Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

Brynn Markham Markham Mrs. Lumbrerez English 4 16 April 2024 The Salem Witch Trials A tragic event in American history that famously ruined families and lives of innocent people. The Salem witch trials were gruesome, biased and caused by mass hysteria in old Salem Massachusetts, resulting in innocent people being arrested and executed. The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts in early 1692. This tragic sequence of events was triggered by a couple young girls claiming they were being afflicted by dark magic conjured by some of their neighbors. These accusations of witchcraft shook the religious Puritan community and sparked suspicion and paranoia throughout the town. Innocent people were arrested based on speculation and verbal

Nobody in Salem was safe, young or old, anything could be used against you in court, like if you did not attend church on a certain day could be used as “proof” that you were doing the devil's work. One of the youngest arrested was four-year-old Dorothe Good. Many of the accused underwent unfair and humiliating trials to acquire “hard evidence” that they were a witch. Once you “confessed” to being a witch they would let you repent and let you go, which many innocents followed suit and said they were a witch to avoid execution, which only fueled the hysteria even more in the town. Denial that you were a witch was a death sentence and you would be executed if you did not confess. More than 200 people were arrested, 19 were killed by hanging and one was pressed to death with large stones. A popular test in the Salem witch trials was called the swim test. This test consisted of the accused being taken down to a body of water, stripped of their garments and bound with

This stomach-turning cake was then fed to one of the accused’s “familiars”. Familiars were believed to be the animal helpers of the witch who was being accused, so it would most likely be fed to their pet dog or cat. The goal of this test was for the animal to fall under a spell and somehow reveal the name of the sorcerer or sorceress. Another popular test used by the Puritans was the speaking or prayer test. This test involved the accused being forced to recite Bible scripture in front of the town. The belief behind this test was the theory that witches could not speak scripture perfectly. So if the accused stuttered or messed up reciting the verse, it would be used as hard evidence that they were guilty of conversing with the devil. A man named George Burroughs had been found guilty and while he stood on the gallows about to be executed, he recited the Lord’s Prayer perfectly but it was dismissed as a “trick of the devil” and was hanged anyway. The touch test was also another biased test which was regularly