Salem Witchcraft

            Before the 1700s, there was a specific place where the laws of science, facts and concrete evidence were not considered when convicting a person, and that town was called Salem. In the community of Salem Massachusetts, it was filled with a series of hysterical witchcraft affiliations, accusations trials, and executions. Witchcraft was the act of black magic and the use of spells to invoke spirits or other supernatural beings. Through my findings from a database, "during the course of the year, more than a dozen persons claimed to be afflicted by spells of black magic and sorcery that had been allegedly cast by men and women who had enlisted the supernatural powers of the devil" (Phelps and Lehman 440). Most of the persons claiming to be afflicted were teenage girls. In this town of Salem, people no matter the age or gender, were persecuted by pure accusations and without concrete evidence.

            Salem's witchcraft hysteria was mainly fueled by two families; the Putnams and the Porters. Phelps and Lehman state, "an inter-family rivalry began in 1672 when a dam and sawmill run by the Porters flooded the Putnam farms, resulting in a lawsuit brought by John Putnam Sr. A few years later the Putnams petitioned the town in an effort to obtain political independence for the village, and the Porters opposed them" (441). The arrival of Reverend Samuel Parris in 1689 intensified the Putnam-Porter conflict. Samuel Parris came to help solve the problem between the two families, but unfortunately caused more than bad than good. One evening, Parris came home to his family and found his children playing with a family slave, in which all of them were conducting an attempt to conjure evil spirits (Phelps and Lehman 441). The evidence left behind was the result of the children's conditions, leaving them " temporarily deprived them of their ability to hear, speak, and see" (Phelps and Lehman 441). These girls were checked on by the town physician and pronounced them under an evil hand.

            The accused people of witchcraft were punished without fair treatment nor legal counsel. According to Phelps and Lehman, "nearly 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem during the summer of 1692. Twenty accused witches were executed, 15 women and 5 men. Nineteen were hanged following conviction, and one was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea. Four prisoners, three women and a man, died in jail." (441). Historians have identified a pattern of accusations, they were mainly girls that were seen as social deviants, outcasts, outsiders, merchants, tradesman, and others who threatened traditional Puritan values. People accused of witchcraft were always presumed guilty and those who were found guilty were almost always executed. Phelps and Lehman state, "no accused witches were afforded the right to legal counsel, and only those defendants who confessed were saved from the gallows upon conviction" (441).

            The evidence used during trials were poor and portrayed the people of Salem as scared and ignorant of proper forensic science. Evidence provided during the court resembled medieval superstitions of the Puritan community. " Nine witches were convicted on the strength of spectral evidence alone, meaning that the only connection between the accused and the afflicted girls was testimony that an alleged victim had been visited during the night by a ghostly figure who resembled the defendant" (Phelps and Lehman 444). Some ridiculous accusations were based on the evidence that these poor people could not recite the Lord's prayer, owned mysterious dolls, or suffered prior reputation for witchcraft. Without proper use of evidence, analysis of the crime, or any forensic science, crimes back in the day were solved solely on inconsistent evidence and fear for oneself.

"Salem Witch Trials." West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 440-444. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.