At the beginning of February in 1692 in the village of Salam in Massachusetts William Griggs, the village doctor, came to the conclusion that a number of girls, including the daughter of the Samuel Parris the villages preacher, were ill because they were bewitched.
By the 25th of the month Parris's servant, a slave girl who he had bought while in Boston, confessed following a beating from Parris to practicing witchcraft. By the 29th of February a complaint was made against the servant girl and she and her husband and two other women were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft.
By the 25th of the month Parris's servant, a slave girl who he had bought while in Boston, confessed following a beating from Parris to practicing witchcraft. By the 29th of February a complaint was made against the servant girl and she and her husband and two other women were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft.
This one accusation was the first of many, soon fingers were pointed and tall tales told, eventually, hysteria reached such great heights that it resulted in trials and executions.
The Salam Witch Trials as they have come to be known ended in the May of 1693 when those still accused were given pardons - that's over five years of terror for the people of Salam and the deaths on twenty innocent people nineteen by hanging and one by pressing.
Many place the blame for the witchcraft trials firmly at the door of the Parris household, that is Samuel Parris, his daughter and her cousin. Parris added fuel to the fire of a community in turmoil by preaching provocatively from the pulpit - ‘there was one devil among the twelve disciples so in our church God knows how many Devils there are’ he said. The actions of his daughter and her cousin were where the trouble first began, they were said to have used what is called the Venus Glass and been frightened by what that thought they saw. Perhaps they were influenced by talk of the religious practices of the servant girl's homeland - who knows?
How easy would it have been for the girls to blame the servant when their puritan father found out what they had been doing and for Parris to use witchcraft to further his religious crusade.
How easy would it have been for the girls to blame the servant when their puritan father found out what they had been doing and for Parris to use witchcraft to further his religious crusade.
No one person was held responsible for what happened in Salam but history tells us that when such things as religion, superstition, intolerance, fear and community feuds come together there can be only one result.
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