A brief overview of the Salem Witch Trials! The extraordinary series of events in 1692 led to the deaths of 25 innocent men, women and children. John W. Ehningers illustration of Martha Coreys trial called Giles Corey of the Salem Farms (1868). Martha Corey, depicted here, was hanged for allegedly being a witch, and her second husband, Giles Corey, was pressed to death. Nineteen people were executed, 14 women and five men. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the Massachusetts counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex, between February 1692 and May 1693. There were discussions going on between ministers, says Burns. In May, the new Massachusetts governor, Sir William Phips, established a special court to try the witchcraft cases, presided over by William Stoughton. In all, 19 were hanged, one pressed to death, and five others died in jail. (Part 2), 101 Genealogy Proverbs: Family Sayings from around the World, Researching Your Pilgrim Ancestry from Mayflower Ship Passengers, Genealogy Tip: Admiralty Records a Rarely Used Source, Jamestown Descendants: Whos Who, Part 15, Montana Archives: 125 Newspapers for Genealogy Research, What to Do with Halloween Candy Leftovers, Genealogy Tip for Halloween: Cemetery Research, Genealogy Tip: Finding Your Ancestors Story When They Are NOT in the Newspaper. Just as the jails were filling up with accused witches, the number of those claiming affliction also ramped up. Twenty of those people were executed, most by hanging. A third of those arrested confessed but were not necessarily given lighter sentences. It was no sale except for two reporters, the audience was all male but a TV film, Satan in Salem, argued powerfully the case advanced by witnesses in a jammed hearing room at the State House. The museum store offers a wide assortment of items from educational materials to attractive apparel. 1 Most of the accused were women but men were accusedand executedtoo. Historians believe the accused witches were victims of mob mentality, mass hysteria and scapegoating. In 1692, accusations of witchcraft began flying around Salem Village. The Scottish Ballet performs Helen Picketts ballet version of The Crucible, Arthur Millers play based on the Salem witch trials of 1692. In his petition he wrote: To The Honourable Committee The humble representation Willm. All Rights Reserved. The most famous witch trial in history happened in Salem, Massachusetts, during the winter and spring of 1692-1693. With an extensive collection of books on the Salem witch trials and many locally made treats, we offer tried, true and quirky products to appeal to young and old alike. This is a list of people associated with the Salem Witch Trials, a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between March 1692 and May 1693. The first New England witch trial began in 1647: the Connecticut witch trials. These early accusations in conjunction with Cotton Mather and Increase Mathers influential writings about the afflictions of the Goodwin children and theological responses to witchcraft launched the Salem witch trials in New England. The big discussion was whether the devil could impersonate somebody with or without their permission. An 81-year-old man was accidentally killed, pressed to death by stones during torture. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, most of whom were women. Cases would continue in a regular court in January. Check out the names of the German and Swiss witch bloodlines below. Salem witch trials are the pivotal element of the first season. According to the University of Notre Dame, witches were also blamed for the plague. More than 200 people faced accusations of witchcraft. Nineteen accused witches were executed in Salem. Trouble in the tiny Puritan village started in February 1692, when eleven-year-old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris, daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris, began acting strangely. For everyone who remains intrigued by Salem, here are a few lesser-known facts about the witchcraft trials. CREATIVE. The witch trials in Salem began when two little girls, Betty Parris (age 9) and Abigail Williams (age 11), began to have strange fits. Adults $16.50, seniors (62 and over) $15.00, Children (3-14) $13.50, Salem Witch Museum It wasnt so much whether specters existed, it was how you interpret it. There have been many documentaries made over the years about women who were killed. *William Good Salem. Between 1645 and 1715, the Little Ice Age was wreaking havoc in the North Atlantic . In March 1692, 4-year-old Dorothy Good the daughter of Sarah Good, who was accused of witchcraft by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams was accused also of witchcraft: when this Child, did but cast its eye upon the afflicted persons, they were tormented, and they held her Head, and yet so many as her eye could fix upon were afflicted. Dorothy was later jailed. Sarah Good was hanged after she gave birth in jail to an infant named Mercy. Some historians believe that Titubas race and status in society were a reason why Betty and Abigail accused her of witchcraft. And the shade of Ann Pudeator, whose persecutors would not believe her kitchen-jars held only grease for soapmaking, would have been interested to learn that the machine interrupted its story to sell cosmetics. Being taken by some of the Parliament forces, as she was standing on a small planck board and sayling on it over the river of Newbury. 1 My wife Sarah Good was In prison about four months & then Executed. Statement The Salem Witch Trials According to the Historical Records New Hampshire Laura Wolff Scanlan HUMANITIES, Winter 2022, Volume 43, Number 1 Photo caption On March 23, 1692, a warrant was issued for the arrest of four-year-old Dorothy Good of Salem Village on "suspition of acts of Witchcraft." Across New England, where witch trials occurred somewhat regularly from 1638 until 1725, women vastly outnumbered men in the ranks of the accused and executed. In 2001, more than 300 years after 19 men and women were put to death during the Salem witch trials, five women were officially exonerated by the state of Massachusetts, including Bridget Bishop and four others: Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott. The bubonic plague wreaked havoc all across Europe, leaving it in an unstable place. This sudden resumption of normal behavior was not because the witches were driven out. . Start a 7-Day Free Trial. The Salem Witch Trials are a number of sentences inflicted on Salem citizens accused of witchcraft began in 1962 in the colonial town of Massachusetts. Scam Advisory: Recent reports indicate that individuals are posing as the NEH on email and social media. These witch panics were often deadly and fueled by manuals like Heinrich Kramers Malleus Malleficarum(translated as Hammer of Witches), which gave theological justifications for witch trials. For Rep. William F. Nourse (R-Medfield) is a descendant of one of the women hanged, a Rebecca Nourse [also spelled Nurse] of Salem. With Kirstie Alley, Henry Czerny, Gloria Reuben, Jay O. Sanders. This was a charge those in power called Witchcraft. London, John Hammond, 1643. In October, Increase Mather, a prominent minister in Boston, denounced the use of spectral evidence: It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned. That same month, Governor Phips terminated the special court. These trials were because of a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts that accused different people of practicing witchcraft. The 1692 Salem Witch Trials Hours You may need to wait outside on our front plaza for up to 15 minutes before entering the museum for your visit. A doctors examination concluded they were suffering from the evil effects of witchcraft. Digging Up Witch Lore in Old Salem Village: The Rev. Twenty people were executed for the crime, as well as two dogs. This period of witch trials later came to be known as the Salem witch trials, named after the town of Salem and Salem Village (present-day Danvers). The Salem witch trials are a defining example of intolerance and injustice in American history. This autumn marks an important anniversary in the Salem witch trials 325 years ago, Salem-area residents began harvesting a crop that launched a nightmare. This period of time has inspired many on-screen works when it comes to magic, witchcraft, and the supernatural. The subtitle is translated as which obliterates them (witches) and their heresy as the most powerful spear.. One was pressed to death by heavy stones. The cases continued to be tried until mid May, but no one else was convicted. Along with the destabilization of Europe, anti-Semitism, which was already prevalent, rose as Jewish communities were blamed for the bubonic plague. was taken into custody the next day and jailed with her mother, Sarah, who had been accused of the same capital crime three weeks earlier. Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. Still more accused sorcerers died in jail while awaiting trial. In January 1692, a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts became consumed by disturbing fits accompanied by seizures, violent contortions and bloodcurdling screams. Many of these victims were hanged or beheaded first, but their bodies were typically incinerated afterwards to protect against postmortem sorcery. upon hearing that his own wife was accused of witchcraft ordered an end to the trials. No, you didnt see her, because we know this person. The European witch trials took place in the 15th century. Even though Bishop maintained her innocence, she was still executed. Are You Related to Pocahontas & John Rolfe? Salem is the historic setting of the infamous witch trials of 1692, during which twenty innocent people were executed, accused by the local authorities of worshiping the devil. Between February 1692 and May 1693 in current day Massachusetts, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft. The victim was put into a sack and tied upside down from a tree, where the accusers would proceed to swing them back and forth. But that wasnt the end. The elderly Giles Corey, meanwhile, was pressed. After the Witch Trials. But when they got to Andover, the magistrates were really good at interrogating people in private. In fact, witch hunts and trials had been going on in Europe for hundreds of years before 1692, with consequences of vastly greater magnitude. The first New England witch trial began in 1647: the Connecticut witch trials. The Salem witch trials only lasted for a year. Salem witch trials, (June 1692-May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted "witches" to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). Your email address will not be published. Both girls who were 9 years old and 11 years old, respectively accused an enslaved woman named Tituba of bewitching them after they began displaying strange symptoms, according to History.com. She was hanged on July 19, with Sarah Good and three others. Although Johnson had submitted an exoneration request in 1712, it wasnt until March 2022 that she was finally pardoned. They would twitch and scream and make strange animal noises. The court refused and continued to use such evidence. Jonathan Edwards in a New Light: Remembered for Preaching, Standing Together: The Humanities and the Experience of War, Chronicling America: History American Newspapers. The House agreed to clear the witches, but the Senate refused after a debate in which Sen. George Evans (R-Wakefield) jokingly hinted that exoneration of them would hurt tourist trade. During questioning, the purported victims exhibited dramatic reactions while townspeople watched. The only redress, he contented, is through Queen Elizabeth of England, since witchcraft is heresy and subject only to canonical law. When it was all said and done, a total of nineteen had been hanged, four died in prison and one man was pressed to death. Betty and Abigail then accused two other women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, of witchcraft as well. Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Hatch, who has made a 35-year study of the witchcraft trials, voiced the opinion that the Legislature alone would be futile in clearing the names of witch hunt victims. In total, between 144 and 185 people were accused of witchcraft. If convicted, the punishment was often death. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The Salem witch trials were prosecutions conducted of people indicted for witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. About the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba was enslaved by Samuel Parris, forced to go from Barbados to colonial New England. Salem Witch Trials: Conclusion and Legacy The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be. 2 a sucking child dyed in prison before the Mothers Execution. 2022 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The act was approved by the state legislature and signed on Halloween. Life Magazine published a story in March of that year on the meetings at the State House entitled No Legal Switch to Clear a Witch. The TV film Satan in Salem is not online, but is part of the Frank De Felitta Collection housed at the Writers Guild Foundation Archive in Los Angeles, California. Learn how your comment data is processed. The horror with which the larger nation reacted to the trials led in no small part to our constitutionally protected right to religious freedom and to the separation of church and state. Before the accusations and trials came to an end, a hundred people had been accused, twenty were executed and five died in jail. However, witch trials are not a thing of the past. During our winter months, should we be expecting inclement weather, please call prior to your visit. What mad. (Part 3), Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? Address: 172 Hobart St, Danvers, MA 01923. Accusations of witchcraft, practically speaking, both coincided and departed from the manual in that they typically had more to do with legal standing, economic status, race, religion and often gender. Elizabeth Hubbard - Lived with her uncle William Griggs due . Many modern depictions of witch trials show those suspected of witchcraft being burned at the stake. Bridging the Gap Between Data Science & Engineer: Building High-Performance T. Tituba confessed and identified more witches from Salem. Salem, Massachusetts in 1691 was the home of a Puritan community with a strict moral code. 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