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The Salem witch trials, which began in 1692 (also known as the Salem witch hunt and the Salem witchcraft episode), resulted in a number of convictions and executions for witchcraft in both Salem Village and Salem Town, Massachusetts. It was the result of a period of factional infighting and Puritan witch hysteria which led to the death of 20 people (14 women, 6 men) and the imprisonment of scores more. public domain, Pioneers in the Settlement of America by William A. Crafts. ... public domain, Pioneers in the Settlement of America by William A. Crafts. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Mary Walcott (July 5, 1675 â€“ after 1719) was one of the witnesses at the Salem Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts in the years 1692 and 1693. ... Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ... Seal of Danvers, MA Danvers, a town located in Essex County, Massachusetts was formerly named Salem Village. ... Settled: 1626 â€“ Incorporated: 1626 Zip Code(s): 01970 â€“ Area Code(s): 351 / 978 Official website: http://www. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area Ranked 44th - Total 10,555 sq mi (27,360 kmÂ²) - Width 183 miles (295 km) - Length 113 miles (182 km) - % water 13. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Background

In 1692, Salem Village was torn by internal disputes between neighbors who disagreed about the choice of Samuel Parris as its first ordained minister. In January of 1692, the residents of York, Maine, had been attacked by Wabanaki Native Americans, many killed or taken captive, in the latest massacre in the "Eastward" frontier of Maine of King William's War, echoing the brutality of King Philip's War of 1675-76. Reverend Samuel Parris (1653-1720) Samuel Parris (1653 â€“ February 27, 1720) was the Puritan minister in the town of Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) during the Salem witch trials, as well as the father and uncle of two of the afflicted girls. ... ...

Increasing family size fueled disputes over land between neighbors and within families, especially on the frontier where the economy was based on farming. Changes in the weather or blights could easily wipe out a year's crop. A farm that could support an average-sized family could not support the many families of the next generation, prompting farmers to push further into the wilderness to find farmland - and encroach upon the indigenous people who already lived there. As the Puritans had vowed to create a theocracy in this new land, religious fervor added another tension to the mix: losses of crops, livestock, and children, as well as earthquakes and bad weather were typically attributed to the wrath of God. Within the Puritan faith, one's soul was considered predestined from birth as to whether they had been chosen for Heaven or condemned for Hell, and they constantly searched for hints, assuming God's pleasure and displeasure could be read in such signs given in the visible world. The invisible world was inhabited by God and the angels - including the Devil, a fallen angel, and to Puritans this invisible world was as real to them as the visible one around them. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Heaven is an afterlife concept found in many religions or spiritual philosophies. ... Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is a place or a state of pain and suffering. ...

The sexist beliefs that Puritans held for women further stressed the atmosphere: women should be totally subservient to their men (he in public, she at home; he talking, she listening; he preaching, she hearing, etc.), that by nature a woman was more likely to enlist in the Devil's service than a man was (since women were not allowed to be preachers then they were more likely to sign themselves over to the Devil), and that women were naturally lustful (although this belief was valid in that men were more likely to die early and thus women often outnumbered men, which made women compete fiercely for scarce men). Misogyny () is hatred of or strong prejudice against women. ...

And the small town atmosphere made secrets very difficult to keep and people's opinions (positive or negative) about their neighbors were generally accepted as fact. Then the fact that it was an age where the philosophy "children should be seen and not heard" reigned supreme, children suffered from their status at the bottom of the social ladder. Toys and games were seen as idle and playing was discouraged, and thus children suffered from not being able to enjoy life and have fun, although girls had particular cruelties heaped upon them; boys were able to go hunting, fishing, exploring the forest, and often became apprentices to carpenters and smiths, while girls were trained from a tender age to spin yarn, cook, sew, weave, and to generally be servants to their husbands and mothers to their children.

Origin of Trials

In the village of Salem in 1692, Betty Parris, age 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, the daughter and niece (respectively) of Reverend Samuel Parris, fell victim to what was recorded as fits "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect," according to John Hale, minister in Beverly, in his book A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (Boston, 1702) The girls screamed, threw things about the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions. They complained of being pricked with pins or cut with knives, and when Reverend Parris would preach, the girls would cover their ears, as if dreading to hear the sermons. When a doctor, historically assumed to be William Griggs, could not explain what was happening to them, he said that the girls were bewitched. Others in the village began to exhibit the same symptoms. Image File history File links Salem_Village_-_map_of_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_17845. ... Image File history File links Salem_Village_-_map_of_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_17845. ... Elizabeth Betty Parris (November 28, 1682 â€“ March 21, 1760) was the nine-year-old daughter of the Salem villages reverend Samuel Parris (1653â€“1720) and was the first to become ill after being bewitched as most people thought. ... Abigail Williams testimony against George Jacobs, Jr. ... Reverend Samuel Parris (1653-1720) Samuel Parris (1653 â€“ February 27, 1720) was the Puritan minister in the town of Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) during the Salem witch trials, as well as the father and uncle of two of the afflicted girls. ...

Doctor Griggs may have been influenced in his diagnosis by Cotton Mather's work Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689). In the book he describes the strange behaviour exhibited by the four children of a Boston mason, John Goodwin, and attributed it to witchcraft practiced upon them by an Irish washerwoman, Mary Glover. Mather, a minister of Boston's Old North Church, was a prolific publisher of pamphlets and a firm believer in witchcraft. Three of the five judges appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer were friends of his and members of his congregation. He wrote to one of the judges, John Richards, asking them to take into account spectral evidence and advising them on how to proceed. Mather was present at the execution of George Burroughs for witchcraft and intervened after the condemned man had successfully recited the Lord's Prayer (supposedly a sign of innocence) to remind the crowd that the man had been convicted before a jury. Mather had access to the official records of the Salem trials, upon which his account of the affair, Wonders of the Invisible World, was based. Cotton Mather (1663â€“1728) circa 1700 Cotton Mather (February 12, 1663 â€“ February 13, 1728). ... Image of the North End, Boston neighborhood. ... One of the great injustices of the Salem Witchcraft Trials was the admission of spectral evidence. ... The Lords Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster, in Greek as the , or the English equivalent Our Father) is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. ...

Traditionally, the affected girls are said to have been entertained by Parris' slave Tituba, during the winter of 1692, although there is no contemporary evidence to support the story. Tituba's race is also often cited as Carib-Indian or that she was of African descent, but contemporary sources describe her only as an "Indian." Research by Elaine Breslaw has suggested that she may well have been captured in what is now Venezuela and brought to Barbados, and so may have been an Arawak Indian, but other slightly later descriptions of her, by Gov. Hutchinson writing his history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 18th century, describe her as a "Spanish Indian." In that day, that typically meant an Indian from the Carolinas/Georgia/Florida. Contrary to the folklore, there is no evidence whatsoever to support the assertion that Tituba told any of the girls any stories about using magic. The one supportable association with any kind of magical practices is that John Indian, another slave in the Parris household and assumed to have been Tituba's husband, was told a recipe for discovering the identity of a witch, a British recipe given to him by a neighbor of the parsonage. Tituba was one of the first women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. ...

The first three people accused were arrested for allegedly afflicting Ann Putnam, Jr., age 12: Sarah Good, a beggar, Sarah Osborne, a bedridden old woman, and Tituba. (Boyer 3). Tituba, as a slave of a different ethnicity than the Puritans, was an obvious target for accusations. Sarah Good, a poverty-worn, easily-angered woman, often muttered under her breath as she walked away from failed attempts of obtaining food and/or shelter from neighbors, and people interpreted her muttering as curses. Sarah Osborne, an irritable old woman, was already marked for marrying her indentured servant. All of these women fit the description of the "usual suspects," since nobody would likely stand up for them; neither Osborne nor Good attended church, which made them especially vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft. Sarah Good was one of the first three people to be accused and then convicted of witchcraft at the Salem Witch Trials. ...

These women were brought before the local magistrates on the complaint of witchcraft on March 1, 1692, and held in prison (Boyer 3). Other accusations followed: Dorothy Good^[1], Rebecca Nurse, Abigail Hobbs, Deliverance Hobbs, Martha Corey, Elizabeth Proctor and John Proctor. Dorothy Good, the daughter of Sarah Good, was only 4 years old, and easily manipulated by the magistrates to say things that were taken as a confession, implicating her own mother. In order to be with her mother after the accusations, she claimed to herself be a witch, thereby she was arrested. Martha Corey, ever an outspoken woman, was skeptical about the credence of the girls from the start and scoffed at the trials, unfortunately drawing attention to herself. The convictions of Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey greatly disturbed the community, as both women were pious and upstanding members of the community; if the upstanding people could be accused of witchcraft and seen as possible witches, that meant that anybody could be a witch, but also that Church membership was no protection from accusation. March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... Dorcas (or Dorothy) Good was the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good (executed by hanging for the crime of witchcraft) who was also accused of being a witch during the Salem witch trials. ... Rebecca Nurse (February 21, 1621 - July 19, 1692) was an accused witch in the Salem witch trials. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Elizabeth Proctor was an indirect victim of the Salem Witch Trials whose husband, John Proctor, was executed; however, Elizabeth herself was not actually hanged because she was pregnant at the time. ... John Proctor (1632 â€“ 1692) was a Puritan who was victimized during the Salem Witch Trials. ...

As the number of accusations grew, the jail populations of Salem, Boston, and surrounding areas swelled, and a new problem surfaced: The new governor and charter for the colony were only a few months from arriving. Some have postulated that without this, there was no legitimate form of government to try capital cases (Boyer 6), but this was not true. In the years between charters, a group of 13 pirates had been tried and hanged, and a double-infanticide had been tried and hanged. The fact that none of them were tried until late May, after Governor Sir William Phips arrived and instituted a Court of Oyer and Terminer (to "hear and determine"), was likely in deference to his imminent arrival. Phips appointed William Stoughton, who had theological training but no legal training, as the chief justice of this court (Boyer 7). By then, Sarah Osborne had died of natural causes in jail without a trial (Boyer 3), as had Sarah Good's newborn baby girl, and many others were ill ^{[citation needed]}. There were perhaps 80 people in jail awaiting trial ^{[citation needed]}. Settled: 1626 â€“ Incorporated: 1626 Zip Code(s): 01970 â€“ Area Code(s): 351 / 978 Official website: http://www. ... Nickname: City on a Hill, Beantown, The Hub of the Universe (The State House, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, is the hub of the Solar System), Athens of America Location in Massachusetts Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas Menino (D) Area - City 232. ... Sir William Phips (1651-1695) Sir William Phips (or Phipps) (February 2, 1651 or 1650 â€“ February 18, 1694 or 1695), colonial governor of Massachusetts, was born at Woolwich, Maine, near the mouth of the Kennebec River. ... Oyer and terminer is the Anglo-French name, meaning to hear and determine, for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sits. ... William Stoughton (30 September 1631 â€“ 7 July 1701) acted as judge and prosecutor during the Salem Witch Trials. ...

Legal Procedures

After someone concluded that a loss, illness or death had been caused by witchcraft, the accuser would enter a complaint against the alleged witch with the local magistrates ^[2].

If the complaint was deemed credible, the magistrates would have the person arrested ^[3] and brought in for a public examination, essentially an interrogation, when the magistrates pressed the accused to confess ^[4].

If the magistrates at this local level were satisfied that the complaint was well-founded, the prisoner was held over to be dealt with by a superior court. In 1692, the magistrates opted to wait for the arrival of the new charter and governor, who would establish a Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle these cases.

The next step at the superior court level was to summon witnesses before a grand jury ^[5]. A person could be indicted on charges of afflicting with witchcraft ^[6], or for making an unlawful covenant with the Devil ^[7]. Once indicted, the defendant went to trial, sometimes on the same day, as in the case of the first person indicted and tried on June 2, Bridget Bishop, who was executed on June 10, 1692. Bridget Bishop was the first person executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. ...

There were four execution dates, with one person executed on June 10, 1692 ^[8], five executed on July 19, 1692^[9], another five executed on August 19, 1692 (Susannah Martin, John Willard, George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., and John Procter), and eight on September 22, 1692 (Mary Esty, Martha Cory, Ann Pudeator, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd, and Margaret Scott). Several others, including Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor and Abigail Faulkner were convicted but given temporary reprieves because they were pregnant (Chronology). Though convicted, they would not be hanged until they had given birth (Chronology). Five other women were convicted in 1692, but sentence was never carried out: Ann Foster (who later died in prison), her daughter Mary Lacy Sr., Abigail Hobbs, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury. Elizabeth Proctor was an indirect victim of the Salem Witch Trials whose husband, John Proctor, was executed; however, Elizabeth herself was not actually hanged because she was pregnant at the time. ...

Giles Corey, an 80-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem called Salem Farms, refused to enter a plea when he came to trial in September. The law provided for the application of a form of torture called peine fort et dure, in which the victim was slowly crushed by piling stones on a board that was laid upon the victim's body; after two days of peine fort et dure, Corey died without entering a plea (Boyer 8). Though his refusal to plead is often explained as a way of preventing his possessions from being confiscated by the state, this is not true; the possessions of convicted witches were often confiscated, and possessions of persons accused but not convicted were confiscated before a trial, as in the case of Corey's neighbor John Procter and the wealthy English's of Salem Town. Some historians hypothesize that his personal character, a stubborn and lawsuit-prone old man who knew he was going to be convicted regardless, led to his recalcitrance (Boyer 8). Giles Corey (also spelled Cory or Coree, 1612 â€“ 19 September 1692) was a farmer and a victim of the Salem witch trials in early colonial America. ...

Sadly, not even in death were the accused witches granted peace or respect. As convicted witches, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey had been excommunicated from their churches church and none were given proper burial. As soon as the bodies of the accused people were cut down from the trees, their bodies were thrown into a shallow grave and the crowd would then leave. Oral history claims that the families of the dead reclaimed their bodies after dark and buried them in unmarked graves on family property. The record books of the time do not mention the deaths of any of those executed.

Closure

The Reverend Francis Dane led the opposition and supported the accused. He petitioned the Governor and General Court, condemning the trials due to unfounded accusations. The last witch trials took place in May of 1693, although people already found not guilty of witchcraft were not released until they paid their jailers' fees. On October 3, 1692, Increase Mather published "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits." In it, Increase Mather stated "It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that one Innocent Person should be Condemned." Francis Dane, (20 Nov 1615-17 Feb 1697) Born in Roxbury, England, Dane served as the second minister of the church in Andover, Massachusetts, He had lived in Andover for 44 years when the Salem Witch Trials began. ... Events January 11 - Eruption of Mt. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Increase Mather, 1688, by John van der Spriett Increase Mather (June 21, 1639 â€“ August 23, 1723) was a Puritan educator and clergyman, noted for being the father of Cotton Mather. ... In criminal law, Blackstones formulation (also known as Blackstones ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. Named after the English jurist William Blackstone, the principle expressed in the formulation is much older, being...

A new system of government, and a new system for how court rulings worked was established in 1695, following the Witch Trials. All prior laws were elapsed, and new laws were put in effect. "Everything ruled under the old system was to be forgotten." But many descendants of the people who were wrongfully convicted still sought closure.

Numerous petitions were filed between 1692 and 1711 demanding monetary restitution to those wrongly imprisoned. 17 Dec 1711 – 578. pounds 12 shillings was awarded to be divided among the survivors and relatives of those accused who had submitted an order for payment. Most of the accounts were settled within a year.

1954 – Still, not all the condemned had been exonerated. Descendants of those falsely accused demanded the General Court clear the names of their family members. In 1954 an act was passed pronouncing all guiltless.

Possible Explanations of the "Possessed"

It is not widely believed any longer that the girls were actually possessed by the devil nor that their neighbors had anything to do with their symptoms. Some experts believe the accusers were motivated by jealousy or spite and their behavior was an act. Others believe they were afflicted by hysteria, a form of mental illness. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In 1976, graduate student Linnda Caporael published an article in Science magazine, making the claim that the hallucinations of the afflicted girls could possibly have been the result of ingesting rye bread that had been made with moldy grain. "Ergot of Rye is a plant disease that is caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea. It is the ergot stage of the fungus that contains a similar chemical compounds to a popular but illegal drug of the counter-culture of the 1970s, LSD. Convulsive ergotism causes nervous dysfunction, which Caporael claims are similar to many of the physical symptoms of those alleged to be afflicted by witchcraft. Within 7 months, a refutation of this theory was published in the same magazine by Spanos and Gottlieb, arguing, among other things, that if the poison was in the food supply, the symptoms would have occurred on a house-by-house basis, and that biological symptoms do not stop and start on cue and simultaneously in a group of those so afflicted, as described by the witnesses to the afflictions. Species About 50, including: Claviceps africanum Claviceps fusiformis Claviceps paspali Claviceps purpurea Ergot is the common name of a fungus in the genus Claviceps. ... Binomial name Secale cereale M.Bieb. ... Species About 50, including: Claviceps africanum Claviceps fusiformis Claviceps paspali Claviceps purpurea Ergot is the common name of a fungus in the genus Claviceps. ...

In her book A Fever in Salem, Laurie Winn Carlson offers an alternative theory. She believes that those afflicted in Salem, who claimed to have been bewitched, suffered from encephalitis lethargica, a disease whose symptoms match some of what was reported in Salem and could have been spread by birds and other animals (Aronson). Encephalitis lethargica is an atypical form of encephalitis. ...

It has also been suggested that the girls could have had Huntingtons Chorea, carriers of which have been traced to be among the colonists that settled in that area [1], but no serious historian of this episode today (Mary Beth Norton, Bernard Rosenthal, Marilynne K. Roach and others) gives any of these medical explanations any serious consideration. Huntingtons disease or Huntingtons chorea is an inherited disorder characterized by abnormal body movements called chorea, and loss of memory. ...

Salem Today

"With one of the highest concentrations of historic sites, museums, cultural activities, fine dining and shopping in Massachusetts, Salem is America's Bewitching Seaport with a little history in every step" (Destination Salem). Today the Salem Witchcraft Trials have become the basis of a money-making tourist industry in Salem. Witch shops are seen all over the community. Museums promise glimpses of the supernatural. Gift shops sell everything from Witch City shirts to Buddhism in a can. Tourists are treated to informational exhibits and programs.

Connected to Boston by train and bus, Salem's 38,000 residents and its one-million visitors are able to easily enjoy the best of both Salem and Boston.

In recent times, "historians see both sides of Salem" (Aronson). Still to this day, there is not a solid explanation for what occurred in the Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s.

The Salem Witch Trials in Literature

The Salem Witch Trials have provided the basis for two of America's great works of drama, Giles Corey in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's New England Tragedies and Arthur Miller's classic play The Crucible. Both plays deal with the problem of presumed guilt and both follow a single character from his accusation to his eventual condemnation. Longfellow's play, which follows the form of a Shakespearean tragedy, is a commentary on the attitudes prevalent in 19th-century New England. Miller's play is a commentary on the actions of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities and Senator Joe McCarthy. Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell is a novella based on the Salem witch hunts and shows how jealousy and sexual desire can lead to hysteria. Giles Corey (also spelled Cory or Coree, 1612 â€“ 19 September 1692) was a farmer and a victim of the Salem witch trials in early colonial America. ... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 â€“ March 24, 1882) was an American poet who wrote many works that are still famous today, including The Song of Hiawatha, Paul Reveres Ride and Evangeline. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Cover to the 1953 book The Crucible is a play that was written by Arthur Miller in 1952. ... Like most Western tragedies, Shakespearean tragedy usually depicts a protagonist who falls from grace and dies, along with a fair proportion of the rest of the cast. ... HUAC hearings House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC (or, rarely, HCUA) (1938-1975) was an investigating committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... A senate is a deliberative body, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature. ... Joseph McCarthy This article is about the American politician. ... Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (September 29, 1810, London â€“ November 12, 1865, Holybourne, Hampshire, England, UK), often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist. ...

Footnotes

Dorcas (or Dorothy) Good was the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good (executed by hanging for the crime of witchcraft) who was also accused of being a witch during the Salem witch trials. ...

References used

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