“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Salem Witch Trials

A Preoccupation with Witchcraft 1692 – a year of

frontier war, poor economic conditions, congregational strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies 

From June to September, nineteen were hanged at Gallows Hill, hundred accused, one man pressed to death and dozens held in jail

Samuel Parris: Where the Trouble Began1688: Samuel Parris and

his family (his wife Elizabeth, his six-year-old daughter Betty, niece Abigail Williams, and his Indian slave Tituba, arrived in Salem

February 1692, Betty gets “sick”

Symptoms include: diving under furniture, contorting in pain, and complaining of fever

Convulsive ErgotismCotton Mather:

"Memorable Providences," describing the suspected witchcraft of an Irish washerwoman in Boston

Monkey-See, Monkey-Do: Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott

William Griggs diagnosed the girls with an infliction of “witchcraft”

TitubaWitch’s Cake: rye cake

with the urine of the afflicted victim fed to a dog

One of the first three accused of witchcraft and central figure in expanding prosecutions

Was she responsible for the violent repercussions of the witch hunters?

Putnam vs. Porter: A Town DividedVicious family rivalry

concerning the mercantile industry

Easy/Disliked targets: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, Bridget Bishop

Rebecca Nurse and the Topsfield Family 

After Tituba’s successful confession, others began to confess to witchcraft

Stuck in jail with testimony of the afflicted girls, many began to confess to avoid the gallows

Jails were now beginning to approach capacity

Confess and Ye Shall be Saved!

Gallows Hill, Salem MA

Ex-minister of SalemIdentified as the

“ringleader of the witches”

Frontier War gone awryHis hanging caused a

stir of concern among the villagers, prompting consideration for number of respectable persons being hanged

George Burroughs

Accused lived to the south Were generally better off financiallyAccusing families stood to gain propertyThe accused and the accusers generally took

opposite sides in a congregational debateAccused witches supported former minister

George Burroughs while the accusers had--for the most part--played leading roles in forcing Burroughs to leave Salem. 

Property disputes and congregational feuds led accusations

Accused vs. Accusers

William Stoughton (1631 – July 7, 1701) Colonial magistrate in

charge of Salem Witch Trials, first as the Chief Justice of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692, and then as the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693

He controversially accepted spectral evidence 

Was particularly harsh on some of the defendants

Many blame him for the number of persons convicted and hanged during the course of the trials

DoubtsAs the girls continued

accusing more reputable persons of witchcraft, the hunt for witches began ebbing

Increase Mather, father of Cotton, spoke out against the trials

Governor Phips called an end to the trials and pardoned those still accused or convicted in 1693

Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials (A Video)

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)Born in Salem, MA,

descendent of prominent Puritan family

Ancestor was a judge in Salem Witch Trials; another was a persecutor of the Quakers

Inherited guiltTranscendentalists: Emerson

and ThoreauThe Scarlet Letter (1850)The Young Goodman Brown

(1835)The Minister’s Black Veil

(1837)