True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

Salem Witchcraft Trials

Salem Witchcraft Trials: 1692

Defendants: 200 accused, including Bridget Bishop, Reverend George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Sarah Good, Elizabeth How, George Jacobs, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, Alicia Parker, Mary Parker, John Procter, Ann Pudeator, Wilmot Reed, Margaret Scott, Samuel Wardwell, Sarah Wild, and John Willard

Crimes Charged: Witchcraft

Chief Examiners: Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne

Place: Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts)

Dates of Hearings: March 1, 1692, through the spring

Chief Defense Lawyers: None

Chief Prosecutors: None

Judges for Court of Oyer and Terminer: Jonathan Corwin, Bartholomew Gedney, John Richards, Nathaniel Saltonstall, William Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, William Stoughton, and Walt Winthrop

Place: Salem Town (present-day Salem, Massachusetts)

Dates of Trials: June 2, 1692—September 1692. The court was then suspended. A superior court convened in January 1693, held trials in several cities.

Verdicts: 29 found guilty

Sentences: 19 hanged; remaining convicted and accused released over years

S I G N I F I C A N C E

America's only massive witch-hunt resembled those that occurred in Europe over the centuries in that it transpired during a period of political unrest, but it was atypical in that it was localized and comparatively brief. However, the American witch-hunt remains singular in the effect it has exerted on the American imagination as historians and non-historians try to fathom the reasons for this frightening example of the perils of hysteria.

In the 17th century, there was an almost universal belief in the effective power of witchcraft. English courts were specifically interested in maleficia, the performance of malicious acts against one's neighbors. Many mishaps, major and minor, were attributed to the malice of witches. Yet before the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts records indicate only about 100 people had ever been formally accused of witchcraft, 15 of whom were executed. In 1692, 200 were accused in a matter of months.

Over the centuries, witch-hunts generally occurred during times of anxiety or social upheaval. From the time the settlers first landed, they had enjoyed a nearly autonomous form of self-government. But in 1684 Massachusetts lost it charter. England then created the Dominion of New England combining several unwilling colonies. Not only was political autonomy threatened, but the dominion's new governor, Sir Edmund Andros, had declared that the revocation of the charter invalidated land titles. During the wake of England's Glorious Revolution of 1688, James ii was deposed and Andros was overthrown. The colony was drifting into legal limbo.

During the winter of 1691-92, in the kitchen of the Reverend Samuel Parris, Tituba, a Carib Indian slave entertained 9-year-old Betty, the minister's daughter, and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, his niece, with fortune-telling and magic. Eventually, the girls invited in eight more girls, ranging in age from 12 to 20. Key among them was Ann Putnam, Jr., the brilliant daughter of an embittered woman.

To Puritan eyes there was nothing innocent about flirting with magic spells for amusement. Moreover, Puritanism was unrelenting in its admonitions that the grace of God was man's only rescue from deserved damnation—a grace seemingly measured in droplets. However exciting their games, the girls were tense from the strain of their secret misdeeds. By January 1692, tension turned into what would now be termed hysteria.