The Salem Witch Trials (1692) Flashcards
Witches and Witchcraft
Witch hunts not medieval, but an early modern phenomenon
Malleus Maleficarum (1486) first published manual on witch hunting. Legalized the activity as a crime that could be uncovered by investigative techniques
Matthew Hopkins as “Witchfinder General” in 1640s England, responsible for at least 100 executions
Spread of ‘witch craze’ across the Atlantic to Puritan New England in 1640s. Over 80 trials and 17 executions by 1670.
Most people accused of witch hunting are women (anti-feminist)
Investigations, trials and executions
Local community issues in Salem over property claims and conflicts over church leadership also heightened tensions
Investigation began in February of 9-year old Betty Parris and her cousin 11-year old Abigail Williams. Expanded to trials of over 200 people (¾ of whom were women). By 1693, 20 were hanged and four died in prison, one crushed to death. Use of torture, spectral evidence and inquisitorial proceedings
Witch trials viewed as an embarrassment by MA authorities and served to further discredit the already weakened Puritan Elite. MA reversed the convictions in 1711 and awarded monetary compensation to the families of 22 victims.
Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World and Magnalia Christi Americana (1693 & 1702)
Son of a puritan minister (Increase Mather)
Wonders of the Invisible World (accounts of the witch trials)
Cotton Mather became a leading colonial and intellectual figure, arguably the first colonial american intellectual figure whose works were being published even in Britain
Works and thoughts were increasingly known because of his writing ability
Encouragement of and his documentation of the Salem witch trials is what brought them to prominence and preserve them in memory for a long time
Tituba and the Atlantic Connection
Atlantic connection between the salem witch trials and the West Indies through the person of Tituba
Tituba: came from barbados, enslaved woman that was in the house of Samuel Harris (puritan minister)
Samuel Harris owned a sugar plantation in Barbados
Tituba makes a number of confessions after being beaten by Harris
She was never executed, she was imprisoned and later sold
Courts of Oyer and Terminer: Witch Courts and Slave Courts
Courts where the normal use of evidence did not apply
Originated within the british isles (scotland and later Ireland)
First courts were in Barbados for the purpose of deaing with a rebellion at the time
So these were linked to both witches and the slave courts and they continued like that even after the end of this witch craze
The Fall of Puritan New England
Trials are taking place when Massachusetts is changing into a royal colony, its losing its quasi independence under its royal charter
1691 conversion of MA into a royal colony ends the rule of the Puritan Elite
Explosion of shipbuilding, fishing and trade by resident merchant class. Society shifts from focus on religion to focus on trade. Puritan Elite loses ground to rising bourgeois class of merchants and lawyers
Growth of urban areas: Boston (along with New York and Philadelphia) reach pop of 10, 000 by 1750
Political situation in southern New England (who were the major first nations groups? what were the beaver wars?)
Major First Nations: Pequots, Mohegans, Narragansetts, Nipmucks, Niantics, Wampanoags.
Pequots were the most powerful out of all these groups and they’d expanded throughout the connecticut river valley
And were starting to push up against their rivals, particularly the Mohegans and the Narragansetts who are mostly based in Rhode Island
Beaver wars: almost century conflict in the 17th century between all indigenous groups and these different European powers
This contest between various european colonizing groups
Competition between the Mohegans, Pequots and Narragansetts for access to trade with the English
Causes of the Pequot War (1636-1638)
First war between settlers and Indigenous groups in New England
Desire for MA Puritan Elite to re-assert authority.
Tensions between Pequots and Mohegans.
Deteriorating relationship between Pequots and the Dutch.
Expansion of English settlements into Dutch Claimed areas of CT.
New England hurricane of 1635 and famine.
Murders of Captain Stone (previously a pirate in the west indies) and John Oldham.
New England’s demand to punish accused Pequots.
Mohegans and Narragansetts are allied to the English for an attack against the Pequot settlement of Mystic connecticut
The mystic massacre
The Pequots are defeated around fairfield Connecticut
Very deadly
This causes the Narragansetts to leave the alliance (disgusted by this kind of warfare)
Pequots flee
Treaty of Hartford, 1638 and Aftermath (what is the united colonies of New England?)
The first time that there is a peace treaty that says the Pequots no longer exist
The nation is declared to be extinct
In some cases they are sold into slavery in the west indies
United colonies of new england (Massachusetts, plymouth, connecticut, saybrook.etc.)
Defensive alliance in case something like this happens again
Uncas and Miantonomo
Uncas (Mohegans) and Miantonomo (Narragansetts)
The relationship between both these two men and their nations rapidly deteriorates after the end of the Pequot war
Two of the most powerful groups that then start a war against eachother concerning Pequot lands
The English ally with uncas and eventually take Miantonomo captive
Sentence Miantonomo to death
King Philip’s War/Metacom’s War (1675-1678)
King phillip was a tragic figure because his family ends up being sold into slavery
Sachem to the Wampanoag people and the second son of the sachem Massasoit (in Massachusetts)
The number of Indigenous peoples within New England was rapidly falling while the number of settlers was rapidly increasing which caused quite a change in the dynamics between the Wampanoags and the English
Metacom succeeds his father Sachem
His brother died at Plymouth due to disease (suspected that he had been poisoned)
Livestock changing composition of the land (vanguard of colonization) The English’s cattle and pigs were intruding on the land of the Wampanoag
John Elliot, John Sassamon and The “Praying Towns”
-Within puritanism or protestantism more generally, spreading faith to people
-Idea of wanting to evangelize them
-Praying towns: particular preacher named John Elliot in 1646 raises money to create praying towns
Settlements around Boston but around the heavily settled areas of eastern massachusetts where he would try to encourage various indigenous peoples to settle down and become christian
-Religious mission
Close to new england towns, they would establish “praying towns”
Easy to monitor them and assimilate them
-John Sassamon:
he’s a member of the Massachusetts Nation and is also a prominent interpreter between Algonquian and English.
located in one of the praying towns called Natick
-Distrusted because he held this intermediary role
-John Sassamon becomes a “Model Indian” proof that these praying towns are working
Causes of Metacom’s war
Metacom is trying to raise an alliance, expand beyond his own interest in the Wampanoags and create an alliance amongst all of these various New England groups (various indigenous groups)
Attempt to force the english out
Decline of Indigenous population in New England and rapid increase in settler population
Growing population of “praying Indians” resident in mission towns
Expansion of english settlement into native territory
Attempted disarmament of Wampanoags under Metacom
Execution of three Wampanoags convicted of murdering John Sassamon
Basically the beginning of this war is the execution of these individuals who were convicted of having murdered John Sassamon
The early war 1675-76 (Metacom’s war)
This was a larger war than Pequot’s war
Metacom and the wampanoags is larger more organized
Many of them had experience fighting
Conflict escalates and involves all of the new england colonies
Metacom tries to solicit aid from the Iroquois
The Mohawk ambush him and kill him
