Wilson

The Marshalltown Public Library and the Historical Society of Marshall County co-sponsored a very enlightening program about the 1692 Salem witch trials on Saturday, Dec. 7. Historian Kathy Wilson explained how centuries of division, fear, and suspicion started in Europe and led up to to the events in Salem in 1692. As a result, about 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed there.

Wilson explained how the world situation beginning as early as the 1300s was filled with natural disasters, epidemics, and constant political change. Europeans lived in fear and needed to make sense of it all. Rumors and conspiracies began to spread. The Black Death devastated Europe from 1345 to 1347, and rumors expanded about witches and plague spreaders.

Witchcraft gave people an explanation for their troubles…and gave them scapegoats, as well. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII decreed that witchcraft was heresy, and punishable by death. Formal investigations into these activities were authorized. Mass trials took place into the 1500s.

Growing division brought about a split in the Catholic Church, and the Reformation began around 1520. Protestant religions developed and grew. There was no longer a single united faith. This led to panic and hyper-suspicion among both Catholic and Protestant authorities. The mass hysteria brought on “The Burning Times” from 1550 to 1650, during which over 200,000 people were burned or hanged as witches across continental Europe.

In the meantime, England’s changing rulers, yo-yo-ing between Catholicism and the Anglican caused confusion there as well. Queen Elizabeth practiced the Anglican faith and passed numerous anti-Catholic laws to force conversions. In 1563, witchcraft was declared a capital crime.

Enter Matthew Hopkins, an unsuccessful lawyer who became the “Witchfinder General,” in the 1640s. He focused on identifying witches, primarily in England’s eastern counties, where demographics helped his cause. These were Puritan areas, and Puritans had suffered from persecution by their Catholic neighbors, so they were willing to return it. About 500 people were executed for witchcraft in England during this time.

Who were these people accused of witchcraft, and why were they accused? Women were far more likely than men to be suspected. Women were seen as having mystical powers because they gave birth and fed children. They were believed to have special powers as healers and midwives. They were also fickle, unpredictable, and affected by moon phases!

And of course, the Christian faith and the Bible said that Eve led Adam to sin, so all women were seen as inherently wicked. They should be submissive to men. Women who failed to conform to societal and religious expectations were often targets. Any history of unacceptable behaviors, when combined with a “malicious intent to harm” could land a woman in trouble. Damage to crops, livestock, or other property, spoiled food, illness, miscarriage, birth defects, etc., might be blamed on a neighbor who misbehaved and therefore was suspect.

Eighty-five percent of the accused were women, usually teenaged and older. Marital status, socioeconomic status, occupation, and religion didn’t matter much. Women between 40 to 60 years old, widowed, with no male heirs, or who stood to to inherit real estate, and with previous accusations of witchcraft, were the ones most likely to be found guilty and be executed.

Settlement of the American colonies began as the witchcraft hysteria was waning in Europe. Settlers had to learn to survive in a strange new land, with a different climate, seasons, and food sources. And just as Europe had experienced, there were the usual epidemics, cop failures, and natural disasters. Survival preoccupied the settlers.

Catholicism was illegal in the colonies until the mid-1800s, so communities were usually made up of folks with similar religious beliefs: Anglican, Puritan, Quaker, etc. The church and local government were closely aligned. As a result, fewer than 20 women were executed across 12 of the colonies during the witchcraft panic here.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the exception. During the twenty years before the witch trials of 1692 to 1693, there was a repeat of the conditions seen in England that resulted in the witch trials there. Political changes occurred, and like the Europeans before them, these colonists grew fearful and confused, and conflicts arose.

One particular conflict was key: a dispute for control of the community and the church between the Thomas Putnam family, wealthy landowners of Salem Village, and the Porter family, merchants in nearby Salem Town. The Putnams saw the Porters and their friends and associates as enemies.

Reverend Samuel Parris, a failed sugar merchant from Barbados, arrived in Salem Village in 1689. Based on his experiences seeing enslaved workers in Barbados who practiced their native African religion, Parris decided that the conflicts in the Massachusetts colony could be explained: the colonists must be witches, and the Devil was taking over Salem!

Parris, supported by the Putnams, gave sermons on witchcraft and the Devil. The colonists were encouraged to take out their frustrations on the witches in their midst. Conveniently, many members of the Porter faction were identified as witches.

Three young girls, aged 9, 11, and 12 (a daughter and an orphaned niece of Parris, and Putnam’s own daughter) were caught up in the witchcraft hysteria after Parris discovered them experimenting with fortune-telling–a not-unusual practice of teenaged girls…and witches. In the end, the girls were cleared of the accusations, but nine other girls and women, aged 14 to 36, formed the core of a group of accusers. Most were orphans and/or servants connected to the Putnam family. Historians believe these accusers felt powerless because of the their marginalized place in society.

But who were the accused? The first group were fourteen women aged 39 to 72. Most were widows without male protectors. They had reputations for being disagreeable, surly, outspoken, and were involved in property or inheritance disputes. They had exhibited socially unacceptable behaviors such as illegitimate children, fornication, fighting with a spouse, etc., They had previously been accused of witchcraft, or were related to someone who had been: guilt by association! They also disapproved of the trials, disagreed with Rev. Parris, and, unsurprisingly, were often at odds with the Putnam family or their friends.

Six men were also initially accused. Like the accused women, the men ranged in age from 39 to 72, had reputations for having “an attitude,” engaged in socially unacceptable behaviors, disagreed with the trials and Rev, Parris, and had disputes with the Putnam faction.

The Salem witch trials began in February of 1692. Nearly 200 men, women, and even children, were accused of witchcraft, and 147 were formally charged. Forty-seven confessed, hoping to save themselves from certain death. Nineteen were convicted and hanged. One 71 year-old man was pressed to death with heavy stones. Several people died in jail awaiting trial, including an infant.

Then, Governor Phipps of the Massachusetts colony, previously a secondary participant in the mass hysteria, changed his tune. His own wife was accused of witchcraft. He changed the laws, and put a stop to the entire thing, almost as quickly as it started! By May of 1693, those who had been imprisoned were released and pardoned. A monument to the memory of the victims stands in the cemetery at Salem Village (today the village is named “Danvers.”)

What are the lessons to be learned from this terrible time in history? Historians say there was an underlying conspiracy begun by Rev. Parris and Thomas Putnam, who recruited family and associates to assist. Putnam and his brother, who was conveniently also the Clerk of Court, wrote over one hundred documents associated with the trials, including depositions of the “afflicted girls,” all with remarkably similar language.

Wilson finalized her presentation with the point that these men were all bound to each other by kinship or friendship, had a desire to assert power for their own gain, and sought vengeance against those who had wronged them. Power and control were the keys. “When people feel life is out of control, they often make choices to regain power and control as well as a sense of order and stability.”

Kathy Wilson is a professional educator and historian. She received her BA in History from Bemidji State University in Minnesota before traveling to England where she completed her Masters Degree at the University of York. She is a former PhD candidate at the University of Iowa and specializes in 18th and 19th century British-American social history.