What Happened to Abigail Williams?

The Salem witch trials, a series of prosecutions motivated by fear and superstition that saw hundreds of individuals arrested and twenty of them murdered for witchcraft, are one of the most well-known and infamous occurrences from colonial America's history. The fate of Abigail Williams, the young girl who initiated the whole thing, is one question that hasn't been resolved.

Samuel Parris relocated to Salem, Massachusetts, with his young daughter Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams when he accepted the position of new pastor there in 1689. The Parris household was visited by the local physician in the early months of 1692 when both girls started acting strangely, including convulsing, barking, and speaking in tongues.

Because they exhibited the same signs as a previous, well-known case of witchcraft, the Goodwin family in Boston, the doctor came to the conclusion that they had been possessed. The two girls accused Tituba, the family's slave, who had been detained and put in jail. She then confessed, probably under torture, and even identified two other ladies who had helped her.