SALEM WITCH TRIALS SERIES

Glanvill wrote about the 'denial of the bodily resurrection, and the spirits.' In 1668, in Against Modern Sadducism, Joseph Glanvill claimed that he could prove the existence of witches and ghosts of the supernatural realm. The events in 1692–1693 in Salem became a brief outburst of a sort of hysteria in the New World, while the practice was already waning in most of Europe. While witch trials had begun to fade out across much of Europe by the mid-17th century, they continued on the fringes of Europe and in the American Colonies. įurther information: Protests against early modern witch trials The city dedicated the Proctor's Ledge Memorial to the victims there in 2017. In January 2016, the University of Virginia announced its Gallows Hill Project team had determined the execution site in Salem, where the 19 'witches' had been hanged. As of 2004, there was still talk about exonerating all of the victims, though some think that happened in the 18th century as the Massachusetts colonial legislature was asked to reverse the attainders of 'George Burroughs and others'. In 1957, an act passed by the Massachusetts legislature absolved six people, while another one, passed in 2001, absolved five other victims. According to historian George Lincoln Burr, 'the Salem witchcraft was the rock on which the theocracy shattered.' Īt the 300th anniversary events in 1992 to commemorate the victims of the trials, a park was dedicated in Salem and a memorial in Danvers. Many historians consider the lasting effects of the trials to have been highly influential in subsequent United States history. It was not unique, but a Colonial American example of the much broader phenomenon of witch trials in the early modern period, which took place also in Europe. It has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolation, religious extremism, false accusations, and lapses in due process. The episode is one of Colonial America's most notorious cases of mass hysteria. Only fourteen other women and two men had been executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the 17th century. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America. The grand juries and trials for this capital crime were conducted by a Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 and by a Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, both held in Salem Town, where the hangings also took place. Īrrests were made in numerous towns beyond Salem and Salem Village (known today as Danvers), notably Andover and Topsfield. One other man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). More than two hundred people were accused.

SALEM WITCH TRIALS SERIES

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693.