Easty initially spent two months in prison on accusations of witch craft, but was released for unknown reasons. Two days after her release, her original accusers began experiencing fits again and claimed Easty's specter was tormenting them. Accordingly, Easty was arrested a second time, which shows the power that the girls had gained through their accusations.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BEAS.HTM

The majority of the girls who brought the accusations against the "witches" were daughters and servants under the age of 25. Traditionally, such members of a household and of society would have no say or authority. The success of these girls in convincing the judges to try and execute those found guilty broke the norm. It gave them a power and a voice that had never before been available.

Mary Beth Norton, "In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692" (New York: Random House, 2007), 10.

Easty saw herself as innocent and was considered a martyr for her attempt to challenge the court.

http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb9

She suggests that the accusers be kept apart when testifying to spectral evidence, to see if they give similar accounts of their experiences, which would remove any doubt that people were being wrongly accused of witchcraft.

Tituba was an Indian slave, who after being captured as a child and sold into slavery, ended up in the household of Reverend Samuel Parris. Not much more is known about her life, as very few records were kept on or by women, especially women slaves. These court records are the only surviving records regarding her life. She is the first witch accused in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_TIT.HTM

It was thought that Tituba, coming from Barbados, practiced witchcraft and voodoo, and introduced those ideas to Elizabeth and Abigail.

http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb29

Again, the same question is asked three times until Tituba gives a response. Was she reluctant to answer the first two times or did she just give in?

The questioner often uses the strategy of asking the same question multiple times until Tituba answers with the desired response- that she hurt the child. Many of the accused may have confessed just because they were asked the same question so many times they felt like they had no choice but to tell the court what it wanted to hear.

Tituba was accused by Parris' nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth and his eleven-year-old niece Abigail Williams.

http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb29

Tituba's accusation came after a renewal of fighting, beginning in 1688, involving surrounding Indian tribes in New England (King William's War). The Rev. Parris was known It may be that, since she was an Indian, the accusers' fears represented larger cultural conflicts of the time.

Mary Beth Norton, "In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692" (New York: Random House, 2007), 21.

Sarah Osborne was widowed and left a large estate which was to be given to her son. But, upon remarrying, she and her husband attempted to regain possession of the property, which was seen as a disruption of established norms of inheritance and threatening the patriarchal system of family and consequently of government.

http://salemwitchtrials.org/people?group.num=all&mbio.num=mb22

Sarah Good fit the common traits of witches that were acknowledged in the 1600s. She was the daughter of a wealthy innkeeper, who upon his death left his money to his widow and two sons. She was homeless, impoverished and was known for disagreeing with neighbors and refuses charity.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BGOO.HTM

She was the sister of Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce, who were also convicted of witchcraft, as it was considered hereditary. Both Mary and Rebecca were executed by hanging.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BEAS.HTM

Royal Governor for the colony Massachusetts.

http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/phips.html

Archaic form of "belied," meaning "to give a false idea of something."

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bely