Bridget Bishop Was The First Person To Be Executed During The Salem Witchcraft

A special court of Oyer and Terminer was formed for witchcraft cases and Bridget Bishop was the first to be convicted. On June 10, she was hanged. 18 others soon followed afterwards and about 150 people were accused over the following months with another person pressed to death by stones. By September 1692, the public began turning against the trials and it soon ended months later.

Through the remaining documents that have be collected histories claim that nearly 200 puritans were accused of being witches is Massachusetts. Of those 200 people about half were arrested but only 20 of them were prosecuted and executed. An even smaller list of names are recognizable to many people. One of the names that is most commonly noticed by people is Bridget Bishop. Of all those accused of being a practicing witch, her name had the most accusers attached.

What Caused the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 In Salem, Massachusetts there were Witch Trials held during the summer months of 1692. Throughout the seventeenth century in New England, witchcraft was said to be a crime punishable by death. Puritans came to New England in the early 1600’s to practice their Christianity in the purest form possible. They believed every word in the bible and that the words of God were to be followed down to the last sentence there was. Havoc started occurring around the town and 19 women along with men were hanged for witchcraft.

"James denounced his mother, Elizabeth too but Jennet then turned on her own brother and said he had been a witch for three years. She said she had seen his spirit kill three people"(Thomas Potts,

Another reason for the salem witch trial hysteria was the lying,acting,and Jealousy. Bridget bishop acting like she was in pain so people can believe her.she also moved in a weird way. Bridget did those movements so it can make her story more believable. Bridget bishop was intoxicated by her success people believes her. Later that same month she was hanged on the tenth of July.

In Document B, Demos presents that most of the accusers of witches were single females in their younger years of age. In the late 1600s, women were extremely dependent upon men for their financial stability, overall safety, and mental/emotional well being. In an interpretation of this document, it can be assumed that these younger female women were seeking family ties and protection in a harsher time period. On the same hand, Document C, a most likely extremely biased account, recounts the “bewitched actions” of Bridget Bishop, a witch, upon the afflicted. Samuel Parris, the examiner of Bishop, seems to shed a negative light on Bishop.

Eighteen others followed Bridget Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 people were incriminated over the next distinct months. By September 1692, the delirium had begun to dwindle and public opinion turned against the examination. (Unknown, SALEM WITCH TRIALS, 2014)

Ignorance of medical and scientific explanations: Puritan attitudes towards the witch trials were largely governed by the authoritative figures present at the time. Any medical explanation given was disregarded, thus showcasing how the villagers’ views could be easily manipulated. They chose to only consider two possible extremes for the cause of this outbreak; either the women were possessed or they were fabricating such behaviors. Chadwick Hansen describes the behavior of the bewitched being a 'neurotic syndrome '. It was known patients experiencing this disorder turned "their mental worries into physical symptoms such as blindness, paralysis of various parts of the body, choking, fainting, or attacks of pain"(The

Bridget Bishop’s death later lead the deaths of 20 other people. Another key aspect that is being discussed is that people would accused others of being witches believing that they will be safe from getting questioned of serving to the devil. Many puritans believe that witches were actually

The crime and the cover-up, we see it all over T.V. shows and movies nowadays. Likewise, in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, people, out of fear, shame, or pride will perpetuate and defend their mistakes. In The Crucible, many of the young girls in their puritan society begin to accuse other members of the town of witchcraft. The town nearly loses its sanity as more and more people begin to lie and cover their tracks. This theme is illustrated through the surreptitiousness of the judges, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams.

Kept in a dungeon were those who had been accused of being a witch or performing witchcraft. It was believed that if those accused were kept in a regular jail sail, that their spirit could still escape and do harm onto their victims. Bridget Bishop was once accused of witchcraft, but she later was cleared of the crime. Bridget Bishop was then accused of witchcraft by the five afflicted girls which later led to her being sentenced to death after her trial. On June 10, 1692 at Procter Ledge, Bridget Bishop was hanged and became the first victim of the Salem Witch Trials.

However, records from the Salem trials show that her original convicted crime was not witchcraft, but having an “independence of mind”, and being an “unsubmissive character”. She was “…indicted for the bewitching of certain persons” and blamed for a smallpox outbreak that she had ‘caused’ by

Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.

I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!" is what Abigail says to win the mercy of the two men. In this part of the book Abigail is not the one putting everyone in a crucible. In this part Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris are the two that are putting everyone on trial. They are trying to get to the bottom of this whole witchcraft story and who better to get that the specialist himself, Reverend Hale.

She was even described later on as wearing “A black cap, and a black hat, and a red paragon bodice bordered and looped with color” (umkc.edu). Her flamboyant way of dress also came with a rare lifestyle. Bridget Bishop was a partier. She owned and ran about two taverns, was constantly the head of gossip, often had late guest over to drink and play forbidden games with. Not a modest woman at all, she was married three times, all broken off by death, but never had children.