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A brief history of the Salem Witch Trials:
The Salem witch trials of 1692 were a unique and tragic part of American history. The trials and executions, which took place in Salem Village, included nearly 150 men and women arrested from many different villages in Massachusetts. The accused came from such towns as Andover, Topsfield, Beverly, and as far away as Wells, in what is now the state of Maine. Ultimately 19 men and women were hanged, and one man pressed to death with stones because he would not testify, either to his guilt or his innocence. The witch hysteria, and the ensuing legal actions, took a little more than a year from January 1692 to May of 1693, and yet the fascination with the Salem "witches" has never diminished.
One of the most terrifying aspects of the trials was the reliance by the court magistrates on "Spectral Evidence", said to be the manifestation of Satan's Invisible World seen only by the afflicted, accusing girls. It was the testimony of these young women which was accepted and written into the court transcripts; the original documents held for posterity in such institutions as the Peabody Essex Museum in Boston.
Many of the accused, to save themselves from death, pled guilty to consorting with the Devil and so were only imprisoned. The men and women who held fast to their innocence were all condemned to be hanged. Martha Carrier, one of the 19 accused witches who was hanged, not only professed her innocence, but harshly admonished her judges for allowing the words of a few hysterical girls determine such a cruel fate for so many. It is a common misunderstanding that the Salem witches were burned, but no witches in the Colonies were ever killed at the stake as they were in Europe, as the British courts considered a burning death too cruel. But to the Puritans who had forsworn themselves to being in league with Satan, this false self-testimony meant eternal damnation.
The imprisonment of mostly women and children took place in some of the most appalling conditions ever seen by the Colonial judicial system. Upon release from jail, many of the accused were never compensated for their expenditures for provisions such as food and water, as well as for the very shackles and heavy chains that confined them. With a few exceptions, such as the grave memorial of Rebecca Nurse, there are no known grave sites for most of the executed witches, as they were tossed into shallow open pits after being hanged.
There have been many different theories as to the cause of such a terrifying outcry by young women, ranging in age from 11 to 20, accusing their neighbors and friends of witchcraft; ergot poisoninig, encephalitis, and, more reasonably, conflict brought about by land disputes, disagreements over fundamental religious practices and the dread of attacks and capture by the indigenous native tribes. Whatever the confluence of causes, it is the mystifying social drama of family against family, friend against neighbor, that still haunts us and echoes today through the current events of religious intolerance, superstition and the fear of the "Other."
The men and women hanged by the Court of Oyer & Terminer 1692:
June 10 Bridget Bishop
July 19 Sarah Good
July 19 Elizabeth Howe
July 19 Susannah Martin
July 19 Rebecca Nurse
July 19 Sarah Wildes
August 19 George Burroughs
August 19 Martha Carrier
August 19 George Jacobs
August 19 John Proctor
August 19 John Willard
September 22 Martha Corey
September 22 Mary Easty
September 22 Alice Parker
September 22 Mary Parker
September 22 Ann Pudeator
September 22 Margaret Scott
September 22 Wilmot Redd
September 22 Samual Wardwell
Pressed to death: September 19 Giles Corey
For further reading on the Salem witch trials, the author recommends:
"In the Devil's Snare" by Mary Beth Norton (Published Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2002)
"The Salem Witch Trials Reader" by Frances Hill (Published DaCapo Press) |
