The word Salem once meant peace in Hebrew, and meant complete peace in Biblical times. Now it is associated with the horrifying events of killing hundreds of innocent people. The Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts were a mockery of justice. as innocent men and women were condemned to death.
In the 1630s, the Puritans from Europe sailed to the New World, what is now the United States of America. The Puritans believed that it was their task to create a utopian theocracy. As time progressed their knowledge of the devil, God’s enemy, grew. They encouraged intense scrutiny of one’s entire life, so trying to keep a secret was a very difficult task, especially since they believed in witches and that black magic was the work of the devil. Such a belief grew and became a problem in the year 1692, in Massachusetts, when: Inside the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris, a small group of young girls—nine-year-old Betty; her twelve-year-old cousin, Abigail; and a pair of friends—have spent hours indoors amusing themselves with secretive games of ‘fortune-telling’ and ‘little sorceries,’ predicting futures and performing magic on household objects. (Crime And Justice : Learning Through Cases 1). When the young girls were caught and pressured, they confessed the names of three women, stating that they were the ones who tormented them with witchcraft. After the first allegations, many more cases appeared and more people were accused. Many people were susceptible, but women more than any other. Women were, “considered intellectually inferior and sexually insatiable, women’s roles as cooks, healers, and midwives made them particularly suspect” (Marvel 14). The cooks had access to different types of herbs and would have the skills to turn them into potions. The herbs that healers used were focal points for folk remedies. Accusations of intentional infanticide made midwives vulnerable. Another reason why women were so vulnerable was because “sexually experienced women were a special threat to men’s sense of superiority when it became widely recognized that women were more ardent and sexually capable than men as both reach old age” (Marvel 12). The women who were being accused fit certain profiles. For example, Titube, who was a West Indian slave, making her an easy target. Another example of a powerless woman, as explained by Laura Marvel, was Sarah Good, who was poor because of the debt accrued by her husbands, and would deny the offers of charity given to her (16). Soon the accusations moved from the powerless and poor to respectable men, women, and the wealthy. Before sentencing a person, the courts needed evidence of witchcraft. The most abundant, but not entirely the best, was spectral evidence. The eyewitnesses would see an apparition of the accused in a dream in their bedroom. The difficulty with this was that they believed that only the victims were able to see the apparition of the accused. The best form of evidence was physical evidence, because it was something that the judge and jury could see. For example, a Bishop from the church was found in possession of a poppet, a doll that represented a person and then …show more content…
Ministers and magistrates would visit the jails to further interrogate the women and men by urging them to confess; once they saw that the victims would resist, they would inflict physical abuse. The way that they would torture the people whom they interrogated was savage and brutal, they would “tie them neck and heels till the blood was ready to come out of their noses,” (Marvel 108). Other prisoners contributed to the pressure by stating that if the accused not confess, they would be hanged. Many did not need to be coerced to admit to being a witch because they could not stand the horrific conditions in jail and sometimes the inmates would die of disease in starvation before being brought to trial. The families and friends would try and pressure them to confess because they believed that it was the only way for them to be saved. Believing in the families’ words, many of the witches confessed, and at first they were kept alive. They remained alive long enough to provide testimonies against other witches; however, once finished testifying, they were killed in
In the 1630s, the Puritans from Europe sailed to the New World, what is now the United States of America. The Puritans believed that it was their task to create a utopian theocracy. As time progressed their knowledge of the devil, God’s enemy, grew. They encouraged intense scrutiny of one’s entire life, so trying to keep a secret was a very difficult task, especially since they believed in witches and that black magic was the work of the devil. Such a belief grew and became a problem in the year 1692, in Massachusetts, when: Inside the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris, a small group of young girls—nine-year-old Betty; her twelve-year-old cousin, Abigail; and a pair of friends—have spent hours indoors amusing themselves with secretive games of ‘fortune-telling’ and ‘little sorceries,’ predicting futures and performing magic on household objects. (Crime And Justice : Learning Through Cases 1). When the young girls were caught and pressured, they confessed the names of three women, stating that they were the ones who tormented them with witchcraft. After the first allegations, many more cases appeared and more people were accused. Many people were susceptible, but women more than any other. Women were, “considered intellectually inferior and sexually insatiable, women’s roles as cooks, healers, and midwives made them particularly suspect” (Marvel 14). The cooks had access to different types of herbs and would have the skills to turn them into potions. The herbs that healers used were focal points for folk remedies. Accusations of intentional infanticide made midwives vulnerable. Another reason why women were so vulnerable was because “sexually experienced women were a special threat to men’s sense of superiority when it became widely recognized that women were more ardent and sexually capable than men as both reach old age” (Marvel 12). The women who were being accused fit certain profiles. For example, Titube, who was a West Indian slave, making her an easy target. Another example of a powerless woman, as explained by Laura Marvel, was Sarah Good, who was poor because of the debt accrued by her husbands, and would deny the offers of charity given to her (16). Soon the accusations moved from the powerless and poor to respectable men, women, and the wealthy. Before sentencing a person, the courts needed evidence of witchcraft. The most abundant, but not entirely the best, was spectral evidence. The eyewitnesses would see an apparition of the accused in a dream in their bedroom. The difficulty with this was that they believed that only the victims were able to see the apparition of the accused. The best form of evidence was physical evidence, because it was something that the judge and jury could see. For example, a Bishop from the church was found in possession of a poppet, a doll that represented a person and then …show more content…
Ministers and magistrates would visit the jails to further interrogate the women and men by urging them to confess; once they saw that the victims would resist, they would inflict physical abuse. The way that they would torture the people whom they interrogated was savage and brutal, they would “tie them neck and heels till the blood was ready to come out of their noses,” (Marvel 108). Other prisoners contributed to the pressure by stating that if the accused not confess, they would be hanged. Many did not need to be coerced to admit to being a witch because they could not stand the horrific conditions in jail and sometimes the inmates would die of disease in starvation before being brought to trial. The families and friends would try and pressure them to confess because they believed that it was the only way for them to be saved. Believing in the families’ words, many of the witches confessed, and at first they were kept alive. They remained alive long enough to provide testimonies against other witches; however, once finished testifying, they were killed in