Hi Sara, the last hangings of the Salem Witch Trials took place on September 22 and they include six women: Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd and Mary Parker. Salem witch trials - Wikipedia To complicate matters further, within Salem Village itself, there were two separate social groups. Thank for the site it is so helpful for my project! Anja Grar is a writer, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Susannah Martin was my 10th great grandmother and John Proctor was my 11th great uncle. With a 1562 act now permitting the death penalty for acts of witchcraft, they were hanged. I just found this out. "The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History". Dramatic historic events such as witch trials didn't just come out of nowhere. Hi Maria, I dont have a version number for this site. This was so helpful for my project! Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. On October 31, 2001, the state amended the 1957 apology and cleared the names of the remaining unnamed victims, stating: Chapter 145 of the resolves of 1957 is hereby amended by striking out, in line 1, the words One Ann Pudeator and certain other persons and inserting in place thereof the following words:- Ann Pudeator, Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.. Published in 1992, this novel is a fictionalized account of the afflicted girls of Salem Village. Salem Village was populated mostly by poor farmers, and Salem Town was a prosperous port full of middle-class and wealthy merchants. Mather saw the war against Satan as being just as important as the war against the French and the local Native American tribes. ", What does that mean, in laymans terms? Ten of The Most Interesting Facts About The Salem Witch Trials Crown Publishers Inc., 1959. On March 1st, Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn were arrested and examined. (Eds.). Since the accused witches were considered dangerous prisoners, they were kept in the dungeon and were chained to the walls because jail officials believed this would prevent their spirits from fleeing the jail and tormenting their victims. Witchcraft had been made illegal during Henry VIIIs reign, with subsequent legislation passed under Elizabeth I further outlawing conjurations and enchantments. A Reply. Has their been any further studies into the ergot theory besides the collage student in the early 70s? Thanks so much for this! The Story of the Salem Witch Trials is a history of that event. This illustration shows him speaking at Witches Hill, the site of his execution. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a dark time in American history. I know that the accusers, at least some of them were aligned with the Putnam family who was known to have land disputes with several of the villagers. Sarah Wildes was my 8th great grandmother. While sympathy, and certainly empathy, are always good things to have, its also important that we dont let emotions color the facts. All witches are women, but not every woman is a witch. Hi RebeccaI saw that you have a lot of knowledge about Mary EastyI was told this year at a funeral that I am a direct decendent of hersI live in Salem and My Grandfather was name William Esteydo you by any chance have any history of the family tree? Or maybe it was the 1711 bill that cleared the names of the accused witches. Heavy stones were loaded onto the board and the weight was gradually increased until the prison either entered a plea or died. A 1976 study, printed in the journal Science, attributed the girls hysterical and possibly hallucinogenic behaviour to the ingestion of rye bread made with grain infected with ergot of rye. The day of prayer and fasting was held on January 15, 1698, and was known as the Day of Official Humiliation. Estimates suggest that over 200 women were executed during this period as a direct result of the investigations of Hopkins and his associates. As a direct result, food became scarce and taxes higher. This legal tactic was known as peine forte et dure which means strong and harsh punishment.. Does anyone know who was the last one to be accused of witchcraft and died , all she did was healing and someone who she knew turned her in. Being burned at the stake was an occasionally used method of execution in Europe, when one was convicted of witchcraft, but was generally reserved for those who refused to repent of their sins. thank u. 10 Interesting Facts about the Salem Witch Trials & Salem, Massachusetts Was there some sort of compromise at the end? During Titubas examination, she made a shocking confession that she had been approached by Satan, along with Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, and they had all agreed to do his bidding as witches. Then they even do a greater injustice by not only torturing folks in prison but hanging 19 of them and then putting rocks on a 71 year old man until he died because he would not state he was guilty or innocent (some old English law if accused refused to make a plea). The Salem Witch Trials began in spring 1692 and lasted for seven months, during which more than 150 people where arrested, 19 were hanged and one was tortured to death. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/facts-about-the-salem-trials-2562897. Proctors wife managed to escape execution because she was pregnant, but Proctor was hanged on August 19 along with five other people. Both, like Good, were viewed as outcasts by the local community; Tituba for her race and Osborne for the shedding of any religious beliefs she might once have held. Salem witch trials, (June 1692-May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted "witches" to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). The first case brought before the grand jury was that of Bridget Bishop, a woman around the age of 60 who faced a plethora of accusations: that she could pass through doors and windows without opening them; that she had made holes in the road suddenly open up, into which carts would fall before the holes would instantly disappear; that she had summoned a black pig with the body of a monkey and the feet of a cockerel. Thank you so much for this! hope you in joy it was really helpful to my students and i, Thankyou this helpedme a lot for my 3 page essay in english 11 class. Most of the accusers were Puritans who lived on the farms. Upon hearing about the Parris girls behavior, much of the Puritan community agreed that the duo had been victims of witchcraft. Alden was accused of witchcraft by a child during a trip to Salem while he was on his way home to Boston from Canada. If the accused was indicted, they were not allowed a lawyer and they had to decide to plead guilty or not guilty with no legal counsel to guide them. Wicked Facts About the Salem Witch Trials - Factinate One of the best known of the accused has been the focus of some conjecture regarding whether or not she was practicing folk magic, because she was believed to be a "fortune teller." The following are some facts about the Salem Witch Trials: The Salem Witch Trials were a series of witchcraft cases brought before local magistrates in a settlement called Salem which was a part of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 17th century. This was no more notable than when playwright Arthur Miller chose to dramatise the trials in his 1953 play The Crucible. an A on my report i mean >< Although she wasnt released, most people were confident she would be found not guilty and released. On July 23, John Proctor wrote to the clergy in Boston. Rev Nicholas Noyes, one of the local clergymen who had vigorously pursued the prosecutions, was the particular focus of Sarah Goods anger: You are a liar. No one was burned at the stake in Salem, but nineteen people were hanged, and one was pressed to death under heavy stones. As years passed, apologies were offered and restitution was made to the victims families. Note: it is expensive. They all died on the same day so its hard to pinpoint who you are talking about. Porters never forgot about this n intermarried with many of the families afterwards. Lienhard says, In recent years, though, the ergot theory has been questioned. "Reproducing Witchcraft: Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live". Other diagnoses have focused more on the mental wellbeing of the Salem girls. 1 Most of the accused were women but men were accusedand executedtoo. In Salem, they actually didn't do any burning at all. In mid-September, a further group went to the gallows Eight Firebrands of Hell in the words of Rev Noyes. Even when the court ordered further executions, Phips wisely issued pardons to those convicted. By the end of May, more than 60 people were in custody; the vast majority were women, but a handful of men were also detained. If you are looking for more info on the victims themselves, you can check out the article I wrote specifically about them titled The Salem Witch Trials Victims: Who Were They? Every March, people in the United States celebrate the achievements and history of women as part of Womens History Month. The mayhem all started in 1692, when two cousins aged nine and 11 began experiencing delusions, strange fits, and other mysterious maladies. I am totally shocked to be related in this way. The accused was thrown into a river and if they made it out alive, it was because they were a witch. Facts About The Salem Witch Trials You Didn't Know | TheRichest It disgusts me but at the same time interests me, and makes me want to learn more. In 1813, the wooden structure of the jail was remodeled into a Victorian home and in 1956 the home was razed. While the Salem of today is a thriving metropolitan area, in 1692 it was a remote settlement on the edge of the frontier. One bitterly cold evening, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams the daughter and niece of the local Puritan minister Samuel Parris began displaying disturbing behaviour described as being beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect. Massachusetts Archives Collection, vol. This belief in the power of the accused to use their invisible shapes or spectres to torture their victims had sealed the fates of those tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. There were all kinds of tests to determine whether a woman was a witch. Some of the suggested theories are: conversion disorder, epilepsy, ergot poisoning, Encephalitis, Lyme disease, unusually cold weather, factionalism, socio-economic hardships, family rivalries and fraud. Check them out below. Although spectral evidence, evidence based on dreams and visions, wasnt the only evidence used in court during the Salem Witch Trails, it was the most common evidence and the easiest evidence for accusers to fake. The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of Europe, on the other hand, was super into dramatic flames. The other most notorious case of witchcraft in England came during the British Civil Wars when Matthew Hopkins the son of a Puritan clergyman and the self-styled Witch Finder General scoured East Anglia in search those suspected of making covenants with the Devil.