The French Quarter of New Orleans is known for its rich history, vibrant culture, and intriguing traditions. Among these traditions is the mystical practice of voodoo. Voodoo is a belief system and set of rituals that originated in West Africa and was brought to Louisiana by enslaved Africans. One of the most iconic symbols of voodoo is the voodoo doll. Voodoo dolls have always held a certain fascination for people around the world. While many associate them with harmful spells and curses, their purpose and symbolism in voodoo are quite different.
Dr William Griggs
January 20, 1692: Eleven-year old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris begin behaving much as the Goodwin children acted four years earlier. Soon Ann Putnam Jr. and other Salem girls begin acting similarly.
Mid-February, 1692: Doctor Griggs, who attends to the "afflicted" girls, suggests that witchcraft may be the cause of their strange behavior.
Late-February, 1692: Pressured by ministers and townspeople to say who caused her odd behavior, Elizabeth identifies Tituba. The girls later accuse Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of witchcraft.
February 29, 1692: Arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
March 1, 1692: Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examine Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne for "witches teats." Tituba confesses to practicing witchcraft and confirms Good and Osborne are her co- conspirators.
March 11, 1692: Ann Putnam Jr. shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Mary Warren later allege affliction as well.
April 11, 1692: Hathorne and Corwin examine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor. On the same day Elizabeth's husband, John, who protested the examination of his wife, becomes the first man accused of witchcraft and is incarcerated.
June 2, 1692: Bridget Bishop is the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft. She is sentenced to die.
June 10, 1692: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill. Following the hanging Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns from the court and is replaced by Corwin.
June 29-30, 1692: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe are tried, pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
July 19, 1692: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good and Sarah Wildes are hanged at Gallows Hill.
October 29, 1692: Phipps prohibits further arrests, releases many accused witches, and dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
November 25, 1692: The General Court establishes a Superior Court to try remaining witches.
January 3, 1693: Judge Stoughton orders execution of all suspected witches who were exempted by their pregnancy. Phipps denied enforcement of the order causing Stoughton to leave the bench.
1693: Tituba is released from jail and sold to a new master.
May 1693: Phipps pardons those still in prison on witchcraft charges.
January 14, 1697: The General Court orders a day of fasting and soul-searching for the tragedy at Salem. Moved, Samuel Sewall publicly confesses error and guilt.
1697: Minister Samuel Parris is ousted as minister in Salem and replaced by Joseph Green.
1702: The General Court declares the 1692 trials unlawful.
1706: Ann Putnam Jr., one of the leading accusers, publicly apologizes for her actions in 1692.
1711: The colony passes a legislative bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused of witchcraft and grants 600 pounds in restitution to their heirs.
1752: Salem Village is renamed Danvers.
1957: Massachusetts formally apologizes for the events of 1692.
"Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to exhibit similar unusual behavior. When his own nostrums failed to effect a cure, William Griggs, a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the girls' problems might have a supernatural origin. The widespread belief that witches targeted children made the doctor's diagnosis seem increasing likely." (Excerpt from "The Witchcraft Trials In Salem - A Commentary" by Douglas Linder.)
19 "witches" were hanged in 1692, at least 5 others died in prison. Dr. William Griggs died in February 1693, not living to see the exoneration and ending of the Salem Witch Trials. NONE of the three he originally examined and pronounced as witches died.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS RELATING TO THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS (highly abridged)
1629: Salem is settled.
1641: English law makes witchcraft a capital crime.
January 20, 1692: Eleven-year old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris begin behaving much as the Goodwin children acted four years earlier. Soon Ann Putnam Jr. and other Salem girls begin acting similarly.
Mid-February, 1692: Doctor Griggs, who attends to the "afflicted" girls, suggests that witchcraft may be the cause of their strange behavior.
Late-February, 1692: Pressured by ministers and townspeople to say who caused her odd behavior, Elizabeth identifies Tituba. The girls later accuse Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of witchcraft.
February 29, 1692: Arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
March 1, 1692: Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examine Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne for "witches teats." Tituba confesses to practicing witchcraft and confirms Good and Osborne are her co- conspirators.
March 11, 1692: Ann Putnam Jr. shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Mary Warren later allege affliction as well.
April 11, 1692: Hathorne and Corwin examine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor. On the same day Elizabeth's husband, John, who protested the examination of his wife, becomes the first man accused of witchcraft and is incarcerated.
June 2, 1692: Bridget Bishop is the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft. She is sentenced to die.
June 10, 1692: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill. Following the hanging Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns from the court and is replaced by Corwin.
June 29-30, 1692: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe are tried, pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
July 19, 1692: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good and Sarah Wildes are hanged at Gallows Hill.
October 29, 1692: Phipps prohibits further arrests, releases many accused witches, and dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
November 25, 1692: The General Court establishes a Superior Court to try remaining witches.
January 3, 1693: Judge Stoughton orders execution of all suspected witches who were exempted by their pregnancy. Phipps denied enforcement of the order causing Stoughton to leave the bench.
1693: Tituba is released from jail and sold to a new master.
May 1693: Phipps pardons those still in prison on witchcraft charges.
January 14, 1697: The General Court orders a day of fasting and soul-searching for the tragedy at Salem. Moved, Samuel Sewall publicly confesses error and guilt.
1697: Minister Samuel Parris is ousted as minister in Salem and replaced by Joseph Green.
1702: The General Court declares the 1692 trials unlawful.
1706: Ann Putnam Jr., one of the leading accusers, publicly apologizes for her actions in 1692.
1711: The colony passes a legislative bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused of witchcraft and grants 600 pounds in restitution to their heirs.
1752: Salem Village is renamed Danvers.
1957: Massachusetts formally apologizes for the events of 1692.
"Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to exhibit similar unusual behavior. When his own nostrums failed to effect a cure, William Griggs, a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the girls' problems might have a supernatural origin. The widespread belief that witches targeted children made the doctor's diagnosis seem increasing likely." (Excerpt from "The Witchcraft Trials In Salem - A Commentary" by Douglas Linder.)
19 "witches" were hanged in 1692, at least 5 others died in prison. Dr. William Griggs died in February 1693, not living to see the exoneration and ending of the Salem Witch Trials. NONE of the three he originally examined and pronounced as witches died.
William Griggs (abt. 1615 - 1693)
Williams Griggs was a doctor in Salem, Massachusetts. His diagnosis that the afflictions of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams were caused by 'an evil hand' rather than natural causes set into motion the events that became the Salem Witch Trials. . But his diagnosis does not warrant a full share of blame. Rather, Griggs shares responsibility with the ministers and magistrates as one of the professionals involved in advancing the Salem witch trials. [1]
William's maidservant and grandneice Elizabeth Hubbard also became one of the accusers [2]
Dr. William Griggs of Salem Village, though not referred to by name in the court documents, is generally accepted by historians as the doctor who made the diagnosis that the afflictions of the girls in Salem village were caused by “an evil hand,” not by natural causes. His diagnosis triggered a sequence of events that began with the making of a witch cake and led to hundreds of accusations of witchcraft.
Research Notes
[Noted:] "It was quite common in those days for the faculty [the medical faculty] to dispose of difficult cases by this resort. When their remedies were baffled, and their skill at fault, the patient was [ii.7] said to be "under an evil hand." In all cases, the sage conclusion was received by nurses, and elderly women called in on such occasions, if the symptoms were out of the common course, or did not yield to the prescriptions these persons were in the habit of applying."
Dr. William Griggs; Written by Beckie Dashiell; Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature; An Undergraduate Course, University of Virginia; Fall Semester 2006https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb47
Griggs. The Children of William Griggs & of Ratchell his wife followeth:
- William ye Sonne of William Griggs & of Ratchell his wife borne 2d of Aprill (40.)
- Elizabeth ye Daughter of Wm Griggs & of Rachell his wife borne 3d October (48.)
- Isaac ye sonne of Wm Griggs & of Rachell his wife borne 5th October (46.)
- Rachell ye Daughter of Wm Griggs & of Rachel! his wife borne 13th October (44.)
- Sarah ye Daughter of William Griggs & of Rachell his wife borne 6th October (42.)
- Jacob ye sonne of Wm Griggs & of Rachell his wife borne Last November (58.)
- Griggs. Hannah ye Daughter of William Griggs of Rumney Marsh & of Rachell his wife borne 12 Mrch 59.
page 133 BOSTON RECORDS. Boston Births. [Continued from VoL XIII. pw 210.] Volume 15 [1861] The New England historical and genealogical register by New England Historic Genealogical Society
WILLIAM GRIGGS OF SALEM WILLIAM GRIGGS, an early resident of Salem, and his wife, Rachel Hubbard were married about 1639, and had the following children:
- WILLIAM, born April 2, 1640.
- SARAH, born October 6, 1642.
- RACHEL, born October 13, 1644. I
- ISAAC, born October ?, 1646.
- ELIZADETH, born October ?, 1648.
- JACOB, born November 2, 1658.
- HANNAH, born March 12, 1660.
- REBECCA, born April 3, 1662.
The will of William Griggs was probated in Salem, February 10, 1693, and mentions his wife Rachel, his daughter Sarah Haskell, and but two sons, William and Jacob.
Massachusetts Remediation
- 17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.[3]
- 17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead
- 28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, . such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings. have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.[4]
- 31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.[5]
While many associate them with harmful spells and curses, their purpose and symbolism in voodoo are quite different. In voodoo, the doll is considered a representation of a person, and its purpose is to focus intention and energy towards that person. It is used in rituals to bring about positive outcomes, such as healing, love, or protection.
Sources
- ↑Important Persons in the Salem Court Records: Dr. William Griggs; Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project; The University of Virginia
- ↑Wikipedia Entry for Elizabeth Hubbard
- ↑ Upham, Charles Wentworth. Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. (1867) v2, page 480.
- ↑https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
- ↑https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122
- The New England Historical and Genealogical Register FOR THE YEAR 1861. VOLUME XV. BOSTON: SAMUEL G. DRAKE, PUBLISHER,13 BROMFIELD STREET. 1861. https://archive.org/details/newenglandhisto65unkngoog/page/n151
- Genealogy of The Griggs Family By Walter S. Griggs of Norfolk, Virginia Limited Edition 1926 . P0MPTON LAKES, NEW JERSEY THE BIBLI0 COMPANY, INC. http://www.richmondsounddesign.com/pdf/griggs.pdf
- http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb47
- Upham, Charles Wentworth. Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. (1867) v2, page 480.
- http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~hwbradley/genealogy/aqwg213.htm#3576
Doctor Who? Griggs and the Witch Trials
“In the latter end of the year 1691, Mr. Samuel Parris, Pastor of the Church of Salem Village, had a Daughter of Nine, and a Niece of about Eleven years of Age, sadly Afflicted of they knew not what Distempers; and he made his application to Physicians, yet still they grew worse: And at length, one Physician gave his opinion, that they were under an Evil Hand. This the Neighbors quickly took up, and concluded they were bewitched.”
-Rev. John Hale, A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft
The story of the Salem Witch Trials describes a scene of young girls rolling on the floor, screaming in pain, and shouting at specters. A doctor visits and declares that witchcraft has caused these strange afflictions. The hunt for witches begins.
But what is the real scene and who is this doctor? No one knows. Primary sources give vague details on these first afflictions and never name the doctor who diagnosed witchcraft. There also remains a question of how soon after the start of the afflictions was the diagnosis of bewitchment and which person determined the nature of the girls’ suffering.
The first instinct of Rev. Parris and his wife were to pray for their daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams when the afflictions began, but they also consulted local physicians. Rev. Hale’s account written in 1697 implies several doctors visited the Parris home to check on the girls before one ultimately diagnosed witchcraft. Without a source confirming the name of the doctor, speculation points to William Griggs, a physician living on the Salem Village-Beverly line. Every history of Salem that names the physician uses Griggs, as he was the only physician in the area of the afflicted in 1692, so this post is to give a biography made of the little information known about this man whose words start almost every narrative of the Salem Witch Trials.
William Griggs (?-1698) was in his late 70s in 1692. His second wife Rachel Hubbard was in her mid-sixties. They married in 1657. After their marriage they lived in Rumney Marsh (present day Revere, MA) and Boston before moving to Salem Village by 1690. Rachel was a member of Boston’s First Church, the same church Samuel Parris belonged to when he lived in Boston until 1689. As far as his medical training, Griggs was probably self-taught and he worked to establish his practice in Salem Village where he possibly diagnosed the bewitchment of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams.
Shortly after the diagnosis, two other girls began to suffer: Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard. Elizabeth worked for Isaac Griggs, William’s son from his first marriage, in Boston until Isaac died in 1689. She moved to the home of her great-aunt, Rachel Griggs to work as a maid for her relatives. Coincidentally, an accuser lived in the home of the man who (probably) confirmed the suspicions of witchcraft.
There is a book by Enders A. Robinson that claims the witch trials were a conspiracy led by Thomas Putnam and included William Griggs. While this theory is not a common one among historians, there is evidence that the accusations against certain individuals were beneficial to Griggs. Elizabeth Procter sometimes worked as a midwife, meaning Procter was a competitor to Griggs. One accuser, Elizabeth Booth, provided damning testimony against John and Elizabeth Procter. Booth once claimed the specter of her stepfather appeared to her and she reported, “that Elizabeth Procter killed him because my mother would not send for Doctor Griggs to give him physic & also because she was not sent for when he was first taken sick.” What this testimony says is first, both Griggs and Procter were seen as figures to provide medical service and Griggs was not always the choice of families in need of a physician. The testimony also indicates that the specter of Elizabeth Procter claimed that had the Booth family sent for her sooner, Procter could have helped. If this testimony is accurate and Procter was qualified to assist the sick and Procter provided competition for Griggs, the accusations certainly helped his practice, especially when Griggs’ niece joined the accusers against Procter. There is also testimony referring to Roger Toothaker, another accused suspect, as a doctor that describes his work in Beverly, close to the home of Griggs. Toothaker died in jail, but Griggs probably appreciated the loss of another potential competitor.
While the accusations certainly assisted Griggs, they nearly harmed him as well. Rachel Griggs’ specter allegedly afflicted some of the accusing girls, however, no legal action occurred against her.
There is very little information on Griggs and who he was, yet he appears in narratives as the man who ignited the Salem Village community’s hysteria. While naming Griggs makes for a simpler story, no evidence confirms the depth of his involvement in the trials. It appears likely that Griggs diagnosed the girls, but regardless of who first said “they were under an Evil Hand,” the personal motivations behind accusations appear in the doctor’s biography. Many of the accusations of 1692 include such motivations that allowed the community to turn against itself; money, land, competition, and feuds turned into the accusations and executions. Looking solely at Griggs, it appears that personal motivation played a large role in his tolerance and acceptance of the trials, although one must wonder what potential consequences further legal action against Rachel Griggs could have caused. These factors were an easy trap for anyone to fall into, and the promise of better business took Griggs into the Devil’s snare.
George Lincoln Burr, “From “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft,” by John Hale, 1702,” In Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1914.
Bernard Rosenthal, Records of the Salem Witch-hunt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege, Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002.
Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Frances Hill, The Salem Witch Trials Reader, Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2000.
Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
William griggs salem witch trials
Dr. William Griggs was the doctor in Salem, Massachusetts. When the girls fell into their first fits of hysteria he was there. Dr. Griggs is the one that diagnosed bewitchment. Some say he would tell how "big" the witches were and that he said that the girls were "under a evil hand". Another point of view, as shown in the paragraph below, William Griggs is the person that gave the girls the idea to claim bewitchment.
This was taken from an essay written by
Beckie Dashiell, an Undergraduate at the University of Virginia
Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature
Fall Semester 2006
"Dr. William Griggs is often cited in connection with the witchcraft hysteria
that plagued Salem Village in 1692 as the man who made the diagnosis which led
to accusations of witchcraft. As the only physician in the village, he was
called upon to examine the strange symptoms of the afflicted girls. His famous
diagnosis as cited by both John Hale in A Modest Enquiry and Charles Upham in
Salem Witchcraft – that the girls were “under an Evil Hand” – left the
residents of Salem to assume witchcraft. Mary Beth Norton claims that Griggs
was a supporter of Reverend Parris. So while the first afflictions occurred in
Parris’s own home, it seems likely he would turn to his friend and
church member Griggs for a consultation. Griggs and his wife are listed on the
pro-Parris petition of 1695, and Griggs’s support never wavered, even after
the witch trials. Dr. Anthony Patton also points to a close relationship
between Thomas Putnam Jr. and Griggs, in which Griggs sided with Thomas Putnam
in a probate dispute. Griggs supported Putnam heirs who tried to invalidate
the will of Mary Veren Putnam (Putnam’s step-mother) by testifying to the
incompetence of Mary Veren at the time she wrote her will. As court documents
show, Putnam was a supporter of the "afflicted" girls in Salem village,
the most prominent being his own daughter, Ann Putnam, Jr. Griggs’s own
great-niece, Elizabeth Hubbard, was a friend of Ann Putnam, Jr. and among the
most active of the young female accusers."
The French Quarter is home to numerous voodoo shops and stores, where visitors can find an array of voodoo dolls for sale. These dolls come in various shapes, sizes, and materials, and each one is unique. Some are made from fabric and stuffed with herbs or other natural materials, while others are intricately carved from wood or molded from clay. The process of creating a voodoo doll is a deeply personal one, often involving specific ingredients, rituals, and incantations. Each doll is crafted with great care and intention, with the maker imbuing it with the energy and purpose it is meant to serve. It is believed that the more closely the doll resembles the intended person, the stronger its connection and effectiveness. Visitors to the French Quarter can purchase voodoo dolls as souvenirs, but it is important to approach them with respect and understanding. These dolls are not mere trinkets or toys; they are sacred objects with deep cultural and spiritual significance. It is also crucial to remember that voodoo is a religion and should not be taken lightly or used for harmful purposes. In conclusion, the French Quarter voodoo doll is a powerful symbol of the voodoo tradition in New Orleans. It represents the interconnectedness of the spiritual and physical worlds and the belief in harnessing energy and intention for positive outcomes. When encountering voodoo dolls, it is important to approach them with reverence and respect, appreciating their cultural significance and the beliefs they represent..
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