Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late s. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. Learn about our Editorial Process. Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Lewis, Jone Johnson.
The Victims of the Salem Witch Trials. The girls had visions, saw apparitions and fell down in fits, sometimes in church. Because the Puritans believed that real spiritual warfare could be manifested in the world, the accusations were taken seriously and the accused were arrested and put on trial. Mary Walcott, called to the witness stand, was among the principal accusers. The court cases did not follow the precedents of English common law nor biblical law principles. Because witchcraft and consorting with the devil or demonic forces was a capital crime, two witnesses should have been required for the accused to go to trial.
One hysterical twelve-year-old or eighteen-year-old for that matter, regaling the court with outrageous stories resulted in arrests. A number of the accused were from families in the town who contended with the families of the girls in legal cases of the past or were friendless or isolated elderly single people. The execution in Boston in of accused witch Ann Hibbins predated the Salem trials. Eventually the governor of the colony put an end to the trials after prominent men were accused and after protests by respected pastors and colonial leaders.
In subsequent years, some of the girls and even Judge Sewell publicly repented of their role in the events of those months. About 20 years after the convictions, in , the colony passed a bill pardoning those accused and granted monetary restitution to the surviving victims and their families. However, hundreds of lives were damaged by the Salem witch hunts. A total of 24 innocent people died for their alleged participation in dark magic. Two dogs were even executed due to suspicions of their involvement in witchcraft.
Photo: Freeland A. Carter, artist [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. On June 10, , Bridget Bishop was hanged. In addition, year-old Giles Corey died after being pressed with heavy stones—his punishment for refusing to enter an innocent or guilty plea to the court.
As colluders with the devil, they were not afforded proper Christian burials. Their corpses were thrown into shallow graves. However, the bodies of Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor and George Jacobs were eventually retrieved by their families and given Christian burials. Some were burned alive while others were initially hanged or beheaded and later incinerated to prevent any possibility of postmortem black magic. While the majority were women, men were also both accused and convicted of being involved in the occult.
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