In the 1300s, the persecution wizards and witches began in Europe. Muggles were particularly afraid of magic but not very good at recognizing it, and many innocent Muggles were sacrificed. The Flame-Freezing Charm was highly used at this time by many wizards and witches. Wendelin the Weird for example, was burned at the stake 47 times in various disguises using the charm. Yet, the most prominent of all witch burnings occurred in America.
Already some time before 1692, it had been popular among young people in Salem to perform so-called "cunning rituals" that were taken from superstitious traditions. They used simple instruments, like egg whites in a glass which served as a primitive crystal ball, and tried to predict their future. In early 1692, these games suddenly seemed to have a strange effect on a few girls, most whom were between 14 and 19 years old. The first ones to behave strangely were the daughter and the niece of the local minister Samuel Parris. They appeared to have fits, used unintellegible language or did not show the appropriate respect for authorities. This behavior lasted for several weeks, and neither prayers nor fasting nor medical examinations served to discover or relieve the cause.
In order to reveal the truth, several methods were used: A witch cake, made of rye meal mixed with the urine of the girls, was produced and fed to a dog in order to see if the dog would show the same symptoms as the girls. This was a common ritual to discover the involvement of witchcraft. The villagers also began to question the girls intensely, and after some time three women were accused of ‘afflicting’ them, i.e. torturing them with apparitions and visions and using their occult powers to force them to act this way. The women were arrested. They were Tituba, a slave woman of South-American Indian origin, Sarah Good, a homeless woman who begged her food in Salem Village, and Sarah Osborne, who was known for her contentious behavior. Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good denied that they were witches, but Tituba confessed, even volunteering to give detailed descriptions of her contact with the devil, and declaring that she had been the victim of a witch conspiracy that had been organized in Salem. She also accused Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of having been a member of this conspiracy. The three women were sent to Boston to jail.
Until here, the events resembled all the witchcraft cases that had occurred in New England before. The accused women were all in some way social outcasts, and normally the problem should have come to an end after the incarceration of the ‘witches’. But instead, the affliction of the girls continued, affected even more girls and eventually led to further accusations.
It is important to mention that the involvement of witchcraft had never been put forward by the afflicted girls themselves. It was only after a month of their unusual behavior when bewitchment was suggested, and it seems that the intense questionings eventually forced the girls to accuse somebody. It seems quite intelligible that they picked women who fit the traditional stereotypes of witches.
More and more suspected witches were arrested. The Salem people believed Tituba’s theory of a satanic conspiracy, and they hoped that by arresting the leading witch the problem could be solved. The next arrested person was Martha Corey. During her examination in front of several hundred people, she tried to talk to the afflicted girls in order to prove her innocence, but as soon as she came close to them, they screamed in agony. They also claimed that every movement she made was torturing them. This is typical of all the trials: every attempt to doubt the girls’ accusations was answered with a aggravation of the affliction, which led the audience to feel sympathy for the girls.
The incarcerations began to accelerate, so that the accused soon had to be transported to the surrounding villages. Since traditional belief had it that heavy chains would prevent the witches from going on with their afflictions, the conditions in the prisons were terrible. Often the pain because of the chains, the hunger and the fatigue made the accused witches confess, even though no direct physical torture was applied. There were also several men imprisoned. One of them, Giles Corey, died of torture during the trials. He had refused to enter a plea in the trial, seeing that he would always be condemned, thus depriving his family of the right to inherit his land. In order to be able to proceed with his trial, the judges decided to apply an old English ritual, called peine forte et dure: stones were piled up on his chest to make him talk, but instead of giving in he died under the weight.
The development of the witch accusations and trials can be divided into three stages: From February until the beginning of April there were only 6 suspects, three of which were social outcasts. Up to here, the process resembled the previous witchcraft cases in New England. After this, the accusations accelerated: 22 were made in April, 39 in May. There is a short time after the first execution in June during which hardly any accusations were pronounced, but then the numbers increased immensely until finally there were 150 people imprisoned.
Over time, the accused witches and wizards were of higher and higher social status until in the end even Governor Phips’s wife was accused. The hysteria also left the area of Salem Village and soon spread all over Essex County, even though many times the accusers and the accused persons did not know each other.
Apart from the high number of imprisoned persons, another problem had to be solved. The Charta of the Massachusetts Bay Company had been abolished in 1684, which meant that there was no legally established government and that no trials could be held until there was a legal basis for them. It was only in May that a new Charta was brought from England when the new Governor, Sir William Phips, arrived. Phips formed the ‘Court of Oyer and Terminer’, which consisted of judges who were believed by some people to have a "predisposition toward conviction": some had already led questionings or even convicted witches before. On June2nd, the first session of the trials was held, which led to the condemnation of Bridget Bishop. She was executed one week later, followed by nine hangings on June 19th. On August 5th, six more trials were held which led to six convictions, one of which was postponed because of the woman’s pregnancy.
After the eight last hangings on September 22nd, the trials came to an end. The girls still kept up her accusations, but the popular opinion had changed. People began to have doubts about the accusations, especially because there were so many popular suspects. This does not mean that the attitude towards witchcraft had changed. People only doubted the legal approach of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, as well as the veracity of the affliction of the girls. The Court had often been suspected to judge before the actual trials, which meant that rich and influential people were never condemned. Concerning the afflictions, people now argued that the girls had been deluded by the devil so that they had innocent persons.
Apart from this, the trials had led to several economic problems: Many wealthy people who were important for the village economy had either been arrested or had fled from the area. Besides, the children of executed witches were not allowed to inherit their land, so there were many orphans without future perspectives that the community had to take care of. The farms of the arrested people were ruined, the livestock was dying and nobody was there to bring in the harvest, and although there was no income the prison fees had to be paid.
In November, after having asked for advice among ministers in the surrounding area, Governor Phips formed a new court, the Superior Court of Judicature. It consisted of five judges, four of which had already been members of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The most important difference was that the new court did not accept spectral evidence, and that all those who confessed were to be executed so that nobody could save his or her life with fake testimonies anymore. The only accepted evidence were confessions made without pressure or fear, and sworn testimonies of at least two persons that they had seen the accused perform acts that definitely involved occult powers. The trials were held from January until April of 1693. They led to the acquittal of 50 out of 53 suspects. To the rage of chief judge Stoughton, the three convicted witches were also reprieved by Governor Phips. All those who were still awaiting their trials were exonerated as soon as they paid their prison fees.
In 1711, restitution payments were granted to the families of some of the victims, and the excommunications before the hangings were annulled. This expression of guilt was unique in the history of witch hunts: almost all the people who had been involved in the trials, like some of the "afflicted" girls, the judges, and Reverend Parris, later accepted the blame and declared in public that they regretted their participation. Most of them, however, blamed everything on Satan and claimed that he had been deluding them. In the following years there were new indictments of witchcraft, but spectral evidence was not accepted anymore, so that it became impossible to convict witches, and nobody ever received any legal penalties.
Please answer the following question in at least 2/3 paragraphs and PM it to me, using proper heading including your name, year, house and HO ID. In the subject title please put the assignment title you are turning in.
1) Imagine that you are a lawyer for one of the girls that have been put on trial. What kinds of excuses, tactics or strategies would you use to get them out of it? Why or why not do you think that your strategies would work?