Abigail Williams

For the black metal band, see Abigail Williams (band).

Abigail Williams (July 12, 1680 – 1697) and her cousin Betty Parris were the two first accusees in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Williams was 11 or 12 years old at the time and she was living with her uncle Samuel Parris in Salem. According to Rev. Deodat Lawson, an eyewitness, she and Betty began to have fits in which they ran around rooms flailing their arms, ducking under chairs and trying to climb up the chimney.The play by Arthur Miller provides better information about Abigail.

Many claim that the girls, later followed by several other pre-teen and teenage girls in Salem, were just inventing the afflictions to draw attention to themselves and to avoid punishment by pretending to be "ill". Another reason may have been food poisoning: the girls may have eaten a "Witch's Stew" as part of their games that may have contained inedible or uncooked ingredients. In 1976, Linnda R. Caporael put forward the theory that these strange symptoms may have been caused by ergotism, the ingestion of fungus infected rye.

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Whatever the cause, these behaviors brought attention to Abigail, as they had to Betty Parris. A local doctor, thought to have been William Griggs, suggested bewitchment as the cause. The girls were eventually asked to name their supposed tormentors. They did so, thus bringing about the witch trials, which ended with the deaths of 19 innocent people. Two dogs were also hanged, and one man (Giles Corey) was pressed with large stones until he died. Those who confessed, however, were not put to death. The names of some put to death were John Proctor, Martha Corey, Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Good.

There is no definite evidence of what happened to Williams after the trials ended. One reference stated she "apparently died before the end of 1697, if not sooner, no older than seventeen."

Appearances in fiction

In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, Abigail is a girl of seventeen, and the main antagonist. At the beginning of the play, it is gradually revealed that she had been dancing in the woods with the girls of Salem and performing voodoo rituals with her uncle's slave, Tituba. When rumors began to circulate that the girls were performing witchcraft, Abigail and Betty Parris began to name people as having been in league with the devil, which was the most common way a "witch" was identified, to save themselves. Later, the girls of Salem became witnesses in the court trying the "witches". An added plot is that Abigail had previously worked as a maid at the Proctor household and had an affair with John Proctor.

Abigail is also in the 2010 film "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" as a minor antagonist. Horvath, the film's main antagonist, released her from a magical prison called "The Grimhold" and uses her to kidnap the love interest of the main protagonist Dave. After the kidnapping is complete Horvath absorbs Abigail's powers and steals her pentagram amulet which channels her power. By doing so Horvath becomes more powerful and and is finally able to free his master, Morgana.