It’s October, and people are thinking about all things Halloween. Since I am from Massachusetts, I think that it is a good time to talk about a place that I visited a long time ago when I was a Girl Scout – Salem. People from all over the world come to Salem, Massachusetts to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Witch Trials undoubtedly played a large part of the lives of all that were living in New England during that time. My ancestors were still in other countries at that time, but other people are able to trace their roots back to ancestors that were living in Salem at the time of the Witch Trials. Some families can even trace their roots back to the very individuals that were at the center of this very tragic event.
Interestingly enough, the events that led to the Witch Trials began not in Salem proper, but in nearby Danvers. The craziness began when two young girls began acting in unexplainable ways. The girls were the niece and daughter of a local minister. Of course, at that time there was a great deal of fear and paranoia in society in general, especially a very pronounced fear of the Devil. That fear was likely a major reason why the events of the Witch Trials unfolded in the way that they did, fed my mass hysteria and plagued by injustice at every turn. Special courts were created to hear the witchcraft cases, which is something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up because when things like that happen there is most likely injustice. There certainly was much injustice in Salem, and some time after the Witch Trials the colony admitted that the trials had been in error and tried to compensate the families of the victims for their losses.
By the time that the witch hysteria had run its course, approximately two hundred people had been accused of practicing witchcraft and twenty four people had died. Nineteen were hanged, and the rest died in prison. Not all were women, in fact one man who had pled not guilty to the crime of witchcraft later refused to stand trial and was eventually killed after he was tortured for two days. The man, seventy one year old Giles Corey, was interrogated as stone weights were placed on his body. The events of the Salem Witch Trials were tragic, and for people with ancestors who were living in Massachusetts during the time that the trials were happening, learning about the Witch Trials can really paint a picture of what life was like during that time.