The Salem witches or the Salem trials are some events that occurred in the United States in 1692 in the village of Salem, where numerous villagers were accused by their own neighbors of worshiping the devil and practicing witchcraft.
Today we talk about those trials and the first salem witchcraft case. Just as those events inspired different artists to create their works, a particular case is the play "The Witches of Salem" or "The Crucible."
Witches of Salem
When we talk about the Salem witches, we are referring to the episodes of the witch trials that occurred during the American colonial period in 1692 in the village of Salem (present-day Massachusetts). In these trials, nineteen people accused of witchcraft were sentenced to death, fourteen of whom were women and five men. The number of defendants in those trials ranged between 200 and 300, and the number of those imprisoned was also numerous.
Historic context
When talking about witchcraft trials, it is very likely that women dressed in black with pointed hats come to mind, flying on brooms with their black cats. Nothing is further from reality. Witchcraft trials were more common than you might think in the British Colonies. The first case dates back to 1647 in Connecticut. In the decades of the late 17th century, about twenty trials were recorded in New England (mainly in Boston and Springfield). Maybe there was a trial every three or four years, so it was something that happened spaced out in time but it happened.
We can see then that Although it is known as "the Salem trials," it is actually something that happened throughout Puritan America but in Salem they stood out and that is why it has become widespread in this way.
The start of the trials in Salem
The start of the Salem Trials is in the accusations by Reverend Samuel Parris' daughter, Betty Parris, and her cousin Abigail Williams that ended with three women arrested.
The reverend's daughter and her cousin claimed that they had been mistreated, bitten and pinched. They claimed that their bodies went into convulsions, with their eyes rolling back in their heads and their mouths open. At that moment the Reverend asked them who was tormenting them and they responded: Tituba, Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good. That was the beginning of the first Salem trial.
Tibuta
Tibuta was the first woman accused of witchcraft in the so-called "Salem Trials", but she was also the first to admit that she practiced witchcraft, a confession forced out of her by her master Samuel Parris.
At his trial She talked about black dogs, pigs, red rats or how she flew with sticks from one place to another.. He also claimed that Sarah Osborne had a creature with a woman's head, two legs and wings. With her confessions, chaos broke out in Salem as she let herself see that Satan was among them.
Despite all this, she was not sentenced to death but to prison. She would retract her confessions, ensuring that she said them with an alibi from her master Parris, something that caused him to leave her aside. It is known that some time later Her bail was paid and someone bought her and her husband and they left Salem. From then on it is unknown what became of her.
sarah osborne
The Reverend's daughter and her cousin would not be the only ones to accuse Osborne, Elizabeth Hubbard claimed that he afflicted her with pinches and pricks with knitting needles. Furthermore, Sarah had not gone to church in the last three years, citing a long illness.
It is believed that the Putnam family had a lot to do with his accusation of witchcraft Sarah married Robert Prince, brother of a woman who married into the Putnams, a powerful family with whom she was dealing with legal matters.
Osborne remained in jail while the trial was disputed and He would end up dying there on May 10 of the same year.
Sarah Good
Described by the citizens as dirty, short-tempered, and strangely isolated from the rest of the villagers. She They attributed the death of the livestock of those who wouldn't give to her when she asked for charity. When this happened, it is said that Sarah would walk away muttering under her breath. At the trial, she claimed that the mutterings she was reciting were the Ten Commandments and nothing else. To clear up any doubt, she was asked to recite these commandments at the trial, but Sarah couldn't recite a single one.
The accusation of witchcraft came from seeing her kissing a woman on March 6, 1692 and because the Reverend's daughter and her cousin They claimed to be bewitched under his hand.
Sarah was from a lower social class, reduced to poverty by her first husband's debt. The trials were often based on jealousy; in Good's case, her dependence on the rest of the villagers seemed to be decisive, as well as Her own husband seemed to say that his wife was a witch. who had bad behavior towards him.
The reason for the Salem Trials
There are many historians who have tried to answer that Salem witch hunt. The most widespread or accepted is that the American Puritans who governed that area without royal control from 1630 until the Royal Charter of Massachusetts in 1692 were in full moment of religious fanaticism.
The point, as many historians claim, is that attributing those events to religious fanaticism is somewhat simplistic. Must take into account other acts such as child abuse, fighting for different properties, poisoning with fermented rye bread, the Putnam family trying to unseat their rival family the Porters and many other factors that were a perfect cocktail for the lawsuits to break out.
To all this, we must add religious fanaticism or rather the strict religious behavior that was imposed in Salem, which is why Neighbors watched or controlled each other. If the words, behaviors or actions did not resemble what was acceptable or considered religiously acceptable by Puritan parameters, alarm bells went off. Women, specifically, had to serve their husbands and had no rights. Children were strictly educated for the future tasks of adulthood rather than being allowed to be children.
And, most important of all, the wrath of God had to be avoided, which could bring problems to the climate, crops, and livestock. If something bad happened it was because someone had acted badly and God was sending signs of his anger. Cats in the Middle Ages They were also subject to persecution, reflecting a context of fear and ignorance similar to that of Salem.
Result of the Salem Trials
By the end of the 17th century hundreds of them had been arrested on accusations of witchcraft. These were all accusations that were not formalized in the county court. It is known that at least five of the accused would die in prison, as happened with Sarah Osborne. Twenty-six people were convicted, Twenty of them, most of them women, were executed, including Sarah Good.
Something interesting about these trials is that They were based on rumors, No evidence of demonic or witchcraft acts was provided. Judges would be carried away by religious hysteria that had developed and spread like wildfire and before which, only one comment was enough for it to start burning. The pressure of the Puritans to condemn to the alleged witches was also something to take into account.
Throughout the area, the trials had a great influence and contributed to the deterioration of Puritan influence of New England and the coming secularization of the villagers.
List of convicted and executed
- Bridget Bishop, June 10, 1692
- Rebecca Nurse, July 19, 1692
- Sarah Good, July 19, 1692
- Elizabeth Howe, July 19, 1692
- Susannah Martin, July 19, 1692
- Sarah Wildes, July 19, 1692
- The Reverend George Burroughs, August 19, 1692
- George Jacobs, August 19, 1692
- Martha Carrier, August 19, 1692
- John Willard, August 19, 1692
- John Proctor, August 19, 1692
- Martha Corey, September 22, 1692
- Mary Eastey, September 22, 1692
- Mary Parker, September 22, 1692
- Alice Parker, September 22, 1692
- Ann Pudeator, September 22, 1692
- Wilmot Redd, September 22, 1692
- Margaret Scott, September 22, 1692
- Samuel Wardweel, September 22, 1692
The trials of the artistic panorama
The events that occurred about the Salem witch trials have spread to numerous arts such as painting, engraving, cinema, novels or theater, as is the present case. Perhaps one of the most important works is Witches of Salem o The crucible, play by Arthur Miller written in 1952 and released the following year.
Miller himself, the son of Polish Jews, was victim of the witch hunt around the 1950s, when he was accused of being a communist sympathizer and refused to give names of the members of a literary circle suspected of being linked to the Communist Party. Despite the pressure that he had, that he could not even attend the premiere of some of his works, he did not give any name. He was found guilty of contempt of Congress for not mentioning those names, but the United States Court of Appeals would overturn that sentence in 1958. Throughout that journey he would give life to Witches of Salem.
