Salem_Witch_Trials

Milhim, Laurent Dr. Macia 26 April 2011 ENC1101 5:00-6:15 MW Salem Witch Trials The year 1692 was by far one of the most tragic years in American history, also hysteria. Throughout the year, a massive number of individuals either were deceased or came to a near-death experience. In the town of Salem, Massachusetts, there lived a village full of Puritan individuals. “Puritans are the supremacy of divine will” (Karlsen). By Karlsen’s statement, he affirms that they are a God-centered society, speaking in theocracy. Puritans believed in predestination. They alleged that whom-ever was saved or died was God’s choice; it was after all, a master plan. For the reason of subjugation in England, in 1630, a group of 1,200 Puritans gathered a royal charter to set sail and reconcile in the region of Massachusetts Bay. The Puritans began their settlement in Salem, Massachusetts. According to Burgan, the Puritans settled in Massachusetts so they can improve worship as they chose. During the process of their settlement, the Puritans established laws. These laws limited the puritans very so, being based on religious matter. In the village of Salem, suspicions of witchcraft arose when a few of the accused individuals were Salem citizens. “Salem was the first and only town in Massachusetts that held the hunting of witches” (Burgan 4). The psychological rationale of suspicions or accusations of witchcraft was hatred, jealousy, paranoia, and authority. According to Campbell, “Witchcraft became a craze during the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts”. Witchcraft is the alleged use of magical or supernatural powers. “Witchcraft was the use of magical powers” (Sommerville). Witchcraft expert states that witchcraft was broadly used to implicate the practice of powers to cause harm or destruction on a community. Experts also agree that the concept of witchcraft being injurious is habitually treated as a cultural ideology. This states that the majority of individuals treat witchcraft as being hazardous in a figure that formulate a set of doctrines that form the basis, of a political, economic, or other systems. Conferring the Witchcraft and Social Identity’s statement, witchcraft has been said to be the explanation of human misfortune by blaming it either on supernatural being or a known person involved in the practice around the community. The break out of witchcraft in Salem began in the winter of 1691 when a group of girls in the village, lead by Tituba, a West Indian slave, experimented with telling their fortunes by utilizing a crystal ball. During more unauthorized fortune telling, a group of girls from the village became extremely ill. Betty Parris, one of the girls, reacted strange to the illness. She scurried about, dove under furniture, twisted in pain, and whined of a fever. There were two reasons behind the illness of the girls. Either they caught a common disease that was scattering around Salem caused by rye, ergot, or nevertheless, witchcraft! The town council started to be concerned about the health of the youth in the village. Town council leader, Samuel Parris, consulted the town doctor, William Griggs, which examined Betty Parris first, then moved on to the others. After examining each and every girl that was ill, Griggs did not find any symptoms of a rye-disease. The investigation furthered, when Parris advised a Demon specialist by the name of John Hale. When Hale scrutinized Betty for any demonic possession, he found no evidence. The question remained unanswered about the girls’ illness. Throughout the months, the girls of the Salem village especially Betty Parris, got well. Comes to find out, they just had a common cold, but Betty’s case remains unknown. The girls, becoming knowledgeable on the situation of where they stand, they decided to form an alliance, where they would perform gestures on being possessed. The following girls turned into a gang or juvenile delinquents: Betty Parris, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Betty’s cousin, Abigail Williams. Suspicions of witchcraft in Salem citizens grew rapidly. Mary Sibley, a neighbor of the alleged juvenile delinquents, developed a sort of counter magic towards the sickness of the girls. “Sometime between February 25 and February 29, Tituba, the Indian slave from Barbados, baked a rye caked with the urine of the afflicted victim and fed the cake to a dog” (Linder). Dogs were fed the cake because they were believed to be used by witches as agents to transmit out their cunning orders. “By this time, suspicion had already begun to focus on Tituba, who had been known to tell the girls tales of omens, voodoo, and witchcraft from her native folklore” (Linder). As a result of Tituba’s participation, baking the urine cake made Tituba an easier target for the practice of witchcraft. When Tituba became imprisoned, the main leaders of the delinquents, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris began naming their afflicters and the witch hunt, in fact, began then. In his commentary, Linder explains how the consistency of the two girls ‘accusations suggests strongly that the girls worked out their stories together. For example, the village of Salem was an extremely religious village that believed heavily that the devil was existent, close at hand, and took actions in the real world. Innocent individuals were being accused of witchcraft. Salem citizens, including Rebecca Nurse, got accused of witchcraft because Nurse was the midwife of Ann Putnam, a citizen of Salem village. Ann Putnam gave birth to 8 children. 7 out of the 8 died right after being born. Ann Putnam became frustrated at the fact that all her children except one died at birth, while all of Rebecca Nurse’s children lived. Putnam began to sense jealously towards Nurse and her children. Putnam believed that Nurse conjured a spirit to kill her children and accused Nurse of the alleged practice of witchcraft. In addition, “Putnam declared that Nurse sent out a spirit that demanded her to sign the Devil’s book with her blood” (Witchcraft and Social Identity). Also, the witchcraft and social identity articulates that on July 19 of 1692, Nurse rode with four other convicted “witches” to Gallows Hill, where they will be hanged. Furthermore, Salem citizens were being charge of witchcraft because of the absence of their presence during Sunday mass, especially Sabbath day, for over a year! Salem folks took church as a serious matter. When the parishes and ministries started noticing the nonappearance of some of the village citizens, it grew uncertainties against them and was questioned. Since the accusation of Rebecca Nurse, more than twenty-seven people were charged with witchcraft. “Based on the demographic analysis not of the accused but on the convicted of witchcraft in Salem were overwhelmingly women over the age of forty, with women over sixty being at an especially high risk for both accusation and conviction. The men convicted tended to be the family members of convicted female witches” (Campbell). The elderly were typically convicted because individuals thought that with age comes wisdom; with age, the elderly had experience with the practice of witchcraft. Salem court officials, such as the parish and ministries, were tremendously gullible. During court hearings of the accused, the group of girls or juvenile delinquents would become guile. “The girls contorted into grotesque poses, fell down into frozen postures, and complained of biting and pinching sensations” (Linder). For example, one of the girls would act as if she is possessed and the rest of the girls would peruse the main leader’s actions; it was like frenzy, once the leader would start the rest would follow. Hence, juvenile delinquents became guile. The court officials started that there was no evidence unless the accused could present any, which in many cases, did not. They assumed that the there were no witnesses to testify against the case since no body was around; only the victim and the witch was present at the time of the alleged practice of witchcraft, such as, sending spirits to convince individuals to sign their name, in blood, in the “Devil’s Book” and to become witches. “Meanwhile, if the individuals knew they were innocent and they were accused of witchcraft, all they needed to do is confess and their life would be spared” (Witchcraft Society Identity). However, back in that time period, confessing would be equivalent to being imprisoned. Individuals did not want to confess because of their name. The name of an individual is everything to them, by confessing to the alleged practice of witchcraft you would blacken your name; therefore it would no longer be pure or clear of any crime. According to the Witchcraft Society Identity, if you did confess, they would write an official document and force the accused to sign his or her name. They would then nail the document on the church door for the whole village to witness. Life for the confessed would become exceptionally difficult to live since the whole village would look down on the individual as an inferior aspect of the village. In contrast to confessing, if you did not confess, you would be thrown in jail where you would await your day to be hanged. In conclusion, the emotional rationale why individuals were accusing others was more than the obvious fixations. Specialists declare that Salem citizens were accusing others in their villages because of jealously, greed and the sense of power. They thought that by accusing others of witchcraft, their psychosomatic troubles would soon vanish or disappear from their life. For example, the jealously and hatred that grew from Ann Putnam because of the death of her seven children. Her jealously and hatred was toward Rebecca Nurse, which was sent to jail and then hanged. Additionally, Witchcraft Society Identity, counter to the fact that teenage boredom was an aspect of the accusations of witchcraft in the village of Salem. The groups of girls or juvenile delinquents were exceedingly cunning. They had every single step of what to perform implanted and memorized in their minds so when they did their pretence acts in front of individuals, they knew they reach perfect. In the town of Salem, there wasn’t much for the youth to pursue except for education, which much found uninteresting. Once, Tituba, the Indian slave, thought them how to conjure spells, they exaggerated the whole scenario. Paranoia was another characteristic of the accusations. “Many factors of witchcraft lead to suspicions in individuals” (Karlsen). Those factors incorporated fortune telling, voodoo and folklore. One example of folklore; according to Title, was Salem citizens or Puritans, were very religious beings and believed that the Devil was among themselves and participated in suspicious activities. Lastly, authority was a weighed heavily on the accusations. When the groups of the girls were finally being heard, they have authority of the whole village. What their words and actions exhibited in court, they were messing with your fate and life. From a village of individuals that consider the youth as inferior, the girls had an opportunity to make them heard and leave a permanent mark during their time of power. January of 1693 was the final witch trail heard in the town of Salem. Throughout this terrible time period, forty-three innocent individual’s life came to an end. Because of hatred, jealousy, paranoia, and authority, the Salem Witch Trials was a branch of history.