The jail was a small wooden structure with a dungeon underneath. Since the accused witches were considered dangerous prisoners, they were kept in the dungeon and were chained to the walls because jail officials believed this would prevent their spirits from fleeing the jail and tormenting their victims. In , the wooden structure of the jail was remodeled into a Victorian home and in the home was razed.
A large brick building now stands on this spot with a memorial plaque dedicated to the old jail. There the accused were questioned by a judge in front of a jury, which decided whether or not to indict the accused on charges of witchcraft. If the accused was indicted, they were not allowed a lawyer and they had to decide to plead guilty or not guilty with no legal counsel to guide them.
Another interesting fact about the witch trials is not everyone in Salem actually believed in witchcraft or supported the trials. There were many critics of the witch hunt, such as a local farmer John Proctor, who scoffed at the idea of witchcraft in Salem and called the young girls scam artists.
Critics such as Proctor were quickly accused of witchcraft themselves, under the assumption that anyone who denied the existence of witches or defended the accused must be one of them, and were brought to trial. The trials were held in the Salem courthouse, which was located in the center of Washington Street about feet south of Lynde Street, opposite of where the Masonic Temple now stands.
The courthouse was torn down in but a plaque dedicated to the courthouse can still be seen today on the wall of the Masonic Temple on Washington Street. Bridget Bishop was the first person brought to trial. Bishop had been accused of witchcraft years before but was cleared of the crime. Bridget Bishop was convicted at the end of her trial and sentenced to death. Five more people were hanged in July, one of which was Rebecca Nurse. Although many of the other accused women were unpopular social outcasts, Nurse was a pious, well-respected and well-loved member of the community.
When Nurse was first arrested, many members of the community signed a petition asking for her release. Her initial verdict was, in fact, not guilty, but upon hearing the verdict the afflicted girls began to have fits in the courtroom. Judge Stoughton asked the jury to reconsider their verdict.
A week later, the jury changed their minds and declared Nurse guilty. On July 23, John Proctor wrote to the clergy in Boston. He knew the clergy did not fully approve of the witch hunts. Proctor told them about the torture inflicted on the accused and asked that the trials be moved to Boston where he felt he would get a fair trial. The clergy later held a meeting, on August 1, to discuss the trials but were not able to help Proctor before his execution. Another notable person who was accused of witchcraft was Captain John Alden Jr.
Alden was accused of witchcraft by a child during a trip to Salem while he was on his way home to Boston from Canada. Alden spent 15 weeks in jail before friends helped break him out and he escaped to New York. He was later exonerated. Yet another crucial moment during the Salem Witch Trials was the public torture and death of Giles Corey. English law at the time dictated that anyone who refused to enter a plea could be tortured in an attempt to force a plea out of them. The torture consisted of laying the prisoner on the ground, naked, with a board placed on top of him.
Heavy stones were loaded onto the board and the weight was gradually increased until the prison either entered a plea or died. In mid-September, Corey was tortured this way for three days in a field near Howard Street until he finally died on September His death was gruesome and cruel and strengthened the growing opposition to the Salem Witch Trials.
As the trials and executions continued, colonists began to doubt that so many people could actually be guilty of this crime. They feared many innocent people were being executed. Local clergymen began speaking out against the witch hunt and tried to persuade officials to stop the trials. Around the end of September, the use of spectral evidence was finally declared inadmissible, thus marking the beginning of the end of the Salem Witch Trials.
On September 22, eight people were hanged. These were the last hangings of the Salem Witch Trials. The 52 remaining people in jail were tried in a new court, the Superior Court of Judicature, the following winter. Now that spectral evidence was not allowed, most of the remaining prisoners were found not guilty or released due to a lack of real evidence. Those who were found guilty were pardoned by Governor Phips.
The governor released the last few prisoners the following May. The others were either found guilty but pardoned, found not guilty, were never indicted or simply evaded arrest or escaped from jail. Refused to enter a plea and tortured to death: Giles Corey September 19th, Escaped from Prison: John Alden Jr.
Edward Bishop Jr. Other victims include two dogs who were shot or killed after being suspected of witchcraft. The fact is, no accused witches were burned at the stake in Salem, Massachusetts.
Salem was ruled by English law at the time, which only allowed death by burning to be used against men who committed high treason and only after they had been hanged, quartered and drawn. As for why these victims were targeted in the first place, historians have noted that many of the accused were wealthy and held different religious beliefs than their accusers. This, coupled with the fact that the accused also had their estates confiscated if they were convicted has led many historians to believe that religious feuds and property disputes played a big part in the witch trials.
Daily chores, business matters and other activities were neglected during the chaos of the witch trials, causing many problems in the colony for years to come, according to the book The Witchcraft of Salem Village:. The people had been so determined upon hunting out and destroying witches that they had neglected everything else.
Planting, cultivating, the care of houses, barns, roads, fences, were all forgotten. 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. Upham describes his disgust over this treatment of the prisoners:. The results of the examinations were reduced to written reports, going into details, and, among other evidences in the trials, spread before the court and jury.
There they were questioned by a judge in front of a jury, which decided whether or not to indict the accused on charges of witchcraft. The trials were then held in the Salem courthouse which was located in the center of Washington Street about feet south of Lynde Street, opposite of where the Masonic Temple now stands.
This courthouse was torn down in but a plaque dedicated to the courthouse can still be seen today on the wall of the Masonic Temple on Washington Street. The victims were hanged by the neck by a rope tied to a tree.
Contrary to popular belief, none of the victims were burned at the stake. The reason is because English law only allowed death by burning to be used against men who committed high treason and only after they had been hanged until almost dead, quartered and drawn. The English considered it an unacceptable death for women since it involved nudity. Burning at the stake was more popular in countries with a strong Catholic church because it did not involve the shedding of blood, which was not allowed in the Roman Catholic doctrine, and it ensured that the victim would not have a body to take with them to the after life.
Upham for the Peabody Historical Society in As convicted witches, they were not allowed a Christian burial in consecrated ground. Relatives of several victims: Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor and George Jacobs, reportedly retrieved the bodies of their loved one and gave them a Christian burial on the family property.
It is not known what happened to the unclaimed bodies, or if there were any unclaimed bodies, but if there are they are most likely still buried in shallow graves at the execution site. Almost immediately after the Salem Witch Trials came to an end, the residents of Salem began to feel ashamed of what happened during the witch hunt.
They still believed in witches and the Devil, but they had doubts that so many people could have been guilty of the crime and they feared that many innocent people had been put to death.
The colony also been to suffer from frequent droughts, crop failures, smallpox outbreaks, Native-American attacks and other disasters and the colonists worried that the mistakes made during the Salem Witch Trials had angered God. On December 17, , Governor Stoughton issued a proclamation in hopes of making amends with God.
The proclamation suggested that there should be:. The colony held the day of prayer on January 15, , which was known as the Day of Official Humiliation. On October 17, , at the urging of the surviving convicted witches and their families, the colony passed a bill clearing some of the names of the convicted witches. Not every victim was named in the bill though because some families of the victims did not want their family member listed. The bill states:. An act to remove the attainders of George Burroughs and others for Witchcraft.
For as much in the year of Our Lord, one thousand six hundred and ninety-two several towns within the Province were infested with a horrible witchcraft or possessions of devils.
The influence and energy of the evil spirit so great at that time acting in and upon those who were the principal accusers and witnesses proceeding so far as to cause a prosecution to be had of persons of known and good reputation which caused a great dissatisfaction and a stop to be put thereunto until their majesties pleasure should be known therein; and upon a representation thereof accordingly made, her late Majesty, Queen Mary, the Second of Blessed Memory, by her Royal letter given at her court at Whitehall the fifteenth of April, , was graciously pleased to approve the care and circumspection therein; and to will and require that in all proceedings against persons accused for witchcraft, or being possessed by the Devil, the greatest moderation and all due circumspection be used so far as the same may be without impediment to the ordinary course of justice.
And some of the principal accusers and witnesses in those dark and severe prosecutions have since discovered themselves to be persons of profligate and vicious conversations.
Upon the humble petition and suit of several of said persons and of the children of others of them whose parents were executed. Be it declared and enacted by His Excellency, the Governor, Council and Representatives authority of the same, That the several convictions, in General Court assembled, and by the judgments and attainders against the said George Burroughs, John Proctor, George Jacobs, John Willard, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Mary Easty, Sarah Wildes, Abigail Hobbs,Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Martha Carrier, Abigail Faulkner, Anne Foster, Rebecca Eames, Mary Post, Mary Lacey, Mary Bradbury, Dorcas Hoar, and any of them be and are hereby reversed made and declared to be null and void to all intents, constitutionalism and purposes whatsoever as if no such convictions, judgments and attainders had ever been had or given, and that no penalties or forfeitures of goods or chattels be by the said judgments and attainders or either of them had or incurred.
Any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. And that no sheriff, constable, goaler or other officer shall be liable to any prosecution in the law for anything they then legally did in the execution of their respective offices. Officials distributed the money in Salem in January and February of On October 31, , the state amended the apology, clearing the names of the remaining victims:.
According to the Salem Award Foundation website, there are roughly 25 million people around the world who are descended from the Salem Witch Trials victims and the other participants in the trials. Sources: Norton, Mary Beth. Vintage Books, Hill, Francis. The Salem Witch Trials Reader.
DaCapo Press, Hearn, Daniel Allen. Roach, Marilynne K. Taylor Trade Publishing, Tantor Media Inc, Upham, Charles W. II, Wiggin and Lunt, Nevins, Winfield S. Witchcraft in Salem Village in Salem Press Company, Edited by Benjamin F. Arrington, vol. Edited by Wilbur R. Sage, Upham, William P. House of John Proctor: Witchcraft Martyr, How did we get from there to here? It turns out the Salem Witch Trials were just one small example of a phenomenon that spanned continents and centuries: targeting women as a corrupting force and persecuting them for perceived societal ills.
In , the Massachusetts Bay Colony was an early English settlement consisting mostly of Puritan refugees. It was meant to be a Christian utopia, one that the rest of the world would look upon as an example of harmony and peace. But even the Pilgrims found the Puritans too strict in their ways. They were a pretty intolerant lot — freedom for themselves to practice and worship God as they saw fit. And they had been fighting for their way of life for years before coming to America.
It came down to control: In the wake of their own persecution, this God-fearing, patriarchal society was determined to preserve its way of life and belief system at any cost. When questioned, the girls accused three women for causing their afflictions: Sarah Good a middle-aged beggar woman , Tituba an Indigenous Caribbean woman who was a slave in the Parris household , and Sarah Osborne a widowed elderly woman.
She also confessed to riding on sticks with the children. 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. They accused other townspeople of torturing them, and a few of the so-called witches on trial even named others as witches. Women were not the only ones believed to be witches—men and children were accused too.
By the end of the trials in , 24 people had died, some in jail but most by hanging. Eventually, after seeming to realize how unfair the trials were to the accused, the court refused to hear any more charges of witchcraft.
0コメント