The Salem Witch Trials

by Ciara Murray-Jordan & Caitlin Balagula

The Salem Witch Trials

by Ciara Murray-Jordan & Caitlin Balagula

How it all started (and ended)…

Once upon a time, there lived three girls who were named Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. On their way to the annual ball, they encountered an evil mastermind who was

infamously known as the Wicked Witch of the West. She told them that if they didn’t know why

the chicken crossed the road, she would kill them. And they didn’t know why. So she killed them.

Happily ever after.

THE END

Sources (That are 100% NOT

made up)www.somethingpedia.comwww.stories-that-make-no-sense-and-have-no-point-but-you-read-them-anyway-because-theyre-weird.com

SomethingPediaThe Unreliable Encyclopedia

It was early February of 1692. Reverend Parris , a 36-year old minister in the Salem Village of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had

recently been watching over as his daughter, Elizabeth Parris and his niece, Abigail Williams, were acting…strange. VERY STRANGE.

Lately, these two girls had began twisting themselves into inhuman positions, making odd gestures, and uttering incoherent words. They had inhuman-like bites and pinches covering their bodies and claimed

to see visions of ghosts and spirits. As a result, Reverend decided that the girls should have a visit from a physician so-called William Griggs. At the end of the check-up, the extremely intelligent doctor

came up with the most realistic conclusion of all… Howdy

Folks! Just on my way

to bite some innocent

young Puritan girls! Don’t mind if

I do!

THEY WERE THEY WERE BEWITCHEDBEWITCHED!!!!!!

DUN-DUN-DUN-DUNNN

Not possible. Absolutely

not possible.

Stupid unhappy yellow circle!

It’s obvious my patients have

been bewitched!

At least, according to Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, that’s what you’re supposed to do. They pointed fingers towards three innocent and vulnerable women who were physically and mentally

weak. One of them included Tituba, a West Indian slave for the Parris family who was considered bizarre by the town of Salem. The other two elderly women who had a bad reputation were Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. This was the unfortunate beginning of the infamous

Salem Witch Trials.

Tituba is teaching girls about witchcraft.

As a result of the several other accused witches, the governor ordered that the Court of Oyer and Teminer be opened. It is currently known as the exclusive trials in which the witches pleaded innocent

or, in other cases, guilty. Although you might think, “Oh, that’s stupid. Why would someone plead guilty if they knew they were

innocent?”, the questions the court asked were extremely physiologically pressuring. Here is a conversation between the

magistrate and Sarah Good during a hearing:Magistrate: What evil spirit have you familiarity with?Sarah Good: None.Magistrate: Have you made no contract with the Devil?Sarah Good: No.Magistrate: Why do you hurt these children?Sarah Good: I do not hurt them. I scorn it.Magistrate: Who do you imply then to do it?Sarah Good: I imply no body.Magistrate: What creature do you imply then?Sarah Good: No creature. I am falsely accused.

As you can see, although Sarah Good pleaded innocent, the court talked to her as if she admitted that she was a witch.

On top of asking compelling questions, the people in charge of the court also looked for physical evidence of being of witch.

The witches supposedly injected puppets, pins and/or sharp objects into their victims’ skin. The witch would fashion a model of their enemy

and poke the objects into that model, causing inflicting pain on the actual body.

They looked for a projecting body part that the Devil supposedly fed to the witch in the formation of a small animal. This protruding part was

called a witch’s tit.They checked for supernatural abilities.

They forced the blamed witches to stare at their enemies and looked to see if that caused seizures.

The witches were told to recite the Lord’s prayer. If there were any mistakes, they could be charged as a witch.

If the bewitched child was having a fit, the accused witch had to touch him/her in order to see if the witch could heal the affliction or not.Random Fact About Hands & Random Fact About Hands &

WitchesWitchesWhen Mary Eastey, an accused witch, was on trial, she clasped her hands together. Mercy Lewis’s, one her

victims, hands stuck together at the same time Eastey’s did. She claimed that she couldn’t release them until

Eastey did.

+

_____

GET PREGNANT! Pregnant women weren’t executed after being named a witch. The Puritans may have been cruel, but they didn’t believe that a baby should die because of his/her mother being a witch.

CONFESS! The Puritans thought that if someone confessed their sin, it was God who choose how they should be punished. As a result, they were freed. Yet, as more figured this out, more witch nonsense was spread through Salem.

RUN AWAY! Many witches ran from the prisons they were held in. People did manage this. They included Phillip and Mary English, Hezekiah Usher, and John Alden.

Dunking was a popular, but dreaded method of torture the Massachusetts

Bay Colony used. It was like a modern-day flag pole, but instead of a flag, there

was an alleged witch trussed to a wooden chair. The chair was elevated

and controlled by pulling a rope. It was used to force the accused to confess or

give up information. If the person didn’t cooperate, he/she would be dunked

under the water.

Pressing was another gory torture technique the people of Salem used to cause pain to accused witches. The

suspect was placed under a flat board and it was one a time, covered by heavy

rocks and stones. A famous case involved Giles Cory, a supposed witch

who refused to plead guilty or innocent. After being pressed for more than two days straight, he still failed to plead.

Therefore, he was killed by the crushing pressure.

The lives of 19 innocent convicted witches ended at the primary location of execution during the Salem Witch Trials, Gallows Hill. The deaths took place on four separate dates-June 10, July 19,

August 19, and September 22. On the right is the forlorn death of an accused witch named Bridget Bishop. She was the first person to be murdered due to the fact that people thought she was a

witch. Okay, let’s get this fact straight. Burning witches at the stake was NOT used during the Salem Witch

Trials. I repeat. Burning witches at the stake was NOT used during the Salem Witch Trials.. This execution process was only commonly used in

European witch hunts and the Spanish Inquisition.

Accused Witch/Wizard

Date of Death Cause of Death

Bridget Bishop June 10, 1692 HangedRebecca Nurse July 19, 1692 Hanged

Sarah Good July 19, 1692 HangedSusannah Martin July 19, 1692 HangedElizabeth Howe July 19, 1692 HangedSarah Wildes July 19, 1692 Hanged

George Burroughs August 19, 1692 HangedMartha Carrier August 19, 1692 Hanged

John Willard August 19, 1692 HangedGeorge Jacobs, Sr. August 19, 1682 Hanged

John Proctor August 19, 1692 HangedMartha Corey September 22, 1692 HangedMary Eastey September 22, 1692 HangedAnn Pudeator September 22, 1692 Hanged

Alice Parker September 22, 1692 HangedMary Parker September 22, 1692 Hanged

Wilmott Redd September 22, 1692 HangedMargaret Scott September 22, 1692 Hanged

Samuel Wardwell September 22, 1692 HangedGiles Corey September 19, 1692 Pressed

Sarah Osborn May 10, 1692 In PrisonRoger Toothaker June 1692 (Exact Date is

Unknown)In Prison

Lydia Dustin March 10, 1693 In PrisonAnn Foster December 3, 1692 In Prison

Why did the Salem Witch Trials Why did the Salem Witch Trials End?End?There were numerous reasons why the Salem Witch Trials

actually came to a close. No one directly pointed out that there would be no more accusations and hangings. However, the people nowadays can look back and understand the signs of its end and what they meant. Increase Mather once said,

“To take away the life of anyone, merely because a specter or Devil, in a bewitched or possessed person does accuse them,

will bring the guilt of innocent blood on the land.”Despite Rebecca Nurse’s kind and saintly personality, she was executed. George Burroughs movingly and perfectly

recited the Lord’s Prayer before he was hanged. Giles Corey stubbornly, yet heroically, refused to admit if he was a witch or not. These occurrences started to cause the townspeople

sorrow and regret towards the artificiality of the girls’ seizures and the existence od witches.

The “bewitched” girls’ overwhelming number of accusations were becoming a clear sign that they were not actually under

the possession of the Devil.Lady Phips, the wife of Governor Phips, was accused of

using witchcraft on others. However, Phips had already blamed several others for the same reason.

Later on in life, the afflicted girls came across an elderly woman. They immediately went into one of their spasmodic

fits. Another by-passer told them to take it somewhere else. Proceeding this event, the girls coincidentally(or not),

stopped accusing others for their supposed bewitchment.

Now, since I told you the end of the Salem Witch Trials, you think this extremely weird,

but beautiful, PowerPoint presentation is over. WELL IT’S NOT.

What might have really happened to the afflicted girls is not 100% definite. Here are the two main things historians believe could have happened to the girls:

They could have possibly injected ergot poisoning, a fungus that grows on grain. The Puritans ate rye bread and the fungi could have somehow contaminated the bread, causing the girls to take the poison in and become stricken with the seizures.

They could have possibly been amazing actresses. People say that, in the beginning, they were just looking for attention from others. However, after the first three arrests of “witches” were made, that’s when they acknowledged their real power. Yet, they couldn’t stop. Otherwise, they would be condemned for accusing people of felonies that they never committed. So, they continued on with their fits, causing the arrests of many and the deaths of 24.

On January 15, in the colony of Massachusetts, the one judge and 12 Salem jurors begged for forgiveness on a day we know as Day of Humiliation. (Don’t you think we should have more of those?)Samuel Parris, one of the causes of the whole witch hunt, was kicked out of Salem. (Cough, “Epic,” Cough, “Fail”)Only one of the alleged victims of witch craft, Ann Putnam, openly accredited her disturbing role in the death of many innocent people. In 1706, the pastor read her statement aloud. “It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me at that said time…I desire to lie in the dust and earnestly beg forgiveness.”

Despite people’s genuine forgiveness, most of the pardoned “witches” lived the rest of their lives in poverty with tainted reputations.

Eventually, everyone died.

The Devil made me do

it!

This is exactly what the accused witches in Salem DIDN’T look like.

This is the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

This is Sarah Good’s, one of the accused

witches, graves.

Nice tights, dude!

We would like to honor this beautiful

presentation that we did to all the innocent

people America lost because of some silly,

stupid, and false accusations made by SOME people. (Yeah, I’m talking to you Ann Putnam. No excuses.)

Anyway, so yeah ............................................................................................................................................................

..............................

Picture URLshttp://rlv.zcache.com/witch_making_brew_tshirt-d2350091660239438112mf4g_500.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Wikipedia-logo.pnghttp://rufiojones.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/casper2.jpghttp://culturefest.wikispaces.com/file/view/frowny_face.gif/214550062/frowny_face.gifhttp://newsimg.ngfiles.com/222000/222386_spaceman.jpghttp://www2.iath.virginia.edu/salem/images/people/tituba.jpghttp://th07.deviantart.net/fs42/PRE/f/2009/092/c/f/Cute_Devil_by_Sinovera.jpghttp://www.crcna.org/site_uploads/uploads/osjha/mdgs/MDGHANDS.jpghttp://disney-clipart.com/Halloween/Mickey/Halloween-Minnie-Mouse-Witch.jpghttp://whx8pq.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p04_I_DZWLN2J-TYwC-LhRCXloJyAT6SegK4iRbmCbuHH-lCfAq0Pj4c3C3-il-rpEE0XkhQ92dQYUECqZnLlbg/CLIPART_OF_10919_SM.jpg?psid=1http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/2009/10/04/cuckingstool_1.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Giles_Corey_restored.jpghttp://coryfamsoc.com/resources/articles/images/Sal_hang.jpghttp://www.cuttingedge.org/Inquisition_13_Burning.jpghttp://www.justsymbol.com/images/no-entry-8.gifhttp://www.clipartpal.com/_thumbs/pd/holiday/halloween/R_I_P_gravestone.pnghttp://www.glogster.com/media/5/18/21/35/18213502.jpghttp://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/037/Purple/0a/55/f9/mzl.tyckemar.pnghttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_R9JLKlPNYPo/TUfe0ltJqQI/AAAAAAAARl8/TIphTD0TUGk/s1600/Hanging.jpghttp://threadandthrum.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/puritanwoman.jpg.w180h240.jpghttp://www.halloweenexperts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/salem41-226x300.jpghttp://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/halowen/witch01.gifhttp://russeyfamily.com/court.jpghttp://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00M/00MCjx-37906484.JPGhttp://www2.iath.virginia.edu/salem/images/noblemartyr1.jpg

(Real) Information SourcesThe Salem Witch Trials Edited by Laura MarvelThe Devil on Trial by Philip Margulies & Maxine Rosalerhttp://www.magicalcat.com/H_salem_witch_trials.htmhttp://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htmhttp://www.medievality.com/water-torture.htmlhttp://www.life123.com/holidays/halloween/witches/witch-tests.shtlmlhttp://home.comcast.net/~burokerl/burning_at_the_stake.htmhttp://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/story/story.html

THE END.