Do you have a version number for this site? Also, when was his last updated? Thank you, using this as a source! This article was last updated on Nov 22, It is sad where the mind-set was back then. The preacher sad they could not kill the devil by shooting the dog but did anyway. Then after said the dog died so it must have been innocent. A child pointed to a dog and said it bewitched me and shot the dog immediately.
Then say they were wrong. 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.
Thank you so much for this! Do you know if their are any reports from some of the people in the villiage? Most of the eyewitness accounts can be found in the court records and the books written by the ministers involved in the trials. I find the history interesting and would like to find more information on this matter.
I think in some forms that witches still exist in hidden arenas. If there is anyone has found anymore supporting theories please share. I am looking forward to the challenge of uncovering a multitude of analysis on this matter. Hi Rebecca…I saw that you have a lot of knowledge about Mary Easty…I was told this year at a funeral that I am a direct decendent of hers…I live in Salem and My Grandfather was name William Estey…do you by any chance have any history of the family tree?
Unfortunately, I do not have any information on her family tree but you might want to check out a genealogy site like ancestry. Ancestry is the easiest way. Just pay for a month and go nuts adding records to a tree.
Lines going back to Salem and Colonial New England in general are usually well documented. It will be very easy. I have countless ancestors out of Massachusetts Bay Colony and one of my grandmothers was Martha Carrier. Her son Richard is one of my 8th great grandfathers and I keep waiting for a DNA match to pop up with one of his other descendants. I need a bibliography for my class report. Native Americans and other religions represented threats by the Devil.
And this was for a people who saw themselves as ordered by God to build their shining City on a Hill. Massachusetts was like the early state of Israel. In , New England revolted and deposed the government of the Dominion of New England, and sent a representative back to London to report it, only to find that Parliament had deposed James II, and replaced him with William and Mary.
William was happily a Calvinist, but not even that changed the fact New England theocracy was at an end. No more restricting property ownership and voting rights to only church members. The devil had won. Salem witch trial started as feud between Porters n putnums cuz putnums felt Porters gave too much freedom to their black servants. After my greaty great uncle Israel Porter formed political group to gather support against putnums, putnums responded by accusing supporters n friends of Porter Family of witchcraft esp their daughters.
Hysteria was from little girls facin threat of death by torture. They basically played the trump card of the times. Church was all powerful in those days. No way to fight its power. Luckily ann putnum jr lived to apologize. That darn Satan fooled them good.
Oh well, live n learn. Its sad when you can pick out names of your relatives in every list. Porters never forgot about this n intermarried with many of the families afterwards. We also have kept good records of everything.
Let me know if you are related to story too. I guarantee Im not related to any putnum. 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. I Think it was her kids. It was last updated Sept 4, I need to compare 2 victims of the salem witch trails and find a way that they are linked as indiviguals and how their lives had similar paths that lead to victimhood but this thing is wayyyyy to long.
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?
The link can be found in the section of this article titled Salem Witch Trial Victims. The history both good and bad is something we should all know about. William Stoughton is an ancestor of mine, sorry to say. I also have an ancestor, Mary Parsons, who was accused of witchcraft but she was allowed to live. You never know what you will find when you start researching your family tree!
Thank-you for the great info you have shared. Rebecca, how long did this take you? Thank you for the kind comments. The initial article took me a few days to write and then I have been slowly adding to it and expanding it over the years.
Thank you for this amazing article! This is basically what got me an A on my history fair assignment, I appreciate all the time and effort put into writing this! The bibliography at the bottom of this article list a number of secondary sources. You have been so helpful! I really enjoy reading your blog! This was so helpful for my project! HI there! I was wondering if there was a written document or agreement signed that ended the trials.
Also I was curious to know what the specific compromise was. Is this a homework question? Perhaps this question has something to do with the closure of the court of Oyer and Terminer, which was the special court established to hear the trials.
Or maybe it was the bill that cleared the names of the accused witches. Went to the library to look for my family history but came across my friends families name. His grandfather is a Putnam. When he stopped being paid all together, he left Salem and returned to Maine. At some point the Putnam family sued Burroughs for failure to repay his debt and shortly after accused him of witchcraft.
Burroughs was arrested, brought to trial on August 5 and executed on August 19, Carrier was the first person in Andover accused during the Salem Witch Trials. She was accused by her neighbor Benjamin Abbot after the two had a dispute over land and Abbot immediately fell ill. Her children were also accused and were coerced into testifying against her. Carrier was brought to trial on August 5 and executed on August 19, He was one of the first people in Salem to speak out against the witch trials.
Willard was responsible for helping to arrest the accused witches but soon began to doubt so many people could be guilty of witchcraft and quit his job in protest. Shortly after, Willard himself was accused of witchcraft by Ann Putnam, Jr.
Willard was not immediately arrested but his in-laws, the Wilkins family, began to grow suspicious of him. An arrest warrant was issued for John Willard but he had already fled Salem Village. A second arrest warrant was issued and Willard was hunted down and arrested in Nashua, NH. Several confessed witches testified against Willard as well as afflicted girl Ann Putnam, Jr.
John Willard was brought to trial on August 5 and executed on August 19, He was a reluctant church go-er and was an outspoken critic of the Salem Witch Trials. He was first accused by his servant, Sarah Churchill, who also accused his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs. His son, George Jacobs, Jr, was accused as well but he evaded arrest.
Many people testified against George Jacobs, Sr, including almost all the members of the Putnam family. He was found guilty on August 5 and executed on August 19, He was an outspoken critic of the Salem Witch Trials and often threatened to beat or whip the afflicted girls for their role in the witch trials. Proctor knew Salem was in the midst of a mass hysteria and wrote a letter to the Boston clergy in July asking that they intervene or move the trials to Boston.
The clergy responded but it was too late to save Proctor, who was brought to trial on August 5 and executed on August 19, His remaining family members were either never charged or found guilty and pardoned.
The couple lived in Salem town where Alice was known as a pious, honest woman. Alice Parker was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, It is not known why Parker was accused but she stated during her examination that there was another woman in Andover named Mary Parker and suggested it was a case of mistaken identity. Martha Sprague then stated that the woman in front of her was the woman who afflicted her. Mary Parker was brought to trial on September 17 and executed on September 22, Ann Pudeator Age: 70s Ann Pudeator was a widow who lived in Salem town where she also worked as a nurse and midwife.
She had a reputation for being sharp-tongued and often quarreled with locals. Pudeator was accused of witchcraft in May of by Sarah Churchill and several other afflicted girls of Salem Village.
Some of her medical supplies, such as foot ointments, were confiscated and introduced to the court as objects of the occult. During her trial, Pudeator accused many of her accusers of lying. Pudeator was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, Like Bridget Bishop and many other witch trial victims, Wilmot Redd had also been accused of witchcraft before in She was an unpopular person around town because she often quarreled with others and had an abrasive personality.
Redd was accused of witchcraft in May of by the Salem Village afflicted girls and brought to Ingersoll Tavern in Salem Village for her examination. Redd was brought to trial in September and executed on September 22, Scott had seven children but only three survived childhood. After her husband died in , Scott was left destitute and forced to beg from her neighbors.
This made her unpopular with her neighbors. A member of the Nelson family also sat on the grand jury that convicted her. Scott was brought to trial on September 17 and executed on September 22, He was also a well known fortune-teller and practitioner of English folk magic. It is believed that his work in the occult led to his witchcraft accusation.
Wardwell was accused in September of and arrested and jailed in Salem. Shortly after, his wife and daughters were also arrested. During his examination, he admitted to fortune-telling and dabbling in magic and said that the devil may have taken advantage of him for these reasons. He then confessed to making a pact with the devil but later recanted his confession. Wardwell was brought to trial in mid-September and executed on September 22, Corey had a reputation for being a pious member of the community despite the well-known fact that she had a child out of wedlock in the s.
Martha Corey was also an outspoken critic of the Salem Witch Trials and stated many times that the afflicted girls were liars. When Giles Corey himself was accused of witchcraft and arrested in April, he refused to provide any more information on Martha or himself.
Martha Corey was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, , just three days after Giles Corey had been tortured to death for refusing to enter a plea. She lived in Topsfield and was considered a pious, well-respected member of the community. In April of , Mary Easty was accused of witchcraft, arrested but was then released in May.
She was accused again, a few days after her release, and arrested. She was examined and indicted on two charges of witchcraft. Easty was brought to trial on September 9 and executed on September 22, He had a reputation for being an angry, violent man and was once charged with murdering his farmhand in He was found guilty but only suffered a fine for his actions.
Many locals, including Thomas Putnam , suspected Corey had paid a bribe for his freedom. In April of , Giles Corey was accused of witchcraft after his wife, Martha Corey , had also been accused and arrested on the same charge. Giles Corey refused to enter a plea in an attempt to prevent his case from going to trial. He reportedly knew he was going to die, either in jail or on the gallows, and wanted to avoid being convicted before he did.
As a result, Giles Corey was tortured for three days in a field on Howard Street in Salem town in an attempt to force a plea out of him. He died on the third day of his torture on September 19, Elizabeth Proctor Brought to trial on August 5 and found guilty.
She was sentenced to death but the execution was delayed due to her pregnancy. She gave birth in January was released from prison in May, Abigail Faulkner, Sr Brought to trial on September 17 and found guilty. She was released from prison in March, Mary Post Brought to trial in January, and found guilty.
She was sentenced to death but pardoned by Governor Phips. Sarah Wardwell Brought to trial on January 10, and found guilty. Elizabeth Johnson Jr Brought to trial in January, and found guilty. Dorcas Hoar Brought to trial on September 9, and found guilty.
She was sentenced to death but never executed. Roger Toothaker Died in jail in Boston on June 16, John Alden Jr. Edward Bishop Jr. Other victims include two dogs who were shot or killed after being suspected of witchcraft. Most of the Salem Witch Trials victims were women but men were accused and executed too.
Although some of the early victims were poor social outcasts from Salem Village, the accusations slowly spread to all types of people from all types of backgrounds, according to the book Death in Salem: The Private Lives Behind the Witch Hunt :. Everyone knew that witchcraft was largely a female perversity, but the reasoning stopped there. The over one hundred and fifty people singled out for social and legal ostracism over the course of included every age, social echelon, and background: rich and poor, young and old, feeble and sharp-witted.
The logic seems to have been that physical contact with an actual witch would draw the evil spirits back out of the victim. The ulterior reasons for their persecution sometimes surfaced at the trial. Often it was little more than a bad reputation or malicious gossip, repackaged and embroidered over decades.
A human frailty or eccentricity might be trotted out as evidence. Due to the large number of accused witches, the prisoners were kept in multiple jails in Salem, Ipswich and Boston.
According to the book, A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials , the accused witches were considered dangerous prisoners and were kept in dungeons underneath the jails away from the regular prisoners:.
These were perpetually dark, bitterly cold, and so damp that water ran down the walls. They reeked of unwashed human bodies and excrement. They enclosed as much agony as anywhere human beings could have lived. The stone dungeons of Salem Town prison were discovered in the s in St. Certainly they were a breeding ground for disease…But accused witches were worse off than the other unfortunates [other prisoners. The dungeons forever changed people and the ones who were lucky enough to survive the prison or escape the gallows often suffered for the rest of their lives.
Interior of the old dungeon, old witch jail, Salem, Mass, circa Such is the case with Dorcas Good, the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good who was accused of witchcraft in March of and spent seven to eight months in jail before being released, according to the book The Salem Witch Trials Reader:. While in prison, the accused were repeatedly humiliated by being forced to undergo physical examinations of their bodies. During the examinations the prisoners, who were mostly elderly, were stripped naked in front of a group of people and their bodies were poked and prodded and any suspicious marks or moles found were pricked with needles.
Church attendance, dress code, and social class were closely regulated, and any deviation from this regulation was met with swift and harsh punishment. Puritans believed that God would guarantee a select few admission to heaven, and this verdict would only occur if they lived their lives free of sin and were an official member of the Puritan church.
However, they also believed that God would severely punish those who were disobedient. An image depicting burning a witch at the stake. Puritans believed that Satan was equally present in the world as God was, meaning that those who committed sins were likely to be witches, as they were devil worshipers.
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