The Salem Witch Trials, Lecture 6

Witch-hunter’s guide, come with the assumption that women are naturally inclined to be with the Devil

“Why is it that women are chiefly guilty of evil superstition; why is it that women are those seduced and penetrated by the Devil” is from...

mid 1600s

When was the great witch hunt?

the periods didn’t happen that often, happen in periods of unrest

What was the pattern of whitch hunting?

in places of political stress and division (like border with Scotland)

Where were the witch hunts primarily located?

~10,000, fervor dies and does not come back

How many were killed in the great witch hunt? What happened after?

Rev. Parris of Salem

Which reverend went to barbados and brought back a slave?

African culture, shamanism, voodoo

Why were africans suspicious in terms of witch hunting?

they would be put to death

What happened to an accuser who would accuse someone of being a witch without good cause?

Fevers? fungal infection from wheat? PTSD from Maine frontier?

Theories of why the girls began to act in that way are...

Tituba the slave

Who did they first accuse of being a witch?

Because she was a black slave, the slander laws did not hold sway, and she became the scapegoat

Why was the accusation sustained?

accuses a homeless beggar, accuse a women who’d had an affair with an Irish servant

How did the accusations start to spiral out of control?

Rev. Parris goes hardcore witch hunting and it expands to accuse those in “good standing”

What happens when the girls' symptoms don't abate?

town

Salem ___ was near river, outside influences, not at Puritan, done with Puritan restriction

village

Salem ____ was more conservative/calvinist

around the water

Where were the people who were accused located?

inland, about 2km

Where were the accusers located?

from the western/inland part of town

Where were the juries that supported the trials located?

were asked to say the lords prayer, recite the ten commandments — if not said perfectly without stumbling, shows guilt, looking for the devils mark

How were the women tested?

180, 21

By summer, ___ accused, ___ killed

the general court of MA

Who could the accused appeal to?

centralized authority

In salem, there was no ____

Oyer and Terminer

Special courts of _______ were established

special court of martial law for a specific area, not usual protections of juries

What were the special courts of oyer and terminer?

Too much happening in England at the time (glorious revolution), so no higher authority to appeal to in England

Why couldn't the colonists appeal to england?

1688-89

When was the glorious revolution?

Rev. Increase Mather, “spectral evidence”

_____ denounces _____

one of most powerful ministers/teachers at Harvard

Who was Rev. Mather?

he does not say that witches are not real, but spectral evidence goes against Puritan tradition, innocent until proven guilty

How does he carefully denounce spectral evidence?

how one girl was accused of flying into another’s bedroom and floats above her chanting

What is spectral evidence? Ex:

needs to accept anglicans as part of the British empire

England dictates that NE.....

the household, the church

_____ becomes the dominant institution, defines NE life, NOT ____

1/3, marry in order of birth, female witnesses, Puritan crimes, property debt cases

By 1760s in Concord Mass.... 1in ___ is pregnant on wedding day, sons no longer _____, fewer _____, more _____