The Infamous Salem Witch Trials - Essay Example

Salem Witch Trials Lisa Haddon When the Puritans arrived in North America and settled their colony in the of New England they brought with them their ideas about Satan, and the fear of the devil saturated their culture. Puritans belief in witches stemmed from their European heritage, witchcraft was associated with heresy as it revolved around anti-Christian religions. In 1688 Mary Glover, an Irish servant girl, was hanged as a witch and four years later in nearby Salem, the infamous Salem Witch Trials began which led to a mass execution within the Puritan community . During the Salem witch trials which occurred between 1692 and 1693 over 150 people were accused, arrested and imprisoned for the offence of witchcraft, 19 were hanged or crushed to death and 17 others died in prison. The fear that swept through the colony would in today's time be irrational but during this era of Puritanism it was a balanced and bona fide response. Puritans believed that the devil offered material recompense for collusion with him. Some of the evidence used in the trials was spectral evidence whereby those who had been affected claimed they had seen the apparition of the person who had afflicted them. In order for this to happen the Devil, it was said, had to be given permission by the accused to use their shape when appearing before their victims. A minister who was involved in the trials, Increase Mather and other ministers wrote a letter to the courts of Salem insisting that spectral evidence alone should not be used to convict the accused. (Mather, 1693) During one trial the accused Mary Osgood in her defense stated "the Lord would not suffer it so to be, that the devil should afflict in an innocent persons shape". She talked about how the devil had offered her rewards for her collusion and whilst she had agreed was able to prove that actually her life had become worse since her involvement with Satan and therefore had never fulfilled any commitment made to him (Reis, 1997). Consequently her life was spared. It was the women who denied conspiracy with Satan that faced execution for witch craft and testified that they would gain absolution from God upon death due to their innocence. At Sarah Goods execution she proclaimed the following to the minister "I am no more a witch than you are a wizard and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink" (Reis, 1997). During the trials the situation reached hysterical proportions and it is the sheer size of the occurrences of accusations that has warranted further investigation to create a rationale for the multitude of persecutions. Even during the trials the hysteria generated called some individuals to instigate an examination of possible alternatives to witchcraft. The initial accusations in Salem Village resulted with the testimony of Betty Parris, age 9, the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris, the Puritan Minister of Salem during the trials, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, the young girls began having fits that were said to be "beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect" (Hale, 1697). Other women in the village also began to display similar symptoms shortly after. The women accused of affecting the girls through the powers of witchcraft were Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good and a female slave called Tituba who was indentured to the Parris family. Sarah Osborn was married to one of her own servants and rarely attended church, Sarah Good was renowned for begging and asking for shelter and Tituba had a different background to that of Puritanism. The girls had accused Tituba of witchcraft and she was consequently beaten into a confession that she was indeed a witch. Due to these three individuals hardly measuring up to being what would have been deemed at the time as respectable members of the Puritan community they were obvious suspects for the rituals of witchcraft. However it wasn't long before upstanding and often influential members of their community began being accused and tried. On the 19th of August 1692 a former minister of Salem village and one who had graduated from Harvard University was executed on Gallows Hill, Salem. George Burroughs had been accused of witchcraft by enemies of his who had sued him previously for outstanding debts. It was believed at the time that the devil placed marks upon the body to commemorate initiation rituals, (Guiley, 1989) not only were no marks found on his body but he also recited the Lords Prayer just before his execution which was said to be impossible for a witch or wizard to do. The witnesses at the execution were stunned at this ability and began to get agitated only to be calmed and reassured by Cotton Mather a minister who reminded them that he had been found guilty in a court of law and was in fact an imposter. It was Burroughs death that instigated a change in attitudes towards the trials. Cotton Mather who had also graduated at Harvard and his Father Increase Mather had played a major role in asserting accusations and arrests in Salem and was a personal friend of some of the judges overseeing the trials. He had attended the trials and investigated many of the cases, and had written sermons on the subject of witchcraft. The reaction to Burroughs death troubled the law men that had conducted the trials and they began to question their sentences and the foundations of the accusations. The Governor of New England instructed Cotton Mather to investigate the reality of the situation. The result was the book The Wonders of the Invisible World which was in reality an attempt to defend his own role in the witch hunt. A quote from the book attempts to find justification for any individual regardless of social position being accused and found guilty of dealings in witchcraft "The best man that ever lived has been called a Witch: and why may not this too usual and unhappy Symptom of A Witch, even a Spectral Representation, befall a person that shall be none of the worst Is it not possible" (Mather, 1693). The quote could be a reflection of the execution of Burroughs amongst other respected members of the community. If the same occurrences were to happen in today's society the rationale would be quite different. One theory on the spectral sightings is that of hallucination caused by a fungus know as ergot which has a similar chemical makeup of the hallucinogenic and psychotic drug LSD. The afflicted girls may have eaten bread made with rye that had been moldy with the fungus. The theory by Linda Caporael in Science Magazine claims that the symptoms displayed through ingesting ergot are similar to the symptoms of the victims of the supposed witchcraft. This theory can be contested as ergot poisoning would not have affected individuals but all who ate the moldy bread, whole households rather than an individual family member. The area was also suffering drought at the time of the trials and was not the ideal environment for the mold to develop though Caporael states that the rye would have been kept in storage for several months before being threshed. The religious way of life and the beliefs associated within Puritanism alone may have caused the mass hysteria. In today's society whilst many still believe in the role of Satan and demons and witches there are psychological and scientific explanations that would ensure mass hysteria did not occur. The people of Salem may have experienced mass hysteria caused by the fanatical and fundamental religious faith which was fueled by superstition, panic, rumor and absolute fear, where rationale was disregarded and no other explanation of the day was available. Tituba also fuelled suspicion and fear as due to her difference in ethnicity and culture, however suppressed as a slave, it is said that she was known for speaking to the Reverend Parris' daughter and niece about tales of black magic and witchcraft from her native folklore. Perhaps it was simply a case of two young girls with over active imaginations that were rebelling against the patriarchical Puritanical society of which their strict father and uncle was a leading religious figure that saw the start of a social hysteria that swept through the colony of New England, stirring fear and suspicion within a community that held a firm belief that the New World was already controlled by satanic influences; a community that were heavily influenced by their religious beliefs, ministers who had the power to influence opinion of their congregation as in the words of the Reverend John Hale clearly indicates, "It cannot be imagined that in a place of so much knowledge, so many in so small compass of land should abominably leap into the Devil's lap at once". What can be ascertained is that if two young girls in Salem had such an imagination today the consequences would be quite different to the death and persecution that occurred over three hundred years ago. Bibliography Caporael, Linnda R.(1976) "Ergotism: The satan loosed in Salem Convulsive ergotism may been a physiological basis for the Salem witchcraft crisis in 1692. " Science, Vol.192(2 April 1976).Retrieved from http://web.utk.edu/kstclair/221/ergotism.html 17th November 2008 Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (1989) .The encyclopedia of witches and witchcraft. New York: Facts File.. p. 99 Retrieved from http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/d/devil's_mark.html 17th November 2008 Hale, John (1702) A modest enquiry into the nature of witchcraft 1697 Boston in N. E. Printed By B. Green and J. Allen, for Benjamin Elliot under the Town House, Retrieved from http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/archives/ModestEnquiry/ 17th November 2008 Mather, Cotton. (1998) The wonders of the invisible world. Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils (Reiner Smolinski Eds) (Orignal work published 1693) Mather, Increase. (1693)Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits Benjamin Harris, Boston. Retrieved from http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/speccol/mather/ 17th November 2008 Reis, Elizabeth (1997) Damned women: Sinners and witches in puritan New England Cornell University Press. Read More