Salem+Witch+Trials+-4th+hour

Background
Two hundred years after Columbus came upon the New World in the winter of 1692, the village of Salem underwent a series of trials that are known as the Salem Witch Trials. During that winter, a group of girls gathered together to entertain themselves. Revered Parris' slave, Tituba, entertained the girls by telling them stories of her times in the Caribbean—which may have included tales of witchcraft. Near the end of the winter, two of the girls began acting strangly. The village doctor, Dr. Griggs, could not find anything significantly wrong with the them, and decided to declare them 'bewitched'. The other girls began having fits, and claiming that they were bewitched by the devil. Because of Puritan beliefs in the Devil, their claims were taken seriously. When the town met to discuss their 'bewitchment', Tituba was accused of witchcraft. In order to prevent her death, she had to confess to being a witch. This confession made the villagers paranoid obout other witches in the community, thus beginning the Salem Witch Trials. On March 1, 1692, Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osbourne, the accused witches, were “questioned” in the town meeting house by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. In order to save themselves, Osbourne and Good denied they were witches. Tituba, however, said that she was a witch, and also stated that the other accused were as well, causing all three to be taken to a prison in Boston. From this point on, chaos ensued in Salem as the young girls accused their neighbors as witches. The “afflicted”, as the accusers were called, alleged that they saw “specters”, a sort of spirit or ghost, of the accused, flying, or in one case, Abigail Williams accused Martha Corey of sitting on a church beam with a yellow bird. Corey had been seated on a nearby pew then, but since the girls said they saw her specter, the congregation believed them. Even though there was no proof, seeing as only the girls could see the specters, the charges were automatically used against the supposed witches.
 * Events**

As time passed, many more innocent people were accused. At first, those accused were outcasts; the people the town did not like: Tituba, a slave, and Sarah Osbourne, eccentric, and did not attend mass. As the accused grew in number, however, respected and downright random people were being accused such as George Burroughs, previously a Salem pastor, and a five year old girl, Dorcas Good, who at such a young age, confessed! (Perhaps to join her mother, Sarah Good in prison). Still, the accusations continued, and innocent people were hanged and jailed. To be jailed was not a pleasant experience. The Salem Village jail was dirty and infested with rats. All prisoners were kept in chains. Torture was permitted: an example of this would be when a person’s hands and feet were bound together. Another horrifying example of the torturous deeds of the witch trials was that of Giles Corey. On September 19, 1962, Mr. Corey was pressed to death by placing large stones on his chest, eventually killing him, when he refused to confess.

After being accused, the alleged witch either repented, admitting she was a witch to save her life, or denied it, and was sent to prison and killed; a choice of lying, or martyrdom. Some brave souls proclaimed innocence until the bitter end, but at least forty seven of the condemned confessed to being a witch; the court then pardoned them, seeing as they confessed, so the devil had left them. After the execution of 19 of their own, the people of Salem began to come to their senses, and became suspicious of the hard to believe accusations. A large part of the end of the trials was of the scientist Thomas Brattle, who stated that the tests to prove a witch were unscientific. Soon after, Salem Governor William Phips stopped the arresting of the accused. In January 1693, nearly all of t he accused were released from prison. In May, Governor Phips pardoned the alleged witches who still remained. In 1702, the Massachusetts lawmakers stated that their government had failed during the trials, and that they were illegal.

One of the most crucial stages of the legal procedure was the Pre-Trial Examination. In this examination, suspected witches were interviewed by the Magistrates of the Court of Oyer and Terminer; following this exam, the court would use their accumlated evidence to make a decision. If the victim was found to be guilty of witchcraft following the Pre-Trial Examination, he or she was to be hanged on a set date; this was then to be carried out be the Sheriff and his deputies on that date.
 * Legal Procedures**

The Court of Oyer and Terminer was headed by Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, who was appointed by Governor Phips. Spectral evidence, that is, the image of a person visible only to the witchcraft victim, was quite common in the legal proceedings in New England. Though Reverend Cotton Mather urged that people be cautious when dealing with such evidence, he encouraged speedy trials and "vigorous prosecution of anyone found guilty of witchcraft." Spectral evidence was used in Salem to initiate a legal complaint, and the Pre-Trial Examination was a direct consequence.

Records show that there were 47 confessions of witchcraft (which indicated a direct link with the Devil.) Many people confessed out of fear—they would rather have been "saved" than killed in such an undignified and public way. It was unusual in these cases how those who maintained their innocence were killed, yet those who confessed were spared; people were tortured and harassed into confessing, too.

The use of spectral evidence was disallowed after Reverend Increase Mather and other ministers prevailed upon Governor Phips; the reverends also rallied for the end of the trials. With public opinion already changing, the trials began to come to an end anyways. In January, Phips started to backlog and clear out the jails, thus officially drawing to an end one of the most chaotic moral trials in our nation's history.

Timeline: http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/timeline.html Salem Witch Museum: http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/ Interactive- National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/salem/
 * Links:**

· Aronson,-Marc. //Witch-hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials//. New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2003. Print. · Burgan, Michael. //The Salem Witch Trials//. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point, 2005. //Google Books//. Google. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://books.google.com/books?id=R24wzLjtbncC&printsec=frontcover&dq=salem+witch+trials&hl=en&ei=1O_FTLDfBI6LnQe8_q37CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CF8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false · Crewe, Sabrina, and Michael V. Uschan. //The Salem Witch Trials//. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2005. //Google Books//. Google. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . · Goss, K. David. //The Salem Witch Trials: a Reference Guide//. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008. · Margulies, Phillip, and Maxine Rosaler. //The Devil on Trial: Witches, Anarchists, Atheists, Communists, and Terrorists in America's Courtrooms//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print. · "Procedure Used in the Salem Witchcraft Trials." //UMKC School of Law//. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . · "Salem Transcripton Project." //Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities//. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. . · "Salem Witch Trials." //Middle Tennessee State University//. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. .
 * Bibliography**