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| Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
If your ancestors lived
in Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 17th century, at some point they were
affected by the Salem witch trials of 1692. Perhaps they were one of the
accused witches, one of the participants (afflicted “girls,” accusers, judges
or jury members), one of the trial attendees, or watched, as Rev. Nicholas
Noyes said, the “firebrands of hell hanging there.” Perhaps they were neighbors
of the accused or the accusers—or maybe they lived far enough away from the
vortex. But, undoubtedly they knew about the events in Salem, whether from
experience, word-of-mouth, ministers preaching, or reading various treatises on
the subject.
More than 300 years have
passed since the witch hunts, and over time, much has been lost, from original
court papers to buildings associated with the trials. It’s as if the communal
memory was erased, once men such as Rev. Cotton Mather and Robert Calef wrote
their books. In the 19th century, after Salem’s maritime fortunes were on the
wane, writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles W. Upham returned to the
theme of witchcraft. Since then, many theories have been proposed of what
really did happen in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to cause more than 150 people
to be imprisoned for witchcraft—and the answers still elude us today.
A Discovery of Witches
Although we’ve lost much
through the passage of time, we’ve also heard, seen, or read many things that
are not true—from Salem tourist attractions, popular media, and even
scholars—about the witch hunts of 1692. So let’s clear up 10 misconceptions.
- No accused witches in Colonial America were burned at
the stake. Witchcraft was a capital offense, which meant death by hanging.
In continental Europe, witchcraft was heresy against the church and
punishable by burning at the stake.
- What is now called Gallows Hill in Salem is not where the accused witches were hanged. In early 2016, the Gallows Hill Project team verified conclusions made by early 20th century historian Sidney Perley that the victims were hanged at Proctor's Ledge, on the lower slope of Gallows Hill bounded by Proctor and Pope streets. In 2017, a memorial was created and dedicated at that location.
- Judge Jonathan Corwin’s house, now called the Witch House, is billed as “the only structure in Salem with direct
ties to the witchcraft trials of 1692.” Yes, the wealthy judge lived
there, but were any of the accused witches brought there? Probably not.
- Salem is considered the epicenter of the 1692 witch
hunt. However, the first accusations were from “afflicted” girls in Salem
Village, now the town of Danvers. The witch hunt spread to other towns,
most notably Andover. Salem’s role was mostly judicial; Salem is where the
Court of Oyer and Terminer tried people accused of witchcraft and where
the 20 victims were executed. The accused were jailed not only in Salem but in such
places as Boston and Ipswich.
- The “afflicted accusers” were not all girls.
Nine-year-old Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams
were the first to have strange fits. However, their “affliction” spread to
the young and old, men as well as women and children.
- Old, poor widows were not the only ones accused of
witchcraft. People jailed for witchcraft in 1692 range in age from four
years old to in their 80s, both male and female. Some were poor, some were
wealthy. The first three people arrested for witchcraft were 38-year-old
beggar Sarah Good; sickly, widowed Sarah Osborne; and a West Indies slave,
Tituba, who lived in Rev. Samuel Parris’ household. Sarah Good was hanged,
Sarah Osborne died in jail, and Tituba, who pleaded guilty,
survived.
- Though Upham and many other writers claim Tituba told
stories of voodoo and the Devil to impressionable young girls, starting
the witch hunt, no contemporary accounts point fingers at Rev. Parris’
slave. Images from the trials are of witches on broomsticks, witches with
animal familiars (a yellow bird was rather popular), witches signing the
Devil’s book in blood, heretical baptisms and communions—all centuries-old
Western European themes, not voodoo. Mary Sibley had the help of John
Indian, Rev. Parris’ other slave, in making the witchcake, maybe not Tituba. In
the Danvers church records, Rev. Parris believed the “diabolical means” of
making the witchcake “unleashed the witchcraft in the community.”
- Bridget Bishop, one of the most notorious accused
witches and the first to hang, was not the red corset-wearing tavern
keeper as often portrayed. In 1981, David L. Greene, editor of The American Genealogist, proved how Bridget Bishop of Salem Town and
Sarah Bishop of Salem Village were conflated into one person. Both were
married to men named Edward Bishop.
- The youngest victim, Dorothy Good, is mistakenly called
Dorcas in most books about the Salem witch trials. Dorcas is the name
Judge John Hathorne wrote on her original arrest warrant, though he wrote
Dorothy on subsequent records. (The name Dorcas is not a nickname for
Dorothy.) According to William Good, his daughter Dorothy “a child of 4 or
5 years old was in prison 7 or 8 months and being chain'd in the dungeon
was so hardly used and terrifyed that she hath ever since been very
chargeable haveing little or no reason to govern herself” (petition for
compensation, Salem, 13 September 1710).
- Although the last executions for witchcraft occurred on
22 September 1692, there were more trials, and even some guilty
convictions. In March 1693, four weeks after she was found not guilty of
witchcraft, Lydia Dustin died in prison because her family could not pay
her jail fees.
The more you learn about
the 1692 witch hunts in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the better you can
understand the times and trials your ancestors lived through.
updated 2017
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