“A child of Sarah Good’s was likewise apprehended, being between 4 and 5 years old.  The accusers said this child bit them, and would shew such like marks, as those of a small set of teeth, upon their arms....”

“March 31, 1692, was set apart as a day of solemn humiliation at Salem ... on which day Abigail Williams said, ’that she saw a great number of persons in the village at the administration of a mock sacrament, where they had bread as red as raw flesh, and red drink.’”

The husband of Mrs. Cary, who afterwards escaped, tells this:  “Having been there [in prison] one night, next morning the jailer put irons on her legs (having received such a command); the weight of them was about eight pounds:  these with her other afflictions soon brought her into convulsion fits, so that I thought she would have died that night.  I sent to entreat that the irons might be taken off; but all entreaties were in vain....”

“John Proctor and his wife being in prison, the sheriff came to his house and seized all the goods, provisions and cattle ... and left nothing in the house for the support of the children....”

“Old Jacobs being condemned, the sheriff and officers came and seized all he had; his wife had her wedding ring taken from her ... and the neighbours in charity relieved her.”

“The family of the Putnams ... were chief prosecutors in this business.”

“And now nineteen persons having been hanged, and one pressed to death, and eight more condemned, in all twenty and eight ... about fifty having confessed ... above an hundred and fifty in prison, and above two hundred more accused; the special commission of oyer and terminer comes to a period....”

During the summer of 1692 the disastrous material and financial results of the reign of terror became so evident that the shrewd business sense of the colonist became alarmed.  Harvests were ungathered, fields and cattle were neglected, numerous people sold their farms and moved southward; some did not await the sale but abandoned their property.  The thirst for blood could not last, especially when it threatened commercial ruin.  Moreover, the accusers at length aimed too high; accusations were made against persons of rank, members of the governor’s family, and even the relatives of the pastors themselves.  “The killing time lasted about four months, from the first of June to the end of September, 1692, and then a reaction came because the informers began to strike at important persons, and named the wife of the governor.  Twenty persons had been put to death ... and if the delusion had lasted much longer under the rules of evidence that were adopted everybody in the colony except the magistrates and ministers would have been either hung or would have stood charged with witchcraft."[32]