Betty Parris
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Elizabeth Parris (November 28, 1682 – March 21, 1760)<ref name="Brooks">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was one of the young girls who accused other people of being witches during the Salem witch trials. The accusations made by Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams caused the direct death of 20 Salem residents: 19 were hanged, while another, Giles Corey, was pressed to death.<ref name="Johnson">Profile Template:Webarchive, womenshistory.about.com; accessed December 23, 2014.</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Parris was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1682.<ref name="Brooks"/> Her father, Samuel Parris, was a well-known minister in the Salem Church. Her mother, Elizabeth Parris, died a few years after the witch trials. Her older brother Thomas Parris was born in 1681, and her younger sister Susanna Parris was born in 1687. Others living in the Parris household included Betty's orphaned cousin, Abigail Williams, and Tituba, a slave from Barbados.<ref name=Brooks/>
Her father was appointed the Minister of Salem Church in 1688 following a community effort to find a new minister.<ref name="Graggbook">Template:Cite book</ref> His family, including his wife Elizabeth, son Thomas, daughters Betty and Susannah, Abigail Williams, and Tituba all moved from Boston to join Parris in Salem.<ref name="Linder">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By contract, Parris and his family were granted to live in the ministry house and owned the land around it. The house accommodated the whole Parris family including Abigail, Tituba, and another slave by the name of John.<ref>Gragg, pg.83</ref>
Salem witch trialsEdit
OverviewEdit
In 1692, the Salem witch trials broke out after several girls claimed to be targeted by a 'devilish hand'. After several months, over 150 men, women, and children were charged with witchcraft and sorcery. The Trials were diminishing around September 1692 when the public began to resist the idea of witchcraft. Eventually, the Massachusetts General Court granted freedom to all those accused of sorcery and apologized to their families for the hardships created by the Salem witch trials.<ref>Salem Witch Trials, history.com; accessed December 23, 2014.</ref>
Betty Parris' roleEdit
Shortly after Samuel Parris' affairs with the church in 1692, his daughter Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and niece Abigail Williams seemed to go missing for short periods of time. "... Along with other New England youth, Elizabeth and Abigail had been led away with little Sorceries" (105).<ref name=Graggbook/> Elizabeth, Abigail, and the girls attempted fortune-telling methods during their missing periods in hopes of discovering future husbands and social statuses. They used an object called a "Venus glass", which allowed them to observe the shape of an egg white as it floated in a glass of water. In the water, the egg white would resemble a shape or symbol depicting their futures. In one instance, a girl found a coffin shape inside her glass and became quite frightened after the incident according to John Hale's A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft.<ref name=Brooks/>
Betty's other friends were also beginning to show similar symptoms of bewitching. Griggs found it difficult to key in on an exact cure and noticed the victims were only children. This enabled other villagers to believe that this event was indeed brought on by witchcraft.<ref name=Linder/> A neighbor, Mary Sibley, recommended a witch's cake to reveal the names of the witches.<ref name=Johnson/> She instructed Tituba to bake a rye cake with the victim's urine and feed the cake to a dog. Dogs were believed to support witches and their supernatural powers by following the witches' requests.<ref name=Linder/> Without alleviation of the illness, Betty eventually named Tituba as one of the 'Evil Hands'.<ref name=Johnson/> Linder suggests Elizabeth and Abigail wrote their story before making any accusations allowing their scenario to be more realistic.<ref name=Linder/> In the meantime, Tituba underwent questioning, and other victims, such as Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard, began to name their culprits as well. Other specified witches including Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good were questioned. All three would likely have had few if any advocates on their behalf due to their low social status in Salem. During their trials, Tituba confessed as well as turning in the other two women.<ref name=Johnson/>
Later that year in March, Elizabeth dreamed about a "Black Man" who she presumed was the Devil. He wanted her to join his forces and be "ruled by him."<ref name=Johnson/> However, Betty's family found this extremely terrifying and sent her off to live with another family, the Sewalls, hoping she could get away from witchcraft. In the Sewall household, Betty did experience some symptoms but ultimately regained full health.<ref name=Brooks/>
Later lifeEdit
In 1693, the Salem witch trials ended. Betty Parris never retracted her accusations or made any acknowledgements.<ref name=Brooks/>
In 1710, aged 27, she married Benjamin Baron, a yeoman, trader, cordwainer, and shoemaker. Her father still cared for her and her siblings. Parris provided her with "household stuff" to better furnish her home with Benjamin. He bought her silver, money, and plates as well as pictures and décor to hang on the walls.<ref name=Graggbook/> She and Baron had four children: Thomas, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Susanna. Betty survived her husband by six years, dying on March 21, 1760, in Concord, Massachusetts, aged 77.<ref name=Brooks/><ref name="Johnson"/>
In fiction and popular cultureEdit
Betty Parris appears as Samuel Parris' daughter in John Neal's historical novel, Rachel Dyer (1828).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Arthur Miller's 1952 play The Crucible is loosely based on actual events that Betty/Elizabeth Parris and other contributing characters faced during the actual Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s. Some aspects of the play are accurate in comparison to the real event while others are not. According to all reliable sources,<ref name=Brooks/><ref name=Johnson/><ref name=Graggbook/><ref name=Linder/> Elizabeth had two siblings, and in The Crucible she has none.<ref name="Crucible">The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1952); accessed December 23, 2014.</ref> She is a supporting character as a 10-year-old girl who falls under a strange illness, which leads to dissembling a bunch of young women's behavior and, soon, many accusations of witchcraft against other citizens of Salem.<ref name="Miller">Profile, sparknotes.com; accessed November 30, 2014.</ref><ref>Profile Template:Webarchive, hatboro-horsham.org; accessed December 23, 2014.</ref>
In the 2020 video game Death end re;Quest 2, there are two characters named Betty Paris and Elizabeth Paris.Template:Cn Though they are not accused of witchcraft in the game, their names may beTemplate:Whom a reference to the characters in the play since the game has themes that are inspired by Christianity.