Post on 24-Feb-2016
description
transcript
Salem Witch Trials
February 1692-May 1693
Events Betty Parris (9) and Abigail Williams (11) the
daughter and the niece of the local reverend started to have epileptic fits
The girls screamed, threw things around the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions
They complained of being pinched and pricked with pins
Later Ann Putnam (12) and Elizabeth Hubbard joined in with Parris and Williams in acting out
Accusations “Afflicted” girls started to accuse people in
their community of being witches and tormenting them
Trials People accused of
being witches were put on trial by the local courts.
Samuel Sewall one of the Salem
judges
Trials
Trials
Ways to Find someone guilty of
being a witch Spectral evidence
Something only the tormented could see They would see the accused person of
interacting with the devil or doing evil things Witch cakes
Feed a witch cake to a dog and the witch will be injured
Touch test Afflicted people could be healed by being
touched by the accused witch
Other evidence If they had “witchy” things
Horoscope books, palmistry books, potions etc
Witches teat Insensitive mark on the body (mole, wart etc) They would poke the mark with a pin and if it
didn’t hurt they were a witch
End of the Trials People outside of Salem started to question
the method of the courts “it’s better that 100 witches live than 1
person is killed for being a witch who is not a witch” –Thomas Maule
Girls started to accuse leaders of the Puritan community and their families.
Girls’ credibility fails
"And now Nineteen persons having been hang'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear'd; about Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one Executed; above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more acccused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a period,..."—Robert Calef
19 people were hanged 1 person pressed to death 50 confessed to being witches and were
released 150 in prison at the end 200 more accused
WHY??? Symptoms of the afflicted girls have been
explained as physical or psychological Most believe that the girls’ symptoms were
a result of jealousy, spite and a need for attention.