Record: 1
Title: / Salem Witch Trials.Authors: / Loiselle, Brett
Source: / Salem Witch Trials, 2009, p1-2, 2p
Document Type: / Article
Subject Terms: / SALEM (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
WITCHCRAFT -- New England
WITCH hunting
UNITED States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
PURITANS
Abstract: / Presents an overview of the infamous Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692. Political and social climate in Salem at the end of the seventeenth century; Conflict between Puritan and secular factions in the city; Belief that the daughters of local reverend Samuel Parris were afflicted with witchcraft-related illness; Details of the investigation of several women accused of being witches; The case of Bridget Bishop, the first woman to be executed in the hysteria; Aftermath of the executions.
Lexile: / 1120
ISBN: / 9781429804240
Accession Number: / 17914394
Persistent link to this record (Permalink): / http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=17914394&site=ehost-live
Cut and Paste: / <a href="http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=17914394&site=ehost-live">Salem Witch Trials.</a>
Database: / MasterFILE Premier
Salem Witch Trials
Almost everyone has heard of the accusations of witchcraft that stunned Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Three young girls playing at divination touched a spark to the powder keg of social and gender strife in the Puritan community. The resulting explosion far exceeded any previous witchcraft "outbreaks" in the American colonies. More than 150 people, who were from several near-by towns, were falsely accused and jailed for witchcraft and twenty of them were executed.
Salem was not the first place to experience witchcraft hysteria. During the Middle Ages, tens of thousands of women burned at the stake for witchcraft. There had also been sporadic accusations within New England during the 17th century. However, Salem was the only colonial town where more than one or two people were punished as alleged witches. The authorities in those days firmly believed that witches existed. The townspeople believed they had an obligation to convict and destroy witches for the good of the community.
Salem was a community in turmoil in 1692. Bad weather reduced harvests. An epidemic of small pox had swept through the town. Indians renewed attacks on the frontier settlements. The townspeople feared that another conflict like the recent King Phillip's War was about to engulf them. Also, there was great political uncertainty, since the King of England had revoked the colony's charter in 1684. The colonists had been without a sanctioned government since they had forced, though without bloodshed, ejected the King's chosen replacement in 1689.
There was also a great deal of conflict within the town. Salem at that time consisted of two main districts. Salem Town was the second largest city in Massachusetts, and was rapidly becoming a major center of trade and commerce. Salem Village, on the other hand, was largely made up of small households and farmers. They were traditional Puritans who were not pleased with the secular changes in Salem Town. For years the people of Salem Village had been trying to become a separate township. That way they would be free of the control of Salem Town and its merchants and businessmen. They had been able to form a separate parish in 1672 and had started their own church in 1689. There was even strife within the Village church, with nearly equal factions strongly divided over the minister, Rev. Samuel Parris.
It was in this tense atmosphere that a group of young girls, including Rev. Parris' daughter, Elizabeth, asked the Reverend's Caribe Indian slave woman, Tituba, to tell their fortunes. What started as fun grew serious, however, when several of the girls began experiencing bizarre fits and "distempers" in January and February of 1692. Although several different explanations have been proposed, nobody knows what first caused these fits. It seems clear, however, that the girls were suffering from a real physical or mental malady. They experienced temporary blindness, and deafness, and had bouts of uncontrollable screaming. The villagers were at a loss to determine the cause of the trouble. Local physician William Griggs was unable to diagnose the cause, and suggested to Parris that the fits were likely the result of witchcraft. This explanation was accepted by the townspeople, who were firmly convinced of the existence of a real devil and real witches.
Parris sought the advice of fellow ministers and initially decided to rely upon prayer and Bible reading to aid the girls. Others in the community were not so patient. If the girls were victims of witchcraft, then it was not a medical matter but a legal one. The girls were victims of a heinous crime, punishable by death. When the condition of the girls did not improve, Parris asked the girls to reveal who their tormentors were. After intense questioning by adults, the girls named three women as witches, and warrants were issued for their arrest on February 29. The first, Sarah Good, was an old beggar woman, while the second, Sarah Osborne, was known to have had an adulterous relationship. Neither had a good reputation in Salem Village. Both, however, strongly denied the accusations of witchcraft. Tituba was the third women accused, and she not only confessed under questioning, but also began accusing others of being witches. All three women were examined by a magistrate and sent to the Boston jail, where Sarah Osborne would die of natural causes on May 10.
Had this been a typical case of New England witchcraft, these three arrests would have been the end of the matter. The girls of Salem Village, however, had just begun their accusations. Their strange behavior didn't stop after the arrests. Parris called for fasting and a day of prayer, but the girls' fits continued. During a visit by a former minister of Salem Village, Abigail Williams ran through the house with outstretched arms and then began pulling burning logs from the fireplace and scattering them around the room. The girls, now numbering between eight and twelve and popularly known as "the afflicted," began to accuse more people of witchcraft. Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor were accused and jailed during March, and several more people were brought for examination during April. The sites of the examinations were moved from Salem Village to Salem Town on April 12.
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By May of 1692, the prisons were overflowing with accused witches. Every aspect of the legal system, judges, magistrates, constables and jailers, were under a strain that grew worse with every new arrest. That is because there had been no trials for the accused. Because the colony didn't have a charter, it didn't have a legal government, and the magistrates felt they did not have the power to start capital trials in those circumstances. It wasn't until the new governor, Sir William Phips, arrived in Boston with a new charter on May 14 that trials could begin.
Phips created the Court of Oyer and Terminer (listening and hearing) and appointed Lt. Gov. William Stoughton as chief justice. The court was allowed to consider confessions, eyewitness testimonies, and "spectral evidence" in judging the cases. Since most of the accused refused to confess, and it was difficult to find people who witnessed the accused meeting with Satan, the court was forced to rely heavily on spectral evidence. Spectral evidence consisted of Satan or some other supernatural being appearing in the form of an accused witch. Such "evidence" is impossible to verify or refute, but it was still used by the court to send people to their deaths. The first death sentence was passed on June 2. Bridget Bishop, who had been imprisoned since April 18, was hanged in Salem.
As the summer passed, the hysteria spread to other towns until there were over 150 accused witches in jail. Very rarely were any of the accused found innocent during their trials. When a jury found Rebecca Nurse not guilty of witchcraft, the judges admonished them and sent them to deliberate further. They quickly returned with a guilty verdict, and Nurse and four other women were executed on July 19. Not even ministers were immune. George Burroughs, former minister in Salem Village in the 1680s, was summoned from his home in Maine (at that time part of Massachusetts) and arrested. He caused a sensation at his execution by successfully reciting the Lord's Prayer, something it was thought no witch could do. Giles Cory refused to issue a plea of guilty or not guilty, implicitly denying the right of the court to place him on trial. The court resorted to an old type of torture, peine forte et dure. Cory was placed on the ground and each time he refused to plead to the charges, a stone was placed upon him. Cory steadfastly refused to speak, and finally died from the torture. According to local folklore, his last words were "more weight."
As time went on and the number of accused continued to grow, several people became upset with the trials. Many risked their own safety by starting petitions on behalf of the imprisoned. One of the members of the Court, Nathaniel Saltonstall, resigned after the conviction of Bridget Bishop, but failed to publicly criticize the proceedings. Increase Mather and his son, Cotton Mather, the two most influential ministers in Massachusetts, publicly supported the trials. Privately, however, they urged the governor and the court to be very careful before convicting people based on spectral evidence. Thomas Brattle wrote a scathing letter about the proceedings that helped turn the opinion of other influential people against them.
Still, it wasn't until Lady Phips herself was accused that the governor took decisive action. He disbanded the Court of Oyer and Terminer on October 29. A special Superior Court was created to try the remaining cases, but it was specifically charged not to use spectral evidence. None of the remaining accused was convicted of witchcraft. Within five years, Samuel Parris was forced out as the minister of Salem Village. In 1703, the new minister, Joseph Green, convinced the church to rescind the excommunication of Giles Cory's wife, Martha, who had been executed for witchcraft. One of the leaders of the afflicted girls, Ann Putnam, repented her role and publicly sought the church's forgiveness in 1706. In 1752 Salem Village finally broke away from Salem Town, and incorporated itself as the Town of Danvers.
Many different theories have been advanced to explain the witchcraft hysteria. Some have noticed that most of the accused from Salem Village were members of the anti-Parris faction (Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, Daniel Andrew), while most of the afflicted girls were related to the pro-Parris faction, if not to the minister himself (Elizabeth Parris, Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams). Others have claimed that misogyny is inherent in Puritan philosophy. Almost eighty-five percent of the accused witches in Salem were women, and many of them did not fit the normal social roles of the day.
Whatever the underlying causes of the witchcraft hysteria, it remains one of the best known incidents in colonial American history. The outbreak of witchcraft accusations continues to fascinate people today. Modern people find it difficult to understand how such a seemingly rational group of people could get swept into such an event. How strange actions by a group of young girls can lead to the wrongful imprisonment of over one hundred people, and the execution of twenty after false convictions, remains a chilling mystery.
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By Brett Loiselle
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