1. The Salem Witch Trials

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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When the Puritans’ charter was revoked, Andros became leader of the New England “Dominion”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

5. CRISIS #3 = Rampant Disease

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Winter of

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

11. Blame the Slave

12. 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

13. The Traveling Road Show

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

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

16. 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