(Examination of Sarah Carrier)
The Examination of Sarah Carrier Taken before Dudly Broad-
steat Sarah Carrier being accused of witchcraft Confeseth as fol-
loweth that she hath been a witch Ever Since She was Six years Old
that her Moth'r brought a red book to her and She touched it that
her Moth'r Baptiz'd her in Andrew fostters pauster the day before
She went to prison & that her Moth'r promised her she should
not be hanged that her Mother taught her how to afflicte persons
by pinching them or Setting on them that She began to afflict Sarah
Phelps last Satterdy & that Betty Johnson was w'th her that her
Moth'r gave her a Spear last Night & that She pricked Sarah Phelps
& Ann Puttnam w'th it.
(On side of paper) Sarah Carrier
( Miscellaneous Papers -- Essex Institute, Salem No. 5 )
(Examination of Sarah Carrier.)
Aug. the 11th, 1696. [1692]
It was asked Sarah Carrier by the Magistrates or Justices John
Hawthorne Esq; and others: How long hast thou been a witch? A.
Ever since I was six years old. Q. How old are you now? A. Near
eight years old, brother Richard says, I shall be eight years old in
November next. Q. Who made you a witch? A. My mother, she
made me set my hand to a book. Q. How did you set your hand to
it? A. I touched it with my fingers and the book was red, the paper
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of it was white. She said she never had seen the black man; the place
where she did it was in Andrew Foster's pasture and Elizabeth John-
son junr. was there. Being asked who was there beside, she answered
her Aunt Toothaker and her cousin. Being asked when it was, she
said, when she was baptized. Q. What did they promise to give you?
A. A black dog. Q. Did the dog ever come to you? A. No. Q. But
you said you saw a cat once. What did that say to you? A. It said
it would tear me in pieces if I would not set my hand to the book.
She said her mother baptized her, and the devil or black man was
not there, as she saw, and her mother said when she baptized her,
thou are mine for ever and ever and amen. Q. How did you afflict
folks? A. I pinched them, and she said she had no puppets, but
she went to them that she afflicted. Being asked whether she went in
her body or her spirit, she said in her spirit. She said her mother
carried her thither to afflict. Q. How did your mother carry you
when she was in prison? A. She came like a black cat. Q. How did
you know that it was your mother? A. The cat told me so that she
was my mother. She said she afflicted Phelp's child last saturday,
and Elizabeth Johnson joined with her to do it. She had a wooden
spear, about as long as her finger, of Elizabeth Johnson, and she had
it of the devil. She would not own that she had ever been at the
witch meeting at the village. This is the substance.
Attest. Simon Willard.
( Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts -- Bay, II, 34 .)
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