Rebecca Nurse

This Halloween Eve, we're in Salem, Massachusetts, the epicenter of spooky season.

This historic city, once the home to those infamous witch hunts and trials, now celebrating its 400th anniversary.

Now, as modern-day witches gather here, meet the descendants of the accused witches, determined to clear their ancestors' names.

Don't be afraid.

Whether it's embracing your wicked side...

Why this was lethal is, first, there was an impossibility of an alibi.

So if you were an accused person, like Rebecca Nurse, argued that she was bedridden at home with a fever at the exact moment an afflicted girl claimed her specter was pinching her in church the court ruled that her physical presence was irrelevant her specter was doing the harm which could leave her body into whatever they wanted at any point

If you remember from our episode about the Bell Witch, one of the things that proved that it was like a witch or a spirit haunting the home is she was able to deliver two different sermons happening miles apart simultaneously.

So that's kind of what this makes me think of.

Okay.

So 19 people, 14 women and five men, were marched up Gallows Hill in Salem and hanged across four separate execution dates between June and September of 1692.

Most notable victims were Bridget Bishop, who was first executed, Rebecca Nurse, who was a pious matriarch whose initial acquittal was overturned by Chief Justice Stoughton, and Reverend George Burroughs.

He was a former Salem minister who stunned the crowd by flawlessly reciting the Lord's Prayer on the gallows, something Puritans believed witches could not do.

People would say she wasn't the most appreciative and a little turbulent and foul-mouthed, even though they were giving her their charity and letting her live in their homes.

She was a part of Rebecca Nurse's trial.

She wasn't an accuser, but she testimonied against Rebecca Nurse.

Rebecca Nurse was a really well-renowned woman in Salem Town and was seen as like a saint.

Like, she went to church regularly.

Everyone well-respected her and liked her.

So her being on trial was kind of crazy.

So, Rebecca Nurse's family was very much so on her side.

Oh, well, it's about six women.

Rebecca Nurse is one of them.

Titova is another.

I think Ann Pudiator is in the book, too.

But I learned a lot about Rebecca Nurse.

I knew some, but I learned a lot more.

But it was very... educational but none of the women mentioned in that book lived at this location uh a couple of them close um bridget bishop was in the book too she lived around the corner so maybe she came over and said read the

One month later, you had four more accused.

Martha Corey, Dorothy Good, Rebecca Nurse, and Rachel Clinton.

What was interesting with these women...

I shouldn't say women.

Ann Putnam Jr. took the lead in identifying these other witches.

One identified was Dorothy Good, Sarah's four-year-old daughter, then Martha Corey, a member of Samuel Parish's church, and Rebecca Nurse, a widely respected matriarch and member of the nearby Salem Town Church and a grandmother in the community.

Those who acted as if they were afflicted multiplied.

Adults began to suffer fits, including Anne's mother and Tituba's husband, and the fit spread to Mary Warren, the servant of John and Elizabeth Proctor.

But in regards to the trials, you do see stories surrounding childbirth come up.

The fact that Rebecca Nurse, who is this respected member of the community who's accused of witchcraft, she had...

many healthy children who had lived to adulthood.

All of her children had lived to adulthood, which is very unusual for the period.

And they were stripped completely naked and forced to stand and have their bodies searched.

How incredibly demoralizing in this already horrible situation and in a time when modesty is so important to women, you know, as like part of this culture, you know, having your body shown to strangers must have been even more mortifying because of the cultural significance.

But we know in Rebecca Nurse's case, they found something in her vaginal area that they said was a witch's mark.

And her family wrote a letter in and said it's something that was left over from difficulty in childbearing.