Exactly 328 years ago today, the first victim of the Salem Witch Trials was executed. The victim was Bridget Bishop, a woman of 60 years of age who was accused of bewitching five young women. Her trial was held on April 19th, 1692, and she was hanged on June 10th, making her the first victim of the Trials. In total, around 200 people were tried for witchcraft. 30 was found guilty, of which 14 women, 5 men and a 6-years-old girl was hanged. Many others died in prison.
What exactly happened?
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. As the name suggests, the trials took place in and around Salem Town (present-day Salem) and Salem Village (now the city of Danvers) in the colony of Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. It was the deadliest witch hunt in colonial North America. However, the during Salem Witch Trials wasn't the first time someone had been executed for witchcraft in the then colonies: the first recorded execution of a witch was of a woman named Alse Young (sometimes written as 'Alice') taking place in Hartford, Connecticut in 1647. In total, 14 other women and 2 men had been executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts and Connecticut prior to the Salem Witch Trials.
Most of the people living in and around Salem in the late 1600-hundreds were Puritans. The Puritans were a religious reform movement that believed the Church of England was still too Catholic and therefore sought to "purify" the Church. They had suffered for their faith in England, and therefore most chose to move to America in hopes to begin anew. Their beliefs were very close to the Bible and often fairly literal. Men were placed above women, not only in general power but also spiritually. They believed in the active existence of the Devil and demons as evil forces that were able to posses and cause harm to people. There was also a widespread belief in witches who were people in league with the Devil. Witches were blamed for all kinds of in-explainable things, such as the death of livestock, diseases and people suffering from bad fits. The judges for the Salem Witch Trials were majorIly Puritans.
At the time, there was a lot of unrest in and around Salem. Salem Village was known for having many internal disputes, and there was also disputes between the village and Salem Town. The two even had different Church ministers.
There was also vicious conflict between two major families: the Porters and the Putnams. The conflict divided the population in two, and it was a so big a topic that fights broke out based solely on people's opinion of the feud. It is believed that many of the accusations might have been related to that, with people accusing political opponents or just people they didn't like, mainly neighbours they were quarreling with.
The Salem Witch Trials began after a group of young girls in Salem Village, including the daughter and niece of the local reverend Samuel Parris, started to have fits and claimed to be possessed by the Devil. After a while, they accused several women of witchcraft. The first three people accused were Sarah Good, a poor woman, Sarah Osborne, who rarely attended church meetings, and Tituba, a slave owned by Samuel Parris. These were all outsiders in society. However, soon after, a few women who were well respected in the church were accused, so status was quickly proven to not give any protection. Later, even a reverend was executed for witchcraft. It quickly became safer to be afflicted than accused. Many accused confessed and named a bunch of other people in turn. Everyone in Salem suddenly seemed to be witches, and even visiting one's spouse in prison too often was a fast way to get accused of witchcraft oneself.
More and more people were accused, and it became a case of mass hysteria where everyone implicated each other. Some of those who at the beginning had been accusers ended up being accused themselves. It was especially those who stuck a bit out against the Puritan norms that were accused, especially those unmarried or without children.
Women made out the majority of the accused: about 78%, however, multiple men were targeted as well. Generally the Puritan belief was that women were inherently sinful and weaker than men, and therefore easier for the Devil to corrupt. When pressed, women were also more likely to admit guilt of witchcraft than men. Historians believe that some likely believed that they had truly given in to the Devil, whether for good or just temporarily. However, as those who confessed were reintegrated into society, some may have confessed to save their lives.
The first people accused were brought before the local magistrates to be judged. However, on May 27th, 1692, the governor of Massachusetts Bay, William Phips, ordered the creation of a special court, the Court of Oyer and Termier, to prosecute the cases, as until that point the proceedings had only been investigative.
The first case brought up at the special court was Bridget Bishop's. She was accused of bewitching five young girls on the date of her examination, as well as showing many other and earlier signs of being a witch. Several people testified against her, stating that an apparition shaped like Bridget Bishop would pinch, choke or bite them. One woman also claimed that the apparition had torn her coat and when examined, the cloak was found torn in that exact spot. During the trial, anytime Bridget Bishop would look at one of those who claimed to have seen her apparition, they would immediately be struck down and only her touch would revive them. She was judged guilty of witchcraft, sentenced and hanged.
The Court of Oyer and Termier was disbanded in September 1692 after five months, and while there were still many people in jail, no more were executed. In early 1693, the charges against most of those remaining in jail were dropped, though some were tried and three more found guilty. However, they were pardoned by Governor Phips. The final trials were held in April, finding the last accused innocent and marking the end of the Salem Witch Trials.
Witch-hunting for beginners
After something was concluded to be caused by witchcraft, the accuser entered a complaint against the person believed to have caused it with the local magistrates. A person could be indicted on charges of afflicting others with the help of witchcraft, or of making an unlawful covenant with Satan. If the magistrates judged that the complaint seemed credible, the alleged witch was arrested and brought in for a public trial. The person was examined, interrogated, and pressed by the magistrates to confess. If this examination found the complaint well-founded, the case was handed off to a higher court. Here, witnesses were summoned before a grand jury.
Most of the evidence used in the Salem trials was 'spectral evidence', which is evidence based upon visions and dreams where the afflicted claimed to see the apparition or shape of the person who was affecting them. However, it was mainly used in the beginning as there was quite a lot of debate about the validity of basing convictions only on this type of evidence.
A different type of evidence used was a 'touch test'. This worked by having the accused witch touch the victim while the victim was having a fit. If the fit stopped, it was believed to mean that the accused was the person who had afflicted the victim.
Other things that was used to determine whether or not someone was a witch was testimony by an already confessed witch, discovery of poppets (small voodoo-like dolls), books on anything slightly occult, as well as confessions of the accused. It was also observed if the accused had what was called a 'witch's teat' or a 'third nipple', which is nipple-like a mole or blemish somewhere on the body that was insensitive to touch. If one such area was found, it was considered irrefutable proof that someone was a witch.
Aftermath
In the decades following the trials, survivors, family members and supporters tried to establish the innocence of those who were accused and to seek compensation.
Only a few years after the events, the handling of the trials by the Puritan leaders were publicly criticised by Thomas Maule, a prominent man i Salem. Many petitions were filed in the beginning of the 1700's, demanding that the convictions were formally reversed, to get monetary compensation for the victims still alive, and for those who had been excommunicated by the Church to be allowed to return. However, in 1711, the judgement were only reversed for 22 people who had signed a petition in 1709. It wasn't until November 2001, almost 10 years after the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the trials, that the Massachusetts legislature exonerated all who had been convicted.
The Salem Witch Trials is a very popular topic in both books, movies and games, and many have gotten inspiration fromt he events. If you find some of the names in this article sounded familiar, it might be because you have been playing a lot of the game 'Town of Salem'. While not actually being about the witch trials at all, the game has chosen some of the well-known names from the trials as the default names for players who dont choose their own name.
Sarah Good was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in 1692 and was later executed. Her daughter, Dorothy Good, was also accused of witchcraft even though she was only four years old at the time. Martha Corey had expressed scepticism about the validity of certain accusations before she was accused herself. Lydia Dustin, Abigail Hobbs, Mary Warren, Sarah Bishop, Edward Bishop, William Hobbs were all accused but not executed. Sarah Wildes, John Proctor, John Willard however, was. Giles Corey was accused and literally 'pressed' to death in an attempt to make him confess.
Ann Putnam and Betty Parris were some of the first to accuse others of witchcraft. William Phips was the Governor of Massachusetts at the time and established the court judging most of the trials. John Hathorne and Samuel Sewall were both some of the leading judges in the trials. Cotton Mather was a very anti-witchcraft reverend and very influential in the trials. Samuel Parris was a local reverend, as well as father and uncle of some of the girls who brought up the first accusations.
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