Like Tituba Essay

The Salem Witch Trials were held in Salem, Massachusetts during the end of 1692 and the beginning of 1693. These were a series of trials and prosecutions of suspected witches. Most of these supposed witches were women, but some were men. These people were accused of making local children ill by practicing witchcraft. The children claimed to be possessed by the devil and gave names of witches who did this to them. This struck a fear through the whole town. Everyone became scared of being named a witch. After the witches were accused, there were trials in the courtroom to determine their guilt. If they were found guilty, they were punished. The majority of the retributions were by hanging, some also died in jail, and one was stoned to death.

One of the more famous witches being a woman by the name of Tituba. She was a slave. Tituba was an interesting case because she openly admitted to practicing witchcraft. Along with pleading guilty, she also named other people who were witches with her. Some believe she did this in an attempt to save herself from conviction, but since this was one of the first trials, nobody knew what to expect. Tituba set a sort of trend by doing this. As it states in Salem Witch Trials, “Like Tituba, several accused “witches” confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system” ( History.com Staff ). Since these people named others, many people became falsely accused. This only heightened suspicions of other witches in the

One of them was Sarah Good, she was a homeless woman. This made her an easy target to blame for such crime. With no family and no home, it was easy for them to convict her without much retaliation. The other woman was Sarah Osborne, she was an elderly and poor women. This also made her an easy target. They thought that because of her old age and conditions that she would die soon. This is one of the obvious effects of the stress on the town's leaders. The townspeople wanted an answer for all of the children getting sick and having fits, so they had to come up with names. Unfortunately these women were probably innocent, but they were the easy targets. Another more widely known accused witch was Bridget Bishop. She was the first person to have her trial held by the special court. The court found her guilty and she became the first person to be hanged for this crime. From this point on the hangings became more of a regular thing.

Once a person was accused of witchcraft, they were sent to trial. Most of these trials ended with the person being named guilty, even if they were not. In an attempt to rid the town of anything to do with the devil, the judges were very harsh. In May of 1692, Governor William Phipps decided to make a Special Court of Oyer and Terminer. This meant to hear and decide. By making this court, the trials became more harsh. The first person's trial that was held in front of this court was found