Salem Witch Trials

January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village became ill. When they failed to improve, the village doctor, William Griggs, was called in. His diagnosis of bewitchment put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the death by hanging of nineteen men and women. In addition, one man was crushed to death; seven others died in prison, and the lives of many were irrevocably changed.

To understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to examine the times in which accusations of witchcraft occurred. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics and rivalry with nearby Salem Town, a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. Soon prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from towns surrounding Salem. Their names had been "cried out" by tormented young girls as the cause of their pain. All would await trial for a crime punishable by death in 17th-century New England, the practice of witchcraft.

In June of 1692, the special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) sat in Salem to hear the cases of witchcraft. Presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton, the court was made up of magistrates and jurors. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was found guilty and was hanged on June 10. Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows on three successive hanging days before the court was disbanded by Governor William Phipps in October of that year. The Superior Court of Judicature, formed to replace the "witchcraft" court, did not allow spectral evidence. This belief in the power of the accused to use their invisible shapes or spectres to torture their victims had sealed the fates of those tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The new court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting execution. In effect, the Salem witch trials were over.

As years passed, apologies were offered, and restitution was made to the victims' families. Historians and sociologists have examined this most complex episode in our history so that we may understand the issues of that time and apply our understanding to our own society. The parallels between the Salem witch trials and more modern examples of "witch hunting" like the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's, are remarkable.

Causes for the Outbreak of Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem
1. Strong belief that Satan is acting in the world.
---------"The invisible world": disease, natural catastophes, and bad fortune attributed to work of the devil
2. A belief that Satan recruits witches and wizards to work for him.
---------Prior witchcraft cases in New England (and Europe before)
3. A belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits certain symptoms.
---------Cotton Mather's Memorable Providences
---------Most symptoms can be feigned
4. A time of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan was active.
---------Smallpox
---------Congregational strife in Salem Village
---------Frontier wars with Indians
5. Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba.
6. Convulsive ergotism, a disease caused by eating infecting rye that can produce hallucinations, causing strange behavior? (Interesting theory, but unlikely.)
7. Teenage boredom.
---------No television, no CDs, and lots of Bible reading
---------Strict and humorless Parris household
8. Magistrates and judges receptive to accusations of witchcraft.
---------See as way to shift blame for their own wartime failures
---------Admission of spectral evidence
9. Confessing "witches" adding credibility to earlier charges.
10. Old feuds (disputes within congregation, property disputes) between the accusers and the accused spurring charges of witchcraft.

Why the Hysteria Ended
1. Doubts grow when respected citizens are convicted and executed.
-------Rebecca Nurse (jury first acquits, then told to reconsider)
-------George Burroughs (recites Lord's Prayer perfectly at hanging)
-------Giles Corey (81-year-old is pressed to death)
2. Accusations of witchcraft include the powerful and well-connected.
-------Wife of Governor Phips
-------Mary & Philip English (and others)
3. The educated elite of Boston pressure Gov. Phips to exclude spectral evidence.
-------Rev. Samuel Willard and others
-------Increase Mather points out the Devil could take the shape of an innocent person: "It were better that 10 suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned."
4. Gov. Phips bars spectral evidence and disbands the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

Have We Learned the Lessons of Salem?
1. What are the lessons?
--------Hysteria happens.
--------Children (especially) can be influenced by suggestion and peer pressure to say things that are not true.
--------We should be skeptical of confessions when the confessions are the result of torture or when the person has a self-interest in confessing.
--------A "cooling off period" can sometimes prevent injustices.
--------Trials should be fair: evidence introduced should be reliable, witnesses should be subject to cross-examination, defendants should have legal assistance and be allowed to testify on their own behalf, and judges should be unbiased.

2. Have we had "modern-day witch hunts"?
--------HUAC/McCarthy "Communist hunts" of early 1950s (events that inspired The Crucible)
--------Day care abuse trials of 1980s (child witnesses, accusations multipy, people afraid to support accused, unbelievable charges, hysteria).
--------To read about a modern-day trial with many parallels to the Salem Trials, see The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial (the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history).