Question 1

Who was William Griggs and why is his name linked to the Salem witch trials?

Accepted Answer

William Griggs was the physician of Salem Village in the 1680s and 1690s, a time when colonial medicine lacked any scientific foundation. The key thing to remember is that in January 1692, called to the bedside of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, who were suffering from unexplained convulsions, he delivered a verdict that changed everything: finding no natural cause, he diagnosed an “Evil Hand”. This diagnosis, reported by Robert Calef in More Wonders of the Invisible World, lit the fuse and set off one of the most famous witch hunts in American history, leading to the hanging of nineteen people.

Question 2

Which everyday object best illustrates the blend of medicine and superstition in Salem?

Accepted Answer

The witch cake is the most striking object. Picture a small cake made of rye and the urine of the afflicted girls, fed to a dog to “reveal” the witch. Far from calming the panic, this folk remedy made it worse. What makes this object important is that it shows how, in the absence of medical knowledge, the inhabitants of Salem Village turned to folkloric practices that mixed Puritan beliefs with popular traditions. Doctor Griggs himself, though a practitioner, held no university degree and learned on the job.

Question 3

Why did Griggs's diagnosis have such a great impact in Salem?

Accepted Answer

To understand this, we must remember that the Puritans of Massachusetts firmly believed that the Devil acted in the real world. What is striking here is that the word of a respected physician was enough to turn an unexplained medical crisis into an accusation of a capital crime. By 1692, the colony was already weakened by political tensions (the revocation of the charter in 1684), the fear of Native American attacks (King William's War), and internal quarrels within Salem Village. Griggs's diagnosis acted like a spark in a powder keg: it offered a reassuring supernatural explanation to a frightened community.

Question 4

What was daily life like for a colonial physician such as William Griggs?

Accepted Answer

Griggs's life was paced by visits on horseback to the scattered farms of Salem Village. In the morning, after the Puritan family prayer, he prepared his bag containing bleeding lancets and vials of decoctions. In the afternoon, he observed symptoms, performed bloodletting (meant to rebalance the humours), and prescribed herbs. What is often forgotten is that, without a laboratory or university training, his diagnosis rested on experience and on books that mingled astrology with folk recipes. In the evening, by candlelight, he read the Bible and his few medical almanacs, in a plain wooden house heated by a central fireplace.

Question 5

What do the terms “Evil Hand” and “spectral evidence” mean in the context of the Salem trials?

Accepted Answer

The “Evil Hand” is the phrase Griggs used to say that the girls were the victims of a spell: the illness was attributed to an act of witchcraft. Spectral evidence, on the other hand, was testimony claiming to have seen the “specter” (ghost) of an accused person torment a victim. These two notions are linked: Griggs's diagnosis opened the door to this kind of evidence, admitted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer created in May 1692. The key thing to remember is that colonial justice accepted invisible testimony, which allowed for a chain of accusations. Governor Phips banned such evidence in October 1692, putting an end to the trials.

Question 6

How did Griggs's niece, Elizabeth Hubbard, become a key accuser?

Accepted Answer

Elizabeth Hubbard, about seventeen years old, lived under Doctor Griggs's roof as a servant. What makes this detail important is that his household was thus at the heart of the crisis: she was one of the first to “testify” that she had been tormented by the specter of the accused. According to the trial records, she gave evidence against dozens of people. To understand her role, picture an impressionable young girl, living in a house where witchcraft was talked about constantly, and whose uncle had just diagnosed an Evil Hand. Her testimony, like that of the other “afflicted” girls, was enough to send innocent people to the gallows.

Question 7

Which places in Salem are associated with the story of William Griggs?

Accepted Answer

The key place is the parsonage of Samuel Parris in Salem Village (today Danvers), where Griggs made his diagnosis. It was there that Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the first “afflicted” girls, lived. The court then convened in Salem Town, the neighboring port, where the Court of Oyer and Terminer tried the accused. Finally, Gallows Hill is the hill where nineteen people were hanged during the summer of 1692. What is often forgotten is that Griggs himself was never put on trial: his initial diagnosis, however catastrophic, was never questioned by the authorities. No work or portrait of him has come down to us.

Question 8

What do the old texts say about Griggs's role in the trials?

Accepted Answer

The main sources are two contemporary accounts. Robert Calef, in More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700), writes that Griggs, “finding nothing natural to account for their condition, gave it as his opinion that they were under an Evil Hand.” John Hale, in A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (1702), confirms that the physicians concluded the children were bewitched. What is striking here is that these two authors, though critical of the trials, do not call the diagnosis itself into question: they simply show how a single medical consultation triggered a tragedy. Griggs appears only in these judicial records and accounts.

Question 9

How does seventeenth-century medicine explain the diagnosis of witchcraft?

Accepted Answer

To understand this, we must remember that colonial medicine rested on the theory of the humours (blood, bile, black bile, phlegm) and on remedies such as bloodletting. When Griggs observed the girls' convulsions and strange cries, he found no classic humoral imbalance. What sets a Puritan physician apart from a modern scientist is that his religious culture led him to consider a supernatural cause: the Devil could physically torment human beings. Thus, less a medical failure than a coherent framework of thought for the time, his diagnosis reflected the helplessness of science in the face of unexplained symptoms in a society obsessed with evil.

Question 10

What modern cultural legacy did William Griggs leave behind?

Accepted Answer

Although Griggs is little known to the general public, his name and his diagnosis have become a symbol of the dangers of moral panic and the absence of scientific method. In literature and film, the Salem trials are regularly invoked (for example in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, who uses the play as an allegory of McCarthyism). The key thing to remember is that the doctor of Salem embodies the figure of authority who, through a single decision, can trigger a collective tragedy. His story serves as a warning against credulity and the abuse of power, even unintentional.

William Griggs(1650 — ?)

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