The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts, specifically in the town of Salem, in the late 17th century. The trials took place between February 1692 and May 1693. This period was marked by a mass hysteria and panic surrounding accusations of witchcraft, resulting in the execution of twenty people and the imprisonment of many more. The hysteria began when a group of young girls in Salem Village started exhibiting strange behavior, including fits, convulsions, and claims of being possessed by witches. In an attempt to determine the cause of these behaviors, local officials conducted investigations and examinations, leading to the accusation of individuals within the community as witches. The accused were often marginalized members of society, including women, outsiders, and those who did not conform to the strict Puritan religious norms of the time.

Hundreds of Salem witch trials documents get new home

In this image provided by the Peabody Essex Museum, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO, left, and Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly S. Budd pose with Salem Witch Trial documents from 1692 at the Massachusetts Archives in Boston. Hundreds of court documents from Salem Witch Trials are being transferred from the museum, where they have been stored for more than four decades, to the newly expanded Judicial Archives facility. (Peabody Essex Museum/Kathy Tarantola via AP)

BOSTON (AP) — Hundreds of court documents from the 1692 Salem witch trials are being transferred from the Salem museum where they have been stored for more than four decades to the newly expanded Judicial Archives facility in Boston.

The 527 documents — which include transcripts of testimony and examinations, depositions, warrants for apprehension and other legal papers — were moved to the Peabody Essex Museum in 1980 for safekeeping, officials said Thursday.

Although the museum had acquired some documents on its own, most had been stored at the clerk’s office at Essex County Superior Court, the museum said.

To properly preserve them, the documents need to be stored under the proper environmental conditions, including at or below 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius), at 50% relative humidity, and in low-light conditions, Dan Lipcan, director of the museum’s Phillips Library in Rowley, said in a statement. They are also kept in acid-free folders and boxes and in fireproof cabinets.

“We are grateful to PEM for its capable stewardship of these invaluable documents and gratified that the state can now welcome the Salem witch trials documents home to the Judicial Archives,” Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd said in a statement. “The court deeply appreciates the extraordinary public service that the museum has provided in caring for this unique collection for more than 40 years.”

The SJC, the state’s highest court, traces its origins to the witch trials. Originally the Superior Court of Judicature, created in November 1692, one of its first tasks was hearing the cases of 26 people accused of witchcraft. Twenty-three were found not guilty, and the other three were later pardoned, according to the court’s history.

The witch trials were fomented by superstition and fear of disease, outsiders and Native Americans, and were stoked by petty jealousies and personal vendettas involving several families. Of the 20 people convicted of witchcraft and subsequently put to death, 19 were hanged and one was crushed to death by rocks.

The story and tragedy of the trials resonates to this day.

The study of the original documents humanizes the victims and helps creates a better understanding of their experiences, PEM Executive Director and CEO Lynda Roscoe Hartigan said in a statement.

“PEM is committed to telling the story of these events through exhibitions, lectures and public programs as well as by making reproductions of the Salem witch trial documents available to the public on our website,” she said.

The Salem Witch Trials

Sources Charges. In 1692 some teenage girls in Salem, Massachusetts, accused a West Indian slave named Tituba and two white women of practicing witchcraft. The girls behaved strangely and were subject to bodily fits. Most Puritans believed in witchcraft, and witches had been prosecuted in Massachusetts several times in the preceding decades. By April the girls began to denounce others as witches, including a former minister. Hysteria. The events that followed are notorious in American history. A special court was convened in which the judges were not trained in the law and in which the accused had no attorneys. The court violated precedent by agreeing to consider “ spectral evidence ” — testimony by an accuser that claimed that a specter (spirit) resembling the accused person was the source of the accuser ’ s misery. Such a specter could only be seen, it was believed, by the victim, so the evidence could neither be refuted nor corroborated and for that reason had not been admitted in the past. The trials that followed resulted in hundreds of accusations, over one hundred guilty verdicts, and the executions of twenty persons, mostly women. Nineteen who refused to confess were hanged, and one man was pressed to death with stones for refusing to answer the charge, thereby saving his family ’ s fortune. By early 1693 several ministers had expressed grave doubts about spectral evidence, and the governor pardoned those condemned and eventually suspended all the trials. Causes. Even though the hysteria was not limited to Salem, a close analysis of the community reveals some patterns concerning witchcraft accusations throughout New England. Most of the accusers came from the more rural Salem Village, with a third of the accusations originating with members of the Putnam family. The accused generally were prosperous and from the commercially oriented Salem Town. Most of the young girls who made the accusations had lost a parent in Indian raids and now worked around Salem as servants, while most of the accused were prosperous, older women without husbands or sons. Puritan Mission. More broadly, the witchcraft hysteria of 1692 reflected deep anxieties among Puritans that the idealized, pious way of life they had created was ending. They had lost their charter in the 1680s, and under the new charter of 1691 the male members of the Puritan (Congregationalist) churches had to share the vote and office-holding with Anglicans. The tight-knit religious communities of their founders were giving way to more business-oriented and competitive towns. These changes, coupled with their sincere belief in a spiritual world in which good and evil fought for the souls of humans, made it easy to believe that there were witches among them causing all sorts of problems. Even so, the simple legal error of admitting spectral evidence turned what would have been isolated, ugly episodes into a yearlong horror for Massachusetts.

The accused were often marginalized members of society, including women, outsiders, and those who did not conform to the strict Puritan religious norms of the time. The trials followed a process where the accused were brought before a court and subjected to questioning and examinations. The exams often involved "spectral evidence," where the accusers claimed to see the apparitions or spirits of the witches tormenting them.

Sources

Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974); Carol F. Karlen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York: Random House, 1987).

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When Were the Salem Witch Trials?

Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by JoAnn from Lexington, SC. JoAnn Wonders, “What were the Salem Witch Trials?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, JoAnn!

It's Halloween night and your doorbell chimes over and over again, as a steady procession of goblins, ghouls, and ghosts appear on the porch in search of sweet treats. Then you hear a light knocking at the door. You answer and a small child asks you to guess what she is.

She's dressed all in black with a pointy hat and a broomstick. What could she be? It doesn't take long for you to figure out that black clothing plus a pointy hat and a broomstick can equal only one thing: a witch!

According to most dictionaries, witches are people (usually women) who claim to or are thought to practice magic or sorcery. Unlike magicians, however, witches are believed to possess evil or wicked powers due to their association with the devil or other forces of evil.

Do witches really exist? The vast majority of people today no longer believe in witchcraft or witches. However, hundreds of years ago, people did believe in witches, and their belief led to the tragic events that have come to be known as the Salem witch trials.

In January 1692, two young girls living in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) began experiencing bouts of violent convulsions and screaming. The girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, were the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, the local Puritan minister.

Local doctor William Griggs diagnosed the girls and concluded that they had been bewitched. The girls claimed that their Caribbean slave, Tituba, and two other women from town, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, had bewitched them.

These women were arrested and accused of witchcraft, creating the beginnings of a panic in the small village and surrounding areas. Tensions were already high in Salem Village due to a recent smallpox epidemic and ongoing fears of attacks from Native Americans.

Accusations of witchcraft fueled residents' fears and suspicions . Soon, several other girls began to exhibit similar symptoms.

Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne denied being witches, but Tituba confessed and named others who were supposedly witches. Historians now believe she likely did this in an attempt to save herself from what was likely to be a certain conviction .

Hysteria spread beyond Salem Village into the rest of Massachusetts, as many others were accused of witchcraft. In total, more than 150 men, women, and children were accused of witchcraft. Some of the accused were upstanding members of the local church and community. At times it likely seemed that no one was safe from accusation.

The local justice system was quickly overwhelmed by claims of witchcraft. In May 1692, Governor William Phips established a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to hear and decide witchcraft cases.

The court handed down its first conviction against Bridget Bishop on June 2, 1692. Bishop was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill. Over the next few months, 18 more people would be hanged on Gallows Hill, while several other accused witches died in jail.

By September 1692, public opinion began to turn against the trials and the hysteria subsided . The special Court of Oyer and Terminer was disbanded and all those accused of witchcraft were eventually released and pardoned .

The Salem witch trials left a painful legacy of bitterness in Salem Village and throughout Massachusetts. One positive outcome was the revision of court procedures and the laws of evidence.

The Court of Oyer and Terminer had based many convictions on spectral evidence (testimony about dreams and visions). Governor Phips later demanded that spectral evidence be disregarded and that standards of evidence be similar for all crimes.

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During this time, the community was gripped by fear and suspicion, and many accused individuals were imprisoned and denied proper legal representation. The accused were pressured to confess and often faced harsh physical punishments or execution if found guilty. Public executions were conducted by hanging, while those who died in prison were pressed to death with heavy stones. The trials came to an end when colonial governor William Phips disbanded the court in May 1693, expressing concerns about the reliability of spectral evidence. Over the years, the Salem Witch Trials have been heavily criticized for their violation of human rights and the use of flawed and subjective evidence in the legal process. The Salem Witch Trials remain a significant event in American history, highlighting the dangers of mass hysteria, the abuse of power, and the importance of fair trials. They continue to serve as a reminder of the fragility of justice and the consequences of societal fear and prejudice..

Reviews for "The Infamous Salem Witch Trials: When Did They Happen?"

1. John - 1/5 stars: I was really disappointed with "When was the Salem Witch Trials". The storytelling was lacking and the pacing was incredibly slow. I felt like I was just waiting for something interesting to happen throughout the entire film. Additionally, the acting was subpar and the characters were poorly developed. I would not recommend this movie to anyone looking for an engaging retelling of the Salem Witch Trials.

2. Sarah - 2/5 stars: "When was the Salem Witch Trials" had potential, but it ultimately fell short for me. The historical accuracy was questionable, with some major details being misrepresented. The script was weak and the dialogue felt forced at times. While the cinematography was decent, it couldn't save the film from its other shortcomings. Overall, I found it to be a mediocre portrayal of an important historical event.

3. Michael - 2/5 stars: I expected "When was the Salem Witch Trials" to be a captivating exploration of this dark chapter in history, but unfortunately, it missed the mark. The film lacked depth and failed to adequately delve into the psychological aspects of the trials. The directing was lackluster, and the pacing was inconsistent, making it hard to stay engaged. I appreciate the effort to shed light on this historical event, but the execution left much to be desired.

4. Emily - 2/5 stars: I was really looking forward to watching "When was the Salem Witch Trials", but it failed to meet my expectations. The performances were lackluster and the characters felt one-dimensional. The film also lacked a cohesive narrative, jumping between different storylines without much clarity. It felt like a missed opportunity to delve into the complexities of the witch trials. Overall, I was left feeling underwhelmed by this film.

When Did the Salem Witch Trials Occur: A Historical Investigation