The Salem Witch Trials

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.

Three of the most well known women accused during the Salem Witch Trials were Bridget Bishop, Tituba, and Sarah Good. Bridget Bishop's birthday is unknown, but it is estimated that she was born between 1632 and 1637. Bishop was married three different times, but she never had any children. Bridget Bishop was the first witch hanged in Salem. On April 18,1692, a warrant was issued for Bishop's arrest for witchcraft, but this was not the first time she was in trouble with the law. In 1690, Bridget Bishop was charged with witchcraft, but she was eventually cleared. Bishop also had past charges of violently fighting with her husband in public. These past charges did not help Bridget while she was being charged with witchcraft for a second time,

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.

They were expected to be confined to their households and to abide by the ruling and predominantly male authorities that governed them. In addition, they were expected to follow the strict Puritan behavior and role of a good wife or mother or they would be seen as outcasts. In refusing to not abide by the rules, they were likely to be accused of witchcraft. For instance, Bridget Bishop was known by her ,'red paragon bodice', a trademark she was infamous for which was breaking the traditional dull and modest colors that were worn in that era. John Cumon states "but s'd Bishop came in her Red paragon Bodys and the rest ofher cloathing that she then usually did ware, and I knowing of her well also the garb she did useto goe in. did clearely & plainely know her"(Bishop,TSB,12) emphasizing her dressing in his testimony to highlight

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.

According to Document C, during Bridget Bishop's examination the accusing girls’ fell into fits,looked tortured, and rolled up their eyes when Bridget Bishop, the accused witch, rolled her eyes. Document D, states that Charles Upham believed that both of the girls were lying about their testimony, and since we know the recorder of the transcript was,Samuel Parris, the father of one of the girls, I believe that Charles Upham conclusion is supported. Essentially, Charles Upham has a point because the girls were notorious for their acting, which then created a long line of liars throughout the

At a time when women were not even allowed to vote, verbal impudence towards a man was indecent. This made her seem to be a likely witch. Furthermore, Bridget Bishop was also a woman who had questionable behaviour. She was outspoken and attractive, or as Puritans saw her, offensive and seductive. Bishop’s outspokenness was used against her in the Salem witch trials. In the document titled “John Louder against Bridget Bishop,” Louder claimed that he and Bishop “often had differences for some years together” (Godbeer 113). Although Bishop maintained that she did not know Louder, squabbles had occurred between them. It is likely that because of Bishop’s argumentative conduct, she was perceived as a witch. Another example of an unorthodox woman accused of witchcraft is Dorcas Hoar. Hoar was a cunning woman who had a strong perception of the future. Having cunning abilities was taboo because it was impossible to know if one had acquired their powers from the Devil. Hoar had some medical experience and was able to identify illnesses, but instead she was observed as a witch. In the document titled “Mary Gage Against Dorcas Hoar and Others,” Gage imputes that Hoar foresaw her child’s

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.

“Then she turned up her eyes, and the eyes of the afflicted were turned up” (Document C). All of the “afflicted,” who were all female and under 21, dramatically copied Bridget Bishop, the accused witch, in order to cause the examiner to believe that the Bishop cursed them. “There can be no doubt that they [afflicted girls] were great actors” (Document D). Charles Upham, the author of this statement, believes that the girls in Bishop’s trial and all other trials were lying to the judge and the examiner in order to possibly gain power in society, take revenge, or out of pure jealousy. Upham, unlike the girls in the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria, is very reliable since he is a known historian and former mayor of

Among the accused were two very influential women in the church, Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse. Another of the accused was the four year old daughter of Sarah Good. After Tituba’s “confession” the Village of Salem went into a state of panic, the new Prime Minister William Phips order that a special Court of Oyer and Terminer(hear and decide) the the witch cases of Salem. Bridget Bishop was the first to be condemned on July 2 and was hung soon thereafter.

After covering 17th century colonial America in class, focusing on the New England settlements, I decided that the subject matter I wanted to learn more about was the events surrounding witchcraft in Salem and other New England colonies. In the historical novel The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, author Carol F. Karlsen focuses on the the accused female “witch” in colonial New England and discusses a broad array of themes regarding the role and position of women in Puritan society. Carol F. Karlsen is currently a professor in the history department at the University of Michigan, she specializes in American Women and early social and cultural studies; Karlsen received her Ph D. from Yale University in 1980.

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

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.

The witchcraft hysteria of 1692 happened within the Puritan colony known as Salem Massachusetts. It’s important to know that the belief in witchcraft was carried over from their home country, England. In England, an act of witchcraft was considered treason against the Church of England, not to mention the king, who was the head of the church, so if one was to turn their back on the church also meant going against the king. Many acts against witchcraft were passed, the one dated closest to the Salem witch trials was the Witchcraft Act of 1604 that moved trials of the supposed witches from churches to actual courts. The fact that they were once held in churches rather than courts seems like a biased situation to me. The puritans were afraid of witchcraft so having the church conduct the trials of said witches could only mean that death was certain. The puritan faith to my understanding was a tough faith to follow, especially for women.

During the late 1600’s many women and few men were accused of practicing witchcraft in a small farming town known as Salem Village. Salem Village belonged to a very strict religion also known as Puritanism,the Puritan religion had no restraint that the slightest mistake during the Salem hysteria period could result in the farmers who met in the town hall gossiping about maybe your absence at church, and you were suspected to be a witch.