View source for Abigail Williams

{{short description|Accuser in the Salem witch trials}}
{{other uses|Abigail Williams (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Abigail Williams
| birth_date         = {{circa|1681}}
| death_date         = Unknown<ref name=SWM>{{Cite web|url=https://salemwitchmuseum.com/2012/01/16/what-happened-to-abigail-williams/|title=What Happened to Abigail Williams?|date=January 16, 2012|website=Salem Witch Museum|access-date=October 16, 2021|archive-date=August 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812142346/https://salemwitchmuseum.com/2012/01/16/what-happened-to-abigail-williams/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| death_place        = 
| known_for          = First accuser in the [[Salem witch trials]]
| relatives          = {{plainlist|
* [[Samuel Parris]] (uncle)
* [[Betty Parris|Elizabeth "Betty" Parris]] (cousin)
}}
}}

'''Abigail Williams''' (born {{Circa|1681}}, date of death unknown)<ref>Rosenthal et al. ''Records of the Salem Witch-hunt''(2014) p.963. The contemporary narrative attributed to Deodat Lawson identifies her as Parris "kins-woman" and "about 12 years" old. (GL Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases (1914), [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=4hgOAAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PA153 p. 153]. Mary Beth Norton writes, "Despite enormous efforts by many people... it has proved impossible to identify Abigail Williams or her precise relationship to Samuel Parris." (''In the Devil's Snare'' (2002) p.333 fn 11.)</ref> was an 11 or 12-year-old girl who, along with nine-year-old [[Betty Parris]], was among the first of the children to accuse their neighbors of [[witchcraft]] in 1692; these accusations eventually led to the [[Salem witch trials]].

==Salem Trials==
In early 1692, Abigail Williams was living with her relative, Betty Parris's father, the village pastor [[Samuel Parris]], along with his two slaves [[Tituba]] and [[John Indian]].

Tituba was part of a group of three women — with [[Sarah Good]] and [[Sarah Osborne]] — who were the first to be arrested, on February 29, 1692, under the accusation that their specters (ghosts) were afflicting the young girls in Parris' household. The three women were questioned separately but were aware of each other and, in a classic [[prisoner's dilemma]], they were turned against each other. Sarah Good was the first interrogated and held to her innocence. [[John Hathorne|Judge John Hathorne]] directed all "the children&nbsp;... to look upon her and see if this were the person that hurt them&nbsp;... and they all did look upon her" and claimed her specter tormented them. "Sarah Good&nbsp;... why do you thus torment these poor children?" Hathorne asked. "What do I know, you bring others here and now you charge me with it," Sarah Good responded. Next Hathorne interrogated Sarah Osbourne, who claimed not to know Sarah Good or her full name. But Hathorne told her, "Sarah Good said that it was you that hurt the children." According to the transcript, this distorts what Sarah Good had said, as she had only vaguely referred to the others without naming them, in a way that was only intended to deflect blame from herself.<ref>Rosenthal ''Records'' p. 127.</ref> Tituba was interrogated last and was the only of the three women to offer a full and elaborate confession against herself and pointing the finger of blame at the other two women: "Sarah Good and Osbourne would have me hurt the children."<ref>Rosenthal ''Records'' p. 128.</ref><ref name=salemuva>{{cite web|last=Yost|first=Melissa|title=Abigail Williams|url=http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb33|work=Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project|publisher=University of Virginia|access-date=March 16, 2014|location=Charlottesville, Virginia|year=2002}}</ref> 

According to an investigation by [[Robert Calef]] that began soon after the trials, Tituba later recanted her confession as forced and claimed abuse from the slaveowner Parris:<blockquote><p>"The account she [Tituba] since gives of it is that her master [Parris] did beat her and otherwise abuse her, to make her confess and accuse, such as he [Parris] called her 'sister-witches' and that whatever she said by way of confessing or accusing others, was the effect of such usage."<ref>Robert Calef, ''More Wonders of the Invisible World'' (1700) p. 91. Also reprinted in GL Burr [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=4hgOAAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PA343 p. 343].</ref></p></blockquote>

Further accusations against many others emerged from the Parris household (and others) and eventually led to the imprisonment of hundreds and the deaths of more than 20 in 1692. Sarah Osborne died in prison in May and Sarah Good was executed on July 19 along with four other women. Members of Parris household all managed to survive the entire episode including Tituba, who was released from jail a year later, when the slaveowner Parris paid her prison fees and sold her.<ref>{{cite book|first=Alison|last=Games|title=Witchcraft in Early North America|url=https://archive.org/details/witchcraftearlyn00game|url-access=limited|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|location=Lanham, Maryland|date=2010|isbn=978-1442203570|page=[https://archive.org/details/witchcraftearlyn00game/page/n190 176]}}</ref>

== Later life ==
After the Salem witch trials, Williams disappeared from records circa 1696.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baker |first=Emerson W. |title=A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0190627805 |location=Oxford, England |page=232 |quote=The possible onset of his wife's illness in the winter or spring of 1696 (she died in July) may have influenced Parris. Furthermore, his niece, the afflicted girl Abigail Williams, simply disappears from the records at about this time, and some believe that her death may have had an effect.}}</ref> Her fate is unknown.<ref name=SWM/>

==Legacy==
{{moresources|section|date=August 2025}}
===''The Crucible''===
In [[Arthur Miller]]'s 1953 play, ''[[The Crucible]]'', a fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials, Abigail Williams is the name of a character whose age in the play is raised a full five or six years, to age 17, and she is motivated by a desire to be in a relationship with [[John Proctor (Salem witch trials)|John Proctor]], a married farmer with whom she had previously had an affair. In the historical record, there is no evidence of John Proctor and Abigail Williams ever meeting before the trials had started. She was portrayed by [[Madeleine Sherwood]] in the original Broadway production and by [[Winona Ryder]] in the [[The Crucible (1996 film)|1996 film adaptation of the play]]. Other actresses who have played the role include [[Tuesday Weld]] and [[Saoirse Ronan]]. 

The play was also adapted into an [[The_Crucible_(opera)|opera]] in 1961 by composer [[Robert Ward (composer)|Robert Ward]], an adaptation that won a [[Pulitzer Prize for Music]]; Abigail is one of the prominent soprano parts.

=== Other popular culture ===
In [[John Neal]]'s 1828 novel ''[[Rachel Dyer]]'', Abigail Williams appears as the character Bridget Pope.<ref>{{cite thesis | last = Richards | first = Irving T. | date = 1933 | title = The Life and Works of John Neal | degree = PhD | publisher = [[Harvard University]] | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | url = http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990038995990203941/catalog | oclc = 7588473 | page = 697n2}}</ref> Neal links the origin of the witch hysteria to her sexual development, and her bewitched behavior stems from sexual frustration that is calmed too late when she is reunited with her love interest, Robert Eveleth, after the trials have already begun.<ref>{{cite book | last = Fleischmann | first = Fritz | title = A Right View of the Subject: Feminism in the Works of Charles Brockden Brown and John Neal | publisher = Verlag Palm & Enke Erlangen | location = Erlangen, Germany | year = 1983 | isbn = 978-3-7896-0147-7 | pages = 301–311}}</ref>

[[Abigail Williams (band)|Abigail Williams]] is an American [[black metal]] band formed in 2004.

Abigail Williams appears in the 2010 film ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010 film)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' as a minor antagonist. 

The 2013 play, ''Wonders of the Invisible World'' (originally titled ''A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World'') by [[Liz Duffy Adams]] tells the fictional story of Abigail William's return to New England ten years after the witch trials.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jackson|first1=Debbie Minter|date=9 July 2013|title=A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World|work=dctheatrescene.com|url=https://dctheatrescene.com/2013/07/09/a-discourse-on-the-wonders-of-the-invisible-world/|access-date=November 22, 2020}}</ref>

Abigail is revealed as the antagonist of the 2014 video game ''[[Murdered: Soul Suspect]]''. In the story, flashbacks reveal that she was hanged for her part in the witch trials. Over the centuries, she has existed as a ghost, using her supernatural powers to kill those she believes are witches. In the game's climax, she is seized by demons and dragged to Hell.

''[[Fate/Grand Order]]'', a 2015 online free-to-play [[Role-playing video game|role-playing]] [[mobile game]], has a character under the "Foreigner" class based on both Abigail Williams and [[Yog-Sothoth]]. She plays a central role in the plot of the last Pseudo-Singularity chapter, Salem, which takes place during an alternate version of the Salem witch trials.

The 2020 video game [[The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope|''Little Hope'']] includes a spin-off of Abigail's history and the Salem witch trials as one of the three timelines.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hardy|first=Geena|date=2021-01-09|title=The Frustrating Story of 'Little Hope'|url=https://superjumpmagazine.com/the-frustrating-story-of-little-hope-ab9ab874af59|access-date=2021-07-18|website=Medium|language=en|archive-date=2021-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718220642/https://superjumpmagazine.com/the-frustrating-story-of-little-hope-ab9ab874af59|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Frayna|first=Marion|date=2020-04-14|title=The Dark Pictures: Little Hope New Trailer Depicts The Salem Witch Trials Like Never Before|url=https://geekculture.co/the-dark-pictures-little-hope-new-trailer-depicts-the-salem-witch-trials-like-never-before/|access-date=2021-07-18|website=Geek Culture|language=en-US}}</ref>

Abigail is the central character in the play ''Abigail/1702: A Twice Told Tale'', by [[Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa]]. Its mainstage world premiere was at the [[Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park]] on January 24, 2013.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hetrick |first1=Adam |title=Abigail/1702, Exploring Aftermath of The Crucible, Will Play Cincinnati |url=https://playbill.com/article/abigail-1702-exploring-aftermath-of-the-crucible-will-play-cincinnati-com-201305 |website=Playbill |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref>

===Convulsive ergotism===
In 1976, [[Linnda R. Caporael]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Caporael|first=L.|date=1976-04-02|title=Ergotism: the satan loosed in Salem?|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.769159|journal=Science|language=en|volume=192|issue=4234|pages=21–26|doi=10.1126/science.769159|pmid=769159 |bibcode=1976Sci...192...21C |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=Z3NnaXMuazEyLnZhLnVzfG1yLWRvbmFodWUtYmlvcHN5Y2hvbG9neXxneDozMzMwMDgxNTMyNTQzNjM3|title=Ergotism - The Satan Loosed in Salem - Caporael 1976.pdf|website=docs.google.com}}</ref> put forward the hypothesis that [[Ergotism|ergot-tainted rye]] may have been the source of accusations of [[Medical explanations of bewitchment|bewitchment]] that spurred the [[Salem witch trials]]. Caporael argued that many of its convulsive symptoms were all symptoms reported in the Salem witchcraft records. This theory has been refuted by both toxicologists and historians of the Salem witch trials, in part because of the difference in the ages of the core group of accusers, which would have been younger, per prior ergotism epidemics, and would have affected males and females roughly equally. The ergotism theory is critiqued for failing to explain the differences in affliction rates between males and females and that no records suggest the allegedly affected experienced all symptoms to ergotism or had long-term health effects. Additionally, most historical outbreaks of ergotism would affect entire families or communities who shared a similar diet.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Spanos|first1=N. P.|last2=Gottlieb|first2=J.|date=1976-12-24|title=Ergotism and the Salem Village witch trials|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.795029|journal=Science|language=en|volume=194|issue=4272|pages=1390–1394|doi=10.1126/science.795029|issn=0036-8075|pmid=795029|bibcode=1976Sci...194.1390S |url-access=subscription}}</ref> At the severity of supposed symptoms experienced by accusers, the levels of ergot would have been high enough to cause symptoms in adults in the community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2579/were-the-witches-of-salem-a-result-of-poisoning-with-ergot-fungus|title=Were the witches of Salem a result of poisoning with ergot fungus?|access-date=June 18, 2015|date=January 14, 2005}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2021}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Woolf |first1=Alan |title=Witchcraft or Mycotoxin? The Salem Witch Trials. |journal=Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology |date=2000 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=457–460 |doi=10.1081/CLT-100100958 |pmid=10930065 |s2cid=10469595 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/clt-100100958 |access-date=25 April 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Forletta |first1=Briana |title=The Salem Witch Trials |url=http://wludh.ca/dh100/2016/T4/G5/M1/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Salem-Witch-Trials-Documentation.pdf |website=Wilfrid Laurier University Department of History |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University |access-date=25 April 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of people who disappeared mysteriously: pre-1910]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Salem}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Abigail}}
[[Category:1680s births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:American children]]
[[Category:Accusers in the Salem witch trials]]