Content Flashcards
How many were executed during the salem trial?
20
Year - Salem witch-trials
1692-93
What was the context of witch hunts prior to the salem trials?
- 100 cases in past 50 years
- 28 hung
- 25% conviction rate
How many were accused and killed during the Salem trial?
- 200 accused
- 20 killed
Who was Sarah Good?
- One of first accused
- Social outcast and 40
- Destitute after poor investments and didn’t marry for money
- Whole family homeless beggars
- Accused of hurting children
- Husband and daughter testified against her
- Accused Sarah Osborne
Who was Sarah Osborne?
- Accused by Sarah Good
- A widow with relatively high social standings
- Lived openly with unmarried Irish indentured servant Alexander Osborne
- Attempted to remove children from inheritance
Who were the first three accused?
- Tituba
- Sarah Good
- Sarah Osborne
Give some examples of the nature of the accused
- Bridget Bishop & Martha Carrier - women with independent mind
- Reverend George Burroughs - only minister - borrowed money from Putnam family and was unable to pay back
- Rebecca Nurse - Well-respected - petition claiming her innocence and pardon from Governor Philps - Men of Salem convinced and executed
- Susannah Martin - widow - history of witchcraft - threat orderly transmission of property - dispute over fathers will
What happened directly after the first three women were arrested?
- Village meeting
- Possessed girls gave evidence against the women
- Using spectral evidence
- Claimed the girls forced to sign the devils book, suckle familiars and inflicted with fits.
What type of evidence was used during the trial?
- Spectral evidence
- BASED ON TESTIMONY THAT CLAIMED THE ACCUSED OR THEIR SPIRIT APPEARED IN DREAMS AND VISIONS
What did Abigail and Deliverance Hobbs confess to?
- Attending a meeting
- Number of accused witches plotted to bewitch all Salem Village
How did confessions affect the conviction rate?
- Improved the chances of suspects
- 50 confessed were freed
What did Governor William Phips establish in May 1692?
- Court of Oyer and Terminer
- Officially hear the cases
- At trials - girls shrieked, wailed and shouted when the accused testified
- Half-hearted Devil Mark search also taken as evidence
- 1 judge resigned within a month due to suspicion of the legitimacy of proceedings
How were convictions made more easily?
- Spectral evidence accepted in courts
- Accused allowed few resources to mount a defence
- Petitions from neighbours ignored
- Long-standing gossip was accepted as evidence
Who was the first to be hung?
Briget Bishop - 10 June 1692
Who was the first official witch executed in the colonies?
Alice Young
- Hung 1647
- In Connecticut
- 27 more were hung before the Salem trials.