Encyclopedia > Salem witch trial

  Article Content

Salem witch trials

Redirected from Salem witch trial

The Salem witch trials were the result of a period of Puritan paranoia which led to the deaths of about twenty citizens.

In 1692, in Salem Village, (now Danvers, Massachusetts), a number of young girls, particularly Abigail Williams[?] and Betty Parris[?], accused other townsfolk of magically possessing them, and therefore of being witches or warlocks. The clergy believed the accusations, and sentenced these people to either confess they were witches or be hanged.

Gile Cory refused to enter a plea. By so doing he preserved his property for his heirs: had he confessed or been found guilty, his goods would have been confiscated by the state. The law provided for an application of a form of torture called peine fort et dure, in which the victim was slowly crushed by piling stones on him: in the event, Cory died without entering a plea.

The witch trials ended with intervention of the equivalent of the governor visiting Salem and finding himself appalled at what had become of Salem.

This incident was so profound that it helped end the Puritan faith, and led indirectly to the founding principles of the United States of America.

Clergical participants and commentators:

Afflicted (those who complained of bewitchment):

  • Sarah Bibber
  • Elizabeth Booth
  • Sarah Churchill
  • Martha Goodwin
  • Elizabeth Hubbard
  • Mary Lacey (also an accused witch)
  • Mercy Lewis
  • Elizabeth "Betty" Parris
  • Bethshaa Pope
  • Ann Putnam, Jr.
  • Susanna Sheldon
  • Mercy Short
  • Mary Walcott
  • Mary Warren
  • Abigail Williams

Accused:

  • Capt. John Alden
  • Daniel Andrew
  • Sarah Bassett
  • Edward Bishop
  • Sarah Bishop
  • Mary Black
  • Dudley Bradstreet
  • John Bradstreet
  • Sarah Buckley
  • Richard Carrier
  • Mary Clarke
  • Sarah Easty Cloyce
  • Sarah Cole
  • Giles Cory
  • Mary Bassett DeRich
  • Rebecca Eames
  • Philip English
  • Ann Foster
  • Dorcas Hoar
  • Abigail Hobbs
  • Elizabeth Howe
  • George Jacobs, Jr.
  • Elizabeth Johnson
  • Mary Lacey (also an afflicted child)
  • Sarah Osborne
  • Lady Phips
  • Susannah Post
  • Elizabeth Bassett Proctor
  • Tituba
  • Job Tookey
  • Hezekiah Usher
  • Mary Withridge

Killed:

References

  • Boyer, Paul & Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, MJF Books, 1974.
  • Starkey, Marion L., The Devil in Massachusetts, Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.
  • Miller, Arthur, The Crucible - a play which implicitly compares McCarthyism to a witch-hunt
  • Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Knopf, 2002

External link



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Westhampton Beach, New York

... living with them, 47.1% are married couples living together, 11.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 38.1% are non-families. 32.7% of all households ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 39.2 ms