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The salem witch trials are kind of how they sound. It basically took place in salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s. Within Salem, lots of individuals were accused of being witches. There wasn’t really any evidence to people’s claims besides just statements from various people. Despite this, people were still put to death. Also, they were put by hanging by the neck, not being burned at the stake. So you know, equally as grim. Or if you’re that one dude, you were suffocated with rocks. Fun.

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The first ever to be executed was a woman named Bridget Bishop. Samuel Parris was the father of the “afflicted” and the person who questioned Bridget. There were a number of people who died and a number of people who accused.

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June 10- Bridget Bishop

July 19- Sarah Good

July 19- Elizbeth Howell

July 19- Susannah Martin

July 19- Rebecca Nurse

July 19- Sarah Wildes

August 19- George Burroughs

August 19- Martha Carrier

August 19- George Jacobs

August 19- John Proctor

August 19- John Willard

September 19- Giles Cory (pressed to death)

September 22- Martha Cory

September 22- Mary Easty

September 22- Alice Parker

September 22- Mary Parker

September 22- Ann Pudeater

September 22- Margaret Scott

September 22- Wilmot Redd

September 22- Samuel Wardwell
May 10, 1692- Sarah Osborne

June 16, 1692- Roger Toothaker

December 3, 1692- Ann Foster

March 10, 1693- Lydia Dustin

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There is a mix of reasons why this happened. The first one is the severe lack of knowledge when it comes to general science, specifically medicine. (I’ll touch base  on that later.) The other reasons are the puritans were very religious and took the bible very seriously and literally. They were also very scared once the trials begun, so people inevitably got accused left and right. There were also people who took advantage of the situation. That will be explained later as well.

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“Thou shall not suffer a witch to live”

Exodus 22:18 King James version

This quote is from the bible, particularly the second “book” or story that came in order in the bible, but it’s no chronological. This quote essentially means, “don’t let a witch live”. Takin this literally, anyone who was suspected to be a witch would’ve been put to death because that is (or I guess was) the law of The Lord. The bible, doesn’t specify how to determine who is a witch or the evidence that signifies witch craft. The bible doesn’t even specify what a “witch” is. (This is due to parts of the bible actually missing. There’s gospels constantly being discovered.)

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Document H is longer, but it essentially explained that the girls or general accusers of people being witches, were overly terrified. They were hysterical. Mainly the children. This means that individuals were terrified of witches. In their eyes, witches were the equivalent of demons. Anyone that exhibited the mannerisms that were considered witch-like were accused by the children out of their own fear. They could’ve bought into the idea of witches so much, that anyone who might've had the slightest chance of being one, They wanted them gone whatever means necessary. They’re might've been acting, but also much hysteria. With these 2 combined, you have yourself many people accused. There’s also something else I’d like to point out later. It is called “the Ideomotor effect”. I’ll explain that a little later on.

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Documents K, L, and M - Being a jerk, part 2 colorized

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Documents K, L, and M - Being a jerk, part 2 colorized

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K and L were statements taken from Ann Putnam and Ann Putnam jr. They accused a woman named Rebecca Nurse. This woman supposedly afflicted them in many ways. From doing physical harm to threatening them with death. Document M had said otherwise. Apparently The Putnams were having a dispute with topside, where Rebecca lived. Topside authorities kept berating the Putnam family that their property was in topside rather then in Salem village. So, my theory is that it was essentially a way at getting at Topside. The daughter went along with  it because that’s what her mother said. You’d trust and obey your parents, and as a child, she understood less and would resent and fear Rebecca more if her mother did.

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Document N - Severe lack of knowledge, Like I don't know how any of us are alive

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Document N - Severe lack of knowledge, Like I don't know how any of us are alive

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According to this document, a parasitic fungus called Ergot might’ve been what had caused some of the weird behaviors of the accused. Ergot is a fungus that grows on grains. Ergot can infect fields of grain randomly. It could cause harm one year and not be found the following. Ergotism is long-term poisoning caused by eating consuming the infected grains through rye bread and can affect females more than males. It happened to be that rye was a very prominent crop in New england. The timing of the salem witch trials fits the cycle of the planting and harvesting of rye. Certain climate conditions can also affect the infestation of fungus. It happened to be based on some other primary sources, this document came to the conclusion that during this time, the weather was correct for a large infestation of fungus. Based on this information, we can conclude that the behaviors emitted from suspected witches was due to poisoning from a fungus. This fungus infected the fields of grain that would be harvested and made into bread.

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“These evil spirits are all around. There is confined unto the atmosphere of our air a vast power or army of evil spirits under the government of a Prince (Satan) who employs them in a continual opposition to the designs of God...”(Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions, 1689.)

This quote tells a lot about the general hysteria of people. This tells us that people believed there were always evil spirits around us, trying to hurt us. It would make sense that they would be in constant fear. This quote is really just saying Satan is constantly sending evil spirits at the followers of god. When looking at it, ti seems crazy. But, then again, I’m a christian and technically do believe that this is true.

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Document D was the most unhelpful document. It was just an image. It was examination of a witch, and it might’ve told us about how puritans reacted to them, but, that was the only thing. On top of that, they weren’t really scared of concerned literally at all. They were more confused, if anything. I also had trouble figuring out who the witch was, so… there’s that. It’s also not even a primary source, so you can’t really trust it considering it was made a century and half after the fact.

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Documents I + J - Grudges and being a jerk

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Documents I + J - Grudges and being a jerk

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These Documents consist of a map of the accused, the accusers, and the defenders along with a little history about the West side of Salem. Most accusers were and accused were on the west side of Salem. The west side of Salem also lost a lot of Political influence according to document J. My theory here is that There are more accusers on the west side because they want influence and attention again, so they accused more witches.

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This image shows the execution of a wealthy woman named Ann Hibbins. She is not on the list above. (Artist- F.T Merrill)

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This image shows the "afflicted" woman fallen to the floor in a courtroom. The accused woman seems to be shown swearing her innocence to The Lord. (Artists: F. O. C. Darley, Wm. L. Shepard, Granville Perkins, etc.)

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My thoughts on the Salem witch trials- conclusion

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My thoughts on the Salem witch trials- conclusion

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When these people believe that there are evil spirits around them, I’d agree with them. I do believe that there are malicious entities in this world. But, regardless of if you religious or not, the people of Salem believed witches were equivalent to demons. By definition, they technically were. I think we can all agree whether you believe in god or not or the supernatural or not, we can come to a conclusion that demons or the idea of them is frightening. I’m not condoning that killing of innocents, but I am saying that we’d all be frightened in their shoes too.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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This image shows an image of girl who was accused of witchcraft hugging her father as her father  essentially gives her up to authorities. (Oil painting by Douglas Volk, 1884. Corcoran Gallery Washington, D.C.) It also appears you might have to download it.