Salem: House of No Mercy

The story of Mercy Lewis the Putnams, and the machinery of fear.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is
the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone.
It is Tuesday, April fifteenth, twenty twenty five. It is
currently five h five pm Central Time, and I'm coming

(00:22):
to you live from the Theology Central studio located right
here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I'm about to get in
the car, so since you're here, you want to get
in the car with me. We're going to take a drive. Now.
It's gonna be a very very very very long drive
since we're starting in Abilene, Texas, and we need to
end up in Massachusetts. We need to end up in

(00:44):
the Boston area, so we get a long long ways
to go, so we'll just kind of have to fast
forward this, all right. We get in the car, or
we drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive. Okay, Hey,
hey look it's Boston all right. Now we're gonna leave Boston.
Are you ready? Are you ready? Now? We can I
know it was a long drive that took forever. I was.
Are you okay? Are you awake now? Oh? Will stop? Okay,

(01:06):
we'll get some snacks. Okay, are you refreshed or do
you need a stretch. Okay, let's stretch man. That was
from Abilene to Boston. That's a long drive. Okay, I'm
ready to go. All right, all right, are you ready? Now?
We're in the car. Right, you're there. We're in the car.
We're driving north on Route one through Massachusetts. The GPS

(01:28):
says Salem is twenty minutes away, and you're like, okay,
that's where we're going. Salem. Fine, we're gonna We're gonna
get He's taking us on a road trip to Salem.
You're happy, You're excited because you've heard all of these
episodes where I've been talking about what happened during in
Salem and the Salem witch Trials sixteen ninety two to
sixteen ninety three. You're like, yes, finally I'm going to

(01:50):
see Salem. And all of a sudden, no, I don't.
I don't keep driving towards Salem. Instead, I take an
exit and you start looking at me like where are
we going? Where are you taking me? And I look
at you, I'm like, well, didn't your mom tell you
not to get in a car with a stranger. You
just the only thing you know about me is I'm

(02:11):
a podcaster. You got in the car and drove all
the way from Texas to Massachusetts with me. That was
kind of suspicious behavior in your part, not my part.
That was on you. You got in the car with me, Okay,
But we take the detour. We take an exit to
a town called Danvers. D A n V E R S. Danvers.

(02:36):
Do you know anything about Danvers? It's kind of a
when you talk about Salem, you talk about the Salem
witch Trials, you talk about Massachusetts, you talk about Boston,
you talk about that area Danvers. I mean it's kind
of a quieter name, a quieter town. So we take
the exit and we end up in Danvers and we
kind of whind through neighborhoods, colonial style homes, old stone walls,

(03:02):
clipped yards, and then we make a final turn. Danielle Drive,
looks like just another suburban street. You're kind of getting worried.
You're like, where are we going? Like, we're not even
going into the center of town. We're in this street,
Danielle drive. Oh, maybe maybe he knows someone here. You

(03:23):
have no clue what's going or maybe you're like, let
me out of the car, stop right here, where are
we going? You don't have a clue. You got in
the car with me. We've been in the car along
time together, Okay, but we're Danielle drive. I'm not saying
a word to anybody, because you know, why would I
give it away? That would be that would be I mean,
that's a that's a boring road trip when you know
where you're going. So sh I'm not gonna tell you anything.

(03:47):
And I keep looking and I'm driving, and tucked away
there on the southwest side of Hawthorne Hill stands a
small marker. Well, according to some, there's a small marker there.
According to some, I don't know. Because now all of

(04:11):
my trips to Salem, I drive right past the exit
where it says Danvers. I go right past it. I
go right to the town of Salem, the city of Salem,
That's where I go right. I never take the exit
into Danvers. I don't. The next time I go, which
should be sometime this year, I'm going to do everything
in my power to take the exit into Danvers. In fact,

(04:32):
I was just on the phone with my daughter. I'm like, hey,
when are you head to to Salem again? Because she lives,
you know, in that area. She said in a few
days and so I told her, when you go take
the exit into Danvers, go to Danielle Drive and tell
me if there's an actual marker there. The claim is
there is a marker, but all the photographs I've ever seen,

(04:53):
I've never seen a historical marker. So maybe it's somewhere
near there, but it's but it's the street. My understanding
is right there, on the southwest side of Hawthorne Hill,
there's supposedly a marker, and it may be one that
many drive right past without even noticing it. And I

(05:13):
bet many people in the area have never even stopped
to see the historical marker. I mean, think about where
you live. How many historical markers do you drive past?
How many of the historical markers and the area which
you lived you have literally stopped the car and went
up and read everything on them. I mean, if you

(05:34):
won't give me the end, I'll ask your kids. Your
kids probably never even stopped at one of these historical markers.
If you see a historical marker, you should always stop,
because if you don't know history, we're doomed to repeat
history the only way. I mean, historical markers are free.
They don't cost you any money. You don't have to
pay to get in, and in fact, you can just
take a picture of it of your phone and then

(05:56):
you can read it whenever you want. Okay, stop at
historical markers. But if there's a historical marker there in
Danvers on Danielle Street on the southwest side of Hawthorn Hill,
if there is one there, I bet you many people
drive past. And when people are there, oh it's October.
We're going to go to Salem, the Salem Witch Trials.
We're going to go to the Salem Which Museum. Many

(06:18):
who go there, bro they don't even take an exit
into Danvers. They just go straight to Salem. I made
the same mistake all the times I've been to Salem.
I did not take the exit into Danvers. I've done
the same thing countless times. Next time, Noe, Danvers is
where we're going. Now, what is this on this historical marker.

(06:41):
It's one that many may drive past without even noticing.
And it is a sign that tells you something very
few truly understand when it comes to the Salem Witch Trials.
Because this area right here on the southwest side of
Thorn Hill, Danielle Street, this is where it happened, not

(07:07):
in the courtrooms, not in the jails, but right here. Now,
Just imagine I pulled the car over, I tell everyone
to get out. I'm like, right here, it's right here,
and you and from the pictures I've seen, it's just trees.
There's nothing there what I have seen. Again, I'll be

(07:28):
able to tell you for sure. But can you imagine
we just get out and you're like, we're like in
the middle of nowhere and you're just having me point
to the woods. You're like, I'm getting in the car.
You start screaming for help. No, calm down, this is
where it happened. And you're like, what happened? And I'm
like the Salem witch trials. You're like, no, the Salem

(07:49):
witch trials happened in a courtroom. They happened in jails.
They happened where people were being hung. No no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. Because right here, southwest side of Hawthorn Hill,
Danielle Street, a house used to sit right here, and
it was inside of that house where the whispers of

(08:13):
accusations grew louder and louder and louder, Because in that house,
it was a house where theology and fear and grief
fed each other. It was a house that produced more accusations,

(08:35):
more imprisonments, more deaths than anything anywhere else, any other place.
That house. It's not standing there today. It's gone now.
It's just trees. From what I know, from what I
can tell, I'll be again when next time i'm there.
But if we were standing there, looking all all those trees,
and I was like, this is where it happened you again,

(08:56):
and of course I wouldn't explain anything, because I would
want to be as mysterious an as you know, scary
as possible. You'd be like, what is he's lost his mind?
Everybody would think you're looking at something. But in my mind,
I would be looking at something. I won't be looking
at the trees. I won't be looking at Danielle Street.
I'll be looking at a house and a house that

(09:17):
was right there in sixteen ninety two, in sixteen ninety three,
because it was in that house where theology and fear
and grief fed one another. It was the house. Inside
that house was produced more accusations, and because of what
was done in that house, more in prisonments, more in deaths,

(09:38):
more deaths came from what was said in that house,
because if I stood there, I would then just be
all dramatic and say, I present to you, ladies and gentlemen,
the home of Thomas Anne and Anne Putnam Junior and

(09:59):
the home of Mercy Lewis. Now you'd be looking around,
going I don't see anything. I would be like, really
see it. Right here is the home of Thomas Anne
and Anne Putnam Junior and the home of Mercy Lewis. Now.

(10:19):
They didn't light the first match when it came to
the Salem witch trials, but what burned in that house,
in this house, I would be pointing to it lit
up all of Salem, and in some ways the light
still shines bright if anyone really wants to study the story,

(10:42):
because in a reality and in a real way, this
is the story of the House of No Mercy, the
House of no Mercy. There's a little play on words there,
because Mercy Lewis lived in that house, so there was
a mercy there, but there wasn't mercy in the meaningful way.

(11:12):
Today and this episode, we're going to enter the house
that shaped the crisis more than any other, a house
where fear overtook reason and where grief, faith, and power
all collided. Some called it the epicenter of the accusations.

(11:33):
Others saw it as a righteous household defending God's people.
History may call it many things, but I'm going to
refer to it again not only as the House of
No Mercy this entire episode. I'm going to call this
the story of the House of No Mercy. In our

(11:58):
recent episodes, we've walked through some of the darkest corners
of Salem. We watched Mary Sibley's witch Cake open the
door to fear. We listened to Mary Walcott's steady voice
and rise in the courtroom. We stood with George Burrows
as he spoke the Lord's Prayer on the gallows and
was still murdered. But there was another voice in that courtroom,

(12:20):
a voice that cried out not just against neighbors, but
against a former minister. A voice that describes Satan's book,
Black Sabbaths and ghostly torment. A voice that helped bury
the last hope of mercy for George Burrows. Yeah, now,
voice buried the last hope of mercy for George Burrows.

(12:41):
He's the former minister who's killed. He was the one
who stated the Lord's prayer, which they said a witch
couldn't do, didn't matter, because well, someone's voice buried the
last hope of Mercy, and that voice belonged to Mercy Lewis.
But her story doesn't begin in Salem, and it doesn't

(13:04):
end there either. This is not just the story of
an accuser. It's the story of a survivor of war,
of trauma, and of hysteria. And it's the story of
a girl who vanished when the fires died down and
somewhat scandalous as well. Now we've mentioned Mercy Lewis many

(13:28):
times so far in this journey through the Salem witch Trials.
I've talked about her. I've even told a little bit
of her story. So I'm going to repeat some things,
but I'm repeating it to build this narrative so you
know the full story of Mercy Lewis, but mainly so
that we can get to that house. I mean, we
just drove from Abilene, Texas to Danvers and we got

(13:49):
out of the car. This house, this home of the Putnams.
That's this is what you need to know. So we're
gonna build this and as I've I been, as I'm
all doing, and as I have been doing. I try
to do these episodes in a narrative way, but as
you can tell, I come in and out of the narrative.
Some people like that I come in and out. Some

(14:11):
people hate it. If I had money, I would do
a full production. I would dramatize this. I would have
voice actors and music and sound effects. But it's just
me in an empty room. But hopefully I'm still telling
the story of Salem in an interesting way, in a
way that shows you we need to learn these lessons.
Stop at historical markers. Now, let's talk about Mercy Lewis.

(14:40):
She was born around sixteen seventy five, not in Massachusetts,
but on the northern frontier and a small coastal town. Now,
if I saw the name of this town, I would
say foul Mouth, but it's foul meth, foul Mouth, foul

(15:00):
meth Maine. It's spelled fa lmo ut h, but it's
foul meth. The way now, I don't know how they
would look when you get up to Boston in that area.
The way they say things look, I don't know what's
going on up there. They pronounced that. Some of the
names of towns they say I'm like, how do you
get that from that? Like, so, who knows how they

(15:21):
say things up there? I don't know. Okay, I could.
I could probably call my daughter and ask her and say,
how does how do you see this exactly? But you
know what your tour guide is from West Texas, Okay.
So Foulmouth, Maine. Now at the time, again, she's born
around sixteen seventy five. She at the time, the region

(15:42):
was violent and unstable. It was a borderland between English
settlers and some of the French aligned tribes at that time.
And I think the one of the tribes is is
it's like wab A n Aki Wabanaki tribe believe. I
think it's how it said. And I think there were

(16:02):
one of the tribes that were aligned with the fringe.
Now in sixteen eighty nine, again, she's born in sixteen
seventy five. In sixteen eighty nine, she's now around the
age of fourteen. And this is when the nightmare shows up.
This is when her life is about to be tragedy.
I mean, she's about to encounter some tragedy in her life,

(16:22):
right because it's it's sixteen eighty nine, and this is
one of those cases where you don't go to sleep
and have a nightmare. This is where you wake up
and experience a nightmare. Now King William's war ignited and
a brutal series of attacks occurred. One of the deadliest
rays fell on Falmouth. The town was burned. Mercy's parents

(16:49):
were killed, neighbors were slaughtered. The violence was swift and personal.
She survived, but from that day for word, Mercy Lewis
was now an orphan of war. Her family is all dead,
she's an orphan, she's young. Well she's an orphan of war.

(17:14):
But now she's about to move to Salem and a
new war is going to begin. In fact, she's going
to enter right into the midst of a war because
Mercy is sent to live in Massachusetts, and eventually she
is placed in the home of Thomas and Anne Putnam
and Salem village. You talk about how life can work

(17:38):
for some people, and it's just so like, I know,
I'm leaving the narrative. But sometimes just whenever you study history,
don't even need to study history. You can just you
can be you can be sitting on a bus talking
to someone sitting on an airplane, just you could be
talking to just any stranger and have them tell the
story of their life. Isn't it crazy how different people's

(17:59):
lives lives. Some people's lives, they have their mother, their
father all the way into their adulthood. They have a
good relationship, they were never molested, they were never abused.
The life is good. They are married. They have this,
they have this, they have this, they have this, they
have this. And in other people's lives, it seems from
one tragedy to another, tragedy to another tragedy. It's filled

(18:23):
with pain, trauma, suffering and mercy. Lewis I mean her
family is slaughtered, and of all the places she has
to end up, she has to end up in Salem.
I mean for crying out love. And now see what
Christians would say, Well, I'm so glad she entered into
Salem because this is where the righteous people are, this

(18:44):
is the Puritans, godly theology. I'm so glad she ended up.
And she probably would have been better to find herself
in a village of atheists and then instead of ending
up in Salem. But if I say that, I offend
a lot of people. But she finds herself in a
new war because she sent to live in Massachusetts. She
eventually is placed in the home of Thomas and Putnam

(19:06):
and Salem Village. There she becomes a servant, living and
working beside Anne Putnam Junior, another young girl who would
soon become central to the witch trials. Now, the Putnam
household was deeply religious, deeply political, and increasingly suspicious. Reverend

(19:28):
Samuel Parris was warning of Satan's schemes. Disputes with neighbors
simmered over land and land inheritance and church leadership, because
you know, good Christians become political and divisive and fighting
and suspicious and backbiting and gossip. And I know Christians

(19:49):
want land, they want my I know it's hard to
believe all of this, but whenever you study church history,
you know what you find when you find Christians sinners.
I know it's shocking, but it it's true. No matter,
even though we want a claim that when everyone becomes
a Christian they're a new creature, everything's passed away. That's
only true positionally. Practically, we're not new. We are sinners.
We are sinners, and all of that sinful nature is

(20:12):
still working. And you see it right here the town.
And we could talk about a lot of the things
going on in the town. I think a lot of
what happened in Salem had more to do with church
disputes than anything else. But that's just some of my
own hypotheses there. But all of this is simmering over now.
Mercy is still young, she's obviously still traumatized, and she

(20:36):
enters a new war. And she doesn't choose to enter
this war. She finds herself in it. Now, this one
is fought in sermons, in whispers, and eventually in court,
and eventually with a rope tied around people's necks or
in one case, a whole lot of heavy rocks to

(20:58):
crush someone today, but for the most part with sermons,
so in church, whispers, accusations, court, and then a rope.
And she's right in the midst of all of this
in March of sixteen ninety two. Right, we just came

(21:22):
out of March. We're in April here. But March of
sixteen ninety two, after the first fits of Betty Parris
and Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis begins experiencing her own violent affliction.
So somewhere in March she starts having her own afflictions.

(21:43):
She screamed of invisible tormentors. She claims spirits clawed at her.
She said, Witch has tried to force her to sign
the Devil's Book, and the courts listened. Now I know
I keep mentioning the Devil's Book over and over and
over again. We do need to talk about this Devil's
Book at some point, since it's such a It's mentioned

(22:06):
many times. Whenever if you visit Salem or you start
studying Salem, the Devil's Book shows up. So we do
need to do some speaking of it at some point.
I haven't forgotten now over the next several months. So
this all begins in kind of March. Okay, we make it.
We can talk about all the significant things that happen
in April. April is an interesting April is interesting in

(22:29):
the history of Salem. If you go to April sixteen
ninety one, you really start laying down the foundations and
some of the fighting and struggles and disagreements happening in
Salem sixteen ninety two. April of sixteen ninety two, you
have accusation. That's kind of where the accusations explode, and
then the court, the whole legal system starts getting involved.

(22:51):
So April is big in sixteen ninety two, and then
April sixteen ninety three is where everything really kind of
starts coming to a crashing hall. Everything begins to fall apont.
So at sixteen April sixteen ninety one, you really start
laying the groundwork. Sixteen ninety two April boom, everything's going crazy, accusations,
the legal system now starts taking over. And then by

(23:12):
sixteen ninety three everything starts imploding and collapsing on itself.
So April is a very interesting month in the history
of Salem, if you really want to put it all together.
So she screamed of invisible tormentors, she claimed spirits claud
at her. She said, witch Is tried to force her
to sign the Devil's Book, and the court listened. Now,
over the next several months, Mercy Lewis became one of

(23:34):
the most and this is true of many of the girls.
I'm just going to say one of the prolific accusers
and Salem. I don't want to say one of the most,
because I think others are far more prolific. So she's
one of the prolific accusers and Salem. She gave testimony
depositions connected to over fifteen people, and that's a small

(23:57):
number compared to some of the others who was accusing
a whole lot more. Now, she wasn't just reacting, though
she wasn't actively shaping the narrative. Her words helped convince
not only the marginalized, but also the respected. So she
in some ways she didn't just react. In some ways

(24:20):
you could say she was kind of actively shaping the
narrative like she seemed. I don't know, how do we
see she seemed maybe more precise, maybe is a good
way to put it, but we know this. She definitely
she was able to not only convict or help people

(24:42):
be convicted, but she didn't have to just go after
the marginalize, the widow, or the woman of questionable character.
She could go after the respected. That's why she is,
in a sense buries all hope for the former minister
who would have been more respected and the and she
was able to go after some of the more respected
people who were being accused. Now, just to remind ourselves

(25:09):
and to remind you, remember, I've told you the story
of George Burrows, the Harvard trained minister accused of leading
Satan's army. But it was Mercy Lewis who gave some
of the most vivid and dramatic testimony. She said he
appeared to her in spectral form, that she said, he
boasted of his powers, mocked her prayers, and urged her

(25:29):
to sign the Devil's book her. It was her courtroom
testimony that helped Sill his fate. But Burrows was not
her only target. He is the most famous, right, And
that's why in a lot of these stories, these narratives
I'm trying to tell you, trying to tell you, these
historically accurate stories of what happened, George Burrows gets mentioned.

(25:52):
If any, if any of the accusers accused George Burrows.
He's such a central character because he's a minister. Witches
are not supposed to say the Lord's prayer. He recites
it flawlessly. Supposedly, Cotton Mather is there, you know, the
great Puritan that all the pastors, even those on sermon audio,

(26:13):
try to defend Cotton Mather as being the great guy.
And he's the one. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no no no, he's just that's Satan appearing as
an angel of light. Kill him and he dies. I mean,
come on now, I mean, we don't even get me
started on how pastors defend Cotton Mather. The whole thing
is ridiculous, Okay, And so many times when I hear
pastors try to defend Cotton Mather, the first thing I
think of. One, Clearly, these pastors have never been to Salem. Two,

(26:36):
I don't think they have a clue what actually happened
during the Salem witch trials. And I get really irritated
by it, as someone who has spent so many years
of my life reading and studying what happened in Salem.
So he she just accuses him of I mean, she
tells an elaborate story. I mean like he's the general
of Satan's army. He's tormenting her, mocking her prayers, he's

(26:57):
bragging about his powers. He's like sign Devil's book, signed
the Devil's book. I mean like, and again, this is
all he appears to her, in spectral form, not physical form.
Just his spirit is supposed to be doing all of
these things. So because remember he's often like what where
it wasn't he in Maine? When all these accusations and

(27:17):
they go get him and bringing back, but he wasn't
her only target. Mercy also accused Mary Esty, sister of Rebecca,
nurse Bridget Bishop, the first one to be executed, Giles Corey,
who would be crushed to death under a pile of rocks,

(27:38):
Susannah Martin, a respected widow, and many others She claimed
their specters attacked her, bit her tried to pull her
soul from her body. Her accusations weren't wild or hysterical, though,
that's I guess it's kind of Remember we've talked about
some of those who were more theatrical. They were when

(28:00):
she actually gave her accusation or gave her testimony. She
was calm, composed, detailed, and in some ways that's what
made her more dangerous. She could be seen as maybe
more believable. Some maybe laugh at the theatrics of the others. Now,
the theatrics worked on many scared them to death, but
for others that were like, come on, are y'all falling

(28:21):
for this? Hey? Are you falling for these teenage girls?
You know, looking like they're putting on a high school play.
I mean, they wouldn't have said it that way, but
I mean that's what it would look like. She was older,
than most of the afflicted. She had status because she
was in the Putnam home, and it appears from what

(28:43):
we can tell that she obviously may have been I
can't say the best, but she seemed very good at
knowing how to speak in court, like when to speak,
how to speak. Again, she's older, so that gives a
little bit more. The others are younger and more emotional
and theatrical. She's older and more convincing. Maybe I don't

(29:05):
know if that's a fair Again, sometimes it's hard when
you're talking about these historical accounts. You were trying to
put flesh on these stories. But we don't want to embellish.
We want to be as fair as possible. I'm doing
my very best to do that. Now, this is where
this all comes down to, and this is always hard
with all of these stories. Was Mercy Lewis a manipulate

(29:30):
or or manipulated? I mean she had survived horrors most
of Salem couldn't imagine, and then she was placed in
a house full of spiritual warfare. That's all she heard about,
revenge and rising power. Did she see herself as a
part of the holy battle and this was a war

(29:50):
she could help when did she relive old traumas every
time someone raised their voice in court, or did she
learn that being an accuser meant being safe. We talked
about this. If you were making the accusations, you were safe. Now,

(30:12):
if you werecanted of your accusation, then you were accused.
So that remember we talked to that whole story, right,
We've told a lot of these stories, and yeah, you
seem the safest if you were making accusations because you
were being tormented. You're the victim. So if you're making
the accusation I'm being tormented by the witches, well then
you're not a witch because you're being tormented by the ways.

(30:33):
If you didn't get an accusation out quick, then there's
someone could turn on you. So I mean she survived,
her family's dead. That she figures out like, I'm not
gonna lose. I'm not going to die in this war either.
I don't know. I have to do a lot of
speculating here. I cannot say for sure. Now, by early

(30:57):
sixteen ninety three, the trials begin to fall apart. Around
April I think was when they really begin to fall apart.
Actually a little before April, but the execution stopped, Thank goodness,
the court lost its grip, Thank goodness. Then something weird happens.

(31:20):
Mercy Lewis just disappears. Gone. Now some believe she moved
to Boston. This is where it gets scandalous, especially in
seventeen oh one, because from what we can tell seventeen

(31:44):
oh one, she gives birth to a child, an illegitimate child.
She gives birth to a child, she's not married. This
is enormous scandal and Puritan society. I just saw that,

(32:06):
you know, it was still happening in seventeen oh one.
I know, I know sometimes people like I wish we
could go back to the days when our country was
so moral, and it's always it just cracks me. I'm like, oh,
you want to go back to the time when I
don't know, we enslaved people and we sold human beings
as property or out. Let's go back to the wonderful,

(32:27):
good old moral times when we denied people basic rights
because of the color of their skin. Oh, let's go
back to the good old times when the KKK was,
you know, burning crosses and lynching people. Oh, let's go
back to the good old days when I don't know,
we were stealing land from the Native American trial. Let's
go back to the good, okay, because no matter which
error you go back to with sinner's sin now, no

(32:51):
matter how scandalous it was, well when people were I know,
I know this is shocking, they still were engaged in
physical intimacy, I know. And it shouldn't be shocked because
if you opening your Bible, the Genesis, just look at
everything going on in Genesis, because humans are sinners. Now

(33:11):
in some ways this is kind of sad though, right,
This is where it kind of hits me, because all
these people, all these girls, who make all these accusations
and get people literally killed supposedly fighting spiritual warfare, they
themselves were sinners. Same thing is true during the Great
Satanic Panic, which we talked about in previous episode, all

(33:34):
the people running around, Oh no, this rock band, they're evil,
and oh it's gonna destroy everything. Satan is everywhere, Satan,
Satan Satan, Satan. Music is evil, music is evil. Burn records,
burn books, ban this, do this. MTV is the in
guess what. Many of those preachers who yelled and screamed
were caught up in scandal. Many of the parents who

(33:55):
yelled at scream their marriages fell apart, sin all the people.
Sometimes those who raise the voice condemning are the ones who, well,
guess what it's not if they're still sinners, whether it's
ever found out or not, because we're all sinners. But
the thing is, she accused others, they die, she disappears,

(34:20):
but clearly things weren't so spiritually right, or maybe they
were spiritually right. She just sinned, because spiritually right people
sin as well. Correct. After that, it's all we basically

(34:40):
know seventeen oh one, and we're not even for sure
if it's Boston, but it seems to be some historical
evidence to say she gave birth to an illegitimate child,
and that's the scandal. But then after that, I mean,
she literally vanishes from the historical record as far as
we can tell. Now, someone may be able to do
some deep research and find more, but we know this.

(35:03):
She doesn't confess because none of the people really did. Hey,
I know, twenty people died, but hey, you know, you know, oops, upsy,
you know, it's kind of it's just so messed up
in so many ways. Well, I mean, the one girl
did okay, and Putnam Junior does, I think she's she's
she makes her confession, but other than that, nobody does.

(35:23):
So I shouldn't say nobody. One person did no confession.
But in this case, Mercy doesn't confess, she doesn't apologize.
There's no she doesn't even attempt to clear her own name,
or she doesn't even come to try to clear anybody
else's name. In some ways, she was one of the
loudest voices. Then she just disappeared. Now, Mercy Lewis lived

(35:53):
through war, she lived through loss, she lived through terror.
She was a child of fire, placed in a village
of fear. She accused more people than a lot of
the other girls did. Her words carried a lot of weight,
some cases meant more weight. And then she simply disappeared.
Was she a monster, a manipulator, or just another casualty

(36:17):
of fear, theology and trauma? The one thing I do
know is we're never going to know. Her story reminds
us that some of the most dangerous testimonies don't come
from liars. They come from those who believe they've seen
the truth. Maybe she truly believed what she said. That

(36:41):
still can be the most dangerous testimony. When people are
convinced they have the truth when they are convinced. Now
that's the story of Mercy Lewis, the war orphan turned
into courtroom witness. Her cries helped condemn a minister and

(37:02):
many more. But this is the thing I want you
to know about Mercy Lewis. Remember we came to Danvers
and we got out of the car and I'm like,
this is the home. I really want to drive this,
this point home because we need to talk about this home,
this household, because see, Mercy Lewis's story doesn't unfold in isolation.

(37:24):
She lived in a house where fear didn't just grow,
it was cultivated. She lived in a home where theology, vengeance,
and power mixed behind closed doors. A home that sent
more people to prison and to the gallows than any
other home. So I think now we need to conclude

(37:44):
this episode well telling the story of the Putnam Household.
Aren't you glad you got in the car? I know
you've been worried, but yet now this is the home
of the Putnam's right here and Danvers, Danielle Street, right
here here. Look at it. There it is. I know
it's not really there, but see it in your mind.
See the home. Think of sixteen ninety two what the

(38:07):
home would have looked like. There's the activity. There they are,
there's Mercy, there's Anne Putnam Junior. There's Anne. There they are,
there's Thomas. There's the family. See them. Maybe maybe it's
night and there's just a light inside the house, maybe
a lantern or something, and let's walk up and listen.
And they're talking about who's possibly a witch who was

(38:30):
in this house in sixteen ninety two. The Putnam household
in Salem Village modern day Danvers was one of the
largest and most prominent in the area. Here's who lived
under the roof during the trials. Thomas Putnam Senior, a
prominent landowner, militia officer, and staunch supporter of Reverend Samuel Parris.

(38:54):
Because there's a lot of these people likes you know,
it's it's typical church garbage, right. Oh, we're for the pastor,
we don't like the pastor, and the church is divided.
Some want him to go, some want him there. Okay, well,
I wonder if if that leads to any accusations. Okay,
well we can get into a lengthy discussion about that.

(39:14):
But he's on Samuel Parris's side. Okay, Remember Paris. Okay, wait,
we can get in. Well, you can go back and
listen to everything. But he's instrumental Paris. It's his household
where everything starts. Right, it's the Paris household where everything starts,
it says daughter. It's his niece, right, and he's got
the book by Cotton Mather and he was in Boston

(39:34):
when there we could put it on. I mean, Paris
is instrumental in starting the fire, right, He's the one
his household strikes the match, sets the fire ablaze. But
I think it's the Putnam who goes picks up the
fire and spreads it all over Salem. Okay, So you
have Thomas Putnam Senior, you have and Putnam. You have

(39:56):
Thomas Putnam Senior, and Putnam Senior his wife deeply religious
and afflicted herself, and Putnam Junior, their twelve year old daughter,
one of the most prolific and influential accusers and the
entire witch crisis. I mean she is the one, all right.
Then you have Mercy Lewis, their teenage servant, war orphan

(40:19):
and active accuser. You have other children. The Putnam's had
several other children, though Anne Junior was the only one
known to be directly involved in the trials. I don't
know anything about the other kids. They don't They just
stayed out of it. Okay, I don't know what they
were doing. I don't know how old they were or anything. Now,
this one household generated more formal accusations than any other

(40:43):
in Salem. I want you to just consider the numbers,
the accusations, the deaths, and the land. All right, let's
try to break this down. And Putnam Junior, she accused
sixty two individuals, gave formal testimony at many of the
most pivotal trials. Her accusations led to at least twenty

(41:03):
imprisonments and over ten executions. So just their one daughter,
twenty people in prison, over ten people dead. So I
think maybe I don't know if we have an exact number.
I think the other numbers, maybe it's harder to put
them just on her. So let's just say ten twenty imprisonments,

(41:23):
ten executions, only twenty people not only I hate to
say the word, only twenty people die. She makes up
half of their deaths comes from her one family, one daughter.
Thomas Putnam Senior. He filed complaints and depositions against forty
three people. That's crazy. He acted as an official witness

(41:49):
or coordinated in many of the early proceedings. He was
right there in they of the early proceedings, and he
often amplified his claims through legal channels. He sometimes who
was working through legal channels to keep this going, keep
this happening. He was the one making sure he was.
In many senses, if the reverend's house started the fire,

(42:17):
Thomas is the one keeping it going. And then you've
got Mercy Lewis. She accused or supported accusations against somewhere
between fifteen to twenty individuals, including George Burrows, Mary sd
Sarah Good, and Giles Corey. Her testimony helped convict multiple people,
and Putnam Senior, while less prominent, she also reported afflictions

(42:40):
and supported claims made by her daughter. So basically, almost
everyone in the household accused someone everyone did. Now that
kind of makes you feel bad for Mercy because she's
caught up in this, right, It also makes you feel
bad for Anne Putnam Junior because she's caught up in
the middle of this. And again, I still believe Thomas

(43:01):
is the one driving this. I cannot prove that historically,
but it just sounds like man. This man was wiping
out everybody, and he was using his daughter and his
servant to pull this off. In total, the Putnam household
contributed to accusations that resulted in dozens imprisonments. At total,

(43:23):
their house is responsible for fourteen of the executions fourteen
fourteen out of twenty. The Putnam household is right there.
That come on, now, come on, you see why we
drove to this area. And I can't even begin to
calculate how many families and lives were ruined. Because once

(43:47):
you get accused of being a witch and Puritan society,
I mean, you just as well pack up and move. Okay.
Now did the Putnams benefit from all of this? Now? Okay,
I gotta be careful here. I gotta be careful here,
because this is one of the most persistent questions. Did
the Putnams gain from the deaths of those accused? Now,

(44:11):
if you go to Salem and you listen to some
of the tour guides, sometimes, depending on how they're telling
the story, I'm sometimes like, whoa did they? Didn't they?
I'm not so sure? So we know they land was confiscated,
We know that land confiscation did occur, and theory land

(44:35):
from executed witches could be seized, and practice it was
often left in legal limbo are reclaimed by families. So
there's some debate here if you go to some of
the I think when I was at the Dungeon Museum,
where you go, it's crazy to see it's basically the
recreation of what they're these Geil cells when these people

(44:55):
were put in prison, what they look like, and and
and the size of your cell depending on how much
money your family had. It was really crazy the way
it went down. But the family basically had to pay
for you to be in jail. It was nuts. And
how much money you had determine if you were poor, sorry,
and you were basically in a prison cell that you
couldn't even lay down in. All you could do was stand.

(45:16):
It was crazy. Yep. The Dungeon Museum is crazy. But
when they tell the story, they talk about the land confiscation.
But they seemed to, if I remember correctly, told it like, hey,
if you were accused of being a witch, that could
take your land immediately. So there's a little bit of debate.
I cannot be for sure exactly how it goes down. Now.

(45:37):
Thomas Putnam was known to have long standing land disputes
with several families he or his daughters accused. That seems
to be factual. He wanted land, and then these people
ended up being accused of being a witch by either
him or someone in his house, including the Porters, which
was in some ways their chief political rivals. Now, some

(45:59):
will argue there's no chief, or let me state it
this way. Some would argue there is no direct evidence
that Thomas Putnam directly acquired confiscated land. There seems to
be some strong circumstantial evidence that some of the accusations
were aimed at weakening rival families or removing obstacles to

(46:20):
property expansion. So it still seemed like it could have
been strategic calculated. Hey, these people trying to get the land,
well they're now they're worried about dying and being accused
of me, of which this weakens they can't expand what
they're trying to do, or they have to pull back
from trying to get the land, and then he could
move in or expand or whatever the case may be. Now,

(46:42):
again there's a lot of that circumstantial, A lot of
it's circumstantial, So maybe it wasn't so much about what
the Putnams could gain. Maybe it was more about what
their enemies could lose. Maybe it was more strategy. Not

(47:02):
that we're gonna gain it, but they're gonna lose it,
and there are enemies and we don't want them to
have it. So what was driving the Putnams? I mean,
I mean, come on, this is Salem witch trials HQ. Right,
here's the Putnam home. I mean, come on, it's crazy.
Some have debated their motivations. In fact, they've been debating

(47:26):
their motivations of what three centuries, ever, how long it's been.
Here's some of the possible theories. All right, here's some
of the possible theories. All right, And here's I guess
maybe here's maybe the most credible theories. Number one, religious zelotry.
They're religious zelots. First, the Putnams were deeply devoted to

(47:48):
Puritan theology. Thomas and a senior were strong supporters of
Reverend Samuel Parris, the minister who helped ignite the witch panic.
Paris preached about spiritual warfare, covenant breaking, and the devil's
war on the church, messages that lended powerfully with the Putnams.
They didn't just believe which has existed. They believe they
were fighting a holy war. Now guess what happens. This

(48:09):
is where it gets complicated, because I don't know if
you realize this. As believers, as Christians, we like to
synctify our motives. We like to sanctify what we do.
We always like to make what we do sound more
spiritual and more godly, when in many cases what we're

(48:32):
doing is selfish. But we can't see the selfishness of
it because we always give our actions and our feelings
and our thoughts and our perspective religious justification. I hold
this political point not because of your own bias, your
own likes or dislike. No, because of God. I don't

(48:52):
like this music, not because it's against your taste. You
just hate it. It's loud, you know what, your kids
to listen to it. You're like, it's ungodly. But if
you like something, it's okay. We Christianity gives you the
power and the ability to dress everything up you do,
even your sinful motives, and we can dress them on,
making them it's just righteous indignation, it's just godly. It's

(49:15):
not that I'm trying to gossip or slender I'm just
trying to warn people. How about sheep's wolves and sheep's clothing.
You can justify anything as a believer, because as long
as you can put God to it and say God
is on my side, you can do anything. And Christians
love to do that with their politics. Oh God's on
my side, so you say this and you do this,

(49:36):
and oh it's just ridiculous the game Christians play. So
maybe they were religious. They had religious zealous They were
very zealous and their religious beliefs, very zealous about Puritan theology.
Maybe they really believed they were fighting a holy war.
But that belief of it can lead you say and

(49:59):
doridiculous things like burning records and books and banning and
accusations and blaming everyone for being a Satanist or a
part of the Illuminati, or every other nonsense Christians have
done throughout church history. So some believe maybe they're religious

(50:21):
zelotry zealousness that led to it. A second possible thing
that motivated them was social and political power. The Putnams
had enemies, especially the Porter family, who were wealthier, more moderate,
and critical of Paris's ministry. See this all comes down.
I still believe all of this comes down to a

(50:42):
church split. You got the Putnams, they're pro they're pro
Pastor Paris. Right, you got the Porters, who's not pro
Pastor Paris. Just lo and behold, spiritual warfare breaks out?
What everyone starts being killed? And isn't it amazing? Hmm?
Well where did the accusations first begin? In? The Paris family?

(51:04):
Who comes out fanning the flames and defending the Satan
has really an attack? Oh? The Putnams? Who do they
support Parish? Isn't it interesting? So these were like the
two opposing factions. Right in this corner, we have the Putnams.

(51:25):
In this corner, we have the Porters. I hate to
break it down to such a crass way, but that's
what it really turns into in the middle, or all
the innocent people getting accused and dying. Okay, that's the
sad part. The good Christian families are at war, and
it's the marginalized people who get slaughtered in the end.

(51:45):
Between many of the people the Putnams accused were either
connected to the Porters or at odds with the Putnams,
but fueling the trials, the Putnam's consolidated power in the
church let me stay this way not but by fueling

(52:06):
the trials, fanning the flames, the Putnam's consolidated power in
the church and in local politics. Because see, hey, if
there's really a spiritual war going on, and Paris is
in the midst of this war, fighting this war, then
we got to support Pastor Paris. He knows there's a
war going on. He's in the middle of it. He's

(52:27):
he's God's warrior to fight the evil witches. His stuff
is so messed up, all right, So the first possible
reason is their own religious zealous zelotry. I'll use that word.
Social and political power Number three Psychological and emotional trauma

(52:47):
personal grief mayl played a role in sixteen ninety and
Putnam Senior lost several children in infancy. The family experienced
repeated misfortunes, felled crops, legal disputes, and some historians believe
that the emotional trauma fed a sense of cosmic injustice
and the idea that unseen forces were working against them.

(53:09):
Now you get paranoia, Why is all this happening? Why
are our kids dying? Why are people? Why are we
in legal disputes? Why did the crops fail? Satan? Satan
now you may not, they may not have been able
to verbalize that yet. But once then all of a
sudden in the Paris family, like the witches are here,

(53:31):
our kids are being tormented by witches. That that's the reason,
that's what's happening. Satan is after That's why we're suffering.
Now you give your you get purpose to your suffering.
You give reason for your suffering. Some people like to
have a reason, whether it's true or not. They like certainty.
They're like an explanation. They don't like the unknown and

(53:53):
not knowing Satan is doing it. We're under attack and
they just happened to become the center of all the accusations,
or most of them, come on. That makes perfect sense
to me. How about number four, Mercy Lewis and class tension.
Let's not forget the role of Mercy Lewis and the

(54:14):
Putnam servant. She was a war orphan who had been violent,
who had seen violence firsthand in Maine, and now she
lived in a house where religious fear and personal grievance mixed.
Was she trying to please her masters? Was she expressing
trauma and the only way she knows how? And a
society that validated spiritual affliction. Hey, I've suffered trauma, I've
been Maybe she's like, I'm suffering this Satan. Maybe the

(54:38):
Putnams already gave this idea or suffering because of Satan.
You suffered because of Satan. Satan's out to kill us all.
Oh wait, which is wait, wait, wait, wait, what's going
on in our pastor's household? Old? Their daughters are his
daughter and his niece is being tormented by devil, by
devils or by witches. That explains everything. That explains why

(55:02):
you're suffering. And I'm suffering because Satan is here. I
remember that this already started way earlier than sixteen ninety two.
Cotton Mather what happened in Boston, that the entire region
was under attack by Satan. Christians lose their ever living
mind with this stuff. I mean we saw it in
the eighties, saw it with the Illuminati being everywhere, Christians

(55:23):
always next to it, were we always have something to
be a fearful of. There's always got to be a boogeyman.
And then Christians lose their ever living minds. Or maybe
did Mercy. She saw an opportunity to gain attention, purpose,
and even vengeance. In a world that had offered her
nothing but loss. So maybe maybe some of it driven

(55:46):
by Mercy Lewis because of the things that happened to her.
How about this is simply grabbing at opportunity and revenge,
And maybe this is maybe the simplest explanation revenge. Some
people the Putnamen's accused had wronged them in business, land
disputes and church conflicts. Now they don't need proof, They

(56:10):
just need a symptom and a name. They felt like
they've been wronged in business by some of these people.
They've been wronged in land disputes, and and they're sick
and tired of the church conflict because they want this
pastor and other people want someone else and they're tired
of it. Well, now they don't need any proof. They
don't have to go to court. All they got to
do well, well, ultimately they'll go to court, but they

(56:32):
don't have to go to court about the business issues
of the land issues. They don't have to fight it
out in church conflicts. All they have to do is
like that person is a witch. Boom, goodbye. And when
accusations became power and power became influenced, the trials may
have become less about the devil and more about control.

(56:56):
This one family, one house. Remember we're in Danvers Ron
Danielle Street. Look, everyone this house helped shape the course
of the entire crises. Their words maybe first spoken in

(57:19):
this house that we're looking at. It sent ministers, widows, neighbors,
and even friends to the gallows. And long after the
execution stopped, the questions remained. Were they sincere? Were they

(57:46):
victims of fear or were they using fear? That family everything?
I mean, I don't know what else I can say
to you other than it's just crazy how that all

(58:08):
played out, how it all played out. I'm going to
see here. I think I may have I got to
look here in some of my notes, I may have here. Yeah,
I don't think I have. I don't think I have here.

(58:32):
I don't think I have everything that happened to the Putnams.
But I think you get a pretty good idea of
how it all played out, pretty good idea. I'll stop
there because we're at fifty yeah, fifty eight minutes. If
I try to go into everything happened, we know what
happened to Mercy. She disappears and has a child out

(58:54):
an illegitimate child. There you go. That's the story of
the the House of No Mercy, the Story of No Mercy.

(59:15):
Thanks for listening, God bless