facts about the salem witch trials facts about the salem witch trials

A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials - Smithsonian Magazine George Burroughs, a minister, was one of the few men accused of witchcraft during the trials. Often, that conversation shifts over towardsSalem, Massachusetts, and the famous trial in 1692that resulted in twenty executions. "Essay IV Against modern Sadducism in the matter of Witches and Apparitions" in Essay on several important subjects in philosophy and religion, 2nd Ed, London; printed for John Baker and H. Mortlock, 1676, pp. As sleet and snow heaped higher outside their door, Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail began to twitch and twist their bodies into strange shapes, speaking in words that made no sense. The 52 remaining people in jail were tried in a new court, the Superior Court of Judicature, the following winter. Presumptions whereupon persons may be committed, and, much more, convictions whereupon persons may be condemned as guilty of witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable than barely the accused person's being represented by a specter unto the afflicted; inasmuch as it is an undoubted and notorious thing, that a demon may, by God's permission, appear, even to ill purposes, in the shape of an innocent, yea, and a virtuous man. Many people lived in a constant state of fear, tension, and paranoia. What gave witches away were body marks, such as scars and moles. In addition to official court records there are also several books written by the ministers and other people involved in the trials: A Brief and True Narrative of Some Remarkable Passages Relating to Sundry Persons Afflicted by Witchcraft, at Salem Village: Which happened from the Nineteenth of March, to the Fifth of April, 1692 by Deodat Lawson circa 1692 The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England by Cotton Mather circa 1692 More Wonders of the Invisible World by Robert Calef circa 1700 A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft by John Hale circa 1702. According to USLegal.com, Spectral evidence refers to a witness testimony that the accused person's spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream at the time the accused person's physical body was at another location. Salem Witch Trials Facts, Worksheets & Information For Kids - KidsKonnect Bad weather isn't the only reason why the witch hype began. The two communities were three hours apart, by foot, which was the most common method of transportation at the time. Then after said the dog died so it must have been innocent. Hemmed in by the ocean to the east and by an untamed wilderness to the west, settlers were completely disconnected from both the mother country on the other side of the Atlantic and the remainder of the American continent. The Salem Witch Trials offered a salutary lesson not only to the colony of Massachusetts Bay but also to the new nation that would be forged in the following century. Salem witch trials (1692-93), a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted 'witches' to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. i need it for my bibliography, do you have any websites that could help me to find the secondary source? Europe's favorite test was the swimming test. I am looking forward to the challenge of uncovering a multitude of analysis on this matter. The first witch trial occurred because the daughter (Betty Parris) and niece (Abigail Williams) of the local Salem Reverend had become violently ill. The others were either found guilty but pardoned, found not guilty, were never indicted or simply evaded arrest or escaped from jail. Top 10 Dark Truths About the Salem Witch Trials - TheTopTens The parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and more modem examples ofwitch huntinglike the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, are remarkable. This helped with my English assignment! Bishop had been accused of witchcraft years before but was cleared of the crime. Smithsonia, 8 Sept. 2013. One of these days itll happen lol. Wicked Facts About the Salem Witch Trials - Factinate Good luck! Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Hi RebeccaI saw that you have a lot of knowledge about Mary EastyI was told this year at a funeral that I am a direct decendent of hersI live in Salem and My Grandfather was name William Esteydo you by any chance have any history of the family tree? The heat was stifling on a July day in 1692, as five dishevelled and bound women are paraded on a wooden cart through the streets of Salem village in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. An Account of the Life, Character, & C., of the Rev. The doctors diagnosis? During the trial, Tituba confessed to having seen the devil and also stated that there was a coven, or group, of witches in the Salem Village area. While Puritanism in New England demanded rigidly defined behaviour (hymns were the only permissible music, while childrens toys were outlawed), the colonys geographical isolation increased the insularity of these communities. Heinrich Kramer wrote a whole book on why witches should be all exterminated and how to do that. What are 5 facts about the Salem Witch Trials? - Wise-Answer His grandfather is a Putnam. Oh well, live n learn, Its sad when you can pick out names of your relatives in every list. Its pretty hard to show any sort of concrete, tangible evidence that someone is in league with the Devil or fiddling around with spirits. Crown Publishers Inc., 1959. European Witch trials started at a similar time as Protestantism. Luckily ann putnum jr lived to apologize. Thank you so much for this! Children were also accused of witchcraft. 10 Spine-Chilling & Captivating Facts About Salem, Massachusetts Thats where spectral evidence comes in, and it played a significant role in the Salem trials. The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of In November of 1991, Salem town officials announced plans for a Salem Witch Trials Memorial in Salem. I see that you told someone quite a while ago but I dont think that is up to date. Some of these women were actually witches, though they were entirely innocent of the crimes of which they were convicted. In CT, a push to exonerate people hanged in state's witch trials North Wind Picture Archives, Alamy Stock Photo. What is the legacy of the Salem witch trials? At the announcement ceremony, playwright Arthur Miller made a speech and read from the last act of his 1953 play, The Crucible, which was inspired by the Salem Witch Trials. Preston, VK. Cant wait to visit this place! If these individuals had never written these books or helped record the proceedings, we wouldnt know half of what we know about the witch trials. However, the subtlety of the ministers response was largely sidelined by the grand jury, who drew their energy from one particular concluding line from Mather: we cannot but humbly recommend unto the government, the speedy and vigorous prosecution of such as have rendered themselves obnoxious. In possession of such a mandate, the trials moved up a gear. It is called Records of the Salem Witch Hunt and is edited by Bernard Rosenthal. Salem Witch Trial Facts - Learn Religions One of them was shot but I dont know how the other one died. The Puritan way of life was strict, and even small differences in behavior made people suspicious. I just found this out. This helped me a lot with an assignment i had to do for school, but i cant find the publisher sadly. This court consisted of eight judges. In May, as the number of cases grew, Governor William Phips set up a special court, known as the Court of Oyer and Terminer (which translate to hear and determine) to hear the cases. Farms were mortgaged or sold, first to pay prison fees, then to pay taxes; frequently they were abandoned. In January of 2016, the site where the Salem Witch Trials hangings took place was officially identified as Proctors Ledge, which is a small wooded area in between Proctor Street and Pope Street in Salem. How many people (male and female) were killed in the Trials? The puritans, who had left England due to religious persecution, feared their religion was under attack again and worried they were losing control of their colony. Of course, remembering the events of 1692 can still act as a brake when contemporary events take a sinister downturn. 136, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It also helped with my reading assignment. It was not difficult for the people of Salem to believe they were involved in witchcraft. Do not lay more stress on pure spectral evidence than it will bear, he cautioned. These sources include official court records as well as several books, diaries and letters written by the various people involved in the trials. It helped me very much on my history day project!! The Salem Witch Trials - History 135, no. Not many people fled Salem, only a handful did, because Salem was their home and had been for a long time. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. Some of the suggested theories are: conversion disorder, epilepsy, ergot poisoning, Encephalitis, Lyme disease, unusually cold weather, factionalism, socio-economic hardships, family rivalries and fraud. Since some of the law enforcement involved in the Salem Witch Trials were being sued by some of the surviving victims, the bill also stated: no sheriff, constable, goaler or other officer shall be liable to any prosecution in the law for anything they then legally did in the execution of their respective offices.. Most of the eyewitness accounts can be found in the court records and the books written by the ministers involved in the trials. thank u. On that day, Judge Samuel Sewall attended prayer services at Bostons South Church and asked Reverend Samuel Willard to read a public apology that Sewall had written, which states: Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and being sensible, that as to the guilt contracted upon the opening of the late Commission of Oyer and Terminer at Salem (to which the order of this day relates) he is, upon many accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, desires to take the blame and shame of it, asking pardon of men, and especially desiring prayers that God, who has an unlimited authority, would pardon that sin and all other his sins; personal and relative: And according to his infinite benignity and sovereignty, not visit the sin of him, or of any other, upon himself or any of his, nor upon the land: But that he would powerfully defend him against all temptations to sin, for the future; and vouchsafe him the efficacious, saving conduct of his word and spirit.. Although the witch hunt started in Salem Village, it quickly spread to the neighboring towns, including Amesbury, Andover, Salisbury, Topsfield, Ipswich and Gloucester, and numerous residents of those towns were brought to Salem and put on trial. They should've told the US it was all fake once they came to their senses, but they didn't. The Salem witch trials of the late 17th century were a formative episode in America's early history, and have remained at the forefront of the national consciousness ever since. One bitterly cold evening, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams the daughter and niece of the local Puritan minister Samuel Parris began displaying disturbing behaviour described as being beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect. That darn Satan fooled them good. The court didnt believe them, and found all three women guilty of practicing witchcraft. Other victims include two dogs who were shot or killed after being suspected of witchcraft. Random House, 1956Fowler, Samuel Page. Another five were executed exactly a month later on 19 August, four of whom were men. Some say it's because temperatures dropped significantly, there was famine and people needed a scapegoat. Thanks hopefully i get an A :). It is voluminous and comes in paperback and hardcover. Theres always a lot of discussion in the Pagan community about theso-called Burning Times, which is the term used to describe the witch hunts of early modern Europe. Im trying to get my family to visit there- Id even give up my beach trip for it! These were the last hangings of the Salem Witch Trials. All of the accused were finally pardoned in 1711. How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials, Order in the Court: 10 Trials of the Century, https://www.britannica.com/facts/Salem-witch-trials. The torture consisted of laying the prisoner on the ground, naked, with a board placed on top of him. The persecutors had to come up with a whole irrational legal system in order to justify this insanity. 1982)]. One theory which could explain the apparent madness of the trial and judicial hangings may be found in the bread the settlers were eating. Nige Tassell is a freelance journalist specialising in history, This content first appeared in the January 2016 issue of BBC History Revealed, Save up to 49% AND your choice of gift card worth 10* when you subscribe BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed PLUS! It was divided into two distinct and very different socioeconomic parts. Indeed, as Stacy Schiff explains in The Witches, her history of the witch trials, It would have been difficult to find more than a few souls to whom the supernatural was not eminently real, part and parcel of the culture, as was the devil himself. All Top Ten Lists History and Events Top 10 Dark Truths About the Salem Witch Trials We have all had to acknowledge the Salem Witch Trials, at one poimt or another, in this place called USA.To put it simply, the Salem Witch Trials were essentially the American equivalent to the Dark Ages, although the United States was not yet a proper sovreign nation, at the time. Salem witch trial started as feud between Porters n putnums cuz putnums felt Porters gave too much freedom to their black servants. 143159, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 02:44. "Reproducing Witchcraft: Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live". 618619. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard. Bettys alarmed father, the Reverend Parris, immediately called on a doctor to examine the girls. Here's what we know about the original witch hunt: 1. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed during the hysteria. Essex County Court Archives, vol. Getting the right to vote didn't come easy for women. As the weeks passed, other young girls claimed to have been infected by witchcraft too. Women were not the only ones believed to be witchesmen and children were accused too. Eventually, after seeming to realize how unfair the trials were to the accused, the court refused to hear any more charges of witchcraft. William Stoughton is an ancestor of mine, sorry to say. Those who were found guilty were pardoned by Governor Phips. They did so in order to gather the observations of the colonys most senior ministers, to hear their reflections upon the state of things as they then stood. I really enjoy reading your blog! The Salem Witch Trials Victims: Who Were They? In Salem for example, the first significant victim of the witch trials was Tituba, a slave from the Caribbean. And, of course, theres the theory that it was all down to good old fashioned spite. It was last updated Sept 4, 2016. http://www.easybib.com/cite/view. Thank you, using this as a source! Heavy stones were loaded onto the board and the weight was gradually increased until the prison either entered a plea or died. The other two accused and arrested at the same time were Sarah Osborne and Tituba, the Parriss black slave. Even when the court ordered further executions, Phips wisely issued pardons to those convicted. The theory first came to prominence in the 1970s, when Linnda R. Caporael wrote Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem? Wrong. InJanuary of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village became ill.William Griggs, the village doctor, was called in when they failed to improve. The doctor was unable to find anything physically wrong with them and suggested they may be bewitched. In mid-September, a further group went to the gallows Eight Firebrands of Hell in the words of Rev Noyes. By now, seven months on from the arrest of Sarah Good, the hysteria was decelerating. Around the end of September, the use of spectral evidence was finally declared inadmissible, thus marking the beginning of the end of the Salem Witch Trials. At the center of the Salem witch trials were a core group of accusers, all girls and young women ranging in age from nine to 20, who screamed, writhed, barked and displayed other horrifying. Its a common myth that the Salem Witch Trials victims were burned at the stake. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. Having initially set up the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Governor William Phips having returned from fighting in King Philips War in Maine voiced concerns about what danger some of [his] innocent subjects might be exposed to and dissolved the court, in the process pardoning those remaining in custody. Thanks so much! As the years went by, the colonists felt ashamed and remorseful for what had happened during the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials officially began in February of 1692, when the afflicted girls accused the first three victims, Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, of witchcraft and ended in May of 1693, when the remaining victims were released from jail. Planting, cultivating, the care of houses, barns, roads, fences, were all forgotten. Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials - The History Junkie When was this last edited? Now that spectral evidence was not allowed, most of the remaining prisoners were found not guilty or released due to a lack of real evidence. I think this was a great site and I also recommend the book the witches -salem, 1962 by stacey schiff. In an insular society like Salem, where anyone straying from the norm was immediately criticised or condemned, accusations of witchcraft were a method of self-defence, of keeping the more undesirable elements of the local community at arms length, if not removing them completely. I need to compare 2 victims of the salem witch trails and find a way that they are linked as indiviguals and how their lives had similar paths that lead to victimhood but this thing is wayyyyy to long. According to the official Salem website, the trials were shorter than most people believe, but they were still deadly. As a direct result, food became scarce and taxes higher. The Salem witch trials of the late 17th century were a formative episode in America's early history, and have remained at the forefront of the national consciousness ever since. Another notable person who was accused of witchcraft was Captain John Alden Jr., the son of the Mayflower crew member John Alden. Although spectral evidence, evidence based on dreams and visions, wasnt the only evidence used in court during the Salem Witch Trails, it was the most common evidence and the easiest evidence for accusers to fake. Maybe it's the influence of pop culture or maybe it's because it's theatrical, but a lot of people assume that witches were burned at the stake. Now I know it is not only there that it existed. Salem Village was populated mostly by poor farmers, and Salem Town was a prosperous port full of middle-class and wealthy merchants. Samuel Parris of Salem Village. You have been so helpful! Abigail Williams: The Mysterious Afflicted Girl. Massachusetts Archives Collection, vol. 31. What were the witch trials in Salem actually about and how did it all start? The initial article took me a few days to write and then I have been slowly adding to it and expanding it over the years. These spirits could inhabit any human or any creature. People wanted to protect themselves, so they ratted out their own friends, neighbors or anyone they didn't like. 42 Wicked Facts About the Salem Witch Trials - factinate.com If you want to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials, check out this article on the best Salem Witch Trials books. What was this witchery actually about and how did it all start? 82 (Boston: Wright and Potter, 1902), pp. Questions VII & XI. No more restricting property ownership and voting rights to only church members. 1 Most of the accused were women but men were accusedand executedtoo. Kinda sad after reading everything. These three women were social outcasts and easy targets for the accusation of witchcraft. The three women were thrown in jail to await trial for practicing witchcraft. In February, Samuel Parris called for a doctor, who is believed to be Dr. William Griggs, to examine the girls. The girls accusation was that Good had performed witchcraft on them. The infamous Salem witch trials lasted for approximately one year. The mayhem all started in 1692, when two cousins aged nine and 11 began experiencing delusions, strange fits, and other mysterious maladies. since we stared this topic in my 11th grade ap english class i have been very intregted. Good and Osbourne insisted they were innocent. I need to do a bibliography, and I have this page on it. The Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions in which over 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. It seems like an easier thing to do than just sit there and be accused. 10. A strong belief in the devil, factions amongSalem Village familiesand rivalry with nearby Salem Town combined with a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. Good had been among the first local women to be arrested, after several young girls from the village had experienced mysterious afflictions the previous February. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Very well done! 15 Dark Truths You Didn't Know About The Salem Witch Trials. Get FREE access to HistoryExtra.com. They feared many innocent people were being executed. Through the loss of 20 lives, the episode continues to warn of the dangers of insularity and isolationism, of intolerance, of religious extremism. On July 23, John Proctor wrote to the clergy in Boston. According to Plouffe, Jr., the trials were the largest of . 126. what was the ratio of men to women. propably in like 1-3 weeks away. I have countless ancestors out of Massachusetts Bay Colony and one of my grandmothers was Martha Carrier. A secondary source would be a book, journal or article written long after the event by someone who didnt experience it first hand. During that time, 19 people were hanged and one person was pressed to death. Also, when was his last updated? It's also important to remember that there is no evidence, other than spectral evidence and coerced confessions, that any of the accused actually did practice witchcraft. Yes, it is loosely based on the Salem Witch Trials. Massachusetts was like the early state of Israel. An elderly woman accused of witchcraft is taken to the courthouse by an officer of the law. thanks, primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials, View all posts by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, http://www.zazzle.com/salem_village_map_poster-228789587972988887?rf=238784808055391622, https://historyofmassachusetts.org/best-books-about-salem-witch-trials/. Why do you think there are so little primary sources on the Salem Witch Trials? The English laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1736, after which incidents of suspected bewitchment, by now very isolated, were dealt with by mob rule rather than by a clear legal framework. Think it was her kids. They were soft, obvious targets for a mistrustful, God-fearing populace living along strictly defined lines. The indictments then came thick and fast. this helped me sooo much. The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Here's how they got it done. Among those detained in March 1692 were Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse, upstanding members of the local churches in Salem Village and Salem Town respectively. In Germany alone, thousands of women died horrible deaths. The Trials Salem had become a hotbed for accusations of witchcraft. When Salem Villages new pastor,Reverend Samuel Parris, came to town, he denounced the secular behavior of the innkeepers and blacksmiths and others.