Ann Putnam Jr.
Ann Putnam Jr. was one of the afflicted girls. She and her group of friends were accused of witchcraft due to their strange behavior. When Ann was asked who her tormentors were, she blamed many innocent villagers. Most of them were enemies of her family or had old family disputes. By time the trials were over, she had accused sixty-two people of witchcraft.
"Mrs. Putnam How high did she fly, how high? |
After the trials, she had a difficult life, but she did one thing the other afflicted girls did. She apologized:
"I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that befell my father's family in the year of 1692: that I, then being in my childhood, should by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for the accusing of several persons if a grievous crime, whereby their lives were taken away from them, whom now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons ; and that it was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time, whereby I justly fear that I have been instrumental, with others, though ignorantly and unwitting, to bring upon myself and this land the guilt of innocent blood..."
-Ann Putnam's Apology