Salem Witch Trial Essay

Salem Witch Trials How would you like to be accused of something you did not do? During the Salem witch trials Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of John Proctor, was accused of witchcraft. Witchery was a huge deal in Salem, Massachusetts. If you were convicted you would either confess to something you did not do and serve jail time, or you would not confess and be hung for what you did. In May of the same year, witch hysteria had finally died down and the remaining prisoners were released. The Proctor’s were a wealthy family who lived on a large farm on the outskirts of Salem village. Elizabeth Proctor and John Proctor got married in April of 1674. Elizabeth was John’s third wife. Elizabeth was the granddaughter of Goody Burt, who was a folk healer, but was later accused of witchcraft thirty years earlier. John and Elizabeth had three kids before the trials began.

There was a warrant for her arrest. She was brought to the Salem Village meetinghouse on April 11, and questioned by Judge Danforth. Abigail Williams, a teenage girl that had an affair with John Proctor, had claimed Elizabeth had been practicing witchery on her. Some afflicted girls began having fits and claimed that Elizabeth’s invisible forces were tormenting them. The judge deeper investigated and found that the Proctors’ servant, Mary Warren, had begun having the same symptoms. Although Marry Warren wasn’t one of Elizabeth’s original accusers, she went against both John and Elizabeth in court. According to, History of Massachusetts, Marry Warren told the court that the Proctor’s spirits beat and chocked her at night. Elizabeth then began serving jail time and finally got released in May, after the witch hysteria died