| Basic Concept: The Salem Witch Trials
(Witchcraft, Magic, Spectral Evidence) . In 1692 the courts in Boston ordered hearings of "Oyer and Terminer" (Examine and Decide) to investigate allegations of witchcraft in Salem Village, a small community of Puritans north of Salem, Massachusetts. Such reports weren't new. Witchcraft, if not a common phenomenon, was, according to common acceptance, an unfortunate, periodic harassment in the colonies. A number of respected divines had addressed the subject in various formal discourses. King James I of England was better known as the author of "Daemonology" (Demonology) than he was as the "executive producer" of the King James Version of the Bible that bore his imprimatur. . The belief in witchcraft was ubiquitous in the colonies; there was certainly a receptive context of belief to embrace new "discoveries" of devilry. Satan was constantly at work, so it was believed, to undermine the "Saints," and when children and young people in Salem Village confessed to being bedeviled by, among others, some of the most respected elders of the community, their grievances were worthy. As targets of such malevolent molestations, innocent children, of course, couldn't lie, and in a court of inquiry, could be trusted to speak the truth. By the time they had completed their "truth telling," 155 men and women had been cried out against and charged with witchcraft, eighteen had been hanged (along with two dogs), and one elderly man, Giles Corry, had been pressed to death in an attempt to force a confession from him. Five others died in prison. . The testimonies of the hearings were tediously preserved in hand-written records still extant and available, in copies, for scholars and the public to study. These records reveal more, however, than the words of distressed young ladies. What becomes clear are deep divisions in the community of Salem Village. Political, social, and economic schisms divided the pious believers. Samuel Paris, the new minister-come-to-town, had contributed to the rift. Indeed, it was in his own house that the infestation of witchery had been discovered. Clearly, the first citizens named by the girls, after the Indian servant Tituba's confession and accusations, were social/political opponents of the Paris household. . The hearings closed late in 1692 when William Stoughton, the Lieutenant Governor, returned from the Indian wars to find his own wife charged and waiting examination--clearly, matters were out of control. The new Governor, Sir William Phipps, ordered the hearings ended and the jails emptied. Feelings remained strained for many generations. Samuel Sewall, one of the three chief magistrates in the hearings and one of the most respected jurists in Boston, came to regret deeply his participation in the whole set of affairs. Five years afterwards, he stood before his own congregation and asked public pardon for his own responsibilities in the proceedings. . The awful events of 1692 have since become symbolic of the darkest side of human nature-in-community and a cautious warning about the limitations of misguided faith and beliefs. American playwright Arthur Miller used the trial records of the Elizabeth Proctor hearing as the background for "The Crucible" to attack the anti-communist "witch hunts" of the McCarthy hearings in the United States Senate in the early 1950's. In 1992, at the Third Centenary Memorial of the events in New England, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Weisel, survivor of the German holocaust in World War II, spoke at ceremonies dedicating monuments to the victims of the Salem witch hysteria. His presence reminded the world of the importance of courageous vigilance against fundamentalists of any persuasion who willingly threaten others in the name of their own beliefs. . Online Connections Various sites address the events and repercussions of the Salem witch trials. Read the chronology of the events at "The Salem Witch Trials 1692." You can read the full trial transcripts at "Trial Transcripts," one section of "The Salem Witch Trials" general site. For a webliography of Salem Village, the actual site for most witchcraft events in 1692, see "Witchcraft in Salem Village." . Our Course Connections Read the "Diary" of Samuel Sewall to gain insight into the mind and personality of one of the most important leaders of the third-generation Puritans in Massachusetts Bay Colony. For an excursion into the dark corners of the Puritan world view, read Increase Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible World."
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