The Salem Witch Trial

Besides English settlers there were numerous other representatives of the European countries settling in the new land. And as the Puritans came to practice their own believes so did other nationalities, as explained in the study material. In my own interpretation America represents change and the believe system as well as the way religion was previously practiced was now changing. This change was greatly influenced by the intellectual movement called Enlightenment, which started in Europe and this influence had bearing on the Great Awakening. Besides Puritans now there were Catholics in Maryland, Quakers in Pennsylvania and the Episcopal Church in the southern states.

John Proctor was accused of witchcraft, and was then hung, after pleading guilty in trial, along with his wife, Elizabeth, who was allowed to wait until she gave birth. Giles Corey refused to confess, he was killed by having stones stacked upon his chest until he could not breathe

John agrees to confess falsely .But he refuses to accuse anyone else of being a witch. The court insists that the confession must be made public. Proctor became filled with rage and tears it up. Proctor goes to the gallows and is hanged.

Because the fact that she told the truth, Tituba did not have to go to trial and ended up being a big help with catching the rest of the witches. The other witch was Sarah Good. She had been accused by 7 people. One of those 7 was her own daughter, Dorcas Good. Sarah was arrested on March 23th and executed on July 19th.

This was because witchcraft was a crime punishable by death in America. Soon, one hundred and fifty people were imprisoned. This does not include the sixteen people that were hanged in New England (Boyer). People were being questioned because of the assumptions made as being a witch. This search included Sarah Good’s four year old daughter, Dorothy (Blumberg).

He did not want to live with a ruined name, so he chose to die. (law2.umkc.edu) Why were they all accused? Abagail’s uncle saw them in the woods, and eventually turned them in. John Proctor was accused because Abagail turned him in for revenge. (history.com) How many in the court found them guilty?

Many others were accused of witchcraft and either hanged, died in prison, or later released after their amnesty. Nineteen accused witches were hanged in 1962. Three accused witches died in prison. One man accused of witchcraft was pressed to death when he would neither plead guilty or innocence. Among the witches convicted, George Burroughs was hanged.

In 1692, the people in Salem, Massachusetts went on a hunt accusing people of being witches. This was a hysterical time in history known as the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials led to many distraught people and false accusations. The famous trials started with two sick children and then led to discrimination manly towards women of a lesser class. The accused people were tortured and eventually killed.

John Proctor was noble farmer, thrown in jail over accusations of witchcraft and held the importance of his name over his life. Proctor was not as noble as he was conceived to be by the other people in Salem because he had previously committed adultery with a young girl named Abigail Williams. Abigail’s love for Proctor pioneered the development of the witch trials seeing that she practiced witchcraft only to kill Proctor’s wife and then began accusing others to save herself. Proctor saw through her manipulative lies and stood against her accusations to right his wrong and stop Abigail. His dignity led to his demise once given the option to admit to witchcraft, and live without his good name or be hanged, Proctor chose death.

Doctor William Griggs declared all those afflicted bewitched and the village agreed with this statement. Indian slave couple Tituba and John were accused in the making of the witch-cake which all those afflicted had had. Tituba was reverend Parris slave, caretaker of Abigail and Betty. February 25 and 28 Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good also accused as the tormentors. The first three women to be accused witches were not originally born in Salem and Tituba was also linked towards the Indian war.

Salem, Massachusetts, USA and occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned and even more accused; but not pursued by the authorities. 29 were convicted of witchcraft but only 19 were hanged. The best known trials were in the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

The youngest “witch” to be hung, was a 5-year old little girl. Most of the women accused of being a witch, were accused by their own family. The Witch Trials went across 24 settlements

On August 19, 1692, John Proctor was hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem. Elizabeth, however, would not immediately be hanged because she was pregnant. She would give birth to a son, she named John after his deceased father, on January 27, 1693. The witch hysteria had died down and her execution did not follow through. Elizabeth and her newborn son remained in jail until May, 1693, when Massachusetts Gov. William Phips ordered a general release freeing all of those prisoners who remained jailed.

The Truth: During the late seventeenth century in Salem, Massachusetts Bay, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams were found dancing in the forest by Samuel Parris (minister of Salem). Later on, both of them started to do violent movements and to scream randomly. A doctor theorized that the young girls were acting strange because they were bewitched. Afterwards, different young girls in the area started to have resembling behaviors.

The Salem Witch Trials The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England.