Sources Through Entire Blog

^1: “Exodus”. In King James Bible Cambridge Ed. (Cambridge University 2005) 60.

^2: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^3: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^4: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^5: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^6: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^7: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^8: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^9: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^10: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^11: HistoryFeed. In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials. )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIEV9w65fc. (Feb 14, 2012)

^12: “Spectral evidence definition.” US Legal accessed on November 11, 2012 http://definitions.uslegal.com/s/spectral-evidence

^13: Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum.The Salem Witch Craft Papers, Volume 2.(New York, 1977, Da Capo Press). http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/transcripts.html

^14: Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. The Salem Witch Craft Papers, Volume 3. (New York, 1977, Da Capo Press). http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/transcripts.html

 

^15:O, Douglas. Famous American Trials, "Rebecca Nurse." Last modified 2009. Accessed December 13, 2012. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/sal_bnur.htm
^16:O, Douglas. Famous American Trials, "Rebecca Nurse." Last modified 2009. Accessed December 13, 2012. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/sal_bnur.htm
^17:Harthorn, Jonathon, and Jonathon Corwin. Famous American Trials, "Examination of Bridget
Bishop." Last modified 2009. Accessed December 13, 2012. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_NURX.HTM 

^18:Cheever, Ezekial. Famous American Trials, "Examination of Bridget Bishop." Last modified 2009. Accessed December 13, 2012. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_BISX.HTM

^19: O'Linder, Douglas. Famous American Trials, "Bridget Bishop." Last modified 2009. Accessed December 13, 2012. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BBIS.HTM .

 

^20: Boyer, Paul, Steven Nissenbaum, and Bernard Russenthal. Salem Possessed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 28

^21: Upham, Charles. Salem Witchcraft: Witch an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions. Mineola: dover Publishing, 1802-1875. 27

 

 

 

 

Confession and Courage

Elziabeth Parris and Abigail Williams accused Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba of witchcraft. These three women the first victims to be accused in the Salem village. All three women were tried in court by the Judges John Harthorn and Jonathon Curren in March 1692. In these trials Good and Osborne had both denied being an accomplice of the devil. Harthorn had asked both women, “What evil spirit have you familiarity with?” “None,” both women replied.
Harthorn pressed on, asking them questions such as “have you made no contract with the devil? Why did you hurt these children? And who did you employ to hurt them?” The women denied any type of association with the devil, and any wrong doing against the children. The children, Parris, Williams, and six other young Puritan girls went into fits every single time Good and Osbourne had denied the accusations. However, the women were not fully guilty until Tituba gave her testimony.  It was Tituba, that confessed to the acts of witchcraft. Here is her testimony that day in March 1692:

 
 

Harthorn: Tituba, what evil spirit have you familiarity with?

Tituba: None.

Harthorn: Why do you hurt these children?

Tituba: I do not hurt them.

Harthorn: Who is it then?

Tituba: The devil for ought I know.

Harthorn: Did you never see the devil?

Tituba: The devil came to me and bid me serve him.¹³

 

In Tituba’s testimony she also places blame on Good and Osborne for some of the young girls’ sufferings.

 

Harthorn: Who have you seen?

Tituba's Examination (O'Linder. Tituba)

Tituba: Four women sometimes hurt the children

Harthorn: Who were they?

Tituba: Osborne, and Sarah Good. And I do not know who the other were.

Sarah Good and Osborne would have me hurt the children but I would not. She

further saith there was a tale man of Boston that she did see…

Harthorn: When did you see them?

Tituba: Last night at Boston

Harthorn: What did they say to you?

Tituba: They said hurt the children

Harthorn: And did you hurt them?

Tituba: No, there is four women and one man they hurt the children and then lay all upon me and they tell me if I will not hurt the children, they will hurt me.

Harthorn: But did you not hurt them?

Tituba: Yes, but I will hurt them no more.¹⁴

           

Tituba’s testimony does go on to explain that the “tall man of Boston” made her sign her name in the Devil’s book with blood. According to Tituba there were a total of nine names in the Devil’s book. She claims that she recognized two of those nine names: Good’s and Osborne’s. This appalled many of the Puritan people because it meant that there were other witches living amongst them, “looking for an opportunity to have an effect for evil upon the godly community⁵.” The fear of ‘how many’ clenched hold of the Puritans’ attention. It turned neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. The paranoia became too much for the Puritans to handle. It would imprison about two hundred innocent people and take the lives of twenty-four.

***The picture above is the actual document of Tituba's hearing, from which all the above is written.



Paranoia Strikes

It is believed that the cause of the mass paranoia that began the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 all began in the home of Pastor Samuel Parris. The Parris family had owned an Indian slave named Tituba. Elizabeth Parris, the daughter of Samuel and Betty Parris, at the age of nine, and her cousin Abigail Williams, at the age of eleven, were left in Tituba’s care. Tituba would often entice the young Puritan girls with tales and demonstrations of magic and power. These demonstrations often were of “voodoo tricks¹⁰.” As we have previously learned, the practice of this witchcraft is greatly against the Puritan religion. The young girls, being in relation and a part of a Pastor’s house hold were in fact accustomed to these beliefs. Yet, they were fascinated by this witchcraft, and managed to keep it a secret for quite some time.

Eventually the secret came about. The young girls began acting in “strange and aberrant ways¹¹.” They claimed that they felt pricked by pins and cut with knives. They fell into sorts of trances where they were tempted to commit suicide and had fits. They would scream shrilly, cry out, and throw items around. All of these were highly unusual for women who were in training to become submissive, quiet, pleasant members of society.



Tituba

Pastor Parris noted the young girls’ odd behavior and called Dr. William Griggs in an attempt to find physical cause. Dr. Griggs of course could find any physical means for the girls’ exotic behavior, and determined it of spiritual effects. It was common for witches to seduce and tempt others to follow the devil’s reign. Many also believed that if those whom the witches tried to seduce did not willingly give their soul to the devil that they would face such terrors. The girls were asked to identify the people that had affected them. The young girls pointed out three suspects; Tituba, Sara Good, and Sara Osborne. They were to be the first of three people accused within the Salem Village.

 Sarah Good and her family were known as the town beggars. She, herself, was notorious for her unsociably and unpleasant reputation. This made her appear odd to the rest of the community, and thus a perfect suspect to be tried for witchcraft. Sarah Osborne’s maiden name was Sarah Warren. She was originally married to Robert Prince. After Prince’s death Sarah had married an Irish servant of hers. Sarah had also tried to take over the Prince estate which rightfully, according to the will of her deceased husband, belonged to her children. This dispute made her an easy target for the witchcraft trials in 1692. But what did Tituba, Good, and Osborne have in common, besides their social outcast status? None of them went to church. It was said that those who were in association with the Devil could not hear the sermons because it would cause them pain.

The three women were tried with the accusations of witchcraft in March 1692. Their Judges were John Harthorn and Jonathon Curren. The purpose of these trials was to prove that there was sufficient evidence to accuse these women. However, the trials were plausibly insufficient because they depended greatly upon spectral evidence. Spectral evidence is defined as “a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to said witness, in a dream at the time the accused person’s physical body was at another location¹².” Many claimed that the Devil had such great power that he could send visions to the religious people in order to lead them astray. These spectral evidences were often provided by the young girls accusing people of witchcraft. Notice the injustice?

Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba were the first to be accused and tried in the Salem village. They were all likely suspects because of their low status, their social outcast reputations, and their unwillingness to go to church. However, it was the testimony of one of these three women that produced paranoia and the fate that about 200 others would have to endure.

The Beginning Part Two: Puritanism in America

The idea of witchcraft, like many other traditions and beliefs, had migrated to America alongside its various European settlers. However, it was greatly associated with the British. In 1629, King Charles I of England provided a "religious splinter group called Puritans, a charter to settle and govern an English colony in the Massachusetts Bay (2)." This way, they could create a Theocracy (a "perfect religious settlement that is created from the principals of the Bible (4)." Carol Karlsen, a visiting professor from Harvard Divinities School, states that they thought of their city as "a model community... to create a light for people all over the world."

Witchcraft was a large part of the Puritan religion. It is best put by David Goss, an executive director from Beverly Historical Society. Goss says that the Puritans believed, "Satan was real. Satan and his forces were around us in an invisible world, and were always watching, always looking for an opportunity to have an effect for evil upon the godly community (3).”

It is believed that the stresses of the Puritans are what made them experience mass hysteria and paranoia. The Puritans believed that a person’s fate was determined even before birth. A person was either one of the elected in to heaven or of those bound by the chains of the devil. Anxiety was aroused by the Puritan’s beliefs because there is no true way to determine who God’s children were and who Satan’s were. The justification of witches allowed people to determine who was predestined for heaven or hell.

At the core of Puritanism was the ideal that women were meant to be submissive to their husbands, to work with in the household, and for women to remain in private while men in public (). Puritans thought that since women were not allowed to be ministers they were resentful and became the devil’s advocates. They were also believed of wanting more knowledge, such as Eve did in the Bible when she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. With this belief came many witch hunts and executions.

Margaret Jones Trial (History Feed. Salem Witch Trials)

Another belief that the Puritans had was that you are what your neighbor says you are. The first witch hunt execution, against mid-wife and healer Margaret Jones, was a great example of this belief. Jones was seen arguing with neighbors before her accusation of being a witch. It was the fact that soon after this dispute her neighbor’s animals fell ill or died, that colonists started believing that she was in fact a witch. Before long, people claimed that Jones had in fact a malignant touch. Whenever she nursed others, they would shortly after begin to fill nausea or even become deceased. She was also said to be able to foresee the future and even had the infamous "devil's mark." Jones was tried and hung in 1648. An interesting fact however, is that the trial of Margaret Jones was not in Salem, but in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

The first witch hunt there was another major witch hunt in 1688. It was said that four Boston children were possessed by Glover, the mother of the children’s family servant. The children were possessed because thirteen-year-old Martha Goodwin “noticed that some of her family linens were missing” (Aronson, Witch-Hunt Mysteries, 3). Martha confronted their servant, who told her mother that the children thought that she had stolen it. Furious, mother Glover had shouted at Martha with obscenely terrible words. Soon after the terrible words had been hollered at Martha, she and the three younger Goodwin children began to have “fits.” Thomas Oakes, a “respected physician” (Aronson, Witch-Hunt Mysteries, 5) was called in. He could only offer one plausible explanation: witchcraft.

The religious views had a great impact on the Puritan colonists. It caused them paranoia and hysteria. It allowed anger and revenge to take over. Next week I will learn more about Cotton Mather, the priest famous for healing and researching the Goodwin children, and the story of Pastor Samuel Paris, the home of which the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 began.



 

The Beginning of Witchcraft

The year was 1692; the place Salem Massachusetts. A time of fear and distrust. Paranoia filled the air; its intoxcation impossible to escape. It pinned neighbor against neighbor and child against mother. Incredible accusations were made, causing innocent people to die.

Imagine being accused by a neighbor for something that you simply could not have done. This simple accusation has turned the whole town against you. They no longer trust you and think that you are an accomplice to the Devil. Before they can get rid of you they have to determine if you have indeed committed the crime punishable by death: witchcraft. They strip you down and shave every hair that you have on your body. They try to drown you, believing that if you float to the surface of the water you are in fact, a witch. They twist your arm until you confess to witchcraft. You are innocent, but are condemned because your community believes that they have proven you guilty. The next day you are sent to Gallow Hill to face your ultimate fate: death by hanging.

During 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, this scenario was a real fear for many. A stranger, a neighbor, a friend, a family member, or even a child could accuse a person of witchcraft, and a town that was filled with paranoia, would most likely believe them. America was not the first to suffer through these times of paranoia and false accusations. As a matter of fact the ideas of witchcraft most likely migrated to the Americas alongside the colonists.




Finding the Devil's Mark (Histoy Feed. Salem Witch Trials)

France, Italy, Germany, and England had conducted witch hunts about three hundred years before the tragedy of this paranoia struck America. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries 40,000 to 50,000 people were executed for witchcraft. Why? How did the idea that a person could have made a deal with the Devil come about? It is said that the idea of the executions of witch craft originated from the Bible itself. The book of Exodus, chapter twenty-two, and verse eighteen says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (King James, Cambridge Ed.).
 

However, early Christians were tolerant of witches. It was not until the Roman Catholic Church had gained power that the witches were considered enemies. It was not until 1231 when Pope Gregory the ninth punished those who practiced witch craft with violence. In 1484, Pope Innocent the eighth had announced witchcraft a heresy that was punishable by death. The reason being, witchcraft was considered turning ones back on God. If they turned their back on God, it was as though they turned their back on the religion of the church. If they turned their backs on the Church they were turning their backs on the King, because he ran the churches.

Once a person was accused of witchcraft, it was required to find "credible" evidence. In order to find evidence they used the Mallei Maleficarvm, published in 1486 as a guidebook to find witches and conduct trials. The book stated that one sure sign of a witch was the "Devil's Mark(1)." In order to find the mark, the body of the accused was cleanly shaven and carefully examined. The "Devil's Mark" could look like a cyst. If the mark was found it was commonly tested. They tested the mark by piercing it, and if the accused felt no pain, or the mark did not draw a single drop of blood, they were proven to be a witch. Another common way of finding evidence was to drown the accused. It is said that since water is pure, it would reject an evil spirit allowing the witch to float to the surface of the water. Accused witches were also tortured by various means until they confessed to a crime they could not have possibly done.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be on a mission to try and find the history behind the Salem Witch Trials. I have found its roots hidden in European culture before it migrated to the Americas with the European colonists. I learned of the threats witchcraft held to European church and government, and found the various means that were taken in order to cease these threats. This journey has just begun, and I encourage you to follow me as I learn more about various trials and the effect that witchcraft had on Salem.