Salem Witch Trials

February 1692-May 1693

Events Betty Parris (9) and Abigail Williams (11) the

daughter and the niece of the local reverend started to have epileptic fits

The girls screamed, threw things around the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions

They complained of being pinched and pricked with pins

Later Ann Putnam (12) and Elizabeth Hubbard joined in with Parris and Williams in acting out

Accusations “Afflicted” girls started to accuse people in

their community of being witches and tormenting them

Trials People accused of

being witches were put on trial by the local courts.

Samuel Sewall one of the Salem

judges

Trials

Trials

Ways to Find someone guilty of

being a witch Spectral evidence

Something only the tormented could see They would see the accused person of

interacting with the devil or doing evil things Witch cakes

Feed a witch cake to a dog and the witch will be injured

Touch test Afflicted people could be healed by being

touched by the accused witch

Other evidence If they had “witchy” things

Horoscope books, palmistry books, potions etc

Witches teat Insensitive mark on the body (mole, wart etc) They would poke the mark with a pin and if it

didn’t hurt they were a witch

End of the Trials People outside of Salem started to question

the method of the courts “it’s better that 100 witches live than 1

person is killed for being a witch who is not a witch” –Thomas Maule

Girls started to accuse leaders of the Puritan community and their families.

Girls’ credibility fails

"And now Nineteen persons having been hang'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear'd; about Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one Executed; above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more acccused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a period,..."—Robert Calef

19 people were hanged 1 person pressed to death 50 confessed to being witches and were

released 150 in prison at the end 200 more accused

WHY??? Symptoms of the afflicted girls have been

explained as physical or psychological Most believe that the girls’ symptoms were

a result of jealousy, spite and a need for attention.