Three Hundred and twenty-five years ago, in 1692, teenage girls were suddenly barking like dogs and dancing in the woods. People started to believe that these girls were now bewitched, as they were bringing the devil to the village of Salem, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Salem Witch Trials officially began in February of 1692. The first accused girls included Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, accused of witchcraft. Tituba is believed to have confessed to being witches who were working with the devil, out of fear. Fear combined with a “trigger”, a traumatic or stressful event, is what often leads to scapegoating. Fear of the Devil and witches who did his bidding, was very real in Salem at the time (“History of the Salem Witch Trials” History of Massachusetts). People started to fear the girls, growing the fear out of control. They began to feel anxious and frightened, imagining witches to be abusing them.
Previously, before the infamous Salem Witch Trials, there was one case of someone being trialed for witchcraft. This event happened in 1648, almost half a century beforehand. The accused was noted to be Margaret Jones was the first person known to be trialed for witchcraft, however, not much information can be recalled from this trial.
There are many aspects that play a part in helping conduct a greater fear into the Salem Witch Trials. Overall Puritan Life had strong religious believes based off of the bible, fearing that the devil was out to destroy them. Indian wars played an important part in the trials as well. As the Indians moved closer to Salem and neighboring Villages, the Puritans feared they would be outnumbered and taken over, losing everything they had.
Puritan Life
Minister John Winthrop, the founder of the new Massachusetts Bay Colony, came via a religious mission, claiming his new land to be an “ideal society, governed not by political ideas or economics, but by religious principles” (Woods, Geraldine. The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Headline Court Case.) The lifestyle of a Puritan was heavily influenced by the church and Christian beliefs. According to Discovery Education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.” Laws for the Puritans were very rigid and people were expected to follow a strict moral code, if they were to break the code or laws, it was to be considered a sin and they were to be punished.
The Puritans in England had been people of means and political influence. They wanted to reform the Church of England, however, King Charles would not allow them to do so. Since King Charles would not allow this, they decided to travel to America, wishing for a new and better life. They were to establish a colony where the government, society, and church were all to be based off of the Bible. From the moment of birth, Puritans had believed that their fates were determined by God, only a couple were going to heaven, and everyone else was subject to hell, fearing the devil.
Puritans had readily accepted and feared the existence of witches and the devil. During the seventeenth century, colonists often feared the Devil was always attempting to destroy their way of life, including their communities. The Puritan’s towns and villages stood as bastions of righteousness surrounded by armies of dark intent in the form of devil worshipers, hostile Indians, and the ravages of nature. (Rice, Earle The Salem Witch Trials. Lucent Books, 1997).
Indian Wars
“In our history, we deny that the Indians had settled the continent thousands of years before…. because it’s our interests to deny it. The textbook that calls it ‘a virgin continent’ is pure nonsense” (“The Indian War.” The Indian War: The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site). There were hundreds of native tribes who had been living on the land. The natives had stretched over the land from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as from ocean to ocean. The same way that ones in Europe during the Roman times did, they had set up governments, and institutions. However, the Europeans landed believing to have found the “New World”, ignoring the fact that the Natives have been there for many years prior. Historian and sociologist, James Loewen told how early Americans would say “God is on our side, fate is on our side, the overall sweep of history is on our side. Of course, it is a rationalization for what we do or what we did. If we killed them all, it was too bad, it was Manifest Destiny”. With this quote, we are able to see how the colonists were proud of killing off the Native tribes, claiming the land as their own. General Philip Sheridan, and Indian fighter quotes “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead”, which turned into “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” (“The Indian War.” The Indian War: The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site).
Around 1622, the European settlers started fighting with the indigenous Native Americans, which became known as the Indian Wars. These wars had continued on and off well into the eighteenth century, contributing greatly to the outcome of the Salem Witch Trials. Indian raids from the north and west brought many refugees carrying sicknesses, need of additional resources, and ever more fear. (Nekrosius, Sam, The Salem Journal: The Hysteria. 2012). In 1631, a fight over the land of Saugus, Massachusetts, a Puritan mister had quoted, “God ended the controversy by sending smallpox among the Indians”. With open wounds, sickness as easily transferable from person to person, speeding madness around the village. During that winter, there was a small pox epidemic. Due to the epidemic, fear, madness, and hysteria, was seen throughout the Puritan religion.
King Philip’s War or the First Indian War was a fight between the colonists and Native Americans which took place in now Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and Connecticut. It is said to be the single greatest disaster to happen during the seventeenth century. King Philip, also known as Metacomet who adapted an English name, was chief of the Wampanoag tribe became king when his brother died from an illness while in Plymouth. The colonists were believed to have gave it to him, and they feared that King Philip was planning revenge, adding more fear of the Natives to the colonists, which continued until the end of the century.
Since the news that the Natives had won wars in the north and west, the Puritans had feared that they would be defeated, and everything would be destroyed. At this time, none of the Puritans felt safe or secure, knowing that the Native Americans were quickly approaching their area, only being seventy miles away.
Diseases
With the Indian wars had come numerous different diseases that was easily spreadable from person to person. One of these being small pox which is a deadly disease that tends to cover its victims in small blisters or pimples. Europeans had brought the disease over with them as they came to their new land. Since the Native American’s were never exposed to it before, they became infected and was easily spread throughout the tribes, leading to the infections of other Europeans, as well. The 1692 smallpox epidemic had killed around five hundred people who lived in the Salem Village.
There is also possible believe that ergot poisoning, which commends from ingesting the alkaloids made by a group of ergot fungi. It is known to affect rye, wheat, and other cereal grasses. An effect to the ergot fungi had included hallucinogenic effects similar to ones with consuming lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known as acid. The alkaloids affect the central nervous system and cause the contraction of smooth muscle-the muscles that make up the walls of veins and arteries, as well as internal organs. This poisoning has been implicated to other outbreaks of bizarre behavior, including one in Point-Saint-Esprit, a small French town, in 1951 (“The Witches Curse.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 4 Jude 2014). The idea of witchcraft was also believed to be contagious, just like a disease. People believed to start seeing witches everywhere.
Some other possible diseases and disorders that could have affected the girls included, Encephalitis, which could have been easily spreadable by birds, and Lyme disease from ticks which would create red marks and rashes on their body. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is another factor that played a part. People were fearful for their lives during the Indian Wars, that Post-traumatic stress disorder kicked in and made them believe they were being attacked.
Bewitched
In his writing, Entertaining Satan; Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England, Professor Joh Putnam Demons describes what the most common features of the accused had to be trialed. He starts with Preliminaries, as they were anxiously preoccupied with spiritual condition. Onset with consisted of fainting spells, disturbances of speech and hearing, disordered speech, as well as, hysterical crying. Intensification, the effected had longer fits that became more frequent and more bizarre. Acute Phase, their fits hit a peak intensity for them might have included, excruciating sensations of pricking or pinching, or bizarre contortions of body parts, such as, twisting, stretching, or unusual postures of extreme rigidity and limberness by turns. They might also include hyperactive motor activity such as rolling on the ground and barking or having animal imitations. There also were periods of extreme immobility with could lead to paralysis. Some other effects of anorexia, as well as babbling unknowingly. One of the last parts he described was Intermissions, the victim would experience quiet periods which could last hours up to days.
People where not the only ones believed to be bewitched during this time period. There were cases where they believed animals were accomplices. These accomplices could be a form of any animal, such as, cats, dogs, cows, birds, and pigs. However, there were some who were accused of witchcraft. There were two dogs listed that were executed for witchcraft. In October of 1692, an afflicted girl had accused one of her neighbor’s dogs of attempting to bewitch her. Because of this, the villagers feared it was the work of the devil and had immediately executed the dog. However, after it’s death, Cotton Mather, a minister, declared the dog to have been innocent. His reasoning behind it was that if the dog truly had been the devil in disguise, it would not have been so easily to have killed, proclaiming it to be innocent. Soon later, another dog had started to behave strangely. The afflicted girls had accused John Bradstreet of Andover of riding and tormenting the dog with his spirit. Any animal that had become sick, injured, or died suddenly, were thought to have been kidnapped by witched and taken to secret meetings during the night.
Aftermath
As we know of, there was around two hundred people, men and women, that were accused of witchcraft. Not all of them were pursued by the authorities or arrested. However, there was around twenty-four people who were killed during the time, including two dogs. When everything began to calm down once the trials were over, no one else was convicted in Salem for being a witch. However, the hysteria of the idea never disappeared. Even today, there is a sense of hysteria or fear that lurks around Salem, knowing about the fear of the Devil.
Any witchcraft trial that was to take place after 1692 was subject to follow new laws that was written by the General Court. The accused would only be sentenced to one year in jail, if convicted of using witch magic. However, if they were to use magic to harm another human, they would still receive the death penalty.
A modern example of the Salem Witch Trials includes the anti-communist trend in the United States during the Cold War. People would be accused of spying on the United States for the Soviet Union
In the 1960s, scientists had studied an instance of group hysteria that was closely resembled to the outbreak in Salem. A group of girls in a Louisiana junior high school started having strange convulsions and fainting spells. Within a few weeks, as many as four hundred girls and several boys were affected (Nekrosius, Sam, The Salem Journal: The Hysteria. 2012).
There have also been many books written, one notable one being The Crucible by Arthur Miller.