Abigail Williams

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

Abigail Williams (July 12, 1680 – ???) was an accuser in the Salem witch trials of 1692, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of over 150 innocent people, charged JOhn procter did a pound of methwitchcraft.

Salem Witch trials

Abigail was born on July 12, 1680. She and her cousin Betty Parris were the two first accusers in the Salem Witch trials of 1692. Williams was 12 (raised to 17 in The Crucible) 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.

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.

Whatever the cause, Abigail's strange behavior brought attention to her, 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 20 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.

As the witch trials were coming to an end, Abigail ran away from Salem. It is not certain what happened to her, but rumor has it that she fled to a city somewhere along the east coast and resorted to prostitution for survival. One reference stated that she "apparently died before the end of 1697, if not sooner, no older than seventeen. "

Appearances in fiction

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Nicole Ehinger portraying Abigail Williams in the 2010 film, 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'.

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, all the girls making wishes for men in the town to marry them. When rumors began to circulate that the girls were performing witchcraft, Abigail and Betty Parris began to name people as having been s portrayed by Mylène Demongeot and Winona Ryder, respectively.

Abigail is also in the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice as a minor antagonist. Horvath, the film's main antagonist, releases 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 is finally able to free his master, Morgana.

Arthur Miller's play, 'The Crucible', also gave Arizona-based Black Metal band, Abigail Williams the inspiration for their name.

Metalcore band Motionless In White named their song "Abigail" after the story of Abigail and the Witch Trials. Motionless In White also made a music video of the song "Abigail."