By late February 1692, when traditional medicines and prayers failed to cure the girls, the reverend called upon a local doctor, William Griggs. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Far more women than men were among the accused, convicted and executed. Courts relied on three kinds of evidence: 1) confession, 2) testimony of two eyewitnesses to acts of witchcraft, or 3) spectral evidence (when the afflicted girls were having their fits, they would interact with an unseen assailant - the apparition of the witch tormenting them). Two of the casualties were babies. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trial that took place in 1692, when it was believed "witches" were casting spells on people in the village of Salem. Part of the escalation of theSalem trials included investigators literally going door to door and asking homeowners to rat out any suspected witches in their midst. If a dog was fed a cake made with rye and the urine of an afflicted person, and it displayed the same symptoms as the victim, it indicated the presence of witchcraft. The collective delusion of witchcraft took more than a year to loosen its grip on Salem and its surrounding towns. She crafted a tale detailing how the devil had come to her and asked her to do his bidding. Since witches were often shackled in jail . Log in or try Ancestry 14 days free to start finding the survivors, the outspoken, or the ones who did things differently in your family tree. The panic and fear over witches hiding amongst the colony began when two young girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, developed strange symptoms including having fits and screaming in pain at mysterious moments. Learn about the Salem witch trials and their legacy. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. The episode is heavily ingrained in American history and perpetuated through pop culture, but the souls lost and persecuted during that time aren't just present in our literature, media, and popular culture. Tituba ultimately survived the saga and was not hanged. One of the turning points in ending public support and enthusiasm for the trials was the conviction and execution of one of the towns former minsters, George Burroughs, who publicly recited the Lords Prayer at the gallows, which was believed to be impossible for witches to do. . The Salem witch trials and executions came about as the result of a combination of church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children, all of which unfolded in a vacuum of political authority. Because most of the trials were occurring in Salem . In the midst of all this religious and political controversy, there was also a major racial incident. Soon, others were accused and the courtrooms filled with people believed to be witches. Unlike the others who were hanged, this unfortunate fellow was crushed to death by stones. Millers famous play about the Salem witch trials is called The Cruciblebut what is a crucible anyway? It involved a woman by the name of Tituba, a most likely South American slave from Barbados, who was the first victim of Salems witchcraft accusations. Giles had actually been accused and found guilty of murdering one of his farm hands years earlier, but was let off with just a fine! 10 The Symptoms That Gave Witches Away Make No Sense At All All witches are women, but not every woman is a witch. Between February 1692 and May 1693 in current day Massachusetts, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft. Tituba initially denied the claim that she was a witch, but notoriously later decided to confess that it was true and accused two other women as well in the process. From unbelievable witch swimming tests to the role of Salem smallpox in the trials, this list will bring you every crazy witch trial fact that you never knew existed! A lot was changing in colonial America at the time. No, it doesnt sound that romantic or comic to me either. Between February 1692 and May 1693, colonial Massachusetts was the scene of a mass hysteria sparked by false accusations from several young girls. Due to its association with the supernatural and the haunted, Salem is now a popular destination for Halloween festivities, which run throughout the month of October. In these records you can find the year the accused stood trial, first and last name, town or village where the trial took place, and the outcome of the trial. Citizens began to believe that people were practicing witchcraft in their town. From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways. The girls are examined by a . Another reason why it sucked that these trials took place before the Bill of Rights existed? Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. T he infamous Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693 claimed the lives of 20 people. It was believed that witches had animal helpers that could take almost any animal form and do their dirty work for them. In fact, there was fear in Europe that an entire group of evil witches were consciously attacking Europeans in order to destroy Christendom. When he stopped being paid altogether, he left Salem. Despite their obvious Christian commitment, the early American Puritans actually banned Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1659, deeming it a sacrilege. One man, Giles Corey, was killed over three days as increasingly heavier rocks were set atop his body. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a dark time in American history. Good was imprisoned from March 24, 1692, to December 10, 1692. Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1993. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-29-mn-29128-story.html. In fact, the first people accused of bewitching Betty were all women: Tituba, a beggar named Sarah Good, and Sarah Osbourne, an older woman who had not attended church for a year. The Salem witch trials have gripped American imaginations ever since they occurred in 1692. Although Massachusetts has given up its fight against witchcraft, there are still places in the world where witchcraft is legitimately feared by the public, sometimes even leading to real modern day witch hunts. However, witch trials are not a thing of the past. Twenty people were put to death in Salem for the crime of witchcraft. These 10 lesser-known facts about the . Not that Salem didnt have its problems to begin with, but the community never fully recovered from the witch trials saga, and the divisions and setbacks to the towns development continued in the years following the trials. Ann Putnam, for example, used spectral evidence to accuse Rebecca Nurse,said, I saw the Apperishtion of [Rebecca Nurse] and she did immediatly afflect me. Such evidence was also used against Bridget Bishop, with many men claiming she had visited them in spectral form in the middle of the night. On a Saturday night in mid-October, Dmitry and his friend Misha met up to experience The Haunted Witch Trials, a Halloween attraction in which the Salem Witch Trials were re-imagined into a haunted house type of attraction that took place on a 100-acre plot of land. This obviously meant that you must also be a witch. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. Of the 20 people executed during the trials, six of them were men: Giles Corey, George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, and Samuel Wardwell Sr. John Proctor was the first man accused of witchcraft. No other mode of punishment was entertained by the Salem puritans. Just when did the Salem witch trials take place in the timeline of American history? The Salem Witch Trials, the events of 1692 in Salem Village which resulted in 185 accused of witchcraft, 156 formally charged, 47 confessions, and 19 executed by hanging, remain one of the most studied phenomena in colonial American history. Not that Salem didnt have its problems to begin with, but the community never fully recovered from the witch trials saga, and the divisions and setbacks to the towns development continued in the years following the trials. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. Its name comes from the Anglo-French phrase oyer et terminer, which literally translates to hear and determine.. One of the people. So if witchcraft wasnt really happening in Salem, what actually caused those girls to have the fits? Music Credit: Spirit of the Dead by Aakash Gandhi#List25 #Didyouknow #WitchTrials While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Salem witch trials of the late 17th century were a formative episode in America's early history, and have remained at the forefront of the national consciousness ever since. Make sure to watch this video all the way to the end to see which crazy witchcraft fact made our top 10! The Salem witch trials would mark her second time being accused of being a witch. Here's what we know about the original witch hunt: 1. The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local. The community, beleaguered with hardships already, then overreacted. Between 1692 and 1693, more than two hundred people were accused. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. But by October 1692, his wife Mary found herself the target of sorcery accusations. It seems that a shocking number of accusations were made by members of the Putnam family. An important minister in Boston named Increase Mather was one of these objectors, stating that It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than that one innocent person should be condemned.. Arthur Miller, the famous playwright who authored Death of a Salesman, responded to the McCarthy hysteria by writing The Crucible, a play about the Salem witch trials, as a metaphor for what the country was going through in the 1950s. The legacy of the trials has far outlasted their duration, even . Instead, in 1692, hanging was the preferred form of punishment. Here are three notable facts about the Salem witch trials: About 42-50 people died being accused of witchcraft over the course of 300 years. Her testimony added fuel to the fire, making the witch hunt spiral out of control. 25 DISTURBING Facts About The Salem Witch Trials 429,208 views Sep 12, 2018 6.3K Dislike Share Save List 25 2.51M subscribers Get ready to pull out your history books as we bring you the most. And the first person executed for witchcraft during the trials was also a woman. The 1942 romantic comedy filmI Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake and Frederic March, told the story of two witches from Salem placing a revenge curse on the descendants of their accuser. If there is any consolation for some of the condemned witches of Salem, it may come from the fact that their families lived on long after them. The most famous witch trial in history happened in Salem, Massachusetts, during the winter and spring of 1692-1693. The Salem Witch Hunt: A Captivating Guide to the Hunt and . Seventeenth century Salem also gave birth to stories of courageous stands for reason, hopeful births, and acts of clemency and mercy. In addition to the twenty people convicted and executed for witchcraft, two dogs were also accused of and executed for the same crime. This series of prosecutions and hangings of those accused of practicing witchcraft provoked a major backlash, and the event still haunts us today. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. 9 Things You Might Not Know About the Salem Witch Trials, The world's largest online family history resource - Start now, New England, Salem Witches and Others Tried for Witchcraft, 1647-1697, 6 Unusual Last Names You Wont Believe Exist, The Experience of an Ancestral Home Visit, Discovering African American Heroes in My Family Tree.