The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials The Village of Andover had the most accusations of witchcraft Due to five separate crises, people in New England were ALL on edge Over 200 people had been accused…19 people were hung, 4 died in prison, and 1 was “pressed to death” Why did this happen?

CRISIS #1 = King Philip’s War The Indian wars took an enormous psychological toll on New England as one man of fighting age in every 16 died in the battles

CRISIS #2 = The Dominion When the Puritans’ charter was revoked, Andros became leader of the New England “Dominion” Edmund Andros James II Andros was just as autocratic as his king, James II, and would often reverse policies without warning

CRISIS #3 = Rampant Disease

CRISIS #4 = The Quakers These people were basically “anti-Puritans” Where Puritans believed you could never know whether you were saved or not, Quakers believed you could Quakers believed in an “inner light”, i.e. that people could be filled with God’s love and power Quakers were not moody

CRISIS #5 = The Witch Trials INVASIVE = tending to spread, involves entering the living body ALIEN = belonging to another, foreign MALEVOLENT = arising from ill will, spite, or hatred

The Tension Rises… Each of these five crises was interpreted as an invasion of the devil Many of the accused were outsiders, on the fringe of Puritan society There was a huge backlog of accusations that people hadn’t brought forward

Winter of 1691-1692

Call In The Doctor - William Griggs with a patient - Elizabeth Parris & Abigail Williams

Blame the Slave

Samuel Parris Changes Strategy Rather than just accept the girls were possessed, Parris pressured Elizabeth and Abigail to name names The first names that they offered up were Tituba, Sarah Goode, and Sarah Osborne

The Traveling Road Show

Spectral Testimony The same beliefs settlers denied to the Native Americans they now expected the courts to accept as evidence

Backlogged Courts The courts could simply not handle all the accusations being leveled by the girls…the jails filled up rapidly

The Trials End Post hoc ergo propter hoc Latin for “it came after it, therefore it was caused by it” The governor finally realized he could not let the trials go on with such flimsy evidence The courts did not admit they were wrong until very recently