Escaping Salem Book Questions Answers

In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity.

In Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer examined the witchcraft hysteria which happened in Stamford, Connecticut as the hysteria escaped from Salem, Massachusetts and how the panic of witchcraft caused by Katherine Branch in June of 1692, intensified beliefs and readjustments in the legal system in the Puritans society in Stamford, Connecticut. Consequently, Katherine Branch’s accusations in the summer months of 1692, propelled the Puritan community of Stamford into the witchcraft hysteria, as she claimed to have been bewitched and through spectral visions blamed those of who bewitched her; be they human or animal. As such, Puritans

The ideals of the Arbella sermon do not seem to influence the judgments of the Suffolk County Court or the testimony against Bridget Bishop. Michael Johnson, author of Reading the American Past, notes that, "the court records of Suffolk County between 1671 and 1673...illustrate the New Englanders deviated from the highest aspirations of the Puritan founders and that courts did what they could to curb those deviations" (52-53). The theme of love in Winthrop's sermon must have gone unaffected judging by the type of cases in Suffolk County. For example, a wife was sentenced to be whipped ten times or pay a twenty Shilling fine to the County for striking her husband. For being drunk and abusing his wife, John Veering was punished by being whipped thirty times and humiliated by standing in the open marketplace with a sign across his chest declaring his guilt. It is obvious that the ideals of the Arbella sermon were not present in the case against Bridget Bishop. She was accused of witchcraft and eight days after her trial she was the first accused witch to be hung in Salem. Once again, love is not evident in either of the two works.

Your Excellency, Judge Danforth. You know, I have graduated from Harvard College and I am an expert in all things witchcraft and the supernatural. When I first arrived in Salem, I was tangled in a web of lies and a sheet of deception. In this trial, I believe that the accused are innocent people with good names. There is absolutely no mark upon my credibility and it is in my honest opinion that hysteria is running through Salem. Your Honour, Abigail Williams is nothing but a whore who wants to dance

By reading the two primary sources we are given a clear account of the Salem Witch Trials. John Hale describes the officials involved in the trial and those being prosecuted. Hale states, “I observed in the prosecution of these affairs, that there was in the Justices, Judges and others concerned, a conscientious endeavor to do the thing that was right.” he then later states “But what chiefly carried on this matter to such an height, was the increasing of confessors til they amounted to near about fifty.” While Governor phips goes into more detail in reference to the actual court proceedings, “When the Court came to sit at Salem in the County of Essex they convicted more than twenty persons of being guilty of witchcraft, some of the convicted were such as confessed their Guilt, the Court as I understand began their proceedings with the accusations of the afflicted and then went upon other humane evidences to strengthen that.” Only together the sources are able to give the reader the information needed, showing a disadvantage to using primary sources to evaluate history. These accounts illustrate comprehensively the picture of a court concerned with doing the right thing for their people and trying the accused in the way they see fit. They explain the use of accusations to testify against the convicted and

Godbeer refers to the situation with Katherine Branch. She was the servant of the Wescott family and began to get strange symptoms such as screaming from intense pain, or losing all of her mobility and not being able to move off of the ground. To check if she indeed was a witch, one of the neighbors tried “the sword test”. The sword test is supposed to be an accurate way to see whether a person is actually bewitched or not. To perform it, a person simply holds a sword above the person who is believed to be taken over by supernatural forces. If the person who is taken over by the supernatural forces laughs, then the sword test has indicated that they are indeed bewitched. Katherine Branch did indeed laugh when the sword was held above her head. However, some of the towns-people had already been having suspicions that Katherine had been faking her bewitching, so they decided to perform the test to Katherine in secret when she did not know. To confirm their suspicions, she did not laugh at all. Eventually Katherine Branch’s story ends with her accusing six women of witchcraft, but only two of them being acquitted. Godbeer uses this story as key evidence to show that the people were not so naïve in the seventeenth century. The courts were very careful as to who they were actually acquitting and random accusations of bewitching did not go through so

Currently the most widely accepted view is that the cause of the trials, was due to fraud and hysteria. It is rarely debated that it was the girl's diagnoses of being bewitched that was the catalyst for the trials so if it could be proved that the girls symptoms were fraudulent, then this could be easily be ascribed as the ‘cause' of the trials.

Although in this case (Kate Branch) the Enlightenment thought directly influenced the process of the trail, still the testimony of the women involved held less value than that of a man. Any women seen challenging the thought of a man was at a greater risk of being accused of witchcraft. Daniel Wescot and other men describe incidents involving Goody Disborough and Elizabeth Clawson. These events started with an argument between a man and a women; the man later accused the women of cursing livestock, children, or themselves by witchcraft. (Godbeer, 2005) The reason that women were accused was that they disagreed with a man’s point of view.

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.

I am writing this report today to explain the major reasons behind the horrific witchcraft trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in the years 1692 and 1693. For years this event has been ignored. However, after analyzing the evidence in this case, I have some startling news to share. First, I will share with you the various theories that make the most sense. Then I will explain what I believe caused the Salem community to respond in such a cruel and violent way.

He stooped down to pick up the rake or pitchfork to strike her, when she vanished.”2 The slave testified against her as a witch, and even though she was not convicted of witchcraft this earlier trial demonstrates that Bridget was previously suspected of witchcraft.

The conflict of the trials continued for months with no compromise in sight. The people of Salem needed to find more witches, so they used spectral evidence. If someone had a dream or vision of a certain person it was enough, and that person was accused as a witch (Fasting; Mather 74 80). Many people started to oppose these trials, and didn’t believe in spectral evidence, people opposed the witch trials, but they would say nothing because they may be the next one accused (Latson; Brooks). No one wanted to be accused, so they would do things to convince people that they were not witches. For example, people would put on a show at the trials of the witches (Kinchlow). Afflicted girls would have fits, and people would scream and yell at the accused. The trials were very strange, the judge and jury would act strange just like the people of Salem. The jury consisted of 12 men who decided the fate of the “witches” (Magoon 56; Roach 16). The judges were very lenient toward the people and didn’t really care what the accused had to say, if they listened to the accused they themselves may be accused. Five judges would hear the

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.

Your honor, today, it has been brought to my attention that Martha Carrier and her bewitched spirit has caused violence towards the witnesses’ lives in this vehement environment. Apparently the specter are “ruining” their lives, but if she really was, why are those victims still here? Wouldn’t they be dead by now from the revenge of her accusations if Martha was truly a witch? Her innocence is my responsibility and I will gladly guide you through their erroneous assumptions.

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. These trials began after a group of young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several other locals of witchcraft. After this broke out a special court convened in Salem to “hear and determine” (Mather 328)