Bridget Bishop: Hero Or Villain?

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of prosecutions of people who were accused of acts of witchcraft or of being a witch in Salem, Massachusetts through the time period of February 1692 through May 1693. This was a dark time in history as more than 200 prosecutions took place and at least 20 people were killed during this time of fear and hysteria. The accusations began as three girls Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne were accused of witchcraft from other young girls in the community. During this time period, fear of the Devil was common as people in Salem were very devoted to their religion and religious practices. As one of the accused girls, Tituba, confessed to working for the Devil and admitting to being a witch, this caused panic and hysteria as a massive witch hunt took place to find more of these witches. This confession was the main reason behind months and months of fear and mass panic as it triggered more accusations.

Mary Warren, a young woman living in Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, shows no exception to differing viewpoints. Throughout The Crucible, in which Mary Warren is a character, the very children whom the town considers holy, appear also to perpetrate the vicious crime of murder through false allegations of witchcraft. Unable to recognize the children’s crime because of their innocent appearance, citizens of Salem conduct dozens of

The Salem witch trials were a dark time in American history. It all started when Reverend Parris’ daughter and niece were acting strangely after spending time with Parris’ slave Tituba. For example, “They were believed to have danced a black magic dance in the nearby woods. Several of the girls would fall to the floor and scream hysterically” (“Witchcraft in Salem”). Parris then believed that Tituba along with two other women had bewitched his daughter and niece, thus starting the witch hunt.

Beginning in February 1692, the trials would go on for over a year. The first accusations took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, but would later also take place in Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover, which are also located in Massachusetts. It started with two young girls, who were also cousins. Abigail Williams (age 11) and Betty Parris (age 9). Betty was the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris, the local Puritan Minister. The girls started to throw fits, moved their bodies into unusual positions, and created unnatural sounds. Similar behavior occurred with another girl named Ann

Mather neglected to include Bridget Bishop’s side of the story on purpose. In 1962, Mather wrote a book titled The Wonders of the Invisible World. He wrote the document in an organized and professional manner so that it could be credited it as an official record and taken seriously. Inside of this book was a section titled “The Tryal of Bridget Bishop”, which specifies the events that took place during Bridget Bishop’s trial (Walker). Mather writes in detail about the case of Bridget Bishop in order to provide an account of the outrageous ways in which the Salem Witch Trials were conducted. Although Cotton Mather includes direct quotations from many different individuals and recounts their accusations with great care, he does not pay tribute to the words of Bridget Bishop herself during her own trial. In “The Tryal of Bridget Bishop”, Cotton Mather omitted Bishop’s own rebuttals and responses because he did not find it necessary to include them; he had all the evidence he needed to make the court system look guilty of injustice.

The Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to spread and public opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.

Salem Trials had killed 19 innocent people (Miller). Abigail Williams had started accusing people of talking to Lucifer himself. With that being said the town over reacted and threw a lot of people in jail. Because she did not like certain people she would call them devil worshipers causing them to get in serious trouble. The only way to get out was to

To begin, Bridget Bishop does not have any early history that she’s known for or been written about unless it was for her unusual ways. Witchcraft was viewed as a sin against God, the church, and the Crown, and thus was treated as a crime. It 's also important to remember that there is no evidence, other than spectral evidence and coerced confessions, that any of the accused actually did practice witchcraft (Ray). That being said, Bishop was the owner of two taverns, one in Salem Village and one in Salem Town. Bishop was a woman who got along with everyone, especially young men who patronized within the taverns. Bishop allowed these guests to be up late at night, entertaining them by drinking, gambling, and playing forbidden game such as the “shovel board” which people thought was connected to the devil and evil spirits because there have been reports that people disappeared in the evening after the taverns. The two taverns

The infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials began in early 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts. It all began as a childlike game of a fortune teller to discover the future of the young girls. The Salem Witchcraft Trials began January of 1692, when two girls, Betty Paris (nine) and Abigail Williams (seventeen) , began to have fits and convulsions. They were seen by doctor William Griggs, and the only reasonable diagnosis he knew of was bewitchment. By the end of February, two other girls, Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard, became ill. All together, there were 10 girls that were afflicted. Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard accused Sarah Good, Tituba, and Sarah Osborne 's spirits of hurting them. Tituba, Reverend Parris 's slave, had

The witch trials of Salem are often thought to be a hysteria that can be categorized as fake and sometimes “crazy”. The trials started by the belief of the supernatural and the practice of the devil’s ability to grant people the ability to hurt others. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams are the two young ladies that began the stereotypical beliefs in witchery. Williams and Parris started having hysterical fits and “uncontrollable” tantrums filled with screaming and crazy-like seizures. The result of all the insane opinions and conclusions to society were nineteen hangings, and one pressing. The Salem witch trials were a result of hasty decisions and the fear of God’s anger on the people of society. Today, the trials would be seen as crazy or fictional.

The story of Witch Hunt in Escaping Salem is not complicated. A maid named Kate was suddenly mad out of unknown reason and says she is bewtiched. Gradually the neighbors begin to believe that Kate was indeed bewitched. At the same time, Kate begins to name three suspected witch names, two of whom are tried. The villagers of the story do not play the role of fools. There is a sharp contrast between the scholars who graduated from famous universites and the ordinary villagers. For example, John Bishop was an educated and experienced man of God: he had graduated from Oxford in 1632 (26). However, he and his friend who is a pastor, believe that Kate is bewitched without doubt. This example shows the division of society at that

I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (48). With great concern for their own souls, not a singe soul openly doubts the accusations made by the group of young girls. Sent into complete hysteria, the people of Salem break into uncontrolled and irrational feelings of fear; a mere accusation from one of Abigail’s troop is enough to incarcerate and convict even the most well respected inhabitant of Salem. Moral values are lost amidst chaos, with people acting in a primitive way of self-survival.

The first thing that made Salem Witch Trials what they are today is when Abigail Williams and the other girls gathered in the woods. Then the kids were seen dancing and chanting to Tituba performing voodoo over the fire in attempts to kill Elizabeth Proctor. Proctor was the wife of Williams’ boss, John Proctor, with whom she had been having an affair. Tituba was asked to cast this charm by Abigail. The next day, Reverend Parris’ daughter, Elizabeth, and niece, Abigail

Besides being accused of witchcraft earlier Bishop also had some other characteristics that helped mark her as a witch. Karlsen points out that many witches, including Bishop, where accused of witchcraft only a year or two after they had become widows.3 The loss of her husband leaves Bishop without a male protector for a bit of time and allows for more accusations to come up against her. Bishop’s husbands passing gives her power that Puritan women don’t usually have. Bridget was granted the write, “for the sale of the land aforesaid unto Mr. Daniel Eppes.”4 This action shows how Bridget Bishop was not in the usual role of women because she was in control of some property and was able to use some power over that land. Women in Puritan society where expected to be married and to help their husbands. Karlsen points out that Puritan women where expected to fit into certain rolls in which they should be submissive.5 If a woman did not fit into the roll of the Puritan woman then she had a better chance of being accused of witchcraft. Bridget Bishop did not fit the perfect vision of women that the Puritans

During the Salem Witch Trials, Bridget Bishop was not granted a fair trial due to legal issues with the court proceedings. If this trial were to happen again in modern time the trail and out come would have been drastically different. The Invisible World by Cotton Mather is an excellent example of how Bridget Bishop was granted a fair trail during the Salem Witch Trials. Cotton Mather was a very well educated man and respected member of the community. He graduated from Harvard at 16 with his undergraduate degree and at 19 he completed his masters degree from Harvard. (Hudson 2015) Due to his education level he was a very creditable source and his opinions were looked at higher than the average citizen.