Salem Witch Trials: Their Lasting Impression on America (Long Version)

For my next assignment in ENGL101, I have an essay on the Salem Witch trials. Here's the original version of the essay. The only problem with it is that its about 400 words too long. So, time for some harsh cuts.....

The Salem Witch Trials: Their Lasting Impression on America

            One cold day in December 1691, in the home of the Reverend Samuel Parris, pastor to Salem Village, Massachusetts, the children of the household, Betty Parris (age 11) and her cousin, Abigail Williams (age 13), along with a group of other village girls, were relieving their boredom with stories of magic and fortune telling, taught by the Parris’ serving woman, Tituba. That fateful day, the girls sought to read their fortunes by placing an egg in a glass of water and looking for the faces of their future husbands, when one girl saw in the egg a shape of a coffin. Soon after, the nightmares and convulsive fits would begin (Goss 15-16). Diagnosed by the local physician as being under the force of witchcraft, the girls’ condition worsened, and frequent questioning as to the identity of the witches led to the first people accused:  Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne,  with warrants issued in February 1692 (Goss 17).

            So began the start of the hysteria that would lead to imprisonment and death. These trials would impact the lives of both accused and accuser for years, and have an impression on the people of America, today. Betty and Abigail, along with Ann Putnam, Jr. (age 12), Elizabeth Hubbard (age 18), Mary Warren (age 17), Mercy Lewis (age 19), Elizabeth Booth (age 16), Susannah Sheldon (age 18), Mary Walcott (age 16) and a few adults: Ann Putnam, Sr., Sarah Bibber, Gertrude Pope, and Elizabeth Churchill would accuse almost 200 people of witchcraft in the following year. This group of people would eventually become known as “the afflicted girls” (Goss 15). The trials would continue on, after a brief adjournment from September 1692 to January 1693, until amnesty was granted in May 1693, but only after ruining the lives of many of the Salem Village area’s citizens and their families (Goss 33-34). These citizens included Bridget Bishop, the first executed; Sarah Good, first accused, also executed; Rebecca Nurse, so devout and well-liked that the citizens would petition to have her freed, also executed; four year old Dorcas Good, daughter of Sarah Good, whose father would eventually sue the courts over the ruination of her life once freed from prison; and George Burroughs from Wells, Maine and the previous pastor of Salem’s Village (Goss 19-30).

            The motivations of the accusations and trials are a much discussed issue. Many of the accused had enemies within the town of Salem Village and of the Salem Village church ran by Rev. Parris. A notable member of the trials, Thomas Putnam, Jr., married to Ann Putnam, Sr. and father of Ann Putnam, Jr., may have had personal motivations that directed his daughter and wife, in their accusations. Out of all the “afflicted girls,” Ann Putnam, Jr. would accuse the most people, while the Putnam’s name would appear on a majority of documents related to the trials. The diminishing wealth and political influence of the Putnam family may have been a large motivator in the direction of the accusations. Many of the people accused were directly or indirectly involved in the lessening of the Putnam’s money and influence. For instance, a member of the Putnam family had previously sued Rev. George Burroughs over a monetary issue and lost. (Goss 28)

            In the immediate years following the trials, the people of Salem would feel repercussions for their actions. Many of the people would live with regret and guilt for what happened and some even blamed the poor luck that the area suffered from in the forms of poor harvest, illnesses, attacks, and disasters on the fact that God was punishing them for the sins they had committed. This eventually led to a day of fasting and remembrance created by the Governor on January 14, 1697 to help resolve people’s guilt (Adams 24). In 1706, Ann Putnam, Jr. would apologize in front of the entire congregation of the Salem church for her part in the trials. Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer and great-great-grandson of John Hathorne, a trial judge, would change his name over shame of what his ancestor had been involved in (Goss 68-69). The courts went on to provide compensation to the families of 23 people that had been executed, imprisoned, or lost personal effects (Goss 36). Many documents and books would be written in these years, and other than authors involved in the trials such as Cotton Mather and John Hale, whose book would denounce the processes of the trials but agreed that they had been necessary, most written accounts were quite critical of the entire event, like the works of Increase Mather, Thomas Brattle, and Robert Calef (Goss 39-43). The fictional writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow presented condemning accounts and views of the Puritans and the trials (Goss 75). In the two centuries following, the Salem witch trials were often used as a negative metaphor for political situations and commentary by people such Ben Franklin and John Adams (Adams 31-34).

            In contemporary times, the trials have spawned countless films, documentaries, plays, fiction, and non-fiction books. Many of these have been dedicated to trying to find the source of the hysteria, influences, and reasons for the trials. Some writers believe that there may have been physical reasons for the trials, caused by an outbreak of illness or disease (Goss 50-66). Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, later turned into a movie, is based loosely on the events in Salem. The city of Salem itself has embraced its history and has turned much of its city into a tourist attraction, although most of the actual trial activity took place in what is now known as Danvers, Massachusetts. Even the local high school teams are known as the “Salem Witches.” A 300^th anniversary memorial event took place the entire year of 1992, with educational programs, monuments erected, and awards given to those that had advanced human rights (Goss 77-79).   

With the deaths of the last three people to be executed for in September of 1692, the trials effectively ended, although not officially until May of 1963. But the deaths of these people and the ones that preceded them left an impact on the community of Salem and America. This influence has continued throughout the 319 years that followed with many books, media, and tourist attractions created, dedicated to preserving the knowledge of the last major witchcraft trials to be held in New England (Goss 36). Salem’s infamous witch trials will continue their impact on America, as Gretchen Adams writes that, “The individual motivations of the accusers, the witnesses, and the clergy, as well as the broader social and political contexts of the episode, inspire continuing debate and, despite the huge number of studies in print, are likely to persist as a subject of scholarly and popular interest” (11).

Works Cited

Adams, Gretchen A. The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008. eBook.

Goss, K. David. The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008. eBook. <http://apus.aquabrowser.com//?itemid=|library/m/apus|ocn191801990>.