New England Tragedies, The

New England Tragedies, The, long dramatic poem by Longfellow, which was first published separately in 1868 and later incorporated as the final section of Christus. The poem is composed of two dramas, each with a prologue and five acts: I. John Endicott; and II. Giles Corey of the Salem Farms.

The first play concerns Governor Endicott's persecution of the Quakers in Boston in 1665. He condemns Wenlock Christison, a Quaker, to death, and his daughter Edith to lashing and banishment. The governor's son is renounced by his father when he aids Edith, and he unsuccessfully attempts to find her after she is banished. Under the king's orders, the Quakers are pardoned, and Endicott, broken by the loss of his son, dies shortly thereafter, as do several others of the cruel Puritans.

The second play concerns the witchcraft epidemic in Salem in 1692. Tituba, a villainous Indian woman, leads a sick girl, Mary Walcot, to accuse Goodwife Corey of bewitching her. Meanwhile, John Gloyd turns Giles Corey's cattle loose and claims their loss is caused by witchcraft. Goodwife Corey is then tried by Cotton Mather and Justice Hathorne for witchcraft and is convicted by the evidence of Mary Walcot and her own husband, from whom certain seemingly damaging facts are extracted. Giles is next tried and condemned by the evidence of Gloyd and Mary Walcot, but at the end of the farcical testimony, Cotton Mather, less bigoted than Hathorne, exclaims, “this poor man whom we have made a victim, Hereafter will be counted as a martyr.”