Joan Holub - What Were the Salem Witch Trials?

In the winter of 1692, trouble came to the village of Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Witch trouble!

Suddenly, two girls got a strange illness. Their bodies twitched and shuddered. They spoke nonsense and seemed to be choking. They said they were being pinched and poked by something invisible. Soon more girls in Salem began acting strangely, too. If this was an illness, no one could find a cure.

Some villagers thought it might be the work of witches! Witches were serious stuff in the New England colonies. Scary stuff. Many people believed witches were real and that they wanted to hurt people. A hunt began in Salem to catch and punish the witches who were making the girls sick. But who were the witches? Could they be neighbors? Family members? Frightened villagers panicked. They pointed fingers at one another and cried, Witch!

Over the next ten months, about two hundred people in Salem Village and surrounding areas were accused of witchcraft. Most were women. A few were children. Almost all went to jail. There were trials. There were hangings. Innocent people were convicted of witchcraft and killed. It was horrible! For a while, it seemed there would be no end to this awful time. But eventually, the witch hunt did stop and so did the trials.

So, what was really going on in Salem in 1692?

CHAPTER 1
Betty and Abigail

It was a freezing cold day in January 1692 when nine-year-old Betty Parris first started acting weird. Really weird. She hid under chairs. She flapped her arms and jerked around. She babbled wildly, saying words no one could understand. Other times, she screamed or couldnt speak at all.

Betty and her family lived in Salem Village. It was a farming community of about 525 people in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, next to Salem Town.

Puritans

Puritan is the name given to a certain kind of Christian in the early 1600s. Originally Puritans lived in England. But they didnt want to belong to the Church of England. They didnt believe in fancy churches with stained-glass windows and golden statues. In their church, they sat on hard wooden benches. They believed the words in the Bible were the law. Many Puritans left England for America in hope of practicing religion their own way. In 1692, most of the settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including Salem, were Puritans. As for Puritan children, they were expected to work hard and obey their parents, especially their fathers. Their parents loved them. However, part of Puritan parents responsibility was to cure their children of stubbornness and pride. Puritans believed that discipline would keep children close to God and far from the Devil. That way, the Devil couldnt trick them into doing his evil work.

The Parrises belonged to the Puritan church. In fact, Bettys father was the Salem Village minister. Her parents were very worried about her. What was this strange illness? Not knowing what else to call it, they said she was having fits.

Whatever was wrong with her, it was catching. Her cousin, eleven-year-old Abigail Williams, started acting the same way. Abigail was an orphan. She lived with the Parris family after her own parents died.

Betty and Abigail had been good, quiet girls. But now they screeched and shivered. They felt dull pains and acted scared. This went on for weeks.

Neither girl had a rash or a fever, so they didnt have smallpox, measles, or malaria. These were the diseases that New England colonists often died from. And why didnt Bettys brother, sister, or parents catch the sickness, too? Why didnt the familys slaves, Tituba and her husband, John Indian, get sick?

Bettys parents tried simple home remedies. Maybe a dose of parsnip seeds would work, or castor oil mixed with amber. They prayed for the girls to get well. The neighbors prayed for them, too. Nothing helped.

In late February, a doctor named William Griggs came to examine the girls. He did not think they were sick. He thought they were under an evil hand. In other words, they were bewitched!

In 1692, this was not a strange thing for a doctor to think.

The day after the doctor came, Mr. and Mrs. Parris went to a meeting. They left the children home with Tituba. It was a Thursday, and Thursdays in New England were lecture days. Colonists would gather at meetinghouses or churches. Reverend Parris planned to alert people that witches might be among them in Salem Village. He would ask other ministers to come try to help Betty and Abigail.

While Bettys parents were gone, a neighbor named Mary Sibley came to the Parris house. She gave Tituba and John a recipe. A recipe for something called a witch cake. It was like a big biscuit. It was supposed to be a cure for witchcraft. At least thats what they hoped.