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.

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.

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.

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

“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

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

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

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.

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.

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,

Between the 1300s and 1600s, there had been an uprising of witch accusations in Europe. When it finally died down, the craze soon followed into the colony of Massachusetts Bay. While in the 1690s, the Salem Witch Trials threatened New England’s freedom of religion and conservative beliefs; the evil entity as well threatened the country’s political and economic system, giving the government a reason to get involved. Because Massachusetts Bay was filled with religious refugees from England, a lot of tension formed between the colonies, England, and France. The King Williams War between France and the English colonies had put a tremendous strain on the Salem resources and its people. The colony was barely able to support itself and when more refugees fled to Salem from sounding areas, it came close to collapsing. Within the Puritan community, there had been a lot of hardship and strenuous issues mainly due to the shift between the people in society at the time. The Salem Witch Trials were not influenced by the presence of witchcraft but rather the exhausting hardships, the societal changes and the desire for complete control of the Puritan community.

The academic explanations of behavior as a cause of the events in Salem range from economic self-preservation of the accuser's parents to social anxiety concerning the Puritan leaders’ need to keep noncompliant women in a constant state of oppression. The Puritans viewed women as instruments of Satan because of Eve’s role in the first sin and thought it exemplified women’s inherent moral weakness. This could be one of the reasons they jumped to conclusions so easily and quickly that women and young girls were practicing witchcraft. Based on the historical context, the court’s reliance on the witness statements of the girls’ afflictions is perplexing (Ray 66).

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.

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.

Throughout the ages, humans have proven themselves countless times to be disloyal , selfish, and underhanded. It is with a degree of smugness and superiority that we often regard events such as the cruel, corrupt governmental systems of the past, abuses of the church, and mass murders in the name of religion. We tend to believe that we have made improvements in areas such the definition and protection of personal freedoms and we have faith that our journalists will uncover and reveal the very beginnings of corrupt governmental behaviors. Our society looks at both the present and the future with optimism and their unflagging confidence in our own ability to create something superior to those governments that have come before us. This causes us to neglect to face the corruption present in our own lives. Most people can recall when they first learned about the Salem Witch trials that occurred in 1693 because they were shocked and horrified that the townspeople let these events take place and spiral. What people do not realize is that they are like the townspeople in Salem, Massachusetts and similar injustices and dangerous abuses of power in the name of government and religion are happening right around them now. Lies, deceit and corruption, have always reverberated throughout American history and people need constant reminders to stay vigilant and aware. As a writer, I am able to reach a large audience with this reminder and I saw my play The Crucible “as a vehicle for