Salem Farms: The Salem Witch Trials

What had been just a suspicion turned into a craze, the conflict these people had created would kill many innocent people until a compromise was found. Most women accused as witches were older, ugly, and unkempt (Wilson; 26; Roach 84). If someone was different in any way they could be accused as a witch; age, physical disability, mental disability, looked down on, powerless, outcasts, or criminals (Smith; how). The witch trials would then continue, so special courts were needed. A special court was set up by Sir William Phips to decide the fate of the witches. The two courts were Oyer; to hear, and terminer; to decide the fate of witches (Cellania; Roach 3). People were accused as a witches if they denied their existence (Latson). All the witches had

These girls did not all show “symptoms” at one time. The first girl to start experiencing symptoms was Betty Parris. She was followed by Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis (History of Massachusetts). These girls were throwing tantrums, hiding under furniture and contorting to pain. Since panic and fear set in, witchcraft was the easy choice to make. In today’s medical science, these girls would have been diagnosed with boredom or epilepsy. Although at the time the cause was unknown, these symptoms were probably brought on from eating rye infected with fungus. The three victims were not the only ones accused. There were numerous cases of scapegoating running prevalent.

All the horrified villagers and upperclassmen saw the witches in action they saw the monstrous effect that black magic was apparently having on poor little child Abigail and twelve year old Ann Putnam Jr., a spell bounded choreography of outburst and spasms. “Look to her! She will have a fit presently,” one girl would cry out, pointing to another, who would promptly commence convulsing. “At other times they warned, ‘We shall all fall!’ and about seven girls would pass out, babbling to the floor. The head of the courtroom on that day was Thomas Danforth, deputy governor of Massachusetts and Harvard’s longtime treasurer, one of the several senior colonial officials . Betty's father called in more authorities to decide if witchcraft was the reason for the girl’s illness. Seeing that nothing was working not the praying or the vigils nor the sermons. Reverend decided to call in the doctors. Being puritan they did not believe in science but there were no options left. Betty was sent away, and did not participate in the trials; the other girls were joined by other young women in staging publicly putting on displays of their distress when in the presence of accused

The Salem witch trials were a dark time in our history, filled with paranoia, betrayal, the innocence of children, and vengeance.The incident would be so severe that it would leave bitter scars that have continued to this day.

During the seventeenth century, many Puritans became fed up with the Church of England and its devilish ways. They wanted to break free from it, and make changes elsewhere. They got permission to set up a colony in Massachusetts Bay, and soon after that, over twenty-thousand Puritans fled from England to America. They decided to base their colony on the word of God, and believed God would protect them if they followed his commandments. This meant that if anyone were to sin, “they didn’t want God to protect them because they already worshiped the devil,” and “anyone who worshipped the devil was a witch who used witchcraft to possess others.” Because of this theory, many people were accused of being witches and using witchcraft. The most notorious series of hearings and prosecutions for those accused of witchcraft took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, known as the Salem Witch Trials.

In the late 1600s the notorious Salem witchcraft episode begun. This witch-hunt was very different from what was seen in the New England witch-hunts. The Salem witch-hunts, last longer, jailed more suspects and covered a larger area of land. (Ray page 1). Why was the Salem witch-hunt so different from the previous hunts seen in New England? Benjamin Ray gives multiple reasons in his book Satan and Salem, but one reason seems to stick out of the many reasons, to be a very important role in the explosion of the Salem witch-hunts. The role being, the legal process of the accused witches. The accused witches were put through an unfair legal process. Some were tortured, in many cases the possessed victims were in the courtroom making it an unfair

By examining the end to witchcraft, a reader can further see the importance of socioeconomic status during the trials. The afflicted girls discovered their role in putting an end to the allegations by accusing the highest members of Puritan society. Here a reader realizes it was not just mostly women who were accused, but mostly women of low socioeconomic status. Once women began denouncing the most prestigious members, others began speaking out and fighting in favor of the accused. For example, colonial economic and political leaders started objecting the accusations once “the bewitched had charged the wives of critics Moody, Hale, and Dane, as well as several members of Boston’s ruling elite.” On the off-chance that people never blamed the elite members of society who knows how long the Salem Witch Trials would have kept going.

History shows the remarkable things that society has done over the years, it also shows where society failed and mistakes were made. This is the case of the Salem Witch Trials. The people of Salem experienced an event that would change them and the course of this country forever. The mass hysteria and rampant paranoia that swept New England in 1692, is what turned neighbor against neighbor. The Salem villagers would accuse one another of casting spells, consorting with the devil, and being witches, all of which was a punishable crime in the 17th century. ("Search")

Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, who is her servant, and Mary Wilcott, who was Ann’s best friend, were the first to accuse people. Mercy, Ann, and Mary Wilcott would listen to Tituba, an Indian servant, and her tales of voodoo and supernatural events in her native Barbados. They reported seeing a ghost by a coffin and started having strange symptoms, such as pain, would speak gibberish, became contorted into strange positions, and crawl under tables and chairs. Abigail Williams and Ann Putman became the most active and youngest of the accusers. “The accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, and screaming and writhing” (history.com). Ann claimed to be afflicted by sixty two people. In 1706, Ann Putnam offered a public apology for her participation in the witch trials at Salem. She stood in church while her apology was read: “I desire to be humbled before God. It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time. I did not do it out of anger, malice, or ill will” (history.com). Putman was the only one of the afflicted girls to make an apology. Mysterously, she never married and devoted her life to raising her

The Salem witch trials were a difficult time for the citizens of the Massachusetts Colony in the late seventeenth century. They were accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, which many believed to be real; so real that people were being imprisoned and executed for it. Between the years 1692 and 1693 there were over two hundred accusations and about 20 people and two dogs were killed altogether.

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted with an actual sickness, or were experiencing them because of some sort of psychological reason is widely debated, though it is known that the sisters accused their maid, Tituba, of forcing them to participate in witchcraft with her. Some who theorize about the causes of the trials dismiss the Parris girls involvement in the beginning and instead attribute the outbreak of accusations to judgement upon the members of society who break social or religious rules, or who struck the upright members of society as ‘strange’ and ‘suspicious’, such as the homeless, the poor, and old or widowed women. The cause of the hysteria that went on in Salem after this is what is speculated by so many. There are probably hundreds of theories out there, but a few in particular are more widely known, accepted, and supported than others.

Finally, the last reason that caused the Salem witch trial hysteria was the people who were afflicted. As written in Document D “ What are we to think of those persons who… continued the accusations - the ‘afflicted children’ and their associates?... They soon… became intoxicated… by the terrible success of their imposture (acting), and were swept along by the frenzy they had occasioned…” According to this document, the children were swayed by all the attention they

Life in the New England colonies during the 1600’s proved to be harsh with the constant fear of Native American attacks, scarce food, freezing winters, and conflicting opinions about religion. From this perpetual state of distress, the Salem Witch Trials were birthed, causing a wave of hysteria in Salem Village and Salem Town. Though the exact day and month is uncertain, historians can claim that the trials emerged in early 1692 and came to a close in 1693. The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 with more than one hundred fifty people being accused of practicing witchcraft, and the trials finally ended with the courts declaring there was no evidence in the cases being tried, and the Governor stopped the trials because his wife was accused.

Witchcraft appears to be a figure of fear which existed from the human history throughout the ages (Newall 200). The Salem Witch Trials began in February of 1692 and ended in May of 1693 (Documentary). This all started with a group of young girls in January of 1692. These girls felt ill after playing games, soon later they were known as the afflicted girls because the doctor didn’t know what was wrong with them so he accused them of being bewitched. (Brooks 3) The hunt for witches started because the people of this village feared the devil, and witches who worked for him (Brooks 1). The hunt for witches was so outrageous that it moved to 8 neighboring town (Brooks 7). Captain John Alden Jr. the son of a Mayflower crew member was accused of witchcraft and sent to jail, but escaped and went to New York to live (Brooks 9). In June the arrests of witches declined, but the local jails still held more than 200 witches (Brooks 7). Before all the salem trials started they invited Samuel Parris to be their minister (Linder 1).

Imagine the Wicked Witch of the West flying on her broomstick about 2,000 feet above your head. She is starting to fly down and is about to crash into you. She’s wearing all black with a black hat that looks as tall as The Empire State Building. She’s now staring at you with her extremely ugly, green face and making scary cackling noises that are worthy of nightmares for weeks. She’s screaming to the top of her lungs “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”.