The Salem Witch Trials all began on January 20, 1692, with nine-year-old Elizabeth Betty Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams, daughter and niece of the village reverend Samuel Parris, beginning to exhibit strange behavior, such as blasphemous screaming, convulsive seizures, trance-like states and mysterious spells. Within a short period of time, several other Salem girls began to illustrate similar behavior; physicians resolved that the girls were under the control of Satan. Reverend Parris conducted prayer services and public fasting in hopes of relieving the evil forces that tormented them. In an effort to expose the enchantress, one man baked a witch cake made with rye bran and the urine of the ill girls. This counter-magic was meant to reveal the identities of the witched to the ailing girls. Pressured to identify the cause of their misfortune, the girls named three women, including Tituba, Samuel Parris slave, as witches.
On February 29, warrants were dispatched for the arrests of Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Although Osborne and Good sustained guiltlessness, Tituba confessed to seeing Lucifer, who appeared to her sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog. Whats more, Tituba certified that there was a collaboration of witches at work in Salem. On March 1, Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathon Corwin investigated the three women in the courthouse in Salem Village. Tituba confessed to pursuing black magic. Over the next few weeks, other villagers came forward and testified that they too had been traumatized by or had seen strange phantoms of some of the village members. As the witch-hunting prolonged, charges were made toward many different people.
The Essay on Abigail And The Girls Tragedy Salem Court
The Crucible: Although Abigail and The Girls Initiate The Tragedy, Responsibility Lies With the Whole Salem Community Although Abigail and the girls initiate the tragedy, responsibility lies with the whole Salem community. Discuss. I do believe that Abigail and the girls initiated the tragedy, what with all their talk about spirits and the with the devil during the opening act. For one reason or ...
Frequently unmasked were women whose behavior was somehow disturbing to the social order and formalities of the time. Some of the accused had records of unlawful pastimes, including witchery, but others were faithful churchgoers and people of high status in the society. From Mid-March to early April, Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and Sarah Cloyce were accused of witchcraft. Soon after Corey, Nurse, and Proctor were examined before Magistrates Hathorne, Corwin, Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, and Captain Samuel Sewall. During this analysis, John Proctor was also jailed. Then Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey and Mary Warren were taken into account.
The only one to confess was Hobbs. On April 22, Nehemiah Abbot, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sara Bishop, Mary Easty, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, and Mary English were examined before Hathorne and Corwin. Only Nehemiah was cleared of all charges. On May 2, Sarah Morey, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin, and Dorcas Hoar were examined, and trying to flee, George Burroughs was arrested in Wells, Maine on May 4. On May 10, Sarah Osborne died in a Boston prison, just a George Jacobs, Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret were examined by Hathorne and Corwin. Margaret admitted, saying, They told me if I would not confess I should be put down into the dungeon and would be hanged, but if I would confess I should save my life, then testified that her grandfather and George Burroughs were both witches.
On May 18, Mary Easty was released from prison, however due to the clamor and protests of her accusers, she was arrested a second time. Shortly after, Governor Phips set up a special Court of Oyer and Terminer consisting of seven judges to hear the witchcraft cases. The Magistrates based their judgments and evaluations on several kinds of abstract evidence including direct confessions, supernatural attributes (such as witchmarks), and the reactions of the afflicted girls. Mysterious evidence was based upon the assumption that Lucifer could enter upon the phantom of an innocent person, was counted in spite of its debatable characteristics. On June 2, at an initial session of the Court Oyer and Terminer, Bridget Bishop was the first to be named guilty of witchcraft and doomed to death. Soon after Bridgets trial, one of the judges stepped down from the court, unhappy with its transactions. On June 10, Bridget Bishop was hanged in Salem, in the first official execution of the Salem Witch Trials. Just before she was hanged, she uttered, I am no witch.
The Term Paper on Salem Witch Trials Witchcraft People Girls
Causes of The Salem Witch Craft Trials Witchcraft, Insanity, and the Ten Signs of Decay Since there never was a spurned lover stirring things up in Salem Village, and there is no evidence from the time that Tituba practiced Caribbean black magic, yet these trials and executions actually still took place, how can you explain why they occurred The Salem Witchcraft Trials began not as an act of ...
I am innocent. I know nothing of it. Following Bishops death, accusations of witchcraft intensified, but the trials were not unopposed. Several townspeople signed petitions in favor of people taken into custody that they believed to be blameless. Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good and Elizabeth Howe were then tried for witchcraft and condemned. Then on July 19, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good, and Sarah Wildes were executed. From August 2 through August 6 George Jacobs, Sr., Martha Corey, George Burroughs, John and Elizabeth Proctor, and John Willard were tried for witchcraft and condemned. On August 19, George Jacobs, Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Proctor, and John Willard were all hanged on Gallows Hill.
In early September, Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Dorcas Hoar, Mary Bradbury, Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulkner, Rebecca Eames, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster, and Abigail Hobbs were tried and condemned. On September 19, Giles Corey was killed for refusing a trial, being the only person to be pressed to death, with he last words More weight. Dorcas Hoar was the first of those pleading innocent to confess. Her execution was delayed. In Mid-September Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were hanged. On October 8, after 20 people had been executed in the Salem witch-hunt, Thomas Brattle wrote a letter denouncing the trials.
This letter had great impact on Governor Phips, who ordered that faith in abstract and vague evidence would no longer be allowed in trials. At last Governor Phips discontinued the Court of Oyer and Terminer. On November 25, the General Court of the colony fabricated the Superior Court to examine the remaining witchcraft cases, which would take place in May 1693. During these trials no one was convicted. These trials ignited controversy because; it is obvious that you cannot stake a persons life upon the accusations, and opinions of children with imaginative minds. By 1693 it was recognized that incorrect procedures and invalid proofs had been used.
The Essay on Elizabeth Proctor Witchcraft People Witch
I believe strongly that Elizabeth Proctor is innocent and believe that there is evidence upon evidence that can prove her innocence to the court and all the people who doubt her innocence. Elizabeth Proctor has never done anything that can be construed as witchcraft. She has had angry times in her life but who wouldn't consider having your husband commit adultery and you find out be a tough time? ...
Most people, however, still believed in witchcraft as a reality. Following the trials, the people felt that the devil was still loose among them but that he had deceived people into believing that innocents were witches. Although by 1700, most learned people doubted the reality of witchcraft, there were scattered witchcraft accusations in America far into the 18th century. Generally the process of the trials consisted of citizens making complaints against individuals who were then brought before magistrates for preliminary hearings. When the magistrates felt that there was sufficient evidence for a trial, the accused was jailed pending a hearing before a grand jury. And if those juries handed up a “true bill” (signifying evidence of misbehavior), a formal trial by jury could follow. The formal trial followed 17th-century English precedents, in which the accused were not represented by lawyers but could question accusers and witnesses.
Most, however, were not emotionally or intellectually equipped to defend themselves against a hanging court and hysterical witnesses–over 40 persons confessed to being witches. The historical irony is that only those who did not confess to being witches were actually tried and convicted. And with “spectral evidence” being accepted, your accuser is the only person who presents and verifies your “crime.” So, you could say the afflicted girls provided the evidence while sometimes other confessed witches corroborated it. In that time, the verdicts were not seen to be unfair, except by those who were convicted, because it was a belief that Satan could possess an innocent and religious person. In todays time, the verdicts that were reached are viewed as horrible mistakes brought on by young girls, whom out of boredom and personal jealousies turned to the accusations and murders of innocent people. Presently there are no Massachusetts statutes with respect towards witchcraft. In 1992 the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a resolution acknowledging the good names of those condemned witches of 1692 who had not been previously exonerated..
The Term Paper on Witch Craft Witchcraft Today
... to witches than many may realize. The History of Witchcraft Today most people laughingly dismiss witchcraft as ... often on false charges and faked evidence. Even now when groups are hounded ... torture when he bravely refused to confess to the fraudulent allegations towards him. ... witch hunt and witch trials in history. The preferred term used by Wiccan people is witch for both male & female. Witches ...
