Death On Gallows Hill
~Inspired by my visit to Salem,Massachusetts 2002~
It was the year sixteen hundred and ninety-two
such was the darkness of that year
When a plague crept in the village of Salem
that would breed an immeasurable fear
A fever visited the Rev. Parris
where the children of the house began to thrash and wail
The afflicted were his daughter Betty
and his twelve year old niece Abigail
A worried Rev. called upon Dr.Griggs to examine the girls,
but a cause he just couldn't see
So he concluded with the diagnosis,
'They are bewitched',he said,'The evil hand is upon thee'
'Who torments you', the Rev.demanded,
the girls shrieked,'Tituba....Tituba' as if devil possessed
So they got a warrant for this terror-stricken slave,
and interrogated her untill she finally confessed
Still unsatisfied the Reverand insisted upon unduly,
for the girls to name more names and they would
The accussed were an elderly lady Sarah Osbourne
and a homeless woman who was known as Sarah Good
Now Sarah Osbourne's reputation
revolved around the gossip of her sin
After the death of her husband
she took in her manservant and married him
And Sarah Good was a pregnant weathered woman of thirty-eight
She would beg for food door to door,
when denied -she muttered psalms,
she told the magistrate
Tituba ,the Reverands slave, was the last to be questioned
and claimed she knew nothing,
which turned into a confession that lasted three days
Meanwhile in Salem other girls became afflicted
and such began this witchhunt craze
So they imprisoned the accussed till their trial
but the harsh conditions of jail did one life claim
That of the elderly Sarah Osbourne who always her innocense she maintained
It would be in the old meeting house
where the case of Rebecca Nurse would be tried
When the jury came back with not guilty,
the afflicted girls tumbled on the floor and cried
On seeing this Justice Stoughton would ask the jury to rethink their verdict,
awaiting their return the meeting house stood still
When the jurors came back with a verdict of guilt,
Rebecca Nurse would face her fate upon Gallow's Hill
And so the 19th day of July the accussed would march to Gallow's Hill
to pay the price for their sin
When the Rev. Noyes asked one last time
for Sarah Good to confess she would reply to him
'I am no more witch than you a wizard,
and if you take my life God will give you blood to drink',
she muttered in her last breath
Her last words proclaiming her innocense
before she was condemned to her death
How odd a prediction that would eventually ring true
When Rev. Noyes choked on his blood
years after the trials of 1692
Then there was the examination of Giles Corey,
when they pressed him to confess,
the only thing he would say to defend his fate
'More Weight'......
'CONFESS', they'd shout.....
'more weight'....
as they lowered boulders on his chest......
'more weight'.....'more weight'......
He repeated that till his very last breath
For the weight of the stones crushed him to his death
And such madness would consume this village
and the fate of one's life would be warranted by the stroke of a quill
Drafting the fate of the accussed to die upon Gallow's hill
Eventually, after every last cry was silenced
Salem would awaken to a new dawn
But the cries of the innocent who lost their lives on Gallows Hill,
would forever linger on
Yes it has been said, that Satan visited Salem
if only for a spell
Crafting the hysteria that condemned this village
to its own damnation in hell.