Most people think that:- The Salem witches really were witches
– The convicted witches were burnt at the stake
– Convicted Salem witches had something to do with today’s witches and Wicca
– The Salem witches were all from Salem, Massachusetts
– The Puritans were dull, serious people who persecuted people who didn’t worship God their way
Of these items, only the last one has any truth to it. Salem,Massachusetts Bay Colony In the late 1600s, there were two cities in Massachusetts Bay Colony, the largest British colony in the , that were rivals as the greatest cities in the British colonies: Boston and Salem. Both were primarily maritime cities, with strong ties to both Puritanism and to the nonreligious traditions of the sea. By the end of the century, Boston was quickly growing in dominance, but Salem was still immensely powerful.
Salem was divided into two sections.Salem Town , next to the ocean, was more secular in many ways, but had the only ordained ministers for most of the century. Several miles inland, and under almost constant terror of the Indians who lurked in the woods, was Salem Farms. Today known as Danvers, the Farms was the genesis of the witchcraft madness.
In the Farms, several powerful families, including the Porters and Putnams, were constantly jockeying for position, with the Putnams on the losing end by the time of the Trials. In addition, the Putnams had an unstable family member: Anne Putnam Sr., mother of Anne Putnam Jr., one of the first girls to cry witchcraft. The ministers hired to preach at the meetinghouse in Salem Farms were caught between.
From the year the meetinghouse was built until the trials, a period of less than two decades, four different ministers were employed. None of them had an easy time; most had difficulty even getting paid, as different factions came into power through a combination of trickery and outmaneuvering.
In today’s government system, such a situation would not last long. But Salem was a special case. The Town wanted to maintain control of the Farms, so did all it could to appease the conflicting factions, rather than dictate what one or the other would do. They blamed all of the troubles on the two factions, eschewing any responsibility they had for retaining control the Farms desperately needed. To make things worse, surrounding cities had begun to lay claim to some of Salem Farms’ territory, deeding it to their own residents; the Farms and the Town quarreled bitterly about the Town’s handling of these situations. Salem, over the years, gained the reputation of being a place with troublesome, quarrelsome people who were not to be governed either by Massachusetts or by themselves.
By the end of the 17th century, Salem Farms had the following stressors:
– Fear of Indians – they were the frontier and a buffer for
Salem Town, yet the Town kept insisting that Salem Farms men man the militia
– Taxation without representation – they were made to pay tax on
Salem Town services they did not use, but the Town did not reciprocate.
– Bitter internal differences between factions
– A high level of piety, but with the view that all troubles are caused by the Devil and that God only lets them happen if he is displeased.
Fear, struggling, anger, helplessness, and guilt – all came together in the community to cause the situation that was the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
The Beginning
In 1691, the pro-Town faction had once again gained control of the Farms, and were using their usual tricks to evict the new minister, Samuel Parrish, from his post – starting by not paying his salary. Something different happened this time. The minister’s ten-year-old daughter Betty, by all accounts a sweet-natured and obedient child, began to act peculiar. She crawled under tables, growled, wept and laughed. Soon her cousin Abigail Williams, aged 12, began to behave in a similar fashion. One by one, young girls in the community fell under what seemed to be a spell.
Desperate, the minister and others with afflicted children consulted doctor after doctor. At last, one declared that it must be an evil hand that afflicted them – meaning the devil, and more precisely, witchcraft. The town erupted in fear, and even more girls, and even women and at least one man, were quickly afflicted. It was not long before the first accusations came out: Tituba, the Carib Indian servant (not African, as is so often believed) servant of Samuel Parrish; Sarah Goode, the bitter town beggar; and Sarah Osborne. All insisted they were innocent, but then Tituba, probably because Parrish beat her, broke. She confessed, implicating the other two women. Later, Sarah Goode was hung, Osborne died in prison, and Tituba was sold to cover her prison expenses.
In another community or at another time, this would have been the end of it; the “witches” would be hung, and the community would settle down. But not this time. Salem was too volatile, and Massachusetts had another problem. Because of a revolution that had removed the hated British GovernorAndros three years before, the colony had lost their charter, and had no legal right to try anyone. For most crimes, this wasn’t terrible; the two sides in the case would make an agreement of some sort, and the case was resolved, or murderers and thieves would be thrown in jail indefinitely, ultimately sold as indentured servants in some cases. Witchcraft was different. Even when a witch was in jail, she could “afflict” her victims.
The three accused were put in irons, and still the afflicted girls were hysterical, swearing that the spirits of those in prison and other “witches” were attacking them. With no trial, there was no resolution, and there could be no peace. Soon, others were accused of witchcraft: Martha Corey, a respected church member with an illegitimate mulatto son; Elizabeth and John Proctor, owners of a tavern and farm; Rebecca Nurse, a pious old woman who had the misfortune of being hated by Anne Putnam Sr. Dozens were accused in the months before Increase Mather could bring a new charter to the colony from England, and while the trials were continuing other communities were infected: Andover, Wenham, Marblehead. In the end, hundreds were accused, at least a hundred sixty arrested and imprisoned, and twenty were executed (most by hanging, Giles Corey by peine et dure, being crushed to death).
The Witchcraft Craze
The arrests started in March. By September, it seemed there would be no end. But inside, things were breaking down. When the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hung, one judge walked away. In Boston, ministers like the respected John Hale spoke out against the trials. And gradually, the tide turned against the accusers. A group of ministers in Boston led by Increase and Cotton Mather decided, on the grounds of letters and petitions, that some of the people killed might have been innocent.
Increase finally drafted a statement including the line, “It were better that a hundred witches go free, than we should hang one innocent.” It should sound familiar; it is the basis of the American premise that one is innocent until proven guilty. From this point forward, the trials were treated differently. For the first time (except one case early in the craze), accused people were judged innocent when they stood before judges. And those who had confessed to save their lives started clamoring that they were, indeed, innocent.
It took months, but eventually all the accused still in prison were exonerated and released. But they had suffered terrible losses. Dorcas Goode, the four-year-old daughter of executed Sarah Goode, had been made mad by her eight-month stay in prison irons. John Proctor was executed; his surviving family, four of whom had been accused and imprisoned, fought for years to regain their property, and like most, never received its full value. Even the poor, who had nothing to lose, were forced to pay for their own prison stays even though they were innocent. Some sold themselves into indentured servitude. The community of Salem
was left shattered and humbled.
Today, the pleasant town of Danvers is the descendant of Salem Farms, and Salem itself is a mixture of memorial to the innocents who were executed and a mad playground of New Age shops and tourist traps for the curious to gawk at. Few of the places recorded in the trials still exist; even the rivers that Salem was built between are gone today. But you can still visit the cemetery where many people of that time were built, and sit on the cool stone benches at the Salem Witchcraft Memorial, one for each person executed.
Reference:
- Hands down, the best online reference for the Salem WitchTrials is the University of Virginia Etext Library. Salemweb gives you more information on Salem and Danvers, Massachusetts, and has reasonably good information.
