Salem of witch trials

Through comparison of the viewpoints from different historical buildings and the eyewitnesses record, the exact spot was determined. The city of Salem planned to construct a respectful memorial at the spot, remembering the victims of mass hysteria at the Salem witch trials. Baker, Emerson W. Oxford University Press, New York. The Salem News, Salem. You must be logged in to post a comment. Protected by Akismet Blog with WordPress.

A map of Salem Village, Log in to Reply. References: Baker, Emerson W. In late March , John and Bethia Kelly grieved over the body of their 8-year-old daughter inside their Hartford, Connecticut, home. Little Elizabeth had been fine just days before when she returned home with a neighbor, Goodwife Ayres. The distraught parents, grasping at any Witches were perceived as evil beings by early Christians in Europe, inspiring the iconic Halloween figure.

Images of witches have appeared in various forms throughout history—from evil, wart-nosed women huddling over a cauldron of boiling liquid to hag-faced, cackling beings In early , several girls in the colonial Massachusetts village of Salem began exhibiting strange symptoms, including twitching, barking, and complaining of being pinched or pricked by invisible pins. The afflicted girls soon accused several local women of bewitching them, A doctor diagnosed the children as being victims of black magic, and over the next several months, John Proctor sat in the courtroom, watching his pregnant wife, Elizabeth on the stand.

Paranoia was sweeping Salem, and Elizabeth was being examined by a local judge on suspicion of witchcraft.

Watching his wife withstand the heated examination was bad enough, but suddenly the The trials claimed at least victims the actual toll may be higher , with just There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village families and rivalry with nearby Salem Town combined with a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion.

All would await trial for a crime punishable by death in 17th-century New England — the practice of witchcraft. In June of , 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 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.

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. During her trial, Pudeator accused many of her accusers of lying. Pudeator was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, Like Bridget Bishop and many other witch trial victims, Wilmot Redd had also been accused of witchcraft before in She was an unpopular person around town because she often quarreled with others and had an abrasive personality.

Redd was accused of witchcraft in May of by the Salem Village afflicted girls and brought to Ingersoll Tavern in Salem Village for her examination. Redd was brought to trial in September and executed on September 22, Scott had seven children but only three survived childhood.

After her husband died in , Scott was left destitute and forced to beg from her neighbors. This made her unpopular with her neighbors. A member of the Nelson family also sat on the grand jury that convicted her. Scott was brought to trial on September 17 and executed on September 22, He was also a well known fortune-teller and practitioner of English folk magic.

It is believed that his work in the occult led to his witchcraft accusation. Wardwell was accused in September of and arrested and jailed in Salem. Shortly after, his wife and daughters were also arrested. During his examination, he admitted to fortune-telling and dabbling in magic and said that the devil may have taken advantage of him for these reasons.

He then confessed to making a pact with the devil but later recanted his confession. Wardwell was brought to trial in mid-September and executed on September 22, Corey had a reputation for being a pious member of the community despite the well-known fact that she had a child out of wedlock in the s. Martha Corey was also an outspoken critic of the Salem Witch Trials and stated many times that the afflicted girls were liars. When Giles Corey himself was accused of witchcraft and arrested in April, he refused to provide any more information on Martha or himself.

Martha Corey was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, , just three days after Giles Corey had been tortured to death for refusing to enter a plea. She lived in Topsfield and was considered a pious, well-respected member of the community. In April of , Mary Easty was accused of witchcraft, arrested but was then released in May. She was accused again, a few days after her release, and arrested.

She was examined and indicted on two charges of witchcraft. Easty was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, He had a reputation for being an angry, violent man and was once charged with murdering his farmhand in He was found guilty but only suffered a fine for his actions.

Many locals, including Thomas Putnam , suspected Corey had paid a bribe for his freedom. In April of , Giles Corey was accused of witchcraft after his wife, Martha Corey , had also been accused and arrested on the same charge.

Giles Corey refused to enter a plea in an attempt to prevent his case from going to trial. He reportedly knew he was going to die, either in jail or on the gallows, and wanted to avoid being convicted before he did. As a result, Giles Corey was tortured for three days in a field on Howard Street in Salem town in an attempt to force a plea out of him. He died on the third day of his torture on September 19, Elizabeth Proctor Brought to trial on August 5 and found guilty.

She was sentenced to death but the execution was delayed due to her pregnancy. She gave birth in January was released from prison in May, Abigail Faulkner, Sr Brought to trial on September 17 and found guilty. She was released from prison in March, Mary Post Brought to trial in January, and found guilty.

She was sentenced to death but pardoned by Governor Phips. Sarah Wardwell Brought to trial on January 10, and found guilty. Elizabeth Johnson Jr Brought to trial in January, and found guilty. Dorcas Hoar Brought to trial on September 9, and found guilty. She was sentenced to death but never executed. Roger Toothaker Died in jail in Boston on June 16, John Alden Jr. Edward Bishop Jr. Other victims include two dogs who were shot or killed after being suspected of witchcraft.

Most of the Salem Witch Trials victims were women but men were accused and executed too. Although some of the early victims were poor social outcasts from Salem Village, the accusations slowly spread to all types of people from all types of backgrounds, according to the book Death in Salem: The Private Lives Behind the Witch Hunt :.

Everyone knew that witchcraft was largely a female perversity, but the reasoning stopped there. The over one hundred and fifty people singled out for social and legal ostracism over the course of included every age, social echelon, and background: rich and poor, young and old, feeble and sharp-witted. The logic seems to have been that physical contact with an actual witch would draw the evil spirits back out of the victim. The ulterior reasons for their persecution sometimes surfaced at the trial.

Often it was little more than a bad reputation or malicious gossip, repackaged and embroidered over decades. A human frailty or eccentricity might be trotted out as evidence. Due to the large number of accused witches, the prisoners were kept in multiple jails in Salem, Ipswich and Boston. According to the book, A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials , the accused witches were considered dangerous prisoners and were kept in dungeons underneath the jails away from the regular prisoners:.

These were perpetually dark, bitterly cold, and so damp that water ran down the walls. They reeked of unwashed human bodies and excrement. They enclosed as much agony as anywhere human beings could have lived. The stone dungeons of Salem Town prison were discovered in the s in St. Certainly they were a breeding ground for disease…But accused witches were worse off than the other unfortunates [other prisoners. The dungeons forever changed people and the ones who were lucky enough to survive the prison or escape the gallows often suffered for the rest of their lives.

Interior of the old dungeon, old witch jail, Salem, Mass, circa Such is the case with Dorcas Good, the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good who was accused of witchcraft in March of and spent seven to eight months in jail before being released, according to the book The Salem Witch Trials Reader:. While in prison, the accused were repeatedly humiliated by being forced to undergo physical examinations of their bodies.

During the examinations the prisoners, who were mostly elderly, were stripped naked in front of a group of people and their bodies were poked and prodded and any suspicious marks or moles found were pricked with needles.

Upham describes his disgust over this treatment of the prisoners:. The results of the examinations were reduced to written reports, going into details, and, among other evidences in the trials, spread before the court and jury. There they were questioned by a judge in front of a jury, which decided whether or not to indict the accused on charges of witchcraft.

The trials were then held in the Salem courthouse which was located in the center of Washington Street about feet south of Lynde Street, opposite of where the Masonic Temple now stands.

This courthouse was torn down in but a plaque dedicated to the courthouse can still be seen today on the wall of the Masonic Temple on Washington Street. The victims were hanged by the neck by a rope tied to a tree. Contrary to popular belief, none of the victims were burned at the stake.