I'm writing a short story for school on the Salem Witch Trials, and it has to be historically accurate. In my story, the main details are that a woman named Rebecca has been accused of being a witch and is placed in jail to be put on trial. She receives help from her brother and manages to escape before she is executed.
I've heard that the jails of that time had no bars or anything to prevent escape. If so, then why didn't more prisoners try to escape? And if they did have bars, how do you think should I go about making it possible for my character to escape jail?
Bonus question: What were sibling relationships like during that era? Would it be more realistic if it was her husband who helps her escape?
Please include sources in your answer if possible.
Thank you
The majority of the accused witches were held in the jail in Salem town (as well as jails in Ipswich and Boston).
The jail that the accused witches were kept in was a small wooden structure with a dungeon underneath.
The accused witches were considered very dangerous prisoners and were kept in the dungeon and chained to the walls to prevent their spirits from escaping and tormenting their victims.
The wooden structure of the jail was remodeled into a large house on the same spot in 1813 and a new jail was built down the street. The house was then razed in 1956 and a large brick building was built in its place.
When construction workers were digging the new foundation for the brick building, they unearthed the old dungeon where the accused witches were kept.
Several wooden beams from the dungeon were recovered and donated to the Peabody Essex Museum. Two of these beams are now on display at the Salem Witch Museum and the Witch Dungeon Museum. A plaque dedicated to the old jail can be found on the front of this brick building at 10 Federal Street.
As for why they wouldn't run? Run where? To the Native American raids? Salem was experiencing raids fairly frequently as Native Americans were fighting the settlers, trying to push them off their lands. So fleeing isn't much of an option.
There were less than 3,000 Europeans living in the whole of New England in 1690. More than 428 people were either accused, condemned, imprisoned, or hanged. Entire villages testified against people. The gallery of the trials was full every day.
Suffice it to say, if you lived in the colony of Salem, which included the villages of Salem, Salem Village, Andover, and Ipswitch, you were either accused of witchcraft, giving evidence against your neighbors and family, being tortured until you were willing to give evidence, or accusing people of witchcraft.
If you didn't attend the trials or testify against your neighbors, you were considered suspect. These people were then accused of witchcraft.
Physical, sexual, and emotional torture and abuse were commonly used to gather evidence. If you were accused of witchcraft, your entire family was open to being tortured. Children as young as four years old were tortured. Many people went mad in the process.