Salem Witch Trials Essay Outline

The Salem Witch Trials

I.

From June to September of the 1692 in the small farming village of Salem, Massachusetts, nineteen people were hanged on Gallows Hill for the crime of witchcraft. But as many as thirty-seven (sources conflict as to the exact number) may have died when one factors in the men and women who were hanged, those who died in prison, and the one man (Giles Corey) who was pressed to death. I am writing about this incident because I believe it to be significant to history for two major reasons. Firstly, this incident did not occur in the time or place where one would have expected it. This incident did not occur in Europe where witch-hunts had been going on for centuries, but in the Americas where very few (compared to Europe)

By 1692 the village had grown to a population of about five-hundred people. Salem Town to the south, was a major sea port in the region and was populated by a mercantile class. Salem Village to the north was much smaller and populated mainly by a farming class (ISH). In early 1692, the village of Salem was unstable both socially and politically. In addition to the normal everyday hardships of life (hard labor, rigid religious practices, bad weather, poor harvests, possibility of Indian raids, etc.), the Salem Charter that granted the people of Salem independence from the English crown, as well as the right to own land in the New World, was revoked in 1684 (it would however be restored in 1689 after King James II was deposed). Add to this the ever-growing resentment between the more conservative (and religious) farmers of Salem Village, and the more liberal (and wealthy) merchants of Salem Town (ISH). It was in this atmosphere of tension that the incident known as the Salem Witch Trials

This was an old English folk remedy intended to counteract the spell of a witch (Rev. Parris was livid when he found out! (TW)). The reason for feeding the cake to a dog is because the dog is believed to be a “familiar” of the Devil (FT). It was now late February and the girls were still acting strangely. The girls were questioned (I get the impression it was more like an interrogation) by Rev. Parris (sources are vague on exactly who questioned the girls) who asked them who had bewitched them. Elizabeth named Tituba(FT). Tituba was arrested and questioned by magistrates John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin. Fearing for her life (being a slave there were none to be found who would defend her), she almost immediately confessed to witchcraft. She claimed that a mysterious “Tall Man from Boston” came to her and asked her to sign the Devil’s Book. She even went so far as to say that “The Devil came to me and bid me serve Him”. At this point, things might have stopped right there. However, when the magisters asked her how many names were in the book, Tituba said that there were nine, her own, Sarah Osborne’s, Sarah Good’s, and six others that she could not see (ISH). By saying that others had signed the “Devil’s Book”, she set a precedent and a pattern that