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¶ … Salem Citizen at the Witch Trials
Sixty years or so before the Salem witch trials were being held in 1692-93 -- a series of events featuring fear, paranoia, ignorance, hysteria, which ended with 20 young women being hanged -- Bernal Diaz del Castillo writes that he witnessed human sacrifices in the Aztec world of Mexico. "They strike open the wretched Indian's chest with flint knives and hastily tear out the palpitating heart," Diaz writes (published on page 23 of Michael Johnson's book, Reading the American Past: Volume 1 to 1877: Selected Historical Documents).
The initial thought that comes to my mind is that while human sacrifices are horrendously bloody and brutally, the injustices perpetrated on the 20 women in Salem Village in the late 17th century were perhaps even more inhumane. Each culture in these two cases had their own dark, sadistic sides, and while the juxtaposition of the two is odd, killing is killing and the innocents that die are to be pitied.
A Resident in Salem Village -- in 1692
I can imagine that I am a member of the Salem Village and I see Sarah Good acting in a "strange and unusual manner by getting into holes and creeping under...
It would be easy for me to fall into the belief that first Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, and Tituba were somehow tainted by the devil. At an emotional hearing in the Salem Village meetinghouse even her own husband, William, testified that "... she is an enemy to all good" and "was either a witch or would become one very quickly" (Goss, 20).
After all, the doctor who examined Betty Parris and Abigail Williams (William Griggs) believed they were under a spell, and there was some evil force controlling them. In the 17th century doctors were highly respected as knowledgeable on many issues pertaining to physical and emotional health. And moreover, the ministers were highly respected as well, and when they prayed for spiritual healing, held "private fasts and prayer meetings ... " in order to ask God to restore these girls to "normalcy" -- but the condition only "worsened" -- there surely had to be some kind of devil working inside these females (Goss, 21).
Sarah Good's answers to reasonable questions were, as Court Clerk Ezekial Cheever explained, " ... given in a very wicked…
Works Cited
Blumberg, J. (2007). A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. The Smithsonian. Retrieved January 23, 2016, from http://www.smithsonianmag.com.
Goss, K.D. (2008). The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-
CLIO.
Johnson, M. P. (2012). Reading the American Past. Volume 1. To 1877. Selected Historical
The trial began March 1, 1692, all but Tituba pleaded innocent. Tituba confessed and claimed there were other witches within the community. This cascaded a series of accusations, people like Martha Corey, Sarah Good's 4-year-old daughter, and eventually, Bridget Bishop. Bishop was known for her gossip and promiscuity and despite her pleas of innocence, she was found guilty and on June 10th, was the first person hanged on Gallows
In this sense, the only category of convicts which were burned to death was that of the so-called "satanic Blacks" as this was considered to be the only way of destroying their 'evilness.' In Puritan New England ideology, Blacks were associated with Satan. This belief was the remnant of an old European image of Satan as a black man which dated back to long before the contact between Africans
Salem Witch Trials The event of Salem witch trials happened in the year 1692 in the Suffolk and Middlesex counties of Massachusetts. The case was highlighted due to property disagreements, hysteria and jealousy. All because of personal vendettas, a dozen or more people were hanged even though there was no evidence but only stories and assumptions by the town's women and girls. The case was stretched for more than a year
The children described, each one of them separately, seeing Sarah and the other women flying as specters through the night. The children, despite the threats they must have received from the women, they were brave and told the truth about what had happened. Other townspeople came forward with evidence I hadn't even heard of -- milk and cheese going rotten after a visit from one of the witches; animals
And their could be other, more personal reasons for the accusations. For instance, John Westgate's testimony includes a tale of how Mary Parker came to a tavern and chastised her husband for drinking. When John Westgate called her unseemly for coming to the tavern, as he himself testified, "she came up to me and called me rogue and bid me mind my owne busines…." Late 17th century men were not
As the Puritan leadership took the stand that their decisions were made directly from the scripture (indeed there was an absolute marriage of Church and State within these communities) any challenge to their processes (such as a newcomer objecting to the financial controls placed upon them) could be then perceived as evidence of a person who is not in alignment with God. Newcomers were more likely to propose challenges