Salem Witch Trials

The year 1692 marked a major event in history in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. The Salem Witchcraft Trials still leaves this country with so many questions as to what happened in that small town. With all the documentation and accounts of the story, people are still wondering why 19 people died as a result of these trials. This paper will discuss the events leading up to the Salem Witch Trials and the events that took place during and after the trials, and the men and women who were killed or spent the remainder of their lives in jail. The Salem Witch Trials has become one of the countries most fascinating stories.

HISTORY OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

Salem founded in 1926 at the mouth of the Naumkeag River by some English fisherman from Cape Ann led by Roger Conant. The town, originally named “Naumkeag,” became settled in 1629. The town was later changed to Salem, named after Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace and was governed by John Endecott, who was appointed by the Massachusetts Bay Company. The town was mostly situated on the North Shore. “Most of the accused in the Salem witch trials lived in nearby 'Salem Village', now Danvers. Salem Village also included Peabody and parts of present-day Beverly. Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham and Manchester-by-the-Sea, too, were once parts of Salem.” (Wikipedia) “Salem Village was a poor, inland agricultural community that remained legally part of Salem Town but had its own church.” (Maier, Smith, Keyssar, Kevles, 2006.) Later, in 1684 England declared that the colonies may not self govern, therefore, must still follow English law.

The settlers of Salam Village were Puritans also called Congregationalists. The Puritan theology included “the absolute sovereignty of God and the total sinfulness of humans.” (Kallen, 2005) People who violated the rules of Puritan society faced severe punishments and were not limited to adults, children were treated the same if found to be going against the Puritan theology. The only books in a Puritan household were that of religious content. “Given the constant thundering by Puritans about Satan, sin and witches’ spells, it is not surprising that a sensitive child might be subject to fits and weeping and hysterical talk about witchcraft.” (Kallen, 2005)

The settlers would live for many years with only one major crime happening in 1638, where a woman by the name of Dorothy Talbye was hanged for murdering her daughter. It was in 1641, when English law made witchcraft a capital crime. Later in 1688, after a disagreement with Goody Glover, a 13 year old girl, Martha Goodwin began exhibiting “signs” of bizarre behavior. The behavior spreads to her brothers and sisters and Goody Glover is arrested for “bewitching” the Goodwin children. The Reverend Cotton Mather tries to persuade Goody Glover to repent her witchcraft, but she is later hanged. Martha Goodwin’s behavior continues and worsens. Later that year, Reverend Mather publishes “Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions.” In November of 1689, Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem and he moves from Boston to Salem to preside over the small town. It was in the early months of 1692, when a little girl by the name Elizabeth “Betty” Parris became ill. It was during this time that “witchcraft” began to take hold of the little village of Salem.

THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIALS

January 20, 1692, Abigail Williams, 11, and Elizabeth “Betty” Parris, 9, became sick with an unexplained illness. The girls began behaving similar to the Goodwin children from the previous years. Soon Anne Putnam and other Salem girls begin to act the same as Betty and Abigail. By mid-February, Doctor Griggs attended to the young children and claimed the illness is of the supernatural; therefore, witchcraft must be the cause. The children were sent away, but not before naming women as the cause of their hysteria. A slave, by the name Tituba, living in the Parris household was the first to claim she was indeed a witch. Anne Putnam soon became the ringleader for accusing other women of witchcraft.

THE ACCUSED

Although Tituba was the first woman to be accused of witchcraft, she was not a Puritan. The first Puritan women to be accused of witchcraft were Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. They both had a trial but the women were guilty even before they entered the building. When Sarah Good was led up to Gallows Hill she was given another chance to redeem herself, she called the magistrate a liar and was heard saying “I am no more a witch than you are a wizard. If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink.” The women were hanged in Gallows Hill.

The accusations of the women kept coming. Rebecca Nurse, a seventy year old grandmother, was an unlikely candidate for witchcraft. She was almost acquitted, but when another woman claimed she was “one of us,” the court found her guilty. Some historians believe Rebecca Nurse was accused because she had a land dispute with the Putnam family and the accusation was made out of revenge.

Bridget Bishop was another Puritan woman accused of witchcraft. In fact, she was accused 3 times. The first two times she was found not guilty, but on her third accusation, the courts found her guilty and she was hung at Gallows Hill.

Many other men and women were accused of witchcraft. Giles Cory was accused of being a wizard, and Elizabeth Proctor, Martha Cory, and Mary Warren were all accused. Elizabeth Proctor’s husband, John, defended his wife and was later placed in jail. “Of the hundreds accused of witchcraft, nineteen were hung, one was pressed to death by heavy stones, and four died in jail before being brought to trial.” (Orr, 2004).

WHO WAS BEHIND THE TRIALS

The governor of Massachusetts was the first to establish a court for the witchcraft trials. He named William Stoughton as the chief magistrate, a choice he would later regret. Stoughton did not have much legal background, and during the proceedings he ignored many usual courtroom procedures. He wanted to rid the town of witches. Samuel Sewall was another of the Salem Witchcraft Trial judges. Sewall “interrogated, or intensely questioned