Beyond the Burning Time

Beyond the Burning Time (1994) is a young adult historical novel written by Kathryn Lasky. When twelve-year-old Mary Chase’s mother is accused and convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, Mary and her older brother, Caleb, must find a way to rescue her before she is hanged. In a concluding Author’s Note, Lasky details the extensive historical research that informs Beyond the Burning Time. Lasky includes verbatim excerpts of court reports, examinations, and sermons, as well as direct quotes from real historical figures who feature in the novel. Lasky dedicates the book the twenty-four people who died during the Salem “witch hysteria and trials.”

It is January of 1692. Mary and her mother, Virginia Chase, are trying to keep their small Salem, Massachusetts farm running after the death of Mary’s father, Jacob, two winters prior. Caleb is away from home working as an apprentice ship’s carpenter, so Mary and Virginia are helped by Gilly, a simple laborer who idolized Jacob.

Disturbing things are happening in Salem: Young girls are suddenly having violent fits. Mary knows this “strangeness” started when the girls, several of them friends to her, began visiting Tituba, the slave of Reverend Samuel Parris, to hear their fortunes. Dr. Grigg attends the girls and declares that they are being touched by the “evil hand,” or witchcraft. The town gossip, Goody Dawson, relishes telling Virginia about the strange contortions the girls’ experience, but Virginia doesn’t want to hear it. She thinks this is all ridiculous nonsense, as does her friend, the grandmotherly Rebecca Nurse. Nathaniel Ingersoll cautions Virginia not to voice her disbelief. Virginia tells Mary not to let anyone know that she can read, so people do not become suspicious of them.



Reverend Hale and Reverend Noyes come to town to find out who, or what is “tormenting” the girls. During a church service, several of the girls begin having fits and shrieking that they are being pinched. The girls “cry out,” or accuse three women of being witches: Tituba, Sarah Osbourne, and Sarah Good, a marginalized beggar woman. They are arrested and examined publicly in the meetinghouse. Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne initially protest their innocence, but Tituba claims she has seen the Devil’s familiars in the form of dogs and cats and other animals. The three are taken to prison, but the girls agree with Tituba and announce there are other witches in town.

More women are accused of witchcraft, including a respectable, god-fearing member of the congregation, Martha Cory. Mary becomes desperate to understand what is going on with all the talk of witches: are all these accusations and strange occurrences real? She wonders if the whole village is afflicted. Mary also wants to get to the bottom of arguments she’s overhears between two of the town’s prominent families, the Porters and the Putnams.

One evening, Mary and Caleb watch as a girl accuses the pious and prosperous Rebecca Nurse of witchcraft. Caleb worries that if Martha and Rebecca Nurse are witches “then we’ll all be witches by spring.” Shaken, they walk home after the incident and Caleb sees Gilly, peeking in on Virginia as she undresses. Caleb confronts him and Virginia tells Gilly to leave.



The afflicted girls cry out more names. Rebecca Nurse and Martha Cory are taken to prison. The girls become famous, even traveling to another town where they visit the homes of sick people and claim to see witches hovering over the sickbeds. Mary and Caleb notice citizens huddled together, whispering, and they fear for the future.

Caleb feels that he cannot talk safely to anyone in town, because almost everyone is related one way or another to the families of the girls. He meets Mary Warren, one of the afflicted girls, and learns that Mary and the other girls started the witch hysteria “out of sport.” He is outraged and determined to make the truth known.

Before Caleb can act, Virginia is arrested. Virginia tells her captors that her arrest has nothing to do with witchcraft, but rather some people’s greed for land and money. The sheriff confiscates everything on their farm, from the livestock to the furniture. When he is gone, Mary goes through their empty house and finds a box Caleb made for her that contains lupine seeds she had saved. The box and seeds give Mary hope and reaffirm her belief in God. Virginia refuses to confess and is kept chained up in prison, despite the pain and swelling the chains cause her ankles. Virginia declares, “I shall not sell my soul to save my feet.” She is tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang.



Mary and Caleb stay in Boston because Caleb fears Mary will be accused next. They attempt to bring their mother’s case to the governor, William Phips, but Phips, thinking the Salem trials are just a “distraction,” is more interested in the French and Indian Wars. Rebecca Nurse and several other women are hanged and buried at the base of Gallows Hill. While working in a tavern kitchen, Mary meets Captain Eli Coatsworth, whom Mary calls the Raven because of his dark looks and gentlemanly manner. He agrees to help Mary and Caleb rescue their mother.

Their plan to smuggle Virginia out of prison goes awry when Virginia is moved. With the help of a contrite Gilly and information from Mary Warren, Caleb and Mary intercept the constable’s cart carrying their mother. They spook him with a sign dripping blood and covered in sheep’s entrails, using a sheep’s head to frighten him further. They rescue Virginia and flee to the river where Captain Coatsworth’s ship awaits. Onboard, the surgeon amputates one of Virginia’s infected feet. Together they sail to Jamaica and live there for several years. Virginia marries Coatsworth and eventually they return to America and recover Virginia’s farm. In an Epilogue, Mary, now advanced in years, takes up her pen to begin writing this account of the witch trials.