The Inevitable End

All of these deaths have one thing in common: serious accusations made my young Puritan girls. These girls had started something that was tragic. They pinned neighbor against neighbor, child against mother, and friend against friend. Nobody was worth trusting. As the great Shakespeare has taught, every great tragedy comes to an end where the aftermath is devastating.

The ending began when the foolish girls took the accusations too far. They began to accuse Increase Mather’s and Governor William Phip’s wives of being witches. These accusations were hard to believe, and were much too outrageous. Increase Mather decided, to have his wife's best bet, he must send this case to a much superior court.

When he did, he was able to win the case because spectral evidence was not allowed. Spectral evidence was what had convicted all of the “witches” during the trials. Since it was no longer allowed in court, there was no substantial evidence that could be used.

His wife now being one of the accused, Increase Mather saw the detrimental effects of the trials first hand. He wrote the Case of Conscience in October 1962, which stated that “It was better to let ten witches escape than it is to lose one innocent life” (). This allowed all but nine of the alive accused to be set free.

Five years later, on January 16^th, 1697, a public fasting was held in order to ask God for forgiveness. Samuel Sewall, one of the judges who had condemned many of the witches, had signed a petition that would apologize for the tragedy, and would reverse the verdicts. John Hale wrote the Witchcraft Act for apologies to the families who had someone thrown in jail or lost due to the accusations. Each family was given 600 British pounds to reimburse for time and lives lost. In 1857 the remaining nine people’s verdicts were also reversed.

As for the young Puritan girls, only one of them had apologized: Anne Putnam. She apologized in 1706, the age twenty-six. She blamed the devil in deluding her.

Even though it has been centuries since the Salem Witch Trials have occurred, there is a question that still remains: Why did those girls instigate this tragedy? There are two theories. The first theory is that the girls honestly believed that there were witches. The girls would have been at a young enough age where if their parents had said something about a neighbor, and they overheard them, that they could have made the wrong assumptions. The brain is a very powerful thing, and if one truly believed something, their mind could have had them feels though they were being pricked or tempted to commit suicide.

The second theory is that to it started out as a game, and once they saw how much attention that they were getting they did not want to stop. At this time, the girls would have been like rock stars; people from all over the country and London knowing who they were.

Unfortunately, we will never know what went on in the masterminds behind this misfortunate event. What we do know, is that it has changed our history forever. Since the trials, we have considered people innocent until proven guilty. However, it would not be the last time that America or any other country would discriminate and annihilate.