In today’s Salem Witch Trials Daily, we walk through Saturday, April 2, 1692, focusing on Abigail Williams’ claims that the specters of Elizabeth Procter and Rebecca Nurse repeatedly afflicted her in March and April, including being “grievously pinched” and tempted with fine things to sign the book. We also explore how accusers often listed dates of spectral attacks and why our day-by-day approach helps reveal what life was like during the witch-hunt. Elsewhere in Salem Village, we cover Mary Warren’s recovery and her meetinghouse note requesting prayers of gratitude—then hint at the serious drama that follows when, in Mary’s later testimony, Elizabeth Procter reportedly appeared to her that night in “her bodily person” and confessed to witchcraft.

00:00 Daily Introduction

00:14 Abigail's Spectral Attacks

00:26 Why Track Day by Day

00:59 Temptation to Sign the Book

01:06 Mary Warren's Note

01:27 Elizabeth Appears Bodily

01:46 Spectral vs Physical Assaults

A Brief and True Narrative by Deodat Lawson

Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims

Find My Massachusetts Legislators

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection