Women Accused Of Witchcraft During The Salem Witch Trials

Their private parts would be searched multiple times for the devil’s mark, or they would have to go through various tests to prove themselves guilty or innocent. If witch-hunters struggled to find obvious evidence of the “devil’s marks” on a suspect’s body, they might resort to the even more horrifying practice of “pricking”. It was noted in many witch hunting books that the devil’s marks were insensitive to pain and couldn’t bleed, so examiners would use specially designed needles to repeatedly stab and prick at the accused person’s flesh until they discovered a spot that produced the desired results. In England and Scotland, the torture was performed by well-paid professional “prickers”. It is hard to believe that many of them even used dulled needlepoints to identify fake witch’s marks. Along with pricking, the unfortunate suspect might also undergo the scratching test. Victims that suffered from the witch’s curse were told that they would find relief by scratching the accused person with their fingernails until they drew blood out of the accused. If their symptoms improved after clawing at the accused’s skin, it was seen as an evidence of

Furthermore, Witches were commonplace all over the world with different stigmas and stereotypes attached to them from each respectful culture that contained them (Girard, 1986). It was not until the rise of the Catholic Church that witches soon became associated with black magic and the Devil, leading to mass prosecutions. In the Middle Ages there was a popular belief that demons walked the Earth, leaving disease and devastation in their wake. The church, feeling threatened by the ideologies of Witchcraft, decided to link the old Pagan religion with that of Satanism (Levack, 1987). By doing so, they were able to gather favor from the masses by taking advantage of the fear of the Devil by the public and using it to prosecute those who

In 17th-century Colonial America, contact with the supernatural was considered part of everyday life; many people believed that evil spirits were present and active on Earth. This superstition emerged 15th century Europe and spread with the colonization of North American puritan colonies. Women were believed to be the most susceptible to demonic behavior; females were considered simple targets for Satan due to being viewed as the weaker sex physically, spiritually, and morally. Women who did not conform to the Puritan ideals at the time were usually ostracized, institutionalized, or brutally murdered. In 1692, thirteen women were famously put on trail for accusations of witchcraft; famously known as the Salem Witch Trails. Most of these women were put on trial and later burned to death for erratic and un-Godly behaviors, 78% of the people charged were women who were accused of doing devilish things such as; speaking out against church officials, being a financially wealthy widow, having pre marital sex, or just being too beautiful. According to Michael Coren’s Why Catholics are Right “five million women were killed by the Church as witches… witch hunts began in the sixteenth century in Europe and that between 30,000 and 50,000 men and women were burned to death for

The Puritans that comprised the colony of Salem, Massachusetts, were extremely religious, attributing biblical meaning to all aspects of their lives and being accustomed to personify the devil (Kocić, 2010). Specifically, church elders strongly believed that their congregation was superlatively righteous and for this reason the devil would try to target it with attacks in all forms, hence it was impressed upon the community to be vigilant against any signs of his presence. Such signs were subject to interpretation, yet they were generally concentrated on negative events which occurred unexplainably in the colony, for instance in the eventuality of a crop failure, stillborn children, or serious disease of an unknown nature. Common perception identified a witch as someone who bonded their body and

Under stress, people can easily forget parts of the Lord’s Prayer or the Commandments, yet this is used as a test to determine whether or not someone is a witch. These often unsound methods of justice, which are standard in Puritan society, leads to the accusation and hanging of many people that are actually innocent.

“The Devil in the Shape of a Woman” was an excellent book that focuses on the unjusts that have been done to women in the name of witchcraft in Salem, and many other areas as well. It goes over statistical data surrounding gender, property inherence, and the perceptions of women in colonial New England. Unlike the other studies of colonial witchcraft, this book examines it as a whole, other then the usual Salem outbreaks in the late 17th century.

During the seventeenth century, many Puritans became fed up with the Church of England and its devilish ways. They wanted to break free from it, and make changes elsewhere. They got permission to set up a colony in Massachusetts Bay, and soon after that, over twenty-thousand Puritans fled from England to America. They decided to base their colony on the word of God, and believed God would protect them if they followed his commandments. This meant that if anyone were to sin, “they didn’t want God to protect them because they already worshiped the devil,” and “anyone who worshipped the devil was a witch who used witchcraft to possess others.” Because of this theory, many people were accused of being witches and using witchcraft. The most notorious series of hearings and prosecutions for those accused of witchcraft took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, known as the Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem witch trials were a difficult time for the citizens of the Massachusetts Colony in the late seventeenth century. They were accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, which many believed to be real; so real that people were being imprisoned and executed for it. Between the years 1692 and 1693 there were over two hundred accusations and about 20 people and two dogs were killed altogether.

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted with an actual sickness, or were experiencing them because of some sort of psychological reason is widely debated, though it is known that the sisters accused their maid, Tituba, of forcing them to participate in witchcraft with her. Some who theorize about the causes of the trials dismiss the Parris girls involvement in the beginning and instead attribute the outbreak of accusations to judgement upon the members of society who break social or religious rules, or who struck the upright members of society as ‘strange’ and ‘suspicious’, such as the homeless, the poor, and old or widowed women. The cause of the hysteria that went on in Salem after this is what is speculated by so many. There are probably hundreds of theories out there, but a few in particular are more widely known, accepted, and supported than others.

The Salem witch trials were trials for people who were being accused of worshiping the devil. They believed the witches were out to harm others in supernatural ways. They were believed to be able to turn into animals, cause others to become possessed by looking at them, and were accused of being the cause of illness or miscarriages. However, there are many false theories about the Salem witch trials causing many controversies. One of the bigger controversies was if people were really being possessed by the three women. Often times, if doctors could not find a cause to an illness they will blame it on witchcraft. “Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the spring of 1691 and winter of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He could not find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnosis of unseen conditions at the time”. They believed there had to be a cause to everything and if something

Puritan Societal gender biases against women prompted what was called the "Witch Trials". Some trials took place in Europe around the same time, but my focus is about the trials that took place in Early America in New England. History notes these areas to be mostly in Hartford, Fairfield, and Salem. The latter being the most infamous and the most published. Although the question has been asked many times, there has not been a definite answer on Why did the trials take place? What happened to cause this phenomenon? There were several factors involving bias such as socioeconomic, historical, psychological and religious factors, but most notable were the gender biases that was evident. With all of these underlying influences, it was apparent that the one common link was women and the varying roles that they played during this time. Documented research states that approximately 78% of those accused were women (Karlsen, 1987) and similarly those who were executed were a high percentage of women.

The outbreak of witchcraft accusations of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts was a devastating period for those involved in the crisis. Because of the random and frequent witchcraft accusations made throughout the time of the trials, the reoccurring characteristics that were often indicative of an individual’s likelihood of being accused of witchcraft were not always consistent. In John Demos’s book Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England he includes a diagram containing nine points of what he believes to be the definitive characteristics of a “typical” witch during the Salem witchcraft trials. It is important to note that Demos’s portrait of a witch identifies the “typical” witch, not every witch. For

Though the Puritans left excellent records, these witch trials are still shrouded in mystery, and to this day historians debate why they happened. One explanation is that the Puritan philosophy of denying oneself any luxury left the young girls who started the Witch Hunt feeling starved for attention, causing them to act out. Whatever the reason is the fact remains that in February of 1692 two young girls began experiencing “fits” and blamed satanic rituals performed by some of the women of Salem. Massive hysteria erupted, and the trials resulted in the death of twenty-two people.

Another test is the prick, or scratch test. If a witch mark is not found, people used a specially designed needle to stab all over the accused, because it was believed that witch marks were insensitive and could not bleed. The scratch test is when the victim of witchcraft, scratches the accused until they bleed, if their situation gets better and their symptoms improve, it is seen as partial evidence of their

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.