August 5, 1692 was a day of death in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts. Five accused witches, four men and one woman, were led to the gallows and, in front of a large crowd of witnesses, hung for the practice of witchcraft on spurious, seemingly irrational evidence. They were not the first executed, nor would they be the last, but this particular group of condemned included John Proctor (immortalized and dramatized in Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible") and an ordained minister named George Burroughs. The lone woman was an Andover housewife named Martha Carrier, whose story is a testament to the strength of human will in the face of insurmountable mental and physical pressure.
Background, Personality and Pre-Trial Behavior
Martha Carrier was born Martha Allen, a daughter of one of the original 23 settlers of Andover, Massachusetts. In 1674, only a teenager, she became pregnant with the child of an older Welsh servant, a man named Thomas Carrier, who she then married. The newlyweds relocated to neighboring Billerica and had five children leading up to the witch trials of 1692, three boys, Richard, Andrew and Thomas, and two girls, Sarah and an unknown youngest child.
The Carriers returned to Andover in 1688, in poverty and dependent on the family farm to supply them with a living, and two years later were accused of spreading an outbreak of smallpox through the town, a disease most likely introduced by new immigrants from England. Thirteen people perished during the epidemic and the Carriers were barred from entering public places, however, Martha was not accused of witchcraft and the family continued to live on the fringes of Puritan society.
The few accounts of Martha Carrier's personality give historians insight into a unique woman who was certainly better suited for life in the modern world than highly regimented Puritan Massachusetts. Her husband, although a fellow of good humor and cheerful disposition, was prone to laziness and indolence, so on top of the usual chores of a Puritan housewife, it seems Martha took on many of the husband's duties as well. Most notably, she insisted on arguing and bargaining with male neighbors, something unusual in the strictly stratified society of early colonial America.
Witchcraft Comes to Andover
Martha was accused of witchcraft in May of 1692 by the group of young women known as the Salem Girls, who traveled Essex County, Massachusetts rooting out suspected witches by engaging in an impressive theatrical display. Whether the clergymen, judges and magistrates actually believed this act is still open to debate, although Martha, when confronted by the girls, acted as any rational person would when faced with the girls' wild behavior. Accused of leading a 300 strong witch army, of using her occult powers to murder and afflict people with terrible diseases, and of being promised the dubious position of "Queen of Hell," Martha vehemently denied the charges and in turn charged her accusers with insanity.
Most accused persons during the trials learned it was better to confess and wait for an eventual end to the crisis than try to fight the system by maintaining innocence. Martha, however, refused to submit, even as her two oldest sons were tortured and accused of complicity in her plotting. Other Andover citizens used her as a scapegoat for their supposed wtichcraft, and she soon became the principal name mentioned whenever a new person was accused.
Trial and Conviction
A trial was held, and neighbors were summoned to air their grievances, all of which seemed petty and unimpressive (yet almost believable) compared to the original tales of rebellions and murder (one local witness complained that Martha’s craft caused him to lose a fistfight to her son Richard) and more about personal revenge with no consideration of the human life at stake. Finally, Martha's two young children, Sarah and Thomas, were forced to implicate their mother in witchcraft.
Refusal to Confess
Throughout all this, Martha remained defiant and, some would say, stubborn. Why did she not confess, like so many others around her, so she might save her life? There is a possibility she simply did not expect the outcome of the trials would lead to her execution, as she was one of the first Andover citizens accused and clearly believed the proceedings were a ridiculous invention of a group of adolescents. Others, seeing the punishment meted out to Martha, quickly confessed to outrageously trumped up charges, often naming Martha as a principal ringleader in return for clemency, and so it is possible Martha, above all, possessed a special kind of courage in refusing to falsely implicate other members of the community.
In refusing to submit to the wishes of the unanimously male judges, reverends and politicians who gave the hysteria legitimacy, Martha did something women in Puritan America rarely dared; stand up to male authority figures wielding not only physical power, but spiritual authority. The harsh sentence of death handed down to witches refusing to confess reflected the threat to the status quo evident in Martha’s act of protest. It could be argued, then, that Martha Carrier was not only an early feminist , but a martyr defending her rights and honor against false accusation and tyranny.
