Abigail Williams was one of the initial accusers in the Salem witch trials

Salem witch trials

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...

 of 1692, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of over 150 innocent people.


Abigail was born on July 12, 1680. She and her cousin Betty Parris

Betty Parris

Elizabeth "Betty" Parris was one of the accusers during the Salem witch trials. In the winter of 1691–1692, Betty, the nine-year-old daughter of the Salem, Massachusetts' Reverend Samuel Parris and his wife Elizabeth, was the first to claim illness due to being "bewitched"...

 were the two first accusers in the Salem Witch trials of 1692. Williams was 11 (raised to 17 in The Crucible) years old at the time and she was living with her uncle Samuel Parris

Samuel Parris

Samuel Parris was the Puritan minister in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials; he was also the father of one of the afflicted girls, and the uncle of another.-Life:...

 in Salem.