Transcript Slide 1

A set of court trials that were part of
the witch-hunt in 1692 in the small
town of Salem, Massachusetts. They
were full of hysterical accusations,
fear, and panic that eventually led to
the deaths of twenty-five people.
By Bernard Slawomirski 7C3 ID2
Where Did Witch-Hunts Come From?
In Europe, people hunted for witches long before they did
in the colonies. Great European witch-hunts started from
about 1450 and continued on till about 1750. These
European witch-hunts were on a more massive scale than
the one in Salem. Thousands of people became victims
and were thought of as being witches. The witch-hunts
swept over entire countries.
Witches were considered to be people who practiced
black magic and caused hurt to others. The officials of the
Christian religion (which all of Europe practiced)
believed that performing magic was a sin, and they
related it to worshiping the devil. Thus witchcraft was a
serious crime and all witches were killed, usually by
burning at stake. Almost all of the people who were tried
and sentenced to death for witchcraft were really
innocent. But they were condemned just because they
were suspicious and may have confessed when tortured.
The Europeans were afraid of witches because of the
turmoil caused by the spread of poverty, rebellions,
famines, and religious struggles that the continent
experienced back then.
How Did The Salem Witch Trials Happen?
The Salem witch trials began because of four girls: Abigail
Williams, Ann Putnam, Elizabeth Parris, and Elizabeth
Hubbard. In the winter of 1692, these girls started to act
strangely and to have physical problems. They went into
convulsions, twisting themselves into positions that a normal
person couldn’t even do. They had bites and pinches on their
bodies made by unknown causes. They disrupted the Puritan
church services they attended. In addition to all this, they
claimed to see visions of spirits and ghosts.
The girls’ behavior alarmed their families and the town of
Salem. They were examined by a physician, who is believed to be
Dr. William Griggs, and diagnosed as certainly being bewitched.
Some time after the examination, the girls blamed Sarah
Osborne, Sarah Good, and Tituba as the witches who were
harming them. The three women were arrested and held in jail.
After them, more accused witches started being arrested, since
bewitchment supposedly started to spread throughout Salem.
As the amount of witches increased, a new court, called the
Court of Oyer and Terminer, was formed in order to judge them.
It was when this court was formed that the Salem witch trials
began.
Were The Girls Actually Bewitched?
No, historians do not think that the girls who started the Salem witch trials were
actually bewitched. Several other reasons are given as to explain their unusual state
of being.
 The girls could just have pretended to be bewitched. But when their acting started
to be too much, and people were getting executed because of them, they still
pretended in order not to punished for deceiving and false accusations.
 The girls maybe had psychological problems. They might have been experiencing
hysteria, were unhappy about their society, had mental conflicts with members of
other generations, or wanted to find a way to show their inner rage and aggravation.
 The girls might have gotten ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus that grows on grains.
The colonists in Salem ate bread made from the rye grain. The rye used in making
the bread the girls ate could have been infected. If so, the poisoned bread could have
caused some of the girls’ physical problems. This theory is doubtful though, since all
the girls didn’t live in the same house and eat at the same table. But it’s a possibility
that the girls were poisoned in some mild form and which started their whole
“bewitchment”.
What Spread The Witch Hunt In Salem?
Mass hysteria caused by the fear that witches had infiltrated the community was most likely
the reason that the witch hunt spread so much throughout Salem and the surrounding
regions. What started out with three accused witches, went to more than 100. There are two
reasons for this.
•When the girls were exhibiting their strange behavior, Samuel Parris, the reverend of Salem
who also had two of the “bewitched” girls in his household (his niece Abigail Williams and his
daughter Elizabeth Parris), started prayer meetings and fasts in order to hopefully cure the
girls. Parris also preached a message suggesting that more “witches” than just the three that
were accused, were among the town population, pretending to be normal people. Back then
ministers were very influential people, so everyone took into account what Parris said. The
two actions the reverend made fueled the hysteria by drawing more attention to the afflicted
girls and making it seem like bewitchment was on the rampage in Salem.
•In addition to this, Salem was having tough times. Massachusetts had experienced some
Indian attacks and the col0ny still thought there was a possibility for it to get attacked again.
Along with the threat of an Indian attack, the colony’s charter had been taken away by the
king, making it a royal colony. This meant that the colony could no longer elect its own
governors, the king appointed them. Not only did the king appoint the governor but he also
tried to diminish the Puritan’s power in the colony. These two things made the colonial
population feel as though they were under attack from outside forces and that they were a
failure to God. When witchcraft was discovered in Salem, the town frantically tried to destroy
it, hoping that making itself pure before God would save it from downfall. This also caused
hysteria.
Vulnerability of the First Accused Witches
The first three women to be accused at the Salem witch trials were all helpless, outcast
individuals that had no one to defend them from their accusers. In a way, each of the
woman stood out from among the rest of the people.
•Tituba was a West Indian slave owned by Samuel Parris. When bewitchment broke out in
Salem, the aunt of one of the afflicted girls convinced Tituba and her husband John Indian
to create magic to counter bewitchment. In her native country Tituba had learned some
remedies that supposedly stopped bewitchment. One of those remedies was witchcake.
Witchcake was made by taking urine from the afflicted people, mixing it with rye meal,
and then baking the whole substance. It was believed that when witchcake was fed to a
dog, the dog would then show who the witches afflicting the people were. When Tituba
experimented with witchcake in Salem, it obviously didn’t work but made the afflicted
girls think of her as a witch. Tituba had already been telling stories about witchcraft from
her native country to some of the afflicted girls, before the Salem trials. Her actions made
her an ideal person for the girls to blame of witchcraft.
•Good was a poor beggar, whose husbands’ were in debt. She lived wherever anybody
would take her in, and seemed to gripe when she wasn’t given aid.
•Osborne was an old, argumentative women who had married her indentured servant
after her first husband died. She hadn’t gone to church for about a year and was fighting
with her first set of sons over the property that her first husband left.
This is a drawing of Tituba and the four afflicted girls. The West Indian
slave is shown teaching the girls some magic and fortune-telling
techniques.
The Trial Of The First Three Witches
The trial of the first three accused witches took
place from March 1, 1692 to March 5, 1692.
Before the court trial even took place, the
judges already thought of the women as
witches. As so, the method of interrogation
and the evidence used to find the women
guilty, was biased. The questions the accused
women were asked went something like this:
“Are you a witch?”, “Have you seen Satan?”, “If
you are not a witch, then how can you explain
the contortions these children have at your
presence?”. The four girls that were bewitched
testified against the women, claiming to have
seen their spirits and describing what
happened when they bewitched them. Also,
the girls cried out upon and mimicked every
movement the accused witch made. Neighbors
told stories of how they received bad fortune,
such as an animal being born with defects,
after a visit by one of the women.
Other Methods Used To Test For Witchcraft
There were other ways that people were also tested for witchcraft, in addition to the
testimonies of witnesses. Although these methods of testing for witchcraft, along with
the testimonies, did not really prove a person’s guilt and were often silly, back then
people believed in them. If a person could not pass these tests, this was considered
evidence of them being a witch. These tests, some of which are listed below, were
carried out in the Salem witch trials on the first three accused women and the others
following them.
 The judges and the jury tried to find some proof that the accused people had
supernatural abilities, such as mindreading or superb strength.
 The accused people’s bodies were examined for a witch’s tit, an irregular , small,
projecting body part through which people thought a witch fed the devil in the
appearance of a small creature (such as a frog, bird, or turtle).
 Accused witches were forced to stare at the bewitched victims, in order to determine
if their gaze would make the victims have convulsions.
 When the afflicted people were thrown fits, the witches were made to touch them, to
see if their touch could heal the affliction.
If an accused witch cursed a person, the court would try to find out if the curse
actually came true. Only the demonic powers that witches had were thought to make a
curse come true.
Witches were made to say the Lord’s Prayer. It was a common belief back then that
witches could not repeat the prayer perfectly and would make mistakes.
Results Of The First Salem Witch Trial
The first Salem witch trial ended badly for both the three women and the judges
themselves. It did not end the witchcraft and anxiety in Salem, only deepened it
even more. These are its results.
 Sarah Good didn’t confess of being a witch, instead she blamed Tituba and
Osborne of the crime. Nevertheless, she was found guilty of witchcraft and was
sent to prison. After some time, her case was heard again by the Court of Oyer
and Terminer (which was not formed until May), and she was sentenced to
death. She was hanged on Gallows Hill on July 19.
 Sarah Osborne also denied being a witch. She claimed that she was innocent
and refused to accuse anyone else of witchcraft. In her defense, she stated that
the devil could transform into her image when causing harm to others,
unbeknownst to her. She was found guilty by the court and was put in prison as
well, where she died on May 10, 1692.
 Tituba was the only survivor out of the three women. Although she denied
being a witch at first, later on she confessed, She told stories to the court about
how the devil appeared to her in the form of animals and a tall white man
dressed in black, who came from Boston.
(continued)
She accused Good and Osborne of being the witches who served him. She said that the
devil and the two women forced her to hurt the four afflicted children, saying that she
would die if she didn’t obey them. According to Tituba herself, she was sorry for her
crimes and would have confessed them sooner if the devil hadn’t threatened her with
death. Additionally, Tituba mentioned that there were other witches besides her,
Good, Osborne, and the wizard in whose form the devil appeared. Ironically, Tituba
was sent to prison like the other women, but wasn’t executed. It is thought that the
court spared her life in order for her to testify against other witches. But even though
Tituba survived, she still faced the hardships of being held in the poorly managed
colonials jails.
The Court Of Oyer And Terminer
The Court of Oyer and Terminer (which means to “hear and determine”) was
formed in May 27, 1692 by the governor of Massachusetts, William Phips. As
more and more witches were being accused and arrested by the people, the
local courts were having a hard time putting everyone on trial. The prisons
began filling up with suspected witches which couldn’t yet be tried. As a result,
a separate court had to be made especially for the witchcraft cases. This court
had the ability to condemn a witch and order her execution immediately. That
was the purpose of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
The special court was made up of six magistrates, who were all part of Phips’s
group of advisors. William Stoughton, the lieutenant governor of
Massachusetts, became the Chief Magistrate of the court. Samuel Sewall, also
part of Phips’s advisors, became one of the magistrates, and recorded all the
trials of the court. The attorney general of Massachusetts, Thomas Newton,
became in charge of the prosecution of the witches. In addition to the
magistrates, there was a set of twelve jurors who served in the court.
The Court of Oyer and Terminer held trials four times during their existence.
Their first meeting was on June 2. They found a total of twenty seven people
guilty and hanged nineteen of them. Accused witches were hanged on June 10,
June 19, August 19, and September 22. The court was ended on October 29.
Governor William Phips
Magistrate Samuel Sewall
Chief Magistrate William Stoughton
This shows how during the Salem witch trials, people envisioned
witches as having strange powers. The court and people were
afraid of witches, and didn’t want to take any chances letting them
destroy society.
Ways Of Avoiding Execution In Salem
The witch cases which followed the first one of Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and
Tituba were no better than it at all. All of the accused witches that went on trial before
either the local court of Salem or the Court of Oyer and Terminer, were condemned.
There were three ways witches could avoid execution, though.
A. About fifty-five out of all the accused people confessed that they were indeed
witches, even if they were innocent. Once a person confessed their sin, the Puritans
thought that it was God’s choice on how they should be punished, so the court let
them go free. These people maybe saved their own lives, but their confessions
increased the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. Since such a large group of people
affirmed they were witches, it just made the other people in Salem even more
suspicious of one another. Confessed witches were made to testify against other
accused witches.
B. Pregnant women, that were accused of witchcraft, weren’t executed. The Puritans
believed that the baby that a woman had didn’t deserve to die because of its
mother’s wrongdoing.
C. Condemned witches could attempt to flee from the jail they were held in. Several
people actually achieved this, including Philip and Mary English, John Alden,
Hezekiah Usher, and Mrs. Nathaniel Cary.
Witch Cases Following The First One
As bewitchment spread throughout Salem, more people, including Ann Putnam Sr.
(mother of Ann Putnam), Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, became “afflicted”. The
women listed above, along with the initial four afflicted girls, were the ones who
usually filed accusations against people for witchcraft. They were all related to the
Putnam family, an influential wealthy family that lived in Salem. It was the people
that opposed these women’s charges, maintaining that they were innocent, that
were the ones who got killed. Several of such cases are described below.
 Bridget Bishop was the first person to become executed by the Court of Oyer and
Terminar. She was an old woman who didn’t pay some of her bills, had bad relations
with her neighbors, and whose house was in bad condition. Many witnesses, in
addition to the afflicted women, testified against her, stating that they saw ghosts
of her and her robbing other people. The witch tests that were carried out on
Bishop all went against her. She was hanged on June 10.
Rebecca Nurse was a good, religious woman, unlike Bishop. She was accused of
witchcraft, though, for two reasons. Some time ago her mother had been accused of
witchcraft, and this made people suspicious of Nurse also. The second reason was
that Rebecca’s family, the Topsfield, had a bit of a rivalry with the Putnam, making
her a possible target by the influential family. In the end, even as good as Nurse was,
the Court of Oyer and Terminer convicted her, and she was hanged on June 19.
(continued)
 George Burroughs was the former minister of Salem. After having held his
position there for a year or so, he had moved out and lived in Maine. The people
of Salem disliked him, and had had conflicts with him. So during the Salem
witch trials, he was accused of being the one whom the devil lived in, based to
Tituba’s story. He was convicted by the court of witchcraft, even though he had
held the honorable office of reverend in the community. Just before his
execution, Burroughs recited the Lord Prayer perfectly, amazing the crowd who
had gathered to watch the spectacle. There would’ve been a chance of him being
able to avoid execution through this feat, if it weren’t for Cotton Mather, another
minister who supposedly was a professional on witches. Mather persuaded the
crowd that Burroughs was still guilty so the hanging carried on.
 Giles Corey was a respectable eighty year-old man, whose wife had been
hanged during the witch trials. When he was later on suspected of witchcraft,
too, he stood mute at his court trial rather than to confess or to plead not guilty.
He knew that if made a plea, he would be judged unfairly, so he decided not to
stand trial at all. He endured peine forte et dure (hard and severe punishment) for
his actions. This is the only torture that we know as a fact, was used in the Salem
witch trials. It involved putting a person’s body between two boards and piling
rocks upon them. The person then would either make a plea, or eventually get
squished by the rocks. In Corey’s case, he was pressed to death by the rocks and
still refused to stand trial.
End Of The Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials had started in the spring, continued on through the
summer, and finally came to an end in the fall. By then, the prisons in
Massachusetts were almost at their full capacity. The government was afraid that
they might overfill. The Court of Oyer and Terminer wasn’t going through all the
witch cases fast enough, and the witchcraft hysteria still didn’t stop. Finally, the
governor William Phips decided to abolish the special court he created. In its
place, he put another court, called the Superior Court of Judicature, to test the
witches. This court proved to be the opposite of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
Out of the fifty-two cases the new court judged, in forty-nine of them the witches
are pardoned, and only in three were the witches condemned because of their
confession. In the end, even the three convicted witches are released from their
death penalties by Phips himself. Perhaps the governor began to doubt the
existence of witches, after his own wife was accused by the afflicted girls, close to
the finish of the witch trials. But whatever the reason, the governor along with his
new court, stopped the witch trials and the witch hysteria. As time passed by,
Salem overcame this dreadful event in its history. Although this event is long gone
by now, Massachusetts and the rest of the country still remembers it, honoring
those that had bravely died in it, maintaining their innocence, and we hope that
we may learn from our past, never to let such an occurrence happen again.
References
• http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/sal_acct.htm
•http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/salem/
• At Issue In History: The Salem Witch Trials Edited by Laura Marvel
• http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/timeline.html
• http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxonsalem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/bios.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.x
sl&chunk.id=b21&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes
• http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_Bgoo.HTM
• http://home.texoma.net/~adwignall/
• http://www.witchway.net/times/salemwitchtrials.html