Thomas Trial

Females in the 1692-1693 were one of the largest groups accused of being part of the Salem Witch Trials. According to Washington State University, “As events unfolded, 185 people were accused at Salem, 141 women and 44 men. Of that number, 52 women and 7 men were tried; 26 women and 5 men were convicted; and 14 women and 5 men were executed, the last group on September 22, 1692.”(Campbell 1) this statistic shows that women were more likely to have been accused of being a Witch. Women were thought to be much lesser than men and weren't

To illustrate, a passage from John Demos’ “Underlying Themes in the Witchcraft of 17th Century New England” states the gender and age range of the accused witches and accusers (Document 5). Furthermore, the document provides proof of the overwhelming amount of widowed, married, and single women, specifically twenty-nine single, sixty-one married, and twenty widowed women. Evidence reveals that mainly women were targeted in the accusations, which suggests that this chaos was brewed out of jealousy and spite. Equally important, the names of the people who were killed throughout the Salem Witchcraft hangings and the dates the deaths occurred are listed in the Salem Court Records (Document 2). Of all the names listed, most were women, revealing that socially, men were not seen as the threat, even though men have always come off as more dominant than women. Names listed also reveal that some of the people were from the same family, confirming that the accusers could have had a vendetta against specific families. From the evidence in these two documents, it can be concluded that there was a social motive for the hysteria of the Salem Witch

Firstly, the conflicts were caused by the factors of gender, age, and marital status. When looking at the total number of men and women who were hanged, the women far outnumbered the men, 13 women to 7 men (Source A). Of the 24 males who were accused of witchcraft, 15 were married, while of the 110 females accused, 61 were married. This shows that the number of females accused outnumbered the men and the majority of those accused were married. Of the male accusers, all 5 were single, ranging from the ages of 11-20, whereas off the 29 females accusers, 23 were single (the other 6 were married). The ages of the accusers ranged from under 11 to over 21, with the majority being 16-20 years of age. There is a distinct pattern that stands out in the accused and the accusers. The accused were mainly

The Salem Witch Trials were a dark part of American History that we learn about today. The question always remains as to why this hysteria of witchcraft outbreak happened. How the outbreak of accusations started is something that is speculated to be from jealousy, a disease caused by a rye poisoning, or from a psychogenic disease. We should also be asked what were the roles of men and women in these trials, why was it mainly women accused, why was it only men holding the trials? The gender roles in these trials were based upon the belief that women were somehow still incapable to handle such things and were not made to do such things. Yet when young girls accused grown women of acts of witchcraft, unless a man defended that woman, they could do nothing but let the men prosecute them for something they never did. Men ran everything in towns, because that was the norm for this time period. So, what could women do to defend themselves? They had no power to fend against the men who ran everything in their society.

The group of people that thought all the victims were men were inevitably wrong. Out of the nineteen people who were lynched in Salem, four of them were males. One of those men was a minister who was Harvard educated. In fact, there was an abundance of accused witches with the youngest one being a five-year-old. She spent most of 1692 in manacles being interrogated which caused her to later be diagnosed as insane. In this time, women did not incriminate their husbands, while the husbands would accuse their wife of being witches without hesitation. It was more difficult to accuse a man of being a wizard because you had to have concrete material against him. The Harvard

The author’s purpose in writing this article was to inform the reader of the rise and decline of witch prosecutions, along with their lasting effects on the society. The author’s central argument is that historians do not usually focus on

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

Salem Witch Trials was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in the Salem Village of the 17th century New England. The trials caused executions of many people, mostly women. Salem Witch Trials exposed the different gender roles during the seventeenth century. Women were supposed to take on “wifely duties” such as, be mothers and housewives. Women were taught to follow the men. There were strict religious norms during the seventeenth century. There was rigid moral code believed that God would punish sinful behavior. Those who were under the covenant by the church of the Salem Village believed that Satan would select those to fulfill his work and those who followed Satan were considered witches. Witchcraft was considered a punishable crime. Salem Witch Trials revealed that gender played a role for the accused and accusers. The trials also revealed that one’s relationship with God will set deliverance from Satan’s attacks. Salem Witch Trials demonstrated how rumors, jealousy, and the idea of male dominance affected people of the Salem Village.

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.

The book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, tells of Native American life on the reservation. In the story “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” symbolism is used to echo how Native Americans were mistreated by the United States government. Still to this day Native Americans are forced to live on reservations which were originally prisoner of war camps. Alexie uses the symbolism of Thomas Builds-the-Fire’s conviction to show how Native Americans pay the price for injustices committed by the United States of America.

Feminism has been a topic that is often side-by-side in the discussion of witchcraft, surrounding Salem, Essex County, or the greater regions of colonial New England. Women were persecuted, and undermined by the minds of the colonial men, came from ideals taken from both books. Even though Norton’s narrative represents feminist ideals, her narrative supports men that were accused. She made this known when she discusses the importance of the not before mentioned five men that were executed in Essex County. She acknowledges them in her lecture on February 9th, 2015, as “The men often left out of the story, as most historians tend to focus on the women that were murdered.” The conflict between both books are fought over the broad ideas of feminism in the seventeenth century. Both authors clearly state their beliefs, but only one in successful in presenting pure evidence to back their interpretation.

A: To what extent can we say that religious and gender prejudice were major factors that caused the Salem Witch Trials? The Salem Witch Trials was the time period in which the community tried and burned women that were accused of practicing witchcraft. The trials could easily be blamed on the fear of the new type of ‘religion’. The witch trials consisted of mostly only women being tried and accused, it also started with a native american woman. The trials have been perceived as a infamous time in American history because they slaughtered 20 young women, while 200 of them were still accused (Christine Leigh Heyrman). However to an extent we could say that religious and gender prejudice was a major factor of the Salem Witch Trials.

Society mistreated most women in Salem 1692. Being a female means she is automatically open to abuse by men and even other women who saw themselves as being above you.

Throughout the witch hunts, women were the primary target; most victims being midwives, native healers, single women who lived alone, people against whom neighbors had a grudge or practitioners of ancient pagan rituals. Although not all were women, 75 to 90% of accused witches were in fact women (Levack,. p. 124), forcing one to question the affects of the harsh portrayal of women being placed on women.

There are myriads of differences when it comes to gender within the trial of Thomas and Jane Weir. Women were usually domestic workers within the household and society, doing jobs such as child-rearing, weaving, and roles of mother, sister, daughter, wife and caretaker in the community. Men were either seen as the husbands of the female witchcraft users or someone of an intense authority figure. “Sir Andrew Ramsay, Lord Abbotshall then Provost of Edinburgh” were all men with high statuses within the community in Edinburgh in which Thomas lived. Women during the time of witchcraft in Scotland came to be connected with the Devil by possession . Most men did not have carnal knowledge of the work of the Devil himself but rather with a female witch who has the connection to the Devil. Since women were seen as the prominent members of the witchcraft community, there can possibly be multiple differences between the testimony and charges laid against Jane and Thomas Weir. Thomas was charged with incest, adultery, fornications and bestiality because he laid with his sister and multiple people within the community in which he lives. His sister, Jane, was connected in the incest with her brother, and was also thoroughly prosecuted for sorcery which has an equal if not worse punishment than Thomas’ crimes. “She is also [indicted] of [Sorceries] committed by her when she lived and [kept] a school at Dalkeith. That she took employment from a Woman to speak