Salem Trials

Left England to to practice religion, deeply concerned with the devil and lead a very restricted life.

Native americans seen as a devil worshippers.

Influential Boston intellectual who writes account of trials. Previously published account of the Goodwin children (similar case to Paris children)

New minister in search of a salary. Elizabeth Paris and Abigail Williams- daughter and niece

• Fits and convulsions (possibly taken from the Goodwin children)

• Diagnosed by doctor as witchcraft/demonic forces

Made herself a likely target for witchcraft accusations when she made a "witchcake", a mixture of rye and Elizabeth's urine, cooked and fed to a dog, which would reveal the person afflicting Elizabeth.

Survives a Native American attack as a child, and then moves to Salem (would have spread her experience)

• Devil’s mark (belief in link between witches and devil)

• Hysterical atmosphere

• Hanging (everywhere but NB)

• Apparition- spectral evidence used as witness testimony and thus the witch cannot defend herself.

• Attack and torture of girls by witches

• Continental ideas filtered down to common mind

• Puritan beliefs

• Large witch hunt very late in period (not expected)

• Devil actively searching for souls

• Persecutors: ‘excess of religiosity of Puritanism)

• Political fears: civil war

• Social tensions between different factions

• Patriarchal ideas

• ‘Awkward’ girls looking for attention

  • Ergot

• Massachusetts colony (Puritan) resisting Charles II’s efforts to allow (Catholic) Church of England to become established.

• Salem: Puritanism still central to leadershiP (taxes paid to church even if not a member)

• Charles II concerned about centralising control and extending royal influence. Efforts made to revoke royal charter which allowed self-ruling and create one colony (Puritan authorities resisted this).

• Sir Edmund Andros governed dominion of New England (administered by Charles II’s brother). Unpopular due to reluctance to include well established puritans in council.

• Andros: anglican and governor

• Number of policies contributed to his fall and subsequent lack of authority

• Attempted to fulfil the late Charles II’s wishes for CofE services to be delivered in Puritan churches

• Suspected of high church Anglicanism and Catholic sympathies

• Introduced new taxes (import and export duties) which created resentment

• Restricted number of town meetings

• Changes to land ownership rules

• Fails to deal with Wabanacki threat

• Andros overthrown by the time of the Salem trials

• At the centre of revolt and travels to England to organise a new charter and governor.

  • Massachusetts is left in an unclear situation

Led to fears of invasion

• Puritanism feels under attack due to the fact that they do not wield as much influence/power

• Quakers are preaching, influxes of non-puritans

• Physical threat

• Attack from those ruling

• Wabanacki attacks

• Convinced that NAs worshipped the devil and practiced witchcraft (Puritan mindset)

• Anxiety about demonic threat rose repeatedly

• Parallel between NAs mutilation of enemies and descriptions of witches threatening to tear their victims to pieces

• Male (unusual) suspects becoming vulnerable to accusation due to association with frontier

• Trials deflected attention from failure to deal with the visible threat of the native Americans

• Attacks were more common and successful due to weakened colonial defence (affected girls who were later on trial)

• Paranoia over God’s willingness to let Devil’s agents attack Puritan settlers.

• First NA war- left Massachusetts economy ruined with 1/2 towns attacked/burned.

• Population growth of 3% per annum. Establishment of new towns where settlers livelihood was not completely destroyed.

• Increased tax burden due to 1980s requests for military assistance

Passed by english parliament, hampered economic fortune of the colony.

• Goods imported to England had to be carried on English ships

• Removing Dutch monopoly on freight trade across NA/NE.

• Victory of national trading interest

Exports from colonies had to go through England which restricts flow of money and resources

Navigation acts limited ability to trade with other colonies and slows trading

• governed by a theocracy with religion at the heart of everyday life

• Puritans- god’s chosen people, duty to seek signs of God’s approval and Devil’s presence

• Scientific revolution ignored- crop failures/fires/illnesses/hallucinations are the work of the Devil

• Anyone not conforming with Puritan ideals- suspicious. (Non english European settlers, women, Native Americans, beggars

• Seen as inferior

• Majority accused were women

• Associations with Eve (tempted by devil)

• Emerging tensions in two major settlements- Salem Town and Salem Village (together, 600+)

• Majority of accusers- Salem Village (largely agricultural, well established puritans.

• Salem town was less reliant on agriculture and less driven by religious belief

• Jealousy driving accusations

Many inexplicable occurrences attributed to witchcraft/other supernatural causes.

• residents could connect war in the visible world (attacked by indigenous people) with the war in the invisible world (attacked by the devil and witches)

• If they couldn’t defeat the devil and his indigenous allies on the battlefield, they could do so in the court room.

Sarah (bad reputation) and William Good: homeless and seen as a nuisance. Sarah: perfect candidate for witchcraft accusation.

• specifically chosen to start the trials as most people wanted to be rid of her

Focus on the woman as the witch and how they were often in precarious social/econ situations due to inherited property- socially vulnerable.

• Salem is an anomaly because 1/3 of accused witches were male.

• Women embodied Puritan ideal of women as virtuous helpmeets.

  • Accusations often made against women who threatened the orderly transfer of land from father to son.

‘Little ice age’ economic deterioration, food shortages (anti-witch favour).

• caused widespread scapegoating which manifested in persecution of witches

  • Agrarian and poorer Salem voilage was counterpart to the wealthier, prosperous Salem town. Conflict: differing versions of community.

• Trusted

• good background (church)

• intelligent with good schooling

• knowledgeable in science and theology

• influential family (political)

• leadership

  • Words and opinions carry weight

• Involvement of Satan

• New England: battle with satan

• Eternal damnation

• Book: ‘Remarkable Providences’ about the Goodwin children (influenced the Salem girls?)

  • Seen as a ‘local expert’

• Urges caution over the use of spectral evidence

• Then contradicts self and recommends witch-hunting (those reading assumed he was endorsing)

Initially, the first acccsued were outcasts.

• Martha Corey (haunted the girls): a church goer, respectable. If she was a witch, anyone could be

• Accusations move to more respectable members of the community (see Mercy Lewis).

Disruptive scenes in court (examination, not trial)

• girls being attacked by invisible forces

• Allows for use of spectral evidence

• More objection: more entanglement, hugely dramatic atmosphere

• Wooden ‘jail’ with low hygiene and no temp management

• Those imprisoned not convicted yet but lives already ruined (reputation)

• Interrogated and searched for witches marks (animal familiars sucking teats)

• Witches charged for bed/board and new bedding.

  • Sheriff Corwin makes money off the trials and confiscates property (illegal)

Heavily involved in the trials

• accuse Reverend George Burroughs

• Big supporters of Paris

• He borrowed money from the Putnams and couldn’t repay it (salary not being paid by town). Eventually paid but the Putnam’s did not forget.

• Accused of bewitching soldiers fighting the indigenous peoples

  • Not formally ordained by puritans and to Cotton Mathers, Burroughs represented all that is wrong.

• The first to be tried.

  • The first witness claimed that the spectre sat on his chest

  • The girls are effected and the same scenes of the examination occur again.

  • Mass hypochondria with citizens mimicking girls

• found guilty

Further witches hanged because they did not confess and name others. Unlike Tituba, who did not confess and accused others- and wasn’t accused/killed.

• Mercy Lewis testifies about the spectre of Putnam’s servants tormenting her, and she was urged to write in the Devil’s book

• Burroughs tries to say that spectres don’t exist. Open defiance of puritan ideology is blasphemous and he is hanged.

• Manages to recite the Lord’s Prayer with a noose around neck (which Cotton Mathers has said is impossible). Still executed even though the crowds try to save him.

Unsettled New England

• Puritan power eroded, push of the Church of England, Quakers preaching a lot

  • Salem Village puritans feeling under attack

• Weak central control: overthrown Andros, Increase Mather away finding a new governor.

• Economic situation poor with the Mini Ice Age, colony in general harmed by navigation acts, marginal economy

  • Wabanacki attacks: associated in the Puritan mind with the Devil. Mercy Lewis is a survivor of attacks elsewhere.

• Spiritual and physical world equal and very real

• Puritan population behind the accusations

• Lack of central control where the trials were conducted in a way we wouldn’t have expected at the time (standards/evidence)

• Methods of the judges who contradicted themselves and then said that the Devil took their memory.

  • Quality of evidence- people start to recount.

• Recounted confession and others followed

  • Confessing to gain protection does not happen anymore

• Published a sceptical work called ‘Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits persecuting men’

• Did not discredit spectral evidence but used extensive knowledge of scripture and recent witch cases to argue that genuine cases were rare

• Much evidence used in trials was dubious

• Gave sermons that supported trials but criticised the use of spectral evidence.

• Increase Mather discussed the trials with Phips and others

  • 1689: baptised and took religion far more seriously. Sudden conversion to win the favour of the Mather family?

  • Impacted by Increase Mather

  • Shuts the court down and established a new court with better standards of evidence

  • Respect for Mathers- convinced him that spectral evidence is not good enough.

  • Ultimately Mather’s scepticism was vitally important.

• To manage the overflowing prisons of suspected witches.

• Chief Lieutenant Governor: William Stoughton who heavily believed in spectral evidence was deeply involved in the hunts

• Thomas Brattle’s letter about the validity of spectral evidence in court proceedings. Influential and well educated.

• Phips ordered that spectral evidence was to be no longer accepted on Oct 8th.

• Phips closed the court on Oct 29th, prohibited any further arrests and released many of the accused.

Superior Court of Judicature, not allowing spectral evidence. All pardoned/found not guilty.

• People apologised for their involvement

• Trial evidence removed

  • Puritan explanation: satan deluded accusers.