The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials ended on the 29th of October in the year 1692. By the end of these trails, 19 supposed 'witches' had been hung. One supposed 'wizard' was pressed to death, and as many as 13 innocent people had died in prison. Since then, stories of this horrendous period and of the trials have been the source of books, movies and plays. Through the horror of it all, we are taken into a time where many innocent people seem to have lost their lives because of the suspicions and lies told by their own fellow townspeople.

These were all real people, and they had real lives. Many of them had families and children to care for; people who went to church diligently and lived very moral lives. Today in memory of those who lost their lives, the town has erected a Salem Witch Trials Tercentenary Memorial, which is adjacent to the Charter Street Old Burying Point where many of the accused who lost their lives were buried.

The End is the Beginning is the End
The seeds of hysteria that gripped the tiny Salem Village, Massachusetts were first sown in the January 1692 when a small group of young girls began to display what you would call very bizarre behavior. The tight-knit puritan community was at a loss of words to explain the blasphemous screaming, the convulsive seizures and the trance-like states that seem to have afflicted the youngsters. Physicians were called in to examine these girls but could find no definite natural cause for this disturbing behavior. Since the source of these afflictions was not attributable to any certain physical malady, the community on the whole concluded that it must definitely be the work of Satan. It was proclaimed that witches had finally invaded Salem.

In the month of February, the whole village joined hands together to pray and fast so as to rid itself of Satan's influence. The girls were forced to reveal who was controlling their behavior. Three women were then identified and later examined. One was Tituba, a slave, who confessed to seeing the devil himself who came to her in the form of a hog or in the form of a dog ("sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog"). Tituba also confessed that a great conspiracy of witches had somehow permeated the village.

Then, in March of that year, the afflicted girls then accused Martha Corey. The three girls were previously denounced by the community because they were colluding with the devil, but they were only marginal citizens. Martha Corey on the other hand was very different. She was one of the upstanding members of the Puritan congregation, and her being accused of being a witch just proved that Satan's influence had managed to reach into the very core of the community.

After that event snowballed out of control as the accusations intensified and reached a feverish pitch. From March right into fall, many people were examined, charged, tried at court and condemned to death. The actual hangings started somewhere in June with the hanging of Bridget Bishop and continued to September. As winter started approaching, the hysteria managed to play itself out as criticism of the legal procedures surfaced and grew.

In October, the colonial governor had the local Court of inquiry dissolved and with this, all the convictions and condemnations for witchcraft also stopped. Nineteen victims of this terrible witch-hunt were killed; one was crushed to death under heavy stones, and at least four people died in prison awaiting their trials, and their fates.

The Salem Witch Trials: The Trial of Martha Corey
March 11th of 1692 was a solemn day of prayer and fasting in Salem. It was on this day that the community's minister, the honorable Rev. Samuel Parris, requested the girls to reveal their head witch. After much persuasion they did, and the accusation of theirs shocked the whole village for it implicated Martha (Good wife) Corey, a new yet upstanding member of the Puritan congregation.

A delegation was sent immediately to the Corey farm to interrogate the accused in the hope of clearing this discrepancy but Martha Corey's highly sarcastic response to the accusations disappointed the entire delegation and they immediately called for her arrest.

Her trial was the scene of much talk and agitation. In the courtroom, her accusers visibly writhed in agony, as they claimed that they were compelled by an unseen power to mimic her every movement. When Martha Corey shifted her feet, the girls' feet would also shift. When Martha Corey bit her lip, they girls' were also forced to bite their own lips, thereby crying out in pain. They claimed they saw the shadow of a black man bending over her and they said they could also hear the drum beats calling all the witches to convene on the meeting house lawn.

When Good wife Corey was called upon to explain herself, she simply said that she wanted to go to prayer, which of course was much wondered at, since she 'a witch' had done that in the presence of so many spectators. The magistrates did not permit her to go to prayer; they said that they came not to hear of her praying but to examine her as being one of the accused. When asked why she afflicted the three girls, she simply said she did not afflict them and that she did not know who did it, how would she know?

At that time, the number of afflicted persons were about ten (4 married women, 3 maids, and 3 children). These were all present at Good wife Corey's trial and all of them vehemently accused her in front of the whole assembly, accusing her of afflicting them pinching, biting, and strangling. All of them said that in their convulsive fits, they always saw her coming towards them and bringing a book to then. She on her part said she had no such book. They also said that she had a yellow bird that perched on her fingers and sucked between her fingers, but when questioned, Martha claimed that no such spirit visited her and that she was a woman of the gospel. To this, the afflicted women called her the gospel witch.

On her part, Martha Corey said that the women were merely poor and distracted children and no one should pay heed to what they had to say. But this was said to no avail, as the whole congregation believed that the women were all bewitched.

It was also observed that every time Martha bit her under lip during the time of examination, the afflicted persons were also bitten on their wrists and arms and showed these marks to the ministers, magistrates and others. If Martha grasped one hand hard in the other, or if she pinched her fingers, it was noticed that the girls were also pinched, and produced these marks before the spectators and magistrates. If she leaned her breast against the seat, the girls were all afflicted. One afflicted woman, Mrs. Pope, complained of suffering from a grievous torment in her bowels, and that it felt like they were being torn out. She accused Corey of being the main isntrument behind her affliction and even threw her muff at the woman, but when the muff did not hit her, Mrs. Pope took off her shoe and started hitting Good wife Corey on the head with it. Martha Corey however did not flinch and all she did was move her feet, at which all the women were afflicted in the feet and stamped their feet quite fearfully.

She however, denied all that she was accused of and said that the court could not prove that she was engaged in witchcraft. Later that afternoon, she was imprisoned in the Salem prison, after which the women claimed that she did not appear to them so frequently and did not afflict them like before.

After this, the situation spiraled out of control, 19 women and men were hanged to death at Gallows Hill. An eighty year old man was crushed to death under heavy stoned for refusing to stand trial. Four people died in jail. But the weirdest part was that none of these accused ever confessed to being actively engaged in witchcraft. Then, almost as fast as it had all started, the witch hunt and the terrible hangings came to an end.