Salutations Inky Buds. Keeping with the spooky theme, I will write about the infamous Salem Witch Trials. These deaths and occurrences began to occur in the spring of 1692 when a hysterical group of young girls began accusing other people of witchcraft, as well as being possessed by the devil. These events happened a very long time ago but are still talked about today. This period in American history has received notoriety for these unusual executions of women. It is especially talked about around Halloween, when witches, ghouls and other apparitions are said to roam freely. These trials are well-known for good reason. Around those times, America was reaching its "beginnings." I say "beginnings" with quotations because many people already had lived there, and it is discourteous to all the Native Americans that have already lived there, which is like saying that their land wasn't America until settlers began to colonize the land. That is a topic for another time.
Anyways, English settlers were already forming colonies and small villages, and I bet they didn't foresee that some odd events would unfold. The majority of American history is about the colonists, presidents, and wars. For once, we got to see something different, something that shaped laws and people alike.
While witches go further back than 1692, this is one of the most notable instances that brought witches further into light. I will also take this opportunity to explain some reasons why witchcraft is shunned and is deemed evil. According to The Embroidered Forest.com:
"The ancient druids were akin to nomadic priests and dated from between 400 BC to 820 AD and Egyptian priests and priestesses practiced magic for healing, preparing their dead for the afterlife and for honoring the gods of their diverse pantheon."
However, it is hard to accurately date back these times because of the rise of Christianity. Many scrolls and records were burned because they were "heretic."
The type of witches we see today are from Paganism and are similar to Anglo-Saxon England and Europe. These people worked with the land and lived in harmony with the seasons. They believed in gods and believed that plentiful crops could be provided by giving gods offerings, usually through incense and prayers.
When Christianity in the 6th century began becoming more popular, missionaries were sent from Rome to convert Pagans into Christians.
The Embroidered Forest.com states that: "It is easier to convert people if they can mostly go about their practices the same way but under a different name and subtlety change these practices over time. Ēostre, the Germanic Goddess of Spring and fertility would become inspiration for the holiday of Easter."
"Her correspondences are the rabbit, eggs and spring colors like pink, green and yellow. Pagans would venerate the rabbit for its fertility and decorate eggs as a symbol of new beginnings, birth and Spring. This was adapted to the Easter traditions we see today.
We see this with other pagan celebrations like Yule and Samhain becoming Christmas and Halloween (first named All Saint’s Day and moved to October 31st and later renamed All Hallow’s Eve.)"
One of the gods that Pagans worshipped was Pan, a mischievous and playful half-man half-goat, who would later become the Christian devil.
Unfortunately for the witches, in 1484 Paganism was deemed as heresy and was denounced by Pope Innocent VIII. Pagans were heathens, and Pagans slowly fell out of fashion for a new-fangled religion.
Now we know a little background knowledge on today's subject, but that leaves me to wonder, why did early Christianity have so many issues with witchcraft.
Well, I found out that it all comes to a matter of where you put your faith, in yourself or a higher power. Christians thought that witches were associated with evil because they believed that using witchcraft was the means of taking control of your life away from God and into your own hands. This apparently upset Christians and caused them to misunderstand witches. I believe that not all witches are good or bad, but its more or less neutral and depends on who uses it.
Alright, now we understand Paganism a bit better, now we can move on to the Salem Witch Trials. To all my religious and devoted readers, please understand I'm not promoting witchcraft; I am Catholic, and I was baptized. I am just stating a bit of the history, and why witchcraft is dismissed and shunned.
It all started when the Elizabeth Parris who was 9, and Abigail Williams who was 11, started throwing fits and having violent distortions of the body. Elizabeth was the daughter of Samuel Parris, who was a minister for the village. Abigail was his niece and Elizabeth's cousin. She was the same Abigail that Winona Ryder portrayed in "The Crucible" movie (Winona forever). Abigail is a bit older in the movie and is in love with John Proctor. According to Wikipedia.org "He was the son of John Proctor Sr. (1594–1672) and Martha Harper (1607–1667). John and his 3rd wife were tried on August 5, 1692. He was hanged on August 19, 1692, in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Salem Witch Trials after being falsely accused and convicted of witchcraft."
As a result of Abigail's, and several other young girl's accusations, many people were put on trial and accused of being witches. According to History.com:
"After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren. In late February, arrest warrants were issued for the Parris’ Caribbean slave, Tituba, along with two other women–the homeless beggar Sarah Good and the poor, elderly Sarah Osborn–whom the girls accused of bewitching them."
The accused witches were brought into the courtroom, and their accusers writhed, screamed, and exhibited a chillingly hysterical display of possession and fear of the accused.
Osbourne and Good denied their involvement, but Tituba plead guilty. It seems as if she confessed to act as an informer to expose other witches that worked alongside her as the devil's servants against Puritans.
Other "witches" then began to act the same as Tituba, accusing others of being witches. These trails soon began to overwhelm the judicial system and the newly appointed governor of Massachusetts named William Phips ordered the establishment of a new Court of Oyer and Terminer on witchcraft cases for Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex counties.
According to History.com: "Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town. Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. In addition, seven other accused witches died in jail, while the elderly Giles Corey (Martha’s husband) was pressed to death by stones after he refused to enter a plea at his arraignment."
Now people were getting executed because of the accusations. The execution methods were mainly by hanging, no witches were burned at the stake. Unfortunately, many people were tortured because of accusations. A man named Giles Corey was accused and tortured by having the community place large rocks on his chest until a confession was exposed. This man died during the process sadly. Ducking stools were another way to get confessions out of witches. It worked like a seesaw, the accused sat on one end as it would be pulled in and out of the water.
Since we'll never get to experience that event ever again, we don't know for sure whether the girls were faking or not. However, many theories have risen as to why it happened, and to what played a main role in this event.
A popular theory is a normal case of hysteria, and a need for a scapegoat. Plagues and poor crops were becoming an issue in villages. People didn't look much at the scientific aspect of their surroundings, and assumed witches or wizards were causing famine and issues with the prosperity of the villages.
Another theory is the presence of ergot in wheat and rye. Ergot is a type of fungi and was common during the Middle Ages. It was known as St. Anthony's fire, it earned its name from the method that Benedictine monks used to treat the sufferer, mainly with relics of St. Anthony's.
Consuming the contaminated food, such as rye bread, causes ergotism which is a severe reaction to the consumption of ergot fungi. Ergot is used today for migraines in the form of ergotamine, and it helps reduce bleeding by causing narrowing of the blood vessels. However, ergot is very unsafe when taken by the mouth and eaten. This results in poisoning, which have symptoms in its early stages such as nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, weakness, numbness, itching, and rapid or slow heartbeat.
It then progresses to gangrene, vision problems, confusion, spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness, and eventually, death.
There is a possibility that these girls and other ate contaminated rye or wheat and developed these symptoms. I believe you noticed how some of the symptoms were similar to those described that the girls had. They might have been experiencing ergotism. We can't say for sure since there aren't any legitimate death records to Abigail Williams, or any of the other young ladies.
There is also a possibility of boredom, or even teen angst. Puritans probably had nothing better to do than go to church, tend to their crops and livestock, and take care of their families. Since it was a small village, news most likely travels fast and maybe their only chance at something interesting was to turn on one another. It's like suburban housewives making gossip. The young ladies and teens in the village probably also wanted to rebel from patriarchal society. According to Allthatisinteresting.com: "Some feminist historians have interpreted the Salem witch trials as just another way that the patriarchy persecuted women who acted in ways that were different from the accepted social norms of the time."
"As was the case with many similar witch hunts in Europe, women were the primary targets of accusation during the Salem witch trials – particularly women who acted unusually for the era."
Whatever the reason the trials began, we all look back on it as a dark and interesting aspect of American history. I don't favor one theory over the other, but I believe the theories of ergotism and simply boredom. But I also accept the fact of real witches. However, I don't think that it was handled very well. It was possible that the young women were simply lying for numerous reasons, and they wouldn't have confessed it. These gullible Puritans pointed their fingers at their own friends and even family for stupid reasons. Simply having birthmarks or moles could tie you to being a witch back then. I did some research on some silly reasons people would accuse you of being a witch or using witchcraft.
Some of the were of the following:
Having a bad personality
Slamming the church door
Accidentally selling spoiled dairy
Wearing black
Having a third (supernumerary) nipple
Scars
Getting mad at someone, and then the person becomes sick or injured
This raises a couple of eyebrows, since it is entirely silly. Maybe they just lived their lives shrouded in religion instead of also accepting a scientific, or perfectly normal, explanation. Witches were even tested by putting them into rivers. It was believed that since witches rejected the sacrament of baptism, the water expelled them. Therefore, if you floated you were a witch. The majority of people floated.
In conclusion, the Salem Witch Trials' cause is a mystery, and leaves many people scratching their heads. But now we know some possibilities. Someone could have been sitting on their porch and decided to raise suspicion on the nice, unmarried, old woman across the river that owns a cat. Speaking of animals, they weren't spared either. Innocent dogs were victims of this incident. It is reported that a girl accused a dog of bewitching her, while she convulsed, the dog was then shot. The role of dogs doesn't end there though, the "witch cake test" was a strategy used to decipher whether a person was being afflicted with witchcraft, supposedly.
It was a gross mixture of rye flour and the urine of the afflicted victim. This "cake" was then fed to a dog, if the dog exhibited the same symptoms, the person was a victim of witchcraft.
Long story short, the Salem Witch Trials were pretty messed up. The people back then didn't have great methods to prove if the accused were legitimate witches, so the chances are that half of the people weren't even real witches. They were probably subjects to wild accusations with baseless evidence. I think the lesson would be to "not judge a book by its cover," and to "never trust a Puritan in the 1600s." A joke of course... mostly.
Well, this ends today's post, I learned a lot of things as I did research and I hope you did as well.
Thanks for reading Inky Buds and have a good day🏙️/night🌃!
I wish you all a Happy Halloween, or simply a Happy October! 👻🦇🎃🌙
(Stay tuned for the credits/sources.)
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