Salem,%20Massachusetts

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Salem Witch Trials

• Salem, Massachusetts
• 1692

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Why Salem Still Haunts Us

• Fascination with Witches
• A Stain on American History
• How Could an Entire Community Engage in Such
  Horrific Acts?

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Witches and Europe

• Many people in early European society relied on
  the local wise people to give an explanation for
  good and bad fortune.
• It was believed that some people possessed
  special powers that could cause good or harm.

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In Times of Hardship

• In times of hardship, in tight knit communities,
  people began to look for people to blame for
  their problems.
• Hardships Blamed on Witches
• Failed crops
• The death of livestock
• People becoming ill
• Sudden accidental death
• People believed that witches had a secret pact
  with the devil. Most often the people accused of
  being witches were widows and single women.

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Puritan Life
Society centered around the church. The younger
generation did not share the same strict
religious views.
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Salemthe Village History

• 1630 John Winthrop is elected the first
  governor.
• 1641 English law makes witchcraft a capital
  crime.
• November, 1689 Samuel Parris is named the new
  minister of Salem, and Salem Village Church is
  formed.

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The Accused

• Tituba is a foreigner, given to storytelling,
  confessed, perhaps because of fear for her life
  and the enjoyment of being the center of
  attention.
• Sarah Good was homeless, a social misfit who
  would mumble incoherently when someone failed to
  be charitable, and the death of livestock was
  attributed to her curses.
• Sarah Osborne was an elderly woman who hadnt
  been to church in year and may have been
  considered rather crotchety.

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Strange Behavior

• In January of 1692, a group of girls in Salem
  Village, MA began to exhibit strange behavior,
  such as blasphemous screaming, convulsive
  seizures, trance-like states and mysterious
  spells.
• Physicians concluded that only the influence of
  Satan could be responsible for the girls
  afflictions.
• Pressured to identify the source of their
  affliction, the girls named three women as
  witches Tituba (the pastors Caribbean-Indian
  slave), Sarah Good Sarah Osborne.

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Causes for the Girls Actions

• Witchcraft
• Jealousy
• Repression
• Hysteria
• Guilt
• Boredom

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• Preliminary Arrests
• February 29, 1692 Arrest warrants are issued for
  Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.

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Map of Salem
Can any deductions be made from this map?
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The Examination of a WitchT.H. Matteson 1853
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Indictments Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey
At the trial of Rebecca Nurse jury first acquits,
then told to reconsider.
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Characteristics of Witch Trials

1. Pressure of Social Forces
2. Stigmatization of the Accused
3. Climate of Fear
4. Resemblance to a Fair Trial
5. Use of Simulated Evidence
6. Simulated Expert Testimony
7. Non-falsifiabile Evidence
8. Reversal of Polarity
9. Non-Openness
10. Use of Loaded Questions

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Dorcas Good- a juvenile case

• March 23, 1692
• Marshal Deputy Samuel Bradbrook arrests
  4-year-old Dorcas Good because of physical
  impairments.
• The arrest questioned the imprisonment of the
  mentally and physically disabled.
• Many of those accused of witchery awaited their
  fates inside small prison cells, approximately 6
  by 4 feet.

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The sentences are carried out.

• August 19 George Burroughs, John Proctor, John
  Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier are
  hanged. Elizabeth Proctor is spared because she
  is pregnant.
• September 9 Six more tried and sentenced to
  death, including Martha Corey.

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Giles and Martha Corey

• Giles Corey was a prosperous, uneducated,
  eighty-year-old  farmer and full member of the
  church. He and his wife Martha lived on a farm in
  the southwest corner of Salem village. 
• In March of 1692, Martha Corey made the mistake
  of publicly questioning the sincerity of the
  accusations of the afflicted girls. 

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Giles Corey Refused to Confess

• Giles Corey refused to give testimony at the 1692
  Witch Trials.
• He would neither confess nor deny the charges
  brought upon him.

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Giles Corey is Pressed

• So, in order to obtain a statement, he was taken
  outside, a board placed across his body, and
  heavy stones piled on top.
  It is said that his only words before he was
  crushed to death were "More weight!"

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Hanging of George Burroughs
George Burroughs recites Lord's Prayer perfectly
at hanging.
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Cotton Mather
Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church, was
a prolific publisher of pamphlets and a firm
believer in witchcraft.
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Results of the Hysteria

• 140 people had been accused of practicing
  witchcraft in Salem, including a 4 year old girl
  and a man in his 80s.
• Twenty accused witches were executed, fifteen
  women and five men.
• Nineteen were hung following conviction.
• One was pressed to death for refusing to enter a
  plea.
• At least 4 and as many as 13 prisoners may have
  died in jail.

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Why the hysteria ended

• 1.  Doubts grow when respected citizens are
  convicted and executed.
• 2.  Accusations of witchcraft include the
  powerful and well-connected.
• 3.  The educated elite of Boston pressure Gov.
  Phips to exclude spectral
• Increase Mather points out the Devil could take
  the shape of an innocent person "It were better
  that 10 suspected witches should escape than one
  innocent person should be condemned."

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Arthur Millers Crucible
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Composition Book

• The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based
  upon the events in 1692, which led to the Salem
  Witch Trials,
• The play was written in the early 1950s during
  the time of McCarthyism, when the US government
  blacklisted
• accused communists.
• Memorable Providences
• A book by Cotton Mather that describes witchcraft
  and how to determine who is a witch.

• The Examination of a WitchT.H. Matteson 1853
• Portrayal of townspeople looking for evidence of
  witchcraft.

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The Salem Witch Trials vs. The Crucible
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So, Whats the Truth?

• THIS IS FICTION
• Tituba led six girls into a nearby forest to cast
  charms and spells, followed by a wild dancing
  ritual.
• Ruth Putnam was the first girl to become
  afflicted.
• The only symptom of bewitchment was that the
  victim could not be woken from a deep slumber.
• John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Martha Corey
  were all hung on the same day.

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The Parris Family

• THIS IS FICTION
• Mrs. Parris had been dead for years and the
  family consisted of Betty (daughter), Mr. Parris,
  Abigail (niece), and Tituba (slave).
• Betty was present for the trials.
• Mr. Parris claimed to be a graduate of Harvard.
• Tituba was single and didnt have family as a
  slave. Tituba confessed quickly.

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The Putnams, Nurses, Giles Corey

• THIS IS FICTION
• Daughter is named Ruth Putnam.
• Ruth was the only child of 8 to survive.
• Both of the Nurses were deeply respected and
  revered.
• Giles Corey was executed for refusing to reveal
  the name of a witness.

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The Proctor Family

• THIS IS FICTION
• John Proctor is young and is a farmer.
• Elizabeth is his only wife.
• John Proctor only has two young sons.
• Mary Warren was 17 in the story
• John and Abigail committed adultery. Abigail
  worked for the Proctors before Mary

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Salem Witch Trials Memorial
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Salem Witch Museum

• In Salem, Massachusetts, the witch-on-a-broomstick
  image is everywhereit even appears on the
  badges of the town's police officers.
• Indeed, this site of colonial-era witch hysteria
  is a modern-day magnet for all things Halloween,
  all year long.
• Psychics and tarot card readers flock to the
  town, and there are numerous ghost tours and
  haunted houses.

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Witch Trial Jeopardy

• http//www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/s
  alem/scopesjeopardy5B15D.htm

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What would you do?

• It's the spring of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. 
  You've just been accused by "an afflicted girl"
  of being a witch.  The reason for the accusation
  against you might have been any from a long list
  of possibilities.  Perhaps you're reclusive, talk
  to yourself, or exhibit some other form of
  eccentric behavior.  Perhaps you were involved in
  a previous dispute with the family of the
  afflicted girl.  Perhaps you don't go to church,
  or go to the wrong church, or sided with the
  wrong faction in recent congregational strife
  within the Salem Village Church.  Perhaps you
  speak French or are suspected with having aided
  the Wabanakis in the recent Indian wars.  Or
  perhaps you expressed support for a recently
  accused witch or--worse yet--accused the accusers
  of lying.  Whatever the reason, you're in big
  trouble now.  What do you do?  (Pick an option
  below).

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Choose One Option

1. Flee Salem
2. Accuse someone else.
3. Quick! Get pregnant!
4. Confess, even though you are innocent.
5. Plead innocent and stand for trial.
6. Refuse to stand trial and face the consequences.

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Flee Salem

• Good idea, if you can swing it.  Several accused
  witches did escape from jail and survive the 1692
  hysteria.  They included Philip and Mary English,
  John Alden, Hezekiah Usher, and Mrs. Nathaniel
  Cary.   However, all these accused persons had
  either money or influence that made their escape
  possible.  You don't have either.  Try your next
  option.

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Accuse Someone Else

• The theory here is that if you're afflicted by
  witchcraft, you can't be a witch yourself.  This
  theory even convinced some daughters to testify
  against their own mothers.  It's not a bad idea
  (if you have no conscience), but--sorry--it's too
  late now.  You should have thought of this idea a
  few days ago.  Now, your accusation will look
  like an obvious attempt to distract attention
  from your own guilt.  The accusation of
  witchcraft has been made against you and you're
  still going to have to deal with it.  Pick
  another option.  

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Quick Get Pregnant

• This isn't as silly an idea as it sounds. 
  Pregnant women, even if convicted of witchcraft,
  would not be executed so long as they remained
  pregnant.  The theory is that even if you deserve
  death, the baby inside you does not--so the
  officials will put off your execution.  This was
  called "reprieve for the belly."
• Of course, you still might be executed
  eventually, but the hope is that the hysteria
  won't last another nine months.
• One slight problem, however.  Who will you find
  in jail to impregnate you?  Sorry, this option is
  not available Try another!  

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Confess Even Though Your Are Innocent.

• This route, pioneered by accused witches Tituba
  and Deliverance Hobbs, turned out to be a life
  saver.  Confessing witches weren't executed. 
  Instead, they were kept apart from other
  prisoners, to be called upon in trials when their
  testimony might be helpful to the prosecution. 
  The Puritans believed that once a person made a
  full confession, his or her fate should be left
  in God's hands, not man's.  Fifty-five persons in
  the Salem area confessed to witchcraft in 1692,
  adding substantial credibility to the initial
  charges of witchcraft made by the afflicted
  girls.
• Do you really want to admit to being a witch?  Is
  this something you want on your resume?  If not,
  try another option..  

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Plead Innocent and Stand Trial

• This is the approach that led to nineteen
  innocent persons being carted off to Gallows Hill
  during the summer of 1692.  If you plead
  innocent, you'll have to face trial without a
  lawyer and without the ability to call witnesses
  on your own behalf, answer unanswerable questions
  ("If you're not a witch, how do explain the fact
  that these afflicted girls fall into fits the
  minute you enter the room?")--all before a court
  that unanimously believes in witchcraft and
  believes that you're guilty.  (Even in the one
  case that the jury came back with an acquittal,
  the trial of Rebecca Nurse, the court sent the
  jury back to reconsider the verdict.  The second
  time around, the jury found Nurse guilty.) You'll
  face spectral evidence--and how do you propose to
  convince the court that your apparition was not
  doing all this work on the part of the Devil? 
  Just exactly what was your apparition doing on
  the night of April 23 anyway?
• This approach looks hopeless.  You better try
  another option.

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Refuse to Stand Trial

• Octogenarian Giles Corey gave this option a try. 
  Knowing the fate that awaited him if he stood for
  trial, Giles refused to answer the ritual
  question, "Will you be tried by your God and your
  country (that is, a jury)?"  The penalty for
  refusing to answer was peine forte et dure, an
  especially unpleasant way of going that involves
  piling heavy stones on your body until you either
  agree to stand trial or are crushed to death.
• I don't think you want to go through with this. 
  Better try another option.