Colonel Pyncheon: Summary

From the time of the 1690’s the entirety of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. “The Puritan lifestyle was restrained and rigid: People were expected to work hard and repress their emotions or opinions. Individual differences were frowned upon.” (Salem Witch Trials, The World Behind the Hysteria). These people believed that doing anything sinful would result in punishment from God. Just as much as they believed in God, they also believed in the Devil. Keeping up with the Puritan code, it led to the first women being accused of witchcraft. They were viewed as pariahs, and seen differently. Had the Puritan government let the afflicted defend themselves, not be so dependent on religion, not investigating the facts or scrutinize the trials the killing of many could have been prevented. The hangings from the trials would ultimately be the last in America.

Imagine living in a household in Salem, Massachusetts. It is the year 1692 and you are a young female, around the age of 20. Now while a mass of events involving witch hunts are happening, everyone around you is panicking, accusing your friends, family and finally you of witchcraft, whether it was true or not that you had been practicing such sorcery. You confess anyways, being terrified, what happens to you next? The Salem Witch Trials should have been taken care of in a different way. The Salem Witch Trials a way to suppress people from exposing the truth behind the Government. The Trials were unfair, the Government and the townspeople were corrupt, and they had stress from outer threats surrounding the village.

“THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE.” (Document A, Exodus 22:18 KJV Bible) The Salem Witch Trial Hysteria started on June 10 and lasted until September 22, 1692. During this time 19 men and women were hanged for witchcraft, furthermore, even one man was pressed to death with stones just trying to get him to testify. The hysteria started with two very young girls, Betty Parris, age nine, and her eleven-year-old cousin Abigail Williams. (Stated in Background essay) There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trial hysteria. These reasons were the two young girls mentioned before, Ergotism, and Puritan beliefs.

The Salem Witch Trials, also know as the Salem Witchcraft Trials were legal proceedings which took place of course in the Salem Village of Massachusetts. These trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in the village, claimed to be possessed by the devil accusing several local women of practicing the craft. Victims were prosecuted and executed for reputedly practicing witchcraft, when little to no evidence of the act itself existed. This historical period resulted in twenty people, mostly women, being hung for black magic conspiracies. Neighbors accused neighbors; even church members accused other church members of witchcraft. Others were accused, but fled the area before they could be arrested. During this time

Nineteen were hung, one was pressed and tortured to death, hundreds were imprisoned, and five had died while waiting to be trialed in prison. They were just a victim of being someone’s personal vendetta. The witch trials were revolved around a group of women that were said to of witnessed witchcraft. These young women were thirsting after their enemies to get the type of justice they thought to believe was reasonable for things certain people had done in the past that enraged them. Witch hunts like these root back far, all the way back to New England. During the 17th century europe was swarmed with accusations of

The month of August five more were hanged, and then in September eight were hanged(Blumberg). Giles corey was pressed to death with stones for not telling the court about other people being witches(Blumberg). People started to accused people of being a witch as a tool of vengeance(Blumberg). And someone accused two dogs of being witches(Blumberg). It lasted from June until September seven died in jail thirteen women and five men were killed(Blumberg). There was twenty killed and 100s jailed for witchcraft(Blumberg). It finally end in 1693, and the court finally ruled the court hearing during the witch trials were

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was first brought about as a game by young adolescent girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts. The young girls had falsely claimed they were possessed by devilish beings which were innocent men and women of Salem Village causing an uproar of witchcraft in their village. I believe the great hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials was solely out of boredom, meaning it was a break from the norm and caused excitement quite easily. Those who were accused went to “trial” but given the behavior of the young girls who had claimed to be possessed made it impossible to walk free. Those who went to trial were hanged at the hanging tree for the practice of witchcraft whether there was proof or not.

“And now Nineteen persons having been hang 'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear 'd; about Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one Executed; above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more accused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a period.”("The Salem Witch Trials, 1692." )

The trials were not only unfair but also unjust. The trials were extremely unfair to where you couldn’t fight back and or even attempt to win, in Salem if you were accused as a witch they would put you directly into jail and research you and even if there is a little bit of a witch like characteristics, you would be sent immediately to death. Where as in the Red Scare if you were accused of communism you would be sent directly to jail and await your trial. If you were found to be a communist you would be spending many days in jail and or worst: death.

These individuals may or may not have been witches, yet the jury many times chose to hang any accused individuals with or without reasonable cause. Today, much like during the Witch Trials, people are sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Of course, many guilty people are sent to prison and rightfully so, but sometimes good lawyers are able to convince the jury unjustly sending innocent individuals to a life in prison. Though, Americans are not scared of being sent to jail for witchery, they are scared of being in the wrong place at the wrong time due to the fear of governmental polices.

Neighbors accused neighbors of witchcraft, and the fright was mounting. (Sutter par. 4) The accused were mostly women, and to make them confess, different methods of torture were used. The confessions and trials of the accused witches were nonsense. Often, torture would continue until the victim had no choice but to confess of being a witch, and most of the confessions were forced. Trials and hangings continued and by the early autumn of 1692, doubts were developing as to how so many respectable people could be guilty. The educated elite of the colony began efforts to end the witch-hunting hysteria that had enveloped Salem. Increase Mather then published a work entitled Cases of Conscience, which argues that it were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned. This urged the court to exclude spectral evidence. With spectral evidence not permitted, the remaining trials ended in acquittals and all the convicted and accused witches were let out of jail in May of 1693. By the time the whole witchcraft incident ended, nineteen convicted witches were hanged, at least four accused witches had died in prison, and one man, Giles Corey, had been pressed to death under rocks. About one to two hundred other people were arrested and imprisoned on witchcraft charges. The witchcraft accusations in Salem had taken the lives of at least twenty-four people.

This started the hysterical beginning of the Salem Witch trials, which resulted in many women, men, and children being accused of practicing witchcraft. Out of the one hundred fifty people accused in Salem, twenty of them were executed as witches, while others rotted away and died in jail. The people of Salem did not discriminate who they executed or who they sent to jail so the result was a diverse range of citizens being accused.

Hundreds had already been convicted and/ or hung. The killings were unnecessary and inhumane. The citizens that were accused had two options to choose from. They could plead guilty to witchcraft or they could plead innocent. Most of the accused choose to plead guilty whether they truly were because most of them landed in jail.

According to the text of this chapter, the grandson of Colonel Pyhcheon who named Gervayse Pyncheon, he lived in Europe for a long time when he was young and returned to England later. He wishes to improve the economic conditions of his family by looking for the secrets of a large area of land in Maine that Colonel Pyncheon acquired for their family. In order to satisfy this desire, Gervayse believes that the younger Maule is the only person who is in charge of the relational documents, data, and where the missing deed are, because he is a member Maule family, so he calling the younger Maule to his house and asked for his help. For the same reason, the younger Maule thinks this is a good opportunity to achieve his revenge to the Pyncheon family and he wonders to see his daughter, Alice Pyncheon. Although Gervayse thinks the younger Maule is a malicious person and he not willing the younger Maule to get close to his daughter, but he allows the younger Maule to close to Alice because of his aim to getting the land in Maine.

Tyagi stated on his website on witchcraft that up to 90% of the people executed probably were not witches. They were innocents who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or have some abnormal traits or habits, or even just being the wrong person could be a sufficient reason. It was not until after the Salem witch trials that people really started to see how foolish the entire witch-hunt was. By then, the entire witchcraft population had been either killed or scared off by the hunters.