Salem Witch Trials

1876 illustration of the courtroom; the central figure is usually identified as Mary Walcott

The Salem witch trials (also known as the Salem witch hunt and the Salem witchcraft episode) began in 1692 as a result of the bizarre and inexplicable behavior of two young girls, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village. In looking for a reason to explain the behavior a doctor concluded that the girls were bewitched. This diagnosis resulted in several convictions and executions of innocent people who were accused of practicing witchcraft. Fourteen women and six men were killed, and between 175-200 were imprisoned during the trials. The convictions and executions reached not only Salem Village (Danvers), but Salem Town and other surrounding areas in Massachusetts. The modern town of Salem is dedicated to remembering the witch hysteria of 1692, as well as educating the population on the practices of modern witchcraft.

Background

In 1692, Salem Village was torn by internal disputes between neighbors who disagreed about the choice of Samuel Parris as their first ordained minister. Also, in January 1692, York, at the "Eastward" frontier of Maine, was attacked by the Abenaki Indians, and many of its citizens were massacred or taken captive, echoing the brutality of King Philip's War of 1675-76.

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, of livestock, and of 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.

The patriarchal beliefs that Puritans held in the community further stressed the atmosphere: women should be totally subservient to men, that by nature a woman was more likely to enlist in the Devil's service than a man was, and that women were naturally lustful. Thus, an unmarried woman, living alone, without the guidance of a man, became an easy target for persecution. It was believed that if a woman didn't have a man in her life to guide her, then she would naturally turn to the devil for instruction.

It was also an age where the philosophy "children should be seen and not heard" reigned supreme, children were at the bottom of the social ladder. Toys and games were seen as idle and playing was discouraged, although girls had additional restrictions 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.

In addition, the small town atmosphere made secrets very difficult to keep and people's opinions about their neighbors were generally accepted as fact.

Origin of trials

Map of Salem Village, 1692

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(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 Samuel 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.

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 behavior 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 North Church (not to be confused with the Episcopalian Old North Church of Paul Revere fame), 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, supporting the prosecutions, but cautioning him of the dangers of relying on spectral evidence and advising the court on how to proceed. Mather was present at the execution of Reverend 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.

In February of 1692, frightened by events, the residents of Salem held regular fasts and prayers for the afflicted. Wanting the influence of the devil to be removed from their community they pressured the girls into providing names. The first three people arrested for allegedly afflicting a girl by the name of Ann Putnam (age 12) were Sarah Good, a beggar, Sarah Osburne, a bedridden old woman, and Rev. Parris' slave, Tituba. Tituba was an easy and obvious target as she was a slave and a different ethnicity than that of her Puritan neighbors. Many accounts of the history of the hysteria claim that Tituba often told witch stories and spells to the girls while she was working, however, this idea doesn't have much historical merit. Sarah Good was often seen begging for food. She was quick to anger, and often muttered under her breath, many people believed these mutterings to be curses that she was placing upon them. Sarah Osburne had already been marked as an outcast when she married her indentured servant. These women easily fit the mold of being different in their society, and thus were vulnerable targets. The fact that none of the three attended church also made them more susceptible to the accusations of witchcraft.

On March 1, 1692, the three accused were held in prison and then brought before the magistrates. The women were accused of witchcraft, and soon many other women and children joined the ranks of the accused. In March, Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Dorothy Good , and Rachel Clinton were condemned. The most outspoken of the group of women was Martha Corey. Outraged at the unjust accusations she argued that the girls who were accusing her were not to be believed. She scoffed at the trials and only brought unfavorable attention to herself in the process. Dorothy Good, Sarah Good's daughter, was only four years old when she was accused. Easily coerced into saying untrue things about her mother's behavior and her own status as a witch, she was placed in prison with her mother.

When faithful members of the Church like Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse were accused, the community realized that anyone could be guilty of being a witch and thus no one was safe from the accusation. This proved true when the arrests continued during the month of April. Many more were arrested: Sarah Cloyce (Nurse's sister), Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor and her husband John Proctor, Giles Corey (Martha's husband, and a covenanted church member in Salem Town), Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Mary Warren (a servant in the Proctor household and sometime accuser herself), Deliverance Hobbs (step-mother of Abigail Hobbs), Sarah Wilds, William Hobbs (husband of Deliverance and father of Abigail), Nehemiah Abbott Jr., Mary Esty (sister of Cloyce and Nurse), Edward Bishop Jr. and his wife Sarah Bishop, and Mary English, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin, Dorcas Hoar, Sarah Morey and Philip English (Mary's husband). Even Rev. George Burroughs was arrested.

The trials rested purely on testimony of those who were afflicted, or "spectral evidence". The afflicted claimed to see various apparitions or shapes of the person who was causing their pain. A theological dispute arose about the use of this kind of evidence because it was supposed that the Devil could not take the shape of a person without that person's permission. The court finally concluded that the Devil needed the permission of the specific person. Thus, when the accusers claimed that they had seen the person, then that person could be charged with consorting with the Devil himself. Increase Mather and other ministers sent a letter to the Court, "The Return of Several Ministers Consulted," urging the magistrates not to convict on spectral evidence alone. A copy of this letter was printed in Increase Mather's "Cases of Conscience" published in 1693.

In May, the hysteria continued when warrants were issued for 36 more people: Sarah Dustin (daughter of Lydia Dustin), Ann Sears, Bethiah Carter Sr. and her daughter Bethiah Carter Jr., George Jacobs Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs, John Willard, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Abigail Soames, George Jacobs Jr. (son of George Jacobs Sr. and father of Margaret Jacobs), Daniel Andrew, Rebecca Jacobs (wife of George Jacobs Jr. and sister of Daniel Andrew), Sarah Buckley and her daughter Mary Witheridge, Elizabeth Colson, Elizabeth Hart, Thomas Farrar Sr., Roger Toothaker, Sarah Proctor (daughter of John and Elilzabeth Proctor), Sarah Bassett (sister-in-law of Elizabeth Proctor), Susannah Roots, Mary DeRich (another sister-in-law of Elizabeth Proctor), Sarah Pease, Elizabeth Cary, Martha Carrier, Elizabeth Fosdick, Wilmot Redd, Sarah Rice, Elizabeth How, John Alden (son of John Alden and Pricilla Mullins of Plymouth Colony), William Proctor (son of John and Elizabeth Proctor), John Flood, Mary Toothaker (wife of Roger Toothaker and sister of Martha Carrier) and her daughter Margaret Toothaker, and Arthur Abbott. When the Court of Oyer and Terminer convened at the end of May, 1692, this brought the total number of accused and arrested to 62.

Eventually Salem, Ipswich, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Boston all had jails filled to capacity. Scholars have attributed the lack of trials for the accused to the fact that there was no legitimate form of government at the time available to try the cases. However, through various research, it has been found that other capital cases were tried during this time period. The fact remains that none of the witchcraft cases were tried until late May with the arrival of Governor Sir William Phips. Upon his arrival, Phips instituted a Court of Oyer and Terminer (to "hear and determine") and simultaneously appointed William Stoughton as the Chief Justice of the court. Stoughton was a man with several years of theological training but no legal training(Boyer 7). By then tragedies had already occurred, including Sarah Osborne's death before trial of natural causes in jail on May 10 (Boyer 3), and Sarah Good's infant child's death.

Legal Procedures

The process of arresting and trying an individual began with the accusation that some loss, illness, or even death had been caused by the practice of witchcraft. The accuser entered an official complaint with the town magistrates.

The magistrates would decide if the complaint had any merit, and if they found that it did, the would issue the arrest of the accused. The arrested person would be brought before the magistrates in a type of interrogations/public examination. It was at this time that many of the accused met with great force to confess their practice of witchcraft.

If no confession could be met with, then the accused was turned over to the superior court. In 1692, this meant several months of imprisonment before the new governor arrived and establish a Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle these cases.

With the case appearing before the superior court, it was necessary to summon various witnesses to testify before the grand jury. There were basically two indictments: that of afflicting witchcraft,or making an unlawful covenant with the Devil. Once the accused was indicted, the case went to trial, sometimes on the same day. An example is the case of Bridget Bishop, the first person indicted and tried on June 2. She was executed on June 10, 1692.

The trials resulted in four execution dates, with one person executed on June 10, 1692, five were executed on July 19, 1692, another five executed on August 19, 1692 (Susannah Martin, John Willard, George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., and John Proctor), 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 and sentenced to death, however, the sentence could not be carried out immediately because the women were pregnant. The women would still be hanged, but not 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.

One of the men, Giles Corey, was an 80-year-old farmer from Salem Farms, endured a form of torture called peine fort et dure because he refused to enter a plea. The torture was also called "pressing" and was carried out by resting a board on the man's chest and then piling stones on the board slowly until the man was slowly crushed to death. It took Giles Corey two days to die(Boyer 8). It was thought that perhaps Giles Corey didn't enter a plea to keep his possessions from being taken by the state. Many possessions of those convicted during the trials were confiscated by the state. Sadly, many of the dead were not given proper burials, often being placed in shallow graves after the hangings.

Closure

• The final trials during the witch hysteria took place in May of 1693, after this time, all those still in jail were set free.

• Many of the relatives and descendants of those wrongfully accused sought closure of some magnitude. There were petitions filed that demanded monetary restitution to those were convicted. These petitions were filed up until 1711. Eventually, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a bill disallowing spectral evidence. However, only those who had initially filed petitions were given reversal of attainder. This applied to only three people, who had been convicted but not executed: Abigail Faulkner Sr., Elizabeth Proctor, and Sarah Wardwell.

• In 1704 and 1709 another petition was filed in hopes of a monetary settlement. In 1711, a compensation of 578 pounds and 12 shillings was divided among the survivors and relatives of those accused. 150 pounds was given to the Proctor family for John and Elizabeth, by far the most amount of money awarded.

• In 1706, Ann Putnam, one of the girls responsible for accusing various people of witchcraft issued a written apology. In this apology, Ann stated that she had been deluded by Satan into the denouncing of several innocent people, in particular, Rebecca Nurse.

• In 1712 Rebecca Nurse's excommunication was canceled by the very pastor who had cast her out.

• By 1957 descendants of the accused were still demanding that the names of their ancestors be cleared. Finally an act was passed that pronounced all the accused as being exonerated, however, the statement only listed Ann Pudeator by name and all others were referred to as "certain other persons".

• In 1992, The Danvers Tercentenial Committee persuaded the Massachusetts House of Representatives to issue a resolution honoring those who had died. The resolution was finally signed on October 31, 2001 by Governor Jane Swift, more than 300 years later, all were finally proclaimed innocent.

Possible Explanations of the "Possessed"

The idea that the girls were truly afflicted by the Devil is no longer accepted as a reasoning behind the odd behavior. There are several ideas as to the cause of the hysteria, but none have been proven true.

• A few academics believe that the behavior of the girls was all an act that was motivated by jealousy or spite.
• The hysteria was just a form of some type of mental illness.
• 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 the illegal drug, LSD.
• In the bookA Fever in Salem, author Laurie Winn Carlson believes that the girls who claimed to be bewitched, were, in fact, suffering 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).
• It has also been suggested that the girls could have had Huntington's Chorea, carriers of which have been traced to be among the colonists that settled in that area [1].
• It should be noted that no serious historian believes these medical explanations because of the sporadic placement of the victims across the village with no other family members suffering from the illness

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). The modern-day Salem seems to exist for the sole purpose of making money. A tourist can visit Salem and see many historical museums, dramatic reenactments of the trials, and even modern witches trying to explain the basis of Wicca. There is a wax museum for a quick historic look at the trial, the well-preserved cemetery, and a part of the real dungeon the accused were housed in. It is easy to connect to Boston by train and bus.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Aronson, Marc. "Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials." Atheneum: New York. 2003.
• Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen. "Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft." Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. 1974.
• Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, eds.. "Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England" Northeastern University Press: Boston, MA. 1972.
• Breslaw, Elaine G.. "Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies." NYU: New York. 1996.
• Brown, David C.. "A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692." David C. Brown: Washington Crossing, PA. 1984.
• Godbeer, Richard. "The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England." Camridge University Press: New York. 1992.
• Hansen, Chadwick. "Witchcraft at Salem." Brazillier: New York. 1969.
• Hoffer, Peter Charles. "The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History." University of Kansas: Lawrence, KS. 1997.
• Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: Vintage, 1987. [This work provides essential background on other witchcraft accusations in 17th century New England.]
• Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible — a play which implicitly compares McCarthyism to a witch-hunt".
• Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Random House, 2002.
• Reis, Elizabeth. "Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England." Cornell University Press: Ithaca, NY. 1997.
• Roach, Marilynne K. The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-To-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege. Cooper Square Press, 2002.
• Robinson, Enders A.. "Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables." Heritage Books: Bowie, MD. 1992.
• Rosenthal, Bernard. "Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692." Cambridge University Press: New York. 1993.
• Sologuk, Sally. "Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers". Milling Journal. Second quarter 2005.
• Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts. Alfred A. Knopf: 1949.
• Trask, Richard B.. "`The Devil hath been raised`: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692." Revised edition. Yeoman Press: Danvers, MA. 1997.
• Upham, Charles W.. "Salem Witchcraft." Reprint from the 1867 edition, in two volumes. Dover Publications: Mineola, NY. 2000.
• Wilson, Lori Lee. "The Salem Witch Trials." How History Is Invented series. Lerner: Minneapolis. 1997.
• Woolf, Alex. "Investigating History Mysteries". Heinemann Library: 2004.

See also

• The Crucible
• A Break with Charity
• Jury Nullification
• McCarthyism
• Red Scare
• Spectral evidence
• Supernatural
• Torsåker witch trials
• Pendle witches

External links

• Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692
• A documentary archive including original court papers on the trials, maps, interactive maps, biographies, and internal and external links to more resources.
• University of Virginia: Salem Witch Trials (includes former "Massachusetts Historical Society" link)
• "Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers" article about ergot-infected grains, ergotism and how it is prevented today.
• PBS Secrets of the Dead: "The Witches Curse" (concerning the Salem trials and ergot)
• Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II, by Charles Upham, 1867, fron Project Gutenberg
• Salem Witch Trials:The World Behind the Hysteria
• SalemWitchTrials.com essays, biographies of the accused and afflicted

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