forward.

It was George Burroughs, the former minister of Salem Village.

According to the testimony, Burroughs presided over the meeting like a minister conducting a church service. One witness later claimed he sounded a trumpet, calling witches from every direction until the field was filled.

Before the assembled appeared a table.
Upon it lay red bread and a red drink.

The witnesses described it as a mock communion, a blasphemous imitation of the Lord’s Supper. Those gathered were invited to eat and drink as a sign of loyalty, not to Christ, but to the Devil.

Then a great black book was opened.
One by one, those present were called forward to place their names—or their marks—inside its pages. The afflicted girls claimed they too were urged to sign but resisted. Others later confessed that they had signed the Devil’s book and entered into his covenant.

According to the testimony, the purpose of the gathering was nothing less than the overthrow of God’s church in Salem Village. The Devil, they claimed, intended to establish his own church beside the home of the village minister.
As the ceremony ended, the company disappeared into the darkness, and the field became quiet once more.

Modern historians do not believe this gathering actually took place. Instead, they view the account as a story that developed over several months through frightened testimony, confessions given under intense pressure, and deeply held Puritan beliefs about witchcraft. Yet to the magistrates and many villagers in 1692, the alleged meeting beside the Parris parsonage became one of the most frightening and influential stories of the Salem witch trials.

A lot of people don’t realize the Salem witch trials actually began in present-day Danvers, not Salem.

The Salem Village Parsonage, located behind 67 Centre Street in Danvers, was the home of Rev. Samuel Parris and family. In the winter of 1692, his daughter Betty Parris and niece Abigail Williams began exhibiting strange and unusual behavior. Under pressure to identify the cause, the girls accused Tituba, a woman enslaved by the Parris family, along with two Salem Village residents Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of witchcraft. Those first accusations ignited the Salem witch crisis.

The original parsonage was a modest wood frame house. Although it was demolished in 1784, archaeologists uncovered its original stone foundation in 1970, and the site is now preserved as an archaeological park. You can walk a short path between 67 and 69 Centre Street (Danvers) to see the foundation where the home stood and where it all started.

John Hathorne (1641–1717) was a wealthy merchant, landowner, and magistrate in colonial Salem. He is best remembered for his leading role in the Salem witch trials, where he conducted many of the preliminary examinations of the accused. Hathorne was known for his aggressive questioning, his acceptance of spectral evidence, and his belief that many of the accused were guilty. Although he did not personally issue death sentences, many of the people he committed for trial were later convicted and executed. Unlike several of his contemporaries, Hathorne never publicly expressed remorse or apologized for his role in the trials.

Hathorne lived in a large house on Washington Street, just south of the intersection of Washington and Essex Streets. His home stood on the west side of Washington Street and was one of the more prominent residences in Salem during the late 1600s. The house no longer exists, but its site is generally identified as 114–118 Washington Street, near the location of the Bewitched statue in Lapin Park.

John Hathorne is buried in the Old Burying Point Cemetery (also known as Charter Street Cemetery) in Salem.