The Salem Witchcraft Trials is remembered by most as a time of the incrimination and death of many men and women who were suspected to be witches. From the drowning test of so-called witches to sick girls pointing their fingers at people of their community, the stories of hysteria in Salem have never been forgotten.
“Who are the agents of the devil in afflicting these girls? There must be some among us thus acting, who are they?” (Upham, pg. 10), a question which is uncommon in modern times would be of the usual in 1692. Rather than the question being ‘who’, the question at stake should have been why. Why did this group of young girls accuse men and women, as well as six children, of witchcraft? What was the reasoning that contributed to the accusations? It wasn’t Satan or magic.
In 1692 in Massachusetts, social and political issues were on the rise. Social and political issues are the backbone of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. 1692 was the year when the first accusation occurred. People lived in fear of war and past Indian attacks. Women, more so young women and girls, were seen as people on the low-end of the social hierarchy; they held no power.
The first accusation of witchcraft didn’t happen in Salem, Massachusetts, but in Danvers, Massachusetts. The executions of the women accused were moved to the neighboring town of Salem, which is located in Essex County, Massachusetts.
The accusers were young girls. Many of these girls were servants. They had no say in anything, instead they followed directions. Mary Norton, a professor at Cornell, states, “Their normal role was to be seen, not heard, to tend to other’s needs” (Norton, pg.10). Being able to point a finger at anyone gave this group of young girls power. It was the beginning of a new voice for these once seen as powerless girls.
One of the youngest of the girls, Ann Putnam Jr., was the first to accuse a person of witchcraft. Putnam was different from the other girls – her mother was literate. Literary among women was few and far between in the 1600s. Putnam’s mother exposed her to many issues which made her stand out among the accusers. It is said, “Through her mother she had been exposed to tragedy in a way that gave her a most un-childlike knowledge of the world” (Starkey, pg. 17). Putnam knew of life and death from her mother as well. From her mother she learned about the harsh world of reality. With the help of her mother, Putnam was able to read the bible; she took the context of the bible word for word. Putman was seen as:
A little girl brought up to believe so literally in such concepts would be unlikely to show more mercy than her god if she by chance were called to testify in a vocal days of judgment. (Starkey pg. 19)
Although younger than the rest, Putnam was knows as the leader of the group. She had an education richer than the other afflicted girls and she had a “prominence which an extraordinary development of the imaginative faculty, and of mental powers that enabled her to hold throughout” (Upham, pg. 3). Because of this, Upham states:
This young girl is perhaps entitled to be regarded as, in many respects, the leading agent in all the mischief that followed. (Upham, pg. 3)
As a child, Putnam accused 62 people of witchcraft. Of the many she accused was a woman, Mary Easty, and her family. The Easty family had conflicts with the Putnams before the trials began, which makes the witch accusations questionable. The Putnams favored the newly revered of Salem Village, Parris, which some, like the Easty family, were against.
Those of Easty’s family that were accused of witchcraft, including her sister, Rebecca Nurse, were anti-Parris (Boyer, Nissenbaum, pg. 185). Samuel Parris was a Puritan minister. There were people that were pro-Parris, who were rarely accused of being witches, then there were the anti-Parris people of the Village, they were the people more likely to be accused of witchcraft. The Putnam family was seen as pro-Parris.
Putnam also testified against a west-Indian woman, Tituba. The people had no problem with the accusation against Tituba. “It is only fair to add that if Salem Village contained anyone at all who deliberately practiced the black arts, it was she” (Starkey, pg. 33). Even though Tituba was not the very first to be accused of witchcraft, accusing Tituba was inevitable. Her skin color was darker than those of the village and her culture was different, which could have been seen a means for witchcraft. Historians have argued over the ethnicity of Tituba. Some say that she was an African slave, where as others argue that there isn’t any evidence to suggest she was anything but Indian.
During the times of accusations, King William’s War was going on. The war took place from 1688 to 1699 (Jones, pg. 81). During this time there was a huge massacre of Indians in New Hampshire. People feared being attacked by Indians as many frontiers were among those being massacred.
There were threats to Massachusetts of Indian attacks which lead to fear; fear lead to psychological problems such as the convulsions among other related illnesses, which were, coincidentally, symptoms the girls of Salem underwent. Having a West-Indian woman stand trial as a witch may very well be the outcome of fear of Indians as a whole. It didn’t really matter what tribe or geographical area Tituba was associated with, just the fact that she was Indian may have put her on the stand for witchcraft. It was thought that maybe Tituba came from New Spain, or what is called today as the Spanish West Indies (Upham pg. 2). In regards to people of Indian ethnicity, the villager’s opinion was:
People of that area, in all probability, contributed, from the wild and strange superstitions prevalent among their native tribes, materials which, added to the commonly received notions on such subjects, heightened the infatuation of the times, and inflamed still more the imaginations of the credulous. People conserving with the Indians discern many similarities in their systems of demonology with ideas and practices developed here. (Upham pg. 2)
Tituba was called various names by the Villagers, such as “Tituba Indian,” “the Indyen woman,” and “titbe an Indian Woman,” (Norton pg. 21). It was clear that the fingers pointed her out based on her ethnicity.
On February 29th of 1692 (leap year), Tituba, alongside other women, was served a warrant and sent to Ipswich Prison to await her destiny. Although Tituba was one of the accused to stay in prison the longest, on May 9, 1963 she was one of the accused that was set free from prison, only to be sold to an unidentified person because her slave owner, Parris, refused to pay the costs of her imprisonment (Norton, pg. 292).
Was it the fear of Indians that placed Tituba in jail? The villagers needed to associate negative events with the devil; thus being, because of attacks by Indians, the villagers seen the Indians as “Satan’s helpers” (Jones, pg. 103).
A tribe of Indians, the Wabanakis, lived in peace with the neighboring Anglo-Americans in most of the 1600s. They relied on each other during the fur trade. It wasn’t until the summer of 1675 when violence started by Anglo-American sailors lead to the disarming of Wabanakis. Most of the Wabanakis complied with the Anglo-Americans and put down their guns and other weapons.
On September 9th of 1675, just a short time after the surrender of guns among the Wabanakis, a small group of Wabanakis attacked a farm, killing six people. The description of the violence that took place in that farmhouse was unheard of by the Anglo-American people. The elderly couple was described as, “near half burnt,” lying “half in and half out of the house.” Their oldest son had been shot in the head and “his head dashed in pieces”; their daughter-in-law, “scalped”; and two of their grandchildren had “their heads dashed in pieces” (Norton, pg. 87).
Hearing such unimaginable events like the violence at the farm scared the villagers. Because a small group of Wabanakis attacked and killed off a family in a horrid way, the villagers had it set in their mind that all Indians were prone to that type of violence; even today, post 9/11, some people feel that all Muslims or even anyone of middle-eastern descent are terrorist that have a main objective to hurt Americans because of the events that happened on 9/11. Obviously not a whole group of people have it on their agenda to destroy the United Sates today, just as not all Indians wanted to attack the villagers then.
Among the accusers who fell ill were Parris’s niece and daughter, Becky. Both his niece and daughter heard of the Indian attacks. The girls who fell ill because of ‘witchcraft’ would break out in convulsions and high fevers. Witnesses, such as Parris and wife, had seen both children bitten and pinched by invisible agents. They also stated that they witnessed the back of the girls turn different ways that would be impossible for a person to do (Norton, pg. 18). The sickness can be explained by the physical stress put on the body of out of fear of attacks on top of over exaggeration. “On January 25, 1691, the Wabanakis destroyed York I a surprise attack, shortly after Samuel Parris’s daughter and niece began having fits” (Norton, pg. 111).
Attacks like that of York impacted the villagers tremendously, more so, the young orphans who lost a parent, if not both, to the war. It’s been stated that, “more than half the young women who had accused others of witchcraft had lost one or both parents in the brutal frontier wars” (Jones, pg. 103). In fact when York was attacked on February 5, which just happen to be weeks before the first accusations, 48 people were killed and 73 were taken captives (Jones, pg. 103). Word would travel fast of these killing and captives to Salem because York was only a mere 80 miles away.
Oddly enough, people being accused of witchcraft had ties to Indians. Some of the people had traded with the Indians during the fur trade. It’s been acknowledged that, “many of those involved in the crisis, it turns out, had known each other previously on the frontier. Many refugees came from the wars” (Norton, pg. 12). This can mean two different things at the least. For one, the girls could have felt jealous that these people survived the war, while their parents had not. Secondly, the girls were upset with the fact that these people were associated with Indians. Accusing these people of witchcraft could have been a psychological way to get back at them for what happened to their family. These girls would go on to feel like they defeated the Indians that attacked their parents. In their own minds by pointing the finger at those linked to the frontier and Indians.
Interesting enough, Parris’s daughter, Betty, was sent off to live with family elsewhere because of her sudden mysterious sickness. Being away from the constant reminder of fear and deaths quickly healed Betty of her sickness. Parris was smart to move his daughter away. Betty’s sickness could have been seen as a sign of her being a witch herself, moving her away kept her from being switched as one of the accusers to being of the accused.
Women were first able to attend public school in 1826; co-ed college in 1833. Not until 1920 were women in the United States able to vote in federal elections (History Channel Web Site). Going back to 1692, women had even less power; as it was stated earlier, they were at the low end of the social hierarchy. On top of being a female, being young and a servant just put a female at the lowest point of the social hierarchy.
Because of their young age, the group of girls held the least amount of power. The niece of Mr. Parris was only eleven years old, his daughter, Betty was nine years old. Putnam, who was seen as the leader of the group was twelve years old. Another of the girls was Mary Walcot; Walcot was seventeen.
No one cared to listen what these girls had to say, and like many, people want to be heard. From high-status men who served as magistrates to the lower-status men who sat on grand juries, little attention was given to women in either case (Norton, pg. 10). For the first time, not only were people listening to the stories the girls would speak of, but the village also fed them the power to take things into their hands. The girls tasted power when the first accusation was taken seriously; all the attention was on them for once. Why would the girls stop the accusations? Stopping the accusations meant they would have to go back to their lives, being young and being told what to do, without any say. Having people tend to the girls instead of the girls tending to others was a change that they liked and didn’t want to let go.
It was known that, “women as well as men could experience and ponder God’s direct mercy, but men retained the final authority over His meanings” (Saxton, pg. 19). Being able to accuse people such as the West-Indian woman, Tituba; Mary Barker, who had ties to the frontier; Sarah Hood Bassett made these girls feel like they had the final authority (Norton pg. 321). People accused of being a witch did stand trial, but it was easy for the court to convict them.
The people that were being accused of practicing witchcraft were those neighboring around the young girls. People tend to commit crimes that are close to home, for these girls they weren’t doing anything different. There was a stereotype of what a witch was and most of those convicted fit the stereotype.
It was unusual for older women to be unmarried. Because of this many women accused of being a witch were widows or never married at all. They usually were the outcasts of the village. Being the outcast made them easy to point out. Along with being an outcast, being anti-Parris contributed to being accused as witch.
Sarah Good, who was married was put on trial for the accusation that she hurt children. Good denied that she ever hurt or tormented the children and tried to accuse someone else (Norton, pg. 26). Good was a married woman, why would she be accused as a witch? Among Salem was the anti-Parris group that was discussed earlier, it is believed that Good was one to fall under the anti-Parris group because, “she was denied shelter by at least one pro-Parris Salem Village family in the years before 1692” (Boyer, Nissenbaum, pg. 189). Perhaps Good went on to seek shelter with an anti-Parris family. Being seen with anti-Parris family could have been seen as a stand against the pro-Parris group.
With all the hysteria of witchcraft, the state of Massachusetts should have taken control over the matter as soon as it got out of control. So many people were being accused; it seemed as if it were a domino effect. Even the accused would point their finger at someone else in hopes of being let free. Instead of finding a fair resolution, the state would use the trials to their advantage.
When a person that was tried and convicted was executed, the property of the deceased was given up to the state (Norton, pg. 290). In fact, the Essex County sheriff, George Corwin, who seized the property of the deceased, was able to keep most of it. Even after the Salem Witchcraft Trials came to a stop the law was written in a way to protect what he gained (Norton, pg. 290).
When the Salem Witchcraft Trials were put to an end, those in jail were let free once they paid for the time they were imprisoned. This quick, yet harsh event that hit Salem just over one single year will always be known as part of the United States dark pasts. The girls who once held the power to end a person’s life by the simple words of calling them of a witch had ended. These girls went back to their life of being quiet instead of outspoken; servants rather than being served.
Besides the social problems that lead to the trials, warfare contributed a lot to the fear of the girls. The Wabanakis and other Indian tribes that attacked and killed families of those of Salem and the surrounding had no idea what was to be evoked, a hysteria of so called witches.
Young Women were relegated once again to what contemporaries saw as their proper roles: servers, not served; followers, not leaders; governed, not governors; the silent, not the speakers. Those momentarily powerful become once more the powerless (Norton, pg. 11).
Norton, Mary Beth. In The Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. New York 2002.
Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft. New York. 2000.
Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed. Massachusetts. 1974
Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials. New York. 1949.
Jones, Jaqueline; Wood, Peter H.; Borstelmann, Thomas; May, Elaine; Ruiz, Vicki L. Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States. 2006.
Saxton, Martha. Being Good : Women’s Moral Values in Early America. New York. 2003.
