Salem Witch Trials

February 1692-May 1693

Events Betty Parris (9) and Abigail Williams (11) the daughter and the niece of the local reverend started to have epileptic fits The girls screamed, threw things around the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions They complained of being pinched and pricked with pins Later Ann Putnam (12) and Elizabeth Hubbard joined in with Parris and Williams in acting out

Accusations “Afflicted” girls started to accuse people in their community of being witches and tormenting them

Trials People accused of being witches were put on trial by the local courts. Samuel Sewall  one of the Salem judges

Trials

Trials

Ways to Find someone guilty of being a witch Spectral evidence Something only the tormented could see They would see the accused person of interacting with the devil or doing evil things Witch cakes Feed a witch cake to a dog and the witch will be injured Touch test Afflicted people could be healed by being touched by the accused witch

Other evidence If they had “witchy” things Witches teat Horoscope books, palmistry books, potions etc Witches teat Insensitive mark on the body (mole, wart etc) They would poke the mark with a pin and if it didn’t hurt they were a witch

End of the Trials People outside of Salem started to question the method of the courts “it’s better that 100 witches live than 1 person is killed for being a witch who is not a witch” –Thomas Maule Girls started to accuse leaders of the Puritan community and their families. Girls’ credibility fails

"And now Nineteen persons having been hang'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear'd; about Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one Executed; above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more acccused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a period,..."—Robert Calef

19 people were hanged 1 person pressed to death 50 confessed to being witches and were released 150 in prison at the end 200 more accused

WHY??? Symptoms of the afflicted girls have been explained as physical or psychological Most believe that the girls’ symptoms were a result of jealousy, spite and a need for attention.