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American Witch Hunts

Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 2017

evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic or mass hysteria.

The classic image of a witch

of control. Often, control may be perceived when blame is

cast and scapegoats are named. If there is someone to blame, then there is something we can do. Fear can lead to irrational postulations of immense proportions.

society and governments acting to combat social problems through the

scapegoating of innocent prey. Most witch hunts were commanded by government authorities in response to chaos and death. Investigations frequently involved obtaining ‘testimony’ from subjective informants, including children, and confessions through torture.

1856

New Haven (in later Connecticut) by puritan preacher John Davenport,

1638. ullstein bild / Getty Images

Connecticut-the only colonial American place other than Salem with a significant track record of witch trials and executions—was already winding down its half-century of persecution.

weren’t busy contending with defiant natives, there was hunger, cold

and the frequent fatal epidemic. Someone was to blame for all this. In the prevailing Puritan ethos, the presence of Satan was a daily reality, and he could appear in myriad ways, witchcraft among them. These colonials subscribed to a literal reading of Exodus 22:18, with its instruction that, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Those persons who didn’t conform—in lifestyle, appearance, or demeanor—to the rigid Puritan mores were at increased risk of being accused.

number is disputed, as many court records have been lost)

were charged with witchcraft in Connecticut. Eleven were executed, all by hanging.

New England relates how one accused Connecticut woman allegedly bewitched

her neighbor’s oxen and “caused beer to jump out of a barrel.” As ridiculous as these accusations now sound, the consequences could be deadly serious.

Witch Panic, which saw three witches executed within several weeks’

time. No witch-related executions took place after 1662, according to Connecticut’s Office of Legislative Research. By this time, testimony from multiple witnesses was required in order to obtain a witchcraft conviction. Also, authority figures, including Connecticut’s colonial governor John Winthrop the Younger had begun to question the value of the “evidence” in these witch trials, as well as the possible agendas of the witnesses.
In fact, many of the accused after 1662 were acquitted—and some were even awarded damages for having been slandered.

thee Owned the hideous lie!
The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,
Is

breathing freer for thy sake today.
(Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier and inscribed on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca Nurse, one of the condemned "witches" of Salem)

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a dark time in American history.
Ever since those dark days ended, the trials have become synonymous with mass hysteria and scapegoating.
Why did this travesty of justice occur? Why did it occur in Salem? Nothing about this tragedy was inevitable.

of Salem Village, invited Samuel Parris, formerly a marginally successful

planter and merchant in Barbados, to preach in the Village church.
He moved to Salem Village with his wife Elizabeth, his six-year-old daughter Betty, niece Abigail Williams, and his Indian slave Tituba.

Reverend Samuel Parris (1653–1720)

young Betty Parris became strangely ill. She dashed about, dove

under furniture, contorted in pain, and complained of fever
Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to exhibit similar unusual behavior.
The girls complained of being pinched and pricked with pins
When his own nostrums failed to effect a cure, William Griggs, a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the girls' problems might have a supernatural origin. The widespread belief that witches targeted children made the doctor's diagnosis seem increasingly likely.
By this time, suspicion had already begun to focus on Tituba, who had been known to tell the girls tales of omens, voodoo, and witchcraft from her native folklore.

easy targets for the accusation of witchcraft. It was not

difficult for the people of Salem to believe they were involved in witchcraft.

the witch hunt started in Salem Village, it quickly spread

to the neighboring towns, including Amesbury, Andover, Salisbury , Ipswich and Gloucester, and numerous residents of those towns were brought to Salem and put on trial.
By early autumn of 1692, Salem's lust for blood was ebbing.

all released from jails and all convictions overturned

Salem

witch hunts occurred and why certain people were singled out.
1.

Many historians believe that a number of individuals in the colony, particularly the Putnam family, quickly took advantage of this witch hunt and mass hysteria.
Although the afflicted girls were the main accusers during the trials, many historians believe the girl’s parents, particularly Thomas Putnam and Reverend Samuel Parris, were egging the girls on and encouraging them to accuse specific people in the community that they didn’t like in an act of revenge.
According to the book «The Societal History of Crime and Punishment in America»:
«proposed reasons have included personal vendettas, fear of strong women, and economic competition.
All of these factors created a volatile and dangerous situation that resulted in the imprisonment and death of many innocent people».

affliction continues to be a subject of interest. Various medical

and psychological explanations for the observed symptoms have been explored by researchers, including psychological hysteria in response to Indian attacks, convulsive ergotism caused by eating rye bread made from grain infected by the fungus Claviceps purpurea (a natural substance from which LSD is derived), an epidemic of bird-borne encephalitis lethargica.

to what hysteria, religious intolerance, and ignorance can cause in

the criminal justice system.

in Salem? // Science Vol. 192 (2 April 1976)
Erich

Goode; Nachman Ben-Yehuda (2010). Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Wiley. p. 195.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 5.
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