The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions that took place in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. They are one of the most well-known examples of the mass hysteria and injustice that can arise from fear and superstition. During this time, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft, and 20 were executed. The accusations primarily targeted women, especially those who did not conform to societal norms or who held positions of power. The trials were fueled by widespread belief in the existence of witches and the influence of the Devil. One of the most chilling aspects of the Salem witch trials is the fact that innocent people were condemned based on little to no evidence.

Salem Witch Trials Collection

One of the most chilling aspects of the Salem witch trials is the fact that innocent people were condemned based on little to no evidence. The testimony of a few young girls, who claimed to be afflicted by the accused witches, was enough to secure a conviction. This led to a snowball effect, with more and more people being accused and arrested.

"The Salem Witch Trials: A Dark Chapter in American History" Step back in time to the haunting era of the Salem Witch Trials, a period that gripped the town of Salem

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"The Salem Witch Trials: A Dark Chapter in American History" Step back in time to the haunting era of the Salem Witch Trials, a period that gripped the town of Salem, Massachusetts with fear and paranoia. The trials, which took place between 1692 and 1693, were fueled by superstition and religious fervor, resulting in the execution of innocent individuals accused of practicing witchcraft. One can almost feel the tension depicted in "Portrait of Samuel Sewall, " as he dons his periwig and long coat. Sewall was one of the judges involved in these infamous trials – a man who later expressed remorse for his role. The chilling image of "Execution of Reverend Stephen Burrows" serves as a grim reminder that even respected members of society were not spared from accusations. This lithograph captures the moment when Burrows met his tragic fate at Gallows Hill. In vivid color lithographs like "Trial for witchcraft of George Jacobs, " we witness scenes from actual court proceedings where lives hung precariously on testimonies often based on hearsay or personal vendettas. These images transport us to an atmosphere charged with hysteria and suspicion. "Witch Hill (The Salem Martyr)" paints a somber picture; an oil canvas depicting one victim's final moments before being unjustly condemned. It serves as a poignant symbol for all those who lost their lives during this dark chapter. "The Trial of George Jacobs" immortalizes another fateful day during these trials through its detailed brushstrokes. We see anguish etched on faces caught up in this frenzy – victims whose innocence could not save them from persecution. Cotton Mather played a significant role during this tumultuous time, as seen through various prints such as "Title-page. . by Cotton Mather. " As a Puritan minister, he stoked fears with his writings about witchcraft while simultaneously condemning it. Engravings like "Witchcraft at Salem village" and "The witchcraft delusion.

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American History

During the spring of 1692, the infamous Salem witch trials had begun where many innocent lives were ruined due to false accusation. These trials were because of a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts that accused different people of practicing witchcraft. This was also after the time when the British war with France just happened, the smallpox epidemic, and the fears of the neighboring Native American tribes attacking[1]. Ultimately, all these tensions fueled the resident’s suspicions, resentment, and fear towards their neighbors and outsiders. It was a time of accusing each other because of dislike towards each other. Moreover, the witch trials exposed how most of those that were accused targeted mostly women, elderly women.

Deodat London, a minister in Salem Village known for his pamphlet describing witchcraft accusations, wrote a letter to Nathaniel Higginson, an English politician in London, that shows a further account of the trials of the New-England Witches in 1692, in which it first described the “afflicted” experience, as well as those that were accused. Many of the afflicted claimed they would experience being “dumb, deaf, blind, and sometimes lay as if they were dead for a while[2] .” Much of the letter is London explaining things of what he heard without any certainty in his tone that these happenings were actually accurate or true. In fact, he even mentions his curiosity during one of the trials and went to go see it himself. Ultimately, this lets the audience know that even citizens during the Salem Witch Trials had no idea if the accusations were true or not. The idea of witchcraft was only entertained due to church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children, which all unfolded in a vacuum of political authority. Furthermore, the trials were also implicitly used to target women at the time. While London spoke about the trial of an old woman named Dayton, he also emphasized that most that were accusing others were young teenage girls. It is true that it was mostly women that were being suspected of witchcraft, but it was ironic how it was women themselves targeting each other. Essentially, this shows us a reflection of women’s gender roles during the late 1600s.

The Puritans living in the 17 th century in New England lived their lives with total devotion and worship. Therefore, when the bible said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” any accusations of evil witchcraft was not tolerated. In fact, the treatment of Puritan women also rooted from the bible. The bible said only women that were “worthy of honor” were wives or upcoming wives that managed the households, otherwise they are witches if they mess up the functionality within the society. The Puritan gender norms of a wife were women as mothers, caretakers, and homemakers. If one stepped outside these roles, they were easily targeted as witches and seen as servants of Satan. Puritans lived in a patriarchal society were women disparaging other women were also common[3]. The letter referred to the young girls as “Visionary girls” and it is not a far correlation to see that the reasoning behind their doing is because they have been indoctrinated with patriarchal beliefs. Subconsciously, these young girls were part of feeding in the problem of the oppression of women. The accusations of women being witches can still be reflected into today’s society. When we see advertisements of witches, the depiction will always be a woman and never a man. This imagery of a witches has been used to perpetuate gender inequality and maintain social order that we can still in today’s society where women still struggle to hold power and create a name for themselves[4]. The accusations described in London’s letter proved that many were not certain of its accuracy and yet continued to do so because they let jealousy, fear, and lying get to them. The accusations proved to be bias towards women, harming many innocent people because of their hasty judgement, reliance on authority, labeling, white and black thinking, and resisting to change.

[1] Purdy, Elizabeth R. Salem Witch Trials. Accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-

[2] Lawson, Deodat. “Letter to Nathaniel Higginson: Salem Witch Trials.” Letter to Nathaniel Higginson | Salem Witch Trials, 2010. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/letters/lawsons_london_letter.html.

[3] Rosen, Maggie. “A Feminist Perspective on the History of Women as Witches .” Dissenting

Voices, Article 5, Vol. 6, no. Iss. 1 (2017)

[4] Rosen, Maggie. “A Feminist Perspective on the History of Women as Witches .” Dissenting

Voices, Article 5, Vol. 6, no. Iss. 1 (2017)

Credits

A reconstruction of Salem Village's meeting house, located at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Danvers, MA. The village held church services in the meeting house. Photo by the author.

John Hale was minister at Beverly, which neighbored Salem Village. A graduate of Harvard, Hale lent support to the witch hunt but grew increasingly mistrustful as the outbreak continued, sweeping people of quality and reputation into its ambit. The specter of his own wife appeared to one of the afflicted! In 1702, Hale published his account of the Salem event, claiming, in effect, that those in charge had followed outmoded precedents in relying upon spectral evidence. His narrative remains a valued source about Salem. Photo by the author.

Homestead of Francis and Rebecca Nurse in Danvers, MA. Francis Nurse was associated with the anti-Parris faction and was elected to the village's Committee of Five in 1691. Rebecca was a member of the Salem Town church. She was accused of witchcraft in March 1692, tried, and hanged in July. Photo by the author.

William Phips, a native of New England, was the first royal governor of Massachusetts. He arrived in Boston in May 1692 and authorized the Court of Oyer and Terminer to try accused witches. Although Phips dismissed the Court in October, helping to end the outbreak, many historians believe he had been supportive of the witch hunt. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-98465.

Elizabeth (Eldridge) Parris was a member of Boston's First Church when she married Samuel Parris some time in late 1680 or early 1681. In Salem Village, they lived in the ministry house with their three children, two slaves (Tituba and John Indian), and Samuel's niece, Abigail Williams. One of their children, Betty, along with Abigail, experienced the afflictions that were eventually diagnosed as witchcraft. Elizabeth died in the summer of 1696, shortly after Parris stepped down from the ministry. He wrote a poignant epitaph of affection. Her headstone is in Wadsworth Cemetery, Danvers, MA. Photo by the author.

In contrast to its agricultural hinterland, Salem Village, Salem Town was a bustling commercial center in the late seventeenth century. Distance and conflicting interests led Salem Village to establish its own church in 1672, and some villagers wished more independence from the town. Nevertheless, the village remained a part of Salem Town until 1752. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-41172.

A graduate of Harvard, George Burroughs was Salem Village's second minister, serving for a brief period in the early 1680s. His ministry was an unhappy one, and he gained a reputation for harsh treatment of his first two wives and for unorthodox religious ideas identified with Baptists. After he stopped preaching in the village, he made his way to the Maine frontier, then a part of Massachusetts. At the end of April 1692, he was formally complained against for witchcraft. Returned to Salem to face trial, he was convicted and hanged. The arrest of a minister confirmed for witch hunters that their community was under full attack from the Devil. Image from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper 31 (1871), p. 345, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-122180.

Samuel Parris became Salem Village's first ordained minister in 1689. Born into a religious family in London (his brother was a minister), he first pursued a career in commerce and farming before turning to the ministry. Parris's tenure in Salem Village was as controversial as his three predecessors, and by 1691, opposition to his ministry sought to limit his rights to the ministry house and lands, and also to make his pay voluntary. It was in his home that the Salem outbreak first began. It is likely though not certain that this miniature portrait is of Samual Parris. Image from Wikimedia Commons .

A nineteenth century sketch of the Salem Village ministry house. It was a source of contention between Parris and his opponents. Parris claimed ownership of the house and land, but the dissenters contended that both house and land remained the possession of the village. Image in Winfield S. Nevins, "Stories of Salem Witchcraft," The New England Magazine, 11 (1891): 523, at "Making of America" .

While confessions by accused witches propelled the witch hunt forward, petitions signed by the accused, their family, neighbors, and occasionally ministers attesting to their innocence contributed to growing skepticism about the afflicted accusers and the legal process. By October 1692, petitions directed to civil authorities requesting release from jail became more frequent, and civil authorities released some of the accused from jail on recognizance. This petition for release from jail by ten prisoners in the Ipswich jail was written some time between October and December 1692. A transcription appears in Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, pp. 697-98. John Davis Batchelder Autograph Collection, Library of Congress, LC-MSS-12021-1.

This nineteenth-century drawing calls attention to the reliance by magistrates and judges on spectral evidence, whereby afflicted accusers pointed to specters or familiars, like birds, associated with the accused. Although many considered such evidence suspect, officials thought it unlikely that the Devil would incriminate an innocent person. As the numbers of accused and convicted soared, doubts about spectral evidence and the testimony of the afflicted also grew. By October, many believed that the Devil had deluded them. Image from Mary E. Wilkins, "Giles Corey, Yeoman: A Play," Harper's New Monthly Magazine 86 (1892): 31, at "Making of America" .

Bridget Bishop was married to the "sawyer" Edward Bishop of Salem Town. She had once before been accused of witchcraft and had been involved in a number of disputes with neighbors. Hers was the first trial by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in June 1692, and she became the first accused person to be hanged. The court's reliance on spectral evidence stirred controversy. Misgivings about the court would later swell. Image at "Famous American Trials: Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692" .

Rev. Thomas Bernard was the younger of Andover's two ministers. Like Salem Village, Andover had religious tensions, which were linked to its two ministers. Bernard initially encouraged Andover's witch hunt, unlike his older colleague, Francis Dane, but by mid-October 1692, Bernard joined Dane in petitioning on behalf of Andover's jailed residents and quieting the disorder. Photo by the author.

Andover had more accused witches than any other community. William Barker, Jr., was fourteen years old when he confessed to witchcraft in September 1692. His father had been accused (and confessed) the previous August. Like many Andover confessors, both Barkers provided detailed and elaborate stories of witch gatherings involving baptism and other rituals. Barker, Sr., alleged that Satan's desire was to abolish all the churches, starting with Salem Village. Photo by the author.

A map of Salem Village showing residence sites and land boundaries as well as the location of the meeting house, ministry house, and select sites in Salem Town was published in 1867 by Charles W. Upham in Salem Witchcraft. Information about the map and different map views can be accessed at the "Salem Witch Trials" website . This image is from Wikimedia Commons .

Both the pro- and anti-Parris petitions of 1695 appear in the "Records of the Salem Village Church" in Samuel Parris's handwriting. The documents are accurately transcribed in Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft. The images were made from a photocopy of the original at the Danvers Archival Center of the Peabody Institute Library at Danvers, MA. They are used with permission of the First Church of Danvers.

Joseph Putnam was the younger half-brother of Thomas Putnam, Jr., a prominent Salem Village church member whose wife and daughter were among the first afflicted accusers. Joseph, one of the village's wealthiest residents, was not a church member, opposed the Parris ministry, and held a seat on the anti-Parris committees of 1691 and 1692. Photo of the Joseph Putnam house in Danvers, MA, by the author.

The aged George Jacobs, Sr., of Salem Town, his son, and grand-daughter were all accused of witchcraft. Accusers often targeted relatives since witchcraft was considered to run in a family. His grand-daughter confessed and accused him but later recanted. Arrested in May, Jacobs was tried and hanged in August 1692. Painting in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum. Library of Congress LC-USZ62-94432.

This memorial to the victims of the Salem witch hunt was dedicated in spring 1992, three hundred years after the event. It is located across the street from the site of Salem Village's original meeting house, and its highly symbolic design memorializes those who died, either in jail or by execution. Photo by the author.

This nineteenth-century depiction of an examination in Salem Village emphasizes the disorder that accompanied the behavior of the afflicted accusers. Magistrates considered the pain and trauma allegedly experienced by the afflected as compelling evidence of damaging power of the accused witch. Library of Congress LC-USZ62-24187.

Public opinion during the trials was highly influenced by religious beliefs and the concept of spectral evidence. This allowed witnesses to testify about apparitions or visions they claimed to have seen, which were considered valid evidence in the eyes of the court. This led to the scapegoating and execution of many innocent individuals. The Salem witch trials finally came to an end when public opinion began to turn against the proceedings. People started to question the validity of the accusations and the fairness of the trials. Eventually, Governor William Phips dissolved the court and pardoned those still awaiting execution. The Salem witch trials are a haunting reminder of the dangers of unchecked fear and mass hysteria. They serve as a cautionary tale about the importance of due process and the need to critically examine evidence before passing judgment. The impact of these trials is still felt today, as they continue to be studied and remembered as a dark chapter in American history..

Reviews for "Digging into history: Newly discovered pictures from the Salem witch trials"

1. John - 2 stars - I was really disappointed with the "Salem witch trials pics" exhibition. It lacked depth and substance. The photos themselves were lackluster and did not capture the essence of the witch trials. I was hoping for a more insightful and thought-provoking experience, but I left feeling underwhelmed.

2. Sarah - 1 star - I found the "Salem witch trials pics" exhibition to be incredibly inaccurate and misleading. The photos seemed staged and overly dramatized, giving visitors a distorted view of what actually happened during that dark time in history. It felt more like a cheap attempt to profit from a tragic event rather than a genuine effort to educate and inform.

3. Emily - 2 stars - The "Salem witch trials pics" exhibition had potential, but it fell short in execution. The images lacked authenticity and failed to evoke any emotional response. It felt like a missed opportunity to shed light on a significant historical event. Overall, I was unimpressed and felt that it could have been much better curated.

4. Michael - 2 stars - I went into the "Salem witch trials pics" exhibition with high expectations, but unfortunately, it did not live up to them. The photos felt staged and artificial, lacking the rawness and intensity that should accompany such a dark period in history. It was a missed opportunity to truly transport visitors to that time and place.

5. Rebecca - 1 star - The "Salem witch trials pics" exhibition failed to capture the horror and injustice of the witch trials. The photographs showed a watered-down version of events, reducing it to a mere spectacle rather than a painful chapter in American history. I left feeling disturbed by the lack of reverence and sensitivity towards the subject matter.

Unearthing the evidence: Pictures from the Salem witch trials