The Salem witch trials, or the Salem witch trials, are events that took place in the United States in 1692 in the village of Salem , where numerous villagers were accused by their own neighbors of worshipping the devil and practicing witchcraft.
Today we're talking about those trials and the first Salem witch trial . Just as those events inspired various artists to create their works, one particular example is the play "The Crucible."
Witches of Salem
When we speak of the Salem witches, we are referring to the witch trials that took place during the American colonial period in 1692 in the village of Salem (present-day Massachusetts). In these trials, nineteen people accused of witchcraft were condemned to death, fourteen of whom were women and five men. The number of defendants in those trials ranges between 200 and 300, and many were also imprisoned.
Historic context
When we think of witch trials, we probably picture women dressed in black with pointed hats, flying on broomsticks alongside their black cats. Nothing could be further from the truth. Witch trials were more common than you might think in the British Colonies. The first case dates back to 1647 in Connecticut. In the final decades of the 17th century, around twenty trials were recorded in New England (mainly in Boston and Springfield). Perhaps there was one trial every three or four years, so it was an infrequent occurrence, but it did happen.
We can see then that although it is known as "the Salem witch trials", it is actually something that happened throughout Puritan America but in Salem it stood out and that is why it has been generalized in this way.
The start of the trials in Salem
The Salem Trials began with the accusations of Reverend Samuel Parris's daughter, Betty Parris, and her cousin Abigail Williams, which resulted in the arrest of three women.
The reverend's daughter and her cousin testified that they had been abused, bitten, and pinched. They claimed their bodies convulsed, their eyes rolling back and their mouths agape. At that moment, the reverend asked them who was tormenting them, and they replied: Tituba, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Good. That was the beginning of the first Salem witch trials.
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 extracted by beatings from her master, Samuel Parris.
At her trial , she spoke of black dogs, pigs, red rats, and how she flew from place to place using sticks . She also claimed that Sarah Osborne had a creature with a woman's head, two legs, and wings. Her confessions unleashed chaos in Salem, as it implied that Satan was among them.
Despite all this, she was not sentenced to death but to prison. She recanted her confessions, claiming she had been pressured by her master, Parris, which led him to abandon her. It is known that some time later her bail was paid, and someone bought both her and her husband, and they left Salem. From then on, her fate is unknown.
sarah osborne
The Reverend's daughter and her cousin weren't the only ones to accuse Osborne; Elizabeth Hubbard claimed he tormented her with pinching and pricking with knitting needles. Furthermore, Sarah hadn't attended church for the past three years, citing a long illness.
It is believed that the Putnam family had a lot to do with her accusation of witchcraft. Sarah married Robert Prince, the brother of a woman who had married a member of the Putnams, a powerful family with whom she was dealing with legal matters.
Osborne remained in jail while the trial was being held and would eventually die there on May 10 of the same year.
Sarah Good
Described by the villagers as dirty, ill-tempered, and strangely isolated from the rest of the community, she was blamed for the deaths of livestock belonging to those who refused to give her alms. When this happened, Sarah was said to leave muttering under her breath. At her trial, she claimed that the mutterings she recited were the Ten Commandments and nothing more. To prove her point, she was asked to recite the commandments at the trial, and Sarah was unable to recite a single one.
The accusation of witchcraft came from seeing her kiss a woman on March 6, 1692, and because the Reverend's daughter and her cousin claimed to have been bewitched by her.
Sarah came from a low social class, reduced to poverty by her first husband's debt. The trials were often motivated by jealousy; in Good's case, her dependence on the other villagers seemed to be a determining factor, as did her own husband, who appeared to claim she was a witch who mistreated him.
The reason for the Salem Trials
Many historians have attempted to explain the Salem witch trials. The most widely accepted explanation is that the American Puritans, who governed the region without royal oversight from 1630 until the Massachusetts Royal Charter of 1692, were experiencing a period of intense religious fanaticism.
The point, as many historians maintain, is that attributing those events to religious fanaticism is simplistic. Other factors must be considered, such as child abuse, disputes over various properties, poisonings from fermented rye bread, the Putnam family's attempts to unseat their rivals, the Porters, and many other elements that combined to create a perfect storm for the trials to erupt.
To all of this, we must add the religious fanaticism, or rather the strict religious conduct imposed in Salem, which is why neighbors kept a watchful eye on one another. If words, behaviors, or actions did not conform to what was considered acceptable or religiously permissible according to Puritan standards, alarm bells rang. Women, in particular, were expected to serve their husbands and had no rights. Children were rigorously trained for the tasks of adulthood instead of being allowed to be children.
And, most importantly, it was essential to avoid God's wrath, which could bring problems with the weather, crops, and livestock. If something bad happened, it was because someone had acted wrongly, and God was sending signs of his anger. Cats in the Middle Ages were also persecuted, 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 women had been arrested on charges of witchcraft. These accusations were never formally brought in the county court. It is known that at least five of the accused died in jail, as happened with Sarah Osborne. Twenty-six people were convicted, and twenty of them, mostly women, were executed, including Sarah Good.
An interesting aspect of these trials is that they were based on rumors; no evidence of demonic or witchcraft acts was presented. The judges were swayed by the religious hysteria that had developed and spread like wildfire, and which could be ignited by a mere comment. The pressure exerted by the Puritans to condemn the alleged witches was also a factor to consider.
Throughout the region, the trials had a great influence and contributed to the decline of Puritan influence in 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 surrounding the Salem witch trials have been depicted in numerous art forms, including painting, printmaking, film, novels, and theater, as is the case here. Perhaps one of the most important works is The Crucible , a play by Arthur Miller written in 1952 and premiered the following year.
Miller himself, the son of Polish Jews, was a victim of the McCarthy era in the 1950s , when he was accused of being a communist sympathizer and refused to name members of a literary circle suspected of having ties to the Communist Party. Despite the pressure he faced, which even prevented him from attending the premieres of some of his plays, he did not name anyone. He was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to name them, but the United States Court of Appeals overturned that conviction in 1958. During this ordeal, he wrote The Crucible.
