Includes a chapter on “The Crime of Witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Historical Background and Pattern of Prosecution.” Appendixes includes lists of legal actions against witchcraft prior to the Salem prosecutions, Massachusetts Bay witchcraft defamation suits, persons accused of witchcraft in Salem, confessors, allegations of ordinary witchcrafts by case, afflicted persons. Levin, David. Opponents claimed that the Devil was able to use anyone's shape to afflict people, but the Court contended that the Devil could not use a person's shape without that person's permission; therefore, when the afflicted claimed to see the apparition of a specific person, that was accepted as evidence that the accused had been complicit with the Devil. This medieval text (Der Hexenhammer in German) prescribes judicial procedures in cases of alleged witchcraft. Susannah Post, Eunice Frye, Mary Bridges Jr., Mary Barker and William Barker Jr. were all found not guilty at trial, finally putting an end to the series of trials and executions. "[13], The trials were started after people had been accused of witchcraft, primarily by teenage girls such as Elizabeth Hubbard, 17, as well as some who were younger. The Salem Witch Trials were disreputable experiences during the colonial era in New
Since the jurist Sir Matthew Hale had permitted this evidence, supported by the eminent philosopher, physician and author Thomas Browne, to be used in the Bury St Edmunds witch trial and the accusations against two Lowestoft women, the colonial magistrates also accepted its validity and their trials proceeded. 62, No. Abigail Faulkner, Sr. was pregnant and given a temporary reprieve (some reports from that era say that Abigail's reprieve later became a stay of charges). What Happened in Salem? Martha Corey had expressed skepticism about the credibility of the girls' accusations and thus drawn attention. In January 1692, Betty and Abigail had strange fits. Burr, George Lincoln.
Salem, like many other towns at the time, had little distinction between church and state and focused all aspects of their society on God. Throughout history, there have been hundreds of different “witch hunts”, and not all of them have been hunting for witches.
Various medical and psychological explanations for the observed symptoms have been explored by researchers, including psychological hysteria in response to Indian attacks, convulsive ergotism caused by eating rye bread made from grain infected by the fungus Claviceps purpurea (a natural substance from which LSD is derived),[125] an epidemic of bird-borne encephalitis lethargica, and sleep paralysis to explain the nocturnal attacks alleged by some of the accusers. Most people believe that hundreds of people were executed during the Salem witch trials, which is often a very common thought but in actuality only twenty people (mostly women) were executed. He stated that while "calamities" that had begun in his own household "it never brake forth to any considerable light, until diabolical means were used, by the making of a cake by my Indian man, who had his direction from this our sister, Mary Sibley." The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Chicago Press, BF1576.A33 2008). And this did somewhat appease the People, and the Executions went on; when he [Mr. Burroughs] was cut down, he was dragged by a Halter to a Hole, or Grave, between the Rocks, about two feet deep; his Shirt and Breeches being pulled off, and an old pair of Trousers of one Executed put on his lower parts: he was so put in, together with Willard and Carrier, that one of his Hands, and his Chin, and a Foot of one of them, was left uncovered. Nevertheless, we cannot but humbly recommend unto the government, the speedy and vigorous prosecution of such as have rendered themselves obnoxious, according to the direction given in the laws of God, and the wholesome statutes of the English nation, for the detection of witchcrafts. [43], Tituba, an enslaved South American Indian woman from the West Indies, likely became a target because of her ethnic differences from most of the other villagers. Letters of Governor Phips to the Home Government, 1692–1693, "Indictment of Sarah Good for Afflicting Sarah Vibber", "Indictment of Abigail Hobbs for Covenanting", "The Devil's Specter: Spectral Evidence and the Salem Witchcraft Crisis", Narratives of the Witchcraft Trials, p. 342, "Role of skin lesions in the Salem witchcraft trials", Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection, Salem Massachusetts – Salem Witch Trials The Stones: July 10 and July 19, 1692, Salem Village Witchcraft Victims' Memorial, etext.virginia.edu, Chapter 122 of the Acts of 2001, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Salem Witchcraft Trials: The Perception Of Women In History, Literature And Culture, Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, SalemWitchTrials.com Essays, biographies of the accused and afflicted, Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament, Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Salem_witch_trials&oldid=985475623, Religiously motivated violence in the United States, CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Articles needing additional references from April 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014, Articles with incomplete citations from May 2017, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Co., BF1576.N5 1892).
[73][74], Cotton Mather's The Wonders of the Invisible World was written with the purpose to show how careful the court was in managing the trials. After witnessing the trials first-hand and gathering accounts, these ministers presented various opinions about the trial starting in 1692. Increase Mather claimed to have picked all the men to be included in the new government. A new charter for the enlarged Province of Massachusetts Bay was given final approval in England on October 16, 1691. "The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History". Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 , University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project , University of Virginia, archive of extensive primary sources, including court papers, maps, interactive maps, and biographies (includes former … [citation needed], Mather quickly completed his account of the trials, Wonders of the Invisible World[57] and it was given to Phips when he returned from the fighting in Maine in early October. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 (Da Capo Press, XXKFM2478.8.W5S240 1977)(digital edition, revised and augmented, 2011). Chapter 145 of the resolves of 1957, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 136, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. Children died in prisons. Specifically, Aspects of the Trials When the Trials were officially stopped in May of 1693, many thought it was over and nothing would become of it. How Much Further Does It Need to Go?” Tulane Law Review 64 (1989): 235-258.
However, most of these people are innocent.