She was taken into custody the next day and jailed with her mother, Sarah, who had been accused of the same capital crime three weeks earlier. Based on these girls accusations, the witch hunt began, and the warrants for the apprehension of Tituba, Osborne, and Good were officially signed on February 29, 1692. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery. Lets just, The Crucible (1996), Twentieth Century Fox, Salem (20142017), 20th Century Fox Television, I Married a Witch (1942), Paramount Pictures, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIIIs First Wife, Festive Facts About Bing Crosby, The King Of Christmas, Stormy Facts About Sammy Davis Jr., The Worlds Greatest Entertainer, Sorrowful Facts About Alma Rubens, The Silent Film Siren, Daring Facts About Gina Lollobrigida, Golden Hollywoods Last Survivor. Life, woman, life is Gods most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.Arthur Miller, in The Crucible. If you think its all dramatic court rooms and burning at the stake, then you need to see these 25 Disturbing Facts About the Salem Witch Trials! The phrase witch hunt, commonly used to refer to an unjustified or falsely conjured-up prosecution, is thought to originate as a reference to this time period in American history. The most terrifying part, perhaps, was that anyone could be accused of engaging in witchcraft, and there was little they could do to defend themselves. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIIIs first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. At the time of the Salem Witch Trials, Abigail was living with her uncle, Reverend Samuel Parris, his daughter Betty Parris and Parris' slaves Tituba and John Indian. To save his wife, the governor stepped in to stop the trials and disband the court of Oyer and Terminer. George Burroughs, the Puritan minister, had nine children before being hanged. Accusations followed, often escalating to convictions and executions. So if you are a witch, no need to worry about this ever happening again! Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. The Salem trials occurred late in the sequence, after the abatement of the European witch-hunt fervour, which peaked from the 1580s and 90s to the 1630s and 40s. Despite their obvious Christian commitment, the early American Puritans actually banned Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1659, deeming it a sacrilege. Some scholars believe that they were of African heritage, while others think that they may have been of Caribbean Native American heritage.). Nineteen were hanged, and one-elderly Giles Corey-pressed to death. Witch hunts The Salem Witch Trials (1692) Cartoon - YouTube (2:10) https://youtu.be/jJJLy5_DlqY Its time for a Halloween special! This evidence was later banned bythe courts, leading to a sharp drop in accusations. From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Hocus Pocus, Arthur Miller to American Horror Story, American pop culture is saturated in retellings of this horrifying episode in colonial history. Salem Witch Trials of 1692. They were during the Colonial times. Having an angry witch killing your children made sense. Get ready to pull out your history books as we bring you the most DISTURBING facts about the Salem Witch Trials. According to the warrant for her apprehension, she was called for trial on March 23, 1692, under suspicion of witchcraft after being accused by Edward Putnam. Due to its association with the supernatural and the haunted, Salem is now a popular destination for Halloween festivities, which run throughout the month of October. Arthur Millers play The Crucible played a large role in popularizing many of the details of the Salem witch trials and dramatizing facts that he uncovered in historical records. Omissions? Some have suggested that the man who was truly responsible for initiating the witch trial debacle was Reverend Samuel Parris, the father and uncle of the afflicted girls. The haphazard fashion in which the Salem witch trials were conducted contributed to changes in U.S. court procedures, including rights to legal representation and cross-examination of accusers as well as the presumption that one is innocent until proven guilty. Other proof was the touch test, where if a witch who cursed someone touched the cursed person in the midst of a fit, theit fit would stop. Accessed May 6, 2021. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/salem-witch-trial-descendants/. Villagers shot the dog immediately. In fact, the first people accused of bewitching Betty were all women: Tituba, a beggar named Sarah Good, and Sarah Osbourne, an older woman who had not attended church for a year. Were always looking for your input! She was an enslaved woman believed to have been from Central America, captured as a child from Barbados, and brought to Massachusetts in 1680 by Reverend Parris. 25 DISTURBING Facts About The Salem Witch Trials 429,208 views Sep 12, 2018 6.3K Dislike Share Save List 25 2.51M subscribers Get ready to pull out your history books as we bring you the most. (Salem Witch Trials "History" published on November 4, 2011 and updated on October 5, 2021). (The hallucinogen LSD is a derivative of ergot.) Accessed May 6, 2021. https://famous-trials.com/salem/2035-sal-bphi. Thomas Maule, a Quaker who found himself at odds with the Puritan community at times, was beaten and imprisoned for speaking out against the trials, despite the fact that he himself believed in witches. Salem witch trials, (June 1692May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted witches to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Seventeenth century Salem also gave birth to stories of courageous stands for reason, hopeful births, and acts of clemency and mercy. They found it by following clues in an accused witchs writings and through guesses on where prisoners would be transported. This evidence was later banned bythe courts, leading to a sharp drop in accusations. 1 Majority Of Victims Were Girls Under Age 20 The Salem witch trials have been studied for centuries, and there is still no clear consensus on what exactly happened. Fourteen women and six men were executed for witchcraft, and five others died in prison during the trials. History. Not that Salem didnt have its problems to begin with, but the community never fully recovered from the witch trials saga, and the divisions and setbacks to the towns development continued in the years following the trials. Good was imprisoned from March 24, 1692, to December 10, 1692. The death warrant, signed on June 8, 1692, ordered for her death to take place by hanging on Friday, June 10, 1692, between 8 a.m. and noon. The Start of the Salem Witch Trials. Due to its association with the supernatural and the haunted, Salem is now a popular destination for Halloween festivities, which run throughout the month of October. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? By late February 1692, when traditional medicines and prayers failed to cure the girls, the reverend called upon a local doctor, William Griggs. Although Salem Village was at the heart of the witch trials of 1692, the accused were from a couple dozen towns. Two of the casualties were babies. Parris, whose largely theological studies at Harvard College (now Harvard University) had been interrupted before he could graduate, was in the process of changing careers from business to the ministry. So if you celebrate Christmas and live in Massachusetts today, be happy you were born when you were! After her second husband died, Bishopwho had been married three timeswas accused of bewitching him to death, though she was later acquitted due to a lack of evidence. The Salem witch trials of the late 17thcentury were a formative episode in Americas early history, and have remained at the forefront of the national consciousness ever since. There was a social divide between the leading families as well as a split between factions that were for and against the villages new pastor, Samuel Parris. Credits: Danvers Lunatic Asylum: CHRONICLES- Danvers State Hospital | Danvers Animals were the "familiar spirits" of witches. Instead, in 1692, hanging was the preferred form of punishment. Although most of the accused witches were women, some men were also accused. Despite the horrible and senseless loss of life and community divisions that the witch trials caused, some historians believe that the traumatic incident had a silver lining. The stars of the Salem story were the Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony, a religious groupthat came over to America to escape religious persecution back in England. Tituba ultimately survived the saga and was not hanged. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. From unbelievable witch swimming tests to the role of Salem smallpox in the trials, this list will bring you every crazy witch trial fact that you never knew existed! After that, the next thirty-three witchcraft trials resulted in acquittals. Ergot causes hallucinations, convulsive fits, and sometimes death, and LSD derives from the substance. The crisis in Salem, Massachusetts took place partly because the community lived under an ominous cloud of suspicion. It involved a woman by the name of Tituba, a most likely South American slave from Barbados, who was the first victim of Salems witchcraft accusations. In October 1692, a girl in Andover accused a neighbors dog of trying to bewitch her. Some of the families now only remembered for their connection to the trials had actually been important and well-known people before that. Mid-February- After a month of fasting, prayer, and home remedies, Betty and Abigail have not improved. Although it provided no answers, its baking outraged Parris, who saw it as a blasphemous act. In the late 1600s the Salem Village community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts) was fairly small and undergoing a period of turmoil with little political guidance. When Millers The Crucible was produced, it was in the aftermath of his feud with Elia Kazan, the man who had directed his two earlier hit plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. Did you know this unbelievable witch trial fact: dogs were also major targets of the trials? Interesting Facts about the Salem Witch Trials. In the process Salem divided into pro- and anti-Parris factions. In the midst of all this religious and political controversy, there was also a major racial incident. The trials came to an abrupt halt when the Governors wife was accused of witchcraft, causing him to immediately order an end to the trials. For example, the infamous Putnam family had been one of the earliest settler dynasties to come to the Massachusetts Bay colony and establish themselves there. We want our readers to trust us. Other girls and young women began experiencing fits, among them Ann Putnam, Jr.; her mother; her cousin, Mary Walcott; and the Putnamss servant, Mercy Lewis. Tituba was not the only one who thought animals were capable of engaging in the devils work. Tituba, an enslaved person born to a South American indigenous tribe, became the first person accused of witchcraft in Salem after Betty, the daughter of Salems minister, Samuel Parris, began acting erratically. The three convicted individuals received pardons. Two of the casualties were babies. In fact, there was fear in Europe that an entire group of evil witches were consciously attacking Europeans in order to destroy Christendom. They began in 1692, a full 73 years before the start of the American Revolution and some 40 years before George Washington was even born. One dog was shot after a girl suffering from convulsions accused the dog of trying to bewitch her. His wife, Elizabeth, had been accused of witchcraft and John tried to step in to defend her.