| Salem
Witch Trials Salem, MA |
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When 9-year-old Betty started having fits of fear, the other girls thought she would give away their secret. They had fits of their own to take the attention off Betty and made up stories of being bewitched to explain their bizarre behavior. The magistrates of the town demanded to know who the witches were. This cover-up for their mischief spiraled out of control, and soon the "Salem Girls" were being taken all over Essex county, pointing out witches. By autumn, 150 people were imprisoned and almost everyone in Salem suspected someone of being a witch. Anyone who doubted the girls claims were soon declared witches themselves. Even John Willard, who arrested the first group of "witches" later said it should have been the girls that hanged. The teenagers soon accused him and he fled Salem, but was later found and hanged. One of the girls admitted that they had made everything up, but the rest of the group sent her to prison too, where she found conditions so unbearable that after one day, she withdrew her story. One wonders what all the adults were thinking. The problem was, they weren't. The trials were a confusing mixture of superstition and unsubstantiated claims. The Lord's Prayer from the Bible was used as a tool to determine whether a person was possessed by the devil. If one could not recite it perfectly, they were obviously partners with Satan. The group of girls were the star witnesses, determining the fate of the accused. One of their ploys was claiming to see and be afflicted by specters--ghostly images of the witches--that were pinching and poking them during the trials as they acted out these make-believe tortures. In mid-October, the governor listened to some of the ministers and other advisers who thought things had gotten carried away. He ended the imprisonments on charges of witchcraft and dismissed the witchcraft court. But 19 people had been hanged, 3 had died in prison, and one died being tortured by crushing because he wouldn't plead guilty or innocent, so he couldn't be tried. In 1706, Ann Putnam, one of the girls, admitted that it had they had made everything up--there were no witches or specters. This sad chapter of American history is a strong reminder of the dangers of intolerance and superstition. It was a time when people sought to find evil where there was none, and when fear and hate were stronger forces than common sense. |
) At
the Witch Dungeon we saw what it may have been like for the convicted "witches".
They were locked up in cold, dark cells. Amanda said, "This
is called a coffin cell because it is so small. People had to pay for their
own cells, so there were different sizes for how much money they could afford.
They had to pay for their food too, so if they didn't have enough money,
they couldn't eat. Three women died because they couldn't afford enough
food." The families of the convicted "witches" had to
pay the hangman's fee as well. |
Witch Hunt : It Happened in Salem Village by Stephen Krensky, James Watling (Illustrator) |
) Harrison
learned about public humiliation punishments for those that broke the rules.
"Here Dad is pretending to be caught in a pillory. This one has
huge holes, but a real one would have been tight around the neck and wrists.
Some of the other strange punishments during the Colonial days were the
Ducking-Stool (used for dunking), branding, whipping, Branks (an iron cage
over the head with a spike in the mouth), and Stocks (a pillory for the
legs)." |
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) Next
to the Salem cemetery is a memorial to the victims of the Witch Hunt. Engraved
in stone are the names those that lost their lives for such accusations
as: being a pipe-smoking beggar woman, being an aged cripple, having an
illegitimate son, having a neighbor that got sick and died, or stepping
in a mud puddle without getting wet. |
Witch
Hunt : A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice |
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An important final note on the Salem Witch Hysteria
It was partially due to the terrible tragedy of the Salem witch hysteria and many similar events in early theocratic colonial America, mostly in the intolerant Puritan communities, that led the creators of the Constitution to seek separation of church and state. (We will find later that the tolerance practiced by the Quaker-led Pennsylvania colony demonstrated a more successful social framework.) |
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It
was the year 1692. A group of Puritan girls had been meeting with a
servant woman named Tituba who was from the Caribbean. She claimed to
be a fortuneteller and intrigued the strictly-raised girls, though they
knew their parents would punish they if they knew of their "meetings".
The
Witchcraft of Salem Village (Landmark Books)