The Salem Witch Crisis of 1692

         The Salem Witch Crisis began in 1691 and continued through 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. The instigators were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece respectively of the village's minister. They began to complain of things such as prickling sensations and the feeling of being choked. As time went on, more girls followed in their footsteps. It was decided by the reverend and a few doctors that witches were the cause of the girls' behavior. The girls were persuaded into naming the witches who were tormenting them, and they named three women initially. From there, the girls and even the accused began to accuse others of practicing witchcraft, sentencing them to jail. Trials were carried out upon spectral evidence, meaning that the girls were believed no matter what they said, despite whether or not the accused witch was doing something visible to them. Governor Phipps put an end to these trials upon spectral evidence when his own wife was accused of being a witch, but by then, twenty of the accused had already been killed and over a hundred more were still imprisoned.

         There are numerous events and pieces of evidence that are thought to have caused the crisis. For instance, Cotton Mather, an influential leader in Massachusetts Bay Colony, made the argument that witchcraft is mentioned in the Scripture, obviously one of their most trusted sources, and also that people have experienced the "horrors" of witchcraft. This would have led to countless people believing the girls' testimonies. In addition, Abigail Hobbs was one of the multiple accused witches to admit to witchcraft, even admitting to having seen the devil. If the accused were seemingly admitting to their crimes and making such claims as seeing the devil, the public would have good reason to believe them. It is also known that farm sizes during the Salem Witch Crisis were smaller than they had been, and those who accused witches were able to take their land. This would lead to greedy citizens to turn in their neighbors to seize their lands for personal gain. The last piece of interesting evidence is the map of Salem Town and Village. Salem Village was home to many of the accusers, while Salem Town was home to many of the accused. It is theorized that this could be because the citizens of Salem Village were required to pay taxes to Salem Town, and the villagers might have been bitter about the practice.

        In 1711, a couple of decades after the crisis, the families of the accused were apologized to and offered clearance. However, six families chose not to come forward with the others to accept the state's apology. Only in 2001 were all the witches publicly declared innocent by Massachusetts State Legislature, though in 1957 more amends had been attempted by the state as it cleared Ann Pudeator "and others". The amends came with mixed emotions from the descendants of the accused. Some were relieved, others felt pity for their ancestors, and still others thought it inappropriate and even disrespectful that the legislature had passed on Halloween, though then-governor Jane Swift's spokesperson insisted that the timing had been pure coincidence. It had taken Massachusetts 309 years to finally apologize to the victims of the crisis in Salem.

An 1876 depiction of a courtroom during the trial of an accused witch.

Sources Cited:
     Author Unknown. "Massachusetts Clears 5 From Salem Witch Trials." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/us/massachusetts-clears-5-from-salem-witch-trials.html
     Sally Cragin. "Salem witches exonerated." http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE|A83032374&v=2.1&u=mlin_n_readingmh&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=94beb3736a73c9cf6a222519f8bf609d&digest=0ec226b1fcc33f9278de06b7e219d961&rssr=rss#.VMlz7q8JXEg.email
     "Witchcraft at Salem Village." File:Witchcraft at Salem Village.jpg. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Witchcraft_at_Salem_Village.jpg