Salem Witch Hysteria And Trials

Witch trials were a big part of the United States’ history. During the witch trials violence was more abundant than usual. They really started getting “popular” in the late 1600’s. The violence of the trials impacted people’s lives so heavily back then. By looking at witch trials, we can see the vicious impact it had, which most readers don’t see; this is important because it shows that violence was and is always the answer. People were most commonly tortured by stoning, being burned alive, and by placing heavy rocks on top of one’s body until they died. Women and, sometimes, men went into hiding and feared for their children and their own lives. Puritans wanted to please God and they thought killing witches, who were thought to be satanic, would be a good deed. Cotton Mather was one of those Puritans. Violence was a public practice and people would often come out with their kids and watch the trials so everyone became desensitized, for a period of time, but it also struck fear into the people who were “not doing what they were supposed to do”, according to the Puritans, or who were mentally disabled.

In this primary document, Cotton Mather, a Puritan theologian, writes about his fears of losing the entire country to the devil and his minions as the Christian religion, in his mind, is being slowly eradicated from the entire country due to witchcraft. In 1693 Cotton Mather wrote a literary piece called The Wonders of the Invisible World a year after questionable events in defense of the persecutions of those accused and convicted in Salem for witchcraft.

Puritans settled in the Massachusetts town of Salem in 1630, with their leader John Winthrop. Winthrop claimed that Salem would be “As a City Upon a Hill,” meaning that the Puritans coming to the New World would set a religious and civilized example among other colonies. However, this wasn’t the case. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations and persecutions due to what was thought to be witchcraft among Salem townspeople. King Philip’s War played a role in the trials. It caused regional mass hysteria which lead to the accusing of witches in Salem. Samuel Parris was the local preacher of Salem and in 1691 he started preaching about the devil and focused more on hell instead of more positive things which also played a role in the crafting of the witch trials. Rich versus poor feuds, the desire to feel around and inspect women, and easily being able to have someone punished by accusing them of being a witch, fueled and motivated the Witch Trials of Salem in 1692.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 took place in the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts. Cotton Mather, a clergyman in Salem, emerged throughout the course of the trials as a pillar of support and, ultimately, as a witch-hunter. However, his motives at the beginning of the trials were driven by his Puritanical reasoning which holds a strong belief in Biblical Law. Cotton Mather used his Puritanical faith to find reasoning in God that allowed the Salem Witch Trials to occur.

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.

Cotton Mather is one of the best known Puritan writers for his work The Wonders of the Invisible World. Mather gives the outside world a glimpse into what the Salem Witch trials were like and how they conducted their way of figuring out who was a witch in their colony. The Wonders of the invisible world brought the audiences into the firsthand experience of a trial and made them experience it from the viewpoint of one of the citizens of that colony. Mather specifically focuses on the trial of Martha Carrier in his work. Mather discusses her trial and how she is being accuses by Benjamin Abbot of being a witch and giving his own testimony. In order to stay alive characters must go along with the horrible assumption that some people are witches even if they do not believe it just to stay alive. Events that others see as natural occurrences are being looked at as acts of Satan by the people in Mather’s work. neighbors are turning on each other because they seek something that the other has and can not find another way to get the piece of land or cattle that they desire.

For its witnesses, the Salem Witch Trials confirmed the reality of the invisible world of spirits. The catalyst was described as a man who had an interest in the actions of Satan. That man is Cotton Mather. Mather was born into a family of ministers, including Reverend John Cotton. Mather preached his first sermon as a teenager and was ordained in his early twenties. Cotton Mather is known for his unnecessary involvement with the Salem Witch Trials. With the assistance of Cotton Mather’s novel, The Wonders of the Invisible World, the reader assumes Mather’s role in the witch hunt was excessive due to the result of his involvement. In his article, “An Unholy Mess,” Anthony Brandt argues that Cotton Mather’s contribution to society is greater than his infamous reputation. Also, according to Anthony Brandt, Mather’s influence in the world is larger than the Salem Witch Trials. Despite Anthony Brandt’s argument, Cotton Mather’s infamous reputation as a false prophet ultimately provoked the Salem Trials.

In Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World, he explores the evidence presented at the Salem witch trial of Martha Carrier. Mather explains the spectral evidence presented at the trial as strange phenomena worked by the devil, when in reality it is simply the exploitation and fear that brewed underneath the surface colonial America.

The myths surrounding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 spike the interest of historians and non-academics alike. These trials have been the concern of different historical articles, novels, plays, films, and even religious debates. One issue that is certain, is the hysteria of the community overwhelmed Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. A particular primary source, “Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (1693)” by Cotton Mather, suggests that the actions brought forth provided proof of satanic work. Even though Mather was a contemporary observer, Mather fails to analyze the importance of the real contemporary issues displayed during the time of the trials. Furthermore, historian Kyle Koehler, takes a different approach in his review,

These days, dressing up like a witch for Halloween is very normal. The year was 1962 when Salem Massachusetts was forever cemented in history because of the Salem witch trials. People accused of witch craft were imprisoned or hung and in one occasion a person was pressed to death. I can only imagine what the people of Salem were going through those days. There was a fear in the entire town because you couldn’t trust anyone. It became neighbor against neighbor as the small town was torn apart and people didn’t know who to trust. One of the most important persons from these times was Cotton Mather. He was an accomplished author, researcher, and preacher who worker under his father at Boston’s North Church. In “From the Wonders of the Invisible World” Mather writes about the Salem Witch Trials and what happened when some people recanted their testimony of being witches.

A quote from the King James Bible, Exodus 22:18, states that “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Doc A). Puritans, who made up the majority of the Massachusetts colony, were fundamentalists. Fundamentalists believed that everything the Bible said must be followed to the letter. When people were being accused of witchcraft and were found guilty, the Puritans sent them to Gallows Hill to be hanged, because the Bible said to kill witches. Respected church officials like Cotton Mather, who was a respected minister and intellectual, wrote, “Go tell mankind, that there are devils and witches” is a quote from one of his written works (Doc C). There were many other powerful leaders like Cotton Mather who were tied to the church and could spread word of the ‘evil sorcery’. Again, the fundamentalist Puritans obeyed the religious leaders because they were God’s messengers, and God’s word was the law. A large part of the Massachusetts colony life was religious belief, and the rush of the Salem Witchcraft trials was largely because of it. However, there was one more thing that caused the Salem Witchcraft trials - personal relationships between two families and the two sides of the

Mather was well versed in the theology of his church, so much so he was hired by his father, Increase Mather, as an assistant minister only due to Cottons stuttering problem because he would not be able to preach for hours at a time to the people of Salem. The expert knowledge of the Devil however gained him a large audience following, as they looked to him for guidance and answers to stay clear of any sin that roamed Salem “Satan stalked New England as a dog, a horse, and a black-skinned man.” (Trigg 55) People of Salem were very suspicious of who they associated as people believed that Satan was freely roaming New England taking any shape and form. They truly believed living and breathing creatures such as dogs, horses and black-skinned humans could be disguised as the Devil. People took very safe precautions in speaking to one another, as people of Salem would cry witchcraft on neighbors if they did not like them or disagreed with them over certain

      Cotton Mather, in his The Wonders of the Invisible World, preserved for posterity a very dark period in Puritanical American society through his account of the Salem witch trials in 1692. His description is immediately recognizable as being of the same viewpoint as those who were swept up in the hysteria of the moment. Mather viewed Salem as a battleground between the devil and the Puritans. "The New Englanders are a people of God settled in those which were once the devil's territories. . . . The devil thus irritated, immediately tried all sorts of methods to overturn this poor plantation" (Mather 421). Here Mather is alluding to the Native Americans as being a people

The Salem Witch trials started in 1642 over the possible witchery of the children in a Massachusett town called Salem. It all started with children under the care of Parris begin to scream wildly. When a doctor came to check on the children his answer was “ They are bewitched.” Over time more children begin to show the same symptoms and as a result the trials begin to stop this. Salem Witch Trials ended with 19 hanged and over 150 accused of bewitching the children. Abigail Williams is the most to blame for the Salem Witch Trials, because of causing Hysteria, Personal goals or desires, and responsible for the deaths.

Many historians who were writing at this time must have had the belief in both witchcraft and the Devil, which would explain why they believed that this was a logical and acceptable explanation as to why the Witch Trials occurred. This theory is ultimately the result of the personal context of historians, which has affected how this event was constructed and recorded. One historian in particular, Cotton Mather, a Puritan Minister, was also under the impression that the cause of the Witch Trials came down to the existence of the Devil and witchcraft. He, like many others, could not find a reasonable explanation for the behaviour of the afflicted girls and came to the conclusion that, “Some scores of people, first about Salem, the centre and first-born of all towns in the colony, and afterwards in several other places, were arrested with many preternatural vexations upon their bodies, and a variety of cruel torments, which were evidently inflicted from the daemons of the invisible world....”