Bewitchment In Salem

Salem Village was one of many non-urban inhabitants. They were looked upon as country folk because of their interests and beliefs in the church and growing tobacco to survive in this new land. There was not much for children to do except go to church, work on the fields, or go to school. You can imagine how bored these children can get. In such a secluded lifestyle as this, you would be a crazy person if you were at all different, and this episode would be so different that it would be traumatic to the people of this small village. Traumatic as it was, I believe the people just did not know how to react in such a situation.

In Richard GodBeers novel “Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692” he tells of a witch trial that took place in Stamford Connecticut in 1692. GodBeer starts readers off with the setting taking place in Daniel and Abigail Wescots household. He tells of a dilemma going on in the household pertaining to their servant; Katherine Branch. She was experiencing hallucinated fits that caused her to convulse and scream in pain. The ongoing fits led the Wescot’s and other citizens of Stamford into believing the fits were caused by bewitchment. The suspicion then leads Katherine Branch to tell of visitations from the devil in numerous forms, as well as being tormented by witches. She accuses Elizabeth Clawson, Mercy Disborough, Goody Miller, Mary Staples, and Hannah Harvey as the individuals visiting her and tormenting her in her hallucinations. The accusation then led to a witch hunt trial resulting in the arrestment of all the women Katherine had named. Kate’s accusations led citizens of Stamford to agree with her statements due to past confrontations with any of the accused individuals. The trial resulted in all women being found innocent or given their freedom due to insufficient evidence. The witch hunt trial of Stamford Connecticut corresponded with the infamous witch hunt that took place in Salem Massachusetts in the year 1692. Salem’s trial was ignited by a group of girls whom also fell into convulsions and fits just as

Stacy Schiff’s national bestseller The Witches highlights the suspicions, betrayals and hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. In 1692, the commonwealth of Massachusetts executed five men, fourteen women, and two dogs for witchcraft. One might wonder how and why this Puritan colony became so caught up in this witch frenzy. In this book she is able to paint a clear picture of the panic that occurred among the people of Salem.

When the girls had fits of hysteria ?seizures, trance-like states, and sacrilegious screaming ?Parris called upon his colleagues to exorcise the demons that possessed the girls. Ministers from nearby communities met in Salem Village 懀o lead a public day of fasting and prayer, and to question the afflicted girls about what had caused their disturbing behavior?(8). Occasionally, the girls went mute or blind, choked, had muscle spasms, and had visions of frightening spirits. They claimed that evil spirits 'ursued them, threatening, biting, pinching, pricking, and performing other bodily injuries?(8). After that, public concern became mass hysteria. Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, were arrested and tried. Only Tituba confessed to signing the Devil book.

According to Document B, 23 of the 29 accusers were under the age of 21. Due to Puritan beliefs, teenage girls had to stay home and complete chores. According to Evidence Set C, two of the girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, were fed up with it. They started talking to a slave by the name, “Tituba”. Tituba told the girls magical stories and played fortune-telling games with them. The girls began to feel guilty that they went against their religion, so they began accusing Tituba of being a witch. This made the girls feel less guilty, as what they were accusing Tituba of doing was much worse than what they were doing. Other girls from around the village began to join them in accusing outcasts. According to Document D, the girls enjoyed acting bewitched. Their acting certainly tricked the adults. According to Document C, the girls would act bewitched every time the person accused would make a movement such as shake their head, or move their eyes.

I chose to read In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 for my book review. I chose this book because I have always been fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials and I wanted to learn more information about the trials. The author of this book was Mary Beth Norton, Norton is a professor at Cornell University and from reading her biography on the Cornell website I could tell that she was well versed in the Salem Witch Trials. Norton wrote In the Devil’s Snare in 2002; in the book’s introduction Norton states that her narrative “builds on the research and interpretations advanced in prior works on Salem; at the same time it disagrees with many aspects of those interpretations.” Norton also goes into detail to explain the

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. Marc Aronson. (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, November 1, 2003. 272.)

These girls did not all show “symptoms” at one time. The first girl to start experiencing symptoms was Betty Parris. She was followed by Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis (History of Massachusetts). These girls were throwing tantrums, hiding under furniture and contorting to pain. Since panic and fear set in, witchcraft was the easy choice to make. In today’s medical science, these girls would have been diagnosed with boredom or epilepsy. Although at the time the cause was unknown, these symptoms were probably brought on from eating rye infected with fungus. The three victims were not the only ones accused. There were numerous cases of scapegoating running prevalent.

Elizabeth Parris and Abagail Williams, the pastor’s daughter and niece respectively, were two of the six young ladies that Tituba watch over. In the beginning, Tituba would perform witchcraft in an attempt to lure the girls into witchcraft but the girls rejected Tituba’s actions. Eventually, the girls would begin to act out and were proclaimed to have become bewitched. After Parris discovered that his girls’ actions were not of physical nor mental disease and of spiritual doings, an aunt of one of the afflicted girls used Tituba to experiment using a urine-cake (eventually this aunt would be scorned for practicing counter magic) to determine who bewitched the young girls. When the girls cried out that it was Tituba’s doing and made several accusations of her acts of witchcraft, Tituba rejected all allegations. In theory, Tituba made herself out as a witch. In the end of her trial, Tituba would confess to practicing witchcraft. She confessed that she had signed the Devil’s book along with eight other witches including Goody Osborne and Sarah Good, as well as seeing the Devil various times in the form of a tall man, a hog, cats, a great black dog, and wolves and birds. Sarah Good and Goody Osbourne worked in command of Tituba taking the Devil’s orders to terrorize the young women of the household by pinching, harming, and performing acts of levitation. Tituba being the first to

The witch trials began when nine girls, known as the afflicted girls, experienced strange symptoms. In the beginning, there were only five afflicted girls: Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott, and Mercy Lewis. Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Booth later began experiencing the symptoms, which involved strange fits, irregular body contortions, and fevers. Although the symptoms seem phenomenal, modern theories suggest that the children were merely bored, abused, or had epilepsy, a mental illness, or a disease that was obtained from eating rye bread infected with a fungus. Reverend Samuel Parris, Betty Parris’ father, asked Dr. William Griggs to deduce the problem, and Dr. Griggs concluded that they were bewitched. The group of girls accused three women of causing their unnatural behaviors: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, a slave owned by Samuel Parris. The women were easy targets for the girls because they were outcasts (Brooks). Sarah Good was a beggar, Sarah

Accusations had been made among the townspeople. Three women accused by the girls of bewitching the,

History shows the remarkable things that society has done over the years, it also shows where society failed and mistakes were made. This is the case of the Salem Witch Trials. The people of Salem experienced an event that would change them and the course of this country forever. The mass hysteria and rampant paranoia that swept New England in 1692, is what turned neighbor against neighbor. The Salem villagers would accuse one another of casting spells, consorting with the devil, and being witches, all of which was a punishable crime in the 17th century. ("Search")

The distinction between good and evil is a very abstract one and can change with the passing of time. According to Ian A. McFarland from the Faculty of Divinity of University of Cambridge, evil is: “that which is against the good”, while good is “identified with God’s will”. Most people would define good and evil in a very subjective way according to their own likes and dislikes. Nobody likes pain, arrogance, hatred, or the unknown, therefore they are all considered evil. On the other hand, good is anything that is beneficial to us, or something we like. We all like comfort, empathy, love, and wisdom thus these are all considered good things. However, it is evident that one cannot exist without the other. Without pain we wouldn’t know

After the doctor’s analysis, the townspeople then gathered up all of the girls with the symptoms. The collected girls accused three women: Sarah Good, an odd homeless woman who lived the streets of Salem Village, Sarah Osborne, who had married her servant and rarely attended the church meetings, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados who was in service of Reverend Samuel Parris. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne denied the accusations, while Tituba confessed, and claimed there were multiple other witches working by her side in Salem.

A good example was with Adam and Eve being punished for the sin of pride,