It wasn't over yet.

As powerful as the reprieve from Governor Fipps had been, it didn't close the books on

the trials immediately.

I wish it had.

I wish all the fear and uncertainty and frustration just sort of evaporated into the wind like a puff

of smoke.

But it didn't.

In the days between Stotens signing of her death warrant on January 14th and the February

1st message from the governor that canceled it, Elizabeth Proctor gave birth to the baby

she had carried throughout the ordeal.

It was her pregnancy that it kept her alive the day her husband John had been led to the

gallows and hanged, and now that safety net was gone.

It can't have been an easy delivery.

Once earlier and Proctor, wife of Thomas and one of the afflicted who put so many others

in jail had delivered her own baby.

She would have prepared groaning cakes and groaning beer.

The traditional provisions laid out to refresh the women of the community as they gathered

by her side, coaching and supporting her through the process of labor and birth.

New clean linens would have been ready nearby as well to wrap the newborn.

A family cradle would be in the room.

Thomas Putnam would have stepped in among the women of the Salem Village Church to bless

his new child with a father's love, to share pride and joy with the weary mother, to

...