Witch Specter Threatens Mary Warren: May 24, 1692

We take you straight into Tuesday, May 24, 1692, as Boston’s leadership gathers at the Town House and the governor and council wrangle over who will hold the colony’s key civil offices—sheriffs, justices, and more—while Governor Phips also sets June 8 for the next General Court session. Then we head to Salem Village, where Mary Warren, seemingly trapped in a trance, confronts a chilling demand to sign the devil’s book and describes a specter’s grisly threats involving a coffin, winding sheet, and grave clothes. Another specter—Mary Ireson’s—joins in, afflicting Warren nearly to death, tying the day’s political maneuvers to the escalating fear and accusation surrounding the crisis.