The first were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba. Good, orphaned as a
teenager at the death of her mother, a French innkeeper, was the
town beggar, noted for her strange "muttering." Osborne was a bedridden
elderly woman who had gotten on the wrong side of the Putnams when she
cheated her first husband's children out of their inheritance, giving it
to her new husband. Tituba was the Carib Native American slave
of Samuel Parris;
though she is very often referred to as black in modern historical and
fictional interpretations of the trials, there is no evidence that she was
anything but Native American.
These women were charged with witchcraft on March 1 and put in prison.
Other accusations followed: Dorcas Good (four-year-old daughter of Sarah
Good), Rebecca Nurse (a
bedridden grandmother of saintly disposition), Abigail Hobbs, Deliverance
Hobbs, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth and John Proctor. As the
number of accusations grew, the jail populations of Salem, Boston, and
surrounding areas swelled, and a new problem surfaced: Without a
legitimate form of government, there was no way to try these women. None
of them were tried until late May, when Governor Phips arrived and
instituted a Court of Oyer and
Terminer (to "hear and determine"). By then, Sarah Osborne had died in
jail without a trial, as had Sarah Good's newborn baby girl, and many
others were ill; there were perhaps 80 people in jail awaiting trial.
Over the summer, the Court heard cases approximately once per month, at
mid-month. Of the accused, only one was released when the girls recanted
their identification of him. All cases that were heard ended with the
accused being condemned to death for witchcraft; no one was found
innocent. Only those who pleaded guilty to witchcraft and supplied other
names to the court were spared execution. Elizabeth
Proctor and at least one other woman were given respite "for the
belly," because they were pregnant. Though
convicted, they would not be hanged until they had given birth. A series
of four executions over the summer saw nineteen people hanged, including a
respected minister, a former constable who refused to arrest more accused
witches, and at least three people of some wealth. Six of the nineteen
were men; most of the rest were impoverished women beyond childbearing
age.
Only one execution was not by hanging. Giles Corey, an
80-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem, refused to enter a
plea. 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
him; after two days of excruciating pain, Corey died without entering a
plea. 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 Proctor 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.
The land suffered along with the people. Crops went untended, cattle
uncared for. Often, accused people who had not yet been arrested gathered
up their most portable belongings and fled to New York or beyond. Sawmills,
their owners missing or distracted, their workers arrested or gawking at
the spectacles at the jails or in the meetinghouses, sat idle. Commerce
ground to, if not a halt, at least a snail's pace. And there was news of
further Indian unrest to the west.
The ending
The witch trials ended in January 1693, although people already
jailed for witchcraft were not all released until the next spring.
Officially, the royal appointed governor of Massachusetts, Sir
William Phips, ended them after an appeal by Boston-area clergy headed by
Increase Mather,
"Cases
of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits," published October 3, 1692. In it, Increase Mather
stated "It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that
the Innocent Person should be Condemned." Echoes of this phrase can be
found in the United States of
America's innocent-until-proven-guilty judicial system of
today.1
This incident was so profound that it helped end the influence of the
Puritan
faith on the governing of New England.
Reasons for the hysteria
There are various theories as to why the community of Salem Village
exploded into delusions of witchcraft and demonic interference. The most
common one is that the Puritans, who governed Massachusetts
Bay Colony with little royal intervention from its settlement in 1630
until the new Charter was installed in 1692, went through mass
religion-induced hysterical delusion. Most modern experts view that as too
simplistic an explanation. Other theories include child abuse, fortune-telling
experiments gone amok, ergot-related paranoid
fantasies (ergot is a fungus that grows on damp barley, producing a
substance very similar to D-lysergic acid;
in a pre-industrial society, it is easy to accidentally ingest it),
conspiracy by the Putnam family to destroy the rival Porter family, and
societal victimization of women.
There was also great stress within the Puritan community. They had lost
their charter in the Glorious
Revolution of 1688, and in the spring of 1692 still did not
know what their future would be. They were under constant Indian attack
and could not depend on England at all for support; their militia came
from the ranks of their young men, and in 1675's King Philip's
War their entire population had been decimated: one of ten European
settlers in New England was killed
by Indian attacks. Though that war was over, Indian raids and skirmishes
were a constant hazard. More and more, New England was becoming a
mercantile colony, and Puritans and non-Puritans alike were making a lot
of money, which the Puritans saw as both necessary and sinful. And as the
merchant class rose in status, the ministerial class declined.
Perhaps the most compelling new theory is that of Mary
Beth Norton, who argued in her book In The Devil's Snare that
any or all of the above explanations likely played an important role, but
Salem and
the rest of New England, and particularly the north and northwest areas,
were besieged by frequent Indian attacks, which created an atmosphere of
fear that contributed greatly to the hysteria. Her evidence: Most of the
accused witches and most of the afflicted girls had strong societal or
personal ties to Indian attacks over the preceding 15 years. The accusers
frequently referenced a "black man," discussed joint meetings between the
alleged witches and Indians in sabbats, and described images of torture
taken directly from tales of Indian captivity. In addition, Puritan clergy
had, since King Philip's
War in 1675, frequently referred to Indians as being of the devil, had
associated them with witchcraft and, in pulpit-pounding sermons that
lasted as long as five hours, expounded repeatedly about Satan and his
devils besieging the Puritans, who were seen as the army of God. In short,
to the New England Puritan mind, concerted Indian attacks were the Devil
trying to bring down the Puritan society, and attacks should be expected
from within as well as without. By 1691, Puritans were primed for
witchcraft hysteria.
Salem Village itself
was a microcosm of Puritan stress. Half of those in the Village were
farmers and supported the minister, Samuel Parris, in
breaking away from Salem Town to form their own distinct township; the
other half wanted to remain part of Salem Town, retaining the merchant
ties, and refused to contribute to the maintenance of Parris and his
family. In addition, a number of refugees from recent Indian attacks in
the Maine and
New Hampshire
regions had taken shelter with relatives in Salem,
bringing tales of horror with them. As a result, by 1691 Salem Village was
a powder keg, and the spreading possession of young girls was the spark
that set it off.
One major factor that contributed to the witchcraft hysteria in 1692
that cannot be overlooked was the fear generated by strongly held Puritan
beliefs that Satan and his demons were in the physical world, causing a
multitude of problems while enticing ordinary human beings to assist the
unholy armies of darkness by becoming witches and warlocks. Everything
from Indian attacks to spoiled milk was thought to be the work of Satan
and his malevolent allies, both supernatural and human. These beliefs were
as real to the Puritans of Salem Village as the rocky soil of New England
beneath their feet.
Vestiges of the Puritan fear of the unseen world can still be seen in
New England. In many public libraries, serious historical works on the
Salem Witchcraft Trials, like In The Devil's Snare by Mary Beth
Norton, are generally found next to books on ghosts, alien abduction, and
books on the occult.
Participants
Clerical participants and commentators
Presiding officials
Presiding officials, Court of Oyer and
Terminer
- Lieutenant Governor William
Stoughton, Chief Magistrate
- Captain Jonathan Walcott
- Sheriff John Walcott
Associate Magistrates
Those who complained of bewitchment:
- Sarah Bibber
- Elizabeth Booth
- Sarah Churchill
- Martha Goodwin
- Elizabeth Hubbard
- Mary Lacey (also an accused witch)
- Mercy Lewis
- Elizabeth "Betty"
Parris
- Bethshaa Pope
- Ann Putnam,
Jr.
- Susanna Sheldon
- Mercy Short
- Martha Sprague
- Mary Walcott
- Mary Warren (was accused of witchcraft when she recanted and said
the girls "did but dissemble", i.e. "were just faking it")
- Bray Wilkins (testified against John Willard)
- Daniel Wilkins (death purportedly caused by John Willard)
- Abigail
Williams
Accused
This is not a complete list; there were anywhere from 150 to 300
accused recorded, and there may have been many more not imprisoned:
- Capt. John Alden Jr.
- Daniel Andrew
- Capt. Andres Ortega II
- Sarah Bassett
- Edward Bishop
- Sarah Bishop
- Mary Black
- Dudley Bradstreet
- John Bradstreet
- Sarah Buckley
- Richard Carrier
- Candy, a slave from Salem
- Mary Clarke
- Sarah Easty Cloyce
- Sarah Cole
- Giles Corey
- Mary Bassett DeRich
- Ann Dolliver
- Rebecca Eames
- Mary English
- Philip English
- Abigail Faulkner
- Ann Foster
- Dorcas Hoar
- Abigail Hobbs
- Deliverance Hobbs
- Elizabeth Howe
- Mary Ireson
- George Jacobs, Jr.
- Margaret Jacobs
- Elizabeth Johnson
- Mary Lacey, Sr.
- Mary Lacey (also an afflicted child)
- Sarah Osborne
- Lady Phips, wife of Governor Phips
- Susannah Post
- Elizabeth Bassett Proctor
- Mary (Woodrow) Sibley, wife of Samuel Sibley
- "Tituba" and her husband John Indian
- Job Tookey
- Hezekiah Usher
- Mary Withridge
Executed
Giles Corey was pressed to his death.
- Bridget Bishop hanged June 10, 1692
- The Rev. George Burroughs hanged August 19, 1692
- Martha Carrier hanged August 19, 1692
- Martha Corey hanged September 22, 1692
- Giles Corey pressed to
death September 19, 1692
- Mary Easty hanged September 22, 1692
- Sarah Good hanged June 19, 1692
- Elizabeth Howe hanged June 19, 1692
- George Jacobs, Sr. hanged August 19, 1692
- Susannah Martin hanged June 19, 1692
- Rebecca Nurse
hanged June 19, 1692
- Alice Parker hanged September 22, 1692
- Mary Parker hanged September 22, 1692
- John Proctor
hanged August 19, 1692
- Ann Pudeator hanged September 22, 1692
- Wilmott Redd hanged September 22, 1692
- Margaret Scott hanged September 22, 1692
- Samuel Wardwell hanged September 22, 1692
- Sarah Wildes hanged June 19, 1692
- John Willard hanged August 19, 1692
Died in jail
- Sarah Osborne
- "Dr." Roger Toothaker
- Ann Foster
- Lydia Dustin
- Dorcas Good (daughter of Sarah Good)(Did not die in jail but
sufferend from mental illnesses shortly after her release.)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation
License. It uses material from theWikipedia
article "Salem Witchcraft"
