Salem witch trials god

As the years went by, the colonists felt ashamed and remorseful for what had happened during the Salem Witch Trials. Since the witch trials ended, the colony also began to suffer many misfortunes such as droughts, crop failures, smallpox outbreaks and Native-American attacks and many began to wonder if God was punishing them for their mistake.

On December 17, , Governor Stoughton issued a proclamation in hopes of making amends with God. The proclamation suggested that there should be:. The day of prayer and fasting was held on January 15, , and was known as the Day of Official Humiliation.

In , afflicted girl Ann Putnam, Jr. Her apology states:. And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing of Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humbled for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families; for which cause I desire to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offence, whose relations were taken away or accused.

Since some families of the victims did not want their family member listed, not every victim was named. At the announcement ceremony, playwright Arthur Miller made a speech and read from the last act of his play, The Crucible, which was inspired by the Salem Witch Trials.

On October 31, , the state amended the apology and cleared the names of the remaining unnamed victims, stating:. Everything we know now about the trials comes from just a handful of primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials. In addition to official court records there are also several books written by the ministers and other people involved in the trials:. Sources: Upham, Charles W. Wiggin and Lunt, Crewe, Sabrina and Michael V.

The Salem Witch Trials. Morrisiana, Jackson, Shirley. The Witchcraft of Salem Village. Random House, Fowler, Samuel Page. Samuel Parris of Salem Village. William Ives and George W. This site helped a lot for me to understand the history of Salem. It also helped with my reading assignment. I wonder how many people ran away from The Salem Witch Trials. It seems like an easier thing to do than just sit there and be accused. Also i seems like a smarter thing to do at the moment if you had a rival with one of the families in town.

Not many people fled Salem, only a handful did, because Salem was their home and had been for a long time. Where can I get a copy of the Salem map that you posted? I could use this for classroom use…. I think they where viewed in an horrible way, because the people who where accused where not really witches. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. Smithsonia, 8 Sept.

Hi Sarah, I am the author and publisher of this blog. This site is not a part of the Smithsonian website. Hope that helps with your bibliography. I love this site! Did you know they executed 2 dogs?!

How inhumane! It disgusts me but at the same time interests me, and makes me want to learn more. When was this site last edited? 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. It was these ideals of his interest in witchcraft that gained him the audience of other great figures that were involved in the trials, such as ministers and judges alike all throughout Salem. In his books, he defended allies in the government as well as the Salem trials with religious terms and biblical references to support their views as puritans to the new world.

For example he defends the trials, depicting New England as a battleground where the forces of God and the forces of Satan will clash. Spectral evidence, which is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions, was admitted into court during the Salem witch trials by the appointed chief justice, William Stoughton to convict any and all those who he deemed to be witches. He had previously written a letter to one of the magistrates in the trials, John Richards, about caution in the use of spectral evidence.

It seemed as if it was more of a warning rather than a simple document. He also goes into details about why witchcraft is real and a danger to the people, at the end of his book is plain to see that he is strongly convinced that only the guilty were executed in the trials and therefore they were all justified by this concept.

Another Key influential and important figure in the Salem witch trials is William Stoughton. Due to his arrogance unlike a vast majority of other magistrates , Stoughton never admitted to the possibility that his acceptance of spectral evidence was in anyway wrong.

As a result, he was harsh in his active pursuit to convict and punish the accused witches who came into his courtroom. Both men believed that God would not allow any specters to take on the form of innocent people, so anyone who was seen in the form of a specter was guilty.

By making this exception, Stoughton provided additional information to the court that could convict accused witches. He was very anxious to cleanse the community of supernatural afflictions, and spectral evidence implicated more people and strengthened already existing cases.

It became a problem so much in fact, that government had to get involved. Between the years and 93, the people of Salem Village experienced panic over witchcraft, the effect of which caused 20 people to be executed and well over accused of being witches.

Good was the first to testify in the Salem Witchcraft trials, and Bernard Rosenthal in Salem Story asserts that Good was specifically chosen to start the trials off because most people were in support of ridding Salem Village of her presence.

Even her six-year-old daughter Dorcas was frightened into testifying against her, and although her husband did not call her a witch, he said that he, too, had reason to believe she was close to becoming one, thus, perhaps, protecting himself from accusation.

One of Good's trial records quotes William Good as saying, "it was her bad carriage to [me] and indeed say I with tears that she is enemy to all good. When Hathorne in the pre-trial hearings asked, "Why do you hurt these children? I scorn it. Although Good never confessed, she did accuse Sarah Osborne of afflicting the girls after witnessing the accusers fall down in fits in the courtroom. Historians generally agree that this accusation by Good was one of the first and strongest legitimizations of the witchcraft trials.

Only one person came forth to defend Good. When one of the girls accused Good of stabbing her with a knife and produced a broken knife tip to prove it, a man came forward showing that it was his knife from which the tip had been broken in the presence of the accusing girl.

Far from invalidating the girl's testimony against Good, Judge Stoughton simply asked the girl to continue with her accusations with a reminder to stick to the facts.

Good was condemned to hang but was pardoned until the birth of her child. Her daughter Dorcas was accused of witchery and was imprisoned for over seven months. 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.