salem witch trials dissertation

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Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The crucible of history:how apology and reconciliation created modern conceptions of the salem witch trials.

Heaven Umbrell Follow

Date of Award

Degree type, degree name.

Master of Arts - History

First Advisor

Andrew Lannen

Second Advisor

Robert Allen

Third Advisor

Paul Sandul

Fourth Advisor

Karol Chandler-Ezell

For centuries, historians, authors, and amateur enthusiasts alike have been mesmerized by the Salem witch trials. Most of the literature focuses on the trials themselves and takes one of three approaches: anthropological; sociological; or conspiratorial. Recently Gretchen Adams, professor of history at Texas Tech University, approached the trials differently, focusing on memory. She narrowed on how the “specters of Salem” loomed over American cultural and public memory. Apart from Adams, little scholarly inquiry has focused on the aftermath of the trials, especially how it affected the people directly involved. This thesis will expand the historiography of the Salem witch hunt by examining the historical significance of the trials evolving memory. When examining the competing narratives that arose about the trials and the community’s attempts at reconciliation, a precedent is set by the Massachusetts government that not only stunted the community's ability to heal, but branded the entire town of Salem and its Puritan inhabitants as agents of fanaticism and injustice. As a result Salem has fallen prey to the crucible of history, once a city upon a hill, now an over the top destination for those who prefer fantasy to reality.

Repository Citation

Umbrell, Heaven, "The Crucible of History:How Apology and Reconciliation Created Modern Conceptions of the Salem Witch Trials" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations . 316. https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/316

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A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials

One town’s strange journey from paranoia to pardon

Jess Blumberg

The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between early 1692 and mid-1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft—the devil’s magic —and 20 were executed.

In 1711, colonial authorities pardoned some of the accused and compensated their families. But it was only in July 2022 that Elizabeth Johnson Jr. , the last convicted Salem “witch” whose name had yet to be cleared , was officially exonerated .

Since the 17th century, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice . Fueled by xenophobia , religious extremism and long-brewing social tensions , the witch hunt continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later.

Tensions in Salem

In the medieval and early modern eras, many religions, including Christianity , taught that the devil could give people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. A “ witchcraft craze ” rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches —mostly women—were executed. Though the Salem trials took place just as the European craze was winding down, local circumstances explain their onset.

In 1689, English monarchs William and Mary started a war with France in the American colonies. Known as King William’s War to colonists, the conflict ravaged regions of upstate New York, Nova Scotia and Quebec, sending refugees into the county of Essex—and, specifically, Salem Village—in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Salem Village is present-day Danvers, Massachusetts; colonial Salem Town became what’s now Salem.)

The displaced people placed a strain on Salem’s resources, aggravating the existing rivalry between families with ties to the wealth of the port of Salem and those who still depended on agriculture. Controversy also brewed over the Reverend Samuel Parris , who became Salem Village’s first ordained minister in 1689 and quickly gained a reputation for his rigid ways and greedy nature. The Puritan villagers believed all the quarreling was the work of the devil.

In January 1692, Parris’ daughter Elizabeth (or Betty), age 9, and niece Abigail Williams, age 11, started having “fits.” They screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions. A local doctor blamed the supernatural . Another girl, 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr., experienced similar episodes. On February 29, under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, colonial officials who tried local cases, the girls blamed three women for afflicting them: Tituba , a Caribbean woman enslaved by the Parris family; Sarah Good , a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne , an elderly impoverished woman.

The witch hunt begins

All three women were brought before the local magistrates and interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, 1692. Osborne claimed innocence, as did Good. But Tituba confessed , “The devil came to me and bid me serve him.” She described elaborate images of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds and a “tall man with white hair” who wanted her to sign his book. She admitted that she’d signed the book and claimed there were several other witches looking to destroy the Puritans.

With the seeds of paranoia planted, a stream of accusations followed over the next few months. Charges against Martha Corey , a loyal member of the church in Salem Village, greatly concerned the community; if she could be a witch, then anyone could. Magistrates even questioned Good’s 4-year-old daughter, Dorothy , whose timid answers were construed as a confession. The questioning got more serious in April, when the colony’s deputy governor, Thomas Danforth, and his assistants attended the hearings. Dozens of people from Salem and other Massachusetts villages were brought in for questioning .

On May 27, 1692, Governor William Phips ordered the establishment of a Special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. The first accused witch brought in front of the special court was Bridget Bishop , an older woman known for her gossipy habits and promiscuity. When asked if she committed witchcraft, Bishop responded , “I am as innocent as the child unborn.” The defense must not have been convincing, because she was found guilty and, on June 10, became the first person hanged on what was later called Gallows Hill .

Just a few days after the court was established, respected minister Cotton Mather wrote a letter imploring the court not to allow spectral evidence —testimony about dreams and visions. The court largely ignored this request, sentencing the hangings of five people in July, five more in August and eight in September. On October 3, following in his son Cotton’s footsteps, Increase Mather , then-president of Harvard, denounced the use of spectral evidence: “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned.”

Phips, in response to these pleas and his own wife’s questioning as a suspected witch, prohibited further arrests and released many accused witches. He dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer on October 29, replacing it with a Superior Court of Judicature , which disallowed spectral evidence and condemned just 3 out of 56 defendants.

By May 1693, Phips had pardoned all those imprisoned on witchcraft charges. But the damage was already done. Nineteen men and women had been hanged on Gallows Hill. Giles Corey , Martha’s 71-year-old husband, was pressed to death in September 1692 with heavy stones after refusing to submit himself to a trial. At least five of the accused died in jail. Even animals fell victim to the mass hysteria, with colonists in Andover and Salem Village killing two dogs believed to be linked to the devil.

Restoring good names

In the years following the trials and executions, some involved, like judge Samuel Sewall and accuser Ann Putnam , publicly confessed error and guilt. On January 14, 1697, Massachusetts’ General Court ordered a day of fasting and soul-searching over the tragedy of Salem. In 1702, the court declared the trials unlawful. And in 1711, the colony passed a bill restoring the rights and good names of many of the accused, as well as granting a total of £600 in restitution to their heirs. But it wasn’t until 1957—more than 250 years later—that Massachusetts formally apologized for the events of 1692. Johnson, the accused woman exonerated in July 2022, was left out of the 1957 resolution for reasons unknown but received an official pardon after a successful lobbying campaign by a class of eighth-grade civics students.

In the 20th century, artists and scientists alike continued to be fascinated by the Salem witch trials. Playwright Arthur Miller resurrected the tale with his 1953 play The Crucible , using the trials as an allegory for the anti-communist McCarthyism then sweeping the country. Scholars offered up competing explanations for the strange behavior that occurred in Salem, with scientists seeking a medical cause for the accusers’ afflictions and historians more often grounding their theories in the community’s tense sociopolitical environment .

An early hypothesis now viewed as “fringe, especially in historical circles ,” according to Vox , posited that the accusers suffered from ergotism , a condition caused by eating foods contaminated with the fungus ergot. Symptoms include muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions and hallucinations. Other theories emphasize a “combination of church politics, family feuds and hysterical children, all of which unfolded in a vacuum of political authority,” as Encyclopedia Britannica notes. Ultimately, the causes of the witch hunt remain subject to much debate .

In August 1992, to mark the 300th anniversary of the trials, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel dedicated the Witch Trials Memorial in Salem. Also in Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum , which houses the original court documents , mounted an exhibition reckoning with and reclaiming the tragedy in late 2021 and early 2022. Finally, the town’s most-visited attraction, the Salem Witch Museum , attests to the public’s enduring enthrallment with the 17th-century hysteria.

Editor’s Note, October 24, 2022: This article has been updated to reflect the latest research on the Salem witch trials.

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What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?

Looking into the underlying causes of the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century.

In February 1692, the Massachusetts Bay Colony town of Salem Village found itself at the center of a notorious case of mass hysteria: eight young women accused their neighbors of witchcraft. Trials ensued and, when the episode concluded in May 1693, fourteen women, five men, and two dogs had been executed for their supposed supernatural crimes.

The Salem witch trials occupy a unique place in our collective history. The mystery around the hysteria and miscarriage of justice continue to inspire new critiques, most recently with the recent release of The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Pulitzer Prize-winning Stacy Schiff.

But what caused the mass hysteria, false accusations, and lapses in due process? Scholars have attempted to answer these questions with a variety of economic and physiological theories.

The economic theories of the Salem events tend to be two-fold: the first attributes the witchcraft trials to an economic downturn caused by a “little ice age” that lasted from 1550-1800; the second cites socioeconomic issues in Salem itself.

Emily Oster posits that the “little ice age” caused economic deterioration and food shortages that led to anti-witch fervor in communities in both the United States and Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Temperatures began to drop at the beginning of the fourteenth century, with the coldest periods occurring from 1680 to 1730. The economic hardships and slowdown of population growth could have caused widespread scapegoating which, during this period, manifested itself as persecution of so-called witches, due to the widely accepted belief that “witches existed, were capable of causing physical harm to others and could control natural forces.”

Salem Village, where the witchcraft accusations began, was an agrarian, poorer counterpart to the neighboring Salem Town, which was populated by wealthy merchants. According to the oft-cited book  Salem Possessed by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Village was being torn apart by two opposing groups–largely agrarian townsfolk to the west and more business-minded villagers to the east, closer to the Town. “What was going on was not simply a personal quarrel, an economic dispute, or even a struggle for power, but a mortal conflict involving the very nature of the community itself. The fundamental issue was not who was to control the Village, but what its essential character was to be.” In a retrospective look at their book for a 2008 William and Mary Quarterly Forum , Boyer and Nissenbaum explain that as tensions between the two groups unfolded, “they followed deeply etched factional fault lines that, in turn, were influenced by anxieties and by differing levels of engagement with and access to the political and commercial opportunities unfolding in Salem Town.” As a result of increasing hostility, western villagers accused eastern neighbors of witchcraft.

But some critics including Benjamin C. Ray have called Boyer and Nissenbaum’s socio-economic theory into question . For one thing –the map they were using has been called into question. He writes: “A review of the court records shows that the Boyer and Nissenbaum map is, in fact, highly interpretive and considerably incomplete.” Ray goes on:

Contrary to Boyer and Nissenbaum’s conclusions in Salem Possessed, geo graphic analysis of the accusations in the village shows there was no significant villagewide east-west division between accusers and accused in 1692. Nor was there an east-west divide between households of different economic status.

On the other hand, the physiological theories for the mass hysteria and witchcraft accusations include both fungus poisoning and undiagnosed encephalitis.

Linnda Caporael argues that the girls suffered from convulsive ergotism, a condition caused by ergot, a type of fungus, found in rye and other grains. It produces hallucinatory, LSD-like effects in the afflicted and can cause victims to suffer from vertigo, crawling sensations on the skin, extremity tingling, headaches, hallucinations, and seizure-like muscle contractions. Rye was the most prevalent grain grown in the Massachusetts area at the time, and the damp climate and long storage period could have led to an ergot infestation of the grains.

One of the more controversial theories states that the girls suffered from an outbreak of encephalitis lethargica , an inflammation of the brain spread by insects and birds. Symptoms include fever, headaches, lethargy, double vision, abnormal eye movements, neck rigidity, behavioral changes, and tremors.  In her 1999 book, A Fever in Salem , Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the winter of 1691 and spring of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He couldn’t find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnoses of unseen conditions at the time.

The controversies surrounding the accusations, trials, and executions in Salem, 1692, continue to fascinate historians and we continue to ask why, in a society that should have known better, did this happen? Economic and physiological causes aside, the Salem witchcraft trials continue to act as a parable of caution against extremism in judicial processes.

Editor’s note: This post was edited to clarify that Salem Village was where the accusations began, not where the trials took place.

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The Witches of Salem

By Stacy Schiff

In 1692, the Massachusetts Bay Colony executed fourteen women, five men, and two dogs for witchcraft. The sorcery materialized in January. The first hanging took place in June, the last in September; a stark, stunned silence followed. Although we will never know the exact number of those formally charged with having “wickedly, maliciously, and feloniously” engaged in sorcery, somewhere between a hundred and forty-four and a hundred and eighty-five witches and wizards were named in twenty-five villages and towns. The youngest was five; the eldest nearly eighty. Husbands implicated wives; nephews their aunts; daughters their mothers; siblings each other. One minister discovered that he was related to no fewer than twenty witches.

The population of New England at that time would fit into Yankee Stadium today. Nearly to a person, they were Puritans. Having suffered for their faith, they had sailed to North America to worship “with more purity and less peril than they could do in the country where they were,” as a clergyman at the center of the crisis later explained. On a providential mission, they hoped to begin history anew; they had the advantage of building a civilization from scratch. Like any oppressed people, they defined themselves by what offended them, which would give New England its gritty flavor and, it has been argued, America its independence.

New England delivered greater purity but also introduced fresh perils. Stretching from Martha’s Vineyard to Nova Scotia and incorporating parts of present-day Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, it perched on the edge of a wilderness. That was a precarious position well before 1692, when the colony teetered between governments, or, more exactly, as a Boston merchant put it, “between government and no government.” The settlers unseated their royal governor in a deft 1689 military coup. They had endured without a charter for eight years.

From the start, the colonists tangled with that American staple, the swarthy terrorist in the back yard. Without a knock or a greeting, four armed Indians might appear in your parlor to warm themselves by the fire, propositioning you, while you cowered in the corner with your knitting. You could return from a trip to Boston to find your house in ashes and your family taken captive. The Indians skulked, they lurked, they flitted, they committed atrocities—and they vanished. “Our men could see no enemy to shoot at,” a Cambridge major general lamented.

King Philip’s War, a fifteen-month contest between the settlers and the Native Americans, had ended in 1676. It obliterated a third of New England’s towns, pulverized its economy, and claimed ten per cent of the adult male population. Every Bay Colony resident lost a friend or a relative; all knew of a dismemberment or an abduction. By 1692, another Indian war had begun to take shape, with a series of grisly raids by the Wabanaki and their French allies. The frontier had recently moved to within fifty miles of Salem.

From the pulpit came reminders of New England’s many depredations. The wilderness qualified as a sort of “devil’s den”; since the time of Moses, the prince of darkness had thrived there. He was hardly pleased to be displaced by a convoy of Puritans. He was in fact stark raving mad about it, preached Cotton Mather, the brilliant twenty-nine-year-old Boston minister. What, exactly, did an army of devils look like? Imagine “vast regiments of cruel and bloody French dragoons,” Mather instructed his North Church parishioners, and they would understand. He routinely muddied the zoological waters: Indians comported themselves like roaring lions or savage bears, Quakers like “grievous wolves.” The French, “dragons of the wilderness,” completed the diabolical menagerie. Given the symbiotic relationship of an oppressed people and an inhospitable landscape, it was from there but a short step to a colluding axis of evil.

The men who catalogued those dangers—who could discern a line of Revelation in a hailstorm—protected against them, spiritually and politically. They assisted in coups and installed regimes. Where witches were concerned, they deferred to the Biblical injunction: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” Exodus commands. The most literate men in Massachusetts in 1692 were also the most literal. Among them, few probed the subject of witchcraft as intently as did the lanky, light-haired Mather, who had entered Harvard at eleven and preached his first sermon at sixteen. He knew that the hidden world was there somewhere. He would relinquish no tool to exhibit it.

Mather shared the North Church pulpit with his illustrious father, Increase Mather. The president of Harvard, Increase was New England’s best-known and most prolific minister. (His son would eventually eclipse him on both counts, publishing four hundred and thirty-seven books, twenty-six of them in the next four years.) The elder Mather was returning from England that spring with a new charter. The fruit of three years’ negotiation, it promised at last to deliver Massachusetts from chaos. The colonists awaited it in jittery suspense; all manner of rumor circulated as to its terms. So unreliable was the news that a monarch could be dead one minute and alive the next.

In isolated settlements, in smoky, fire-lit homes, New Englanders lived very much in the dark, where one listens more acutely, feels most passionately, and imagines most vividly, where the sacred and the occult thrive. The seventeenth-century sky was crow black, pitch-black, Bible black, so black that it could be difficult at night to keep to the path, so black that a line of trees might freely migrate to another location, or that you might find yourself pursued by a rabid black hog, leaving you to crawl home on all fours, bloody and disoriented. Even the colony’s less isolated outposts felt their fragility. A tempest blew the roof off one of the finest homes in Salem as its ten occupants slept. A church went flying, with its congregation inside.

A visitor exaggerated when he reported that New Englanders could “neither drive a bargain, nor make a jest, without a text of Scripture at the end on it,” but he was not far off. If there was a book in the house, it was the Bible. The early modern American thought, breathed, dreamed, disciplined, bartered, and hallucinated in Biblical texts and imagery. St. John the Baptist might well turn up in a land dispute. A prisoner cited Deuteronomy 19:19 in his own defense. When a killer cat came flying in your window—taking hold of your throat and crushing your chest as you lay defenseless in your bed—you scared it away by invoking the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You also concluded that your irascible neighbor had paid a call, in feline form.

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Human frailty was understood to account for inclement weather: teeth chattering, toes numb, the Massachusetts Puritan had every reason to believe that he sinned flamboyantly. He did so especially during the arctic winter of 1691, when bread froze on Communion plates, ink in pens, sap in the fireplace. In tiny Salem village, the Reverend Samuel Parris preached to a chorus of rattling coughs and sniffles, to the shuffling of cruelly frostbitten feet. For everyone’s comfort, he curtailed his afternoon sermon of January 3, 1692. It was too cold to go on.

Weeks later, word got out that something was grievously wrong in the Parris household. The minister’s eleven-year-old niece and nine-year-old daughter complained of bites and pinches by “invisible agents.” Abigail and Betty launched into “foolish, ridiculous speeches.” Their bodies shuddered and spun. They went limp or spasmodically rigid. They interrupted sermons and fell into trances. Neither appeared to have time for prayer, though until January both had been perfectly well behaved and well mannered. At night they slept like babies.

In 1641, when the colonists established a legal code, the first capital crime was idolatry. The second was witchcraft. “If any man or woman be a witch, that is, has or consults with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death,” read the Massachusetts body of laws. Blasphemy came next, followed by murder, poisoning, and bestiality. In the years since, New England had indicted more than a hundred witches, about a quarter of them men. The first person to confess to having entered into a pact with Satan, a Connecticut servant, had prayed for his help with her chores. An assistant materialized to clear the ashes from the hearth and the hogs from the fields. The servant was indicted in 1648 for “familiarity with the devil.” Unable to resist a calamity, preternatural or otherwise, Cotton Mather disseminated an instructive account of her compact.

In 1688, four exemplary Boston children, the sons and daughters of a devout Boston stonelayer named John Goodwin, suffered from a baffling disorder. “They would bark at one another like dogs, and again purr like so many cats,” noted Mather, who observed Goodwin’s family and wrote of their afflictions in “Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions” the following year. (The 1689 volume was a salute to his father’s “Illustrious Providences,” a grab bag of apparitions and portents, published five years earlier.) The Goodwin children flew like geese, on one occasion for twenty feet. They recoiled from blows of invisible sticks, shrieked that they were sliced by knives or wrapped in chains. Jaws, wrists, necks flew out of joint. Parental reproof sent the children into agonies. Chores defied them. But “nothing in the world would so discompose them as a religious exercise,” Mather reported. Thirteen-year-old Martha could read an Oxford compendium of humor, although she seized up when handed a volume he deemed “profitable and edifying,” or one with the name Mather on the cover.

To observe her symptoms more closely, Mather that summer took Martha Goodwin into his home. She cantered, trotted, and galloped about the household on her “aeriel steed,” whistling through family prayer and pummelling anyone who attempted it in her presence—the worst house guest in history. She hurled books at Mather’s head. She read and reread his pages on her case, lampooning their author. The sauciness astonished him. “And she particularly told me,” Mather sputtered, four years before the Salem trials, “that I should quickly come to disgrace by that history.”

The cause of Martha’s afflictions was identified soon enough. The witch was the mother of a neighborhood laundress. On the stand, the defendant was unable adequately to recite the Lord’s Prayer, understood to be proof of guilt. She was hanged in November, 1688, on Boston Common.

Samuel Parris, the Salem minister, would have known every detail of the Goodwin family’s trials from Mather’s much reprinted “Memorable Providences.” The book included the pages Martha wildly ridiculed. The “agitations, writhings, tumblings, tossings, wallowings, foamings” in the parsonage were the same, only more acute. The girls cried that they were being stabbed with fine needles. Their skin burned. One disappeared halfway down a well. Their shrieks could be heard from a distance.

Through February, Parris fasted and prayed. He consulted with fellow-clergymen. With cider and cakes, he and his wife entertained the well-wishers who crowded their home. They prayed ardently, gooseflesh rising on their arms. They sang Psalms. But when the minister had had enough of the “odd postures and antic gestures,” the deranged speeches, when it became clear that Scripture would not relieve the girls’ preternatural symptoms, Parris called in the doctors.

In 1692, a basic medical kit looked little different from an ancient Greek one, consisting as it did of beetle’s blood, fox lung, and dried dolphin heart. In plasters or powders, snails figured in many remedies. Salem village had one practicing physician that winter. He owned nine medical texts; he could likely read but not write. His surgical arsenal consisted of lances, razors, and saws. The doctor who had examined a seizing Groton girl a generation earlier initially diagnosed a stomach disorder. On a second visit, he refused to administer to her further. The distemper was diabolical in origin.

Whoever examined Abigail and Betty arrived at the same conclusion. “The evil hand” came as no surprise; the supernatural explanation was already the one on the street. The diagnosis likely terrified the girls, whose symptoms deteriorated. It may have gratified Reverend Parris. Witchcraft was portentous, a Puritan favorite. Never before had it broken out in a parsonage. The Devil’s appearance was nearly a badge of honor, further proof that New Englanders were the chosen people. No wonder Massachusetts was troubled by witches, Cotton Mather exulted: “Where will the Devil show most malice but where he is hated, and hateth most?” The New England ministry had long been on the lookout for the apocalypse, imminent since the sixteen-fifties. The Book of Revelation predicted that the Devil would descend accompanied by “infernal fiends.” If they were about, God could not be far behind.

Soon the twelve-year-old daughter of a close friend of Parris’s began to shudder and choke. So did the village doctor’s teen-age niece. A creature had followed her home from an errand, through the snow; she now realized that it had not been a wolf at all. The girls named names. They could see the culprits clearly. Not one but three witches were loose in Salem.

What exactly was a witch? Any seventeenth-century New Englander could have told you. As workers of magic, witches and wizards extend as far back as recorded history. The witch as Salem conceived her materialized in the thirteenth century, when sorcery and heresy moved closer together. She came into her own with the Inquisition, as a popular myth yielded to a popular madness. The western Alps introduced her to lurid orgies. Germany launched her into the air. As the magician molted into the witch, she also became predominately female, inherently more wicked and more susceptible to satanic overtures. An influential fifteenth-century text compressed a shelf of classical sources to make its point: “When a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.” As is often the case with questions of women and power, elucidations here verged on the paranormal. Though weak willed, women could emerge as dangerously, insatiably commanding.

The English witch made the trip to North America largely intact. She signed her agreement with the Devil in blood, bore a mark on her body for her compact, and enchanted by way of charms, ointments, and poppets, doll-like effigies. Continental witches had more fun. They walked on their hands. They made pregnancies last for three years. They rode hyenas to bacchanals deep in the forest. They stole babies and penises. The Massachusetts witch disordered the barn and the kitchen. She seldom flew to illicit meetings, more common in Scandinavia and Scotland. Instead, she divined the contents of an unopened letter, spun suspiciously fine linen, survived falls down stairs, tipped hay from wagons, enchanted beer, or caused cattle to leap four feet off the ground. Witches could be muttering, contentious malcontents or inexplicably strong and unaccountably smart. They could commit the capital offense of having more wit than their neighbors, as a minister said of the third Massachusetts woman hanged for witchcraft, in 1656.

Matters were murkier when it came to the wily figure with six thousand years of experience, the master of disguise who could cause things to appear and disappear, who knew your secrets and could make you believe things of yourself that were not true. He turned up in New England as a hybrid monkey, man, and rooster, or as a fast-moving turtle. Even Cotton Mather was unsure what language he spoke. He was a pervasive presence, however: the air pulsed with his minions. Typically in Massachusetts, he wore a high-crowned hat, as he had in an earlier Swedish invasion, which Mather documented in his 1689 book. Mather did not mention the brightly colored scarf that the Devil wound around his hat. Like the Swedish devil’s gartered stockings or red beard, it never turned up in New England.

By May, 1692, eight Salem girls had claimed to be enchanted by individuals whom most of them had never met. Several served as visionaries; relatives of the ailing made pilgrimages to consult with them. They might be only eleven or twelve, but under adult supervision they could explain how several head of cattle had frozen to death, several communities away, six years earlier. In the courtroom, they provided prophetic direction, cautioning that a suspect would soon topple a child, or cause a woman to levitate. Minutes later, the victim’s feet rose from the floor. With their help, at least sixty witches had been deposed and jailed by the end of the month, more than the Massachusetts prisons had ever accommodated. Those who had frozen through the winter began to roast in the sweltering spring.

On May 27th, the new Massachusetts governor, Sir William Phips, established a special court to try the witchcraft cases. He assembled on the bench nine of the “people of the best prudence and figure that could be pitched upon.” At its head he installed his lieutenant governor, sixty-year-old William Stoughton. A political shape-shifter, Stoughton had served in five prior Massachusetts regimes. He had helped to unseat the reviled royal governor, on whose council he sat and whose courts he headed. He possessed one of the finest legal minds in the colony.

The court met in early June, and sentenced the first witch to hang on the tenth. It also requested a bit of guidance. During the next days, twelve ministers conferred. Cotton Mather drafted their reply, a circumspect, eight-paragraph document, delivered mid-month. Acknowledging the enormity of the crisis, he issued a paean to good government. He urged “exquisite caution.” He warned of the dangers posed to those “formerly of an unblemished reputation.”

In the lines that surely received the greatest scrutiny, Mather reminded the justices that convictions should not rest purely on spectral evidence—evidence visible only to the enchanted, who conversed with the Devil or with his confederates. Mather would insist on the point throughout the summer. Other considerations must weigh against the suspected witch, “inasmuch as ’tis an undoubted and a notorious thing” that a devil might impersonate an innocent, even virtuous, man. Mather wondered whether the entire calamity might be resolved if the court discounted those testimonies. With a sweeping “nevertheless”—a word that figured in every 1692 Mather statement on witchcraft—he then executed an about-face. Having advised “exquisite caution,” he endorsed a “speedy and vigorous prosecution.”

A month later, Ann Foster, a seventy-two-year-old widow from neighboring Andover, submitted to the first of several Salem interrogations. Initially, she denied all involvement with sorcery. Soon enough, she began to unspool a fantastical tale. The Devil had appeared to her as an exotic bird. He promised prosperity, along with the gift of afflicting at a glance. She had not seen him in six months, but her ill-tempered neighbor, Martha Carrier, had been in touch on his behalf.

At Carrier’s direction, Foster had bewitched several children and a hog. She worked her sorcery with poppets. Carrier had announced a Devil’s Sabbath in May, arranging their trip by air. There were twenty-five people in the meadow, where a former Salem village minister officiated. Three days later, from jail, Foster added a malfunctioning pole and a mishap to her account. The pole had snapped as the women flew, causing them to crash, Foster’s leg crumpling beneath her.

She appeared entirely coöperative, both in a jail interview with a minister and before her interrogators. The justices soon learned that Foster had failed to come clean, however. It seemed that she and Carrier had neither flown nor crashed alone on that Salem-bound pole: a third rider had travelled silently behind Foster. So divulged forty-year-old Mary Lacey, a newly arrested suspect, on July 20th. Foster had also withheld the details of a chilling ceremony. The Devil had baptized his recruits, dipping their heads in water, six at a time. He performed the sacrament in a nearby river, to which he had carried Lacey in his arms. On July 21st, Ann Foster appeared before the magistrates for the fourth time. That hearing was particularly sensational: Mary Lacey, who supplied the details missing from Foster’s account, was her daughter.

“Did not you know your daughter to be a witch?” one justice asked Foster. She did not, and seemed taken aback. Mary Warren, a pretty, twenty-year-old servant, helpfully chimed in, a less dramatic witness at Foster’s hearing than she appeared on other occasions, when blood trickled from her mouth or spread across her bonnet. Warren shared with the court what a spectre had confided in her: Foster had recruited her own daughter. The authorities understood that she had done so about thirteen years earlier. Was that correct? “No, and I know no more of my daughter’s being a witch than what day I shall die upon,” Foster replied, sounding as unequivocal as she had been on the details of the misbegotten Salem flight. A magistrate coaxed her: “You cannot expect peace of conscience without a free confession.” Foster swore that if she knew anything more she would reveal it.

At this, Mary Lacey was called. She berated her mother: “We have forsaken Jesus Christ, and the Devil hath got hold of us. How shall we get clear of this evil one?” Under her breath, Foster began to pray. “What God do witches pray to?” a justice needled. “I cannot tell, the Lord help me,” the befuddled old woman replied, as her daughter delivered fresh details of their flight to the village green and of the satanic baptism. Her mother, Lacey revealed, rode first on the stick.

Court officers removed the two older women and escorted Lacey’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Mary Lacey, Jr., into the room. Mary Warren fell at once into fits. At first, the younger Lacey was unhelpful. “Where is my mother that made me a witch and I knew it not?” she cried, a yet more disturbing question than the one posed in June, when a suspect wondered whether she might be a witch and not know it. Asked to smile at Warren without hurting her, Mary Lacey failed. Warren collapsed to the floor. “Do you acknowledge now that you are a witch?” Lacey was asked. She could only agree, although she seemed to be working from a different definition: a recalcitrant child, she had caused her parents plenty of trouble. She had, she insisted, signed no diabolical pact.

The ideal Puritan girl was a sterling amalgam of modesty, piety, and tireless industry. She was to speak neither too soon nor too much. She read her Scripture twice daily. Increase Mather warned that youths who disregarded their mothers could expect to “come to the gallows, and be hanged in gibbets for the ravens and eagles to feed upon them.” The attention to a youngster’s spiritual state intensified at adolescence, when children became simultaneously more capable of reason and less reasonable. Fourteen was the dividing line in law, for slander among other matters. One was meant then to embrace sobriety and to “put away childish things,” as a father reminded his Harvard-bound son.

The father was the master of the family, its soul, the governor of all the governed. He was often an active and engaged parent. He sat vigil in the sickroom. He fretted over his children’s bodies and souls. A majority of the bewitched girls had lost fathers; at least half were refugees from or had been orphaned by attacks in “the last Indian war.” Those absences were deeply felt. A roaring girl wrestled aloud with the demons who would assault her the following year: she was well aware that she was fatherless—how often did they need to remind her as much? But she was hardly an orphan. In a heated, one-sided conversation, observed and preserved by Cotton Mather, the seventeen-year-old admonished her tormentors, “I have God for my father and I don’t question but he’ll provide well for me.”

The justices reminded Mary Lacey, Jr., that if she desired to be saved by Christ she would confess. “She then proceeded,” the court reporter noted. She was more profligate with details than her mother or her grandmother had been. It was a hallmark of Salem that the younger generation—Cotton Mather included—could be relied on for the most luxuriant reports. It appeared easier to describe satanic escapades when an adolescent had already been told, or believed, that she cavorted with the Devil. The record allows a fleeting glimpse of Mary’s sense of herself. “I have been a disobed—” she began, after which the page is torn.

Following Mary’s testimony, her mother was returned to the room. The older woman had so often scolded that the Devil should fetch her away. Her wish had come true! Tears streaming down her face, the teen-ager now managed a spot of revenge: “Oh, mother, why did you give me to the Devil twice or thrice over?” Mary sobbed. She prayed that the Lord might expose all the witches. Officials led in her grandmother; three generations of enchantresses stood before the justices. Mary continued her rant: “Oh, grandmother, why did you give me to the Devil? Why did you persuade me and, oh, grandmother, do not you deny it. You have been a very bad woman in your time.” The three returned to jail as a clutch of warrants made their way to Andover.

By the end of July, it was clear that— with the help of a minister mastermind—the Devil intended to topple the Church and subvert the country, something he had never before attempted in New England. Certain patterns emerged as well. To cast aspersions on a bewitched girl, to visit one’s imprisoned spouse too regularly, was to risk accusation. It bordered on heresy to question the validity of witchcraft, the legitimacy of the evidence, or the wisdom of the court. The skeptic was a marked man. It could be wise to name names before anyone mentioned yours. It was safer to be afflicted than accused. Increasingly, you slept under the same roof, if not in the same bed, as your accuser.

Bewitched women choked with fits, whereas men—who stepped forward only once the trials had begun—tended to submit to paralyzing bedroom visits. Imputations proved impossible to outrun. The word of two ministers could not save an accused parishioner. Neither age, fortune, gender, nor church membership offered immunity; prominent men stood accused alongside homeless five-year-old girls. No one ever suffered afflictions without being able to name a witch. Many braced for a knock at the door.

The court met again early in August, when three men were convicted: George Jacobs, an elderly farmer; John Willard, a much younger one; and John Proctor, the first village man to have been accused. In Cotton Mather’s first Thursday sermon that month, he addressed the trial that all of Massachusetts awaited. Tipping his hand a little, he called once for compassion for the accused, twice for pity for the justices. They were, after all, up against the greatest sophist in existence. They labored to restore the innocent while excising the diabolical; it made for a hazardous operation. The following day, Mather wrote excitedly to an uncle in Plymouth. God was working in miracles. No sooner had they executed five witches—all impudently protesting their innocence—than God had dispatched the Andover witches, who offered “a most ample, surprising, amazing confession of all their villainies,” acknowledging the five executed that had been their confederates, and naming many more. They identified their ringleader, who came to trial that afternoon. “A vast concourse of people,” noted Mather, made their way to Salem for the event, his father among them.

The demonic mastermind was a minister in his early forties named George Burroughs. He had grown up in Maryland and graduated from Harvard in 1670, narrowly missing Samuel Parris. He was in his late twenties when he first arrived in Salem village, where he spent three contentious years. He was never ordained. Before and after that tenure, Burroughs served on the vulnerable Maine frontier. During a 1689 raid, he had joined in a seven-hour battle, waged in a field and an orchard. A veteran Boston militia captain lauded the Reverend for his unexpected role. The assault cost the settlers dearly; two hundred and fifty of them were killed or taken captive. Twice widowed, Burroughs retreated down the coast to Wells, eighty miles north of Boston. From a lice-infested garrison, he several times in the winter of 1692 appealed to the colonial authorities, who had withdrawn troops from the frontier, for clothing and provisions. The enemy lurked outside. They could not hold out for long.

Burroughs’s spectre had been terrifying Salem villagers since April, when he first choked the twelve-year-old daughter of the Parris stalwart. He nearly tore her to pieces, bragging afterward that he outranked a wizard—he was a conjurer. (Days later, he introduced himself with the same credentials to Parris’s niece, whom he also bewitched.) He had murdered several women and—evidently a secret agent, in the employ of the French and the Indians—dispatched a number of frontier soldiers as well. His mission was a frightful one, he informed the twelve-year-old: he who should have been teaching children to fear God had now “come to persuade poor creatures to give their souls to the Devil.” It was he who presided over the satanic Sabbaths.

Sixteen people had given evidence at Burroughs’s preliminary hearing. Nearly twice as many testified at his trial. Eight confessed witches revealed that he had been promised a kingship in Satan’s reign. Nine witnesses accused the short, muscular minister—a “very puny man,” in the estimation of Cotton Mather—of feats that would have taxed a giant. (Mather provided the sole surviving account of the trial, although we have no evidence that he ever entered the courtroom.) “None of us could do what he could do,” a forty-two-year-old Salem weaver recalled. He had attempted to lift a shotgun that Burroughs had fired but, even with both hands, could not steady the seven-foot weapon. Asked to account for his preternatural strength, Burroughs said that an Indian had assisted him in firing the musket. Lurking behind the testimony was what may have been the most pertinent charge against the former village minister: he had survived every Indian attack unscathed. Several of the bewitched had not been so lucky. Others who might have testified about the musket handling were dead.

The girls delivered up their own reports with difficulty, falling into testimony-stopping trances, yelping that Burroughs bit them. They displayed their wounds for court officials, who inspected the minister’s mouth. The imprints matched perfectly. Choking and thrashing stalled the proceedings; the court could do nothing but wait for the girls to recover. During one delay, Chief Justice Stoughton appealed to the defendant. What, he asked, did Burroughs think throttled them? The minister replied that he assumed it was the Devil. “How comes the devil then to be so loath to have any testimony born against you?” Stoughton challenged. A brainteaser of a question, it left Burroughs without an answer.

He was equally bewildered when ghosts began to flit about the overcrowded room. Some observers who were not bewitched saw them too. Directly before Burroughs, a girl recoiled from a horrible sight: she explained that she stared into the blood-red faces of his dead wives. The ghosts demanded justice. By no account an agreeable man, Burroughs managed to join abusive behavior at home with miraculous feats abroad. If those in the court did not know already that, as Mather had it, Burroughs “had been famous for the barbarous use of his two late wives, all the country over,” they did soon enough. He monitored their correspondences. He made them swear never to reveal his secrets. He berated them days after they had given birth. All evidence pointed to the same conclusion: he was a bad man but a very good wizard.

At one point, a former brother-in-law testified, Burroughs had vanished in the midst of a strawberry-picking expedition. His companions hollered for him in vain. They rode home to find that he had preceded them, on foot and with a full basket of berries. He had divined as well what was said about him in his absence. The Devil could not know as much, the brother-in-law protested, to which Burroughs replied, “My God makes known your thoughts unto me.” Was it possible, the chief justice suggested, that a devil had fitted Burroughs into some sort of invisibility cloak, so that he might “gratify his own jealous humor, to hear what they said of him”? Burroughs’s answer is lost; Mather deemed it not “worth considering.” The evidence dwarfed the objections. Burroughs does seem to have bungled his defense. He stumbled repeatedly, offering contradictory answers—a luxury afforded only the accusers. As for “his tergiversations, contra-dictions, and falsehoods,” Mather chided, “there never was a prisoner more eminent for them.”

Out of excuses, Burroughs extracted a paper from his pocket. He seemed to believe it a deal-clincher. He did not contest the validity of spectral evidence, as had others who came before the court, who did not care to be convicted for crimes they committed in someone else’s imagination. Instead, Burroughs, reading from the paper, asserted that “there neither are, nor ever were witches, that having made a compact with the Devil can send a Devil to torment other people at a distance.” It was the most objectionable thing he could have suggested. If diabolical compacts did not exist, if the Devil could not subcontract out his work to witches, the Court of Oyer and Terminer had sent six innocents to their deaths.

A tussle ensued. Stoughton—who had graduated from Harvard around the time Burroughs was born—recognized the lines at once. Burroughs had lifted them from the work of Thomas Ady. A leading English skeptic, Ady inveighed against “groundless, fantastical doctrines,” fairy tales and old wives’ tales, the results of middle-of-the-night imaginings, excessive drinking, and blows to the head. Though witches existed, they were rare. The Bible nowhere connected them with murder, or with imps, compacts, or flights through the air.

Ady believed that witches were a convenient excuse for the ignorant physician. He suggested that when misfortune struck we should not struggle to recall who had last come to the door. Burroughs denied having borrowed the passage, then amended his answer. A visitor had passed him the text in manuscript. He had transcribed it. He had already several times agreed with the justices that witches plagued New England. It was too late for such a dangerous gambit.

Early on the morning of August 19th, the largest throng to date turned out to inspect the first men whom Massachusetts was to execute for witchcraft. Martha Carrier joined them on the trip to the gallows. As the cart creaked up the hill, George Burroughs, George Jacobs, John Proctor, and John Willard insisted that they had been falsely accused. They hoped that the real witches would soon be revealed. They “declared their wish,” a bystander reported, “that their blood might be the last innocent blood shed upon that account.” They remained “sincere, upright, and sensible of their circumstances, on all accounts.” They forgave their accusers, the justices, the jury; they prayed they might be pardoned for their actual sins. Cotton Mather journeyed to Salem for the execution. Some of the condemned appealed to him in heartrending terms. Would he help them to prepare spiritually for the journey ahead? It is unclear if he did so or if he held the same hard line as the Salem town minister, who did not pray with witches.

Burroughs appears to have climbed the ladder first. With composure, he paused midway to offer what many expected to be a long-delayed confession. A wisp of his former self after fourteen weeks in a dungeon, he remained a contrarian. Perched above a crowd that included his former in-laws and parishioners, a noose around his neck, he delivered an impassioned speech. With his last breaths, Burroughs entrusted himself to the Almighty. Tears rolled down cheeks all around before he concluded with some disquieting lines. “Our Father, who art in Heaven,” Burroughs began, continuing, from the ladder, with a blunder-free recitation of the Lord’s Prayer—an impossible feat for a wizard, one that any number of other suspects had not managed. For a few moments, it seemed as if the crowd would obstruct the execution.

Minutes later, the minister dangled from a roughly finished beam. The life had not gone from his body when Mather, on horseback, pressed forward to smother the sparks of discontent. He reminded the spectators that Burroughs had never been ordained. (That was also true of others on the hill that day, but at least made the dying minister seem unorthodox.) What better disguise might the Devil choose on such an occasion, Mather challenged, than to masquerade as “an angel of light”? To the last, George Burroughs was condemned for his gifts. The protests quieted, as did the minister hanging in midair. He may have heard a portion of Mather’s remarks.

The execution of a beguiling, Scripture-spouting minister, protesting his innocence to the end, created nearly as much disquiet as had the idea that a beguiling, Scripture-spouting minister recruited for the Devil. It raised qualms about the court and on the bench. Several of the justices soon allowed that their methods had been “too violent and not grounded upon a right foundation”; were they to sit again, they would proceed differently. And it sent Cotton Mather to his desk.

On September 2nd, he wrote to the chief justice. Already, Mather claimed, he had done far more behind the scenes than Stoughton could possibly know. He had been fasting almost weekly through the summer for an end to the sulfurous assault. He felt that the Massachusetts ministers ought to support the court in its weighty, worthy task; none had sufficiently done so. He volunteered to step into the breach, to “flatten that fury, which we now much turn upon one another.” He had begun to write up a little something, “to set our calamity in as true a light as I can.” With this new book, he proposed to dispel any doubts that innocents were in danger, a passage he underlined. Mather promised to submit his narrative to Stoughton, so that “there may not be one word out of point.” Might the chief justice and his colleagues sign off on his endeavor, which would remind the people of their duties in such a crisis? In a singular valediction, Mather wished Stoughton “success in your noble encounters with Hell.”

Increase Mather, too, was at work on a book. As father and son wrote, confessions and concerns multiplied. Reports circulated that seven hundred witches preyed on Massachusetts. A prominent Bostonian carried his ailing child the twenty miles to Salem, the Lourdes of New England, to be evaluated by the village girls, incurring the wrath of Increase Mather. Was there “not a God in Boston,” he exploded, “that he should go to the Devil in Salem for advice?” Things were wholly out of hand when a Boston divine was up against an adolescent oracle. On October 4th, for the first time, seven suspects, all under the age of eighteen, went home on bail. Among the eldest was Mary Lacey, Jr., Ann Foster’s headstrong granddaughter.

“I found this province miserably harassed with a most horrible witchcraft,” Governor Phips wrote on October 12th, in his first report to London on the supernatural plague. He sounded as if he were writing from Sweden rather than from Boston, borrowing Mather’s details of that infestation. Grappling with the future of the court, which was scheduled to reconvene in two weeks, he insisted that the justices had always ruled with empirical evidence, but admitted that many now condemned their work. He placed a ban on witchcraft books. “I saw a likelihood of kindling an inextinguishable flame if I should admit any public and open contests,” Phips explained. That ban applied only to volumes that did not bear the name Mather on the cover. “The Wonders of the Invisible World” soon slipped into print, followed by Increase Mather’s “Cases of Conscience,” both artfully postdated to 1693.

“The Wonders of the Invisible World” was America’s first instant book. Garlanded in credentials, it advertised itself as having been “published by the special command of his Excellency the Governor.” Stoughton prefaced the volume, professing himself mildly surprised but immensely gratified by the work. What a timely account, so carefully and moderately composed! The chief justice was particularly grateful for Mather’s painstaking efforts, “considering the place that I hold in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, still laboring and proceeding in the trial of the persons accused and convicted for witchcraft.” Cotton Mather introduced the text with a tribute to his own courage. It was crucial that proper use be made of the “stupendous and prodigious things that are happening among us.” He did so only, he professed, because no one else volunteered. Weeks earlier, he had promised that his work would in no way interfere with that of two colleagues, whom he effectively cut off at the pass.

What constituted sufficient proof of witchcraft? Father and son disagreed. Fifty-three-year-old Increase explained in “Cases” that a “free and voluntary confession” remained the gold standard. When credible men and women could attest to these things, the evidence was sound. He had no patience for mewling teen-age girls. One did not accept testimony from “a distracted person or of a possessed person in a case of murder, theft, felony of any sort, then neither may we do it in the case of witchcraft.” He cast a vote for clemency: “I would rather,” he wrote, “judge a witch to be an honest woman than judge an honest woman as a witch.”

Cotton Mather worried less about condemning an innocent than about allowing a witch to walk free. In “Wonders,” he set out “to countermine the whole plot of the devil against New England.” He would not be surprised if the witchcraft reached even farther than was suspected, folding into his volume an account of a celebrated thirty-year-old English case, similar to Salem’s, except perhaps for a combusting toad. He chose that trial with reason: it was one in which spectral evidence had served to convict. Mather seems occasionally to have embroidered on court reports with details that appear nowhere in the surviving pages: the smell of brimstone, money raining down, a corner of a sheet ripped from a spectre. He otherwise adhered closely to the evidence while working some magic with his pages; no witnesses for the defense or petitions on their behalf appear in “Wonders.” Mather included all the crowd-pleasing spectral stories, while issuing regular reminders that flights and pacts played only supporting roles in the convictions.

He expressed his fervent hope that some of the witches in custody might prove innocent. They deserve “our most compassionate pity, till there be fuller evidences that they are less worthy of it.” Twenty pages later, he wrote of George Burroughs, “Glad I should have been if I had never known the name of this man.” His very initials revolted Mather. He wrote up five trial accounts in all; Burroughs alone was so powerful a wizard that he could not be named.

As quickly as Mather worked, “The Wonders of the Invisible World” arrived as a case of too much too late. Conceived as a justification, billed as a felicitous accident, advertised in the author’s own words, the volume read as a full-throated apologia. Governor Phips disbanded the witchcraft court at the end of October. Days after the book’s publication, Mather wailed to his Plymouth-based uncle. A cataract of “unkindness, abuse, and reproach” roared his way. People said lovely things to his face and hideous things behind his back. He meant only to tamp down dissent at a critical time. He found himself under fire for another infraction as well: filial disrespect. He had not endorsed his father’s volume. (Nor had his father endorsed his.) Among all the freewheeling accusations in 1692, not once had a father accused a son or a son implicated a father. He could see little to do but die.

The new administration could ill afford a rift at this juncture; Increase Mather added a postscript to his pages. He remained convinced that witches roamed the land. He meant not to deny witchcraft but to make its prosecution more exact. He had declined to endorse his son’s volume only out of an aversion to nepotism; he was most grateful to him for having established that no one had been convicted purely on spectral evidence. He too made a point of including Burroughs, who had, Increase Mather assured his readers, accomplished things that no one who “has not a devil to be his familiar could perform.” Burroughs had deserved to hang. As Cotton Mather saw it, he had made a case for prosecuting the guilty, his father for protecting the innocent. Were they not saying the same thing? An early death no longer appealed.

Ayear after the trials, Cotton Mather treated two newly afflicted girls. A seventeen-year-old servant began to convulse after insulting a woman who had been imprisoned in 1692. The girl interrupted sermons and fell into trances. She went twelve days without food. She discoursed with spectres who tempted her with diabolical pacts; she shrieked so loudly that well-wishers fled the room; she tore a leaf from Mather’s Bible. He followed the same protocol he had with the Goodwins, four years and nineteen executions earlier, assembling groups to pray and to sing Psalms at her bedside.

Both girls eventually recovered. Mather devoted thirty-eight pages to the initial case but left them unpublished. Given the tenor of the times, he wrote, “No man in his wits would fully expose his thoughts unto them, till the charms which enrage the people are a little better dissipated.” He did not care in 1693 to cultivate what, centuries later, would be termed the paranoid strain in American politics, with its “sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.” Political stability remained paramount. Mather did, however, retail the teen-ager’s report that Frenchmen and Indians—“horrid sorcerers and hellish conjurers”—had colluded in Salem witchcraft. He insisted on it for years.

“There is no public calamity,” Mather noted, in “Wonders,” “but some ill people will serve themselves of the sad providence, and make use of it for their own ends, as thieves when a house or town is on fire, will steal what they can.” Twenty-eight years later, a smallpox epidemic raged through Boston. Cotton Mather faced down the entire medical establishment to advocate something that seemed every bit as dubious as spectral evidence: inoculation. He had studied medicine at Harvard. Over the decades, he had come better to understand infectious disease. Moving from imps and witches to germs and viruses, he at last located the devils we inhale with every breath. The battle turned so vitriolic that it dragged Salem out of hiding; Mather was bludgeoned for lunacy on two counts. Yet again, Massachusetts seemed to be in the grip of distemper. The people talked, he huffed in his diary, “not only like idiots but also like fanaticks.” He remained as steadfast on the subject of inoculation as he had been equivocal on witchcraft. In November, 1721, a homemade bomb came sailing in his window at 3 a.m . His reputation never recovered. ♦

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By Douglas Starr

By Judith Thurman

By David Remnick

By Rebecca Mead

Salem Witch Trials — the Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692

February 1692–May 1693

The Salem Witch Trials are a series of well-known investigations, court proceedings, and prosecutions that took place in Salem, Massachusetts over the course of 1692 and 1693.

This illustration by Howard Pyle depicts one of the accusers pointing at the accused and saying, “There is a flock of yellow birds around her head.” It is an example of the spectral evidence that was permitted at the trials. Image Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections .

Salem Witch Trials Summary

The Salem Witch Trials took place in colonial Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693 when people living in and around the town of Salem, Massachusetts were accused of practicing witchcraft or dealing with the Devil. The accusations were initially made by two young girls in the early part of the year.

By May, William Phips had been named Governor of Massachusetts and a new charter had been implemented. Initially, Phips responded to the accusations by setting up a special court — the Court of Oyer and Terminer — to hear the cases and to determine the fate of the accused.

Unfortunately, the court was controversial because they allowed “spectral” evidence — visions of ghosts, demons, and the Devil — to be entered into the proceedings. It seemed to fuel the hysteria, which was likely elevated by King William’s War, which was going on in New England at the same time.

By the fall, 19 men and women had been convicted and hanged, and another was pressed to death . Another man died from having heavy stones placed on him. Somewhere between 150 and 200 were in prison or had spent time in prison.

Governor Phips ended the special court in October after accusations were made against well-respected members of the community. In January 1693, the trials resumed, but under the Supreme Court of Judicature. Spectral evidence was not allowed, and most of the accused were found innocent of the witchcraft charges and released.

A handful of the people accused of witchcraft were convicted, but Governor Phips intervened in May 1693 and agreed to release them as long as they paid a fine. By the time the proceedings ended, it was the largest outbreak of witchcraft in Colonial America .

Salem Witch Trials Facts

Facts about the accusers in the salem witch trials.

Two young girls, Elizabeth Paris and Abigail Williams started to act in a strange manner, which included making strange noises and hiding from their parents and other adults.

Elizabeth Paris, known as Betty, was 9 years old. Her father was the Reverend Samuel Paris.

Abigail Williams was 11 years old. Reverend Paris was her uncle.

More young girls in Salem Village started to show similar symptoms, including 12-year-old Anne Putnam and 17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard.

Facts About the Accused in the Salem Witch Trials

The first people accused of witchcraft were Tituba, an enslaved woman, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne.

Dorothy Good was the youngest person to be accused of witchcraft. She was 4 years old.

Facts About the Role and Testimony of Tituba in the Salem Witch Trials

Tituba is believed to be an enslaved woman from Central America, possibly from Barbados.

She lived in the home of Reverend Paris and had been taken to Massachusetts by Paris in 1680.

Tituba confessed to using witchcraft.

She testified that four women, including Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good, along with a man, had told her to hurt the children.

Her testimony convinced the people of Salem Village that witchcraft was rampant in the town.

Facts About People Convicted and Executed During the Salem Witch Trials

The first person to be executed was Bridget Bishop.

Over the course of the Salem Witch Trials, 19 people were hanged at Proctor’s Ledge, near Gallows Hill.

Another one of the accused, Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea before the court and was ordered to be pressed to death. He was laid down on the ground and had heavy boards placed on top of him. Then heavy rocks were set on the boards until he was crushed by the weight.

The charges against all victims of the Salem Witch Trials were eventually cleared.

The Special Court

The Court of Oyer and Terminer was the special court ordered to oversee the trials, as ordered by Governor William Phips.

Salem Witch Trials Significance

The Salem Witch Trials were important because they showed how quickly accusations and hysteria could spread through Colonial America. At the time, the Witch Trials also threatened the authority and stability of the new charter and government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, while King William’s War raged across New England and Acadia .

Salem Witch Trials APUSH — Notes and Study Guide

Use the following links and videos to study the Salem Witch Trials, King Willilam’s War, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the AP US History Exam. Also, be sure to look at our Guide to the AP US History Exam .

Salem Witch Trials APUSH Definition

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions that occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. The trials were a dark chapter in American history, characterized by mass hysteria and accusations of witchcraft. Numerous individuals, predominantly women, were accused of practicing witchcraft, leading to the execution of 20 people — 13 women and 7 men. The trials were fueled by social, religious, and political factors, partially driven by King William’s War, resulting in tragic consequences for the victims and their families.

Salem Witch Trials Video for APUSH Notes

This video from the Daily Bellringer provides a detailed look at the Salem Witch Trials.

Salem Witch Trials APUSH Terms and Definitions

William Phips — William Phips was the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Salem Witch Trials. He played a significant role in bringing an end to the trials by dissolving the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which was responsible for the majority of the convictions. Phips was concerned about the growing public skepticism and criticism surrounding the trials, prompting him to take decisive action and promote a more rational approach to handling alleged witches. He was also worried about the public perception the trials had, during a time of war.

Court of Oyer and Terminer — The Court of Oyer and Terminer was a special court established in 1692 to handle the cases of alleged witches in Salem and surrounding areas. The court was led by several judges, including William Stoughton, and it operated under a unique legal process that allowed spectral evidence, or testimonies of dreams and visions, to be admitted as valid evidence. This, along with other factors, contributed to a biased and unjust environment during the trials.

William Stoughton — William Stoughton was a prominent judge and the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He presided over the Court of Oyer and Terminer during the Salem Witch Trials. He played a pivotal role in the harsh convictions and sentencing of numerous accused individuals. His unwavering support for spectral evidence and his lack of leniency exacerbated the severity of the trials’ outcomes. After Phips dismissed the cases, Stoughton worked to have him removed as Governor.

Samuel Paris — Reverend Samuel Paris was the minister of Salem Village and one of the central figures in the initial events that sparked the witch trials. He was the father of Elizabeth Paris and the uncle of Abigail Williams, two young girls who experienced mysterious fits and claimed to be afflicted by witchcraft. His role as a religious authority and his support for the accusations fueled the hysteria, contributing to the escalation of the trials.

Elizabeth Paris — Elizabeth Paris was the nine-year-old daughter of Samuel Paris and one of the first accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. With her cousin Abigail Williams, she exhibited peculiar behaviors, including seizures and strange utterances, which were attributed to witchcraft. Their accusations against various individuals, especially Tituba, were instrumental in initiating the investigations and subsequent arrests.

Abigail Williams — Abigail Williams, the eleven-year-old cousin of Elizabeth Paris, was another crucial accuser during the Salem Witch Trials. Like her cousin, she displayed symptoms of bewitchment and was among the first to accuse others, leading to a chain reaction of allegations.

Anne Putnam — Anne Putnam was a teenage girl from Salem Village who actively participated in the trials as an accuser. She made numerous accusations against various individuals, contributing to the mounting hysteria. Her motivations for involvement remain a topic of historical debate, with some suggesting that personal grievances and religious fervor influenced her actions.

Tituba — Tituba was an enslaved woman from the Caribbean who worked in the household of Reverend Samuel Paris. She became one of the first individuals accused of practicing witchcraft after Elizabeth and Abigail accused her of bewitching them. Tituba’s origin and cultural differences contributed to her status as an outsider in Salem, making her an easy target for accusations. Under pressure, she confessed to being a witch and provided testimonies that increased the intensity of the trials.

Bridget Bishop — Bridget Bishop was the first person to be tried and executed during the Salem Witch Trials. She was known for her unconventional lifestyle and had been accused of witchcraft once before.

John Proctor — John Proctor was a respected farmer in Salem Village and one of the central figures in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible,” which was based on the events of the witch trials. Proctor was accused of witchcraft after he spoke out against the proceedings, expressing skepticism about the legitimacy of the trials. His refusal to falsely confess and his unwavering integrity ultimately led to his tragic execution.

Giles Corey — Giles Corey was an elderly farmer who became entangled in the witch trials when his wife, Martha Corey, was accused of witchcraft. In a notable act of protest against the unjust proceedings, Corey refused to enter a plea in court, leading to a brutal form of punishment known as pressing. Corey died during the punishment.

King William’s War — King William’s War was a conflict between England and France that occurred from 1689 to 1697, overlapping with the time of the Salem Witch Trials. The war was part of a larger conflict known as the Nine Years’ War or the War of the Grand Alliance. Its impact on the region, including heightened tensions and security concerns, likely contributed to the climate of fear and paranoia in Salem, potentially influencing the outbreak of the witch trials.

Salem Witch Trials — Primary and Secondary Sources

• The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692 by Thomas Hutchinson , William Frederick Poole, and Richard Frothingham
• The Wonders of the Invisible World : Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England by Cotton Mather
• Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men, Witchcrafts, Infallible Proofs of Guilt in Such as are Accused with the Crime  by Increase Mather
• Written by Randal Rust

SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS RESEARCH GUIDE

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people, including several children, were accused of witchcraft by their neighbors. In total, 25 people were executed or died in jail during the trials. The preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in various towns across the province: Salem Village (now Danvers), Ipswich, Andover, Topsfield, and Salem Town. The best-known trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 and the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, both in Salem Town.

The original manuscripts in this collection were digitized as part of the New England’s HIdden Histories project and are held by our project partners, the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum . Further information about the collection can be found in the Phillips Library's finding aid .

Many of the documents were previously digitized by the University of Virginia as part of their Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project , which began in 1999. In 2017, members of the CLA and Phillips Library staff found several documents in the Phillips Library’s collection which had not yet been digitized. These documents were digitized as part of our New England's Hidden Histories project and may be accessed below or in our digital archive .

For ease of use, we have provided information about all of the documents in the collection here, regardless of where the digitized versions can be accessed. Documents only available through the University of Virginia site can be found in the Related Materials section.

MATERIALS DIGITIZED BY NEHH

These documents are organized alphabetically by the last name of the accused, and then in chronological order for each case. Links to the digitized records are provided for each individual. All documents previously digitized by the University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project are indicated with an asterisk next to each individual’s name and can be accessed on their website at https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/eia.html .

Mary Barker*

Mary Barker of Andover was 13 years old in 1692, when she and other members of her family were accused of witchcraft by Samuel Martin and Moses Tyler. Shortly after her arrest on August 29, 1692, Barker confessed and accused two others (Goodwives Faulkner and Johnson) of forcing her to sign the "Devil's book." She was eventually found not guilty and released.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 August 29 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin  

William Barker, Jr.*

14-year-old William Barker Jr. from Andover, MA was the first cousin of Mary Barker and was arrested shortly after her. William Jr.'s father, William Barker Sr., was also arrested but later escaped. On the day of William Jr.'s arrest (Sep. 1, 1692) he confessed to witchcraft and also accused one "Goody Parker" of the same crime. Court magistrates later arrested Mary Ayer Parker, one of several women with the Parker surname living in Andover, who was subsequently executed. This has led to speculation that Mary Ayer Parker was not the intended target of William Jr.'s accusation. William Jr. remained in prison until 1693 but was eventually acquitted.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 September 16 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson

Sarah Bridges*

17-year-old Sarah Bridges initially maintained her innocence upon her arrest on August 25, 1692. She did, however, accuse her stepsister, Hannah Post, of witchcraft in the same testimony. Later she would also confess, claiming that there were an additional 200 witches in the Salem area. She was found not guilty.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 August 25 Accusers: The Justices of Salem

Carrier Family

Several members of the Carrier family of Andover were accused of witchcraft. These included siblings Sarah (8), Thomas (10), Andrew (15), and Richard (18), along with their mother Martha Allen Carrier. Martha was arrested on May 28, 1962, and her children were also taken into custody and examined. Their mother was later found guilty and hanged along with George Burroughs, John Proctor, George Jacobs Sr., and John Willard on August 19, 1692. According to the account of John Proctor who was imprisoned with them, the Carrier children were coerced by torture into pleading guilty and testifying against their mother. They were later released.

Andrew Carrier*

Document: Examination Date: 1692 July 22 Accuser: Unsigned

Richard Carrier*

Sarah carrier*.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 September 2 Accuser: Dudley Bradstreet

Thomas Carrier, Jr.*

Document: Examination Date: 1692 September 2 Accuser: Dudley Bradstreet  

Rebecca Eames

51-year-old Rebecca Eames was accused of practicing witchcraft on Timothy Swan, a claim corroborated by members of the Putman family and related individuals. She was arrested directly after the public execution of George Burroughs, Martha Allen Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, and John Willard on August 19, 1692, having been accused of inflicting pain on a fellow spectator. Her son and grandson were later also accused. Eames was tried and convicted on September 17th along with nine others, all of whom were condemned to death. Four of the nine were hanged on September 22, but Eames was spared when the court dissolved in October. She remained in prison until early December, when she petitioned to be exonerated, claiming that she had pled guilty on the advice of fellow inmates Abigail Hobbs and Mary Lacey.

Document: Examination (2nd) Date: 1692 August 31 Accuser: Unsigned Document: Certification of Confession Date: 1692 September 15 Accuser: John Higginson  

Ann Foster of Andover was a 75-year-old widow, originally from London. She was accused by the Salem children Ann Putnam Jr. and Mary Walcott of inflicting a fever on Elizabeth Ballard of Andover. Putnam and Walcott had been brought in by Salem magistrates to "detect" the witch responsible for the affliction. Foster refused to confess despite probable coercion by torture, but her resolve was broken when her accused daughter, Mary Foster Lacey, Sr. testified against her mother, presumably in an attempt to save herself and her child. The resulting guilty plea proved ineffectual and both women were sentenced to death on September 17, 1692. They were spared by the dissolution of the court in October, but Ann Foster died after 21 weeks in prison on December 3rd.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 July 21 Accuser: Unsigned

Sarah Good was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in Salem in February 1692, along with Tituba and Sarah Osborne. Good had fallen on hard times after litigation erased her family's wealth and two consecutive marriages to paupers left her destitute. She was often homeless and earned a living by begging, probably leading to an unsavory reputation in the town. On February 25, 1692, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris claimed to have been bewitched by Good, who was tried and found guilty despite maintaining her innocence throughout the entire process. The resulting death sentence was delayed because she was pregnant. The newborn child, Mercy Good, died shortly after birth. Good was hanged on July 19, 1692 along with Elizabeth How, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wilds.

Document: Testimony Date: 1692 June 29 Accuser: Samuel Sibley

Sarah Hawks*

21-year-old Sarah Hawks was arrested for witchcraft along with her stepfather, Samuel Wardwell, her mother, Sarah Hawks Wardwell, and her half-sister Mercy Wardwell. Samuel Wardwell was found guilty and hanged on September 22, 1692, but Sarah and her other relatives escaped execution and were later released from prison.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 September 4 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson

Elizabeth How/Howe

Elizabeth How's involvement in the witchcraft crisis began ten years prior to the official trials in Salem. In 1682, a young girl from Topsfield named Hannah Trumble began experiencing fits and accused How of making her ill through witchcraft. How's reputation was irreparably damaged, and she was refused admittance to Ipswich Church. When the troubles began in Salem in 1692, How was again accused, this time of afflicting Mary Walcott and Abigail Willams. Their testimony was corroborated by Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren, Ann Putnam Jr., and several others in the town. How was arraigned in the first Salem trial on June 30, 1692, and, despite fervent support from family and friends, was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was executed along with Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Sarah Wilds and Susannah Martin on July 19th at Gallows Hill, Salem.

An earlier document in her case can be found in the Related Materials section below.

Document: Indictment (2nd) Date: 1692 June 29 Accusers: Samuel Pearly, Ruth Pearly, Mercy Lewis, Joseph Andrews, Sarah Andrews, Mary Wolcott, John Sherrin, Abigail Williams, Joseph Safford, Ann Putman [sic], Francis Leaves, Isack Cumins, Abraham Foster, and Lydia Foster

Johnson Family

Many members of the Johnson family were accused of witchcraft, though later ruled not guilty. Elizabeth Jr., the 22-year-old daughter of Elizabeth Johnson Sr. was the first to be accused and imprisoned on August 10, 1692, due to accusations (probably acquired under torture) by the Carrier family children. Johnson testified against them in turn, implicating the Carriers and many others in secret devilish rites, including Rev. George Burroughs, Captain John Floyd, Daniel Eames, and Mary Toothaker.

After her daughter, Elizabeth Jr., had languished in prison for many days, Elizabeth Sr. was also charged with practicing witchcraft on Martha Sprague of Boxford and Abigail Martin of Andover. She was arrested in late August 1692, along with her ten-year-old daughter Abigail, her son Stephen, and her sister Abigail Faulkner. Elizabeth and Abigail were arraigned together in court, with Elizabeth accusing her sister of threatening to "tear her in pieces" if she confessed. During her confession she accused several others, and implicated her teenage son, Stephen, who later also confessed.

Several factors may have exacerbated the Johnson family's victimization. Rev. Francis Dane, the family patriarch and father of Elizabeth Sr. was a witchcraft skeptic who voiced early opposition to the Salem trials. Elizabeth Johnson Sr.'s reputation was also negatively impacted by a prior conviction of fornication before marriage, with her late husband Stephen Johnson.

Elizabeth Johnson, Jr.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 August 10 Accuser: Dudley Bradstreet

Elizabeth Johnson, Sr.*

Document: Examination Date: 1692 August 30 Accusers: The Justices of Salem

Stephen Johnson*

Mary lacey, jr.*.

Mary Lacey, Jr. was the 18-year-old daughter of Mary Lacy, Sr. She was accused of witchcraft along with her mother and her maternal grandmother, Ann Foster. The two older women were found guilty and sentenced to death despite confessing in an attempt to avoid execution. They avoided hanging when the witchcraft crisis began to die down in October of 1692. However, Mary Jr.'s grandmother Ann Foster died in prison shortly after her trial. Mary Jr. was released on bond in October, 1692 and later found not guilty.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 July 21 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson

Mary Lacey, Sr.*

Daughter of Ann Foster of Andover, Mary Lacy, Sr. was accused shortly after her mother, on the 19th of July 1692, along with her daughter Mary Jr. The complaint was filed by Joseph Ballard of Andover, alleging that the women had afflicted his wife, Elizabeth Ballard. Mary Sr. confessed upon examination and also accused her mother, Ann Foster, stating that the two had "ridden upon a pole" to a witch meeting in Salem. She also accused Mary Bradbury, Elizabeth How, Rebecca Nurse, Richard Carrier, and Andrew Carrier. Mary Sr. was sentenced to death along with her mother. Although both mother and daughter ultimately avoided execution, the elderly Ann Foster died in prison shortly thereafter.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 July 21 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson Document: Indictment Date: 1692 September 14 Accuser: Unsigned

Mary Marston*

One of many residents of Andover to be accused of witchcraft, Marston was brought in on the testimony of Samuel Martin of Andover and Moses Tyler of Boxford, for allegedly afflicting Abigail Martin, Rose Foster, and Martha Sprague. She was examined, confessed, and was subsequently imprisoned throughout the remainder of 1692, despite a petition for release filed by her husband, John Marston. She was brought to trial early in 1693 but found not guilty.

Document: Examination and Confession Date: 1692 August 29 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson

Hannah Post*

Hannah Post of Boxford seems to have been an "afflicted" accuser at the trial of Mary Parker, but was herself later accused of witchcraft. During her examination she initially professed her innocence, but later stated that she had "signed the Devil's book." She also implicated her sister, Susanna Post, and Sarah and Mary Bridges. Post was imprisoned, but found not guilty on January 12, 1693.

Elizabeth Proctor

Wife of the accused and condemned John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor was targeted along with her husband, who had spoken out against the accusers during the controversial trial of Rebecca Nurse. Elizabeth's Quaker grandmother had also been accused of witchcraft in 1669, and this may have cast suspicion on Elizabeth by association. In spite of petitions of support from family friends, Elizabeth was found guilty of afflicting Mercy Lewis, Abigail Williams, John Indian, Mary Walcott, and Ann Putnam, and sentenced to death along with her husband, John, on August 5, 1692. She avoided execution because she was pregnant; by the time she had given birth, the witchcraft crisis had died down, and she was later acquitted and released. Because she was not included in her husband's will, she was left destitute for many years, although the family was later reimbursed for ₤150 in 1711.

Document: Testimony Date: 1692 April 4 Accusers: Samuel Parris, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and Thomas Putman Document: Testimony (Positive) Date: 1692 August 5 Accuser: William Rayment, Jr.

Mary Toothaker*

Mary Toothaker's husband, the doctor Roger Toothaker, was accused and imprisoned for witchcraft in May 1692, for afflicting Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Jr., and Mary Walcott. He was sent to prison in Boston, where he died on June 16th, of apparently natural causes. After his arrest, Mary Toothaker and her daughter, Margaret, were also accused and imprisoned in the Salem jail. Mary's sister, Martha Carrier, was condemned by the court and hanged on August 10, 1692, but Mary and her daughter were tried and found not guilty in January of 1693. Mary was subsequently killed in an Abenaki or Pennacook raid on her hometown of Billerica in 1695.

Document: Examination and Confession Date: 1692 July 30 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson

Johanna Tyler*

Johanna Tyler, age 11, was accused of witchcraft along with her sisters, Hannah and Martha, and their mother, Mary Lovett Tyler, on September 7, 1692. Her confessional testimony stands out as one of the more detailed descriptions of alleged witchcraft given by a child during the Salem trials. Tyler was later released with her immediate family.

Document: Examination Date: 1692 September 16 Accusers: John Higginson and Thomas Wade

Mercy Wardwell*

19-year-old Mercy Wardwell's father, Samuel Wardwell, was convicted of witchcraft and later hanged on September 22, 1692. Mercy was imprisoned shortly after her father's arrest, on charges of afflicting Martha Sprague, Rose Foster, and Timothy Swan. Her mother, Sarah Wardwell, and half-sister, Sarah Hawks, Jr., would also be charged. Mercy confessed on September 15, 1692. She was never tried, and was released after the court dissolved in October.

Sarah Wardwell*

Wife of the condemned Samuel Wardwell, Sarah was arrested shortly after her husband, in August 1692. She took her infant daughter Rebecca with her to jail, and her daughters Mercy Wardwell and Sarah Hawks were also accused and imprisoned. Wardwell was examined on September 1, 1692 and subsequently confessed, implicating Ann Foster and Martha Carrier. She and her daughters were in jail when her husband was hanged on September 22, 1692. Sheriff George Corwin meanwhile confiscated large amounts of the Wardwells' property, as well as property in Lynn that had belonged to Sarah's first husband. She was tried and found guilty on January 2, 1693, but would later be pardoned.

Document: Confession Date: 1692 September 4 Accusers: Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson

Sarah Wilds/Willes*

Sarah Wilds (née Averill) was 65 years old at the time of the Salem trials. Before her marriage to John Wilds in 1663, she had been censured for "too great intimacy with Thomas Wardell," and for the lesser offense of wearing a silk scarf, facts that may have lent her a poor reputation in the conservative Puritan community. The Wilds also feuded with the Gould family of Salem, who happened to be good friends with the Putnam accusers. These factors may have hastened Wilds' denunciation by Thomas Putnam, Jr. and John Buxton, who alleged that she had afflicted Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott. Other signatories also testified against her during the trials, including Humphrey Clark, Thomas Dorman, John Andrew, John Gould, Zacheus Perkins, Elizabeth Symonds, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and the Rev. John Hale. After several weeks of imprisonment in the Boston jail, Wilds was executed by hanging in Salem on July 19, 1692.

Further documents in this case can be found in the Related Materials section below.

Document: Testimony Date: 1692 April 22 Accusers: Nathaniel Ingersoll and Thomas Putnam

RELATED MATERIALS IN THE NEHH ARCHIVE

Danvers, mass. first church, 1689-1845.

The First Church of Danvers was founded in 1672 when a group of farmers who lived quite a distance from the Salem meetinghouse, of which they were members, petitioned for permission to erect a meetinghouse of their own. This collection contains the early records of the Danvers church, including records pertaining to membership, vital statistics, and church meetings. Of particular note are records pertaining to the confession and trial of Martha Corey (alternatively spelled Kory and Cory) in regards to the witchcraft controversy in Salem.

Salem, Mass. First Church, 1629-1843

The First Church of Salem, founded in 1629, was one of the first churches organized in New England. Salem's church, however, was the first truly Congregational parish with governance by church members. Notable founding members included Roger Conant, the founder of Salem, and John Endicott, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Various members were involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, including the daughter of the church's pastor, Rev. Samuel Parris, and the junior minister, Rev. Nicholas Noyes. Parishioners Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey, who were excommunicated and executed during the trials, were formerly full members of the First Church, Corey having been admitted one year prior in 1691. Both victims were posthumously readmitted in 1712.

MATERIALS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

These documents are organized alphabetically by the last name of the accused, and then in chronological order for each case. Links to the digitized records are provided for each individual.

George Burroughs

The only minister to be executed for witchcraft in American history, Rev. Burroughs was arrested on April 30th after members of the Putnam family, with whom he had already been embroiled in a lawsuit, testified against him for the crime of witchcraft. He was found guilty, owing in part to his perceived preternatural strength, and hanged on August 19, 1692. Burroughs was executed despite reciting the Lord's Prayer without error—something a witch was not thought to be capable of doing. Cotton Mather, minister from Boston and proponent of the witch trials, was instrumental in urging Burroughs' execution despite the reluctance of sympathetic onlookers.

Document: Indictment (3rd) at UVA Date: Undated Accusers: Ann Putnam, Mary Wolcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Mary Warren Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 April 30 Accusers: Jonathan Walcott and Thomas Putnam Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 May 9 Accusers: John Putnam, Sr. and Rebecca Putnam

Martha Corey

The devout 72-year-old Martha Corey was accused of witchcraft in March of 1692, to the surprise of many in the village. A steadfast churchgoer, Corey did not believe in the existence of witches and witchcraft, and her vocal criticism of the accusers may have been the reason she was targeted. She was found guilty based on the testimony of members of the Putnam family and several others. During Corey's trial the accusing children, such as Ann Putnam Jr. and Mercy Lewis, claimed the "witch" was inflicting pain on them and demonstrated violent fits. Corey was found guilty and hanged on September 22, 1692, three days after her husband Giles Corey, also charged with witchcraft, had been pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea.

Document: Examination at UVA Date: 1692 March 21 Accusers: John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 May 31 Accuser: Ann Putnam, Sr.

Abigail Hobbs

17 year-old Abigail Hobbs was accused of witchcraft along with her parents in April 1692, by Mercy Lewis. Lewis, like the Hobbs, was a refugee from the dangerous Maine frontier. The Hobbs family had come to Salem to escape Wabenaki raids in Casco, ME, and during the witchcraft crisis were living on the outskirts of Salem Village. They were not church members, and their daughter Abigail had gained a reputation for roaming the forests at night, for mocking the institution of baptism by sprinkling water on her mother’s head, and for reciting the sacrament. After her arrest on April 18, 1692, Hobbs professed her innocence, but was eventually pressured into confessing that she had afflicted Mercy Lewis. However, Hobbs and her family avoided execution when the witchcraft proceedings died down in October 1692.

Document: Indictment (1st) at UVA Date: 1692 September 10 Accusers: Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Ann Putnam Document: Indictment (2nd) at UVA Date: 1692 September 10 Accusers: Unsigned

Elizabeth How's involvement in the witchcraft crisis began ten years prior to the official trials of Salem. In 1682, a young girl from Topsfield named Hannah Trumble began experiencing fits and accused How of making her ill through witchcraft. How's reputation was irreparably damaged, and she was refused admittance to Ipswich Church. When the troubles began in Salem in 1692, How was again accused, this time of afflicting Mary Walcott and Abigail Willams. Their testimony was corroborated by Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren, Ann Putnam, Jr., and several others in the town. How was arraigned in the first Salem trial on June 30, 1692, and, despite fervent support from family and friends, was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was executed along with Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Sarah Wilds, and Susannah Martin on July 19th at Gallows Hill, Salem.

A later document in her case can be found in the NEHH section above.

Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 June 30 Accuser: Nehemiah Abbot, Sr.

John Lee is mentioned in Elizabeth Fuller's deposition, in which he is said to have boasted "that he had laid one of Mr. Clairke's hogs fast aslepe." He was, however, never formally accused.

Document: Testimony at UVA Date: Undated Accuser: Elizabeth Fuller

Rebecca Nurse

Elderly and pious Rebecca Nurse was accused of witchcraft along with her two younger sisters, Sarah Towne Cloyce and Mary Towne Easty. Nurse, her husband, Francis, and their eight children were a highly respected churchgoing family, but had been involved in land disputes with the Putnams, which is likely the reason Nurse was targeted. Edward and John Putnam testified against her for the crime of witchcraft and a warrant was issued for her arrest on March 23, 1692.

There was a sizeable outpouring of support and positive testimony for Nurse. The jury initially ruled her "not guilty" but were immediately pressured to reconsider, and brought in a guilty verdict and death sentence. The Governor of Massachusetts Bay, Sir William Phips, intervened to pardon Nurse, but was also persuaded to reverse his decision by several of the Salem Village patriarchs. Nurse was subsequently excommunicated from her Salem church and executed by hanging on July 19, 1692. Her sister Mary Easty was later also found guilty and executed in September 1692.

Document: Testimony (Positive) at UVA Date: 1692 March 24 Accusers: Elizabeth Porter and Israel Porter Document: Testimony (Positive) at UVA Date: 1692 March 24 Accuser: Peter Cloyse Document: Testimony (Positive) at UVA Date: 1692 March 24 Accuser: Daniel Andrew Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 May 31 Accuser: Ann Putnam, Sr.

Mary Parker

Mary Parker of Andover was a rich widow in charge of two hundred acres of land inherited from her late husband, Nathan Parker. She had no known disputes with anyone in Andover or Salem, but was named in William Barker, Jr.'s confession testimony and accused of afflicting Sarah Phelps, Hannah Bigsby, and Martha Sprague with witchcraft. She was examined on September 2, 1692, whereupon several "afflicted girls" present fell into fits and accused her of harming them. Parker was tried on September 16th and executed shortly afterwards on September 22nd. There have been several theories posited to explain her seemingly random accusation; these include confusion with another woman of the same name in Andover, or perhaps a vendetta against the Parkers by the presiding officer in the trial, Thomas Chandler, who was previously a family friend.

Document: Indictment at UVA Date: 1692 September 16 Accusers: Unsigned

John Proctor

Successful farmer and tavern-owner John Proctor first butted heads with the Salem accusers during the arrest and trial of elderly Rebecca Nurse, who he believed was falsely accused. Mary Warren, a servant of the Proctors, subsequently began experiencing fits and accused Giles Corey of afflicting her, a claim of which Proctor was also highly critical, threatening to beat the girl if the fits continued. On April 8, 1692, Jonathan Walcott and Nathaniel Ingersoll officially accused John's wife, Elizabeth, of witchcraft. During Elizabeth's trial, John Proctor railed further against the perceived machinations of the accusers. As a result, they also accused him, and he was subsequently arrested.

On July 23, Proctor and other accused inmates wrote a letter to the sympathetic clergy of Boston, urging them to intervene in the Salem trials. The letter included allegations of torture and forced confessions. Ultimately the clergymen did intervene, but not before Proctor himself was hanged on August 5, 1692. Several of his relatives were also arrested but not executed, including his children Benjamin, William, and Sarah.

Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 April 11 Accuser: Joseph Pope

Sarah Wilds/Willes

Sarah Wilds (née Averill) was 65 years old at the time of the Salem trials. Before her marriage to John Wilds in 1663, she had been censured for "too great intimacy with Thomas Wardell," and for the lesser offense of wearing a silk scarf, facts which may have lent her a poor reputation in the conservative Puritan community. The Wilds also feuded with the Gould family of Salem, who happened to be good friends with the Putnam accusers. These factors may have hastened Wilds' denunciation by Thomas Putnam, Jr. and John Buxton, who alleged that she had afflicted Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott. Other signatories also testified against her during the trials, including Humphrey Clark, Thomas Dorman, John Andrew, John Gould, Zacheus Perkins, Elizabeth Symonds, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and the Rev. John Hale. After several weeks of imprisonment in the Boston jail, Wilds was executed by hanging in Salem on July 19, 1692.

Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 April 22 Accusers: Nathaniel Ingersoll and Thomas Putnam Document: Indictment at UVA Date: 1692 June 30 Accusers: Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam, and Mary Wolcott Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 June 30 Accuser: John Andrew Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 June 30 Accuser: Ann Putnam, Jr. Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 June 30 Accuser: Mary Walcott Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 July 2 Accuser: Humphrey Clark Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 July 2 Accuser: Thomas Dorman Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 July 2 Accuser: John Gould Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 July 2 Accuser: John Hale Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 July 2 Accuser: Zacheus Perkins Document: Testimony at UVA Date: 1692 July 2 Accuser: Elizabeth Symonds

Document: Account of Jailkeeper at UVA Date: 1692-3 Author: William Dounlon

MORE RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

Salem witch trials collection from the peabody essex museum, the salem witch trials documentary archive and transcription project, the danvers archival center.

This digital resource has been made possible in part by the Council on Library and Information Resources, through a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this resource do not necessarily represent those of the Council on Library and Information Resources.

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial is lined with the pleas of the victims. Photo by Charlie Weber

Community , Social Justice

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial: Finding Humanity in Tragedy

It was during the exceedingly hot summer of 1692 when Puritan judges in Salem, an English settlement in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, condemned twenty people of witchcraft and publicly executed them.

Now, 330 years later, visitors to this seaside city will find a simple, peaceful memorial next to an aged colonial graveyard and hear, in the near distance, the occasional sound of church bells. Entering a rectangular space bordered by rough stone walls and shaded by towering locust trees, one crosses a wide threshold inscribed with the words of the victims, their protestations of innocence and pleas to God clipped by the memorial walls, symbolizing the community’s indifference to their plight. Twenty granite benches jut from the walls, each bearing the name of a person unjustly accused and killed.

Erected in 1992, this was Salem’s first public monument to those tragic events. As we mark the memorial’s thirtieth anniversary, it is perhaps more important than ever to remember the lessons of these injustices.

Salem’s witch trials were the largest and deadliest in North American history. Over the course of a year and a half, nineteen people were hanged and one man was brutally tortured to death. Though popularly referred to as “the Salem witch trials,” accusations had spread throughout Essex County and beyond. In total, between 150 and 200 people were imprisoned, ranging in age from four to eighty-one years old. At least five died in jail, including the infant daughter of convicted Sarah Good.

None of the accused were “witches,” defined in the seventeenth century as one who had sold their soul to the devil. Instead, it was a crime often lodged against social outsiders within a community.

Each of the twenty victims have their own heartbreaking story that can only be pieced together from fleeting comments in the records. Take for example the story of Ipswich’s Elizabeth How, a hardworking, fifty-five-year-old wife and mother executed July 19, 1692. A decade previous, she found herself in a heated conflict with a neighbor who accused her of bewitching a child to death. “Everything that happened amiss to anyone was laid at her door,” wrote Charles Upham, a nineteenth-century historian. It was no surprise that Elizabeth once again became a target in 1692.

The brief recorded references to the devotion of Elizabeth’s family are deeply moving. In his testimony, her ninety-four-year-old father-in-law, James How Sr., commenting on the thirty years he had known her, said, “as a wife to my son, [she is] very careful, loving, obedient, and kind, considering his want of eyesight, tenderly leading him about by the hand.” While jailed in Boston, a full day’s journey from Ipswich, Elizabeth was visited twice a week by her blind husband James Jr., guided by one of their daughters. Despite testimony given on her behalf, she was executed on that July day along with four other innocent women.

Though small compared to the European witch hunts , which took the lives of approximately 45,000 people over the span of 300 years, Salem became infamous. Witchcraft suspicions were common, but executions were rare in the “New World.” Immediately after the Salem trials were over, there was a sense that something had gone terribly wrong. In 1697, one magistrate and twelve jurists apologized for their part in these events, as did one accuser almost a decade later.

The growing recognition of this injustice made Salem a common cultural reference as early as the eighteenth century. Noted by Founding Fathers during the American Revolution, included in early school books as an example of a moral failing, and invoked as a metaphor for contemporary scapegoating in the twentieth century, the tragedies of Salem have never left public memory.

The curious have traveled to Salem for centuries, drawn by the city’s macabre history. While visiting the area in 1766, future president John Adams listed in his diary a visit to “Witchcraft Hill”—thought to be the site of the executions. In 1895, a Salem visitors’ guide noted, “The Witchcraft Delusion, which caused many to flee from Salem for their lives two centuries ago, now brings thousands of visitors to Salem each year.”

Confronting our dark heritage can prove difficult. The reality behind witchcraft trials is often challenging for a modern audience to comprehend, as the word “witch” typically evokes a folkloric or popular culture figure, rather than a real human being. Only in the last half-century has the world seen an increase in the establishment of witch trials memorials, ranging in size from small plaques and simple markers, like the Brechin Memorial in Scotland , to larger memorial stones, such as those set in Torsåker Parish, Sweden , and enormous structures, like the Steilneset Memorial in Vardø, Norway . Each of these memorials is both an effort to remember the victims, many of whom have living descendants, and to educate people in hopes of preventing similar acts of hysteria and scapegoating.

Limited memorialization efforts of the Salem victims began in the late 1880s, driven largely by descendants. The first honored Rebecca Nurse, a seventy-one-year-old beloved mother, church member, and respected neighbor. Her hanging on July 19, 1692 had shocked the community. Family legend holds that her remains were retrieved from the hanging site and buried in an unmarked grave on the Nurse property.

In 1885, more than 600 people, many of them descendants, gathered at the Nurse homestead in Danvers (formerly Salem Village) to attend the unveiling of a granite obelisk, inscribed with a John Greenleaf Whittier poem. Two other early memorials were erected: a plaque in Amesbury for Susannah Martin placed by the Amesbury Improvement Association in 1894 and another for John Proctor in Peabody placed by his descendants in 1902.

It would take almost a century more for memorialization discussions to continue in Salem. In 1986, the mayor’s office established an advisory committee to discuss how to commemorate the upcoming 300th anniversary of the witch trials. While “a firm and strong foundation” was built over the next few years, according to Tercentenary executive director Linda McConchie, progress was slow and met with obstacles.

As noted in the early Salem visitor guides, the witch trials long held a fascination for those outside the community. Some locals, however, were reluctant to acknowledge this dark heritage. The trials saw neighbors turn against neighbors and held a legacy of shame and embarrassment, a feeling that lasted generations. One former Danvers resident, who grew up in the 1960s, recalled being told in his youth, “in polite society, you don’t talk about divorce and you don’t talk about the witch trials.”

The New York Times reported in 1988 a proposed statue by Beverly, Massachusetts, sculptor Yiannis Stefanakis, a memorial depicting the three accused Towne sisters: the executed Rebecca (Towne) Nurse and Mary (Towne) Esty and survivor Sarah (Towne) Cloyce. The funds were privately raised, with no public call for design. An uproar ensued. Salem’s First Church pastor John Szala, who at the time chaired the mayor’s advisory committee, said, “[Stefanakis] took this to the City Council, and it was rushed through without a hearing and without the public being alerted to what he was doing. The community is divided as a result.”

In discussing support for the project, Stefanakis said, “I’ve got a pile of letters from across the country. However, I’ve received very, very few letters and money from Salem. I don’t think they were ready for this despite 300 years.”

This comment recalls a story shared by Danvers town archivist Richard Trask. In 1970, he led the effort to uncover the parsonage foundation in Salem Village, significant to the witch trials as the site where the trouble began and escalated. Trask recalls neighbors’ complaints. “Leave it alone,” they said. “Why do you have to bring this up?”

As the city’s witch-related tourism had grown in the latter half of the twentieth century, some felt Salem’s sad history was being disrespected and the human story behind the witch trials forgotten. “The goal of the [Tercentenary] was to reclaim the historical importance and significance of this tragic event,” McConchie says. The Tercentenary Committee—led by McConchie plus Patty MacLeod and Alison D’Amario of the Salem Witch Museum —planned a year-long commemoration with two key elements in mind: the construction of a public memorial and a lasting way to honor the innocent victims. They achieved the latter through the creation of the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.

With an estimated budget of $100,000 and an available piece of land in downtown Salem selected, the committee issued a public call for designs. They received close to 250 entries, which were judged by an expert panel of artists, architects, and museum professionals.

In November 1991, playwright Arthur Miller unveiled the winning design created by Maggie Smith and James Cutler. The Tercentenary Committee Final Report describes the memorial:

“Striking in its simplicity, the Memorial is surrounded on three sides by a handcrafted granite dry wall. Inscribed in the stone threshold are the victims’ protests of innocence. These protests are interrupted mid-sentence, symbolizing society’s indifference to oppression. Six locust trees, the last to flower and the first to shed their leaves, represent the stark injustice of the Trials. At the rear of the Memorial, visitors view the tombstones of the adjacent 17th century Charter Street Burying Point, a reminder of all who stood in mute witness to the tragedy. Cantilevered stone benches within the Memorial perimeter bear the names of each of the twenty victims, creating a quiet, contemplative environment in which to evoke the spirit and strength of those who chose to die rather than compromise their personal truths.”

These twenty innocent individuals refused to confess to witchcraft and were murdered as a result.

The dedication of the Salem Witch Trials Memorial was the centerpiece of the Tercentenary year. On August 5, 1992, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel gave a special address, speaking eloquently about his lifelong commitment to end hate and human suffering.

“In times of inhumanity, humanity is still possible,” he urged. “It is because people were fanatic that Salem was possible…. And fanaticism is the greatest evil that faces us today. For today, too, there are Salems.”

That same day, the committee presented its first Salem Award to Gregory Alan Williams, a hero of the Los Angeles riots which had erupted earlier that year, after the acquittal of the police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. MacLeod reflects, “We wanted the award to be a lasting teaching tool.” The Salem Award Committee, now known as Voices Against Injustice, presents the Salem Award annually.

Throughout 1992, Tercentenary programming focused on the enduring lessons of the witch trials, encouraging people to reflect on the dangers of scapegoating during times of great fear and uncertainty. At the Tercentenary inauguration on March 1, Joshua Rubenstein of Amnesty International used the trials as a point of reference by which to examine human rights violations throughout history and today.

Despite the efforts of countless people to make the Salem Witch Trials Memorial a reality, less than twenty years later, the structure located in the heart of downtown Salem had fallen into disrepair. The problem was twofold: first, it was never clear who was responsible for the memorial’s upkeep.

Secondly, the original design called for the stones to be loosely laid, with no supporting mortar. People began to take pieces of it away as souvenirs, and it was frequently used during the geocaching craze in the early 2000s. Yet another fundraising effort was undertaken to refurbish this important site.

The structure was reinforced and rededicated on September 9, 2012. Today, the memorial is well-maintained by the Peabody Essex Museum, the City of Salem, and Voices Against Injustice.

Like so much about our venerable city, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial means different things to different people. For modern witches, it is affirming. For descendants, emotional. For tourists, an essential stop. Conversely, when asked about the memorial, several longtime residents stated they never visit nor do they have a strong opinion about the site.

Many self-identified witches have moved to Salem over the past half-century. Modern witchcraft means something different to each individual, though it can broadly be described as a sense of spiritual contentment and personal empowerment derived from the long and complex history of the witch.

Margaret McGilvray, a practicing witch and founder of The Witchery, an art and performance space in Salem, reflects, “When I am at the Witch Trials Memorial, I am not analyzing from a historical perspective. I’m feeling it. And that is why it is such a powerful memorial. It allows me to feel.”

Teri Kalgren, a member of the Witches Education League and owner of Artemisia Botanicals, who has lived and worked in Salem since the late 1980s, noted that while she wishes there was more interpretive signage at the memorial, it is “beautiful and very solemn to walk through. As a witch, I see [the witch trials] as something that could possibly happen again. It shows man’s inhumanity to man.”

In recent years, as genealogical research has become more accessible, there has been an increase in descendants arriving in Salem. According to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 15 million Americans can trace an ancestral connection to the witch trials. For many, traveling to Salem is an important pilgrimage. It is a misconception that the witch trial victims were prohibited from interment in cemeteries. Ongoing research suggests the remains of some of these individuals were retrieved from the hanging site and quietly buried at their family homesteads. Because definitive grave sites for the victims remain unconfirmed, the memorial has become a primary place to pay respects.

Throughout the year, and particularly on the anniversaries of the hanging dates (June 10, July 19, August 19, and September 22), visitors leave flowers, coins, and small objects on these stones. The memorial gives descendants a physical place to leave personal notes, many heartfelt.

Thousands of tourists visit the memorial each year. While most treat the space with reverence, some, particularly during the Halloween season, fail to appreciate the weight of this tragic history. Perhaps that is the reality of any public memorial dedicated to such distant events.

As the meaning of the word “witch” continues to change, so too does Salem. Navigating the spectrum of popular interest is no simple task. Salem’s heritage encompasses colonial history, the persecution of innocent people, beloved fictional witches, spooky Halloween fun, and modern magick . The Salem Witch Trials Memorial stands today in the center of it all, publicly reminding thousands of visitors of the city’s darkest chapter.

This permanent memorial is not only an interesting place to visit but an essential statement, one which speaks to the humanity involved in such a tragedy. The tendency to blame “the other” during times of uncertainty and fear is an enduring human behavior. Whether the fatal sickness of a child is blamed on an argument with a neighbor in the seventeenth century or an entire race for the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to find scapegoats.

By memorializing witch trials, in Salem and around the world, modern communities are beginning the difficult process of reckoning with their own darkest tendencies.

Rachel Christ-Doan is the director of education at the Salem Witch Museum, where she engages in research, works with students and teachers, oversees curation and exhibition development, and creates educational programming.

Jill Christiansen is the assistant director of education at the Salem Witch Museum, specializing in Salem witch trials research and acting as the book buyer for the museum store.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the many dedicated people who were involved in this project, particularly the trio of Patty MacLeod, Alison D’Amario, and Linda McConchie, who led the two-year effort to create the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem Award, and year of Tercentenary programming. 

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The University of Chicago Library News

The Salem Witch Trials: A legal bibliography

The law of the Salem Witch Trials is a fascinating mix of biblical passages and colonial statutes.  According to Mark Podvia (see Timeline , PDF), the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopted the following statute in 1641:  “If any man or woman be a WITCH, that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death. Exod . 22. 18. Levit . 20. 27. Deut . 18. 10. 11.”  The statute encompasses passages from the Bible written circa 700 B.C. Exodus states:  “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” Leviticus prescribes the punishment.  Witches and wizards “shall surely be put to death:  they shall stone them with stones:   their blood shall be upon them.”  And Deuteronomy states:  “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.  Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”

In Salem, the accusers and alleged victims came from a small group of girls aged nine to 19, including Betty Parris and Abigail Williams.  In January 1692, Betty and Abigail had strange fits. Rumors spread through the village attributing the fits to the devil and the work of his evil hands.  The accusers claimed the witchcraft came mostly from women, with the notable exception of four-year old Dorcas Good.

The colony created the Court of Oyer and Terminer especially for the witchcraft trials.  The law did not then use the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” – if you made it to trial, the law presumed guilt.  If the colony imprisoned you, you had to pay for your stay.  Courts relied on three kinds of evidence:  1) confession, 2) testimony of two eyewitnesses to acts of witchcraft, or  3) spectral evidence (when the afflicted girls were having their fits, they would interact with an unseen assailant – the apparition of the witch tormenting them).  According to Wendel Craker, no court ever convicted an accused of witchcraft on the basis of spectral evidence alone, but other forms of evidence were needed to corroborate the charge of witchcraft. Courts allowed “causal relationship” evidence, for example, to prove that the accused possessed or controlled an afflicted girl.  Prior conflicts, bad acts by the accused, possession of materials used in spells, greater than average strength, and witch’s marks also counted as evidence of witchcraft.  If the accused was female, a jury of women examined her body for “witch’s marks” which supposedly showed that a familiar had bitten or fed on the accused.  Other evidence included the “touching test” (afficted girls tortured by fits became calm after touching the accused).  Courts could not base convictions on confessions obtained through torture unless the accused reaffirmed the confession afterward, but if the accused recanted the confession, authorities usually tortured the accused further to obtain the confession again.  If you recited the Lord’s Prayer, you were not a witch.   The colony did not burn witches, it hanged them.

The Salem Witch Trials divided the community.  Neighbor testified against neighbor.  Children against parents.  Husband against wife.  Children died in prisons.  Familes were destroyed.  Churches removed from their congregations some of the persons accused of witchcraft.  After the Court of Oyer and Terminer was dissolved, the Superior Court of Judicature took over the witchcraft cases.  They disallowed spectral evidence.  Most accusations of witchcraft then resulted in acquittals.  An essay by Increase Mather, a prominent minister, may have helped stop the witch trials craze in Salem.

Researching the Salem Witch Trials is easier than it used to be.  Most of the primary source materials (statutes, transcripts of court records, contemporary accounts) are available electronically.  Useful databases include HeinOnline Legal Classics Library (see  Trials for Witchcraft before the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer, Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 ;   The Salem Witchcraft  (Clair, Henry St., 1840); and “ Witch Trials ,”  1 Curious Cases and Amusing Actions at Law including Some Trials of Witches in the Seventeenth Century (1916) ), HeinOnline World Trials Library, HeinOnline Law Journal Library (also JSTOR, America:  History & Life, Google Scholar, and the LexisNexis and Westlaw journal databases),  Gale Encyclopedia of American Law (“ Salem Witch Trials “), Google Books, Hathi Trust, and the Internet Archive.  For books and articles on the Salem Witch Trials and witchcraft and the law generally, Library of Congress subject headings include:

• Trials (Witchcraft) — History
• Trials (Witchcraft) — Massachusetts — Salem
• Witch hunting — Massachusetts — Salem
• Witchcraft — Massachusetts — Salem — History — 17th century
• Witchcraft — New England
• Witches — Crimes against

• Salem Witch Trials:  Documentary Archive & Transcription Project (University of Virginia)(includes online searchable text of the transcription of court records as published in Boyer/Nissenbaum’s The Salem Witchcraft Papers , revised 2011, and e-versions of contemporary books)
• Famous American Trials:  Salem Witch Trials, 1692 (Prof. Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School)

Bibliography

Adams, Gretchen A. The Specter of Salem:  Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Chicago Press, BF1576.A33 2008).

Boyer, Paul & Stephen Nissenbaum, eds. The Salem Witchcraft Papers:  Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692  (Da Capo Press, XXKFM2478.8.W5S240 1977 )( digital edition , revised and augmented, 2011).  3v.

___________________________. Salem Possessed:  The Social Origins of Witchcraf t (Harvard University Press, BF1576.B79 1974 ).  See especially pages 1-59.

___________________________, eds. Salem Village Witchcraft:  A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England  (Wadsworth Pub. Co., KA653.B75 1972 LawAnxS ).

Brown, David C.  “The Case of Giles Corey.” EIHC ( Essex Institute Historical Collections , F72.E7E81 ) 121 (1985): 282-299.

___________.  “ The Forfeitures of Salem, 1692 .” The William and Mary Quarterly 50 (1993): 85-111.

Burns, William E. Witch Hunts in Europe and America:  An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, BF1584.E9B87 2003 ).  Includes a Chronology (1307-1793), “Salem Witch Trials” at pages 257-261, and a bibliography at pages 333-347.

Burr, George Lincoln. Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 (Barnes & Noble, BF1573.B6901 1963 ).

Calef, Robert. More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700).

Craker, Wendel D.  “Spectral Evidence, Non-Spectral Acts of Witchcraft, and Confession at Salem in 1692. ” Historical Journal 40 (1997):  331-358.

Demos, John. Entertaining Satan:  Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (Oxford University Press, BF1576.D38 1982 ).

Francis, Richard. Judge Sewall’s Apology:  The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of the American Conscience (Fourth Estate, F67.S525 2005 ).

Godbeer, Richard. The Salem Witch Hunt:  A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, XXKFM2478.8.W5G63 2011 ).

Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem (G. Braziller, BF1576.H25 1969 ).

Hill, Frances. The Salem Witch Trials Reader (Da Capo Press, BF1576.H55 2000 ).

Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Salem Witchcraft Trials:  A Legal History (University Press of Kansas, XXKFM2478.8.W5H645 1997 )(Landmark Law Cases & American Society).

______________. The Devil’s Disciples:  Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (Johns Hopkins University Press, XXKFM2478.8.W5H646 1996 ).

Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman:  Witchcraft in Colonial New England (Norton, BF1576.K370 1987 ).

Le Beau, Bryan F. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials:  “We Walked in Clouds and We Could Not See Our Way” (Prentice Hall, 2d ed., XXKFM2478.8.W5L43 2010 )(DLL has 1998).

Levin, David. What Happened in Salem? (2d ed.  Harcourt, Brace & Co. BF1575.L40 1960 ) (Documents Pertaining to the Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials).  Compiles trial evidence documents, contemporary comments, and legal redress.

Mather, Cotton. The Wonders of the Invisible World:  Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New England, and Of Several Remarkable Curiosities Therein Occurring (1693) .

Mather, Increase. Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men, Witchcrafts, Infallible Proofs of Guilt in Such As Are Accused with That Crime  (1693).

Nevins, Winfield S. Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692 (North Shore Pub. Co., BF1576.N5 1892 ).

Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare:  The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692  ( BF1575.N67 2002 )(legal analysis, with appendixes).

Powers, Edwin. Crime and Punishment in Early Massachusetts, 1620-1692  A Documentary History (Beacon Press, KB4537.P39C8 1966 LawAnxN ).

Rosenthal, Bernard ed. Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt (Cambridge University Press, XXKFM2478.8.W5R43 2009 )(includes Richard B. Trask, “Legal Procedures Used During the Salem Witch Trials and a Brief History of the Published Versions of the Records” at pages 44-63).

Ross, Lawrence J., Mark W. Podvia, & Karen Wahl. The Law of the Salem Witch Trials .  American Association of Law Library, Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, July 23, 2012 (AALL2go – password needed to access .mp3 and program handout).

Starkey, Marion. The Devil in Massachusetts:  A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (A.A. Knopf, XXKFM2478.8.W5S73 1949 ).

Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft:  with an Account of Salem Village and a History of Witchcraft and Opinions on Kindred Subjects   (Wiggin & Lunt, 1867).  2v.

Weisman, Richard. Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts (The University of Massachusetts Press, XXKFM2478.8.W5W4440 1984 ).  Includes a chapter on “The Crime of Witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay  Historical Background and Pattern of Prosecution.”  Appendixes includes lists of legal actions against witchcraft prior to the Salem prosecutions, Massachusetts Bay witchcraft defamation suits, persons accused of witchcraft in Salem, confessors, allegations of ordinary witchcrafts by case, afflicted persons.

Young, Martha M.  “ The Salem Witch Trials 300 Years Later:  How Far Has the American Legal System Come?  How Much Further Does It Need to Go? ”   Tulane Law Review 64 (1989): 235-258.

General Resources

Mackay, Christopher S., trans. & ed.   The Hammer of Witches:  A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum (authored by Heinrich Institoris & Jacobus Sprenger in 1487 – Dominican friars, who were both Inquistors and professors of theology at the University of Cologne)(Cambridge University Press, BF1569.M33 2009 ).  This medieval text ( Der Hexenhammer in German) prescribes judicial procedures in cases of alleged witchcraft.  In question-and-answer format.  The judge should appoint as an advocate for the accused “an upright person who is not suspected of being fussy about legal niceties” as opposed to appointing “a litigious, evil-spirited person who could easily be corrupted by money” (p. 530).

“Judgment of a Witch.” The Fugger News-Letters 259-262 (The Bodley Head, Ltd., 1924).  Also reprinted in The Portable Renaissance Reader .

Pagel, Scott B. The Literature of Witchcraft Trials:  Books & Manuscripts from the Jacob Burns Law Library (University of Texas at Austin, BF1566.P243 2008 ) (Tarlton Law Library, Legal History Series, No. 9).

Witchcraft and the Law:  A Selected Bibliography of Recent Publications (Christine Corcos, LSU Law)(includes mostly pre-2000 works).

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• A Study of Salem Witch Trial: a Gender and Religion Based Discrimination

Annals of R.S.C.B., ISSN:1583-6258, Vol. 25, Issue 4, 2021, Pages. 9536 - 9552 Received 05 March 2021; Accepted 01 April 2021.

A Study of Salem Witch Trial: A Gender and Religion Based Discrimination

DeekshaKarunakar

Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University, India

Abstract: In the 16th century at the states of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, individuals were brutally tortured in the name of punishment under law and religion. This event showcased the effect of religion blindsiding a community. Salem witch trials have influenced many scholars and philosophers to put forward their study on different aspects of the case in the form of sociological, historical, demographic interpretations. Since then several regulations have been introduced worldwide for a fair and just trial. Furthermore, laws protecting women have also been introduced and in certain aspects Salem Witch Trial plays an important role for the same. The paper intends to focus on the global impact of Salem Witch Trial to the women in present along with the theories put forward on the basis of the case. Furthermore, the paper intends to recall the injustice served in this case for decades and how it impacted the faith of the justice system globally among the individuals.

Keywords:-Witchcraft Trial, State, Criminal Justice, Salem, Injustice, Religion

1. HISTORY OF SALEM AND IDEOLOGY OF WITCHCRAFT

The interpretation of the idea on witchcraft was heavily influenced by Hebrew’s Code and Bible. The practice of witchcraft was considered a sin, even centuries before the Salem Trials commenced. The ancient law of the Hebrews, Exodus 22:18[1] reads, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This was later comprehended in the Bible 28:1[2] reads, “The Witch of Endor.” Both of these statements suggested that witchcraft is a sin and that God shall punish him and his sons with death and destruction of this practice. As decades passed by, the ideology of witchcraft being an evil and sinful practice had developed in the human mind. Henceforth, the continuance of ideology affected the injustice served in the Salem witchcraft trials. It was in 1672, when „Salem Village‟ was considered as a „Salem Town‟ after the construction of their first meetinghouse, hired their first minister and gained semi-independence.[3] Furthermore, every individual who resided in Salem village were members of the first church in Salem and every Sunday attended the meeting namely Sabbath.[4] But gaining independence didn’t mean the issues were resolved. Three Reverend Ministers resigned due to the financial difficulties. In 1689, the Salem Village Church hired its fourth pastor/minister, Reverend Samuel Parris .[5] Along with Reverend Parris, came his wife Ellizabeth, his 11 year old niece Abigail Williams , his nine year old daughter Elizabeth (called „Betty‟) and a slave couple he had brought from the West Indies, John and Tituba Indian.

Figure 1:- Portrait of Reverend Samuel Parris

http://annalsofrscb.ro 9536

Since the slaves were accompanied by the Parris family, Mrs. Parris daily visited the Church with her husband as she was not needed for the household chores.[6] With Mrs. Parris being busy at Church with her husband, the two children Abigail and Betty spent their time with Tituba. Tituba would entertain Elizabeth and Abigail with stories from her native Barbados, particularly with her knowledge of folk magic. She became increasingly popular for her secret afternoon session among a few other young women from the Salem Village parish including 12 year old Ann Putnam , Jr., 18 year old Elizabeth Hubbard, 17 year old Mary Warren, 19 year old Mercy Lewis , 16 year old Elizabeth Booth , 18 year old Susannah Sheldon , and 16 year old Mary Walcott . Later, these groups of young women were among the hundreds who were accused of witchcraft. The folk magic which was being utilized by this group was considered as fortune telling. In Judeo-Christian theology, the practice of magic, even folk magic and fortune-telling was strictly forbidden because such practices were believed to summon from Satanic and demonic spiritual powers. Unfortunately, all the girls in the group had a negative effect of the folk magic on themselves and henceforth, led to the Salem Witch Trial.

2. BRIEF FACTS

The young girls in the group led by Tituba wanted to know about their future husbands and through magic instead of a face they saw a coffin, which led them to have fits and nightmares.[7] The girls were clear regarding their act being considered illicit hence they tried to keep their behavior a secret, but innocent minds showcasing irrational and odd behaviours wasn’t something easy to keep hidden. Sooner Reverend daughter Betty and niece Abigail started showcasing odd behavioural patterns consisting of staring blankly into space, crawling on the floor, barking like a dog and making choking noises. The parents and elders in the community started growing concern with regard to such odd and ill mannered behaviors of young girls. The local physician Dr. William Griggs diagnosed that the girls’ behavior were related to a spell and that they were under the force and power of the „evil hand‟ of witchcraft.

Figure 2:- Portrait of Dr. William Griggs

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Upon knowing this Reverend Parris called a secret meeting with ministers and started the spiritual healing process of the girls. Despite tremendous efforts, the conditions of the girls deteriorated and were beyond the state of recovering. Reverend Parris started questioning the girls in order to know who was behind the practice of witchcraft. Out of fear of being caught, Tituba was advised by Mary Sibley, a member of Parris’s congregation, to cast a spell consisting of the girl’s urine, baking it into a rye cake, and feeding it to the Parris family dog in an attempt to pass the affliction of the children to the animal. After knowing Tituba’s involvement in the witchcraft that led to odd behavior among the young ones, Reverend Parris was outraged and whipped Tituba for practicing witchcraft in his home. Later, he preached a sumon declaring his ‘indian servant’ and Mary Sibley were practitioners of the black arts and should be severely reprimanded. Apart from these three, the other possible suspects were Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne as they were named by Abigail Williams during her interrogation. On February 29, 1692, Salem magistrates Jonathan Corwin and Colonel John Hathorne issued warrants for the arrest of Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Thenceforth, the initiation of one of the most historic trials commenced.

Figure 3:- Portrait of Jonathan Corwin Figure 4:- Portrait of Colonel John Hathorne

3. DELAY IN THE TRIAL

The commencement of the trial was difficult due to the absence of Massachusetts royal governor and a colonial charter. After the declaration of elimination of colonial government under the reign of King James II, the witchcraft trial could not progress. On May 14, 1692, under the arrival of the new Governor Sir William Phips introducing the new Massachusetts Charter, allowed the pending witchcraft trial to be heard by the court.

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Figure 5:- Portrait of Sir William Phips

4. INITIATION OF THE TRIAL

The witchcraft trial began with Sarah Good. The Magistrate John Hathorne questioned her in the court of law himself. Even though she answered sincerely, stating that she „serves the God who had made heaven and earth‟, her way of answering wasn’t sufficient for the judges to be convinced of her innocence. Elizabeth Cheever, court clerk, stated “Her answers were given in a very wicked and spiteful manner, reflecting and retorting against the authority with base and abusive words.” Even Sarah’s husband, Mr. William Good, testified against her claiming her to be ‘evil’ and her „might be a witch or in the process of becoming one.‟ Sarah Good stood up for herself and passed the suspicion to Sarah Osborne to be involved in torturing the afflicted children. Since the jury wasn’t convinced, even though Sarah Good was pregnant at the time she was sent to prison with a death sentence by the Court of Oyer and Terminer along with Sarah Osbone and Tituba in March 7,1692. Later, Sarah Good died in prison, Sarah Osborne was hanged on July 19,1692 and only Tituba was fortunate enough to survive. The arrival of Governor William Phips might have paced the trial of Sarah Good, but it was further discovered by him that more than 50 individuals were awaiting the trial for their involvement in witchcraft under overcrowded prisons and the ongoing war with the Indians just interrupted the further proceedings. In order to progress, Phips appointed 12 ministers and formed a committee to advise Salem Court on „how to proceed.‟ As per the committee report submitted to the Court on June 15, the ministers recommended the trials to continue with caution and express serious reservations against the use of „spectral evidence‟ (Spectral Evidence means, “evidence presented by a witness who claimed to see the spirit or specter of an accused person committing acts of witchcraft”). Even though the committee’s recommendations, the magistrates at the court of oyer and terminer overlooked it since the previous convictions were only based upon „spectral evidence.‟ Within a short span of time, many individuals were executed for the involvement in witchcraft, Bridget Bishop being the first to be executed. His case was fully supported by spectral evidence. Even though Tituba denied being involved in witchcraft during her first questioning. However, her statement changed during her second questioning. She claimed that “the Devil came to me and bid me serve him.” Furthermore, she expounded her practice of black magic and how she was tempted to torture the afflicted girls but done so only one. This confession by Tituba was enough evidence to showcase her involvement with witchcraft and dark magic. In her confession, she also mentioned a coven of local witches and described the meeting held by them in Salem Village. She also claimed Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne to be a part of the coven. Though Tituba’s confession was evidentiary enough for her conviction, in witchcraft cases the court took the confession as a witness to convict the other individuals. Hence, Tituba and other 50 individuals accused in this case were spared from the torture and death, and were realeased.

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Sarah Osborne was the last to be questioned. She claimed that she didn’t participate in any torturous activities against the afflicted girl and stated that she is a Gospel woman. Additionally, she claimed to be tortured and tempted by the devil for not fulfilling his demands. Since her health was in decline since May 10,1692 she died in prison awaiting her trial. These were the first three victims of the witchcraft trial and the case was not even near to the end. The most traumatic victim was Dorcas Good, four year old daughter of Sarah Good. Despite her tender age, she was brought to the court for questioning, where an innocent and naive child testified that “her mother had given her a demonic spirit, or „familiar,‟ in the form of a snake which fed upon her blood from a „witch‟s mark‟ on her finger.” Based on her testimony, she was chained and sent to imprisonment in Salem and later to Boston. At such a young and tender age, Dorcas Good faced the horror of confinement during her imprisonment. Even though she was not executed, she definitely had a deep mental impact on her upbringing once she was released. After 18 years, the damages of this was claimed by William Good, Dorcas father who claimed that Dorcas confinement in Boston’s prison had damaged her mental and physical health. He was awarded 30 pounds sterling as compensation of those damages. Another victim of the trial was Rebecca Nurse . Abigail Williams, Betty Parris and Ann Putmann Jr. testified against her defence and claimed she was a witch who brought the devil and tortured them. Apart from the afflicted children, several adults claimed the same. Reverend Deodat Lawson , as well testified against Rebecca Nurse. He stated about his visit to Thomas and Ann Putnam Sr., in early March, Mrs. Putman was visited by the specter of Rebecca Nurse. Rebecca Nurse defended herself from all the claims. In her defence, around 35 Salem Village residents signed the petition for Rebecca Nurse claiming her to be innocent while Rebecca was in Boston prison awaiting her trial. The petition had an impact on the jury foreman, Thomas Fiske, when Rebecca Nurse was tried in Salem on June 29,1692. But Thomas Fiske later asked a question, which remained unanswered due to Rebecca’s partial deafness which he wasn’t aware of. This led to the verdict of guilty and sentenced to execution of Rebecca Nurse on July 19,1692. Her execution was set with Sarah Good, Susannah Martin , Elizabeth Howe , and Sarah Wildes . The first individual to be condemned and executed in the witchcraft case was Bridget Bishop. Bridget Bishop was charged with witchcraft practice several years earlier than this incident. Even though she wasn’t named by the afflicted children, she was charged by the statement provided by numerous adults who testified various unexplainable and strange experiences that can only be reasoned to the utilizing of magic.[8] In Bridget Bishop’s case, the testament of Samuel and Sarah Shattuck was prioritised in her trial. According to their statement, the disagreement between them and Bridget, made her use black magic on their child who later that disagreement became insane unexpectedly. Another testament was given by John Bly, Sr., who claimed that “while working for Bridget on her cellar wall, he and his son found „poppets‟ made of rags with needles shoved in them.” Bridget maintained her innocence throughout the trial claiming “I don‟t know what a witch is?”. Magistrate John Hathorne counter questioned Bridget, “If you do not know what a witch is, how do you know that you are not one?” To which Bridget’s impulse response “If I were a witch you would certainly know it!” led to her conviction and execution by hanging at Gallow Hill on June 10, 1692. The first male victim of witchcraft trial was George Jacobs,Sr.. He and his family consisting of his son George, Jr., his daughter-in-law Rebecca, and granddaughter Margaret were accused by the afflicted girls and by his maidservant, Elizabeth Churchill. Elizabeth Churchill and Mary Walcott (one of the afflicted girls) claimed that George Jacob Sr., threatened and tempted them to sign the Devil’s Book. Further stated that despite his substantial efforts they were able to resist him. The astounding factor of George,Sr.’s case was his granddaughter’s confession claiming herself to be a witch and her grandfather as a co-conspirator along with Constable John Willard and Reverend George Burroughs . During George,Sr.’s trial Magistrate John Hathorne asked him to recite ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ as it was believed that only witches won’t be able to recite the prayer without any error. Due to the circumstances where George,Sr. was standing, he made several errors and was sentenced to be hanged. On August 19,1692, George Jacob,Sr. along with John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, and Reverend George Burroughs were hanged. Right after her grandfather’s sentencing Margot Jacobs requested the magistrate to retract her testimony against her grandfather and her being a witch which led her to await prison for her trial and execution. The most astonishing case for the community was the accusation against George Burroughs since he once served as a pastor of Salem village and was the only minister to be accused and executed. Susannah Shelton testified against Burroughs’s case. She claimed, “Burroughs‟s two wives appeared (to her) in their winding

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sheets‟‟ and said, „„that [this] man had, [pointing at Burroughs] killed them.” Furthermore, when he was asked to look at the afflicted children, the moment he did the children fell down. It was believed he pushed them down through dark magic. He was sentenced to hanged and was hanged on August 19,1692. On the day of his execution, Burroughs claimed to be innocent in front of the crowd but it didn’t affect any grounds and victims of this case increased.

Figure 6:- Execution of George Burroughs

The next victim of the witchcraft case was a couple, Giles and Martha Cory. Their death wasn’t considered as an execution. The afflicted children accused them and led them to prison for further trial. Mr.Giles execution was one of the most frightening and tortuous deaths one could ever experience. In his trial, he stood silent on the stand and refused to speak. To this, Chief Justice Stoughton instructed Sheriff George Corwin to subject to the ancient torture of „peine forte et dure‟ („a medieval form of torture in which the body was pressed with heavy weights‟)for Mr. Giles. He died from the pressure of heavy rocks on his body.

Figure 7:- Portrait of William Stoughton

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The last victims of the witchcraft case, were executed after Mr.Giles death, on September 22, 1692 which consisted of his wife Martha Cory, Mary Eastey, Alice Parker and Ann Pudeater, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, and Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker. It appears that all the victims of the trials were executed merely on the statements and testimonies by the afflicted children and no further evidence or investigation was taken place. The witchcraft trial is one of the historic cases of injustice, brutality and prejudice by the justice system which affected the beliefs of individuals. This case impact is in existence even in the 21st century. The aftermath and theories in connection with the witchcraft trial has been suggested for decades by various philosophers and scholars but the prejudice and fear still remains.

Table 1: List of Executed Victims

S.no. Name of the Victim Method of Execution

1 Bridget Bishop Hanged

2 George Burroughs Hanged

3 Martha Carrier Hanged

4 Giles Cory Pressed

5 Martha Cory Hanged

6 Mary Estey Hanged

7 Sarah Good Hanged

8 Elizabeth Howe Hanged

9 Susannah Martin Hanged

10 Rebecca Nurse Hanged

11 Alice Parker Hanged

12 Mary Parker Hanged

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13 John Proctor Hanged

14 Ann Pudeator Hanged

15 Wilmot Redd Hanged

16 Margarot Scott Hanged

17 Samuel Wardwell Sr. Hanged

18 Sarah Wildes Hanged

19 John Willard Hanged

20 George Jacobs Hanged

5. THEORIES OF THE WITCHCRAFT CASE

After the killing of the victims accused of practising witchcraft, the question of evidence importance in the case was raised in the society. Since, the witchcraft case was highly effective of the testimonies and not evidence, philosophers and theorists started questioning the cause behind the witchcraft trial might not be the practice of witchcraft but something else. The first published material mentioning the witchcraft trial was authored by Cotton Mather [9] in his book „The Wonders of the Invisible World.‟

Figure 8:- Cover page of The Wonders of the Invisible World by Cotton Mather

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Cotton Mather was a minister, a leader and a chronicler at the time of Salem witch trial. He defended the execution that took place in the trial in this book. He believed that witchcraft was an actual threat to the society, especially to the Puritan belief system. In his book, he mentioned that the ‘devil’ tempt the individuals involved in witchcraft to torture the afflicted people. Even though Cotton Mather described his version of what the women accuser and witness said in the trial, he never put a theory of genderism played a role in the trial, since most of the accused were women and witnesses were young females. Cotton Mather’s work helped other historians and philosophers to explore different theories for the cause of the trial, since several others didn’t accept his views. By the time of the 20th century, the views of the society took a different path; it was focused on the issues of „recognition‟ than on „witchcraft‟. One such scholarly individual was George Kittredge, who published his study on the witchcraft trials in the 20th century.

Figure 9:- Portrait of George Kittredge

His article „Notes on Witchcraft‟ published at „American Antiquarian Society‟ in 1907. He referenced several individuals who wrote on the topic „witch hunting.‟ His views were based on the belief of Puritan and Non- Puritan’s on witchcraft and it’s existence. He insisted that the practice of witch-hunt is inspired by England and the Salem Witchcraft Case is not unique. In layman’s term his arguments were precisely based on the witchcraft trial and belief not being unique to Salem. His emphasis was not clear to describe the reasons behind the trial or any other analysis. The first female view in regard to the witchcraft trial was forwarded by Esther Forbes in her novel „A Mirror of Witches‟ in 1928. She was an educated woman from Massachusetts itself. Her novel was based on a fictional character Doll Bilby, a young orphan who was trial and executed for the practice of witchcraft. She introduced the concept of sexuality along with the value of „what it meant‟ to be a Puritan woman. The character Doll Bilby’s parents died for being witches, later adopted by Mr.Bilby who took her to Cowan Corners located near Salem Massachusetts. Doll’s childhood as described in Forbes’s novel was difficult, she was hated by Hannah, Mr. Bilby’s wife and physically abused by Mr. Bilby. The hatred Hannah had towards Doll was a factor in her being witness against Doll in witchcraft trial. Doll grew up to be an attractive young woman and gained attention amongst the eligible bachelors in the village. One such bachelor was Titus Thumb, most eligible bachelor in the village. His attraction towards Doll was considered Un-Puritan, as it was believed that Puritans stressed on the need for women to have children rather than the sexual attraction aspect. Doll’s embrace of her sexuality also played another factor in her fictional trial. She not only confessed to being a witch but also to have ‘carnal knowledge’ of the devil in her trial. The fact that Forbes had Doll confess to being a witch reflects the struggle

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in the 1920 between the individuals who still held conservative beliefs about female sexuality and the participants of the sexual revolution that was taking place. Forbes fictional novel, interpreted the role of the female as a Puritan and how sexuality was affected in the witchcraft trial. Forbes’s theory on the witchcraft trial was a play on the issues of women embracing their sexuality in 1920s and how the thoughts of ‘sexual attraction’ is evil and sinful in the past. The fact that Doll’s beauty was interpreted in the novel showcase the relation of beauty, sex and it’s relation with the sin like witchcraft practices. The views provided by George Kittredge and Esther Forbes were theoretical and were inspired by the work of Cotton Mather. In modern times few logical explanations have been provided by numerous individuals on the cause of witchcraft trials. The most common theory proposed by individuals was the impact of the Native American War.[10] Many theorists believed that the war that took place in the 17th century near Salem had an impact on the witch hysteria of 1692. The impact of the war created the circumstances of unease and intense anxiety among the citizens of Salem. It was believed that the afflicted children whose testimony as witness played a crucial role in the execution and sentencing of the accused in Salem Witch Trial were suffering from post-traumatic stress from the war. This can be considered as a plausible cause of the prejudice in witchcraft trial, since the symptoms of post traumatic stress and the symptoms[11] showcased by the afflicted children were similar in nature. They recalled intensive memories of the trauma and a change in their physical and emotional reactions was visible. Furthermore, it was believed specifically in the case of George Burroughs, that his incapacity for organising a proper military campaign during the war was because of witchcraft and no other explanation. Another theory was introduced by John Putman in his book „Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the culture of Early New England.‟ According to his theory, the afflicted children were accusing the older generation. Some historians also elucidated that the witchcraft trial was a way to oppress the women whose action and reaction were outside the social norms of the Salem village. The possibility of suppressing the woman section of the society in this case was quite high, since the symbol of power and wisdom was represented by males only. The judges of this case were males, who utilized their power to punish those victims. Women rising above their limits might be considered as a threat to their position, as they would have set an example and encourage other women to rise. This also showcases the reason behind numerous female victims in the witchcraft case. Some historians and philosophers suggested that lack of physical activities by the young girls were a factor for them to be interested in participating in witchcraft and fortune-telling. In that era, children were restricted to their homes and spent their time doing errands around the house and studying the Bible. Since, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the afflicted children were young, it was suggested by several historians that due to lack of leisure activities the children were interested in something different from their daily routine. It was suggested that boredom played a factor of them being involved in forbidden activities. The most unusual and compelling theory[12] was suggested by LinndaCaporael, a behavioural psychologist. Her theory suggested the possibility of ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye and used in reducing bleeding during menstruation, in menopause, and in connection with miscarriage; expelling the placenta after childbirth and other conditions.[13] Consumption of ergot is unsafe and leads to gangrene, vision problems, confusion, spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness and death. Her theory of ergot poisoning is plausible because the weather condition of Salem in 1692 was favorable for the growth of ergot and the symptoms showcased by afflicted children were similar to the side effects of ergot. The most recent theory on the Salem Witch Trial was proposed in 2004 by Emily Oster, Harvard graduate in her thesis.[14] Her theory was based on the cold weather condition during the trial. According to her report in thesis, “The most active period of the witchcraft trials (mainly in Europe) coincides with a period of lower-than-average temperature known to climatologists as the „little ice age‟; The colder temperatures increased the frequency of crop failure, and colder seas prevented cod and other fish from migrating as far north, eliminating this vital food source for some northern areas of Europe.” According to this theory, the failure of production of crops in Salem, was due to the practice of witchcraft. Her theory is considerable, since Salem's temperatures were not differentiating from Europe during that era and the belief on the practice of witchcraft among the individuals, which impacted the trial, faded in 1693. Part of her theory supports LinndaCaporael’s theory of ergot poisoning.

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6. DECLARATION OF NOT GUILTY OF VICTIMS IN WITCHCRAFT TRIAL

After the Salem Witch Trial, individuals’ belief on the ‘evil’ in practice of witchcraft started to fade. In 1693, Justice Samuel Sewall publicly apologized for the blunder in the justice system in the witchcraft trial of 1692. The victims who weren’t executed were awarded compensation in 1711. By the year of 1957, victims’ families were awarded compensation as most of the cases in relation with the witchcraft trial were resolved.[15]

Figure 10:- Judge Samuel Sewall

Even though the victims’ families were awarded compensation, it took decades to declare the accused as not guilty. The witchcraft case, not only physically and mentaly harm the victims but gone far in depth to harm their dignity. The biggest tribute to honor and respect those victims would be to clear their names. Out of the 20 convicted and executed victims, only 6 victims have been cleared by the resolution passed in 1957.[16]

Figure 11:- Tribute Stone of hanged victims on September 22,1692 under the Witchcraft Trial

In 2001, 5 other victims of the witchcraft trial were cleared by the Legislature. These 5 victims were Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott.[17] The interpretation of the theories of the Salem witchcraft case, lead to the questioning of the trial and execution of the victims in the modern era. These questions were the impact factor in the community to

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recognize the true victims of the trials were the one who were accused and the role of the judge to be fair wasn’t portrayed in this case. The execution of 20 individuals and 2 dogs[18] in the name of witchcraft in this case was disturbing and inhumane. This leads to the protection of every individual and animals in every sector of the society. This case was a portrayal of the dangers a woman can be under by being named as a witch.

7. WAS IT A CRIMINAL CASE OR RELIGIOUS CASE ?

The case consisted of criminal offence, but was based on religious aspects. As per the facts of the case, the practice of witchcraft was considered evil according to the Bible. Bible, a collection of religious texts and scriptures sacred to Christians and others. The sacred texts of the bible were considered a divine relationship between God and Humans. As observed in the witchcraft case, the Puritans were bound to study the Bible from a young age and grew to provide services to the Church. The witchcraft case was only focused on religion. Even though the practice of witchcraft was a criminal offence; it was considered an offence under the Bible. But the offences against the victims during trial were criminal. In this case, the religious text subdued criminal content. Whosoever, were executed in the case were charged for committing sin under the Bible and punished according to the Bible. The astonishing factor is that Magna Carta (‘Charter of Freedom’) was influenced globally by the time of the trial. Magna Carta, the 1st legal document to acknowledge the rights of the people in 1215, inspired laws enacted in each country. According to Magna Carta, „everyone has a right of fair trial.‟[19] This principle wasn’t followed in the witchcraft case. The principle ‘Right to fair trial’ consists of „right to be heard‟, „right to be treated equally‟, „right to opportunity allowed by law to prove innocence.‟[20] Not only this case lacked to follow this principle, but blindsided the rights of the victims. The Witchcraft Act, 1604 was established in the State of Massachuesetts, which mandate the death penalty for severe acts. The new charter was implemented in 1691 with stringent laws which was applied in Salem witch trial.[21] The Witchcraft Act,1604 failed to follow the rights of the people introduced in Magna Carta. Even though Magna Carta’s principles were important in this case. Another treaty that followed was „Malleus Maleficarum.‟ This treaty which is also known as „Hammer of Witches‟ was based on witchcrafts and it’s practice.[22]

Figure 12:- Malleus Maleficarum, 1669

Written by Heinrich Kramer, it consisted of detailed analysis on both legal and theoretical perspective of eradication of witchcraft. According to this treaty, it allowed deception and torture in order to obtain confession. The treaty also suggests that women were more likely to practice witchcraft.[23] This was one of

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the reasons for the larger ratio of women victims in the Salem Witch Trial. This treaty was brutal and used in several witchcraft cases throughout the 16 and 17 century. Raudvere Jolly in his book[24] described how this treaty was unethical and contrary to Catholic doctrine of demonology. Following this unscrupulous treaty was one mistake that cost the life of 20 individuals executed in the Salem Witch Trial. Solely, based on this Salem witchcraft was a criminal case rather than religious, but it consisted of religious belief on the practice of witchcraft being evil and sinful. Another reason for the witchcraft case being religious was based on the trial, the victims were told under pressure to say a verse from the Bible without stutter. This evidence that played the role in execution of the victims wasn’t a reliable evidence to prove guilt or innocence. Any individual put forward in the court of law with the fear of being sentenced to death would stutter in such circumstances. Salem Witch Trial is one such case that had more religious background than of a criminal, the only criminal aspect to this case was the torture faced by the victims and how they were wrongfully accused.

8. CORRESPONDING CASE

17 years before the infamous Salem Witch Trial, another known trial in relation with witchcraft practice was the Salzburg witch trial held in 1675-1690 in Austria.[25] The only difference in this case is that the majority of the execution was of males and unlike the Salem witch trial, all the accused in this case were executed. In the Salzburg case, there were 139 executed individuals including 39 children, 53 teenagers and young adults and 113 males. Both the cases followed the execution of the accused and believed in the ‘spectral evidence’. Furthermore, both the cases followed the treaty of „Malleus Maleficarum.‟

9. GLOBAL IMPACT OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIAL

Salem Witch Trial was one impactful case, the judges griefed of their wrong doings; the accused victims and their families were given compensation for the torture and mistreatment they suffered in prison. This case had left its impact on individual’s minds and perception. The victims’ hardship was recognized and left its mark globally. After the Salem Witch Trial, many changes occurred regarding the procedure of the trial, maxims were introduced, acts were implemented worldwide. There were few common changes and few country-wise changes depending upon the parallel relationship with this case to their circumstances.

9.1. Common Changes

These are the type of changes established globally, inclusive of principles, rights to legal representation, convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (hereinafter referred as ‘CEDAW’), etc. These changes are observed till date. One of the main changes in the legal procedure in any case was establishing the principle „innocent until proven guilty.‟ According to this principle, the legal burden of proof is on the prosecution than on the defendant. In the Salem Witch Trial, the burden of proof was on the victims. Even though this principle was introduced by Islamic[26] and Roman[27] laws, it was followed globally after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[28] This principle was officially introduced by the British barrister Sir William Garrow.[29] This principle was essential in the justice system, since the presumption of guilt is related with the defamation of the innocent. Once the accused is proven to be not guilty of the crime, the public eye over the case affects their mental health. The presumption of guilt plays the key role in it. This principle is established to circumvent such situations. By not following this principle, the victims of the Salem Witch Trial were deeply impacted, they were charged in the public eye even before the trial commenced. This also affected the outcome of the case, accusation of 200 individuals and execution of 20 based on the presumption of guilt and burden of proof on defendant lead to the injustice. Another change is the recognition of rights of defendants in trial. In recent times, the defendant is informed regarding their right to remain silent and right to representation at the time of arrest. In the Salem Witch Trial, these two rights were non-existent. Not only did any of the victims weren’t given a proper legal representation but when one of the victims remained silent during the trial, he was pressed to death. These rights play a key role in the justice system. By recognizing their right to legal representation, the defendant is able to get a chance to prove their innocence. By recognizing their right to remain silent, the defendant is able to protect themselves from mental and physical torture. In the Salem Witch Trial, the victims presented themselves in

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the court. The victims lack of skills and knowledge on the legal aspect had affected their case and led to their execution. Hence, the importance of legal representation in cases was recognized for a fair and just outcome. Salem Witch Trial also showcased the discrimination and elimination of women since most of the executed and accused were women. This raised the issue of gender discrimination which is recognized even in present era. CEDAW played a major role in recognizing this issue and implementing rules and regulation to overcome it. After decades of the trial, CEDAW was adopted. It was on 18th December, 1979, when the United Nation Assembly adopted it.[30] The focus of CEDAW was on civil rights and legal status of the women. The aim of CEDAW was to provide the same status and rights to women in business related areas as acquired by men. Articles 10, 11 and 13, respectively, “affirm women‟s rights to non-discrimination in education, employment and economic and social activities.”Article 15 asserts “the full equality of women in civil and business matters, demanding that all instruments directed at restricting women's legal capacity „shall be deemed null and void‟.” Furthermore, CEDAW also aimed to recognize women’s human rights and reproductive rights. The preamble states that “the role of women in procreation should not be a basis for discrimination.” CEDAW aimed for women to stand on their moral and prudential grounds, and focused to implement laws on those basis. As the Salem Witch Trial showcased the indefinite power and women who stood up for themselves were considered threat and executed. It showcased the discrmination faced by the women during that era. Even though CEDAW was established after decades, it showcased that the discrimination against women only grew in various sectors. Women fought for their rights and dignity, CEDAW and Salem might not be relatable in direct ground but they share a parallel relationship with each other. The laws implemented by CEDAW was to make sure women don’t face discrimination and torture as faced by the victims of Salem Witch Trial. These were the common changes that were impacted either directly or obliquely related to the Salem Witch Trial; there were also country-wise respective impacts of this trial.

9.2. Impact on the U.S.A.

The witch trial had left its impact in the United States of America. The witch trial was held in Massachusetts in the United States of America. Few of the individuals who participated in the witchcraft trial like Judge Samuel Sewall, Reverend Samuel Parris, accuser Ann Putman Jr. publicly apologized and exhibited their grief and sorrow for their actions. This case is an important part of American History. The religious anxiety, gender discrimination, economic envy, all these theories popped up after this case. Even the relationship between the citizens and justice system started to deteriorate after this case. Individuals tend to question the procedure followed by the justice system after this case. At the time of the Salem Witch Trial, the women were treated poorly. According to Massachusetts, 17th century law, if a woman lured a man to marry him via the means of high heels, they would be treated as a witch.[31] This law showcased that women had to be conscious with regard to their clothing preference, behaviour and ethics. It was in the 19th century, when the laws were implemented for the benefit of women. Most of the laws implemented were based upon women’s right to property[32][33] and their own earning. Women protection laws and non-discrimination laws implemented in the 20th century.[34] The laws for protection of women was the key impact of the witch trial. Since the majority of the victims were women, there was a theory on victimisation of women might be the cause of gender discrimination. This explanation showcased the importance of protection of women status, dignity and implementing their rights. The impact on the United States of America, was a step to globally recognize such issues and act upon the same.

9.3. Impact on India

Indian history of witchcraft is observed in religious books like Ramanya, Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata. Witchcraft practice was solemnly considered one of the most powerful magic also known as ‘black magic’. Another name of witch in India is termed as „Dayaan‟(formed from the Sanskrit term „dakini‟ meaning ‘a female paranormal entity from the netherworld’). Indian history on the existence of witches goes back to the 15 century in Harangul. The city of Harangul, the sighting of witches was around the areas of cemeteries and

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abandoned fields.[35] The concept of witch in India meant black magic, the target of young attractive women and young families. Eventually out of fear, the witch hunting process started. A large number of women and young children were killed after being declared as witches.[36] For the protection of individuals, the Indian Government enacted various acts like Prevention of Witch Practices Act and The Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill. The Prevention of Witch Practices Act[37] was implemented in 1999 at the State of Jharkhand as a preventive measure from the witch practices. This act punished and imprisoned any individual identifying themselves as a witch. The importance of this act was to ensure women safety who declared themselves as witch and avoid women’s torture, humiliation and killing by the society or any other group. Though the act itself doesn’t allow any individual to declare themselves as witch, the act was a necessity step to provide protection and avoid torture of such individuals. This act was only implemented in the state of Jharkhand rather than in the whole of India. The Indian Government did introduce a bill on Prevention of Witch Hunting in 2016 at Lok Sabha. The bill aims to “provide effective measures to prevent and protect women from 'witch-hunt' practices to eliminate their torture, oppression, humiliation and killing by providing punishment for such offences, relief and rehabilitation of women victims of such offences.”[38] The bill is still awaiting for enactment and further processing. Though India’s existence of witchcraft is earlier than the Salem Witch Trial, the brutality of killing of the innocent women after declaration of being witch by the society did relate with the trial.

Even India took further steps for acknowledging the safety of women and introduced several laws and provisions to make sure safety of women in justice is being taken carefully. For instance, the Code of Criminal Procedure was amended in 2005 which led to amended of Section 46 (4), which provides certain criteria to be fulfilled while arresting of a woman which includes:-

1. The arrest shall be made before sunset and after sunrise; 2. The arrest shall be made only by a Woman Police Officer; 3. The arresting police officer shall obtain permission of such arrest via Judicial Magistrate First Class within local jurisdiction.

Several other women protection acts have been implemented by the Government of India to address the issue of women protection. The severity of Salem witch case showcased the existence of gender and religion based discrmination, innocent women were tortured and hanged on the basis of religious evidence which is not even a strong evidence to support the penalty.

10. CONCLUSION

The Salem Witch Trial is one of the historic events globally recognized. Though the trial was held decades earlier, the present day laws and regulations are highly impacted and focus on the protection of women in the society. Even though this case showcased injustice and brutality in the justice system, it was widely recognized for the public apology conveyed by the judges and afflicted girls. The relation of the Purtian and Non-Purtian society was a parallel relation with the globally recognized relation of rural and urban individuals respectively. Though the reasoning behind the brutality and death of the victims are not determined, the theories presented do clarify some reasonable doubts. The sudden change in the emotional and behavioural attachment of the public towards the victims showcased the theory of ergot poisoning and cold weather a plausible reasoning. The globalwise impact is a positive change in recognizing women’s rights and power. The changes recognized in the respective countries are the necessary changes to avoid history repeating itself. The pain and torture faced by the victims, the screams of the victims wasn’t left unheard. The change in the procedure of the justice system and recognition of the rights was an important aspect and played a vital role in the present justice system which led to a fair and just trial. The Salem Witch Trial also showcases the gender based discrimination that is in existence since a long period of time. Most of the women around the world were tortured and killed or punished for the crime like a death row inmate. It is one such example of the existence of gender based discrmination in the form of penalty/punishment.

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We can’t undo history, but we can learn from it. The Salem witch case was a lesson to everyone that there is a flaw in everything and we need to make sure humanity is being followed in every aspect.

11. REFERENCES

1. Exodus 22:18. Retrieved from https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/22-18.htm 2. Bible Gateway passage: 1 Samuel 28 - New International Version Bible Gateway. Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+28 3. Witchcraft Peabody Institute Library of Danvers. Retrieved from https://www.danverslibrary.org/archive/meetinghouse-at-salem-village/ 4. The Sabbath in Puritan New England The Sabbath in Puritan New England, by Alice Morse Earle. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8659/old/8sabb10h.htm 5. SAMUEL PARRIS: MINISTER AT SALEM VILLAGE. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/4601/Melinda%20Baker%20- %20Samuel%20Parris%20Minister%20at%20Salem%20Village%203.26.14.pdf?sequence=1 6. Francis Hill, The Salem Witch Trials Reader , 302. 7. Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, 1. 8. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://beckassets.blob.core.windows.net/product/readingsample/149970/9780521558204_excerpt_00 1.pdf 9. Gender and the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Retrieved from https://wou.edu/history/files/2015/08/Colburn-Josephine1.pdf 10. .Puritans Face Defeat The Salem Journal: The hysteria witches remise. Retrieved from https://people.ucls.uchicago.edu/~snekros/Salem%20Journal/Hysteria/ElbertDLukeR.html 11. .Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc- 20355967 12. .The Witches Curse PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/witches-curse- interview/1502/ 13. Ergot: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions, Dosage, and Warning WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-431/ergot 14. .Did climate change cause witch hysteria? Salem News. Retrieved from https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/did-climate-change-cause-witch- hysteria/article_181cd63c-850a-5011-81b3-32f7b06a7a0b.html 15. . Rapley, Witch Hunts. 16. Six Victims of 1692 Salem Witch Trials "Cleared" by Massachusetts... Today in Civil Liberties History. Retrieved from http://todayinclh.com/?event=six-victims-of-1692-salem-witch-trials-cleared- by-massachusetts-legislature 17. Massachusetts Clears 5 From Salem Witch Trials The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/us/massachusetts-clears-5-from-salem-witch-trials.html 18. Witchcraft in Salem. Retrieved from https://www.ushistory.org/us/3g.asp 19. Magna Carta Translation. Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/files/press/press-kits/magna- carta/magna-carta-translation.pdf 20. RIGHT TO FAIR TRIAL. Retrieved from , http://www.nja.nic.in/Concluded_Programmes/2019- 20/P-1163_PPTs/1.Right%20to%20Fair%20Trial_Handout.pdf 21. Witchcraft law up to the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 Massachusetts Law Updates. Retrieved from https://blog.mass.gov/masslawlib/civil-procedure/witchcraft-law-up-to-the-salem-witchraft-trials-of- 1692/ 22. .The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft & Wicca. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5873/43e3cc13020a3e417282e159c2c79db219ed.pdf?_ga=2.423325 17.175458678.1603568668-822367752.1603568668 23. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages Google Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en 24. Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 3 Google Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?id=yuXTAwAAQBAJ

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25. .William E Burns, WITCH HUNTS in Europe and America (Greenwood). Retrieved from http://1.droppdf.com/files/O2gUt/witch-hunts.pdf 26. The Forty Hadith of al-Imam an-Nawawi (ABUL-QASIM) (1999). Retrieved from https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single2/en-hadith-nawawy-sahih.pdf 27. Alan Watson, THE DIGEST OF JUSTINIAN. Retrieved from , http://nbls.soc.srcf.net/files/files/Civil%20II/Texts/Digest%20of%20Justinian,%20Volume%201%20( D.1-15).pdf 28. Universal Declaration of Human Rights United Nations. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ 29. CHRISTOPHER MOORE, Becoming Learned and Honourable, 1797–1822. (University of Toronto Press) (1997). 30. .Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women OHCHR. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cedaw.aspx 31. Feet and Footwear: A Cultural Encyclopedia Google Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=LKTACQAAQBAJ 32. Women's Rights and Women's Labor: Married Women's Property Laws and Labor Force Participation, 18601900 Women's Rights and Women's Labor: Married Women's Property Laws and Labor Force Participation, 18601900. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20120426050812/http://spanalumni.academia.edu/ERoberts/Papers/2516 56/Womens_Rights_and_Womens_Labor_Married_Womens_Property_Laws_and_Labor_Force_Part icipation_1860_1900 33. The Democratization of Invention: Patents and Copyrights in American Economic Development, 1790-1920. Retrieved fromhttps://books.google.com/books?id=cd0KqQ6rxfEC 34. Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney. Retrieved from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1978/78-233 35. Paid to poo: Combating open defecation in India.. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health- 33980904 36. Double child sacrifice casts spotlight on witchcraft in India. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/world/double-child-sacrifice-casts-spotlight-on-witchcraft-in-india- 20101126-189e5.html 37. The Prevention of Witch (DAAIN) Practices Act, 2001, Retrieved from https://www.jhpolice.gov.in/download/file/fid/13251#:~:text=Section%206%3A%20Witch%20(Daai n),in%20any%20manner%20shall%20be 38. .Prevention of Witch Hunting Bill, 2016.. Retrieved from http://164.100.47.4/billstexts/lsbilltexts/asintroduced/4572LS.pdf

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• Suggestions on Salem Witch Trials Research Paper Topics

The Salem witch trials were prosecutions conducted of people indicted for witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people faced accusations of witchcraft. Thirty were found guilty, and nineteen of them were executed by hanging. Fourteen of the victims were women and five men, but an unknown number of innocents were injured as well.

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Therefore, Salem witch trials essay topics are so popular among students. This theme has many pitfalls to explore, and all researches concerning the Salem witch trials have unique historical value.

Read this list of topic suggestions on the Salem witch trials and find out why it is so important to study.

83 Salem Witch Trials Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best salem witch trials topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about salem witch trials, 👍 simple & easy salem witch trials essay titles, ❓ salem witch trials research questions.

• Why Abigail Williams Is Blamed for the Salem Witch Trials This essay is going to analyze the reasons why Abigail Williams is to be blamed for the Salem witch trials and dreadful hangings. The narcissism and egocentrism of Abigail lead her to accuse others.
• Salem Witch Trials and the Enlightenment Cultural Shift However, the further change in the attitude to the processes and their reconsideration indicated the strong impact of Enlightenment ideas and their spread over the region. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• The Salem Witch Trials: A Time of Fear The outbreak began with the sudden and rather unusual illness of the daughter and niece of the local Reverend Samuel Parris.
• Salem Witchcraft Hysteria: Crime Against Women In the “Was the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria a Product of Women’s Search for Power?” Kyle Koehler and Laurie Winn Carlson present the “pro” and “cons” arguments for this claim.
• Witch Trials. Salem Possessed by Boyer and Nissenbaum Let us recall that the greater part of the complaints during the trials came from the Salem Village and the greater part of the accused came from Salem Town and the pattern of economic and […]
• Salem Witch Trials: Differeenses From in Europe Witch trials in the new colonies of America were not a unique phenomenon in world history but the events of 1692 in Salem Massachusetts differed in scope and circumstances from in Europe, the origin of […]
• The Salem Witch Trials in American History Blame ranges from the devil initially to puritan ministers encouraging the witch mania to bring support for the Church, and to the ideology of Puritanism itself, a strong belief that everything strange is the work […]
• The Grave Injustices of the Salem Witchcraft Trials These thoughts enforced the belief in the existence of witchcraft in New England. The people of New England were in the middle of a war with the Indians.
• The Salem Witch Trials History Salem is a village in Massachusetts, which is a state in the New England region, in the North East of the United States of America.
• Witchcraft Accusations, Trials, and Hysteria in Border Regions and Rural Areas in Western Europe To a great extent, this phenomenon can be attributed to the following factors: 1) official recognition of witchcraft and the activities of religious zealots who inspired the persecution of many people; 2) the stereotypes and […]
• Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials As much as these trials can be referred to as the Salem trials, initial hearings were conducted in a number of towns in 1692.
• Through Women’s Eyes: Salem Witch Trial The accusers took advantage of the ignorance of the people to make them believe that it was indeed supernatural causes which made the town of Salem suffer.
• Salem Witch Trials Causes The writers explain that the problem began in the year 1691 and was marked by the behaviour of some girls in the same village who were involved in fortune telling.
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• What Social Problem Did the Salem Witch Trials and Executions Solve?
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• How Did the Puritans Affect the Trials of the Salem Witch?
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• Were Salem Witch Trials a Peculiar Aberrant Moment in an Age of Superstition or Were They Something Else?
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• What Impact Did the Puritan’s Religious and Social Culture Have on the Proceedings of the Salem Witch Trials?
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Salem Witch Trials: What Caused the Hysteria?

By: Elizabeth Yuko

Published: September 26, 2023

Though the Salem witch trials were far from the only persecutions over witchcraft in 17th-century colonial America, they loom the largest in public consciousness and popular culture today. Over the course of several months in 1692, a total of between 144 and 185 women, children and men were accused of witchcraft, and 19 were executed after local courts found them guilty.

As the witch panic spread throughout the region that year, increasing numbers of people became involved with the trials—as accusers, the accused, local government officials, clergymen, and members of the courts. 

What was happening in late 17th-century Massachusetts that prompted widespread community participation, and set the stage for the trials? Here are five factors behind how accusations of witchcraft escalated to the point of mass hysteria, resulting in the Salem witch trials.

1. Idea of Witchcraft as a Threat Was Brought From England

By the time the Salem witch trials began in 1692, the legal tradition of trying people suspected of practicing witchcraft had been well-established in Europe, where the persecution of witches took place from roughly the 15th through 17th centuries.

“Salem came at the tail end of a period of witch persecutions in Europe , just as the Enlightenment took hold,” says Lucile Scott , journalist and author of An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism and the Making of Modern America . “The English colonists imported these ideas of a witch to America with them, and prior to the events in Salem , [many] people had been indicted for witchcraft in [other parts of] New England .”

The accusations in Salem began in early 1692, when two girls , ages nine and 11, came down with a mysterious illness. “They were sick for about a month before their parents brought in a doctor, who concluded that it looked like witchcraft,” says Rachel Christ-Doane, the director of education at the Salem Witch Museum .

Looking back from the 21st century, it may seem unthinkable that a doctor would point to witchcraft as the cause of a patient’s illness, but Scott says that it was considered a legitimate diagnosis at the time. 

“It’s hard for us to understand how real the devil and witches and the threat they posed were to the Puritans—or how important,” she explains. “Witchcraft was the second capital crime listed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s criminal code .” 

2. Puritan Worldview Was Mainstream

When the Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, the first governor, John Winthrop, delivered a sermon famously proclaiming the colony “a Citty [sic] upon a Hill” —in this case, meaning a model Christian society with no separation of church and state. But as growing numbers of Quakers and Christians of other denominations arrived in Massachusetts, it became more religiously diverse .

“By the 1690s, God-fearing Puritans represented a smaller proportion of the population of New England than at any point in the 17th century,” says Kathleen M. Brown, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia . “Even though percentage-wise, the Puritan influence was weaker than it had been earlier in the century, it was still leaving a big imprint on society.”

This included mainstream acceptance of Providence: the Puritans’ belief that the events of everyday life on Earth happened in accordance with God’s will. 

“This was particularly true when they were talking about the fate of colonial settlements in the land grab, or disease epidemics that would sweep through and kill people, or a terrible storm,” Brown explains. “Providence, along with the notion that there was evil at work through Satan—[including] through the activities of witches who might turn to the devil to exert supernatural power—informed the way Puritans understood the natural world and the spiritual world.” 

Similarly, despite their waning power, the Puritans’ societal structure remained firmly in place when the Salem witch trials began. “The Puritan colony was a very patriarchal and hierarchical place,” Scott says, noting that this included the view that people, particularly women, who stepped outside of their prescribed roles in society were looked upon with suspicion. 

3. Accusations Didn’t Follow the Usual Patterns

Though accusations of witchcraft themselves weren’t out of the ordinary in colonial New England, those made in Salem in 1692 stood out, likely contributing to the panic that spread throughout the community. 

“Witchcraft accusations normally happened quite sporadically and in some isolation,” Brown explains. “They rarely snowballed into a mass accusation with increasing numbers of people accusing and being accused.” 

“If you look at the larger history of witchcraft, not just in North America, but in England and Scotland, usually men are the accusers of witches, especially in an outbreak,” says Brown, whose latest book Undoing Slavery: Bodies, Race, and Rights in the Age of Abolition was published in February 2023. “You don't really ever get girls and young women doing the accusations: that's actually anomalous for Salem.” 

Though theories abound, there is still no consensus as to why girls and young women became the central accusers , she notes.

When a rare witchcraft outbreak did occur, Brown says that it broadened the scope of who might qualify as a potential witch. “More people would fall into the category of ‘accused witch,’ and more people jumped on the bandwagon of accusation,” she notes. 

As the trials wore on, no one was exempt from suspicion. “At a certain point, accusations in Salem flew so freely, anyone, no matter their Puritan purity, might find themselves facing the gallows,” Scott says. 

HISTORY Vault: Salem Witch Trials

Experts, historians, authors, and behavioral psychologists offer an in-depth examination of the facts and the mysteries surrounding the court room trials of suspected witches in Salem Village, Massachusetts in 1692.

4. Decades of Ongoing Violence Had Taken a Toll

When the Salem witch trials began in 1692, King Philip’s War , also known as Metacom’s Rebellion, was still fresh in the minds of the colonial settlers. The Native Americans’ last-ditch attempt to stop English colonization of their land officially concluded in 1676 , but the violent conflict and bloodshed had never ended on the northern border of the Massachusetts colony. 

“The colonial settlers were still encroaching on land that had been in the hands of Native Americans for thousands of years, and Native peoples were hitting back,” Brown explains. “It wasn’t hard for Massachusetts Puritans to think about the devil embodied in what the Native Americans were doing, because they're not Christian, they’re in a mortal combat with Puritan Christianity and the whole colonial settler enterprise, and the Massachusetts Puritans really believed in their own divine mission.” 

Along the same lines, when the colony’s leaders reflected on the poor job they had done defending its northern boundary, Brown says that it’s not much of a stretch to think that they understood it all to mean that God was trying to tell them something, and “doesn't seem to be very happy.”

5. Accusations Came at Time of Political Uncertainty

It would have been one thing for the Puritans to view the contagion of both the mysterious illness spreading amongst the young women of Salem, and the subsequent accusations of witchcraft, as a sign that God is angry and the devil is at work. However, as Brown points out, in order for those accusations to gain the kind of traction they had in Salem—making it to trial, and, eventually, imprisoning and executing people—there had to be widespread buy-in from public officials. 

“You need ministers saying, ‘Yes, these are signs of the devil in our midst,’” Brown explains. “You need magistrates doing interrogations and deciding to lock people up in jail and put them on trial. You need judges who are willing to believe the spectral evidence. You need all of the official apparatus of government and of justice to be on board with it to produce the kind of outcome you get at Salem.”

According to some scholars, most notably, historian Mary Beth Norton , local leaders in Salem were so receptive to the accusations of witchcraft, and on board with implementing draconian laws and policies in part because of the precariousness of the Massachusetts colonial settlement at that time.

High-ranking Puritans were concerned about their church’s dwindling numbers. “By the time [the Salem witch trials] take place, the Puritans are less dominant politically, religiously [and] culturally,” Brown explains.

The final decades of the 17th century were a time of political uncertainty in Salem as well. In 1684, King Charles II of England revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter . Seven years later, the new ruling monarchs, King William III and Queen Mary II, issued a new charter establishing the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and, at the urging of influential Puritan clergyman Increase Mather , appointed Maine-born William Phips governor of the colony.

By the time Mather and Phips returned to Massachusetts with the new charter in May 1692, Salem’s jails were already filled with people accused of practicing witchcraft. 

“You can make the argument that the legal system [in place prior to May 1692 ] made it possible for the witch trials to happen,” says Christ-Doane. “They [didn’t] have a charter, and their courts were dysfunctional, and that allows them to make unusual procedural decisions that lead to so many people being convicted of witchcraft.” 

This included relying heavily, and sometimes exclusively, on spectral evidence —or, testimony from witnesses claiming that the accused person appeared to them and caused them harm in a vision or dream—even though it was widely considered unacceptable in legal practice at the time.

According to Brown, the legal situation didn’t improve when Phips took over. “Phipps, as governor, was a gatekeeper for certain judicial processes,” she explains. This included establishing the Court of Oyer and Terminer on May 27, 1692, specifically to try people accused of witchcraft. “That was the beginning of the convictions and the executions ,” Brown adds. 

On June 2, Bridget Bishop became the first person convicted of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials; eight days later, she was the first to be executed .

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What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?

The exact cause of the Salem Witch Trials has long remained a mystery. Like many historical events, figuring out what happened is one thing but trying to figure out why it happened is much harder.

Most historians agree though that there were probably many causes behind the Salem Witch Trials, according to Emerson W. Baker in his book A Storm of Witchcraft:

“What happened in Salem likely had many causes, and as many responses to those causes…While each book puts forward its own theories, most historians agree that there was no single cause for the witchcraft that started in Salem and spread across the region. To borrow a phrase from another tragic chapter of Essex County history, Salem offered a ‘perfect storm’ a unique convergence of conditions and events that produced what was by far the largest and most lethal witchcraft episode in American history.”

When it comes to the possible causes of the trials, two questions come to mind: what caused the “afflicted girls” initial symptoms and, also, what caused the witch trials to escalate the way that they did?

Although colonists had been accused of witchcraft before in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it had never escalated to the level that Salem did, with hundreds of people locked up in jail and dozens executed. Why did Salem get so bad?

What we do know is that witches and the Devil were a very real concern to the Salem Villagers, as they were to many colonists.

But since Salem had been experiencing a number of hardships at the time, such as disease epidemics, war and political strife, it wasn’t hard to convince some of the villagers that witches were to blame for their misfortune. Once the idea took hold in the colony, things seemed to quickly got out of hand.

The following is a list of these theories and possible causes of the Salem Witch Trials:

Conversion Disorder:

Conversion disorder is a mental condition in which the sufferer experiences neurological symptoms which may occur due to a psychological conflict. Conversion disorder is also collectively known as mass hysteria.

Medical sociologist Dr. Robert Bartholomew states, in an article on Boston.com, that the Salem Witch Trials were “undoubtedly” a case of conversion disorder, during which “psychological conflict and distress are converted into aches and pains that have no physical origin.”

Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for Witchcraft, painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson, circa 1855

Bartholomew believes what happened in Salem was most likely an example of a “motor-based hysteria” which is one of the two main forms of conversion disorder.

Professor Emerson W. Baker also suggests conversion disorder as a possibility in his book A Story of Witchcraft:

“Conversion disorder, one of several psychological conditions that Abigail Hobbs and other afflicted people might have suffered from in 1692, shows heightened awareness of one’s surroundings. Scholars have long noted the connections between the witchcraft outbreak and King William’s War , which raged on Massachusetts’s northern frontier and was responsible for the war hysteria that seems to have been present in Salem Village and throughout Essex County.”

Baker goes on to explain that many of the afflicted girls, such as Abigail Hobbs, Mercy Lewis, Susannah Sheldon and Sarah Churchwell, were all war refugees who had previously lived in Maine and had been personally affected by the war to the point were some of them may have been experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Ergot Poisoning:

In 1976, in an article in the scientific journal Science, Linda R. Caporael proposed that ergot may have caused the symptoms that the “afflicted girls” and other accusers suffered from.

Ergot is a fungus (Claviceps purpurea) that infects rye and other cereal grains and contains a byproduct known as ergotamine, which is related to LSD.

Ingesting ergotamine is known to cause a number of cardiovascular and/or neurological effects, such as convulsions, vomiting, crawling sensations on the skin, hallucinations, gangrene and etc.

Ergot tends to grow in warm, damp weather and those conditions were present in the 1691 growing season. In the fall, the infected rye would have been harvested and used to bake bread during the winter months, which is when the afflicted girl’s symptoms began.

Not everyone agrees with this theory though. Later in 1976, another article was published in the same journal refuting Caporeal’s claims, arguing that epidemics of convulsive ergotism have occurred almost exclusively in settlements where the locals suffered from severe vitamin A deficiencies and there was no evidence that Salem residents suffered from such a deficiency, especially since they lived in a small farming and fishing village with plenty of access to vitamin A rich foods like fish and dairy products.

The article also argued that the absence of any symptoms of gangrene in the “afflicted girls” further debunked this theory as did the lack of convulsive ergotism symptoms in other children in the village, especially given that young children under 10 years of age are particularly susceptible to convulsive ergotism and most of the “afflicted girls” were teens or pre-teens.

Other similar medical conditions that historians have proposed could have caused the afflicted girls symptoms include Encephalitis Lethargica, epilepsy, Lyme disease and a toxic weed called Devil’s Trumpet or locoweed but there is little evidence to support these theories either, according to Baker:

“Several other diseases have been put forward as possible culprits, ranging from encephalitis and lyme disease to what is known as ‘artic hysteria,’ yet none of these seem to fit, either. Many experts question the very existence of Artic hysteria, which results in such behavior as people stripping off their clothes and running naked across the wild tundra. The accounts mention no such streaking in Salem, and while the supposed symptoms of witchcraft began in January, more people showed symptoms in the spring and summer…Encephalitis, the result of an infection transmitted by mosquito bite, does not really seem plausible, given that the first symptoms of bewitchment appeared during winter. And while the bull’s-eye rash often produced on the skin by Lyme disease might explain the devil’s mark or witch’s teat, it falls short of accounting for the behavior of the afflicted. None of these suggested diseases fit because a close reading of the testimony suggests that the symptoms were intermittent. The afflicted had stretches when they acted perfectly normal, intersperse with acute fits.”

Cold Weather:

Historical records indicate that witch hunts occur more frequently during cold periods. This was the theory cited in economist Emily Oster’s senior thesis at Harvard University in 2004.

The theory states that the most active era of witchcraft trials in Europe coincided with a 400-year-long cold period known as the “little ice age.”

In her paper, Oster explains that as the climate varied from year to year during this cold period, the higher numbers of witchcraft accusations occurred during the coldest temperatures.

Baker also discusses this theory in his book A Storm of Witchcraft:

“The 1680s and 1690s were part of the Maunder Minimum, the most extreme weather of the Little Ice Age, a period of colder temperatures occurring roughly from 1400 to 1800. Strikingly cold winters and dry summers were common in these decades. The result was not just personal discomfort but increasing crop failures. Starting in the 1680s, many towns that had once produced an agricultural surplus no longer did so. Mixed farming began to give way to pastures and orchards. Once Massachusetts had exported foodstuffs; by the 1690s it was an importer of corn, wheat, and other cereal crops. Several scholars have noted the high correlation between eras of extreme weather in the Little Ice Age and outbreaks of witchcraft in Europe; Salem continues this pattern.”

Factionalism, Politics and Socio-Economics:

Salem was very divided due to disagreements between the villagers about local politics, religion and economics.

One of the many issues that divided the villagers was who should be the Salem Village minister. Salem Village had gone through three ministers in sixteen years, due to disputes over who was deemed qualified enough to have the position, and at the time of the trials they were arguing about the current minister Samuel Parris.

Rivalries between different families in Salem had also begun to sprout up in the town as did land disputes and other disagreements which was all coupled with the fact that many colonists were also uneasy because the Massachusetts Bay Colony had its charter revoked and then replaced in 1691 with a new charter that gave the crown much more control over the colony.

In their book Salem Possessed, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum attribute the witch trials to this political, economic, and religious discord in Salem Village:

“Predictably enough, the witchcraft accusations of 1692 moved in channels which were determined by years of factional strife in Salem Village.”

Boyer and Nissenbaum go on to provide examples, such as the fact that Daniel Andrew and Philip English were accused shortly after they defeated one of the Putnams in an election for Salem Town selectmen.

They also point out that Rebecca Nurse was accused shortly after her husband, Francis, became a member of a village committee that took office in October of 1691 that was vehemently against Salem Village minister Samuel Parris, whom the Putnams were supporters of.

Although this theory seems plausible, other historians such as Elaine Breslaw in her book Tituba, the Reluctant Witch of Salem, points out that other towns in Massachusetts were going through similar difficult times but didn’t experience any witch hunts or mass hysteria:

“There is no doubt that a peculiar combination of social tensions, exacerbated by the factional conflict within the community of Salem Village, contributed to the atmosphere of fear so necessary for the advent of a witchscare. Charles Upham suggested this as a major cause and Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum have provided a brilliant analysis of the Salem community to support that argument. Indian warfare and the uncertainties related to the arrival of a new charter and new Governor in the two years before the witchhunt also added to the level of social stress. But other towns in frontier Massachusetts that experienced the same socio-economic-political difficulties did not spark a similar witchscare. Several communities suffering from less stress did suffer from contact with Salem as the witchscare virus spread. This contagion too was a unique aspect of the 1692 episode.”

There is a small possibility and some evidence to back up the theory that some of the accusers were lying and faking their symptoms, although historians don’t believe this was the case with all of the accusers.

Baker suggests though that fraud may have been a bigger problem in the witch trials than we realize:

“Ultimately, the question is whether the afflictions, and therefore the accusations, were genuine or deliberate acts of fraud. Not surprisingly, there is no agreement on the answer. Most historians acknowledge that some fakery took place at Salem. A close reading of the surviving court records and related documents suggests that more fraud took place than many cared to admit after the trials ended.”

In Charles W. Upham’s book, Salem Witchcraft, Upham also suggests it was fraud, describing the afflicted girls as liars and performers but also admits that he doesn’t know how much of it was fake and how much of it was real:

“For myself, I am unable to determine how much may be attributed to credulity, hallucination, and the delirium of excitement, or to deliberate malice and falsehood. There is too much evidence of guile and conspiracy to attribute all their actions and deliberations to delusion; and their conduct throughout was stamped with a bold assurance and audacious bearing…It will be seen that other persons were drawn to act with these ‘afflicted children,’ as they were called, some from contagious delusion, and some, as quite well proved, from a false, mischievous, and malignant spirit.”

Many of the accused also stated that they believed that the afflicted girls were lying or only pretending to be ill. One of the accused, John Alden, later gave an account of his trial during which he described a moment that he believed to reveal fraud:

“those wenches being present, who plaid their jugling tricks, falling down, crying out, and staring in peoples faces. The magistrates demanded of them several times, who it was of all the people in the room that hurt them? One of these accusers pointed several times at one Captain Hill, there present, but spake nothing; the same accuser had a man standing at her back to hold her up; he stooped down to her ear, then she cried out. Aldin, Aldin afflicted her; one of the magistrates asked her if she had ever seen Aldin, she answered no, he asked her how she knew it was Aldin? She said, the man told her so.”

Another girl, who was not identified in the court records, was actually caught lying in court during Sarah Good’s trial when she claimed Good’s spirit stabbed her with a knife, which she said broke during the attack, and then presented the broken blade from her clothing where Good allegedly stabbed her.

After the girl made this claim though, a young man stood up in the court and explained that the knife was actually his and that he broke it himself the day before, according Winfield S. Nevins in his book Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692:

“There-upon a young man arose in the court and stated that he broke that very knife the previous day and threw away the point. He produced the remaining part of the knife. It was then apparent that the girl had picked up the point which he threw and put it in the bosom of her dress, whence she drew it to corroborate her statement that some one had stabbed her. She had deliberately falsified, and used the knife-point to reinforce the falsehood. If she was false in this statement, why not all of it? If one girl falsified, how do we know whom to believe?”

Bernard Rosenthal also points out in his book, Salem Story, several incidents where the afflicted girls appeared to be lying or faking their symptoms, such as when both Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams claimed George Jacobs was sticking them with pins and then presented pins as evidence or when both girls testified that they were together when they saw the apparition of Mary Easty, which makes it unlikely that the vision was a result of a hallucination or psychological disorder since they both claimed to have seen it at the same time.

Witch Pins, Court House, Salem. Photo published in New England Magazine, vol. 12, circa 1892

Another example is various instances when the afflicted girls hands were found to be tied with rope while in court or when they were sometimes found bound and tied to hooks, according to Rosenthal:

“Whether the ‘afflicted’ worked these shows out among themselves or had help from others cannot be determined; but there is little doubt that such calculated action was deliberately conceived to perpetuate the fraud in which the afflicted were involved, and that the theories of hysteria or hallucination cannot account for people being bound, whether on the courtroom floor or on hooks.”

Reverend Samuel Parris:

Not only did some of the villagers believe the afflicted girls were lying, but they also felt that the Salem village minister, Reverend Samuel Parris , lied during the trials in order to punish his dissenters and critics.

Some historians have also blamed Reverend Samuel Parris for the witch trials, claiming he was the one who suggested to the Salem villagers that there were witches in Salem during a series of foreboding sermons in the winter of 1692, according to Samuel P. Fowler in his book An Account of the Life of Rev. Samuel Parris:

“We have been thus particular in relation to the settlement of Mr. Parris at Salem Village, it being one of the causes, which led to the most bitter parochial quarrel, that ever existed in New-England, and in the opinion of some persons, was the chief or primary cause of that world-wide famous delusion, the Salem Witchcraft.”

Parris, who was the latest in a series of Salem Village ministers that got caught in the middle of an ongoing dispute between the villagers, started to preach about infiltration and internal subversion of the church immediately after starting his new job, as can be seen in his very first sermon in which he preached “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully.”

Parris went on to preach to the villagers that the preservation of the church was “worth an hundred lives” and, during a sermon about Jehovah’s command to Samuel to destroy the Amalekites, he preached “a curse there is on such as shed not blood when they have a commission from God.”

Yet, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, the authors of the book Salem Possessed, don’t agree that Parris started the witch hunt. They argue that while Parris had a significant role in the witch hysteria, he didn’t intentionally start a witch hunt:

“Samuel Parris did not deliberately provoke the Salem witchcraft episode. Nor, certainly, was he responsible for the factional conflict which underlay it. Nevertheless, his was a crucial role. He had a keen mind and a way with words, and Sunday after Sunday, in the little village meetinghouse, by the alchemy of typology and allegory, he took the nagging fears and conflicting impulses of his hearers and wove them into a pattern overwhelming in its scope, a universal drama in which Christ and Satan, Heaven and Hell, struggled for supremacy.”

After the trials were over, many of the Salem villagers felt Parris was responsible and some even protested by refusing to attend church while Parris was still minister there.

In February of 1693, these dissenters even presented a list of reasons they refused to attend the church, in which they accused Parris of dishonest and deceitful behavior during the trials and criticized his unchristian-like sermons:

“We found so frequent and positive preaching up some principles and practices by Mr. Parris, referring to the dark and dismal miseries of inquity, working amongst us, was not profitable but offensive…His approving and practicising unwarrantable and ungrounded methods, for discovering what he was desirous to know, referring to the bewitched or possessed persons, as in bringing some to others, and by and from them pretending to inform himself and others, who were the devil’s instruments to afflict the sick and pained…Sundry, unsafe, if sound, points of doctrine, delivered in his preaching, which we esteem not warrantable (if christian)…”

After two years of quarreling with parishioners, Parris was eventually dismissed sometime around 1696.

Although he was dismissed from his position, Parris refused to leave the Salem Village parsonage and after nine months the congregation sued him. During the lawsuit, the villagers again accused Parris of lying during the Salem Witch Trials, according to court records:

“We humbly conceive that he swears to more than he is certain of, is equally guilty of perjury with him that swears to what is false. And though they did fall at such a time, yet it could not be known that they did it, much less be certain of it; yet he did swear positively against the lives of such as he could not have any knowledge but they might be innocent. His believing the Devil’s accusations, and readily departing from all charity to persons, though of blameless and godly lives, upon such suggestions; his promoting such accusations; as also his partiality therein in stifling the accusations of some, and, at the same time, vigilantly promoting others, – as we conceive, are just causes for our refusal, & c.”

Parris responded by counter suing for the back pay the villagers had refused to pay him while he was minister. He eventually won the lawsuit and left Salem village shortly after.

Folk Magic:

English folk magic, which was the use of spells, ointments and potions to cure everyday ailments or solve problems, was often practiced in the Massachusetts Bay Colony even though it was frowned upon by most Puritans.

According to Beverly minister John Hale, in his book A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft, the afflicted girls symptoms began after one of them reportedly dabbled in a folk magic technique used to predict the future, known as the “Venus glass”:

“Anno 1692. I knew one of the afflicted persons, who (as I was credibly informed) did try with an egg and a glass to find her future husbands calling; till there came up a coffin, that is, a spectre in likeness of a coffin. And she was afterward followed with diabolical molestation to her death; and so died a single person. A just warning to others, to take heed of handling the Devils weapons, lest they get a wound nearby. Another I was called to pray with, being under some fits and vexations of Satan. And upon examination I found she had tried the same charm: and after her confession of it and manifestation of repentance for it, and our prayers to God for her, she was speedily released from those bonds of Satan.”

Cotton Mather, in his book Wonders of the Invisible World, also blamed folk magic as the cause of the Salem Witch Trials, stating that these practices invited the Devil into Salem:

“It is the general concession of all men that the invitation of witchcraft is the thing that has now introduced the Devil into the midst of us. The children of New England have secretly done many things that have been pleasing to the Devil. They say that in some towns it has been a usual thing for people to cure hurts with spells, or to use detestable conjurations with sieves, keys, peas, and nails, to learn the things for which they have an impious curiosity. ‘Tis in the Devil’s name that such things are done. By these courses ’tis that people play upon the hole of the asp, till that cruelly venomous asp has pulled many of them into the deep hole of witchcraft itself.”

Even though most colonists thought of folk magic as harmless, many well-known folk magic practitioners were quickly accused during the Salem Witch Trials, such as Roger Toothaker and his family who were self-proclaimed “witch killers” who used counter-magic to detect and kill witches.

Another accused witch who had dabbled in folk magic was Tituba, a slave of Samuel Parris who worked with her husband John and a neighbor named Mary Sibley to bake a witch cake, a cake made from rye meal and the afflicted girl’s urine, and then fed it to a dog in February of 1692 hoping it would reveal the name of whoever was bewitching the girls.

The girl’s symptoms took a turn for the worse after the incident and just a few weeks later, they named Tituba as a witch.

Tituba’s Confession:

The legal proceedings of the Salem Witch Trials began with the arrest of three women on March 1, 1692: Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. After Tituba’s arrest, she was examined and tortured before confessing to the crime on March 5, 1692.

Although her confession doesn’t explain the afflicted girls initial symptoms, which is what led to her arrest in the first place, some historians believe that if it had not been for Tituba’s dramatic confession, during which she stated that she worked for the Devil and said that there were other witches like her in Salem, that the trials would have simply ended with the arrests of these three women.

When Tituba made her confession, the afflicted girls’ symptoms began to spread to other people and the accusations continued as the villagers began to seek out the other witches Tituba mentioned. According to Elaine G. Breslaw in her book Tituba, the Reluctant Witch of Salem, this was a pivotal moment in the trials:

“How she and her supposed conspirators, Sarah Osbourne and Sarah Good, responded to the accusations of the girls was of even greater importance to the course of events in March and the following months. Tituba’s confession is the key to understanding why the events of 1692 took on such epic significance.”

To learn more about the Salem Witch Trials, check out this article on the best books about the Salem Witch Trials .

Sources: Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Nevins, Winfield S. Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692: Together With Some Account of Other Witchcraft Prosecutions in New England and Elsewhere. Salem: North Shore Publishing Company, 1892. Breslaw, Elaine G. Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies. New York University Press, 1997 Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Spirits. Wiggin and Lunt, 1867. 2 vols. Fowler, Samuel P. An Account of the Life, Character, & c. of the Rev. Samuel Parris, of Salem Village and Of His Connection With the Witchcraft Delusion of 1692. Salem: William Ives and George W. Pease, 1857. Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Oxford University Press, 2014. Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Harvard University Press, 1974. Spanos, Nicholas P. and Jack Gottlieb. “Ergotism and the Salem Witch Trials.” Science, 24 Dec. 1976, Vol. 194, Issue 4272, pp. 1390-1394. Edwards, Phil and Estelle Caswell. “The hallucinogens that might have sparked the Salem Witch Trials.” Vox, 29 Oct. 2015, www.vox.com/2015/10/29/9620542/salem-witch-trials-ergotism Sullivan, Walter. “New Study Backs Thesis on Witches.” New York Times, 29 Aug. 1992, www.nytimes.com/1982/08/29/us/new-study-backs-thesis-on-witches.html Mason, Robin. “Why Not Ergot and the Salem Witch Trials?” Witches of Massachusetts Bay, 23 April 2018, www.witchesmassbay.com/2018/04/23/why-not-ergot-and-the-salem-witch-trials/ “Witchcraft and the Indians.” Hawthorne in Salem, www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/NativeAmericans&Blacks/HannahDuston/MMD2137.html Wolchover, Natalie. “Did Cold Weather Cause the Salem Witch Trials?” Live Science, 20 April 2012, www.livescience.com/19820-salem-witch-trials.html Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Vintage Books, 2003. Saxon, Victoria. “What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?” Jstor Daily, Jstor, 27 Oct. 2015, daily.jstor.org/caused-salem-witch-trials/

4 thoughts on “ What Caused the Salem Witch Trials? ”

I am a curious kid about the Salem Witch Trials, I’ve read many articles, and they mostly came from you, at least since 2011 until now. It’s impressive that you are still working really hard on this, I hope my comment can give you some more courage to keep this topic up.

aw how sweet.

Hello I think this is really informational. I do have a question though. Is there anyway the trials could of been caused by the fear of women?

Now that’s a proper article! I thought I’d never see such well-researched and well-written article!

And I don’t think it was the fear of women. I think it was the fear of unknown that caused this. The problem is that most of the actual witchcraft happened behind the scenes, so it’s hard to know what was really going on.

Comments are closed.