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Essays on Salem Witch Trials

Salem witch trials essay topics and outline examples, essay title 1: the salem witch trials: an examination of mass hysteria and its consequences.

Thesis Statement: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a tragic chapter in American history characterized by mass hysteria, social dynamics, and the persecution of innocent individuals, and this essay explores the factors that led to the witch trials and their enduring legacy.

• Introduction
• The Historical Context of Puritan New England
• The Outbreak of Accusations and the Role of Fear
• The Trials and Executions
• Analysis of Social and Psychological Factors
• The Legacy of the Salem Witch Trials

Essay Title 2: The Accused and the Accusers: Uncovering Motivations and Identities in the Salem Witch Trials

Thesis Statement: A closer examination of the accused witches and their accusers in the Salem Witch Trials reveals a complex interplay of personal grievances, social dynamics, and religious fervor that contributed to the tragedy.

• The Accused: Their Backgrounds and Vulnerabilities
• The Accusers: Motivations and Social Positions
• The Legal Proceedings and the Role of Spectral Evidence
• Repercussions on the Accused and the Accusers

Essay Title 3: Lessons from Salem: Examining the Salem Witch Trials in Historical Context

Thesis Statement: The Salem Witch Trials serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power, religious extremism, and the need for a fair and just legal system, and this essay explores the enduring relevance of the trials in contemporary society.

• Comparing the Salem Witch Trials to Other Historical Witch Hunts
• Exploring the Role of Religion and Superstition
• Lessons for Modern Justice Systems and Civil Liberties
• Preserving the Memory and Lessons of the Salem Witch Trials

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Mass Hysteria in The Crucible

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Causes and Effects of The Salem Witch Trials

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How Cotton Mather’s Influence Caused The Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692

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May 1692 - October 1692

United States

The Salem witchcraft trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions that took place in colonial Massachusetts, specifically in the town of Salem, between 1692 and 1693. These trials were a dark chapter in American history, characterized by the mass hysteria and persecution of individuals accused of practicing witchcraft. The trials were sparked by the strange and unexplained behavior of several young girls, who claimed to be afflicted by witches. This led to a frenzy of accusations and trials, where numerous people, primarily women, were accused of consorting with the Devil and practicing witchcraft. During the trials, the accused individuals faced unfair and biased proceedings, often based on hearsay, spectral evidence, and superstitions. Many innocent people were wrongly convicted and subjected to harsh punishments, including imprisonment and even execution.

The Salem witch trials occurred in the late 17th century in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was a Puritan society deeply rooted in religious beliefs and strict social hierarchies. The trials took place against the backdrop of a tense and uncertain period, marked by political, social, and religious upheaval. In the years leading up to the trials, the colony faced challenges such as territorial disputes, conflicts with Native American tribes, and economic instability. Additionally, the Puritan community was grappling with the concept of witchcraft, influenced by prevailing beliefs in Europe at the time. The prevailing religious ideology, which emphasized a strict interpretation of Christianity, fostered a climate of fear and suspicion. The Puritans believed that witchcraft was a serious offense and that the Devil could infiltrate their community. This mindset, combined with existing social tensions and personal rivalries, created fertile ground for the accusations and subsequent trials.

Reverend Samuel Parris: Parris was the minister of Salem Village and the father of one of the afflicted girls. His sermons and strict religious teachings contributed to the atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Tituba: Tituba was a slave belonging to Reverend Parris. She was the first person accused of witchcraft and her supposed confessions fueled the hysteria surrounding the trials. Cotton Mather: Mather was a prominent Puritan minister and writer who played a role in shaping public opinion during the trials. Although initially supportive, he later expressed doubts about the fairness of the proceedings. Judge William Stoughton: Stoughton was the chief justice of the special court established to hear the witchcraft cases. He was known for his strong belief in witchcraft and his harsh and biased approach to the trials. Rebecca Nurse: Nurse was an elderly woman known for her piety and respected standing in the community. Despite her innocence, she was accused and ultimately executed as a witch.

The Salem witch trials, although a localized event in colonial America, have had a lasting influence on history. Here are some ways in which they have made an impact: Legal Reforms: The trials revealed the dangers of unchecked religious fervor and the flaws of the legal system at the time. This prompted reforms in evidence standards and legal procedures, ensuring fairer trials in the future. Religious Freedom: The trials highlighted the dangers of religious intolerance and the need for the separation of church and state. They contributed to the growing idea of religious freedom and the recognition of individual rights. Public Consciousness: The Salem witch trials serve as a cautionary tale about the consequences of mass hysteria, false accusations, and the power of fear. They continue to raise awareness about the dangers of scapegoating and the importance of critical thinking. Cultural Impact: The trials have become an enduring symbol of injustice and persecution. They have inspired numerous works of literature, art, and media, ensuring their place in popular culture and keeping the memory alive.

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller: This renowned play, first performed in 1953, uses the trials as an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare in the United States during the 1950s. It depicts the hysteria, false accusations, and the devastating consequences of mass paranoia. "The Witch" (2015): This horror film, set in the 17th century, portrays a family dealing with supernatural forces and suspicion of witchcraft. While not a direct adaptation of the Salem witch trials, it captures the atmosphere and fear prevalent during that time. "Salem" (2014-2017): This television series explores the trials within a supernatural context, depicting witches, magic, and historical figures. It weaves a fictional narrative with elements inspired by the events of the Salem witch trials. "I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem" by Maryse Condé: This novel offers a fictionalized account from the perspective of Tituba, an enslaved woman accused of witchcraft during the trials. It examines the intersection of race, gender, and power dynamics in the context of the trials.

1. The trials resulted in the execution of 20 people, 14 of whom were women, and the imprisonment of many others. 2. The initial accusations began when young girls in Salem Village claimed to be afflicted by witchcraft. 3. The first person to be accused and executed was Bridget Bishop on June 10, 1692. 4. The trials were fueled by religious and social tensions, as well as economic disputes within the community. 5. The court relied heavily on spectral evidence, which was testimony of the accused appearing in the form of a specter or ghost. 6. The infamous Salem witch trials ended abruptly when Governor William Phips ordered the trials to stop in October 1692. 7. The aftermath of the trials led to a sense of shame and guilt within the community, with efforts made to compensate the families of the victims.

The topic of the Salem witch trials is important to write an essay about due to its profound historical significance and the valuable lessons it teaches us about human behavior, justice, and the dangers of mass hysteria. The trials serve as a cautionary tale, reminding us of the devastating consequences that can arise when fear, prejudice, and the suspension of rational judgment take hold. By examining the Salem witch trials, we gain insight into the complex social, religious, and political dynamics of colonial America. We explore the role of religion in shaping beliefs and attitudes, the power dynamics within communities, and the impact of external influences on society. Furthermore, the trials raise important questions about justice and the legal system. They highlight the importance of due process, the presumption of innocence, and the dangers of relying on unreliable evidence. The events of Salem also shed light on the long-lasting psychological, emotional, and social effects on both the accused and the accusers.

1. Baker, E. A. (2007). The devil of great island: Witchcraft and conflict in early New England. Palgrave Macmillan. 2. Boyer, P., & Nissenbaum, S. (1974). Salem possessed: The social origins of witchcraft. Harvard University Press. 3. Carlson, L. (2010). A fever in Salem: A new interpretation of the New England witch trials. Ivan R. Dee. 4. Demos, J. (1982). Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the culture of early New England. Oxford University Press. 5. Hoffer, P. C. (1997). The Salem witchcraft trials: A legal history. University Press of Kansas. 6. Karlsen, C. F. (1989). The devil in the shape of a woman: Witchcraft in colonial New England. W.W. Norton & Company. 7. Norton, M. B. (2003). In the devil's snare: The Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692. Vintage. 8. Reis, E. (1997). Damned women: Sinners and witches in Puritan New England. Cornell University Press. 9. Rosenthal, B. (2009). Salem story: Reading the witch trials of 1692. Cambridge University Press. 10. Upham, C. W. (1980). Salem witchcraft: With an account of Salem Village and a history of opinions on witchcraft and kindred subjects. Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

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• Suggestions on Salem Witch Trials Research Paper Topics

The Salem witch trials were prosecutions conducted of people indicted for witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people faced accusations of witchcraft. Thirty were found guilty, and nineteen of them were executed by hanging. Fourteen of the victims were women and five men, but an unknown number of innocents were injured as well.

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Therefore, Salem witch trials essay topics are so popular among students. This theme has many pitfalls to explore, and all researches concerning the Salem witch trials have unique historical value.

Read this list of topic suggestions on the Salem witch trials and find out why it is so important to study.

The Salem Witch Trials

Written by: Malcolm Gaskill, University of East Anglia

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain how and why environmental and other factors shaped the development and expansion of various British colonies that developed and expanded from 1607 to 1754

Suggested Sequencing

This Narrative should accompany the Anne Hutchinson and Religious Dissent Narrative to explore the topic of religious toleration in the New England colonies.

In January 1692, in the village of Salem, Massachusetts, the nine-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old niece of a contentious minister, Reverend Samuel Parris, began having strange fits and seeing apparitions of local women they said were witches. A doctor diagnosed bewitchment, which meant that others were to blame for the girls’ possession, to which Parris responded with prayer. When this failed, Parris pressured the girls to identify the suspected witches. Meanwhile, other girls in Puritan households had supposedly been afflicted. Soon, three women had been accused of witchcraft, including the slave Tituba, who had performed a counter magical spell by baking a witchcraft victim’s urine in a cake and feeding it to a dog. The three women were arrested and jailed. The accusations gathered momentum and a panic set in.

Villagers were emboldened to voice their own suspicions of other witches, which led to more arrests. The accused were brought to the public meetinghouses and urged to confess so they could be brought back into the Christian fold. Most people gave credence to “spectral evidence”, evidence based on visions and dreams, in which the afflicted claimed they could see invisible spirits flying around the room and causing them pain. Even a four-year-old girl, the daughter of one of the accused, Sarah Good, was imprisoned for witchcraft. Before long, the witch hunt had spread to several neighboring communities.

Some people doubted the wild accusations that were tearing apart the communities. For example, Reverend Cotton Mather, a Boston minister, believed in witchcraft but had initial doubts about the outbreak. He questioned the use of spectral evidence, because in English law it was grounds for suspicion but not proof. Mather offered to provide spiritual guidance to the afflicted and cure their ills through prayer and counseling. Unlike the case in most witch hunts, in this one, only those who refused to confess were hanged, for clinging obstinately to Satan.

In May, the governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, set up a special court to deal with the forty-odd people who had been charged. A wealthy merchant, Samuel Sewall, sat on the court, and Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton presided. Many of the accused were perceived to be outsiders in some way, tainted by association with Quakers, American Indians, and non-English European settlers. People living closer to the town were also more likely to be suspects, as kinship groups and sections of town accused other kinship groups and sections of town with whom they were at odds.

The court convened on June 2 for the first trials, and on the basis of unprovable charges and spectral evidence, Bridget Bishop was found guilty and hanged. One of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall, was so outraged by the proceedings that he immediately resigned. A few days later, several clergymen published a statement, “The Return of Several Ministers,” expressing their own dissatisfaction with the use of spectral evidence and asking for greater burdens of proof. Nevertheless, the trials continued despite the travesty of justice that was recognized at the time. The conviction rate was unusually high, mainly because more than fifty suspects confessed, presumably to evade the noose. Puritans saw in the large numbers only mass allegiance to Satan, which, in turn, led to more accusations. The psychological pressures were intense, and some confessed “witches” recanted, thus sealing their fates.

With the stamp of this seal, William Stoughton, the chief judge who presided over the Salem witch trials, sent Bridget Bishop to her death.

The court convened again in late June, with more than one hundred accused witches in jail. Five more were tried and executed, followed by another five in August, and eight in September, fourteen women and five men. Elizabeth Proctor was found guilty but received a reprieve because she was pregnant. Giles Corey, who refused to plead, was pressed to death beneath a growing blanket of stones; his wife Martha was hanged. The deaths caused profound unease, including among previously enthusiastic ministers and magistrates. Reverend Increase Mather delivered a sermon in which he asserted, “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned.”

As in European witch trials (where an estimated sixty thousand accused witches were executed in the preceding centuries), the problem was using spectral evidence as proof, which, it was argued, may have been the Devil’s illusion to foment discord. Perhaps Satan’s goal had been not to recruit witches but to trick the court into executing the innocent. Particular weight had been placed on the girls’ testimony and on the confessions of the accused, both of which were unreliable. In late October, the Massachusetts Court called for a day of fasting and prayer for reflection on the hysteria. A few days later, Governor Phips met with Stoughton to decide the fate of the court and decided to halt the trials. The jailed were released.

In 1855, Thomkins H. Matteson painted Trial of George Jacobs, August 5, 1692. Jacobs was one of the colonists the court convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death. How has Matteson conveyed the climate of hysteria that overtook the community of Salem and led to the witch trials?

Samuel Sewall, one of the judges, regretted the role he had played in the witchcraft trials and wondered whether the subsequent misfortunes of his own family, and of all New England, might be divine punishment for shedding innocent blood. In January 1697, he stood bare headed in church in Boston while the minister read the following apology:

Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and being sensible, that as to the guilt contracted upon the opening of the late commission of Oyer and Terminer at Salem (to which the order for this day relates) he is, upon many accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, desires to take the blame and shame of it, asking pardon of men, and especially desiring prayers that God, who has an unlimited authority, would pardon that sin and all other his sins, personal and relative; and according to his infinite benignity, and sovereignty, not visit the sin of him, or of any other, upon himself or any of his, nor upon the land. But that He would powerfully defend him against all temptations to sin, for the future and vouchsafe him the efficacious, saving conduct of his word and spirit.

The jurors apologized later that same year. They admitted that, because they had not been “capable to understand nor able to withstand the mysterious delusions of the powers of darkness,” they were “sadly deluded and mistaken” in believing weak evidence and had caused the deaths of blameless people.

The factors that led to the 1692 Salem witchcraft outbreak were indeed complex. Much of the conflict fueling the trials originated in tensions between a traditional Puritan lifestyle based on piety and subsistence farming, and an increasingly worldly, capitalist outlook. Some Puritans complained of “declension” – a waning of godly ideals beginning in the 1630s, when Massachusetts Bay was settled. Friction between town and village had also developed over governance: Villagers resented paying taxes to maintain a distant town church and wanted independence.

The accusations may also have reflected tension between neighbors. Some scholars blame them on the fantasies and hysteria of children, and possibly even ergotism (a form of poisoning from a potentially hallucination-causing fungus that grows on rye) and an encephalitis epidemic. Gender also seemed to be significant: Were propertied women the victims of envious men? The Puritans believed witchcraft was God’s punishment for sin, either by allowing the Devil to convert so many witches or by turning fearful people against innocent neighbors. The Puritans believed in the existence of the Devil and his evil minions, who they thought could intervene in human affairs, tricking some into following them by practicing witchcraft.

The witchcraft outbreak was intensified across New England by political uncertainty during the years between the loss of the Massachusetts charter in 1684 and the granting of a new one by the English crown in 1691. The Glorious Revolution of 1689-1690 led to war with France, which, in turn, reignited war with American Indians in New England. These events all contributed to an atmosphere of profound insecurity and danger, spiritual and physical, though perhaps none really adequately explain the Salem witchcraft outbreak of 1692.

Review Questions

1. During the late seventeenth century and the events surrounding the Salem witch trials, what was considered “spectral evidence”?

• Evidence compiled from witnesses not physically present at the crime
• Evidence based on religious beliefs
• Evidence based on visions and dreams
• Evidence not accepted by court magistrates

2. How was the use of “spectral evidence” in trials of those accused as witches different in the New England colonies and in England?

• In English law, spectral evidence was grounds for suspicion, not proof.
• There was no difference in the use of spectral evidence.
• Spectral evidence was not admissible in English courts.
• The issue of spectral evidence never came up in England.

3. What was the fate of those who confessed to being witches in Salem Village?

• They were immediately hanged on the grounds that there was no doubt as to their guilt.
• Only those who refused to confess were hanged for clinging obstinately to Satan.
• Men tended to be acquitted whether or not they confessed.
• Regardless of whether they confessed, some were burned and some hanged.

4. Why was the conviction rate of accused witches in Salem so high?

• People were not hanged if they confessed, so many confessed to save their own lives.
• Many people genuinely believed they were witches.
• Many people were actually engaging in various witch rituals.
• Salem Village had an unusually large population.

5. What event launched the beginning of witchcraft accusations in Salem?

• A slave woman named Tituba confessed to witchcraft.
• Farm animals started disappearing.
• A young girl began having strange fits.
• A large comet appeared in the sky.

Free Response Questions

• Analyze potential causes of the witch trials in Salem and the surrounding area of Massachusetts. Which is the best explanation? Justify your answer.
• Explain why the accusations of witchcraft were acceptable to Puritans in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.

AP Practice Questions

“The humble petition of Mary Easty unto his excellencies Sir William Phipps to the honoured Judge and Bench now sitting In Judicature in Salem and the Reverend ministers humbly sheweth that whereas your poor and humble petitioner being condemned to die do humbly beg of you to take it into your judicious and pious. . . . I would humbly beg of you that your honors would be pleased to examine this afflicted persons strictly and keep them apart some time and like-wise to try some of these confessing witches. I being confident there is several of them has belied themselves and others as will appear if not in this world I am sure in the world to come whither I am now agoing and I question not but you’ll see an alteration of these things they say myself and others having made a league with the devil we cannot confess I know and the Lord knows as will shortly appear they belie me and so I question not but they do others the Lord above who is the searcher of all hearts knows that as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat that I know not the least thing of witchcraft therefore I cannot I dare not belie my own soul I beg your honers not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dying innocent person and I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors.”

Petition of Mary Easty to the Court, 1692

1. The view expressed in the excerpt provided reflects the request made by Mary Easty to

• consider that although she is innocent, most of the others accused were really witches
• keep the accused and “confessing witches” apart
• stop the trials altogether because they are morally and spiritually wrong
• question the authority of the judges to pass sentence on so many people

2. Which of the following most likely led to the events described in the excerpt provided?

• The introduction of Slave Codes in Massachusetts society
• The strict nature of gender roles in the late seventeenth century
• The English legal system
• The strict religious practices in seventeenth-century colonial New England

Primary Sources

Cotton Mather’s Account of the Salem Witch Trials: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-now/cotton-mather%E2%80%99s-account-salem-witch-trials-1693

Suggested Resources

Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England . New York: Norton, 1998.

Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 . New York: Knopf, 2002.

Ray, Benjamin C. Satan and Salem: The Witch-Hunt Crisis of 1692 . Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015.

Related Content

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

Salem Witch Trials Causes Research Paper

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

The plot summary, conclusions, works cited.

“Salem Possessed” is a book written by Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum which focuses on Salem Witch Trials. The writers explain that the problem began in the year 1691 and was marked by the behaviour of some girls in the same village who were involved in fortune telling. They were using a makeshift crystal ball to foretell their future and were aided by a slave couple which had come from Western India.

The first trial began on February in the year 1692 after the arrest of three women who were being accused of witchcraft. The women were inclusive of Sarah Osborn and Sarah Good who did not did not agree to the charges and Tituba who voluntarily agreed to the charges and did not plead innocent.

Around one hundred and eighty five people had been accused by the time the trials came to an end of which one hundred and forty one were women while the rest were men.

The same study explains that out of the total number of the accused, there were fourteen women and five men. Those who faced trial were fifty two women and seven men and finally, those who were convicted were twenty six women and five men (Linder Para. 6).

Since Salem was a religious community, the trials came to and end following a sermon by Increase Marther. The preacher was for protecting innocent people from being persecuted. With that background in mind, this paper shall describe the Salem witch trials and narrow down to women and property in relation to the same.

The introductory part has highlighted the main points of Salem Witch Trials and it is equally important to discuss the summary of activities which were taking place to be in a position to analyze some themes of the same. The plight of Salem started when one of the church elders by the name John Putman invited Samuel Paris to preach in the village.

Paris latter agreed to become the minister of the village after he was given a better remuneration which included a better salary, privileges as well as allowances.

During that period, studies indicate that people were divided into two groups of people: the Porters and the Purtnams and all were competing for political as well as religious leadership (Boyer and Nissenbaum pp. 124).

Witchcraft accusations were stirred by the sickness of a young girl who was known as Betty Paris. The girl was complaining of pain and fever and although there was a likelihood that the symptoms were as a result of a disease or some condition like child abuse, it was not possible by then to know the cause of the misery. Nevertheless, some people in the village suspected witchcraft to be the underlying cause. Villagers started to think more about witchcraft when close friends of the sick girl started to experience the same symptoms.

The three girls who were experiencing similar symptoms were known as Mary Walcott, Mary Lewis and Ann Putnam. Although a doctor was consulted to treat them, studies indicate that he diagnosed the problem to have been caused by a supernatural cause (Murphy, Par. 3).

Since the villagers believed that young children were the main target of the witches, there was little cause to doubt the diagnoses. In view of the fact that Salem villagers supposed that dogs were used by witches to bewitch people, one woman proposed the same dogs to be used to verify whether the victims were actually bewitched or not.

To affirm, this dogs were given a cake that was mixed with the urine of the victim and in case the dog and victim displayed similar behaviour, it was concluded that the victim was actually bewitched. The number of the bewitched girls continued to increase and it turned out to be a matter of concern since villagers became obsessed with it.

The trial began when the two girls; Betty and Abigail named the people whom they thought were responsible for their misery. Nevertheless, the analysis of the trial and accusations revealed that the two girls drafted their accusation stories collaboratively. Other girls who were likewise afflicted maintained that they had seen witches flying during winter and were supported by the family of Putnam which was very prominent (Boyer and Nissenbaum pp. 126).

As highlighted in the introductory part, the first group to be accused was composed of three women namely Osborn, Good and Tituba. While Osborn was old and querulous, Good was a beggar who never had a permanent dwelling place and survived mainly by begging for food and shelter from the villagers.

The two magistrates who were dealing with witchcraft cases were John Hathome as well as Jonathan Corwoin. The girls and the villagers volunteered to offer information concerning the accused women.

While the girls explained that they suffered greatly in the presence of the accused, villagers maintained that their animals disappeared or were born with deformities once the accused visited their compounds. It was clear that the judges believed that the women were guilty especially due to the questions which they asked them such as whether they had either seen Satan or whether they believed whether they were witches or not (Sutter, Para. 5).

The trial would have taken another course were it not for Tituba who confessed to the accusations. The woman explained that she was once approached by Satan who was a tall man from Boston and latter was requested to be his servant and affirm the same by signing a book. The woman explained that the tall man would either appear as a dog or even as a hog. Although she tried to seek religious counsel; the woman described that she was prevented from doing so by the devil.

Most surprisingly, Tituba explained that she had around four witches who were serving Satan with her, Osborn and Good included. Consequently, due to her confession, the ministers started to look for more witches and majority of the witchcraft sceptic also became silent (Boyer and Nissenbaum pp. 90).

Some other women were accused of witchcraft especially after the girls reported that they were being attacked by them. Young girls were also accused of the same evil; as young as four years of age. The audience had no other reason other than to believe especially due the confession of the afflicted girls who even confessed of being made dumb by the same witches.

As time went by, one accused by the name Deliverance Hobbs also confessed to witchcraft accusations. Due to the increased witchcraft cases, Phips the governor by then established a new court for the purpose of conducting witchcraft trials and appointed five judges for the same purpose.

The trials involved close examination of the accused by the judges and even use of gossip, stories and hearsay. The accused were most disadvantaged as they were not allowed to appeal or to have witnesses to testify on their behalf.

The trials continued to take place even after the trial of Bridget Bishop who was the first man to be tried and hanged. It was risky for anyone to be against the accusations and such a person also stood a chance of being victimized. Some of the people who confessed were allowed to live but most of them were hanged, stoned and some died in prison (The Salem Witch Trials Par. 8).

Further studies indicate that the trials came to an end in the year 1693 and some of the accused who were still prison were pardoned and allowed to continue with their normal lives.

Women and Property

Most scholars have been committed to analyze the issue of Salem witch trials and have come up with different conclusions. To begin with, a virtual analysis of the accused witches indicates that the total number of the accused women were far much more than men.

Most importantly, although some couples were accused, studies indicate that most of the women who were accused were widows. It is also important to note that young girls were also accused of the same crime (Sutter, Para 5).

The critical analysis of the whole issue indicates that there was a big difference between the accusers and the accused. Studies of Campbell (Para. 4) illustrate that most of the people who were accused were living in the south and they were wealthier than the accusers since they had much property. In addition, most of the accused families were aimed at gaining properties from the accused once they were convicted.

Religious factors also came into play since studies indicate that while most of the accused witches were in support of George Burroughs, the accusers and their families were against him and actually contributed greatly in forcing the ex minister to leave their territory (Murphy, Par. 3).

As much as men were accused and convicted of witchcraft, women were the main victims. Majority of the women who were accused and convicted were aged forty years and above. In most cases, men who were accused happened to be the relatives of the women witches. Most of the people who were accused were rich, relatively rich or powerful. A critical analysis of the issues in Salem indicates that there were underlying causes to the problem which may be inclusive of economic factors as well as sexual and doctrinal threat (Linder, Par. 8).

This is the main reason why most of the people who were accused were wealthy widows. They were viewed as a threat to some traditions involving the transfer of property from the fathers to the sons. In addition, women who never had male children were also at a greater risk of being accused due to the same issue.

Women who inherited property from their husbands were also at a greater risk of being accused especially when there were male children in the same family (Campbell Para 8.). However, there were some who never had property but were still accused like Martha Carrier. Therefore, it cannot be an understatement to conclude that Salem witch trials were spurred by economic, social and religious issues.

Boyer, Paul S. and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem possessed: the social origins of witchcraft. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. Print.

Campbell, Donna M. Salem Witch Trials as Fact and Symbol. Web.

Linder, Douglas. The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary . Web .

Murphy , Kate . Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . Web.

Sutter, Tim. Salem Witchcraft: The Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials . 2000. Web.

The Salem Witch Trials . 2010. Web.

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What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?

Looking into the underlying causes of the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century.

In February 1692, the Massachusetts Bay Colony town of Salem Village found itself at the center of a notorious case of mass hysteria: eight young women accused their neighbors of witchcraft. Trials ensued and, when the episode concluded in May 1693, fourteen women, five men, and two dogs had been executed for their supposed supernatural crimes.

The Salem witch trials occupy a unique place in our collective history. The mystery around the hysteria and miscarriage of justice continue to inspire new critiques, most recently with the recent release of The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Pulitzer Prize-winning Stacy Schiff.

But what caused the mass hysteria, false accusations, and lapses in due process? Scholars have attempted to answer these questions with a variety of economic and physiological theories.

The economic theories of the Salem events tend to be two-fold: the first attributes the witchcraft trials to an economic downturn caused by a “little ice age” that lasted from 1550-1800; the second cites socioeconomic issues in Salem itself.

Emily Oster posits that the “little ice age” caused economic deterioration and food shortages that led to anti-witch fervor in communities in both the United States and Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Temperatures began to drop at the beginning of the fourteenth century, with the coldest periods occurring from 1680 to 1730. The economic hardships and slowdown of population growth could have caused widespread scapegoating which, during this period, manifested itself as persecution of so-called witches, due to the widely accepted belief that “witches existed, were capable of causing physical harm to others and could control natural forces.”

Salem Village, where the witchcraft accusations began, was an agrarian, poorer counterpart to the neighboring Salem Town, which was populated by wealthy merchants. According to the oft-cited book  Salem Possessed by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Village was being torn apart by two opposing groups–largely agrarian townsfolk to the west and more business-minded villagers to the east, closer to the Town. “What was going on was not simply a personal quarrel, an economic dispute, or even a struggle for power, but a mortal conflict involving the very nature of the community itself. The fundamental issue was not who was to control the Village, but what its essential character was to be.” In a retrospective look at their book for a 2008 William and Mary Quarterly Forum , Boyer and Nissenbaum explain that as tensions between the two groups unfolded, “they followed deeply etched factional fault lines that, in turn, were influenced by anxieties and by differing levels of engagement with and access to the political and commercial opportunities unfolding in Salem Town.” As a result of increasing hostility, western villagers accused eastern neighbors of witchcraft.

But some critics including Benjamin C. Ray have called Boyer and Nissenbaum’s socio-economic theory into question . For one thing –the map they were using has been called into question. He writes: “A review of the court records shows that the Boyer and Nissenbaum map is, in fact, highly interpretive and considerably incomplete.” Ray goes on:

Contrary to Boyer and Nissenbaum’s conclusions in Salem Possessed, geo graphic analysis of the accusations in the village shows there was no significant villagewide east-west division between accusers and accused in 1692. Nor was there an east-west divide between households of different economic status.

On the other hand, the physiological theories for the mass hysteria and witchcraft accusations include both fungus poisoning and undiagnosed encephalitis.

Linnda Caporael argues that the girls suffered from convulsive ergotism, a condition caused by ergot, a type of fungus, found in rye and other grains. It produces hallucinatory, LSD-like effects in the afflicted and can cause victims to suffer from vertigo, crawling sensations on the skin, extremity tingling, headaches, hallucinations, and seizure-like muscle contractions. Rye was the most prevalent grain grown in the Massachusetts area at the time, and the damp climate and long storage period could have led to an ergot infestation of the grains.

One of the more controversial theories states that the girls suffered from an outbreak of encephalitis lethargica , an inflammation of the brain spread by insects and birds. Symptoms include fever, headaches, lethargy, double vision, abnormal eye movements, neck rigidity, behavioral changes, and tremors.  In her 1999 book, A Fever in Salem , Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the winter of 1691 and spring of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He couldn’t find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnoses of unseen conditions at the time.

The controversies surrounding the accusations, trials, and executions in Salem, 1692, continue to fascinate historians and we continue to ask why, in a society that should have known better, did this happen? Economic and physiological causes aside, the Salem witchcraft trials continue to act as a parable of caution against extremism in judicial processes.

Editor’s note: This post was edited to clarify that Salem Village was where the accusations began, not where the trials took place.

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The Salem Witch Trials Memorial is lined with the pleas of the victims. Photo by Charlie Weber

Community , Social Justice

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial: Finding Humanity in Tragedy

It was during the exceedingly hot summer of 1692 when Puritan judges in Salem, an English settlement in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, condemned twenty people of witchcraft and publicly executed them.

Now, 330 years later, visitors to this seaside city will find a simple, peaceful memorial next to an aged colonial graveyard and hear, in the near distance, the occasional sound of church bells. Entering a rectangular space bordered by rough stone walls and shaded by towering locust trees, one crosses a wide threshold inscribed with the words of the victims, their protestations of innocence and pleas to God clipped by the memorial walls, symbolizing the community’s indifference to their plight. Twenty granite benches jut from the walls, each bearing the name of a person unjustly accused and killed.

Erected in 1992, this was Salem’s first public monument to those tragic events. As we mark the memorial’s thirtieth anniversary, it is perhaps more important than ever to remember the lessons of these injustices.

Salem’s witch trials were the largest and deadliest in North American history. Over the course of a year and a half, nineteen people were hanged and one man was brutally tortured to death. Though popularly referred to as “the Salem witch trials,” accusations had spread throughout Essex County and beyond. In total, between 150 and 200 people were imprisoned, ranging in age from four to eighty-one years old. At least five died in jail, including the infant daughter of convicted Sarah Good.

None of the accused were “witches,” defined in the seventeenth century as one who had sold their soul to the devil. Instead, it was a crime often lodged against social outsiders within a community.

Each of the twenty victims have their own heartbreaking story that can only be pieced together from fleeting comments in the records. Take for example the story of Ipswich’s Elizabeth How, a hardworking, fifty-five-year-old wife and mother executed July 19, 1692. A decade previous, she found herself in a heated conflict with a neighbor who accused her of bewitching a child to death. “Everything that happened amiss to anyone was laid at her door,” wrote Charles Upham, a nineteenth-century historian. It was no surprise that Elizabeth once again became a target in 1692.

The brief recorded references to the devotion of Elizabeth’s family are deeply moving. In his testimony, her ninety-four-year-old father-in-law, James How Sr., commenting on the thirty years he had known her, said, “as a wife to my son, [she is] very careful, loving, obedient, and kind, considering his want of eyesight, tenderly leading him about by the hand.” While jailed in Boston, a full day’s journey from Ipswich, Elizabeth was visited twice a week by her blind husband James Jr., guided by one of their daughters. Despite testimony given on her behalf, she was executed on that July day along with four other innocent women.

Though small compared to the European witch hunts , which took the lives of approximately 45,000 people over the span of 300 years, Salem became infamous. Witchcraft suspicions were common, but executions were rare in the “New World.” Immediately after the Salem trials were over, there was a sense that something had gone terribly wrong. In 1697, one magistrate and twelve jurists apologized for their part in these events, as did one accuser almost a decade later.

The growing recognition of this injustice made Salem a common cultural reference as early as the eighteenth century. Noted by Founding Fathers during the American Revolution, included in early school books as an example of a moral failing, and invoked as a metaphor for contemporary scapegoating in the twentieth century, the tragedies of Salem have never left public memory.

The curious have traveled to Salem for centuries, drawn by the city’s macabre history. While visiting the area in 1766, future president John Adams listed in his diary a visit to “Witchcraft Hill”—thought to be the site of the executions. In 1895, a Salem visitors’ guide noted, “The Witchcraft Delusion, which caused many to flee from Salem for their lives two centuries ago, now brings thousands of visitors to Salem each year.”

Confronting our dark heritage can prove difficult. The reality behind witchcraft trials is often challenging for a modern audience to comprehend, as the word “witch” typically evokes a folkloric or popular culture figure, rather than a real human being. Only in the last half-century has the world seen an increase in the establishment of witch trials memorials, ranging in size from small plaques and simple markers, like the Brechin Memorial in Scotland , to larger memorial stones, such as those set in Torsåker Parish, Sweden , and enormous structures, like the Steilneset Memorial in Vardø, Norway . Each of these memorials is both an effort to remember the victims, many of whom have living descendants, and to educate people in hopes of preventing similar acts of hysteria and scapegoating.

Limited memorialization efforts of the Salem victims began in the late 1880s, driven largely by descendants. The first honored Rebecca Nurse, a seventy-one-year-old beloved mother, church member, and respected neighbor. Her hanging on July 19, 1692 had shocked the community. Family legend holds that her remains were retrieved from the hanging site and buried in an unmarked grave on the Nurse property.

In 1885, more than 600 people, many of them descendants, gathered at the Nurse homestead in Danvers (formerly Salem Village) to attend the unveiling of a granite obelisk, inscribed with a John Greenleaf Whittier poem. Two other early memorials were erected: a plaque in Amesbury for Susannah Martin placed by the Amesbury Improvement Association in 1894 and another for John Proctor in Peabody placed by his descendants in 1902.

It would take almost a century more for memorialization discussions to continue in Salem. In 1986, the mayor’s office established an advisory committee to discuss how to commemorate the upcoming 300th anniversary of the witch trials. While “a firm and strong foundation” was built over the next few years, according to Tercentenary executive director Linda McConchie, progress was slow and met with obstacles.

As noted in the early Salem visitor guides, the witch trials long held a fascination for those outside the community. Some locals, however, were reluctant to acknowledge this dark heritage. The trials saw neighbors turn against neighbors and held a legacy of shame and embarrassment, a feeling that lasted generations. One former Danvers resident, who grew up in the 1960s, recalled being told in his youth, “in polite society, you don’t talk about divorce and you don’t talk about the witch trials.”

The New York Times reported in 1988 a proposed statue by Beverly, Massachusetts, sculptor Yiannis Stefanakis, a memorial depicting the three accused Towne sisters: the executed Rebecca (Towne) Nurse and Mary (Towne) Esty and survivor Sarah (Towne) Cloyce. The funds were privately raised, with no public call for design. An uproar ensued. Salem’s First Church pastor John Szala, who at the time chaired the mayor’s advisory committee, said, “[Stefanakis] took this to the City Council, and it was rushed through without a hearing and without the public being alerted to what he was doing. The community is divided as a result.”

In discussing support for the project, Stefanakis said, “I’ve got a pile of letters from across the country. However, I’ve received very, very few letters and money from Salem. I don’t think they were ready for this despite 300 years.”

This comment recalls a story shared by Danvers town archivist Richard Trask. In 1970, he led the effort to uncover the parsonage foundation in Salem Village, significant to the witch trials as the site where the trouble began and escalated. Trask recalls neighbors’ complaints. “Leave it alone,” they said. “Why do you have to bring this up?”

As the city’s witch-related tourism had grown in the latter half of the twentieth century, some felt Salem’s sad history was being disrespected and the human story behind the witch trials forgotten. “The goal of the [Tercentenary] was to reclaim the historical importance and significance of this tragic event,” McConchie says. The Tercentenary Committee—led by McConchie plus Patty MacLeod and Alison D’Amario of the Salem Witch Museum —planned a year-long commemoration with two key elements in mind: the construction of a public memorial and a lasting way to honor the innocent victims. They achieved the latter through the creation of the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.

With an estimated budget of $100,000 and an available piece of land in downtown Salem selected, the committee issued a public call for designs. They received close to 250 entries, which were judged by an expert panel of artists, architects, and museum professionals.

In November 1991, playwright Arthur Miller unveiled the winning design created by Maggie Smith and James Cutler. The Tercentenary Committee Final Report describes the memorial:

“Striking in its simplicity, the Memorial is surrounded on three sides by a handcrafted granite dry wall. Inscribed in the stone threshold are the victims’ protests of innocence. These protests are interrupted mid-sentence, symbolizing society’s indifference to oppression. Six locust trees, the last to flower and the first to shed their leaves, represent the stark injustice of the Trials. At the rear of the Memorial, visitors view the tombstones of the adjacent 17th century Charter Street Burying Point, a reminder of all who stood in mute witness to the tragedy. Cantilevered stone benches within the Memorial perimeter bear the names of each of the twenty victims, creating a quiet, contemplative environment in which to evoke the spirit and strength of those who chose to die rather than compromise their personal truths.”

These twenty innocent individuals refused to confess to witchcraft and were murdered as a result.

The dedication of the Salem Witch Trials Memorial was the centerpiece of the Tercentenary year. On August 5, 1992, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel gave a special address, speaking eloquently about his lifelong commitment to end hate and human suffering.

“In times of inhumanity, humanity is still possible,” he urged. “It is because people were fanatic that Salem was possible…. And fanaticism is the greatest evil that faces us today. For today, too, there are Salems.”

That same day, the committee presented its first Salem Award to Gregory Alan Williams, a hero of the Los Angeles riots which had erupted earlier that year, after the acquittal of the police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. MacLeod reflects, “We wanted the award to be a lasting teaching tool.” The Salem Award Committee, now known as Voices Against Injustice, presents the Salem Award annually.

Throughout 1992, Tercentenary programming focused on the enduring lessons of the witch trials, encouraging people to reflect on the dangers of scapegoating during times of great fear and uncertainty. At the Tercentenary inauguration on March 1, Joshua Rubenstein of Amnesty International used the trials as a point of reference by which to examine human rights violations throughout history and today.

Despite the efforts of countless people to make the Salem Witch Trials Memorial a reality, less than twenty years later, the structure located in the heart of downtown Salem had fallen into disrepair. The problem was twofold: first, it was never clear who was responsible for the memorial’s upkeep.

Secondly, the original design called for the stones to be loosely laid, with no supporting mortar. People began to take pieces of it away as souvenirs, and it was frequently used during the geocaching craze in the early 2000s. Yet another fundraising effort was undertaken to refurbish this important site.

The structure was reinforced and rededicated on September 9, 2012. Today, the memorial is well-maintained by the Peabody Essex Museum, the City of Salem, and Voices Against Injustice.

Like so much about our venerable city, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial means different things to different people. For modern witches, it is affirming. For descendants, emotional. For tourists, an essential stop. Conversely, when asked about the memorial, several longtime residents stated they never visit nor do they have a strong opinion about the site.

Many self-identified witches have moved to Salem over the past half-century. Modern witchcraft means something different to each individual, though it can broadly be described as a sense of spiritual contentment and personal empowerment derived from the long and complex history of the witch.

Margaret McGilvray, a practicing witch and founder of The Witchery, an art and performance space in Salem, reflects, “When I am at the Witch Trials Memorial, I am not analyzing from a historical perspective. I’m feeling it. And that is why it is such a powerful memorial. It allows me to feel.”

Teri Kalgren, a member of the Witches Education League and owner of Artemisia Botanicals, who has lived and worked in Salem since the late 1980s, noted that while she wishes there was more interpretive signage at the memorial, it is “beautiful and very solemn to walk through. As a witch, I see [the witch trials] as something that could possibly happen again. It shows man’s inhumanity to man.”

In recent years, as genealogical research has become more accessible, there has been an increase in descendants arriving in Salem. According to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 15 million Americans can trace an ancestral connection to the witch trials. For many, traveling to Salem is an important pilgrimage. It is a misconception that the witch trial victims were prohibited from interment in cemeteries. Ongoing research suggests the remains of some of these individuals were retrieved from the hanging site and quietly buried at their family homesteads. Because definitive grave sites for the victims remain unconfirmed, the memorial has become a primary place to pay respects.

Throughout the year, and particularly on the anniversaries of the hanging dates (June 10, July 19, August 19, and September 22), visitors leave flowers, coins, and small objects on these stones. The memorial gives descendants a physical place to leave personal notes, many heartfelt.

Thousands of tourists visit the memorial each year. While most treat the space with reverence, some, particularly during the Halloween season, fail to appreciate the weight of this tragic history. Perhaps that is the reality of any public memorial dedicated to such distant events.

As the meaning of the word “witch” continues to change, so too does Salem. Navigating the spectrum of popular interest is no simple task. Salem’s heritage encompasses colonial history, the persecution of innocent people, beloved fictional witches, spooky Halloween fun, and modern magick . The Salem Witch Trials Memorial stands today in the center of it all, publicly reminding thousands of visitors of the city’s darkest chapter.

This permanent memorial is not only an interesting place to visit but an essential statement, one which speaks to the humanity involved in such a tragedy. The tendency to blame “the other” during times of uncertainty and fear is an enduring human behavior. Whether the fatal sickness of a child is blamed on an argument with a neighbor in the seventeenth century or an entire race for the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to find scapegoats.

By memorializing witch trials, in Salem and around the world, modern communities are beginning the difficult process of reckoning with their own darkest tendencies.

Rachel Christ-Doan is the director of education at the Salem Witch Museum, where she engages in research, works with students and teachers, oversees curation and exhibition development, and creates educational programming.

Jill Christiansen is the assistant director of education at the Salem Witch Museum, specializing in Salem witch trials research and acting as the book buyer for the museum store.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the many dedicated people who were involved in this project, particularly the trio of Patty MacLeod, Alison D’Amario, and Linda McConchie, who led the two-year effort to create the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem Award, and year of Tercentenary programming. 

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Salem Witch Trials: What Caused the Hysteria?

By: Elizabeth Yuko

Published: September 26, 2023

Though the Salem witch trials were far from the only persecutions over witchcraft in 17th-century colonial America, they loom the largest in public consciousness and popular culture today. Over the course of several months in 1692, a total of between 144 and 185 women, children and men were accused of witchcraft, and 19 were executed after local courts found them guilty.

As the witch panic spread throughout the region that year, increasing numbers of people became involved with the trials—as accusers, the accused, local government officials, clergymen, and members of the courts. 

What was happening in late 17th-century Massachusetts that prompted widespread community participation, and set the stage for the trials? Here are five factors behind how accusations of witchcraft escalated to the point of mass hysteria, resulting in the Salem witch trials.

1. Idea of Witchcraft as a Threat Was Brought From England

By the time the Salem witch trials began in 1692, the legal tradition of trying people suspected of practicing witchcraft had been well-established in Europe, where the persecution of witches took place from roughly the 15th through 17th centuries.

“Salem came at the tail end of a period of witch persecutions in Europe , just as the Enlightenment took hold,” says Lucile Scott , journalist and author of An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism and the Making of Modern America . “The English colonists imported these ideas of a witch to America with them, and prior to the events in Salem , [many] people had been indicted for witchcraft in [other parts of] New England .”

The accusations in Salem began in early 1692, when two girls , ages nine and 11, came down with a mysterious illness. “They were sick for about a month before their parents brought in a doctor, who concluded that it looked like witchcraft,” says Rachel Christ-Doane, the director of education at the Salem Witch Museum .

Looking back from the 21st century, it may seem unthinkable that a doctor would point to witchcraft as the cause of a patient’s illness, but Scott says that it was considered a legitimate diagnosis at the time. 

“It’s hard for us to understand how real the devil and witches and the threat they posed were to the Puritans—or how important,” she explains. “Witchcraft was the second capital crime listed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s criminal code .” 

2. Puritan Worldview Was Mainstream

When the Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, the first governor, John Winthrop, delivered a sermon famously proclaiming the colony “a Citty [sic] upon a Hill” —in this case, meaning a model Christian society with no separation of church and state. But as growing numbers of Quakers and Christians of other denominations arrived in Massachusetts, it became more religiously diverse .

“By the 1690s, God-fearing Puritans represented a smaller proportion of the population of New England than at any point in the 17th century,” says Kathleen M. Brown, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia . “Even though percentage-wise, the Puritan influence was weaker than it had been earlier in the century, it was still leaving a big imprint on society.”

This included mainstream acceptance of Providence: the Puritans’ belief that the events of everyday life on Earth happened in accordance with God’s will. 

“This was particularly true when they were talking about the fate of colonial settlements in the land grab, or disease epidemics that would sweep through and kill people, or a terrible storm,” Brown explains. “Providence, along with the notion that there was evil at work through Satan—[including] through the activities of witches who might turn to the devil to exert supernatural power—informed the way Puritans understood the natural world and the spiritual world.” 

Similarly, despite their waning power, the Puritans’ societal structure remained firmly in place when the Salem witch trials began. “The Puritan colony was a very patriarchal and hierarchical place,” Scott says, noting that this included the view that people, particularly women, who stepped outside of their prescribed roles in society were looked upon with suspicion. 

3. Accusations Didn’t Follow the Usual Patterns

Though accusations of witchcraft themselves weren’t out of the ordinary in colonial New England, those made in Salem in 1692 stood out, likely contributing to the panic that spread throughout the community. 

“Witchcraft accusations normally happened quite sporadically and in some isolation,” Brown explains. “They rarely snowballed into a mass accusation with increasing numbers of people accusing and being accused.” 

“If you look at the larger history of witchcraft, not just in North America, but in England and Scotland, usually men are the accusers of witches, especially in an outbreak,” says Brown, whose latest book Undoing Slavery: Bodies, Race, and Rights in the Age of Abolition was published in February 2023. “You don't really ever get girls and young women doing the accusations: that's actually anomalous for Salem.” 

Though theories abound, there is still no consensus as to why girls and young women became the central accusers , she notes.

When a rare witchcraft outbreak did occur, Brown says that it broadened the scope of who might qualify as a potential witch. “More people would fall into the category of ‘accused witch,’ and more people jumped on the bandwagon of accusation,” she notes. 

As the trials wore on, no one was exempt from suspicion. “At a certain point, accusations in Salem flew so freely, anyone, no matter their Puritan purity, might find themselves facing the gallows,” Scott says. 

HISTORY Vault: Salem Witch Trials

Experts, historians, authors, and behavioral psychologists offer an in-depth examination of the facts and the mysteries surrounding the court room trials of suspected witches in Salem Village, Massachusetts in 1692.

4. Decades of Ongoing Violence Had Taken a Toll

When the Salem witch trials began in 1692, King Philip’s War , also known as Metacom’s Rebellion, was still fresh in the minds of the colonial settlers. The Native Americans’ last-ditch attempt to stop English colonization of their land officially concluded in 1676 , but the violent conflict and bloodshed had never ended on the northern border of the Massachusetts colony. 

“The colonial settlers were still encroaching on land that had been in the hands of Native Americans for thousands of years, and Native peoples were hitting back,” Brown explains. “It wasn’t hard for Massachusetts Puritans to think about the devil embodied in what the Native Americans were doing, because they're not Christian, they’re in a mortal combat with Puritan Christianity and the whole colonial settler enterprise, and the Massachusetts Puritans really believed in their own divine mission.” 

Along the same lines, when the colony’s leaders reflected on the poor job they had done defending its northern boundary, Brown says that it’s not much of a stretch to think that they understood it all to mean that God was trying to tell them something, and “doesn't seem to be very happy.”

5. Accusations Came at Time of Political Uncertainty

It would have been one thing for the Puritans to view the contagion of both the mysterious illness spreading amongst the young women of Salem, and the subsequent accusations of witchcraft, as a sign that God is angry and the devil is at work. However, as Brown points out, in order for those accusations to gain the kind of traction they had in Salem—making it to trial, and, eventually, imprisoning and executing people—there had to be widespread buy-in from public officials. 

“You need ministers saying, ‘Yes, these are signs of the devil in our midst,’” Brown explains. “You need magistrates doing interrogations and deciding to lock people up in jail and put them on trial. You need judges who are willing to believe the spectral evidence. You need all of the official apparatus of government and of justice to be on board with it to produce the kind of outcome you get at Salem.”

According to some scholars, most notably, historian Mary Beth Norton , local leaders in Salem were so receptive to the accusations of witchcraft, and on board with implementing draconian laws and policies in part because of the precariousness of the Massachusetts colonial settlement at that time.

High-ranking Puritans were concerned about their church’s dwindling numbers. “By the time [the Salem witch trials] take place, the Puritans are less dominant politically, religiously [and] culturally,” Brown explains.

The final decades of the 17th century were a time of political uncertainty in Salem as well. In 1684, King Charles II of England revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter . Seven years later, the new ruling monarchs, King William III and Queen Mary II, issued a new charter establishing the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and, at the urging of influential Puritan clergyman Increase Mather , appointed Maine-born William Phips governor of the colony.

By the time Mather and Phips returned to Massachusetts with the new charter in May 1692, Salem’s jails were already filled with people accused of practicing witchcraft. 

“You can make the argument that the legal system [in place prior to May 1692 ] made it possible for the witch trials to happen,” says Christ-Doane. “They [didn’t] have a charter, and their courts were dysfunctional, and that allows them to make unusual procedural decisions that lead to so many people being convicted of witchcraft.” 

This included relying heavily, and sometimes exclusively, on spectral evidence —or, testimony from witnesses claiming that the accused person appeared to them and caused them harm in a vision or dream—even though it was widely considered unacceptable in legal practice at the time.

According to Brown, the legal situation didn’t improve when Phips took over. “Phipps, as governor, was a gatekeeper for certain judicial processes,” she explains. This included establishing the Court of Oyer and Terminer on May 27, 1692, specifically to try people accused of witchcraft. “That was the beginning of the convictions and the executions ,” Brown adds. 

On June 2, Bridget Bishop became the first person convicted of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials; eight days later, she was the first to be executed .

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