1. Salem Witch Trials
Salem, Massachusetts
1692

2. Why Salem Still Haunts Us
Fascination with Witches
A Stain on American History
How Could an Entire Community Engage in Such Horrific Acts?
Legal ramifications guilty until proven innocent…versus today.

3. Witches and Europe
The 17th century in Europe was a time of religious confusion, thousands of suspected witches lost their lives.
It was believed that some people possessed special powers that could cause good or harm.

4. 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.

5. Puritan Life
Notice the environment (cold, inhospitable, scary woods), the formation (men front and back, women and children in middle), men are carrying guns, possible names for the painting, which is Pilgrims Going To Church by George Henry Boughton, Similarly, the Puritans were surrounded by the possibility of death at a moments notice -- would it be difficult to believe that the devil was out to make you suffer?
Society centered around the church. The younger generation did not share the same strict religious views. “Halfway Covenant”

6. 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 hadn’t been to church in year and may have been considered rather crotchety.

7. 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 pastor’s Caribbean-Indian slave), Sarah Good & Sarah Osborne.
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 hadn’t been to church in year and may have been considered rather crotchety. As the trials progressed, the accused become more “upright” citizens, including the village’s former minister and the governor's wife.

8. Witchcraft was really believed in, Miller presents Abigail Williams as John Proctor’s lover (in reality she was 11 or 12 and he was over 60 so unlikely), bickering among the villagers regarding land rights and economic concerns, young girls as most controlled and limited social group, unspeakable desires seen as sinful, excitability, Linda R. Caporael article in Science Vol. 192 (2 April 1976) claimed that ergot in the rye bread would explain the girls’ behavior and the close proximity of those afflicted, although this hypothesis has been successfully challenged

9. Map of Salem Can any deductions be made from this map?
Divide between the village (traditionalists, agrarian, resisted the independece of the town, supported Parris, many Putnams) and the town (merchants, bar keeps, economically-minded, moving towards independence, did not like the expense or rhetoric of Parris, many Porters)

10. The Examination of a Witch T.H. Matteson 1853

11. Indictments: Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey
At the trial of Rebecca Nurse jury first acquits, then told to reconsider.

13. 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.

14. 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. 

15. 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.

16. 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!"

17. Hanging of George Burroughs
George Burroughs recites Lord's Prayer perfectly at hanging.

18. Cotton Mather
Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church, was a prolific publisher of pamphlets and a firm believer in witchcraft.

19. 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. A dog and a pair of cats were executed.
One was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea.

20. 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."

21. Arthur Miller’s Crucible

22. Composition Book The Examination of a Witch T.H. Matteson 1853
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 Witch T.H. Matteson 1853
Portrayal of townspeople looking for evidence of witchcraft.[

23. The Salem Witch Trials vs. The Crucible

24. Salem Witch Trials Memorial
Nowadays, we look back at the events in Salem and feel that innocent people were wrongly accused and murdered. Tourism revels fascination with the trials, but why do we remain interested in something that happened over 300 years ago?

25. Salem Witch Museum
In Salem, Massachusetts, the witch-on-a-broomstick image is everywhere—it 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.

28. Potential Answers? Economic hardship gone awry Rye-rot theory
Loss of religious conscience in Salem
Hysteria