Salem didn't burn witches at the stake; most of the accused witches were hanged. Directed by Guy Ferland. While Miller maintained that he kept everything historically accurate, some have noted that he made changes to the real record for the sake of the play. The late comedian Lucille Ball is a descendant of Rachel Vinson, who was acquitted in the witch trials. Many possible answers have been proposed, but one likely explanation is that they were suffering from some kind of natural medical afflictions. (There is uncertainty regarding the relationship between the slaves and their ethnic origins. But not just adult women and men were impacted by the trials. Bridget Bishop, a woman considered to have questionable morals, was the first to be tried and executed during the Salem witch trials. Villagers killed that second dog and sent the man fleeing for his life. From 1671 to 1687, he served on the Counsel of Assistants, a judicial and rule-making body for the colony. The feud was over the fact that Kazan had named communist sympathizers during his testimony to Congress. His wife, Elizabeth, had been accused of witchcraft and John tried to step in to defend her. When all was said and done, 25 people lost their lives because of the trials. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Initially, Tituba also claimed to be blameless, but after being repeatedly badgered (and undoubtedly fearful owing to her vulnerable status as a slave), she told the magistrates what they apparently wanted to hearthat she had been visited by the devil and made a deal with him. 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. The collective delusion of witchcraft took more than a year to loosen its grip on Salem and its surrounding towns. Tituba: The Slave of Salem. History of Massachusetts Blog, January 2, 2013. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/tituba-the-slave-of-salem/. Here are 42 wicked facts about the Salem witch trials. The stars of the Salem story were the Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony, a religious groupthat came over to America to escape religious persecution back in England. Witches have been the origin of many myths and legends. 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. Its sad to think that all of the trials and the numerous deaths could have been caused by ergot poisoning, and no one in the town had any idea. Some have suggested that the man who was truly responsible for initiating the witch trial debacle was Reverend Samuel Parris, the father and uncle of the afflicted girls. Apparently they felt that giving gifts took away from ones ability to focus on serious religious thought, and they did not like the pagan origins of some aspects of the holiday. They soon spread to individuals regardless of their gender, class, or power in the community. 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. George Burroughs, the Puritan minister, had nine children before being hanged. Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, These Jerks Had No Idea Who They Were Messing With, Stabbed In The Back: These Real-Life Betrayals Are Straight Up Brutal, "The Bride Kissed The Best Man" And Other Real-Life Wedding Disasters, Everyone Has A Limit: These Moments Made People Say Enough Is Enough, Bloody Facts About Ivan the Terrible, The Mad Tsar Of Russia. During the trials, two dogs were killed based on suspicions of witchcraft. 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! When Millers The Crucible was produced, it was in the aftermath of his feud with Elia Kazan, the man who had directed his two earlier hit plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. Photo Credit: https://bit.ly/39AhFc2 Because he refused to comply with the court, he was given the sentence of being pressed to death. But the accusations didnt stop there. 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! Both Good and Osborn protested their own innocence, though Good accused Osborn. The next time Giles wanted to attend, Martha objected and prevented him from going. A period of less than a year caused such turmoil that Salem, Massachusetts, is still widely known for the trials. List three facts about each and three opinions. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. What gave witches away were body marks, such as scars and moles. The First Amendment has generally served to protect individuals for opinions that they have expressed, albeit not for violent or illegal conduct. People thought that witches used demons to do magic. Thanks for your help! One particularly disturbing fact about the witch hunt in Salem is that animals could be found guilty of participating in witchcraft as well as humans, and they could be (and were) sentenced to death for it. It was shut down on October 29, 1692. Little is known about Tituba besides her role in the witch trials. Much of the evidence brought agains the witches, at least at first, was called spectral evidence, where people testified to seeing an apparition of the accused trying to inflict harm on them. For everyone who remains intrigued by Salem, here are a few lesser-known facts about the witchcraft trials. They screamed, made odd sounds, threw things, contorted their bodies, and complained of biting and pinching sensations. Another more disturbing theory proposed by researchers like behavioral psychologist Linnda Caporael suggests that Salem suffered from ergot poisoning. Many citizens believed that they way witches will get you is by baking a cake. Episode 44 Danvers State Mental Hospital & Salem Witch Trials: Carol checks herself in with the lunatics at the legendary Danvers asylum while Holly confesses to witchcraft on the stand in Salem, Massachusetts. It is easy to feel like we've long known everything there is to know about it. They argue that the trialscreated a taboo in America against mixing religion and government, and George Lincoln Burr called it, the rock on which the theocracy shattered. There is also no question that the incident remains a constant reminder in our collective minds about the importance of due process in a legal system, and the dangers of premature overreaction and irrational hysteria. It is not known why Abigail was living with the Parris family but many historians assume her parents . In January 1692, two little girls living in Salem began acting strangely. Other proof was the touch test, where if a witch who cursed someone touched the cursed person in the midst of a fit, theit fit would stop. Lynch, Patrick. Animals in the Salem Witch Trials. History of Massachusetts Blog, February 20, 2012. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/animals-in-the-salem-witch-trials/. The Start of the Salem Witch Trials. Unlike the others who were hanged, this unfortunate fellow was crushed to death by stones. Some of the attitudes in the Salem witch trials are still seen today. Dont feel too embarrassed if you happen to be from Massachusetts, you guys were not the first to do something like this. Over 150 people were arrested for allegedly using witchcraft to inflict harm on their fellow townspeople, resulting in the executions of 20 people and the prison deaths of five more. 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 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. Family History Proves Bewitching to Descendants of Salem Witches : Colonial America: Three Presidents, Clara Barton, Walt Disney, Joan Kennedy and One Unborn Child Are among Those Whose Ancestors Were Accused of Consorting with the Devil 300 Years Ago. Los Angeles Times. After Governor Phips's wife faced accusations of witchcraft, he outlawed spectral evidence in October 1692. Alexander, Mary Jane. For instance, after being accused of witchcraft, Philip and Mary English were held for trial in a Boston jail. Omissions? A lot was changing in colonial America at the time. The community, beleaguered with hardships already, then overreacted. Of them, thirty were found guilty, and nineteen of whom were executed. Not all of the accused witches who escaped hanging did so through the mercy of the governor. Please reach out to us to let us know what youre interested in reading. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. Almost 150 people were accused of being witches and 20 were killed. No, it doesnt sound that romantic or comic to me either. In the late 1600s the Salem Village community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts) was fairly small and undergoing a period of turmoil with little political guidance. The trials came to an abrupt halt when the Governors wife was accused of witchcraft, causing him to immediately order an end to the trials. So if witchcraft wasnt really happening in Salem, what actually caused those girls to have the fits? 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. When he stopped being paid altogether, he left Salem. Check out the top history lists on the internet all in one place. Pressured by Parris to identify their tormentor, Betty and Abigail claimed to have been bewitched by Tituba and two other marginalized members of the community, neither of whom attended church regularly: Sarah Good, an irascible beggar, and Sarah Osborn (also spelled Osborne), an elderly bed-ridden woman who was scorned for her romantic involvement with an indentured servant. Apparently they felt that giving gifts took away from ones ability to focus on serious religious thought, and they did not like the pagan origins of some aspects of the holiday. The Salem trials occurred late in the sequence, after the abatement of the European witch-hunt fervour, which peaked from the 1580s and 90s to the 1630s and 40s. She added a hog, a great black dog, a red rat, a black rat, and a yellow bird, among other animals, to her storys cast. Despite the horrible and senseless loss of life and community divisions that the witch trials caused, some historians believe that the traumatic incident had a silver lining. But men were accused (and executed) as well. the devil's army against the Puritans, probably in an effort to protect herself from certain conviction by serving as an informant. William Phips. Wikipedia. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. 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. We've compiled over 4375 history facts in one place, just for you. They accused several women in their town of being witches. In October 1692, a girl in Andover accused a neighbors dog of trying to bewitch her. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Thomas Maule, a Quaker who found himself at odds with the Puritan community at times, was beaten and imprisoned for speaking out against the trials, despite the fact that he himself believed in witches. Witches were considered to be followers of Satan who had traded their souls for his assistance. Nineteen were executed by hanging. The Salem witchcraft trials, which began in May of 1692 after months of rumors of Satanic influence, still grip the American imagination more than 300 years later. Those people lived in quite a horrific time. 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. They thought that when witches baked cakes, that they were casting a spell in it. Accusations followed, often escalating to convictions and executions. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. When Millers The Crucible was produced, it was in the aftermath of his feud with Elia Kazan, the man who had directed his two earlier hit plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. There were two Salems in the late 17th century: a bustling commerce-oriented port community on Massachusetts Bay known as Salem Town, which would evolve into modern Salem, and, roughly 10 miles (16 km) inland from it, a smaller, poorer farming community of some 500 persons known as Salem Village. In June 1692, Governor Phips appointed Stoughton as chief judge and prosecutor in the Salem witch trials despite Stoughtons lack of legal experience. 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. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. SALEM WITCH TRIALS CHRONOLOGY. It was actually the local doctor, likely William Griggs, who first diagnosed the girls as having been bewitched when he couldnt find anything medically wrong with them to explain the strange behavior. Here are 42 wicked facts about the Salem witch trials. The girls contorted their bodies into odd positions, made strange noises and spoke gibberish, and seemed to be having fits. From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Hocus Pocus, Arthur Miller to American Horror Story, American pop culture is saturated in retellings of this horrifying episode in colonial history. A complicated and long-lasting feud between the Putnam and Porter families of Salem may have been a motivating factor in some of the witchcraft accusations. John Proctors son was born in prison while his wife was imprisoned on witchcraft charges. 20 wereexecuted (generally hanged) by the prosecutors, and five died while serving prison time. Music Credit: Spirit of the Dead by Aakash Gandhi#List25 #Didyouknow #WitchTrials 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! Tituba eventually confessed to using witchcraft. Even more interesting, the summer of 1692 was a dry one, and coincided with the apparent end of the bewitchments. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Another executed man was John Proctor, a wealthy farmer who spoke out against the witch trials, particularly after his wife Elizabeth had been arrested for witchcraft. Photos and Videos See All Videos and Images Related Topics and References Topics witchcraft The feud was over the fact that Kazan had named communist sympathizers during his testimony to Congress. According to the warrant for her apprehension, she was called for trial on March 23, 1692, under suspicion of witchcraft after being accused by Edward Putnam.
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