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The Salem Witch Trials, which took place in Salem, Massachusetts, from
March to September 1692, was one of the most notorious episodes
in early American history. Eighteen people were hanged, and one
pressed to death (Giles Cory, who refused to answer the accusation
that he was a witch). The initial accusations started with Elizabeth Parris
and Abigail Williams.
The trouble began when Parris and Williams, along with a group of their young
friends, began to exhibit spells of odd behavior. The girls were examined
by a
doctor, ministers, and magistrates, who jointly concluded that they must be
bewitched. But how could such a thing have happened in the small religious
community? The girls, as well as other members of the community, quickly began
to
accuse their neighbors and friends of practicing witchcraft and bewitching
the girls.
By March 1, hearings had begun and by May, more than one hundred people were
in
prison awaiting trial, including four-year old Dorcas Good, who was left to
go mad in prison.
All in all, twenty-seven people were convicted, on shaky
evidence that included their neighbors' visions and "spectral evidence."
By September, two hundred Salem residents had been charged with engaging in
witchcraft, and, at the peak of the hysteria, some one hundred people, male
and
female, stood accused of being witches, four of whom died in the overcrowded
Salem
prison awaiting their day in court. Finally, respected Boston minister Cotton
Mather
spoke out against the convictions. The royal governor, Sir William Phips,
freed
all those who were in jail and the executions ceased. Soon, jurors began
to admit errors in their judgement and, years later, in 1711, with many of
the
witnesses and others involved in the case feeling intense remorse, some
financial restitution was paid to the families of the dead.
Some facts to remember:
In 1692, young girls did not "fake" a malady or bewitchment. If
you wanted
to be married eventually, you did not pretend to be possessed. Recent
evidence suggests that the "bewitched" were actually poisoned by
a mold
growing on the rye which caused hallucinations and seizures.
The Twenty people were hanged are now commemorated by Salem
next to the old cemetary.
Giles Cory was never pronounced a witch, but died with his mouth shut.
No one in Salem Massachusetts was burned during the witch trials. All
accused were hanged.
Some more information on the Burning Times is included here. More as I have
time to write
the history. I am constantly researching this stuff!
~Kali~
The Burning Times - by Caryn Smirl
A young woman about my age
Has been put on trial as a witch
For growing harmless herbs
On her windowsill.
I watch helplessly
As they bind her hands and feet
With thick coarse rope
And pull her long golden hair.
Someone spits on the ground
Just inches from her face
And curses at her like a demon.
A holy man is at the river's edge
Blessing the swirling water.
This is the first test.
If the blessed water receives her
And she sinks,
Then she was wrongly accused
And she goes to Heaven.
But if the water rejects her
And she floats,
Then she is the demon spawn
They say she is
And she will be tortured and burned.
I feel her terror as she is lifted.
Feel the air rushing by
As they throw her into the river.
Feel the churning water around me
As she disappears below the surface.
And I feel her overwhelming dismay
As she rises to the surface,
Coughing and struggling to breathe.
A few men wade through the water to her
And pull her back to shore.
The crowd clamors for her burning,
And she is taken away to be tortured.
I see her again a few days later
With her hair shorn and shaven.
She has been dressed in a black robe
And she looks as though
Her spirit has been broken.
My heart cries out for her,
But I cannot bring myself to defend her
For fear they would do the same to me.
They tie her to a post
Surrounded by wood.
Our eyes lock as holy men
Drive their torches into the wood.
I can feel the heat as the fire
Licks at the hem of her robe.
She is suddenly shrouded
By a shimmering light.
Just before she is consumed
By the flames.
The light remains until the fire dies down.
Nothing is left of her body.
It seems that though Holy Water rejected her
The Almighty accepted her in her last moments
And I feel her joy and peace.
Johannes Junius' Letter
(to his daughter, years before Salem)
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent
have I come
into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die. For whoever
comes into the witch
prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of
his head
and--God pity him--bethinks him of something. I will tell you how it has gone
with me.
When I was first time put to the torture, Dr. Braun, Dr. Kötzendörffer, and
two strange
doctors were there. Then Dr. Braun asks me, "Kinsman, how come you here?"
I answer,
"Through falsehood, through misfortune." "Hear, you," he says, "you are a
witch; will you confess
it voluntarily? If not, we'll bring in witnesses and the executioner for you."
I said,
"I am no witch, I have a pure conscience in the matter; if there are a thousand
witnesses,
I am not anxious, but I'll gladly hear the witnesses." Now the chancellor's
son
was set before me ... and afterward Hoppfens Elsse. She had seen me dance
on Haupts-moor. . . . I answered: "I have never renounced God, and will never
do it--God
graciously keep me from it. I'll rather bear whatever I must." And then cam
also--God
in highest Heaven have mercy--the executioner, and put the thumb-screws on
me, both
hands bound together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere,
so that
for four weeks I could not use my hands, as you can see from the writing.
. . .
Thereafter they first stipped me, bound my hands behind me, and drew me up
in the torture.
Then I though heaven and earth were at an end; eight times did they draw me
up and let me fall
again, so that I suffered terible agony. . . . And this happened
on Friday, June 30, and with God's help I had to bear the torture. . . . When
at last the executioner led me back into the prison, he said to me: "Sir,
I beg you, for
God's sake confess something, where it be true or not. Invent something, for
you cannot
endure the torture you will be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet you
will not escape,
not even if you were an earl,
but one torture will follow after another until you say you
are a witch. Not before that," he said, "will they let you go, as you may
see by all their trials,
for one is just like another. . . ." And so I begged, since
I was in wretched plight, to be given one day for thought and a priest.
The priest was refused me, but the time for thought was given. Now, my dear
child, see in what
hazard I stood and still stand. I must say that I am a witch, though I am
not,--must
now renounce God, though I have never done it before. Day and night I was
deeply troubled,
but at last there came to me a new idea. I would not be anxious, but, since
I had
been given no priest with whom I could take counsel, I would myself think
of something
and say it. If were surely better that I just say it with mouth and words,
even though I
had not really done it; and afterwards I would confess it to the priest, and
let those answer
for it who compel me to do it. . . . And so I made my confession, as follows;
but it was all a lie.
Now follows, dear child, what I confessed in order to escape the great anguish
and bitter
torture, which it was impossible for me longer to bear. . . .
Then I had to tell what people I had seen [at the witch-sabbath]. I said that
I had not
recognized them. "You old rascal, I must set the executioner at you. Say--was
not the
Chancellor there?" So I said yes. "Who besides?" I had not recognized anybody.
So he said:
"Take one street after another; begin at the market, go out on one street
and back on the next."
I had to name several persons there. Then the Zinkenwert--one person more.
Then over the upper bridge to the Georgthor, on both sides. Knew nobody again.
Did I
know nobody in the castle--whoever it might be, I should speak without fear.
And thus continuously
they asked me on all the streets, though I could not and would not say more.
So
they gave me to the executioner, told him to stip me, shave me all over, and
put me
to the torture. "The rascal knows one on the market-place, is with him daily,
and yet won't
name him." By that they meant Dietmayer: so I had to name him too. Then I
had
to tell what crimes I had committed. I said nothing. . . . "Draw the rascal
up!" So I said
that I was to kill my children, but I had killed a horse instead. It did not
help. I had also
taken a sacred wafer, and had desecrated it. When I had said this, they left
me in peace.
Now, dear child, here you have all my confession, for which I must die. And
they are sheer lies
and made-up things, so help me God. For all this I was forced to say through
fear of the torture
which was threatened beyond what I had already endured. For they never leave
off with
the torture till one confesses something; be he never so good, he must be
a witch.
Nobody escapes, though he were an earl. . . .
Dear child, keep this letter secret so that people do not find it, else I
shall be tortured most
piteously and the jailers will be beheaded. So strictly is it forbidden. .
. . Dear child, pay this man
a dollar. . . . I have taken several days to write this: my hands are both
lame. I am in a sad plight. . . .
Good night, for your father Johannes Junius will never see you more. July
24, 1628.
Dear child, six have confessed against me at once: the Chancellor, his son,
Neudecker, Zaner,
Hoffmaisters Ursel, and Hoppfens Elsse--all false, through compulsion, as
they have all told me,
and begged my forgiveness in God's name before they were executed. . . . They
know
nothing but good of me. They were forced to say it, just as I myself was.
. . .
The method of beginning an examination by torture is as follows:
First, the jailers prepare the implements of torture, then they strip the
prisoner
(if it be a woman, she has already been stripped by other women, upright and
of good report). This stripping is lest some means of witchcraft may
have been sewed into the clothing-such as often, taught by the Devil, they
prepare
from the bodies of unbaptized infants, [murdered] that they may forfeit salvation.
And when the implements of torture have been prepared, the judge, both in
person and through other good men zealous in the faith, tries to persuade
the prisoner to confess the truth freely; but, if he will not confess, he
bid
attendants make the prisoner fast to the strappado or some other implement
of torture. The attendants obey forthwith, yet with feigned agitation.
Then, at the prayer of some of those present, the prisoner is loosed again
and is taken aside and once more persuaded to confess, being led to believe
that
he will in that case not be put to death.
Here it may be asked whether the judge, in the case of a prisoner much defamed,
convicted both by witnesses and by proofs, nothing being lacking but his own
confession, can properly lead him to hope that his life will be spared when,
even if
he confess his crime, he will be punished with death.
It must be answered that opinions vary. Some hold that even a witch of ill
repute,
against whom the evidence justifies violent suspicion, and who, as a ringleader
of the witches, is accounted very dangerous, may be assured her life, and
condemned instead to perpetual imprisonment on bread and water, in case she
"I give sure and convincing testimony against other witches; yet this penalty
of perpetual
imprisonment must not be announced to her, but only that her life will
be spared, and that she will be punished in some other fashion, perhaps
by exile. And doubtless such notorious witches, especially those who prepare
witch-potions or who by magical methods cure those bewitched, would be peculiarly
suited to be thus preserved, in order to aid the bewitched or to accuse other
witches, were it not that their accusations cannot be trusted, since the
Devil is a liar, unless confirmed by proofs and witnesses. Others hold,
as to this point, that for a time the promise made to the witch sentenced
to imprisonment
is to be kept, but that after a time she should be burned.
A third view is, that the judge may safely promise witches to spare their
lives, if
only he will later excuse himself from pronouncing the sentence and will let
another
do this in his place....
But if, neither by threats nor by promises such as these, the witch can be
induced
to speak the truth, then thejailers must carry out the sentence, and torture
the prisoner
according to the accepted methods, with more or less of severity as the
delinquent's crime may demand. And, while he is being tortured, he must be
questioned on the articles of accusation, and this frequently and persistently,
beginning with the lighter charges-for he will more readily confess the lighter
than
the heavier. And, while this is being done, the notary must write down
everything in his record of the trial - how the prisoner is tortured, on what
points he is questioned and how he answers.
And note that, if he confesses under the torture, he must afterward be conducted
to
another place, that he may confirm it and certify that it was not due alone
to the
force of the torture.
But, if the prisoner will not confess the truth satisfactorily, other sorts
of
tortures must be placed before him, with the statement that unless he will
confess
the truth, he must endure these also. But, if not even thus he can be brought
into terror and to the truth, then the next day or the next but one is to
be
set for a continuation of the tortures - not a repetition, for it must not
be
repeated unless new evidences produced.
The judge must then address to the prisoners the following sentence: We, the
judge,
etc., do assign to you, such and such a day for the continuation of the tortures,
that from your own mouth the truth may be heard, and that the whole may be
recorded by the notary.
And during the interval, before the day assigned, the judge, in person or
through
approved men, must in the manner above described try to persuade the prisoner
to confess,
promising her (if there is aught to be gained by this promise) that her life
shall be spared. The judge shall see to it, moreover, that throughout this
interval guards
are constantly with the prisoner, so that she may not be I alone;
because she will be visited by the De and tempted into suicide.
