It was shut down on October 29, 1692. For those who are unaware, Salem is located in Massachusetts, which, as you might remember from history class, was New Englands first established colony dating back to the arrival of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620. Descendants of the Salem community have made constant efforts to clear the names of those ancestors and relatives who were falsely accused and convicted back in the 1690s, with some being officially recognized as innocent by the Massachusetts government as recently as the beginning of the 21st-century. Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1993. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-29-mn-29128-story.html. There were complex political, religious, and racial issues under the crisis. After weeks of informal hearings, Sir William Phips, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, interceded to add some formality to the proceedings. Apparently they felt that giving gifts took away from ones ability to focus on serious religious thought, and they did not like the pagan origins of some aspects of the holiday. William Stoughton, who presided over the Salem witch trials, studied theology at Harvard College and Oxford, but never became a minister and chose to enter politics instead. This series of prosecutions and hangings of those accused of practicing witchcraft provoked a major backlash, and the event still haunts us today. Besides their descendants, the accused witches of Salem leave another legacy: a rich and fascinating history for us to explore today. The Evil Justice William Stoughton Was the Ultimate Hanging Judge at the Salem Witch Trials and Heres Why. HistoryCollection.com, January 29, 2018. https://historycollection.com/william-stoughton-ultimate-hanging-judge-salem-witch-trials/. The extraordinary series of events in 1692 led to the deaths of 25 innocent men, women and children. For instance, after being accused of witchcraft, Philip and Mary English were held for trial in a Boston jail. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 20 wereexecuted (generally hanged) by the prosecutors, and five died while serving prison time. So if you are a witch, no need to worry about this ever happening again! 25 DISTURBING Facts About The Salem Witch Trials 429,208 views Sep 12, 2018 6.3K Dislike Share Save List 25 2.51M subscribers Get ready to pull out your history books as we bring you the most. The Salem witch trials of the late 17th century were a formative episode in America's early history, and have remained at the forefront of the national consciousness ever since. In January 1692 Bettys and Abigails increasingly strange behaviour (described by at least one historian as juvenile deliquency) came to include fits. Salem was . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Another more disturbing theory proposed by researchers like behavioral psychologist Linnda Caporael suggests that Salem suffered from ergot poisoning. But not just adult women and men were impacted by the trials. Some scholars believe that they were of African heritage, while others think that they may have been of Caribbean Native American heritage.). This caused her to be accused of conspiring on behalf of the witches, and eventually of being a witch herself. Although Giles was a wealthy farmer and Martha was a prominent church member, both of them had pasts they werent exactly advertising to the public. Witches were people who followed Satan and traded their souls for his help. Despite being known as the Salem witch trials, some of the trials actually took place in Ipswich and Andover in addition to Salem itself. Unfortunately for Bishop, that allegation of witchcraft would not be her last. Salem witch trials, (June 1692-May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted "witches" to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). They had seizures, hid under chairs, talked in gibberish, and ran fevers. In 1702, the court declared the trials unlawful. Another reason why it sucked that these trials took place before the Bill of Rights existed? Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, the two girls at the very center of the trials, made sure to use every trick in the book to accuse others in the town, leading to people not only being tested, but also pressed to death! Several episodes of the original Bewitched TV series were actually filmed on location in Salem. Which, yes, is a little ironic. Full List, Photo Credits, and Sources: https://list25.com/25-disturbing-facts-about-the-salem-witch-trialsSUBSCRIBE - http://bit.ly/2uwq6BJCheck out our store: https://teespring.com/stores/list25-swagFollow us on: List25 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/list25List25 Instagram: https://instagram.com/list25/List25 Twitter - https://twitter.com/list25 List25 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/list25/See more Top 25 lists on our website:http://list25.comThe Salem witch trials were BRUTAL, but did you know that a big reason for the craziness surrounding the town was the Salem smallpox outbreak shortly before? Because he refused to comply with the court, he was given the sentence of being pressed to death. Accessed May 6, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phips. On March 1 two magistrates from Salem Town, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, went to the village to conduct a public inquiry. The stars of the Salem story were the Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony, a religious groupthat came over to America to escape religious persecution back in England. the devil's army against the Puritans, probably in an effort to protect herself from certain conviction by serving as an informant. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. Some three-fourths of those European witch hunts took place in western Germany, the Low Countries, France, northern Italy, and Switzerland. The stars of the Salem story were the Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony, a religious groupthat came over to America to escape religious persecution back in England. The origins of the Salem witch trials are long and complex, but we do our best to break down the most disturbing information about this task. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. My mom never told me how her best friend died. It was a time of hysteria, when courts believed in the devil, spectral evidence and teenage girls. An important minister in Boston named Increase Mather was one of these objectors, stating that It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than that one innocent person should be condemned.. While Miller maintained that he kept everything historically accurate, some have noted that he made changes to the real record for the sake of the play. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Today, witchcraftis recognized by the government as a protected and legitimate religion under the First Amendment. Here are 10 facts about the witch trials that will surely send chills down your spine. Children were also accused of witchcraft. Accessed May 6, 2021. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/salem-witch-trial-descendants/. Several episodes of the original Bewitched TV series were actually filmed on location in Salem. Miller did not approve of this, and this was one of the things he tried to criticize allegorically through his depiction of the Salem events. Gallows Hill was discovered on a rocky outcropping now located, very unfittingly, near a Walgreens in Salem. The 1692 Salem witch trials are a big blot on American history. Although it provided no answers, its baking outraged Parris, who saw it as a blasphemous act. For everyone who remains intrigued by Salem, here are a few lesser-known facts about the witchcraft trials. In 1692, when the Salem witch trials began, the United States Constitution did not yet exist. When Millers The Crucible was produced, it was in the aftermath of his feud with Elia Kazan, the man who had directed his two earlier hit plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. The collective delusion of witchcraft took more than a year to loosen its grip on Salem and its surrounding towns. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. They argue that the trialscreated a taboo in America against mixing religion and government, and George Lincoln Burr called it, the rock on which the theocracy shattered. There is also no question that the incident remains a constant reminder in our collective minds about the importance of due process in a legal system, and the dangers of premature overreaction and irrational hysteria. Tituba, an enslaved person born to a South American indigenous tribe, became the first person accused of witchcraft in Salem after Betty, the daughter of Salems minister, Samuel Parris, began acting erratically. Dont feel too embarrassed if you happen to be from Massachusetts, you guys were not the first to do something like this. Rebecca Beatrice Brooks Post author October 25, 2017 at 3:28 pm. The governor pardoned the rest of the accused witches and they were released from jail. Having an angry witch killing your children made sense. Ms Mades-Byrd said there were many misconceptions about the Salem witch trials and the truth had been lost in stories told over the centuries. During 1692, in the city of Salem, a little colony in Massachusetts, US, a horrifying trial started against several neighbors accused of witchcraft. In the process Salem divided into pro- and anti-Parris factions. They began in 1692, a full 73 years before the start of the American Revolution and some 40 years before George Washington was even born. Twenty of those people were executed, most by hanging. Please reach out to us to let us know what youre interested in reading. What historians do know is that Abigail Williams was born on July 12, 1680. It was actually the local doctor, likely William Griggs, who first diagnosed the girls as having been bewitched when he couldnt find anything medically wrong with them to explain the strange behavior. Nineteen were hanged, and one-elderly Giles Corey-pressed to death. The Salem witch trials have gripped American imaginations ever since they occurred in 1692. Not that Salem didnt have its problems to begin with, but the community never fully recovered from the witch trials saga, and the divisions and setbacks to the towns development continued in the years following the trials. Courts relied on three kinds of evidence: 1) confession, 2) testimony of two eyewitnesses to acts of witchcraft, or 3) spectral evidence (when the afflicted girls were having their fits, they would interact with an unseen assailant - the apparition of the witch tormenting them). Citizens began to believe that people were practicing witchcraft in their town. Life, woman, life is Gods most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.. His wife, Elizabeth, had been accused of witchcraft and John tried to step in to defend her. Another famous incident from the trials was the case of John Proctor. One of the most famous victims of the trials was a prominent woman in the local community named Martha Corey. Other girls and young women began experiencing fits, among them Ann Putnam, Jr.; her mother; her cousin, Mary Walcott; and the Putnamss servant, Mercy Lewis. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? Between February 1692 and May 1693, colonial Massachusetts was the scene of a mass hysteria sparked by false accusations from several young girls. The most terrifying part, perhaps, was that anyone could be accused of engaging in witchcraft, and there was little they could do to defend themselves. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The Salem Witch Trials, 1692 17th Century Pocahontas Saves John Smith, 1608 Aboard the Mayflower, 1620 The First Thanksgiving, 1621 The Price of Adultery in Puritan Massachusetts, 1641 Living Among the Mohawks, 1644 The Execution of Charles I, 1649 The Great Fire of London, 1666 Inside the Court of Louis XIV, 1671 New York City, 1679 Due to its association with the supernatural and the haunted, Salem is now a popular destination for Halloween festivities, which run throughout the month of October. Arthur Millers play The Crucible played a large role in popularizing many of the details of the Salem witch trials and dramatizing facts that he uncovered in historical records. One person was even executed for refusing to testify at the hearings. The people of Salem often ate rye bread,and in wet, swampy conditions (which Salem had at the time), rye can foster a fungus called ergot. The girls are examined by a . Initially, Tituba also claimed to be blameless, but after being repeatedly badgered (and undoubtedly fearful owing to her vulnerable status as a slave), she told the magistrates what they apparently wanted to hearthat she had been visited by the devil and made a deal with him. Lynch, Patrick. One of the people who perished in prison was only an infant. These included "violent contortions and uncontrollable . In mid-January 1692, Elizabeth Betty Parris, the 9-year-old daughter of the local Reverend Samuel Parris, and Abigail Williams, the reverends 11-year-old niece, became the first to be diagnosed with being afflicted by witchcraft. By May 1693 everyone in custody under conviction or suspicion of witchcraft had been pardoned by Phips. The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. They were eventually assumed to be possessed. For example, the infamous Putnam family had been one of the earliest settler dynasties to come to the Massachusetts Bay colony and establish themselves there. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. Because of the similarity in time period, location, and story, people often mix up the Puritans with the Pilgrims, the group of Dutch settlers who created what we now know as the holiday of Thanksgiving. In June 1692, Governor Phips appointed Stoughton as chief judge and prosecutor in the Salem witch trials despite Stoughtons lack of legal experience. Fourteen women and six men were executed for witchcraft, and five others died in prison during the trials. Descargue el archivo de msica MP3 25 disturbing facts about the salem witch trialsa una calidad de audio de 320 kbps. Many parallels have been drawn between the events of Salem and the tactics used by the government during the Red Scare of the 1950s, in which Senator Joseph McCarthy very harshly interrogated and went after anyone suspected of being a communist sympathizer. SALEM WITCH TRIALS CHRONOLOGY. In response, John found himself accused as well. Significantly, those that they began identifying as other witches were no longer just outsiders and outcasts but rather upstanding members of the community, beginning with Rebecca Nurse, a mature woman of some prominence. Squabbles over property were commonplace, and litigiousness was rampant. The Salem witch trials would mark her second time being accused of being a witch. This resulted in him being accused as well, and in the end it was he who was executed while Elizabeth was instead sentenced to prison so that her unborn baby would not have to die. Although Salem Village was at the heart of the witch trials of 1692, the accused were from a couple dozen towns. The late comedian Lucille Ball is a descendant of Rachel Vinson, who was acquitted in the witch trials. January 1692- Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village's daughter, 9-year-old Elizabeth "Betty" Parris, falls ill, soon followed by his 11-year-old niece, Abigail Williams. Not that Salem didnt have its problems to begin with, but the community never fully recovered from the witch trials saga, and the divisions and setbacks to the towns development continued in the years following the trials. Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, With roles ranging from Miss Congeniality to Gravity, The Heat, and Minions, Sandra Bullock has, "You might belong in Gryffindor / Where dwell the brave at heart / Their daring,, Star-studded premieres, massive advertising campaigns, and big budget blockbusters: The movies are big money. 1 Majority Of Victims Were Girls Under Age 20 The Salem witch trials have been studied for centuries, and there is still no clear consensus on what exactly happened. After some young girls of the village (two of them relatives of Parris) started demonstrating strange behaviours and fits, they were urged to identify the person who had bewitched them. The events in Salem in 1692 were but one chapter in a long story of witch hunts that began in Europe between 1300 and 1330 and ended in the late 18th century (with the last known execution for witchcraft taking place in Switzerland in 1782). One of the turning points in ending public support and enthusiasm for the trials was the conviction and execution of one of the towns former minsters, George Burroughs, who publicly recited the Lords Prayer at the gallows, which was believed to be impossible for witches to do. This period of witch trials later came to be known as the Salem witch trials, named after the town of Salem and Salem Village (present-day Danvers). This obviously meant that you must also be a witch. List of People of the Salem Witch Trials. Wikipedia. Music Credit: Spirit of the Dead by Aakash Gandhi#List25 #Didyouknow #WitchTrials Parris, whose largely theological studies at Harvard College (now Harvard University) had been interrupted before he could graduate, was in the process of changing careers from business to the ministry. Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton served as its chief magistrate and Thomas Newton as the Crowns Prosecuting Attorney. The Salem trials occurred late in the sequence, after the abatement of the European witch-hunt fervour, which peaked from the 1580s and 90s to the 1630s and 40s. The panic and fear over witches hiding amongst the colony began when two young girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, developed strange symptoms including having fits and screaming in pain at mysterious moments. This caused her to be accused of conspiring on behalf of the witches, and eventually of being a witch herself. They were eventually assumed to be possessed. Although Massachusetts has given up its fight against witchcraft, there are still places in the world where witchcraft is legitimately feared by the public, sometimes even leading to real modern day witch hunts. Additionally, he is an accomplished scriptwriter, having written the successful AA Meeting series for the stage and the award-winning film Depth of Pyaar. He brought to Salem Village his wife, their three children, a niece, and two slaves who were originally from BarbadosJohn Indian, a man, and Tituba, a woman. Ergot causes hallucinations, convulsive fits, and sometimes death, and LSD derives from the substance. At the suggestion of a neighbour, a witch cake (made with the urine of the victims) was baked by Tituba to try to ferret out the supernatural perpetrator of the girls illness. The Salem Witch trials occupy a large space in the American imagination. Before she was hanged for witchcraft, Sarah Good gave birth to a daughter, Mercy Good, while detained.