At Pollard’s Tavern, the Court of General Sessions meets before a large crowd, and Martha Ballard prepares to give evidence about Joshua Burgess’s body. Judge Joseph North, clearly aware of her presence, calls on Martha early. Instead of the usual paternity testimony expected from a midwife, Martha formally reports on Burgess’s death and states that her medical findings show he was murdered, not drowned.

Martha explains that Burgess had been badly beaten, had broken teeth and bones, bore rope burns around his neck, and had likely been hanged before being thrown into the river. North immediately challenges her conclusions, especially the absence of any rope. Dr. Benjamin Page then steps forward, presents himself as a Harvard-trained physician, and offers the opposite conclusion: Burgess died accidentally by drowning while drunk, and the injuries happened after death in the river. North accepts Page’s opinion and rules the death an accidental drowning, but Martha forces him to have Henry Sewall record that her contradictory opinion of murder also exists in the official record.

As Martha tries to leave, William Pierce brings his daughter Sally forward. Sally first accuses her employer, Rebecca Foster, of fornication, claiming Rebecca admitted she is pregnant by a man not her husband. William supports the charge and says he has removed Sally from the Foster household to protect her reputation. The accusation publicly deepens Rebecca’s vulnerability and places her at greater legal and social risk.

The situation worsens when Sally makes a second charge: murder. She says she overheard Rebecca say that Isaac Foster killed Joshua Burgess. Martha intervenes at once, insisting Sally only overheard part of a conversation and misrepresented Rebecca’s words. Martha states that Rebecca had only said she hoped Isaac had killed Burgess, and she argues that Rebecca is not present to defend herself.

Martha’s anger then spills over into open defiance. She denounces Sally as a liar, calls the proceedings a miscarriage of justice, and tells North he should not preside because he is himself one of the men accused of raping Rebecca Foster. North responds by declaring Martha in contempt of court and orders Ephraim Ballard to remove her.

Outside the tavern, Ephraim rebukes Martha for acting recklessly and warns that by provoking North she may have undermined what she had managed to place on the record. Martha insists she could not remain silent while Rebecca was slandered and justice was twisted. Their argument reveals Ephraim’s fear of North’s power and Martha’s deeper fury, especially when North’s question about hanging brings back the memory of an earlier execution both Martha and Ephraim witnessed.