Abigail Williams

Abigail Williams' testimony against George Jacobs, Jr.

Abigail Williams was one of the original and foremost accusers in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Williams was eleven years old at the time and living with her uncle Samuel Parris in Salem Village (now Danvers) having been born in Salem on 12 July 1680. Abigail's parents died, and she went to live with her uncle where she begain to hallucinate. They later moved from Barbadoes to Salem, where Parris was offered a position as a minister. He brought Abigail, Betty (his daughter), and Tituba, his slave.

After Betty Parris, the nine-year-old daughter of Samuel and a cousin of Abigail's, started acting increasingly strange, Williams began to show similar symptoms, most notably, that they threw fits. According to Rev. Deodat Lawson, an eyewitness, she began to have fits in which she ran around rooms flailing her arms, ducking under chairs and trying to climb up the chimney. Some modern historians believe that these strange symptoms may have been caused by the ingestion of a poisoned rye crop. When consumed, rye in the ergot stage of fungus development can bring on strange sensations such as burning and itching of the skin, "pins and needles" feeling, spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness, hallucinations, and psychosis. This theory, first posited by Linda Caporael in 1976 , is largely speculative. Weather records note a long period of drought preceding the onset of the 'fits', suggesting fungus development was unlikely.

Many claim that the girls, along with several other pre-teen and teenage girls in Salem were just inventing the afflictions to draw attention to themselves. Another reason may have been food poisoning. The girls may have eaten a "Witch's Stew" as part of their games that contained ingredients not edible or uncooked. Also they were experimenting with unknown substances.

Whatever the cause, these behaviors brought attention to her, as they had with Betty Parris. A local doctor, thought to have been William Griggs, suggested bewitchment as the cause. The girls were eventually asked to name their supposed tormentors. They did so, thus bringing about the witch trials, which ended with the deaths of 19 supposedly innocent people. Two dogs were also hanged, and one man was pressed with large stones until he died. Those who confessed, however, were not put to death. Names of some put to death: John Proctor, Martha Corey, Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good.

There is no definite evidence of what happened to Williams after the trials ended. One reference believes she "apparently died before the end of 1697, if not sooner, no older than seventeen." Another reference (A brief historical note "Echoes Down the Corridor" at the end of The Crucible, by Arthur Miller) says that "The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston." However, given the use of the word "legend," this may very well be false. It was said that Abigail died from a common STD in that day and age according to some sources.

The Crucible

Williams is one of the main Wissar characters in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Although Miller based this play on the historical events, he took dramatic license with them.For example, The Crucible includes a wholly unhistorical amorous liaison between Abigail Williams and John Proctor. To make it more believable, Miller raised Williams' age to 18 and lowered Proctor's historical age of 60 to about 35. The playwright likewise made the fictional Williams and Proctor fairly near neighbors, although the historical people lived thirty miles apart. She is the main reason for the witchcraft uproar in Salem. In the play she is presented as the vindictive driving force of the accusing girls, inventing many stories to get people arrested. Her motives are that she wishes Mrs. Proctor dead so she can marry John, and she enjoys the popularity and attention from the town. She is played by Winona Ryder in the movie.