Ann Foster was one of the accused "witches" of 1692. She was elderly, and had been a witness to the growing hysteria among the people of Andover, and all of Essex County, that had seen Bridget Bishop already executed, and five others condemened to be hanged within the week, by the time she confessed on July 15. The following passages are included as an aid to researchers, and serve to illustrate the shameful choice that was forced on the accused - to either confess and live, or profess innocence, in truth, and die.
"The success of Tituba's and Candy's confessions in saving their lives, even temporarily, encouraged others to follow that lead - admission of guilt became a means of worldly redemption... On July 15, shortly before the second day of execution when five women were to die, Ann Foster of Andover broke ranks with the other innocents accused of a diabolical association and confessed to participating in that alleged witches' meeting that Abigail Williams said had taken place in Salem village at the end of March. Foster confessed that she had travelled to that meeting on a stick. She said she saw the Reverend George Burroughs there. He, along with some 305 witches in the country, Foster said, planned to ruin the village. She, like the others who had confessed, was put aside in jail and, temporarily at least, appeared to be reprieved." Breslaw, Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem, p. 152.
"The Andover confessions were among the most colorful of any made anywhere. Ann Foster, who later died in prison, told John Hale that she had ridden from Andover to a Salem Village witch meeting on a stick but that the stick had broken and given her a fall. She was still sore, she claimed. When she later repeated this confession, she added in response to Hales's query as to what she did for food, that she carried bread and cheese in her pocket. She described all the witches at the meeting enjoying a picnic under a tree before getting down to their devilish business." Hill, A Delusion of Satan, p. 150.
"But by far the greatest reason for the large number of confessions at Andover appears to have been the bullying of the accused by their own friends and relatives... Indeed, Andover became notorious for the ease and thoroughness with which family and community bonds were broken in the face of witchcraft accusations... Calef says of Andover, "Here it was that many accused themselves of riding upon poles through the air, many parents believing their children to be witches, and many husbands their wives."" Hansen, Chadwick. "Andover Witchcraft and the Causes of the Salem Witchcraft Trials." In Howard Kerr and Charles Crow, eds. The Occult in America: New Historical Perspectives. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. 38-57.