One of the youngest girls accused of witchcraft was Mr. Parris' own daughter, nine year old Elizabeth Parris. Elizabeth, a sweet girl, had difficulty facing the stark realities of predestination and damnation that her father preached to her. Elizabeth Parris lived in a period of economic uncertainty and yearned to know what lay in her future. Elizabeth and her cousin Abigail Williams began to undertake experiments in fortune telling. They wanted to know who they were going to marry and their future economic status. Betty Parris' afflictions started innocently in January when she began to forget errands, was unable to concentrate, and seemed rapt in secret preoccupation. She was part of the “circle of girls” that practiced witch craft at the house under the direction of Samuel Parris’ Indian slave, Tituba. Her contortions, convulsions and outbursts of gibberish at first baffled everyone, especially when other girls began to show similar symptoms.
On February 29, 1692, under intense questioning, the afflicted girls named Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba as their tormentors. Elizabeth Parris testified at these trials that she was tormented by spectral visions of these women. During their trials, Elizabeth would cry out when the accused moved her arms, legs, or head, as if the accused was injuring her from across the room. Elizabeth Parris was also involved in the conviction of Martha Corey.
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