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Salem Trials - Coggle Diagram

- - - - 79 people were charged with spectral appearance but none of them were called to court
        
        The twenty that were executed were charged with maleficium
      - 2 June the first trial
        Bridget Bishop -- she had been charged for witchcraft 10 years earlier; disliked in the community many people were prepared to give evidence against her
        she was executed june 10
        
        3 june grand jury endorsed indictments against Rebecca Nurse
        court adjourned until 30 june
        Some ministers condemned 'medieval' forms of proof like the touch test
        given the unease they turned to Massachusetts influential ministers
        
        Cotton Mather appeared to be the best source of knowledge
        Had written an account of the bewitching of the Goodwin children
        his father was highly respected
        encouraged the speedy completion of witchcraft trials
        
        30 June, second court session
        girls continued to act possessed
        all 5 women that were found guilty and executed
        
        2 August 6 people were executed. Reverend Burroughs had 30 people testify against him. Gave a sermon at the execution without any faults which was seen as a sign of innocence, so there was some discontent at his execution
        
        July there was a new round of accusations.
        In Andover 43 witches confessed to their crime
        
        September accusations and confessions were rapidly increasing.
        Cotton Mather declared he believed the entire colony was full of witches and that executions were warranted
        More people were also becoming critical; they felt unsafe as though they could be accused at any given moment
        
        Sept 16 1692 Giles Corey's trial
        
        1 more item...
  - - - Public Opinion
        october 1692
        turned against the authorities
        Everyone felt at risk, no factor granted immunity from the charge -- prominent men were accused alongside 5 year old girls.
        
        Phips
        Was aware that the courts of Oyer and Terminer had inflamed the situations
        He:
        Disbanded the courts,
        allowed several suspects to go home on bail
        reprieved the five people that were awaiting execution
        Tried to stop additional arrests
        
        the Superior court of Judicature
        january 1963
        new superior court, court of assize and general gaol delivery convened in salem
        Phips prevented the use of Spectral evidence
        5 cases tried in January were all found innocent
        31 more people were tried only five were found guilty -- indicates a change in mood
        continued from February to May
        anyone brought before it were found not guilty
        may Phips freed those still in prison
        Authorities refused to take future accusations seriously
    - - People were scared for their own safety because of the suspense
        Children suffered psychological trauma of watching their family be accused or executed, or being accused themselves
        
        Impact on salem
        economic impact: fields were left unattended because of the numbers involved in the trials
        Many that were accused had their lands and homes confiscated
        In 1693 there was an increase in taxation
        there were harsh local tensions between accusers and accused, who minister Joseph Green sat next to each other in sermons to try and repair damage
        
        Criticisms and regret
        1697 Robert Calef published a direct attack on Cotton Mather
        1702 John Hale published 'a modest inquiry into the nature of witchcraft. Expressed regret over actions
        1694 Reverend Parris admitted he might have been mistaken in the trials
        Cotton Mather wrote in his diary his fears that his family would be punished for not adequately coming forward against the trials
        No false accusers were punished
        Ann Putnam publicly asked for forgiveness and was given full membership of the Salem village church
        
        the Process of pardon
        1697 the general court declared a day of fasting and soul searching for the tragedy
        1703 a petition for a more equitable settlement of those wrongly accused -- not enough was done
        1711 the general court reversed the judgement against 22 accused witches, 2 months later they were given £578 to share between them
- - - - JPs wanted proof, not presumptions. They were sceptical of neighbourly disputes that influenced Scottish witch hunts. Many witches were usually acquitted at this time
      - Law - 1691 The new charter said that Massachusetts should conform to English law and allow religious toleration
        
        1689 King William's war tensions between English colonists in Maine and Wabanki Native Americans.
        Hundreds of women and children and children were slaughtered or taken captive
        
        October 1691 new charter
        
        winter 1691-2 Native American refugees brought repots of massacres and savagery. Late 1691 Wabanki were only 50 miles from Salem. Children were worried by parents' stories
        
        Local Tensions / class divisions Putnams Vs Porters - 2 most prosperous families in Salem Village. Putnams wanted to sever the village from the town and create local government and worship - supporters were subsistence farmers
        The Porters wanted closer ties to the town - supporters were more entrepreneurial
        Disputes over land often became tests of Clan Loyalty
        
        Church ministry tensions
        1981 Putnams appointed Burroughs as Minister
        
        1682 replaced by Lawson (divisive)
        
        1 more item...
- - - - Psychological hysteria; fear of the Native American attack or smallpox
        possession neurosis from belief in the devil
      - They wanted attention and were copying the symptoms of the Goodwin case in Boston
    - - shortly after the girls named Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne as witches
        
        Tituba was visibly, socially and legally an outsider as a slave.
        Good was a beggar who had previously been suspected of witchcraft
        Osborne rarely attended church
        
        They all confirmed/accused one another to be witches
        
        The girls then accused women with high status, some of which were in disputes with the Putnams - the Nurse family
        
        the JPs were very puritan, the more charges they heard the more they believed
        
        11 April Thomas Danforth (colony councillor) visited. He was unsure and left the matter unresolved
        
        30 April Reverend Burroughs was arrested - later found guilty and executed
        
        Girls then started to accuse witches in Andover -- Putnam and Walcott (accused) were blindly touched by suspects and named four of them as witches
        
        People in Andover then started to accuse one another. Accused of Satanic baptisms and knowing how to fly
        
        suspects began confessing
        told JPs there were over 300 witches in Massachusetts; they flew to services led by the devil
        
        End of May 62 people were in custody
        
        14 May New governor of Massachusetts William Phips brought a new charter
        Main concern was defeating the Native Americans and French
        
        27 May created the court of Oyer and Terminer for the Salem situation
        9 justices were appointed, cases required a minimum of 5
        William Stoughton was the chief judge of the court
        
        Tituba was later cleared