The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information

these women – non-Church members, plagued by scandal and low status, not affiliated with either of
the two main factions in the town who might have defended them (The Putnam and the Porter
families). 46
When these women were brought for questioning before local magistrates, the questions and
answers followed a similar pattern: the magistrates would ask the suspects if they were witches, and
why they so afflicted the girls; Osbourne and Good would reply that they were not witches at all; the
magistrates nonetheless found sufficient evidence to hold them for trial. (Roach, pp. 26-28) It should
be noted that at this point there is no indication of the firestorm still to come – while the fact that these
women, marginal as they were, were headed to trial might have placed them in fear of their lives (and
even with New England's relatively bloodless history of witch persecutions this did remain a strong
possibility), the matter would almost certainly have ended with their conviction or acquittal. But it was
Tituba's turn before the magistrates on March 2 nd and 3 rd that unleashed hell. While at first Tituba also
declared her innocence, as the questioning progressed and the cries of the afflicted increased, Tituba
suddenly declared that she was indeed a witch – that she had made a pact with Satan to torment the
girls in exchange for not being tormented herself and “many fine things” – and that furthermore she
was in league with other witches, including Osbourne and Good, and with two others from Boston
whose name she did not know – and that in the book that the Devil made her sign, she saw nine other
signatures. (Hansen, p. 37)
While this occurred, the afflicted fell into fits: when Hale asked Tituba who was afflicting them,
she replied that it was the spirit of Sarah Good – a statement that the afflicted immediately agreed with.
As the torments of one afflicted girl (Elizabeth Hubbard) increased, Tituba was asked whose spirit was
attacking her – Tituba replied “I am blind now, I cannot see.” Shortly thereafter, Tituba herself began
to be afflicted – a condition that would continue throughout the trials. The result was the same for all
three suspects: the magistrates ordered them taken to jail to stand trial for the capital offense of
witchcraft. Importantly, and contrary to the assumptions of many scholars (Tucker Smith, Reis),
Tituba's confession did not prevent her from facing execution – in fact, her confession, like those of so
many others before her, made her eventual execution a near certainty. While the institution of public
confession and reincorporation into the community was a powerful means of settling group tensions in
New English society, for the crime of witchcraft there could be no pardon: confession might reconcile
46 For a detailed description of the factional dynamics and the network of individuals associated with each family, see
Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1974 (ch. 5 and 8)
48