Deodat Lawson on the Accused and the Afflicted: Salem Witch Trials Daily April 6, 1692

April 6, 1692: Pinches, Apparitions, and Deodat Lawson’s First Published AccountIn this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we take you to Wednesday, April 6, 1692, as reports of pinching and spectral torment continue to ripple through Salem Village. We discuss an April 19 deposition in which farmer Benjamin Gould says Martha and Giles Cory appeared at his bedside and he felt two pinches as they left, along with accounts that Abigail Williams was pinched by John Proctor’s shape and that Ann Putnam Sr. and Jr. remained afflicted. We also share the conclusion of Minister Deodat Lawson’s A Brief and True Narrative, newly finished and soon to be published, highlighting his detailed “remarks” about the afflicted and the accused—including the witches’ book, mutual “curing,” apparitions in the meetinghouse, the witch cake, and claims about the accused gathering in company—while exploring why Lawson’s report matters as an early surviving published description of events.00:00 Welcome and Date00:15 Corys Visit and Pinches00:51 Spectral Attacks Spread01:08 Lawson Narrative Begins01:32 Afflicted Persons Remarks03:04 Prayer and Signing Book03:36 Accused Persons Remarks03:43 Witch Cake and Examinations04:17 Satanic Muster and Rituals05:05 Keeble Statutes Criteria06:02 Why Lawson Report Matters06:33 Closing ThoughtsLinksA Brief and True Narrative by Deodat Lawson: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A49794.0001.001/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltextSign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims: https://change.org/witchtrialsFind My Massachusetts Legislators: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislatorThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCliis4vjMIUgg3wcA0pXeYQ/⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub: https://aboutsalem.com/salem-witch-trials-daily/⁠⁠The Thing About Salem: https://aboutsalem.com⁠⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts: https://aboutwitchhunts.com⁠⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780375706905⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781107689619⁠⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780190627805⁠⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781589791329⁠High Quality Scans of the Original Court Documents - Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection: https://pem.quartexcollections.com/collections/salem-witch-trials-collection