WITCH+TRIALS+-+HH

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 *  THE WITCH TRIALS **

 HINA HUSAIN
 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,  as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  1 Peter 5:8

=TOPIC:= The Salem Witch Trials ; Allegations and Accusations Against the Innocent.

**Argument & Summary: **
What really happened in Salem, Massachusetts? Who were these women and what did they do to deserve stoning, hanging, and torture? How did people define "witch" and declare one? What should one have to do to prove themselves worthy of humanity? My argument focuses on the psychological and sociological influences that effected the minds of the accused, as well as the accusers. Could it be that disease and infection was the cause of the entire Salem Witch Trials?

What I want to know is all of the above as well as who actually started the pinpointing? Who was it that began pointing fingers at people that were innocent and why mostly women? Why were women the primary people to be accused in witchcraft. I also researched and found men that were also considered witches. In my earlier argument, I had doubted the existence of any male witches at all. I now have figures pertaining to about 2 that were actually accused of being a witch.

If it is so easy for us in this country, in this era to cast blame on others, I can hardly imagine how easy it would have been to cast witchcraft accusations on innocent women and children.

According to my research, I would like to say that I think it has a lot to do with perception of your reality. Your reality IS your perception and vice-versa. I assume that they had nothing better to do then cast blame, as we do today, on the innocent. (Reference the Georgia Innocence Project that I volunteer for.)Accusations had to have led to nothing but anguish and suffering, as it does in every country.

= = =** The Purpose of Blame – Witch Trials **= The effects of wrongly accusing people of crimes they did not commit have sent people to prison for life in our decade. The guilt, trauma, and future missing elements of a family tree may cause someone to ask for an apology, but can never bring someone back from their grave. Such was the case in the 1650s when women and men were accused and convicted of what people may joke of as Grand Witchery. What did these people do that caused them to encounter such pain and punishment such as death by stoning or burning at stake? What were the effects of these tragic accusations? Were these witches real or mere illusions of hatred? The following begins with an overview of the trials and is followed by an analysis of both the psychological and sociological purpose and theory behind the Salem Witch Trials. = **THE STORY** = Around the year 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, nineteen women and men were stoned, hung, molested, and put to death. Young girls named Betty Parris and Abigail Williams were amongst the first to go into trances of vomiting, dizziness, screaming, twitching and hysteria. In a town where childhood games and fun was prohibited, they were constantly on the lookout for some entertainment. Their slave, Tituba, a Caribbean immigrant, would tell the girls stories at night of magic in her native village. As the villagers became frightened by the hysteria caused by these young girls, they begged to find out who their tormentors were. In March, 1692, three names were mentioned by the girls: Tituba, a slave, Sarah Good, a homeless woman, and Sarah Osburne, a local widow that married her servant. Tituba was beaten by the reverend after being brought to court and may have falsely confessed because of the trauma she underwent. She confessed that she had, in fact, a part in showing the girls magic and witchcraft, and that other witches resided in Salem. Accusation and paranoia spread like wildfire across the village. The fear heightened so much that even a 4-year old child named Dorkus Good was accused and imprisoned for months behind a prison wall. On June 2, 1692, the Trials began in Salem, Massachusetts. Bridget Bishop, accused of witchcraft, became the first of the accused to be hanged on Galo’s Hill. Protests spread across the colony when people begin to doubt the girls that were accusing people of their town. After hearing several mixed emotions regarding the trust in these young girls, the governor of Salem put a stop to the trials. = **PSYCHOLOGICALINFLUENCES:** =

Psychologically, there must be the existence of something in one’s mind to cause them to hallucinate and become increasingly delusional. It would be easy to cast blame on the social conditions that rapidly altered the society. For example, in Salem - the Salem Town Council, a distrusted political authority, had caused a significant increase in social inequality. (Roach, 2002) Another basic approach that could have been considered for the Salem Witch Trials would be the psychological component that may have explained the symptoms the “witches” showed. Sexual repression, lack of entertainment, and low income may have been a component to the symptoms that the women had. Diets could have been a component as well. According to the University of Virginia’s Witch Trial project, calcium deficiency could have caused spasms and hysterical states of mind. Sleep Paralysis could have also influenced the hyper mumbling that occurred within the “accused” women. It is an obvious notion that something was going on in Massachusetts around this time. Whether it was delusional or purely based on perception and resentment, innocent people suffered and were executed. Instead of considering these symptoms a result of a physical illness, the Puritan inhabitants of Salem accused people of witchcraft. A religious conversion could have also been a cause to the delusions these women were incurring. The experience of receiving Christ and being saved may have lead to the delusional components of this witchcraft accusation. Being accused of witchcraft resulted in plenty of defamation. Cases like // Jonathan Putnam, James Darling, Benjamin Hutchinson and Samuel Braybrook v. Mary Easty // indicated testimony from “witnesses” that saw the witchcraft occur. In this indictment, the following portrays an example of what was considered witchcraft: “that each of them complained much of Mary Eastie, who brought the book to said Mercy several times

as we heard her say in her trances, & vexed & tortured them both by choking & seemingly breathless fits & other fits,

threatening said Mercy with a winding sheet & afterwards with a Coffin if said Mercy would not signe to her book, with

abundance more of vexations they both received from her.” (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 2002)

In cases like these and more, the courts began to accept that this type of magic would and could happen. If the culture had accepted it, those who did not have even the slightest bit of evidence against them were still thought of as witches. According to the Puritans, Predestination, a belief where God had already determined who was to be saved and who was to be damned, could have been the reasoning behind the institutions of what people believed to have been witchcraft. Since God had not made these choices, it was believed that it was up to the people to decide amongst clues toward salvation. This would require the ability to convince one’s “saving” was the key to creating a loophole in the witchcraft system. Wealth, status and education also became a notion in the evidence of salvation. Failure to attend church was also a count against witchcraft. Strange marks on the body such as birthmarks, stretch marks, pimples, warts, amongst others were a leading factor to the accusations. People of the churches in Salem began to believe that there existed a Satanic Plot in which underground meetings were held to plan the war against good. Spectrals was another issue that condemned one as a witch. A spectral was, in some sense, an invisible soul of the accused that community members claimed they saw. These claimed spectrals “choked” and “frightened” them in the midst of the night. (Roach, 2002) Spectral evidence created more illusions in the community. = **CAUSES OF ACCUSATIONS** = What could have caused these young women to commit such a crime against these innocent people, and better, God? One theory may be the lack of entertainment and out of sheer boredom. Children were not allowed to play games, tell stories, or play dress up as these were all considered Satanic acts. Instead, children were to follow the Holy Bible and display only laughter during chores and other home activities. If a child was left humorless in such a way in strict Puritan households, then it wouldn’t be a surprise that they had only imagination to play with. Another theory would go back to the teachings of Tituba and her magic, only further stimulating the minds of people. Though Tituba did in fact admit to performing voodoo and telling stories of her native Caribbean, she was also told to do something that many scholars at the time were not aware of. According to the University of Missouri – Kansas City, A local resident by the name of Mary Sibley asked tituba to create a form of counter magic. This counter magic would be in the shape of a cake and would help the young girls that were infected with hysteria come out of their loops. Tituba’s participation in helping the girls was taken as validation of witchery. During these times, people were becoming infected with measles and mumps, both of which have similar “witch-like” symptoms. Interestingly enough, case citation of prior witch accusations in Europe and Africa may have also led to the validation that these witches truly existed. = **AFTERMATH** = In the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials, more apologies and restitution were being offered to those families that had gone through the pain of seeing loved ones wrongly accused. Accusations against the innocent had caused great trauma to the village of Salem. Ann Putnam, one of the accusers, resentfully admitted her false accusations in a statement: “It was a great delusion of Satan… And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humble 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 offense, whose relations were taken away or accused.” (Upham, 1867) This confession brought tears to the eyes of many that lost their mothers and fathers during this era. A time of vigilance and terror surrounded the city and the notions that existed within reach of the legal system were used and further, abused. No amount of money, time, or apology could have made up for the torture a family bestowed in losing a father or mother. The happenings and people of Salem should have taught us how to improve our justice system. A cooling off period may eventually prevent injustices in our country, and through the rest of the world. = = = = = = = = = = =Sources: [Chicago] =

Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Volume 1. 2002. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/BoySal1.html (accessed September 2010).

Kansas, University of Missouri-. The Witchcraft Trials in Salem. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM (accessed October 3, 2010).

Roach, Marilynne K. The Salem Witch Trials. Lanham: First Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Upham, Charles Wentworth. Salem Witchcraft. Boston: John Wilson and Son, 1867.

= = = Other Sources: =

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Siteclopedia. Salem Witch Trials. 2008. http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/transcripts.html (accessed September 2010). = = =Article Analysis:= <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1) National Geographic ; The Salem Witch Hunt

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2) Roach: The Salem Witch Trials :

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Here is a quick teaser into the world of The Trials.

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