From February to May, events escalated until residents had been accused of witchcraft. Formal action was taken against individuals, who were often chained and thrown in jail for months under harsh conditions. At least 55 of the accused were tortured or terrified into admitting guilt. Neither the young nor the old were spared. Four-year-old accused witch Dorcas Good went insane after spending months in prison and watching her baby sister die while in jail with their mother, who was later hanged.
Three women and two infants died while imprisoned. Ultimately, 19 individuals who had refused to admit guilt were hanged and another was pressed to death. For centuries, scholars have attempted to identify similarities among the accused. Most agree that those accused of witchcraft tended to be eccentric individuals who stood out from their Puritan neighbors in some way.
Quakers , for example, were easy targets. Most of the accused were Godfearing individuals and respected townspeople. After the hysteria was over, Massachusetts recognized the witch trials for what they were and began a centuries-long process of atonement. Judges, juries, and accusers publicly apologized, but the apologies were of little comfort to affected families.
By the state had exonerated the accused from all wrongdoing and offered monetary compensations to surviving family members. In the Massachusetts state legislature officially cleared the names of the last of the accused witches. The Crucible itself has met with censorship in some communities and has been banned from some schools.
This article was originally published in Elizabeth Purdy, Ph. Hoffer, Peter Charles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, William Griggs , the village doctor, was called in when they failed to improve. His diagnosis of bewitchment put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the hanging deaths of 19 men and women.
In addition one man was pressed to death ; several others died in prison, and the lives of many were irrevocably changed. To understand the events of the Salem Witch Trials , it is necessary to examine the times in which accusations of witchcraft occurred.
There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village families and rivalry with nearby Salem Town combined with a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. All would await trial for a crime punishable by death in 17th-century New England — the practice of witchcraft.
In June of , the special Court of Oyer to hear and Terminer to decide sat in Salem to hear the cases of witchcraft. Presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton, the court was made up of magistrates and jurors.
The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was found guilty and was hanged on June Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows on three successive hanging days before the court was disbanded by Governor William Phipps in October of that year.
The pair had been bewitched. At the time, Salem Village was a small New England town populated mostly by Puritans, or religious individuals with a belief in the devil. The Puritan way of life was strict, and even small differences in behavior made people suspicious. When asked who had done this to them, Betty and Abigail blamed three townswomen, including Tituba, a Native American slave who worked in the Parris household. Tituba was known to have played fortune-telling games , which were strictly forbidden by the Puritans.
The three women were thrown in jail to await trial for practicing witchcraft. During the trial, Tituba confessed to having seen the devil and also stated that there was a coven, or group, of witches in the Salem Village area. Good and Osbourne insisted they were innocent. The punishment was hanging. As the weeks passed, other young girls claimed to have been infected by witchcraft too.
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