The town of Andover in northeastern Massachusetts, not Salem Village, had the highest number of accused (42 accused in Andover versus 26 accused in Salem Village).However, it was Salem Village where the witch trials were taken to such drastic lengths. Mid-February- After a month of fasting, prayer, and home remedies, Betty and Abigail have not improved. Move over Montagues and Capulets: You might not be the most vengeful families out there. Courts relied on three kinds of evidence: 1) confession, 2) testimony of two eyewitnesses to acts of witchcraft, or 3) spectral evidence (when the afflicted girls were having their fits, they would interact with an unseen assailant - the apparition of the witch tormenting them). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Despite the horrible and senseless loss of life and community divisions that the witch trials caused, some historians believe that the traumatic incident had a silver lining. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, the 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old niece of Reverend Parris, started having "fits" described as: "severe convulsions and other strange symptoms.". It was actually the local doctor, likely William Griggs, who first diagnosed the girls as having been bewitched when he couldnt find anything medically wrong with them to explain the strange behavior. In February, unable to account for their behaviour medically, the local doctor, William Griggs, put the blame on the supernatural. Witchcraft was considered a crime against the church and the state. Accessed May 6, 2021. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/salem-witch-trial-descendants/. Upon interrogation, the girls named Tituba (an Indian woman enslaved by the Parris family), Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne as witches. Soon, others were accused and the courtrooms filled with people believed to be witches. Part of the escalation of theSalem trials included investigators literally going door to door and asking homeowners to rat out any suspected witches in their midst. George Burroughs, the Puritan minister, had nine children before being hanged. Although Massachusetts has given up its fight against witchcraft, there are still places in the world where witchcraft is legitimately feared by the public, sometimes even leading to real modern day witch hunts. The most famous witch trial in history happened in Salem, Massachusetts, during the winter and spring of 1692-1693. While Miller maintained that he kept everything historically accurate, some have noted that he made changes to the real record for the sake of the play. Another more disturbing theory proposed by researchers like behavioral psychologist Linnda Caporael suggests that Salem suffered from ergot poisoning. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The Salem witch trials of the late 17th century were a formative episode in America's early history, and have remained at the forefront of the national consciousness ever since. The Salem Witch Hunt: A Captivating Guide to the Hunt and . Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, With roles ranging from Miss Congeniality to Gravity, The Heat, and Minions, Sandra Bullock has, "You might belong in Gryffindor / Where dwell the brave at heart / Their daring,, Star-studded premieres, massive advertising campaigns, and big budget blockbusters: The movies are big money. Salem witch trials, (June 1692May 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). They were eventually assumed to be possessed. Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. As the weeks passed, many of the accused proved to be enemies of the Putnams, and Putnam family members and in-laws would end up being the accusers in dozens of cases. They found it by following clues in an accused witchs writings and through guesses on where prisoners would be transported. Some three-fourths of those European witch hunts took place in western Germany, the Low Countries, France, northern Italy, and Switzerland. Seven more died in jail. This database contains information on more than 200 individuals formally accused and put on trial for witchcraft in New England between 1647 and 1697, including those accused in the Salem witch trials. Arthur Miller, the famous playwright who authored Death of a Salesman, responded to the McCarthy hysteria by writing The Crucible, a play about the Salem witch trials, as a metaphor for what the country was going through in the 1950s. One was pressed to death by heavy stones. With Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett, Paterson Joseph. This obviously meant that you must also be a witch. Ann Putnam, for example, used spectral evidence to accuse Rebecca Nurse,said, I saw the Apperishtion of [Rebecca Nurse] and she did immediatly afflect me. Such evidence was also used against Bridget Bishop, with many men claiming she had visited them in spectral form in the middle of the night. A crucible is a kind of container used for heating substances at very high temperatures, and the term is often used to describe high pressure situationssuch as the onethe witch trials creates for the accused. The court first convened on June 2, 1692, with Bridget Bishops case being the first to be adjudicated upon. Check out the top history lists on the internet all in one place. At the suggestion of a neighbour, a witch cake (made with the urine of the victims) was baked by Tituba to try to ferret out the supernatural perpetrator of the girls illness. Pressured by Parris to identify their tormentor, Betty and Abigail claimed to have been bewitched by Tituba and two other marginalized members of the community, neither of whom attended church regularly: Sarah Good, an irascible beggar, and Sarah Osborn (also spelled Osborne), an elderly bed-ridden woman who was scorned for her romantic involvement with an indentured servant. One of the people. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. Despite being known as the Salem witch trials, some of the trials actually took place in Ipswich and Andover in addition to Salem itself. Here are 42 wicked facts about the Salem witch trials. During the trials, two dogs were killed based on suspicions of witchcraft. Directed by Guy Ferland. It was carried out as such by Sheriff George Corwin. Due to its association with the supernatural and the haunted, Salem is now a popular destination for Halloween festivities, which run throughout the month of October. In fact, there was fear in Europe that an entire group of evil witches were consciously attacking Europeans in order to destroy Christendom. Miller did not approve of this, and this was one of the things he tried to criticize allegorically through his depiction of the Salem events. Two of the casualties were babies. The community, beleaguered with hardships already, then overreacted. But the accusations didnt stop there. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. Instead, in 1692, hanging was the preferred form of punishment. Please reach out to us to let us know what youre interested in reading. Accessed May 6, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phips. His vocal support for his wifewho was also accused of witchcraftand claims that the accusers were lying were among the possible reasons why suspicion fell on him as well. There have been many other instances of this kind of phenomenon sincemost recently in an outbreak of alleged evil clown sightings across the continent and beyond in 2016. The magistrates then had not only a confession but also what they accepted as evidence of the presence of more witches in the community, and hysteria mounted. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people know her even darker history. Of them, thirty were found guilty, and nineteen of whom were executed. One dog was shot after a girl suffering from convulsions accused the dog of trying to bewitch her. Linder, Douglas O. Several episodes of the original Bewitched TV series were actually filmed on location in Salem. The witchcraft trials even targeted animals. The most terrifying part, perhaps, was that anyone could be accused of engaging in witchcraft, and there was little they could do to defend themselves. Children were also accused of witchcraft. One of the turning points in ending public support and enthusiasm for the trials was the conviction and execution of one of the towns former minsters, George Burroughs, who publicly recited the Lords Prayer at the gallows, which was believed to be impossible for witches to do. We've compiled over 4375 history facts in one place, just for you. Rebecca Beatrice Brooks Post author October 25, 2017 at 3:28 pm. Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, the two girls at the very center of the trials, made sure to use every trick in the book to accuse others in the town, leading to people not only being tested, but also pressed to death! Far more women than men were among the accused, convicted and executed. Back in the 17th - century there was a great amount of stress caused by many different things in that era. There was a social divide between the leading families as well as a split between factions that were for and against the villages new pastor, Samuel Parris. Credits: Danvers Lunatic Asylum: CHRONICLES- Danvers State Hospital | Danvers As the trials continued, accusations extended beyond Salem Village to surrounding communities. The effects of the Salem Village witch trials were devastating: 141 people imprisoned, 19 people executed, and two more died from other causes directly related to the investigations.1 The Salem witch trials would account for a quarter of all people executed for the crime of witchcraft in the history of New England,2 and would furthermore prove the devil's army against the Puritans, probably in an effort to protect herself from certain conviction by serving as an informant. On a Saturday night in mid-October, Dmitry and his friend Misha met up to experience The Haunted Witch Trials, a Halloween attraction in which the Salem Witch Trials were re-imagined into a haunted house type of attraction that took place on a 100-acre plot of land. Learn all about secret burials, door to door witch hunters, the touch test, the swimming test, and the witchcraft act that made all of this possible. She added a hog, a great black dog, a red rat, a black rat, and a yellow bird, among other animals, to her storys cast. Witches were people who followed Satan and traded their souls for his help. In three days of vivid testimony, she described encounters with Satans animal familiars and with a tall, dark man from Boston who had called upon her to sign the devils book, in which she saw the names of Good and Osborn along with those of seven others that she could not read. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was established in June 1692 because the witch trials were overwhelming the local jails and courts. When all was said and done, 25 people lost their lives because of the trials. The collective delusion of witchcraft took more than a year to loosen its grip on Salem and its surrounding towns. The Evil Justice William Stoughton Was the Ultimate Hanging Judge at the Salem Witch Trials and Heres Why. HistoryCollection.com, January 29, 2018. https://historycollection.com/william-stoughton-ultimate-hanging-judge-salem-witch-trials/. The extraordinary series of events in 1692 led to the deaths of 25 innocent men, women and children. Photo Credit: https://bit.ly/39AhFc2 Thought to have been built in about 1675, it was the residence of Judge Jonathan Corwin, who oversaw many of the witch trials in 1692. He brought to Salem Village his wife, their three children, a niece, and two slaves who were originally from BarbadosJohn Indian, a man, and Tituba, a woman. His diagnosis of bewitchment put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the hanging deaths of 19 men and women. This series of prosecutions and hangings of those accused of practicing witchcraft provoked a major backlash, and the event still haunts us today. SALEM WITCH TRIALS CHRONOLOGY. Although Massachusetts has given up its fight against witchcraft, there are still places in the world where witchcraft is legitimately feared by the public, sometimes even leading to real modern day witch hunts. The phrase witch hunt, commonly used to refer to an unjustified or falsely conjured-up prosecution, is thought to originate as a reference to this time period in American history. 10 The Symptoms That Gave Witches Away Make No Sense At All All witches are women, but not every woman is a witch. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. Despite the horrible and senseless loss of life and community divisions that the witch trials caused, some historians believe that the traumatic incident had a silver lining. Because of the similarity in time period, location, and story, people often mix up the Puritans with the Pilgrims, the group of Dutch settlers who created what we now know as the holiday of Thanksgiving. Millers famous play about the Salem witch trials is called The Cruciblebut what is a crucible anyway? William Good, who lost his wife Sarah and infant daughter Mercy, and whose daughter Dorothy was imprisoned, was one of the people who received the largest settlement. Many citizens believed that they way witches will get you is by baking a cake. The stars of the Salem story were the Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony, a religious groupthat came over to America to escape religious persecution back in England. It was actually the local doctor, likely William Griggs, who first diagnosed the girls as having been bewitched when he couldnt find anything medically wrong with them to explain the strange behavior. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. The punishment for witchcraft was death. His wife, Elizabeth, had been accused of witchcraft and John tried to step in to defend her. Twenty people were put to death in Salem for the crime of witchcraft. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. A total of 25 people died because of the Salem witch trials. When Millers The Crucible was produced, it was in the aftermath of his feud with Elia Kazan, the man who had directed his two earlier hit plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. Fourteen women and six men were executed for witchcraft, and five others died in prison during the trials. This often led to panicked citizens pointing out their innocent neighbors, adding to the rising toll of victims. Over the following year many trials were held and many people imprisoned. Credit where credit is due! The grave of Martha Corey, the wife of Giles Corey . In addition to the twenty people convicted and executed for witchcraft, two dogs were also accused of and executed for the same crime. Here are 10 things you need to know about the notorious witch trials. Despite the Salem witch trials occurring centuries ago, researchers only just found the execution site for the trials in 2016. Unlike the stereotype surrounding witchcraft that indicates that it is primarily done by women, the people of Salem did not discriminate on the basis of gender. In late May 1692, Sir William Phips, the first royal governor of Massachusetts established the criminal court to conduct the Salem witch trials. Thanks for your help! Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIIIs first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. Around the same time, in Salem Village, village girls accused a man of tormenting a different dog with his evil spirit. This series of prosecutions and hangings of those accused of practicing witchcraft provoked a major backlash, and the event still haunts us today. Kyle Climans has been a published writer since 2011. Top 10 Events In History Scarier Than The Salem Witch Trials Subscribe To Most Amazing Top 10: http://bit.ly/2Ibyk6iMost Recent Videos: https://www.youtube.c. There were two Salems in the late 17th century: a bustling commerce-oriented port community on Massachusetts Bay known as Salem Town, which would evolve into modern Salem, and, roughly 10 miles (16 km) inland from it, a smaller, poorer farming community of some 500 persons known as Salem Village. Witches could change from human to animal form or from one human form to another. From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Hocus Pocus, Arthur Miller to American Horror Story, American pop culture is saturated in retellings of this horrifying episode in colonial history. When the first accusations of witchcraft began in Salem Village, they initially targeted women. Animals were the "familiar spirits" of witches. Thomas Maule, a Quaker who found himself at odds with the Puritan community at times, was beaten and imprisoned for speaking out against the trials, despite the fact that he himself believed in witches. And the first person executed for witchcraft during the trials was also a woman. Music Credit: Spirit of the Dead by Aakash Gandhi#List25 #Didyouknow #WitchTrials Looking back with the perspective provided by modern science, some scholars have speculated that the strange behaviour may have resulted from some combination of asthma, encephalitis, Lyme disease, epilepsy, child abuse, delusional psychosis, or convulsive ergotismthe last a disease caused by eating bread or cereal made of rye that has been infected with the fungus ergot, which can elicit vomiting, choking, fits, hallucinations, and the sense of something crawling on ones skin. Their initial accusations gave way to trials, hysteria, and a frenzy that resulted in further accusations, often between the differing factions. The Salem Witch Trials (1692) Cartoon - YouTube (2:10) https://youtu.be/jJJLy5_DlqY Its time for a Halloween special! Citizens began to believe that people were practicing witchcraft in their town. The girls are examined by a . The Salem Witch Trials begin. In 1635, Plymouth Colony made it a crime to "form a solemn compact with the devil by way of witchcraft." As late as the 19 th century, women were persecuted for cursing butter churns, making animals sick and causing people to die. The three convicted individuals received pardons. In mid-January 1692, Elizabeth Betty Parris, the 9-year-old daughter of the local Reverend Samuel Parris, and Abigail Williams, the reverends 11-year-old niece, became the first to be diagnosed with being afflicted by witchcraft. Both Good and Osborn protested their own innocence, though Good accused Osborn. Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton served as its chief magistrate and Thomas Newton as the Crowns Prosecuting Attorney. Apparently they felt that giving gifts took away from ones ability to focus on serious religious thought, and they did not like the pagan origins of some aspects of the holiday. The madness of the witch trials eventually resulted in 200 people accused of witchcraft, 140 to 150 arrests for witchcraft, and the hangings of thirteen women and six men. Let those stories inspire you to start your family history research today. One of the turning points in ending public support and enthusiasm for the trials was the conviction and execution of one of the towns former minsters, George Burroughs, who publicly recited the Lords Prayer at the gallows, which was believed to be impossible for witches to do. The story goes that Corey and her husband, Giles, sat in on the trials early on, causing Martha to express scepticism about the legitimacy of the proceedings. Additionally, a man was pressed beneath heavy stones until he died. The Start of the Salem Witch Trials. The First Amendment has generally served to protect individuals for opinions that they have expressed, albeit not for violent or illegal conduct. The Salem witchcraft trials, which began in May of 1692 after months of rumors of Satanic influence, still grip the American imagination more than 300 years later. Salem Witch Trials: 25 DISTURBING Facts About The Salem Witch Trials | Salem Witch Trial Full Documentary The Geographic Channel | Samuel Parris | Dorothy Good | Familiar | Giles Corey | Salem Witch Trials - Events, Facts & Victims - HISTORY | George Corwin | Haunted Salem - Where Are the Most Haunted Sites? However, witch trials are not a thing of the past. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. Spectral evidence was only deemed inadmissible when it was used to accuse Governor William Phipss wife, Mary. For everyone who remains intrigued by Salem, here are a few lesser-known facts about the witchcraft trials. Even more interesting, the summer of 1692 was a dry one, and coincided with the apparent end of the bewitchments. Take, Salvador Dali was a man of contradictions. The feud was over the fact that Kazan had named communist sympathizers during his testimony to Congress. At the end of the 17th century, after years of mostly resisting witch hunts and witch trial prosecutions, Puritans in New England suddenly found themselves facing a conspiracy of witches in a war against Satan and his minions. Not that Salem didnt have its problems to begin with, but the community never fully recovered from the witch trials saga, and the divisions and setbacks to the towns development continued in the years following the trials. Miller did not approve of this, and this was one of the things he tried to criticize allegorically through his depiction of the Salem events. The events in Salem in 1692 were but one chapter in a long story of witch hunts that began in Europe between 1300 and 1330 and ended in the late 18th century (with the last known execution for witchcraft taking place in Switzerland in 1782). All Rights Reserved. One of the most popular points of view was that if you were against the trials, then you were, in fact, an advocate for the witches. Not all of the accused witches who escaped hanging did so through the mercy of the governor. Alexander, Mary Jane. Log in or try Ancestry 14 days free to start finding the survivors, the outspoken, or the ones who did things differently in your family tree. Some scholars believe that they were of African heritage, while others think that they may have been of Caribbean Native American heritage.). Despite their obvious Christian commitment, the early American Puritans actually banned Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1659, deeming it a sacrilege. When it was all over, 141 suspects, both men and women, were tried as witches. Interesting Facts about the Salem Witch Trials. The litany of odd behaviour also mirrored that of the children of a Boston family who in 1688 were believed to have been bewitched, a description of which had been provided by Congregational minister Cotton Mather in his book Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions (1689) and which may have been known by the girls in Salem Village. It is easy to feel like we've long known everything there is to know about it. They were during the Colonial times. One particularly disturbing fact about the witch hunt in Salem is that animals could be found guilty of participating in witchcraft as well as humans, and they could be (and were) sentenced to death for it. How many people were killed during the Salem witch trials? This evidence was later banned bythe courts, leading to a sharp drop in accusations. Ancestry has made a home for a piece of that history in its online collection, New England, Salem Witches and Others Tried for Witchcraft, 1647-1697. Statistical Analysis of the Accused. Salem Witch Trials . Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. Tituba was not the only one who thought animals were capable of engaging in the devils work. For example, the infamous Putnam family had been one of the earliest settler dynasties to come to the Massachusetts Bay colony and establish themselves there. Between 1692 and 1693, more than two hundred people were accused. So if you celebrate Christmas and live in Massachusetts today, be happy you were born when you were! Today, witchcraftis recognized by the government as a protected and legitimate religion under the First Amendment. It is not known why Abigail was living with the Parris family but many historians assume her parents . I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. Ever since those dark days ended, the trials have become synonymous with mass hysteria and scapegoating. Regardless of the cause -- whether it was ergot poisoning, a teen prank, a vendetta against past wrongs, a grab for land or mass hysteria -- the Salem witch trials stand as a . Although Giles was a wealthy farmer and Martha was a prominent church member, both of them had pasts they werent exactly advertising to the public. What historians do know is that Abigail Williams was born on July 12, 1680. One man was pressed to death under heavy stones, the only such state-sanctioned execution of its kind. Did you know this unbelievable witch trial fact: dogs were also major targets of the trials? The trials came to an abrupt halt when the Governors wife was accused of witchcraft, causing him to immediately order an end to the trials. Hoffer, who has written extensively on the Salem witch trials, is one of those who believes the girls who accused their neighbors of witchcraft were carrying out a prank. Given the subsequent spread of the strange behaviour to other girls and young women in the community and the timing of its display, however, those physiological and psychological explanations are not very convincing. On August 21, 1692, aided by two Boston ministers, Philip and Mary fled for New York, forfeiting a 4,000 bond and leaving their daughter in the care of a friend. Three presidents William Howard Taft, Chester Arthur, and Gerald Ford have been said to descend from one of Salems executed witches or their siblings. In 1689, through the influence of the Putnams, Samuel Parris, a merchant from Boston by way of Barbados, became the pastor of the villages Congregational church. Over 150 people were arrested for allegedly using witchcraft to inflict harm on their fellow townspeople, resulting in the executions of 20 people and the prison deaths of five more. (There is uncertainty regarding the relationship between the slaves and their ethnic origins. There is little doubt that some individuals did worship the devil and attempt to practice sorcery with harmful intent. During 1692, in the city of Salem, a little colony in Massachusetts, US, a horrifying trial started against several neighbors accused of witchcraft. Rather, as Salem archivist and historian Richard Trask observes, they also included "second-hand rumors" and "fits of fancy." See Richard B. Trask, Legal Procedures Used During the Salem Witch Trials and a Brief History of the Published Versions of the Records, in Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt (Bernard Rosenthal ed., 2009). Much of the evidence brought agains the witches, at least at first, was called spectral evidence, where people testified to seeing an apparition of the accused trying to inflict harm on them. It was shut down on October 29, 1692. Tituba, an enslaved person born to a South American indigenous tribe, became the first person accused of witchcraft in Salem after Betty, the daughter of Salems minister, Samuel Parris, began acting erratically. John Proctors son was born in prison while his wife was imprisoned on witchcraft charges. No, it doesnt sound that romantic or comic to me either. In October 1692, a girl in Andover accused a neighbors dog of trying to bewitch her. 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). After Governor Phipss wife was accused, he again interceded and ordered that a new court be established that would not allow so-called spectral evidence. I wonder if what the prescription is for that. However, no one ever embodied the concept of a witch as previously described. My mom never told me how her best friend died. Because of Philip Englishs wealth, he was allowed his freedom during the day and could rent rooms in the home of his jailer for himself, his wife, and daughter. This resulted in him being accused as well, and in the end it was he who was executed while Elizabeth was instead sentenced to prison so that her unborn baby would not have to die. This caused her to be accused of conspiring on behalf of the witches, and eventually of being a witch herself. On January 14, 1697five years after the trialsthe General Court ordered a day of fasting and prayers for the tragedy of Salem, stating, That so all God's people may offer up fervent Supplications unto him for ye preservation & prosperity of his Majtys.. Burroughs was brought back to Salem, tried, and executed. It involved a woman by the name of Tituba, a most likely South American slave from Barbados, who was the first victim of Salems witchcraft accusations. Perhaps some training in the law would have constrained Stoughtons more extreme actions. While there was no need to provide evidence for accusing someone of witchcraftjust pointing fingers was enoughspectral evidence was often used during the trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trial that took place in 1692, when it was believed "witches" were casting spells on people in the village of Salem. Move over Montagues and Capulets: You might not be the most vengeful families out there.
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