How did the salem witch trials of 1692 begin

A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village families and rivalry with nearby Salem Town combined with a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between and Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted.

We have discovered that the lost lives of the accused witches were the direct result of the Puritan religious fanaticism of the day.

While an unknown problem in vast parts of the Western population, body-counts of modern witch-hunts by far exceed those of early-modern witch-hunting. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in and Salem would become one of the most significant seaports in early American history. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during — Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists.

The events that took place during the time the play was written were very similar to the Salem witch hunts. 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.

In addition, the harsh realities of life in the rural Puritan community of Salem Village present-day Danvers, Massachusetts at the time included the after-effects of a British war with France in the American colonies in , a recent smallpox epidemic, fears of attacks from neighboring Native American tribes and a longstanding rivalry with the more affluent community of Salem Town present-day Salem. In January , 9-year-old Elizabeth Betty Parris and year-old Abigail Williams the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village began having fits, including violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming.

After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr.

The three accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming and writhing.

Though Good and Osborn denied their guilt, Tituba confessed. Likely seeking to save herself from certain conviction by acting as an informer, she claimed there were other witches acting alongside her in service of the devil against the Puritans.

As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse—both regarded as upstanding members of church and community—and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.

In May , the newly appointed governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, ordered the establishment of a special Court of Oyer to hear and Terminer to decide on witchcraft cases for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town.

Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. Though the respected minister Cotton Mather had warned of the dubious value of spectral evidence or testimony about dreams and visions , his concerns went largely unheeded during the Salem witch trials. Amid waning public support for the trials, Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer in October and mandated that its successor disregard spectral evidence. Trials continued with dwindling intensity until early , and by that May Phips had pardoned and released all those in prison on witchcraft charges.

In January , the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting for the tragedy of the Salem witch trials; the court later deemed the trials unlawful, and the leading justice Samuel Sewall publicly apologized for his role in the process. The damage to the community lingered, however, even after Massachusetts Colony passed legislation restoring the good names of the condemned and providing financial restitution to their heirs in But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. However, 20 people and 2 dogs were executed for the crime of witchcraft in Salem.

Who invented witchcraft? Gerald Brousseau Gardner. How did they test for witches in Salem? Who was the first person to die in the Salem witch trials? Bridget Bishop. Bridget Bishop c. Altogether, about people were tried, and 18 others were executed 20 total: 14 women, 5 men and a 6 year old girl. Who was the youngest person killed in the Salem witch trials?

How old was the youngest person accused of witchcraft in Salem? Dorothy, written as "Dorcas" on the warrant for her arrest, received a brief hearing in which the accusers repeatedly complained of bites on their arms. She was sent to jail, becoming at age five the youngest person to be jailed during the Salem witch trials.

Who stopped the witch trials? Who were the accused in the Salem witch trials? Some historians believe that the accusation by Ann Putnam, Jr. Where in Salem were witches hanged?