Sarah Good

Second Accused Witch of Salem Village

Oct 29, 2006 Mary Trotter Kion

Sarah Good, an ill-tempered woman living in poverty in Salem Village is accused of witchcraft and of bewitching several young girls.

In Salem Village, at the time of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials there were two "middle-aged, assertive, awkward" women who were so despised by many that they were considered outcasts. One of these two women was Sarah Good.

From Privileged to Poverty

Sarah provided for herself by begging and borrowing, but she had not always been reduced to living in poverty. At one time her father had been a well to do innkeeper. However, when Sarah was nineteen, twenty years previous, to the witch-hunt, he had drowned himself. And that was the end of Sarah's life of ease.

Sarah's mother remarried and the young woman's stepfather cheated Sarah out of her inheritance. In time, Sarah herself married. It is said that her husband was a "ne'er-do-well" who fathered with Sarah several children. This was the situation that reduced Sarah to having to beg for food to feed her brood.

A Cursing Ill Natured Old Woman

Sarah became angry and ill natured. If people refused her food she would curse them. A kind neighbor allowed her to live with them but had to finally make her leave because of her bad temper and for fear that she would set the house on fire with her pipe smoking.

Accused of Witchcraft

When, in 1692, Elizabeth Parris, daughter of the Salem Village minister, and her cousin Abigail Williams, along with Ann Putnam, Jr., Mary Walcott, and Mercy Lewis began having fits and were declared to be bewitched one finger of accusation was pointed at Sarah Good.

Sarah Good, however, was not the first to be accused in Salem Village for witchcraft. Tituba, the Caribbean Indian slave woman, who belonged to the Reverend Samuel Parris, had that disastrous honor. Good was accused along with another ill-liked Salem Village woman, Sarah Osborne.

Recommended Reading

Sarah Osborne of Salem Village: Third to be Accused of Witchcraft.

More Bewitchings in Salem Village: Tituba Accused of Witchcraft.

The Salem Bewitchings Begin: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams Under a Spell.

A Witch Cake Baked in Salem Village: Urine Was the Telling Ingredient.

Cursed Be the Salem Poor: Getting Familiar with Dogs and Cats.

Sources:

Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. De Capo Press, 1995.

Jackson, Shirley. The Witchcraft of Salem Village. Random House, New York, 1956.

The copyright of the article Sarah Good in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Sarah Good in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.