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The 'Salem witch trials' were a series of hearings by local magistrates and county court trials to prosecute people alleged to have committed acts of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk and Middlesex Counties of Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. The hearings in 1692 were conducted in Salem Village, Ipswich, Andover and Salem Town, Massachusetts. The trials in 1692 were all held in Salem Town by the Court of Oyer and Terminer, with the Superior Court of Judicature hearing cases in 1693 in the individual county court seats: Salem Town, Ipswich, Boston, and Charlestown. Between February 1692 and May 1693, over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused who were not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted thirty people of the capital felony of witchcraft, twenty of whom (fourteen women, six men) were executed -- nineteen by hanging and one by being pressed to death. In addition to those executed, at least five more died in prison. While not the first or only witch-hunt in New England or Europe, the sensational story of these particular individuals has secured its place in the cultural imagination of the United States.

Contents

Background

Origin of trials

The Witch Cake and the Touch Test

Accusations

Legal procedures

Closure

Possible explanations of the "possessed"

Time line

The Salem witch trials in literature

The Salem witch trials in popular culture and media

See also

Notes and references

Further reading

External links

Background

In 1692, Salem Village was torn by internal disputes between neighbors who disagreed about the choice of Samuel Parris as their first ordained minister. In January 1692, York, at the "Eastward" frontier of Maine, was attacked by the Abenaki Indians, and many of its citizens were massacred or taken captive, echoing the brutality of King Philip's War of 1675-76.
Increasing family size fueled disputes over land between neighbors and within families, especially on the frontier where the economy was based on farming. Changes in the weather or blights could easily wipe out a year's crop. A farm that could support an average-sized family could not support the many families of the next generation, prompting farmers to push farther into the wilderness to find land, encroaching upon the indigenous people. As the Puritans had vowed to create a theocracy in this new land, religious fervor added tension to the mix. Losses of crops, livestock, and children, as well as earthquakes and bad weather, were typically attributed to the wrath of God.
Within the Puritan faith, one's soul was considered predestined from birth as to whether it had been chosen for Heaven or condemned to Hell. Puritans constantly searched for hints to this predestination, assuming God's pleasure and displeasure could be read in signs given in the visible world. The invisible world was inhabited by God and the angels, including the Devil who was seen as a fallen angel. To Puritans, this invisible world was as real as the visible one around them.
The patriarchal beliefs that Puritans held in the community added further stresses. Women, they believed, should be totally subservient to men. By nature, a woman was more likely to enlist in the Devil's service than was a man, and women were considered lustful by nature. In addition, the small-town atmosphere made secrets difficult to keep and people's opinions about their neighbors were generally accepted as fact. In an age where the philosophy "children should be seen and not heard" was taken at face value, children were at the bottom of the social ladder. Toys and games were seen as idle and playing was discouraged. Girls had additional restrictions heaped upon them. Boys were able to go hunting, fishing, exploring in the forest, and often became apprentices to carpenters and smiths, while girls were trained from a tender age to spin yarn, cook, sew, weave, and be servants to their husbands, mothers, and children.

Origin of trials

In Salem Village in 1692, Betty Parris, age 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, the daughter and niece (respectively) of Reverend Samuel Parris, fell victim to what was recorded as fits "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect," according to John Hale, minister in Beverly, in his book ''A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft'' (Boston, 1702). The girls screamed, threw things about the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions, according to the eyewitness account of Rev. Deodat Lawson, ''A Brief and True Narrative Of some Remarkable Passages Relating to sundry Persons Afflicted by Witchcraft, at Salem Village Which happened from the Nineteenth of March, to the Fifth of April, 1692.'' The girls complained of being pinched and pricked with pins. A doctor, historically assumed to be William Griggs, could find no physical evidence of any ailment. Other young women in the village began to exhibit similar behaviors. When Lawson preached in the Salem Village meetinghouse, he was interupted several times by outbursts of the afflicted.

In his book ''Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions'' (1689) , Cotton Mather describes the strange behavior exhibited by the four children of a Boston mason, John Goodwin, and attributed it to witchcraft practiced upon them by an Irish washerwoman, Mary Glover. Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church (not to be confused with the Episcopalian Old North Church of Paul Revere fame), was a prolific publisher of pamphlets and a firm believer in witchcraft. Three of the five judges appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer were friends of his and members of his congregation. He wrote to one of the judges, John Richards, supporting the prosecutions, but cautioning him of the dangers of relying on spectral evidence and advising the court on how to proceed. Mather was present at the execution of the Reverend George Burroughs for witchcraft on August 19, 1692, and intervened after the condemned man had successfully recited the Lord's Prayer (supposedly a sign of innocence) to remind the crowd that the man had been convicted before a jury. Mather was asked by Governor Phipps in September to write about the trials, and obtained access to the official records of the Salem trials from his friend Stephen Sewall, clerk of the court, upon which his account of the affair, ''Wonders of the Invisible World'', was based.
Traditionally, the affected girls are said to have been "entertained" by Parris' slave woman, Tituba, during the winter of 1692, although there is no contemporary evidence to support the story (Reis 56). Tituba's race is often cited as Carib-Indian or that she was of African descent, but contemporary sources describe her only as an "Indian." Research by Elaine Breslaw has suggested that she may well have been captured in what is now Venezuela and brought to Barbados, and so may have been an Arawak Indian, but other slightly later descriptions of her, by Gov. Hutchinson writing his history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 18th century, describe her as a "Spanish Indian." In that day, that typically meant an Indian from the Carolinas/Georgia/Florida. Contrary to the folklore, there is no evidence to support the assertion that Tituba told any of the girls any stories about using magic. The one supportable association with any type of magical practices is that John Indian, another slave in the Parris household (and assumed to have been Tituba's husband), was given a British recipe by a neighbor of the parsonage for a type of cake that could be used for identifying a witch.
Wiccan sources, however, contradict that notion. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft'', Reverend Parris unknowingly "caused the witch hysteria." Prior to becoming a minister, Parris had been a merchant in Barbados, where he purchased the slave couple John and Tituba, who upon arrival in Massachusetts were given the last name Indian. Tituba was charged with caring for Paris' daughter Elizabeth (or Betty) and his niece, Abigail Williams. In the winter months, the black slave regaled the housebound girls with tales of Barbados that included stories of native voodoo.^[1]
Intrigued with the notion of voodoo, the girls and a number of their friends began toying with the occult, trying their hands at fortune telling. They would float an egg white in a vessel of water to create a primitive crystal ball in an attempt to divine the professions of their future spouses. The "game" became frightening when one girl saw the image of a coffin in the glass. Shortly thereafter, the girls, beginning with Betty Paris, began having fits. It is not possible to know whether the girls feigned the fits to hide their own involvement with the occult or whether there were other causes.

The Witch Cake and the Touch Test

At some point in February 1692, likely between the time when the afflictions began but before specific names were mentioned, a neighbor of Rev. Parris, Mary Sibly (aunt of the afflicted Mary Walcott), instructed John Indian, one of the minister's slaves, to make a "witch cake," using traditional English white magic to discover the identity of the witch who was afflicting the girls. The cake, made from rye meal and urine from the afflicted girls, was fed to a dog.
According to English folk understanding of how witches accomplished affliction, when the dog ate the cake, the witch herself would be hurt because invisible particles she had sent to afflict the girls remained in the girls' urine, and her cries of pain when the dog ate the cake would identify her as the witch. This superstition was based on the Cartesian "Doctrine of Effluvia", which posited that witches afflicted by the use of "venemous and malignant particles, that were ejected from the eye," according to the October 8, 1692 letter of Thomas Brattle, a contemporary critic of the trials. ^[2]

According to the ''Records of the Salem-Village Church'', Parris spoke with Sibly privately on March 25, 1692 about her "grand error" and accepted her "sorrowful confession." That Sunday, March 27, during his Sunday sermon, he addressed his congregation about the "calamities" that had begun in his own household, but stated, "it never brake forth to any considerable light, until diabolical means were used, by the making of a cake by my Indian man, who had his direction from this our sister, Mary Sibly," going on to admonish all against the use of any kind of magic, even white magic, because it was essentially, "going to the Devil for help against the Devil." Mary Sibley publicly acknowledged the error of her actions before the congregation, who voted by a show of hands that they were satisfied with her admission of error. ^[3]
Other instances appear in the records of the episode that demonstrated a continued belief by members of the community in this "effluvia" as legitimate evidence, including accounts in two statements against Elizabeth How that people had suggested cutting off and burning an ear of two different animals How was thought to have afflicted, to prove she was the one who had bewitched them to death. ^[4]
The most infamous employment of this belief, however -- and in direct opposition to what Parris had advised his own parishoners in Salem Village -- was the "touch test" used in Andover during preliminary examinations in September 1692. As several of those accused later recounted, "we were blindfolded, and our hands were laid upon the afflicted persons, they being in their fits and falling into their fits at our coming into their presence, as they said. Some led us and laid our hands upon them, and then they said they were well and that we were guilty of afflicting them; whereupon we were all seized, as prisoners, by a warrant from the justice of the peace and forthwith carried to Salem" ^[5] Rev. John Hale explained how this supposedly worked: "the Witch by the cast of her eye sends forth a Malefick Venome into the Bewitched to cast him into a fit, and therefore the touch of the hand doth by sympathy cause that venome to return into the Body of the Witch again." ^[6]

Accusations

The first three people accused and arrested for allegedly afflicting Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, 12-year-old Ann Putnam, Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba (Boyer 3) ^[7]. Tituba, as a slave of a different ethnicity than the Puritans, was an obvious target for accusations. Sarah Good, a poverty-worn, easily-angered woman, often muttered under her breath as she walked away from failed attempts of obtaining food or shelter from neighbors and people interpreted her muttering as curses. Sarah Osburne, an irritable old woman, was already marked for marrying her indentured servant. All of these women fit the description of the "usual suspects," since nobody would likely stand up for them; neither Osburne nor Good attended church, which made them especially vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft.
These women were brought before the local magistrates on the complaint of witchcraft and interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, 1692, then sent to jail (Boyer 3). Other accusations followed in March: Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Dorothy Good (mistakenly called Dorcas Good in her arrest warrant), and Rachel Clinton. Martha Corey, ever an outspoken woman, was skeptical about the credence of the girls from the start and scoffed at the hearings by the magistrates, unfortunately drawing attention to herself. Dorothy Good, the daughter of Sarah Good, was only 4 years old, and easily manipulated by the magistrates to say things that were taken as a confession, implicating her own mother. To be with her mother after the accusations, she claimed herself a witch and was arrested. The charges against Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey greatly disturbed the community. Martha Corey was a full covenanted member of the Church in Salem Village, as was Rebecca Nurse in the Church in Salem Town. If such upstanding people could be accused of witchcraft and seen as possible witches, then anybody could be a witch and Church membership was no protection from accusation.
Throughout April, many more were arrested: Sarah Cloyce (Nurse's sister), Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor and her husband John Proctor, Giles Corey (Martha's husband, and a covenanted church member in Salem Town), Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Mary Warren (a servant in the Proctor household and sometime accuser herself), Deliverance Hobbs (step-mother of Abigail Hobbs), Sarah Wilds, William Hobbs (husband of Deliverance and father of Abigail), Nehemiah Abbott Jr., Mary Esty (sister of Cloyce and Nurse), Edward Bishop Jr. and his wife Sarah Bishop, and Mary English, and finally on April 30, the Reverend George Burroughs, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin, Dorcas Hoar, Sarah Morey and Philip English (Mary's husband). Nehemiah Abbott Jr. was released because the accusers agreed he was not the person whose spectre had afflicted them. Mary Esty was released for a few days after her initial arrest because the accusers failed to confirm that it was she who had afflicted them, and then she was rearrested when the accusers reconsidered.
Much, but not all, of the evidence used against the accused was "spectral evidence," or the testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see the apparition or the shape of the person who was allegedly afflicting them. The theological dispute that ensued about the use of this evidence centered on whether a person had to give permission to the Devil for his/her "shape" to be used to afflict. Opponents claimed that the Devil was able to use anyone's "shape" to afflict people, but the Court contended that the Devil could not use a person's shape without that person's permission; therefore, when the afflicted claimed to "see" the apparition of a specific person, that was accepted as evidence that the accused had been complicit with the Devil. Increase Mather and other ministers sent a letter to the Court, "The Return of Several Ministers Consulted," urging the magistrates not to convict on spectral evidence alone. A copy of this letter was printed in Increase Mather's ["Cases of Conscience"] published in 1693. See facsimiles of [page 73] and [page 74] of this rare book. Other evidence included the confession of the accused, the testimony of another confessing "witch" identifying others as witches, the discovery of "poppits," books of palmistry and horoscopes, or pots of ointments in the possession or home of the accused, and the existence of so-called "witch's teats" on the body of the accused.

As the number of accusations grew, the jail populations of Salem, Ipswich, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Boston swelled. The new governor and charter for the colony did not arrive until May. Some have postulated that without this, there was no legitimate form of government to try capital cases (Boyer 6), but this was not true. In the years between charters, according to the Records of the Court of Assistants, a group of 13 pirates led by Thomas Johnson, a mariner of Boston, were tried and hanged on January 27, 1690 for acts of piracy and murder in August and October of 1689.^[8] Elizabeth Emerson of Haverhill, Massachusetts was tried and hanged for double-infanticide in May 1691.^[9] The fact that none of the witchcraft cases was tried until late May, after Governor Sir William Phips arrived and instituted a Court of Oyer and Terminer (to "hear and determine"), was likely in deference to his imminent arrival. Phips appointed William Stoughton, who had theological training but no legal training, as the Chief Justice of this court (Boyer 7). By then, Sarah Osborne had died of natural causes in jail on May 10 without a trial (Boyer 3), as had Sarah Good's infant.
In May, warrants were issued for 36 more people: Sarah Dustin (daughter of Lydia Dustin), Ann Sears, Bethiah Carter Sr. and her daughter Bethiah Carter Jr., George Jacobs Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs, John Willard, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Abigail Soames, George Jacobs Jr. (son of George Jacobs Sr. and father of Margaret Jacobs), Daniel Andrew, Rebecca Jacobs (wife of George Jacobs Jr. and sister of Daniel Andrew), Sarah Buckley and her daughter Mary Witheridge, Elizabeth Colson, Elizabeth Hart, Thomas Farrar Sr., Roger Toothaker, Sarah Proctor (daughter of John and Elilzabeth Proctor), Sarah Bassett (sister-in-law of Elizabeth Proctor), Susannah Roots, Mary DeRich (another sister-in-law of Elizabeth Proctor), Sarah Pease, Elizabeth Cary, Martha Carrier, Elizabeth Fosdick, Wilmot Redd, Sarah Rice, Elizabeth How, Capt. John Alden (son of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of Plymouth Colony), William Proctor (son of John and Elizabeth Proctor), John Flood, Mary Toothaker (wife of Roger Toothaker and sister of Martha Carrier) and her daughter Margaret Toothaker, and Arthur Abbott. John Willard and Elizabeth Colson managed to evade capture for a while but were finally taken into custody, whereas Daniel Andrew and George Jacobs Jr. were never apprehended. When the Court of Oyer and Terminer convened at the end of May, this brought the total number of people in custody for the court to handle to 62.^[10]

Legal procedures

After someone concluded that a loss, illness or death had been caused by witchcraft, the accuser would enter a complaint against the alleged witch with the local magistrates.^[11]
If the complaint was deemed credible, the magistrates would have the person arrested^[12] and brought in for a public examination, essentially an interrogation, where the magistrates pressed the accused to confess.^[13]
If the magistrates at this local level were satisfied that the complaint was well-founded, the prisoner was handed over to be dealt with by a superior court. In 1692, the magistrates opted to wait for the arrival of the new charter and governor, who would establish a Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle these cases.
The next step, at the superior court level, was to summon witnesses before a grand jury.^[14]
A person could be indicted on charges of afflicting with witchcraft^[15],
or for making an unlawful covenant with the Devil.^[16] Once indicted, the defendant went to trial, sometimes on the same day, as in the case of the first person indicted and tried on June 2, Bridget Bishop, who was executed on June 10, 1692.
There were four execution dates, with one person executed on June 10, 1692^[17], five executed on July 19, 1692^[18], another five executed on August 19, 1692 (Susannah Martin, John Willard, George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., and John Proctor), and eight on September 22, 1692 (Mary Esty, Martha Cory, Ann Pudeator, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd, and Margaret Scott). Several others, including Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor and Abigail Faulkner, were convicted but given temporary reprieves because they were pregnant (Chronology). Though convicted, they would not be hanged until they had given birth (Chronology). Five other women were convicted in 1692, but sentence was never carried out: Ann Foster (who later died in prison), her daughter Mary Lacy Sr., Abigail Hobbs, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury.

Giles Corey, an 80-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem (called Salem Farms), refused to enter a plea when he came to trial in September. The judges mistakenly believed that the law provided for the application of a form of torture called ''peine forte et dure'', in which the victim was slowly crushed by slowly piling stones on a board laid upon the victim's body. (British law had, in reality, abolished this practice twenty years earlier.)[1] After two days of ''peine fort et dure'', Corey died, his chest crushed, without entering a plea (Boyer 8). Though his refusal to plead is often explained as a way of preventing his possessions from being confiscated by the state, this is not true; the possessions of convicted witches were often confiscated, and the possessions of persons accused but not convicted were confiscated before a trial, as in the case of Corey's neighbor John Proctor and the wealthy Englishmen of Salem Town. Some historians hypothesize that Giles Corey's personal character, a stubborn and lawsuit-prone old man who knew he was going to be convicted regardless, led to his recalcitrance (Boyer 8).

'The Petition of John Proctor'

SALEM-PRISON, July 23, 1692.

Mr. Mather, Mr. Allen, Mr. Moody, Mr. Willard, and Mr. Bailey

Reverend Gentlemen,
:The innocency of our Case with the Enmity of our Accusers and our Judges, and Jury, whom nothing but our Innocent blood will serve their turn, having Condmened us already before our Tryals, being so much incensed and engaged against us by the Devil, makes us bold to Beg and Implore your Favourable Assistance of this our Humble Petition to his Excellency, That if it be possible our Innocent Blood may be spared, which undoubtedly otherwise will be shed, if the Lord doth not mercifully step in. The Magistrates, Ministers, Jewries, and all the People in general, being so much inraged and incensed against us by the Delusion of the Devil, which we can term no other, by reason we know in our own Consciences, we are all Innocent Persons. here are five Persons who have lately confessed themselves to be Witches, and do accuse some of us, of being along with them at a Sacrament, since we were committed into close Prison, which we know to be Lies. Two of the 5 are (Carriers Sons) Youngmen, who would not confess any thing till they tyed them Neck and Heels till the Blood was ready to come out of their Noses, and ‘tis credibly believed and reported this was the occasion of making them confess that they never did, by reason they said one had been a Witch a Month, another five Weeks, and that their Mother had made them so, who has been confined here this nine Weeks. My son William Proctor, when he was examin'd, because he would not confess that he was Guilty, when he was Innocent, they tyed him Neck and Heels till the Blood gushed out of his Nose, and would have kept him so 24 Hours, if one more Merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him, and caused him to be unbound. These actions are very like the Popish Cruelties. They have already undone us in our Estates, and that will not serve their turns, without our Innocent Bloods. If it cannot be granted that we can have our Trials at Boston, we humbly beg that you would endeavour to have these Magistrates changed, and others in their rooms, begging also and beseeching you would be pleased to be here, if not all, some of you at our Trials, hoping thereby you may be the means of saving the shedding our Innocent Bloods, desiring your Prayers to the Lord in our behalf, we rest your Poor Afflicted Servants,

JOHN PROCTOR, etc.^[19]

Sadly, not even in death were the accused witches granted peace or respect. As convicted witches, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey had been excommunicated from their churches and none was given proper burial. As soon as the bodies of the accused were cut down from the trees, they were thrown into a shallow grave and the crowd would disperse. Oral history claims that the families of the dead reclaimed their bodies after dark and buried them in unmarked graves on family property. The record books of the time do not mention the deaths of any of those executed.
Philip and Mary English escaped to New York. They returned after the trials to find their property pillaged. Philip English eventually recovered 260 pounds out of a claim of 1183 pounds. ^[20]

Closure

Rev. Increase Mather (1639-1723)

The Reverend Francis Dane led the opposition and supported the accused. He petitioned the Governor and General Court, condemning the trials due to unfounded accusations. The last witch trials took place in May of 1693, although people already found not guilty of witchcraft were not released until they paid their jailers' fees. On October 3, 1692, Increase Mather published "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits." In it, Increase Mather stated "It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that one Innocent Person should be Condemned." After another trial was conducted, all those in jail were set free in May of 1693 (this amnesty is what saved Elizabeth Proctor).
Many descendants of the people who were wrongfully convicted still sought closure. Numerous petitions were filed between 1692 and 1711, demanding monetary restitution to those wrongly imprisoned.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives finally passed a bill disallowing spectral evidence. However, they gave reversal of attainder only for those who had filed petitions.^[21] This applied to only three people, who had been convicted but not executed: Abigail Faulkner Sr., Elizabeth Proctor, and Sarah Wardwell.^[22]
In 1704, another petition was filed, requesting a more equitable settlement for those wrongly accused. In 1709, the General Court received a request to take action on this proposal. In May 1709, 22 people who had been convicted of witchcraft, or whose parents had been convicted of witchcraft, presented the government with a petition in which they demanded both a reversal of attainder and compensation for financial losses.
In 1706, Ann Putnam, one of the most active accusers, was the only one to offer a written apology. She claimed that she had not acted out of malice, but was being deluded by Satan into denouncing innocent people, and mentioned Rebecca Nurse in particular. In 1712, the pastor who had cast Rebecca out of the church, formally canceled the excommunication.
On October 17, 1711, the General Court passed a bill reversing the judgment against the 22 people listed in the 1709 petition (there were seven additional people who had been convicted but had not signed the petition, but there was no reversal of attainder for them).
On December 17, 1711, monetary compensation was finally awarded to the 22 people in the 1709 petition. The amount of 578 pounds 12 shillings was authorized to be divided among the survivors and relatives of those accused, and most of the accounts were settled within a year. An additional amount of 150 pounds was awarded to the Proctor family for John and Elizabeth, so the Proctor family received much more money from the Massachusetts General Court than most families of the accused witches.
By 1957, not all the condemned had been exonerated. Descendants of the six people who had been wrongly convicted and executed but who had not been included in the bill for a reversal of attainder in 1711, or added to it in 1712, demanded that the General Court formally clear the names of their ancestral family members. An act was passed pronouncing the innocence of those accused, although it listed only Ann Pudeator by name. The others were listed as "certain other persons," still failing to include Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott by name.
In 1992, The Danvers Tercentenial Committee persuaded the Massachusetts House of Representatives to issue a resolution honoring those who had died. After much convincing and hard work by Salem school teacher Paula Keene, Representatives J. Michael Ruane and Paul Tirone and others, the names of all those not previously listed were added to this resolution. When it was finally signed on October 31, 2001 by Governor Jane Swift, more than 300 years later, all were finally proclaimed innocent.

Possible explanations of the "possessed"

Today, it is not widely believed that the girls who made the original accusations were actually possessed by the devil. Most academics believe that the accusers were motivated by jealousy, spite, or a need for attention and that their behavior was all an act. Contemporaneous to the witch trials was the Glorious Revolution in England, leaving the colony of Massachusetts without a charter or governor, which in turn led to political strife, uncertainty, and extreme behavior. Other theories posit that the accusers were afflicted by hysteria, a form of mental illness.
In 1976, graduate student Linnda Caporael published an article in Science magazine, making the claim that the hallucinations of the afflicted girls could possibly have been the result of ingesting rye bread that had been made with moldy grain. "Ergot of Rye" is a plant disease caused by the fungus ''Claviceps purpurea''. This fungus contains chemical precursors used to synthesize the powerful psychedelic drug LSD. Convulsive ergotism causes nervous dysfunction, which Caporael claims is consistent with many of the physical symptoms of those alleged to be afflicted by witchcraft. Within seven months, however, a refutation of this theory was published in the same journal by Nick Spanos and Jack Gottlieb^[23], arguing, among other things that if the poison was in the food supply, the symptoms would have occurred on a house-by-house basis, and that biological symptoms do not stop and start on cue and simultaneously in a group of those afflicted (as described by witnesses).
In her book ''A Fever in Salem'', Laurie Winn Carlson offers an alternative theory. She believes those afflicted in Salem, who claimed to have been bewitched, suffered from encephalitis lethargica, a disease whose symptoms match some of what was reported in Salem and could have been spread by birds and other animals (Aronson).
It also has been suggested in an undocumented article that the girls could have had Huntington's Chorea, carriers of which have been traced to be among the colonists that settled in that area ^[24], but no serious modern historian [Mary Beth Norton, Bernard Rosenthal, and Marilynne K. Roach, among others] gives any of these medical explanations any serious credibility. They cite the apparent "cherry-picking" of biological symptoms by adherents of the medical theories to make the afflictions seem more consistent with the selected illness, and point out that the evidence cited as support for certain symptoms is often historically inaccurate.

Time line

Chronology of events relating
to the Salem witchcraft trials ^[25]:
;1688

★ Following an argument with laundress Goody Glover, Martha Goodwin, 13, begins exhibiting bizarre behavior. Days later, her younger brother and two sisters exhibit similar behavior. Glover is arrested and tried for bewitching the Goodwin children. The Reverend Cotton Mather meets twice with Glover following her arrest in an attempt to persuade her to repent her witchcraft. Glover is hanged. Mather takes Martha Goodwin into his house. Her bizarre behavior continues and worsens.

★ Cotton Mather publishes ''"Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions"''
;1689
November: Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem. Parris moves to Salem from Boston, where Memorable Providences was published.
;1691
October 16: Villagers vow to drive Parris out of Salem and stop contributing to his salary.
;1692:
January 20: Eleven-year old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris begin behaving much as the Goodwin children acted four years earlier. Soon Ann Putnam Jr. and other Salem girls begin acting similarly.
Mid-February: A local doctor (historically assumed to be Doctor Griggs), attends to the "afflicted" girls, and first suggests that witchcraft may be the cause.
''c.''February 25: Mary Sibley, a neighbor of the Parris family, tells John Indian, the husband of Tituba, the recipe to make a "witch cake" of rye meal and the girls' urine to feed to a dog in order to discover who is bewitching the girls, according to English folk "white magic" practices.
late February: Pressured by ministers and townspeople to say who caused her odd behavior, Elizabeth Parris identifies Tituba. The girls later accuse Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of witchcraft.
February 29: Based on formal complaints from Joseph Hutchinson, Thomas Putnam, Edward Putnam and Thomas Preston, Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin issue warrants to arrest Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba for afflicting Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard.
March 1–March 7: Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin interrogate Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba over the course of several days. Tituba confesses to afflicting and confirms Good and Osborne are her co-conspirators.
March 11: Ann Putnam Jr. shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren later allege affliction as well.
March 12: Ann Putnam Jr. accuses Martha Cory of witchcraft.
March 19: Abigail Williams denounces Rebecca Nurse as a witch.
March 21: Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin examine Martha Cory.
March 23: Salem Marshal Deputy Samuel Brabrook arrests four-year-old Dorothy Good.
March 24: Corwin and Hathorne examine Rebecca Nurse.
March 26: Hathorne and Corwin interrogate Dorothy Good.
March 28: Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft.
April 3: Sarah Cloyce, after defending her sister, Rebecca Nurse, is accused of witchcraft.
April 11: Hathorne and Corwin examine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor. On the same day Elizabeth's husband, John Proctor, becomes the first man accused of witchcraft and is jailed.
Early April: The Proctors' servant and accuser, Mary Warren, admits to lying and accuses the other accusing girls of lying.
April 13: Ann Putnam Jr. accuses Giles Cory of witchcraft and alleges that a man who died at Cory's house also haunts her.
April 19: Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Cory and Mary Warren are examined. Deliverance Hobbs confesses to practicing witchcraft. Mary Warren reverses her statement made in early April and rejoins the accusers.
April 22: Mary Easty, another of Rebecca Nurse's sisters who defended her, is examined by Hathorne and Corwin. Hathorne and Corwin also examine Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes and Mary English.
April 30: Several girls accuse former Salem minister George Burroughs of witchcraft.
May 2: Hathorne and Corwin examine Sarah Morey, Lyndia Dustin, Susannah Martin and Dorcas Hoar.
May 4: George Burroughs is arrested in Maine.
May 7: George Burroughs is returned to Salem and placed in jail.
May 9: Corwin and Hathorne examine Burroughs and Sarah Churchill. Burroughs is moved to a Boston jail.
May 10: Corwin and Hathorne examine George Jacobs, Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs. Sarah Osborne dies in prison.
May 14: The Reverend Increase Mather and Sir William Phipps, the newly-elected governor of the colony, arrive in Boston. They bring with them a charter ending the 1684 prohibition of self-governance within the colony.
May 18: Mary Easty is released from prison. Following protest by her accusers, she is again arrested. Roger Toothaker is also arrested on charges of witchcraft.
May 27: Phipps issues a commission for a Court of Oyer and Terminer and appoints as judges John Hathorne, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop and Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton.
May 31: Hathorne, Corwin and Gednew examine Martha Carrier, John Alden, Wilmott Redd, Elizabeth Howe and Phillip English. Alden and English later escape from prison and do not return.
June 2: Bridget Bishop is the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft. She is sentenced to death.
June 8: Eighteen year old Elizabeth Booth shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft.
June 10: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill. Following the hanging Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns from the court and is replaced by Corwin.
June 15: Cotton Mather writes a letter requesting the court not use spectral evidence as a standard and urging that the trials be speedy. The Court of Oyer and Terminer pays more attention to the request for speed and less attention to the criticism of spectral evidence.
June 16: Roger Toothaker dies in prison.
June 29-June 30: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good and Elizabeth Howe are tried, pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
July 19: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good and Sarah Wildes are hanged at Gallows Hill.
August 5: George Jacobs Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard, and John and Elizabeth Proctor are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
August 19: George Jacobs Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard and John Proctor are hanged on Gallows Hill. Elizabeth Proctor is not hanged because she is pregnant.
August 20: Margaret Jacobs recants the testimony that led to the execution of her grandfather George Jacobs Sr. and George Burroughs.
September 9: Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Dorcas Hoar and Mary Bradbury are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
Mid-September: Giles Cory is indicted.
September 17: Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulkner, Rebecca Earnes, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster and Abigail Hobbs are tried and sentenced to hang.
September 19: Sheriffs administer Peine Forte Et Dure (pressing) to Giles Cory after he refuses to enter a plea to the charges of witchcraft against him. After two days under the weight, Cory dies.
September 22: Martha Cory, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Willmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker are hanged. Dorcas Hoar escapes execution by confessing.
October 3: The Reverend Increase Mather, President of Harvard College and father of Cotton Mather, denounces the use of spectral evidence.
October 8: Governor Phipps orders that spectral evidence no longer be admitted in witchcraft trials.
October 29: Phipps prohibits further arrests, releases many accused witches and dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
November 25: The General Court establishes a Superior Court to try remaining witches.
;1693
January: 49 of the 52 surviving people brought into court on witchcraft charges are released because their arrests were based on spectral evidence.

The Salem witch trials in literature

★ "Rachel Dyer" (1820), by John Neal (1793-1876)

★ "Lois the Witch" (1859), a novella by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), is based on the Salem witch hunts and depicts how jealousy and sexual desire can lead to hysteria. She was inspired by the story of Rebecca Nurse whose accusation, trial and execution are described in ''Lectures on Witchcraft'', by Charles W. Upham, the Unitarian minister in Salem in the 1830s.

★ "Witching Times" (serialized 1856-57), by John William DeForest (1826-1906)

★ "Giles Corey of the Salem Farms" (1868), a play by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

★ "Giles Corey, Yeoman" (1893), a play by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930)

★ American poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) wrote many poems about the episode, starting with "The Weird Gathering" (1831), and later, "Calef in Boston" (1849), about the public debates between Robert Calef and Cotton Mather in the aftermath of the trials.

★ Various stories by H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) are set in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, said to have been founded by refugees from the Salem trials.

★ ''A Mirror for Witches'' (1928) by Newbery-Medal winning author Esther Forbes (1891-1968)

★ ''Road to Endor'' (1940) by Esther Hammand

★ ''The Crucible'' (1952), a play by Arthur Miller (1915-2005), a commentary on the actions of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities and Senator Joe McCarthy.

★ ''A Break with Charity'' (1992), a young adult novel by Ann Rinaldi (1934-living), takes the Salem trials as its main setting.

★ ''Gallows Hill'' (1997) by Lois Duncan is young-adult fiction in which main character Sarah, and many others, turn out to be reincarnations of those accused and killed during the trials.

★ In ''The Last Witchfinder'' (2006), an historical novel by James Morrow (1947-living), the Salem Witch Trials feature prominently.

★ "Oyer and Terminer," a sci-fi short story by Joe Masdon in the collection "Time Twisters" (Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg, eds, DAW, 2007), is set during the Salem witch trials

The Salem witch trials in popular culture and media

★ The television series Bewitched (1964-1972) includes six episodes in Season 7 (1970) that were filmed on location in Salem, with a plot that includes time travel to 1692. In 2005, the TV Land Network erected a statue in Salem of Elizabeth Montgomery as the lead character, Samantha.

★ Leonard Nimoy's television series In Search of... (1977-1982) aired Season 5, Episode 109: "Salem Witches" (1980)

★ A television mini-series "Three Sovereigns for Sarah" (1986), starring Vanessa Redgrave, aired on PBS.

★ In ''The Simpsons'' animated television comedy series (1989-present), a segment of the 1997 Halloween special episode "Treehouse of Horror VIII" is based on the Salem witch trials.

★ ''Hocus Pocus'' (1993), a Disney film comedy starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, is set in a town named Salem.

★ ''The Crucible'' (1996) is a film adaptation of Arthur Miller's 1952 play, The Crucible, from a screenplay written by Miller himself, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder

★ In the television series ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' (1996-2000), in Season 1, Episode 23 (1997), "The Crucible," a class field trip goes to Salem to re-enact the trials.

★ In ''Histeria!'', an animated television series for children (1998-2001), episode 36, "When America Was Young", included a People's Court-style sketch based upon the trials. View episode: http://video.aol.com/video/tv-histeria-when-america-was-young/1813972

★ The History Channel's "In Search of History" (1996-2000) television series aired the episode "Salem Witch Trials" (1998).

★ In ''Charmed'', a television series (1998-2006), part of the fictional background is that Melinda Warren, an ancestor of the three fictional protagonists, was burned at the stake in the Salem witch trials. See Season 1, Episode 9, "The Witch Is Back" (1998) and Season 3, Episode 4, "All Halliwell's Eve" (2000)

★ In the Harry Potter book series, both the third and fourth, respectively ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' (1999) and ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' (2000), both make slight references to the Salem trials.

★ PBS's television series "Secrets of the Dead" (2000-present) aired Season 2, Episode 1: "Witches' Curse" (2002), featuring Linnda R. Caporael

★ The History Channel aired a documentary "Witch Hunt" (2002).

★ ''Salem Witch Trials'' (2002), starring Kirstie Alley, Shirley MacLaine and Peter Ustinov, was a television mini-series, airing in the UK as 4 parts, in the US on CBS in 2 parts.

★ The Discovery Channel's "Unsolved History" series (2002-2005) included Episode 23, "Salem Witch Trials" (2003)

★ ''Keeper of Souls'' (2004), a horror film set in a fictional Southern town called Grove Hill, connects the demon to the Salem witch trials

★ ''The Covenant'' (2006), a horror film mainly about the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts, makes references to the Salem witch trials.

★ Rob Zombie's album ''Educated Horses'' (2006) contains many references to the trials, in track names to lyrics.

See also

★ ''The Crucible'' ★ ''A Break with Charity'' ★ Jury Nullification ★ McCarthyism ★ Red Scare

★ Spectral evidence ★ Supernatural ★ Torsåker witch trials ★ Pendle witches ★ Salem, Massachusetts

★ Thomas Ady ★ Würzburg witch trial ★ Ramsele witch trial ★ North Berwick Witch Trial ★ Bideford witch trial

Notes and references

1. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen "The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft," Checkmark Books,1990, p.289
2. ''Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706,'' George Lincoln Burr, ed., pp. 169-190.
3. ''Salem-Village Witchcraft,'' Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum, eds., pp. 278-279
4. ''The Salem Witchcraft Papers'', Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum, eds., pp. 445 & 450.
5. ''The Salem Witchcraft Papers'', Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum, eds., p. 971.
6. John Hale, ''A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft'', 1696. p. 59. See: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/archives/ModestEnquiry/
7. See the warrants for their arrests here and here.
8. records of the Court of Assistants, pp. 309-313
9. records of the Court of Assistants, p. 357
10. For information about the family relationships between these people, see Roach, Marilynne K. ''The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-To-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege.'' Cooper Square Press, 2002.
11. See The Complaint v. Elizabeth Procter & Sarah Cloyce for an example of one of the primary sources of this type.
12. The Arrest Warrant of Rebecca Nurse
13. The Examination of Martha Corey
14. For an example: Summons for Witnesses v. Rebecca Nurse
15. Indictment of Sarah Good for Afflicting Sarah Vibber
16. Indictment of Abigail Hobbs for Covenanting
17. The Death Warrant of Bridget Bishop
18. Death Warrant for Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth How & Sarah Wilds
19. ''Famour Trials'',source:http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_E&P.HTM
20. Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
21. http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/archives/MA135/93.html
22. Enders Robinson, The Devil Discovered, 2001 edition, preface, pp. xvi-xvii
23. Spanos, NP & J Gottlieb, "Ergotism and the Salem Village witch trials", Science. 1976 Dec 24;194(4272):1390-4.
24. [2]
25. ''The Salem Witchcraft Papers'', Book II, p.355

Further reading

★ Aronson, Marc. "Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials." Atheneum: New York. 2003.

★ Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen. "Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft." Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. 1974.

★ Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, eds.. "Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England" Northeastern University Press: Boston, MA. 1972.

★ Breslaw, Elaine G.. "Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies." NYU: New York. 1996.

★ Brown, David C.. "A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692." David C. Brown: Washington Crossing, PA. 1984.

★ Demos, John. ''Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

★ Godbeer, Richard. "The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England." Camridge University Press: New York. 1992.

★ Hansen, Chadwick. "Witchcraft at Salem." Brazillier: New York. 1969.

★ Hill, Frances. "A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials." Doubleday: New York. 1995.

★ Hoffer, Peter Charles. "The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History." University of Kansas: Lawrence, KS. 1997.

★ Karlsen, Carol F. ''The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England.'' New York: Vintage, 1987. [This work provides essential background on other witchcraft accusations in 17th century New England.]

★ Lasky, Kathryn. "Beyond the Burning Time." Point: New York, NY 1994

★ Le Beau, Bryan, F.. "The Story of the Salem Witch Trials: `We Walked in Coulds and Could Not See Our Way.`" Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 1998.

★ Mappen, Marc, ed.. "Witches & Historians: Interpretations of Salem." 2nd Edition. Keiger: Malabar, FL. 1996.

★ Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible — a play which implicitly compares McCarthyism to a witch-hunt".

★ Norton, Mary Beth. ''In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.'' New York: Random House, 2002.

★ Reis, Elizabeth. "Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England." Cornell University Press: Ithaca, NY. 1997.

★ Roach, Marilynne K. ''The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-To-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege.'' Cooper Square Press, 2002.

★ Robinson, Enders A. "The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft 1692." Hippocrene: New York. 1991.

★ Robinson, Enders A.. "Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables." Heritage Books: Bowie, MD. 1992.

★ Rosenthal, Bernard. "Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692." Cambridge University Press: New York. 1993.

★ Sologuk, Sally. "Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers". Milling Journal. Second quarter 2005.

★ Spanos, N. P., J. Gottlieb. "Ergots and Salem village witchcraft: A critical appraisal". ''Science'': 194. 1390-1394:1976.

★ Starkey, Marion L. ''The Devil in Massachusetts.'' Alfred A. Knopf: 1949.

★ Trask, Richard B.. "`The Devil hath been raised`: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692." Revised edition. Yeoman Press: Danvers, MA. 1997.

★ Upham, Charles W.. "Salem Witchcraft." Reprint from the 1867 edition, in two volumes. Dover Publications: Mineola, NY. 2000.

★ Weisman, Richard. "Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts." University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst, MA. 1984.

★ Wilson, Jennifer M.. ''Witch.'' Authorhouse, Feb. 2005.

★ Wilson, Lori Lee. "The Salem Witch Trials." How History Is Invented series. Lerner: Minneapolis. 1997.

★ Woolf, Alex. "Investigating History Mysteries". Heinemann Library: 2004.

★ Wright, John Hardy. "Sorcery in Salem." Arcadia: Portsmouth, NH. 1999.

★ "The 19th and 20th Centuries". Destination Salem. 12 Apr. 2006 .

External links

★ Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692

★ A documentary archive including original court papers on the trials, maps, interactive maps, biographies, and internal and external links to more resources.

★ University of Virginia: Salem Witch Trials (includes former "Massachusetts Historical Society" link)

★ "Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers" article about ergot-infected grains, ergotism and how it is prevented today.

★ PBS Secrets of the Dead: "The Witches Curse" (concerning the Salem trials and ergot)

★ Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II, by Charles Upham, 1867, from Project Gutenberg

★ Salem Witch Trials:The World Behind the Hysteria

★ SalemWitchTrials.com essays, biographies of the accused and afflicted

★ The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils (1693) by Cotton Mather (online pdf edition)