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Alyson Howard

G. Looney

MWF 8:30

Early American History

Salem Witch Trials

A Greek philosopher once said “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man

perfected without trials.” The Salem Witch Trials were done by dangerously influential men who

meticulously hounded roughly two hundred people; about 70 % of those people happened to be

women. These victims were put through ridiculous and humiliating test and trials for many of

them just to die on top of the twenty executed throughout the three months of trial; 65% of those

executed were women, making females the majority of those harrased in this factless attempt to

make men feel more powerful and in control. The Salem Witch Trials are said to be a hunt

against supernatural beings who were terrorizing a village full of people validated by the

personal interpretations of eleven through nine year old girls and their knowledge of the old

testament; when in reality the Salem Witch Trials were a slanderous manhunt against women

done by misogynist men who couldn’t understand the side effects of mass hysteria.

The Salem Witch Trials were all hearsay and rumors based on young girls accusations

until the execution of Bridget Bishop, she was the first to die of execution in this series of trials.

Bridget was the turning point in the trials after her execution the trials exploded killing nineteen

more to make a total of twenty executions out of one-hundred and fifty to two hundred accused

of witchcraft. Roughly 70% of the accused were women knowing this we see that the trials were

truly a man hunt against women who were different from the gender norms in 1692. “I know

nothing of it. I am innocent to a Witch. I know not what a Witch is...I am no Witch...I have no

familiarity with the Devil.”(Bridget Bishop) Bishop repeatedly denied the accusation of being a
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witch saying she did not even know what a witch would be. (Bishop) Bridget was the first to be

executed on June 10th of 1692; after her death the persecution of these women drastically

inclined. In the next three months after Bishop is hung another nineteen people are executed 65%

of those people being women. While some men were harassed as well women were the main

target of this mass hysteria. Most of the prosecution was male along with 50% of the testaments

against seemingly innocent Bridget. These men were interpreting the Old Testament knowing

what it said they justified the series of test these innocents were put through. Bishop repeatedly

denied the accusation of being a witch saying she did not even know what a witch would be.

(Bishop) Bridget was the first to be executed on June 10th of 1692; after her death the

persecution of these women drastically inclined. In the next three months after Bishop is hung

another nineteen people are executed 65% of those people being women. While some men were

harassed as well women were the main target of this mass hysteria. Most of the prosecution was

male along with 50% of the testaments against seemingly innocent Bridget. These men were

interpreting the Old Testament knowing what it said they justified the series of test these

innocents were put through. Taking action to the word of Leviticus-“Thou shall not suffer a witch

to live.” I have never read about weighing like a duck or being able to float if your limbs are tied

in the Bible but those are some of the test to determine if a person is a witch. Not only were these

test factless and unusually they were dangerous and many died or came close to during their trial.

Although women were the main source of hatred there were men who were also persecuted

during the Salem Witch Trials. While the number of males was significantly lower than females

there happened to be influential men in those who were involved.

Giles Corey was a farmer in the small village of Salem, married to Martha Corey. He was

originally from England but came to Salem, Massachusetts around the 1640 decade. When asked
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during his interrogation if he could shed some truth on the situation at hand Giles said “I hope

through the goodness of God I shall, for that matter I never had no hand in, in my life.” Giles

was a man of God and knew what was happening was wrong so he would not participate in the

nlies surrounding these trials. Giles was the only person executed who wasn’t hung but in fact he

was pressed to death; on September the 16, 1692 Giles trial took a turn for the worst. Because he

refused to plead either guilty or not the prosecution board was so frustrated they planned to press

him out of it. They would lay him down put a large board on top of him and began layering

heavy stone and boulders on him. Three days later Giles had still not been release but he had also

not given a plead, on September the 19, 1692 Giles died of internal injuries from being pressed

to death. Giles was accused by roughly half a dozen women including Ann Putnam whose father

wrote a letter to the judge telling him of how his daughter had been afflicted by these witches

saying Ann had told him of a man who appeared to her saying “Giles Corey had murdered him

by pressing him to death with his feet.”(Putnam) The man who had appeared to Ann while she

was afflicted by these witches then told her how the devil had met with him after his death

hardening his heart convicting him with the thought that “It must be done to him as he has done

to me.” Which explains this new method of murder three months into the trials. Not only being

pressed to death but also Giles one of the rough 30% of males targeted for these crimes of

witchcraft on top of it all he was the only man in the 35% of males executed who was married to

another victim of the Salem Witch Trials.

Witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials was seen as unholy and blasphemous so when

Martha Corey was one of the first three accused of being in contact with the devil the village was

in shock. Martha Corey was known for her piety and devoted church attendance even though she

had an illegitimate son and by the time she had married Giles that was her second marriage.
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Martha had been well known in the Christian community before the accusations but after they

had slandered her name so harshly her corpse was thrown into a shallow grave without a proper

Christian burial. (Worthen) Martha was blissfully unaware of the mass hysteria taking her village

by storm so she honestly thought the trials would prove her innocence; she simply told the truth

saying things such as “Please give me leave to go to prayer...I am an innocent person: I never had

to do with Witchcraft since I was born. I am a Gospel woman.”(Corey) Martha even went so far

as to publicly ask God for his forgiveness for the prosecution. Martha Corey was convicted on

September the 6, 1692 and then hung with seven others on September the 22, 1962; just three

days after her husband had been executed. Martha’s execution was yet another turning point in

the trials because she was a well respected women of the church with good social standings

opening up all social and class boundaries the trials had followed this far. The opening of these

boundaries would make for roughly another hundred women to be accused of witchcraft.

The trials were supposed to be a hunt against witches terrorizing a village, validated by

the accusations of young girls and their male authorities knowledge of the Bible although the

Salem Witch Trials were actually slanderous ridicule aimed at women by men who couldn’t

understand the mass hysteria their village was infected with. The victims of the Salem Witch

Trials were put through ridiculous tests and trials that could in no way, shape or form determine

if they were a witch or familiar with the devil. These hundreds of people who were majority

women were treated like criminals based on factless accusations and poorly translated word of

God. During those three months full of mass hysteria and humiliation twenty were convicted and

executed all ranging in class, social ranking and religious devotions but most having the common

affliction of being a women.

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Works Cited

Louis-Jacques, Lyonette. “Law News from the D'Angelo Law Library.” The University of Chicago Library News, 2012,

news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/10/29/the-salem-witch-trials-a-legal-bibliography-for-halloween/.

In-text CitationCheck for GrammarCheck for Plagiarism

“The Salem Witchcraft Papers.” Salem Witch Trials Notable Persons, 2002, salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/swp.

In-text CitationCheck for GrammarCheck for Plagiarism

Worthen, Meredith. “Remembering the Victims of the Salem Witch Executions.” Biography.com, A&E Networks

Television, 21 Sept. 2017, www.biography.com/news/salem-witch-trials-facts.

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