Susannah Martin was my 10th great grandmother and John Proctor was my 11th great uncle. The other two accused women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne, werent well liked by the community either. European Witch trials started at a similar time as Protestantism. More significant were admissions of attending a witches meeting on Pendle Hill. When visiting Salem, there are so many entertaining shows that were inspired by the real-life tragedies that took place in this spooky town. The Salem Witch Trials began in spring 1692 and lasted for seven months, during which more than 150 people where arrested, 19 were hanged and one was tortured to death. Through the loss of 20 lives, the episode continues to warn of the dangers of insularity and isolationism, of intolerance, of religious extremism. I find this to be very well put and want to read more. Preston, VK. There are many theories that explain why the witch trials began in Medieval Europe. Awesome Article. Critics such as Proctor were quickly accused of witchcraft themselves, under the assumption that anyone who denied the existence of witches or defended the accused must be one of them, and were brought to trial. Due to overcrowding in the jails, the accused witches were kept in multiple jails in Salem town, Ipswich and Boston. Warrants were issued by the dozen, sometimes for the arrest of the most unlikely suspects. 1 Most of the accused were women but men were accusedand executedtoo. This helped me a lot with an assignment i had to do for school, but i cant find the publisher sadly. And insularity bred paranoia, as Schiff sharply explains. Although the witch hunt started in Salem Village, it quickly spread to the neighboring towns, including Amesbury, Andover, Salisbury, Topsfield, Ipswich and Gloucester, and numerous residents of those towns were brought to Salem and put on trial. 5 Facts About the Salem Trials. On March 1st, Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn were arrested and examined. More than 200 people were a.. Read the article free on Booksie. Here's how they got it done. The charter was revoked because the colonists had violated several of the charters rules, which included basing laws on religious beliefs and discriminating against Anglicans. By now, seven months on from the arrest of Sarah Good, the hysteria was decelerating. We also have kept good records of everything. There the accused were questioned by a judge in front of a jury, which decided whether or not to indict the accused on charges of witchcraft. I think that maybe they thought they were bewitched. They were during the Colonial times. Random House, 1956Fowler, Samuel Page. Ultimately, eight women and two men were tried and found guilty of attending the gathering. One freezing day in January of 1692, something strange happened inside the Parris household of Salem Village, Massachusetts. Titubas confession was the trigger that sparked the mass hysteria and the hunt for more witches in Salem. The number of accusations and arrests began to decline in June but still continued and soon the local jails held more than 200 accused witches. Just pay for a month and go nuts adding records to a tree. One freezing day in January of 1692, something strange happened inside the Parris household of Salem Village, Massachusetts. In mid-September, Corey was tortured this way for three days in a field near Howard Street until he finally died on September 19. thanks, primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials, View all posts by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, http://www.zazzle.com/salem_village_map_poster-228789587972988887?rf=238784808055391622, https://historyofmassachusetts.org/best-books-about-salem-witch-trials/. When asked who it was that had afflicted them, they named Good a homeless woman who had fallen destitute after denying the inheritance of her wealthy fathers estate as one of the three culprits. This was no more notable than when playwright Arthur Miller chose to dramatise the trials in his 1953 play The Crucible. Soon, prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from towns surrounding Salem; their names had been cried out by tormented young girls as the cause of their pain. Salem Witch Trials from William A. Crafts Did the people really believe in witches? Is the tv show Salem based on the Salem Witch Trials? When she is not traveling, you will find her reading, drinking coffee and chatting away with her many international friends. Salem witch trials. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. A week later, the jury changed their minds and declared Nurse guilty. Smithsonia, 8 Sept. 2013. When was this last edited? The witchcraft hysteria in Salem first began in January of 1692 when a group of young girls, who later came to be known as the afflicted girls, fell ill after playing a fortune-telling game and began behaving strangely. While women were of course on the forefront of persecution, men could also be accused of witchcraft. As if the lonely and misunderstood didn't have a hard enough life on its own, they seemed the most suspicious to the crowds. Think it was her kids. In May, as the number of cases grew, Governor William Phips set up a special court, known as the Court of Oyer and Terminer (which translate to hear and determine) to hear the cases. Then say they were wrong. Abigail Williams: The Mysterious Afflicted Girl. Massachusetts Archives, Vol. Has their been any further studies into the ergot theory besides the collage student in the early 70s? We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. In June of 1692, the special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) sat in Salem to hear the cases of witchcraft. Salem witch trials, (June 1692-May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted "witches" to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). By May 1693 . Nige Tassell explains how hysteria in the village of Salem, Massachusets, gave rise to a horror that bedazzled the world. The doctor was unable to find anything physically wrong with them and suggested they may be bewitched. It all began in 1692 and 1693 when Salem in the United States . Got the movie and became more interested in what really happened. And if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.. It's also important to remember that there is no evidence, other than spectral evidence and coerced confessions, that any of the accused actually did practice witchcraft. In June, Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned and was replaced by Jonathan Corwin. "Reproducing Witchcraft: Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live". The clergy later held a meeting, on August 1, to discuss the trials but were not able to help Proctor before his execution. Bridget Bishop - The First to Die in Salem Witch Trials, 8 Famous Witches From Mythology and Folklore, Salem, Massachusetts, and the famous trial in 1692, witchcraft was not seen as a religion at all. At the same time, the accused would be denied legal representation. One other man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people . Twenty-four people died during the Salem witch trials, though many more were accused of witchcraft. They were said to have helped witches and were referred to as their familiars. One person was pressed to death, and over 150 others were jailed, where still others died. This is really great. Historians and sociologists have examined this most complex episode in our history so that we may understand the issues of that era and view subsequent events with heightened awareness. One of them, George Burroughs, protested his innocence as the noose was readied. Although she wasnt released, most people were confident she would be found not guilty and released. The courthouse was torn down in 1760 but a plaque dedicated to the courthouse can still be seen today on the wall of the Masonic Temple on Washington Street. Thank-you for the great info you have shared. Also I was curious to know what the specific compromise was. Thank you for this amazing article! In 2017, on the 325th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials, the newly built Proctors Ledge Memorial was unveiled at the base of the ledge on Pope Street. A man of God literally planned out a witch genocide. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Most of the accused really had nowhere else to go and many of them didnt have the money to leave even if they wanted to. While Puritanism in New England demanded rigidly defined behaviour (hymns were the only permissible music, while childrens toys were outlawed), the colonys geographical isolation increased the insularity of these communities. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a dark time in American history. In effect, theSalem Witch Trialswere over. Shortly after, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren and Elizabeth Booth all started to experience the same symptoms, which consisted of suffering fits, hiding under furniture, contorting in pain and experiencing fever. The 52 remaining people in jail were tried in a new court, the Superior Court of Judicature, the following winter. Other evidence used in the trials included confessions of the accused, possession of certain items such as poppets, ointments or books on the occult, as well as the presence of an alleged witchs teat, which was a strange mole or blemish, on the accused persons body. 9 Men Also Died During The Trials If these individuals had never written these books or helped record the proceedings, we wouldnt know half of what we know about the witch trials. Thanks! Tried and found guilty within the course of a single day, Bishop was hanged a week later on 10 June, the first execution of the trials. The Examination of Bridget Bishop, April 19, 1692. Does that mean they couldnt have been practicing witchcraft? The persecutors had to come up with a whole irrational legal system in order to justify this insanity. A witness testifies against an accused witch during one of the many witchcraft trials of the 1690s. Court of Oyer and Terminer Judges:Jonathan CorwinBartholomew GedneyJohn HathorneJohn RichardsWilliam Stoughton, Chief MagistrateSamuel SewallNathaniel SaltonstallPeter SergeantWaitstill Winthrop, The number of people accused and arrested in May surged to over 30 people:Sarah DustinAnn SearsArthur AbbottBethiah Carter SrBethiah Carter JrMary WitheridgeGeorge Jacobs SrMargaret JacobsRebecca JacobsJohn WillardAlice ParkerAnn PudeatorAbigail SoamesSarah BuckelyElizabeth ColsonElizabeth HartThomas Farrar SrRoger ToothakerMary ToothakerMargaret ToothakerSarah ProctorMary DeRichSarah BassettSusannah RootsElizabeth CarySarah PeaseMartha CarrierElizabeth FosdickWilmot ReddElizabeth HoweSarah RiceJohn Alden JrWilliam ProctorJohn Flood. He was later exonerated. Everything we know now about the trials comes from just a handful of primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials. They all died on the same day so its hard to pinpoint who you are talking about. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. That same month, four more women were accused and arrested:Rebecca NurseMartha CoreyDorothy GoodRachel Clinton (from Ipswich). The witch trials were held in Salem, Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. In mid-September, a further group went to the gallows Eight Firebrands of Hell in the words of Rev Noyes. This was a special type of court in English law established specifically to hear cases that are extraordinary and serious in nature. History of the Salem Witch Trials. History of Massachusetts Blog, 18 Aug. 2011, historyofmassachusetts.org/the-salem-witch-trials. 10 Unsettling Facts About The Witch Trials, The Symptoms That Gave Witches Away Make No Sense At All, Women Could Save Themselves By Pointing A Finger (At Someone Innocent), Witch Trials In Germany Took Thousands Of Lives, It Wasn't Just Women Who Suffered Because Of The Trials, The Witch Tests Often Had No Way Of Getting Out Alive, As If They Didn't Suffer Enough, Social Outcasts Had It The Worst, Scary Stories: 10 Places For Stephen King Fans To Visit, 10 Scary Churches From Around The World That Will Creep You Out, Spooky Places: 10 Destinations For Fans Of Witches. Heavy stones were loaded onto the board and the weight was gradually increased until the prison either entered a plea or died. The Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions in which over 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. They hanged the poor souls instead. You can check out my article on books about the Salem Witch Trials here:https://historyofmassachusetts.org/best-books-about-salem-witch-trials/ or you could search the court records online on the University of Virginia website. Where did theses trials take place were there anymore places then Massachusetts Bay. The first case brought before the grand jury was that of Bridget Bishop, a woman around the age of 60 who faced a plethora of accusations: that she could pass through doors and windows without opening them; that she had made holes in the road suddenly open up, into which carts would fall before the holes would instantly disappear; that she had summoned a black pig with the body of a monkey and the feet of a cockerel. Twenty people were put to death in Salem for the crime of witchcraft. Indeed, as Stacy Schiff explains in The Witches, her history of the witch trials, It would have been difficult to find more than a few souls to whom the supernatural was not eminently real, part and parcel of the culture, as was the devil himself. Of those arrested, the majority were women (85%) and only a handful were men (15%). Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. I find the history interesting and would like to find more information on this matter. Other factors included a recent small pox epidemic in the colony, growing rivalries between families within the colony, a constant threat of attack from nearby Native-American tribes, and a recent influx of refugees trying to escape King Williams war with France in Canada and New York. The slave Tituba, because of her background in the Caribbean (or possibly the West Indies), could have practiced some form of folk magic, but that has never been confirmed. I guarantee Im not related to any putnum. Corey still refused to offer a plea and paid with his life. Im doing the Salem witch trials for my A-Level coursework, does anyone know the full names of any historians that have spoken about this topic?