Salem Flashcards
Explain the context of Salem witch-craft.
the colony of Maryland was swarmed with catholics refugees who therefore brought across their high church values.
the first settlers where Puritans and the colony was established on puritan principles, they believed that any catholics were witchcraft
explain the importance of salem witch hunts
200 people were accused, 20 people died.
only 100 cases of witchcraft was heard in the past 50 years.
explain the effect of the 1988 revolution on central control within salem.
10,000 puritans migrated to salem between 1630-1642, therefore the population became resistant to Charles II, and his idea to impose the Church of England.
explain the effect of James II on the society of Salem
When Charles died, his catholic brother succeeded him
his attempt to impose the Church of England made him severely unpopular.
Additionally, he imposed new taxes, which resulted in severe resentment.
He took back any puritan owned land, and said that to get it back you would have to pay fee
Restricted the number of town meetings that could be held
Explain the effects of the glorious revolution on Salem
in April 1687, James issued a declaration of injustice in England, suspending any penal laws against the catholics. This was extremely unpopular, this brought catholics religious freedom.
this effected massachutts as many plots unproarded by the catholics trying to take charge
summarise the economic crisis and Indian threats within Salem.
the Indians first war devastated towns across Massachusetts, one tenth of the milterary aged men were killed
caused those who lived I salem to become wary.
in the puritan mindset, Indians were devil worshippers.
Series of navigation acts caused economic disfortune. trade could not occur from north Europe and America. this reduced the amount off money which flowed through Massachusetts
Explain the social tensions which occurred within Salem
Highly puritan
the scientific revolution was largely ignored, and anyone who went against puritan views was questioned.
Salem town vs Salem village
Salem village had attempted to gain independence from Salem town
Explain Cotton Mathers background
Mather, son to Increase Mather, was a senior puritan clergyman.
He had an interest in witches and preached the importance of them.
in 1689, he published ‘memorable providences relating to witchcraft and possessions’ which influenced the salem witch trials.
explain Mathers account of the Goodwin confessions.
in his book, Mather wrote about the Goodwin family. He explained how the eldest Goodwin child martha accused the laundress of stealing some bed linen. Mather explains how she used this bed linen to practice witchcraft.
when the mother of the laundress was confronted, martha experienced fits. this was put down as witchcraft
Who instigated the witch trials?
Samual Parris- The puritan minister of salem.
Parris was a disliked by society, as he was found to be greedy, trying to buy more things than he needed on the towns card.
he delivered a sermon to Salem saying the church was under the siege of the devil.
explain the role of children within the Salem witch trials
Samula Parris 9 year old daughter Elizabeth and her cousin Abigail started to experiment with fortune telling. They used a Venus glass, and started telling their findings to the other children within Salem. For one of the children it was said a coffin was found, which there on supernatural events began.
In the January, it was said that Elizabeth was experiencing a loss of concentration. She stared to bark like a dog.
Additionally . Abigail started to experience similar feeling, suggesting they both were possessed.
Many other children were involved, such as 19 year old Mercy Lewis who accused a total pop eight people
explain the motivations of the children
the girls may have been experiencing psychological disorders due to the Indian war.
They may be seeking attention
the events may have been a source of escapism
explain the role of Tituba
Tituba was a house servant to the Parris.
A woman had approached tituba asking her to make a counter witches cake, whereby urine of possessed children were baked into a cake and fed to a dog who should have sniffed out those bewitched.
this didn’t work, and only caused them to have worse symptoms. Samual got suspicious, and filed against her.
Tituba was said to be from a black background, and assisted with bringing up the girls, therefore may have introduced possession stories to them
explain the nature of the victims
majority of the victims were women, 20 percent were men.
Aswell as Tituba, the other first women were
-Sarah Good
a social outcast, who was once rich, but made bad investments and married poor. Her own father and daughter pleaded against her. She accused Sarah Osborne
-Sarah Osborne
a well established widow who lived with a servant and attempted to remove her children from her inheritance.
Most of those accused were outcast of some sort, with low social standings, or did something which society saw as wrong.
explain why convictions were made easier by the court
-Spectral evidence was allowed
- accused were allowed little resources to defend themselves
-long standing gossip was used as evidence
explain the executions
Bribet Bishop was first to be hanged, alongside with Rebecca Nurse and Sarah good.
19 were executed and one was hung to death.
How did cotton Mathers views cause the hunt to come to an end
Increase Mather published a book which didn’t reject witchcraft, but argued that genuine witchcraft was rare, and dubious evidence was often used.
Cotton Mather also made many sermons which questioned the use of spectral evidence
How did the role of governor Phips cause the hunts to come to an end
Phips was influenced by Mathers view on spectral evidence
he decided to close down the courts and try and retrieve Rebecca Nurse and also relieved anyone under examination
Explain how the general pardon caused the witchhunts to come to an end
in the late 1692, Phips announced the general pardon.
he allowed 8 people who were waiting for execution to go
they looked back one those executed and found most of them to not be guilty
in conclusion why did the witchcraze become so widely spread
-the deeply puritan society
-indian threats
-role of children
-social devisions
-individuals
-acceptance of spectral evidence
