The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials

    The Salem Witch Trials happened in Salem, Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. During this time, over two hundred people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Witchcraft was stereotyped as "devil's magic", so everybody knew this was bad. These beliefs were among Christians and some other religions. They believed the devil could give people special powers to do harm to other people.

    The Salem Witch Trials began in Reverend Parris' home. His daughter, at just the age of nine, and his niece, eleven, started acting strange. They had screamed, muttered random things, and their bodies moved into strange positions. A different girl in a different household, also aged at eleven, experienced the same thing.

    On Febuary 29th, the girls blamed three women for these strange episodes. When they blamed the women, they were under pressure from Jonathon Corwin and John Hathorne. The three women were: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tibuta. These women were interrogated for several days. Both of the Sarahs claimed innocence, but Tibuta, Parris' slave, confessed.

    "The Devil came to me and bid me serve him," she said as she described black dogs, red cats, yellow birds, and a black man who had wanted her to sign his book. She had admitted to signing the strange book and said that were others. The three women were placed in a jail cell.

    Now that everyone was on edge, accusations began running wild through the town. They even questioned Sarah Good's four year old daughter. Her timidness was taken as a confession. People from other villages were brought to Salem Village for questioning. Clothes and furniture was aloud to be taken for examination.

    One case featuring Bridget Bishop was the first case in the Special Court of Oyer. She had said that she was, "as innocent as an unborn baby," but she was found guilty anyways. She was later hung on June 10th. She was the first person to be hung.

    When Governer Phipps wife was being questioned, he responded by releasing many accused witches. Governer Phipps eventually released all who were in prison for being accused of witchcraft by May of 1693.

    By the end of The Salem Witch Trials, nineteen were hung on Gallows Hill, (where Bridget Bishop was hung,) a seventy one year old man named Giles Corey was pressed to death with stones because he stood up to the court, and several died in jail. Over two hundred people had been accused of practicing the "devil's magic."

    In 1702, the court announced that these happenings were unlawful and had it so the heirs of these people got money.

Info from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief-salem.html and Haunted History.