ABSTRACT
March 11, 1692, was a day of fasting and prayer, not an inappropriate response to the turmoil in which Salem village found itself. Martha Corey made the ideal transitional figure for the accusers. If Martha Corey was the first church member in good standing to be accused of witchcraft, Rebecca Nurse was even more saintly and better-placed. She certainly represented a higher rung on the social ladder, and the greatest challenge to date to the as-yet-perfect onslaught of the accusers. Historians have been of different minds in assessing the behavior of the young accusers. The cases of Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse, the sermons of Deodat Lawson and Samuel Parris, and the participation of the visiting colonial officials made it clear to many in Salem village that they were engaged in a major, perhaps cosmic battle with the forces of evil.
