There was an infamous period of witch hunts in Europe starting from the 1300s and going all the way to the late 18th century. Perhaps the most notorious of all witch hunt incidents is the Salem Witch Trials. Surely, we have all heard of the Salem Witch Trials, but what exactly happened during these trials? What events helped set the scene?
Setting the Scene
In order to understand the psychology behind the Salem Witch Trials, first we have to get to know the events taking place prior to them. These trials started in 1692. Only three years earlier, in 1689, King William (the English king of the time) had declared war on France, who had been backing the Native American tribes in the American colonies. This war forced the people from upstate New York, Nova Scotia, and Quebec to flee to the county of Essex, becoming refugees. Salem Village, which was a village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had been especially subject to these refugee waves. But the arrival of so many people to Salem strained its resources, worsening the pre-existing social divide in the village and the rivalry between the leading families of Porter and Putnam.
Salem Village also had a newly appointed minister, Samuel Parris. Parris was known for his Puritan views and harsh ways. Some of his actions in the Congregational Church and his strictly Puritan views led to a division among the people of Salem: pro-Parris and anti-Parris factions.
Many Puritan people in the village blamed the devil for all the problems they were facing. This belief would later fuel the suspicion of witchcraft among the community since witches were thought to be people who worked for the devil.
The Trials Begin
Now that we know the atmosphere in which the Salem Witch Trials took place, we can dive right into the course of the trials themselves. In January of 1692, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, started having "fits". They would make strange sounds, experience body contortions, complain of pinching and biting sensations, and throw things around. A local doctor was brought to examine them. When the doctor couldn't diagnose the two girls, he blamed their problems on witchcraft.
Later, Elizabeth and Abigail were questioned as to who had bewitched them. Under the pressure of Parris and two other magistrates, the two girls gave them three names: Tituba (a slave of the Parris family), Sarah Good (a beggar), and Sarah Osborn (an elderly woman scorned by the community for her romantic involvement with a servant).
On March 1, two magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, started conducting a public inquiry on this matter. Good and Osborn both claimed they were innocent. But strangely, Tituba, even though she had also rejected the accusation at first, told the magistrates that she did indeed work for the devil. The pressure she was exposed to probably led to this fake confession. She told the magistrates that the devil had visited her, and she had made a deal with him. She also added that when she had been signing the deal, she had seen the names of Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn, and seven other women whose names she couldn't read on the book of the devil, implying that those women also worked for the devil. This, she probably had done in the hopes that she would be let off the hook for her cooperation.
Now, the magistrates had "proof" that there were even more witches in the village. The news gave rise to hysteria among the people. Many more women and young girls started experiencing fits. Among them was 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr., her mother, and her cousin, all members of the important aforementioned Putnam family. After some time, the accused people weren't only the outcasts of society but prominent members of it, too. These two details are quite interesting, considering most of the accusers were either members of or related to the Putnam family, and the accused were mostly enemies of the family in one way or another.
The Court of Oyer and Terminer
On May 27, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Phips, ordered the convening of an official court: the Court of Oyer (which means "to hear") and Terminer (which means "to determine"). But the biggest problem with this court was that it accepted "spectral evidence" (which means to accept claims of sensations, visions, and dreams of supernatural nature as evidence). Taking advantage of this situation, the accusers started making odd noises and writhing as the accused testified on the witness stand, giving the impression that they were being bewitched right then and there. The ones who confessed to being witches and named other witches as well were pardoned since Puritans believed they would get their just punishment from God. Those who insisted on being innocent, on the other hand, were imprisoned, tortured, and even hanged.
On June 2, a woman named Bridget Bishop was the first person to have been found guilty by the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and on June 10, she was hanged. On July 19, five more people were hanged, among whom was Sarah Good. George Burroughs, who had been the minister of Salem Village between 1680 and 1683, was also convicted of being the witches' "ringleader" and was hanged on August 19, along with four others. But the fact that he had recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly right before he was hanged raised suspicion among people since they didn't believe people who worked for the devil were capable of that. And finally, on September 22, another eight people were hanged. Among them was Martha Corey, whose husband, Giles Corey had also been accused of witchcraft but had refused to enter a plea. For that, he was punished by torture for two days, after which he died.
The Superior Court of Judicature
On October 29, following his own wife being accused of witchcraft, Governor Phips decided to step in. He ordered the trials to stop and closed down the Court of Oyer and Terminer. In its place, he established the "Superior Court of Judicature", the same court which is still used today in Massachusetts known as the "Supreme Court of Judicature". This court was different from the previous one in terms of not accepting spectral evidence. Governor Phips decided to make this change after Increase Mather and Cotton Mather (the former a minister and president of Harvard at the time, the latter his son) had both urged him. Increase Mather himself had said, "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than that one innocent person should be condemned."
Trials went on in this court from January to February of 1693. But out of 56 people who were accused, only 3 were convicted, and even they were pardoned by Phips along with everyone held in custody in May. Phips then officially ended the witch trials. In the end, nineteen people had been hanged in total. Several other people had died in custody, and even two dogs had been killed because they were thought to be working with the devil.
The Aftermath and Legacy
In January 1697, the General Court of Massachusetts declared a day of fasting and contemplation for everything that had happened during the Salem Witch Trials. Including both judges and accusers, many who were involved in the trials came forward and publicly apologized for their errors and unjust actions in the following years. Even Ann Putnam Jr. apologized in 1706 for her accusations. The people who had been convicted during the trials were exonerated during different times, the last one happening in the summer of 2022. A formal apology from the state of Massachusetts only came in 1957.
Today, you can see the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials and its effects in different ways. For example, the hill on which people were hanged on gallows is called "Gallows Hill". There is also a play written by American playwright Arthur Miller named "The Crucible," which was inspired by the Salem Witch Trials. You can even visit the "Salem Witch Museum" in Salem, Massachusetts today. You can also see the effects on the police cars in Salem, which have witch logos on them, and the high school sports teams, which are named "The Witches".
To this day, the "fits" experienced during the Salem Witch Trials remain a mystery. Some say it was hysteria, some say it was related to ergotism (a disease caused by the fungus ergot, which infects bread and cereal made of rye and causes hallucinations, vomiting, choking, and fits), or some other disease. Whatever it may be, the witch trials of Salem were definitely a tragedy fueled by xenophobia (fear and prejudice against foreigners). They teach us a lesson as a perfect example of the malice humankind is capable of when under the influence of fear.