08/26/2026
Yesterday marked the 320th anniversary of Ann Putnam Jr.'s apology.
On August 25, 1706, Ann Putnam Jr. stood before a packed congregation at the Salem Village meeting house while Reverend Joseph Green read her apology aloud. She had been twelve years old in 1692. Now in her late twenties, she was seeking to join the church, and Green required a public confession of her sins first (a departure from ordinary practice, since confession was normally made only before existing covenant church members).
It's worth noting that "confession" here did not mean she was confessing to lying. Full church membership required a confession of one's sins, and what Ann Putnam Jr. gave was closer to an apology, acknowledging her actions and their consequences rather than admitting to fabrication.
The years between had not been easy. Both of her parents died within a week of one another in 1699, leaving Ann to raise several younger siblings, the youngest just seven months old. She never married. She never left Salem Village.
Her confession, read while she stood in silence, acknowledged her role in accusing Rebecca Nurse and her two sisters, Mary Esty and Sarah Cloyce, among many others, calling it "a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time, whereby I justly fear I have been instrumental, with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon myself and this land the guilt of innocent blood" and asking forgiveness of God and of all those "unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offence, whose relations were taken away or accused"
Rebecca Nurse's son Samuel was consulted beforehand and found the confession satisfactory. It remains the only apology any of the afflicted accusers ever made.
Ann Putnam Jr. died in 1716, unmarried, at age 36, the same age her mother had been at her death. She is buried at the Putnam family burial ground in Danvers.
Image of her confession from: Church records, 1689–1845, First Church of Danvers, Mass., Congregational Library & Archives (New England's Hidden Histories)
For the plain text of the document, see comments.
