Salem Witch Trials

"A witch or a hag is she which being deluded by a league made with the devil through his persuasion, inspiration or juggling, thinketh she can design what manner or evil things soever, either by thought or imprecation, as to shake the air with lightnings and thunder, to cause hail and tempests, to remove green corn or trees to another place, to be carried of her familiar (which hath taken upon him the deceitful shape of a goat, swine, or calf, etc.) into some mountain far distant, in a wonderful short space of time, and sometime to fly upon a staff or fork, or some other instrument, and to show a thousand such monstrous mockeries." (William West, 16th Century English Lawyer)

The Salem witch trials have long fascinated Americans. Beginning in May 1692, the community of Salem, Massachusetts was engrossed in a series of witchcraft accusations, trails and executions. During the course of the year, more than a dozen persons claimed to be afflicted by spells of black magic and sorcery that were allegedly cast by men and women who had enlisted the supernatural powers of the devil.

Many of the accusers were representatives of a traditional way of life tied to farming and the church, whereas a number of the accused "witches" were members of the rising commercial class of small shopkeepers and tradesmen who deviated in some way from Puritan religious, cultural or economic norms. Some victims of accusations were nothing more than enemies of the largest family in Salem while others were simply weak and sickly people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a psychological level, most historians agree that Salem Village in 1692 was seized by a kind of public hysteria, fueled by a genuine belief in the existence of witchcraft. They point out that, while some of the girls may have been acting, many responsible adults became caught up in the frenzy as well.

The Salem witch craze was largely fueled by personal differences between the two largest families, the Putnams and the Porters. The Putnams were a family of farmers who followed the simple and austere lifestyle of traditional puritans while the Porters were entrepreneurs who developed commercial interests in Salem Town, New England, and the Caribbean and derived much of their wealth from agricultural operations. The interfamily rival began in 1672 when a dam and sawmill run by the Porters flooded the Putnam farms resulting in a lawsuit brought by John Putnam Sr. When the Putnams petitioned the town to obtain political independence for the village, the Porters opposed them. The arrival of Reverend Samuel Parris in 1689 only further intensified the conflict between the families. Twenty-six villagers, eleven of whom were Putnams, voted to give Parris a parsonage, a barn, and two acres of land.

The Puritans believed a witch was a person who made a pact with the devil, thus giving the devil permission to use her body to harm others and lure them into his service. It was during this time that the Puritans were in a cosmic struggle between God and Satan because they accepted the devil's presence and believed he could come to earth, entice people to sign his book or covenant and enlist sinners in his war against God.

While witches can be either male or female, approximately 78 percent of the accused in Salem were women. It could be suggested that the Puritans were misogynists but the Puritans of New England believed that they were far more enlightened than other's with regards to a women's place in society and cosmology. While they did not subscribe to the prevailing European view of women being inherently more evil than men, womanhood and witchcraft were linked to the Puritan interpretation of evil and sin.

During the witchcraft trials, the court set out to prove that the accused women had indeed signed the devil's book, which in turn caused them to become witches. The difficult part was trying to find witness to signing of the devil's book. But since it was known that this signing was done in secret, no witnesses came forth during the trials. However, confessions were the next best thing. What better proof that witches was among the godly in Salem than a confession?

Since men and women thought differently about sin and guilt, they language they used in their confessions varied. Women were more likely to interpret their own sin as an unspoken covenant with Satan, a spiritual renunciation of God. Women spoke of their vile nature while men would focus on particular sins like gambling or drinking. Men were confident of their ability to ward of their evil ways and turn to God in time women were convinced that their sinful natures had bonded with the devil. The court believed the confessors because their disclosures made sense to them.

To Puritans, a confessing woman was the model Puritan woman even though she was admitting to sin. A good Puritan woman needed to be obvious of her sin and confessing confirmed her belief in both God and the devil validation creating a model of perfect redemption. In the end the women reacted to the unbearable pressures of their community's expectations of proper female behavior. It was far more unusual for men to be accused of witchcraft. However when they were accused or whether they confessed or denied their gender mattered. Men were bolder in their rejection of the charges. Most of the men accused were not convicted because the Puritans believed that men would surrender to the devil as easily as the women did.

Nearly 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem during the summer of 1692. Twenty of the accused witches were executed, nineteen were hung following their convictions and one was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea. The trials began in late May with the final executions taking place on September 22, 1692.

Governor Phips set up a special Court of Oyer and Terminer ("hearing and determination") comprised of seven judges to try the witchcraft cases. Appointed were Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John Richards, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin. These magistrates based their judgments and evaluations on various kinds of intangible evidence, including direct confessions, supernatural attributes (such as "witchmarks"), and reactions of the afflicted girls. Spectral evidence, based on the assumption that the Devil could assume the "specter" of an innocent person, was relied upon despite its controversial nature.

It wasn't until October, that the governor of Massachusetts dissolved the tribunal that had been established to preside over the witchcraft prosecutions. In January 1693, William Phipps formed a new court, which, working under stricter guidelines, acquitted forty-nine