Causation of the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria - Essay Example

Corey Clark Your October 7, Causation of the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria The Salem Witchcraft hysteria startedwith the inexplicable fits of Betty Paris and her cousin Abigail Williams in 1692, which caused many a people in Salem and its surrounding areas to be accused of and held for trial for Witchcraft in that and the following year. Around twenty five people lost their lives as a result: nineteen were condemned to death and hanged, one old man was pressed to death and five died due to the bad conditions in prison where they were held. The leading cause of this hysteria and all that ensued was not merely the afflictions reported by these and other girls; these symptoms were a precursor to the trials, but a lot of other factors played a part therein. Most, if not all, of the inhabitants of Salem were Puritans, who took the word of Bible literally, thinking that the devil moved amongst them. Moreover, they held very stringent patriarchal beliefs and believed women were supposed to be obedient to their men, as they had lustful natures and were more likely to enlist in the service of the Devil. Children, and mostly girls, were not encouraged to play and engage in other idle activities, but were trained for the life ahead. Also, with the growth of the population in the village, it was getting hard for the farmers to grow enough crops to feed their families, thus necessitating expansion into the land of the indigenous people. The deeply religious feelings of the population caused them to believe that the hardships faced by them were caused by the displeasure of God or by the hand of the Devil. The socio-economic conditions as well as the superstitious beliefs of the puritans played a very major hand in the hysteria and the ensuing trials; so the fact that a lot of the accused were affluent and most of them were property holding women with no man over them had much to do with the trials, because thus their property and land could be taken away from them. Also, there was quite a bit of acrimony between the villagers regarding their new Priest, Reverend Samuel Parris (it is interesting to note here that both the children who were afflicted with the symptoms at first came from the Reverend’s house). There was some debate going on, not only about his choice as the village’s minister, but also about whether the Reverend should get the deed of his parsonage as part of the payment of his services. Initially, three women were accused and then charged, two of whom came from a low socio-economic background, one was a slave and the other was a beggar woman, the third was known to skip church meetings and in the Puritan society that caused quite a bit of rumors, though later quite a host of other people were accused, charged and arrested. The charges brought against them were of witchcraft, and the evidence produced against them was nothing more than hearsay, superstitions and outright lies. The girls afflicted as a result of the witchcraft, would go into fits and contort their bodies when brought into the presence of the accused, moreover, they accused the alleged witches with sending their “specters” (the specters being either a shadowy presence in the shape of the accused person, or another being the witch had supposedly transformed herself into – in short, the specter could be almost anything and everything), these specters would then torture the girls by pinching them or biting them or sending them into convulsions, they claimed. Those other than the accusers “came forward to offer stories of cheese and butter mysteriously gone bad or animals born with deformities after visits by one of the suspects” (Linder). Some of the accused, in hope of a reprieve, admitted to witchcraft and to further appease the magistrates came forward to point out those amongst the accused who they had supposedly practiced witchcraft with. Even the most absurd of claims were not rejected by the magistrates, who had shown their prejudice by allowing spectral evidence in the cases. Touch evidence was also used, whereby the accused was ordered to place their hand on someone having a convulsion, and if the seizure ended, they were considered to be guilty of witchcraft. Moreover, physical anomalies, such as moles and other growths, on the bodies of the accused were also considered to be evidence of their witchcraft. These anomalies were portrayed as their witches marks – areas where the “witchs familiar might suck” (Linder). The accusers were all mostly children or very young girls; hence, they held no prominent position in the society. Being female, all of them were all the more sidelined in the Puritan community, with any form of play frowned upon; it was considered to be their duty to train for their future life as a good wife and mother, so they were trained in household matters like spinning and sewing etc. With the advent of the trials, which perhaps started because of a number of reasons, the girls saw their prominence rise, and observed how much power they held – people actually listened to them and took them seriously. The initial bouts of fits and convulsions of the two girls were, perhaps, caused by some medical condition, like convulsive ergotism caused by eating moldy rye bread, which was undiscovered at that time, hence a supernatural explanation was sought. However, once the girls saw the prominence their actions brought, they decided to keep at them. Also, it has been pointed out that the trials and their results were favorable to some of the parents of the afflicted children as well; they either stood to gain property, or monetary gains, or other benefits from the trials. Hence, it can be surmised that one of the reasons why the girls acted the way they did was because they were coached in their performances, and told or instructed how to behave in the courthouse by their elders. The Puritan mindset of the girls made them more susceptible to obeying their elders and also carrying out their wishes without much thought as to the morality (or lack thereof) in their actions. There can also be a psychological aspect to it, if it is considered that the girls actually did believe their own accusations to be true, whereby the group of girls believed they had physical afflictions and thus suffered a psychosomatic disorder. The girls were growing up in an environment where they were not treated age appropriately and were forced to grow up much quickly, and were brought up to believe in various superstitions, so it can be true that the fear and exhaustion brought about the psychosomatic symptoms that the girls presented in the courtroom or outside it. Thus, the girls enacted the role of being bewitched, a role they had assigned themselves to themselves. One of the foremost impacts of these trials was the changing in the court procedure with regard to the presumption of innocence of the accused. However, on a societal level, there were not many changes that were seen, the Puritans still conducted themselves in the patriarchal way they had always done, and the women were still ordered to be obedient to the men of their household. No change in this mindset was brought upon by these trials; it was with a change of the general trend of the society that the strictly patriarchal and superstitious beliefs of the Puritans were eradicated. Works Cited In Search of History – Salem Witch Trials. The History Channel. A & E Home Video, 2005. DVD. Linder, Douglas. “The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary.” Famous American Trials. University of Missouri-Kansas City, n.d. Web. 7 October 2010. “Salem Witchcraft Hysteria.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 6 October 2010. “Salem Witch Trials – Documentary Archive and Transcription Project.” The University of Virginia. Benjamin Ray and the University of Virginia, 2002. Web. 7 October 2010. “The Salem Witch Trials, 1692.” EyeWitnesstoHistory.com. EyeWitness to History, 2000. Web. 7 October 2010. Read More