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Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials. February 1692-May 1693. Events . Betty Parris (9) and Abigail Williams (11) the daughter and the niece of the local reverend started to have epileptic fits

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Salem Witch Trials

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  1. Salem Witch Trials

  2. February 1692-May 1693

  3. Events • Betty Parris (9) and Abigail Williams (11) the daughter and the niece of the local reverend started to have epileptic fits • The girls screamed, threw things around the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions • They complained of being pinched and pricked with pins • Later Ann Putnam (12) and Elizabeth Hubbard joined in with Parris and Williams in acting out

  4. Accusations • “Afflicted” girls started to accuse people in their community of being witches and tormenting them

  5. Trials • People accused of being witches were put on trial by the local courts. • Samuel Sewall  • one of the Salem judges

  6. Trials

  7. Trials

  8. Ways to Find someone guilty of being a witch • Spectral evidence • Something only the tormented could see • They would see the accused person of interacting with the devil or doing evil things • Witch cakes • Feed a witch cake to a dog and the witch will be injured • Touch test • Afflicted people could be healed by being touched by the accused witch

  9. Other evidence • If they had “witchy” things • Horoscope books, palmistry books, potions etc • Witches teat • Insensitive mark on the body (mole, wart etc) • They would poke the mark with a pin and if it didn’t hurt they were a witch

  10. End of the Trials • People outside of Salem started to question the method of the courts • “it’s better that 100 witches live than 1 person is killed for being a witch who is not a witch” • –Thomas Maule • Girls started to accuse leaders of the Puritan community and their families. • Girls’ credibility fails

  11. "And now Nineteen persons having been hang'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear'd; about Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one Executed; above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more acccused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a period,..."—Robert Calef

  12. 19 people were hanged • 1 person pressed to death • 50 confessed to being witches and were released • 150 in prison at the end • 200 more accused

  13. WHY??? • Symptoms of the afflicted girls have been explained as physical or psychological • Most believe that the girls’ symptoms were a result of jealousy, spite and a need for attention.

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