The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the execution of 20 people, with five others dying in jail, and around 200 people being accused. The Salem Witch Trials are often viewed as one of the darkest and most controversial chapters in American history. The events of the Salem Witch Trials began when a group of young girls in Salem Village, now present-day Danvers, Massachusetts, began experiencing strange fits and exhibiting bizarre behavior. They claimed to be possessed by witches and accused several local women of bewitching them. The community quickly became consumed by fear and paranoia, leading to a series of investigations and trials.
February 25, 1692: Tituba, at the request of neighbor Mary Sibley, bakes a "witch cake" and feeds it to a dog. According to an English folk remedy, feeding a dog this kind of cake, which contained the urine of the afflicted, would counteract the spell put on Elizabeth and Abigail. The reason the cake is fed to a dog is because the dog is believed a "familiar" of the Devil.
The Salem trials and the witch hunt as metaphors for the persecution of minority groups remained powerful symbols into the 20th and 21st centuries, owing in no small measure to playwright Arthur Miller s use in The Crucible 1953 of the events and individuals from 1692 as allegorical stand-ins for the anticommunist hearing led by Sen. Hathorne and Corwin also examine Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, and Mary English.
The community quickly became consumed by fear and paranoia, leading to a series of investigations and trials. The trials were conducted in a highly biased and unfair manner. The accused were often subjected to harsh questioning and forced to provide confessions under duress.
The trials
On May 27, 1692, after weeks of informal hearings accompanied by imprisonments, Sir William Phips (also spelled Phipps), the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, interceded and ordered the convening of an official Court of Oyer (“to hear”) and Terminer (“to decide”) in Salem Town. Presided over by William Stoughton, the colony’s lieutenant governor, the court consisted of seven judges. The accused were forced to defend themselves without aid of counsel. Most damning for them was the admission of “spectral evidence”—that is, claims by the victims that they had seen and been attacked (pinched, bitten, contorted) by spectres of the accused, whose forms Satan allegedly had assumed to work his evil. Even as the accused testified on the witness stand, the girls and young women who had accused them writhed, whimpered, and babbled in the gallery, seemingly providing evidence of the spectre’s demonic presence. Those who confessed—or who confessed and named other witches—were spared the court’s vengeance, owing to the Puritan belief that they would receive their punishment from God. Those who insisted upon their innocence met harsher fates, becoming martyrs to their own sense of justice. Many in the community who viewed the unfolding events as travesties remained mute, afraid that they would be punished for raising objections to the proceedings by being accused of witchcraft themselves.
On June 2 Bridget Bishop—who had been accused and found innocent of witchery some 12 years earlier—was the first of the defendants to be convicted. On June 10 she was hanged on what became known as Gallows Hill in Salem Village. On July 19 five more convicted persons were hanged, including Nurse and Good (the latter of whom responded to her conviction by saying that she was no more a witch than the judge was a wizard). George Burroughs, who had served as a minister in Salem Village from 1680 to 1683, was summoned from his new home in Maine and accused of being the witches’ ringleader. He too was convicted and, along with four others, was hanged on August 19. As he stood on the gallows, he recited the Lord’s Prayer perfectly—something no witch was thought to be capable of doing—raising doubts about his guilt for some in attendance, though their protests were refuted, most notably by Mather, who was present. (Mather’s role in the trials in general was complex, as he at various times seemingly both condoned and questioned aspects of the proceedings.) On September 22 eight more convicted persons were hanged, including Martha Corey, whose octogenarian husband, Giles, upon being accused of witchcraft and refusing to enter a plea, had been subjected to peine forte et dure (“strong and hard punishment”) and pressed beneath heavy stones for two days until he died.
As the trials progressed, accusations spread to individuals from other communities, among them, Beverly, Malden, Gloucester, Andover, Lynn, Marblehead, Charlestown, and Boston. On October 3 Cotton Mather’s father, Increase Mather, an influential minister and the president of Harvard, condemned the use of spectral evidence and instead favoured direct accusations:
The devil never assists men to do supernatural things undesired. When, therefore, such like things shall be testified against the accused party, not by specters, which are devils in the shape of persons either living or dead, but by real men or women who may be credited, it is proof enough that such a one has that conversation and correspondence with the devil as that he or she, whoever they be, ought to be exterminated from among men. This notwithstanding I will add: It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than that one innocent person should be condemned.
On October 29, as the accusations of witchcraft extended to include his own wife, Governor Phips once again stepped in, ordering a halt to the proceedings of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. In their place he established a Superior Court of Judicature, which was instructed not to admit spectral evidence. Trials resumed in January and February, but of the 56 persons indicted, only 3 were convicted, and they, along with everyone held in custody, had been pardoned by Phips by May 1693 as the trials came to an end. Nineteen persons had been hanged, and another five (not counting Giles Corey) had died in custody.
In some cases, spectral evidence was accepted as proof of guilt, which allowed the testimony of those who claimed to have seen the accused engaging in supernatural activities. Many of those accused of witchcraft were marginalized members of society, such as older women, widows, and those who did not conform to the Puritan ideals of the time. The trials became a means to suppress and control those who deviated from the accepted norms. The Salem Witch Trials eventually came to an end when public opinion began to turn against the accusations and the use of spectral evidence. The credibility of the accusers was also called into question, and influential figures in the community began speaking out against the trials. The legacy of the Salem Witch Trials continues to resonate in American history. It serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of mass hysteria, prejudice, and the need for a fair and just legal system. The events of the trials have been studied and analyzed extensively, shedding light on the complexities of human behavior and the power of belief..
Reviews for "The Influence of the Salem Witch Trials on Modern Legal Systems: BrainPOP Insights"
1) Jessica - 1/5 - I was really disappointed with the "Salem Witch Trials" BrainPop episode. The animation was outdated and the information presented was very basic. I felt like I didn't learn anything new about the topic. Additionally, the episode seemed to gloss over the more gruesome and disturbing aspects of the trials, which I believe is an important part of understanding the historical context. Overall, I would not recommend this particular BrainPop episode.
2) Patrick - 2/5 - As a history buff, I was excited to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials through BrainPop. However, I found the episode to be quite lacking. The content was presented in a very simplistic manner, making it feel more suitable for a younger audience. I was hoping for a more comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the events, but instead, it felt like an overview that just scratched the surface. While the visuals were decent, I believe the episode failed to do justice to such an important and intriguing historical event.
3) Emily - 2/5 - I have enjoyed many BrainPop episodes in the past, but the "Salem Witch Trials" disappointed me. The information provided was very basic and didn't offer any new insights into the trials. The episode seemed rushed, and important details were skipped over. The animation was also quite dated, making it less engaging to watch compared to other BrainPop episodes. I would have appreciated a more in-depth analysis of the trials, as well as a more visually appealing presentation.