Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

In the spring of 1692 , a small town named Salem is located in Salem, Massachusetts is where the witch hunt started(Blumberg). The girls who started they were caught dancing in the woods. Then they started to accused people of being witches(Blumberg). One of the first to be accused was Tituba which she confessed to being a witch(Blumberg). When they started the trails, the governor Phipps called for a special court to deal with the witch problem(Blumberg). Most people didn't even knew about them questions surrounding villages about consorting with the devil(Blumberg). The governor’s wife was even accused of being a witch(Blumberg). The first conviction was Bridget Bishop and she was hanged eight days later(Blumberg).

20 people were hanged for being accused for being a witch, in the period of three months. The people involved were the men and women in Salem ,but the women played a big role in the salem witch trial. Women were being accused of being a witch mainly women and the people accusing these women were mostly young girls. Over 20 people were hanged for being accused of being a witch but also for defending them. My opinion for what caused the Salem Witch Trial hysteria was that Jealous poor women accused rich old women of being witches to get their husbands.

Usually, an admission resulted in imprisonment for life. Sometimes, the “witches” would be used for their powers to locate other witches in town. Although a lot of accused were proven guilty, most cases were terminated due to lack of evidence. Today, we use a similar system: if there is a lack of evidence, the accused is innocent. In common cases in Salem, the grand jury was corrupt, resulting in more executions that were unneeded.

The main people involved was Abigail Williams, who was one of the main accusers in the Salem Witch trials. The 11-year-old niece of Reverend Samuel Parris showed signs of fits and hysterics in mid-January 1692. She and her 9-year-old cousin Betty were the first two afflicted girls in Salem Village.

In 1687, Hathorne was asked to mediate a dispute whether Salem Village should break away from Salem Town. The next time Hathorne returned to Salem Village in 1692, he was Chief Examiner of the Salem Witch Trials and became local Salem Magistrate. (John Hathorne:The Salem Witch Judge) He was chosen by Governor Sir William Phips to be a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. Hathorne took the role of a prosecutor of the witch trials rather than an impartial judge. Hathorne’s questioning began with the presumption of guilt rather than innocence, and he was on the side of the accusers. Hathorne encouraged the people under examination to confess to being witches and also snitch out others that might be witches. Hathorne’s first ever examination was March 1st ,1692. (Salem Witch Trials) Hathorne questioned Sarah Osbourne, Tituba and Sarah Good at the Salem Village meetinghouse. After the Salem Witch Trials ended, everyone regretted who they accused of witchcraft. But Hathorne did not show any remorse at all. John kept his seat on Boston’s Governing

The freshly delegated governor of Massachusetts William Phips on May 27,1692 ordered for the establishment of a special court of Oyer to hear the courts and Terminer to help decide in the courts under Chief Justice William Stoughton for the areas of Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. The trial of Bridget Bishop was the first presiding by judges Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton. In her defence she stated “I am as innocent as a child unborn” With the conviction of practicing witchcraft Bridget Bishop was the first to be hanged on what is known as Gallows Hill in the town of Salem on June second of 1692. Five people were executed that July these people were Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes. In August five more people were executed these people were George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr. Martha Carrier, John Proctor, and John Willard. Eight people were executed in September of 1692 of whom were Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott, and Samuel Wardwell Sr. as well as Giles Corey who was the husband of Martha

The Salem Witch Trials were a huge part of history, full of controversy and mystery, it confused historians today and in the past. The Trial’s killed approximately 20 people and 14 of them were women, mostly killed by hanging. Many people were convinced that children and women could be witches, and that’s why these short lasting trials went down in history.

By reading the two primary sources we are given a clear account of the Salem Witch Trials. John Hale describes the officials involved in the trial and those being prosecuted. Hale states, “I observed in the prosecution of these affairs, that there was in the Justices, Judges and others concerned, a conscientious endeavor to do the thing that was right.” he then later states “But what chiefly carried on this matter to such an height, was the increasing of confessors til they amounted to near about fifty.” While Governor phips goes into more detail in reference to the actual court proceedings, “When the Court came to sit at Salem in the County of Essex they convicted more than twenty persons of being guilty of witchcraft, some of the convicted were such as confessed their Guilt, the Court as I understand began their proceedings with the accusations of the afflicted and then went upon other humane evidences to strengthen that.” Only together the sources are able to give the reader the information needed, showing a disadvantage to using primary sources to evaluate history. These accounts illustrate comprehensively the picture of a court concerned with doing the right thing for their people and trying the accused in the way they see fit. They explain the use of accusations to testify against the convicted and

19 witches were hung on Gallows Hill in 1692. Although that doesn’t seem like very much, there were also many who died in prison. Giles Corey, the husband of Martha Corey, refused to go to trial. For this, he was punished by being smashed to death by two large stone blocks on September 19. John Proctor, who was hung on September 22, was only executed because he had been a skeptic to the accusations of witchcraft. He was then accused of serial murder because he denounced the witch hunts, or vocally demonstrated his opinion on the matter.

The trials took place between February 1692 - may 1693. On January 20, 1692, in Salem Village, which is now known as Danvers Massachusetts. the Reverend Samuel Parris daughter, Elizabeth, and his niece, Abigail Williams, began showing odd behavior,

After awhile, the people of Massachusetts began to see witchcraft everywhere. Some may have even been using the accusation of witchcraft as a tool of vengeance against an enemy. In total, up to 200 people were eventually arrested because of the charge of witchcraft that was leveled against them. Many of those who stood accused were jailed for several months without a trial. Second, the people in the Salem area were looking to purge anything that was remotely associated to a witch or witchcraft.

Moreover, the chosen victims that were condemned during the Salem Witch Trials also served to convert the public’s good faith in witches. Of the girls that had fallen ill in Salem, one of them named at least sixty-two names of possible witches (Kreiser). Although, a list of people was given the majority were unknown to the citizens of Salem which eludes to the concept that these were simply a delusion of a girl under the influence of hallucinations. Furthermore, even with this list being only sixty-two names long accusations continued to gather about the people in and around Salem, “Accusers and accusations multiplied. Of some 130 to 150 who were fingered as witches, 114 were charged; 50 confessed; and 19 hanged” (Conlin 2014: 68). The church used the few who were hanged (depicted in figure three) as an example to the people of Salem on what would happen to them should they decide to stray from God’s path and partake in witchcraft. This convinced the people that witches were heavily punished for their supernatural powers and for them to be punished so heavily then magic would have to be a sin. To continue, the previous reputation of the supposed ‘witches’ not only made them easy targets but it became associated with the persona of witches, “The acsusers’ targets could not have been better chosen for vulnerability by a department of sociology. Most of the putative witches were women… some of the victims were

The Salem Witch Trials were officially stopped on October 12, 1692 after the incarceration of hundreds of people and the murder of 20 innocents and two dogs. “Governor Phips issued [an] order that protected the current prisoners from harm and suspended any more arrest of people accused of witchcraft. Robert Calef, a merchant outraged by the progress of the trials, stated that Governor Phips only issued these orders on the belief that his own wife had been accused of working for Satan” (The End of the Salem Witch Trials). The aftermath of the trials was severe and left families completely broken. Those of which who died during the trials received no aid or closure for their families and those who were convicted and accused but still survived

This started the hysterical beginning of the Salem Witch trials, which resulted in many women, men, and children being accused of practicing witchcraft. Out of the one hundred fifty people accused in Salem, twenty of them were executed as witches, while others rotted away and died in jail. The people of Salem did not discriminate who they executed or who they sent to jail so the result was a diverse range of citizens being accused.

Over the next several months, both the afflicted and the accusations grew enormously. In May of that year the Court of Oyer and Terminer was created to deal with the accusations and to find and execute the witches. Bridget Bishop was the first person to be tried and convicted of witchcraft, and was sentenced to death and hung on