The
Truth About the Salem Witch Trials
 In
Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 there had been a bitter strife between
the minister, Samuel Parris, and his congregation, when the delusion
of witchcraft gave him an opportunity to wreak a terrible vengeance.
Person after person, disliked by him, was accused by members of
his family, and put to death. Other people made it an occasion
to get even with enemies, and fear laid hold on the hearts of
all.
A group of young girls
began having hysterical fits. The girls claimed that witches afflicting
them and began to name certain people in the village as witches.
Based virtually on the testimony of these girls alone, authorities
began to arrest and then to try several astonished Salem citizens.
Nineteen people were hanged; one man* was pressed to death with
heavy weights; an unknown number died in prison. Fifty-five were
tortured or terrified into making confessions, and the jails were
full. One hundred fifty prisoners awaited trial; two hundred more
were accused of suspected. If an officer refused to arrest a person
accused of being a witch, he was in turn accused and imprisoned.
The craze spread to other communities and the country became aroused.
 Ironically,
only those who maintained their innocence were executed; those
who confessed escaped the hangman's noose. Realizing this fact,
some confessed in order to save themselves. Others could not do
so in good conscience. Mary Easty said to her judges, "I
know not the least thing of witch craft, therefore I cannot, I
dare not belie my own soul. I beg your honors not to deny this
my humble petition from a poor dying Innocent." She was hanged
anyway.
Several facts are ignored
in the blast of accusations hurled at the Puritans. The ministers
of Massachusetts, rather than being persecuting fanatics, actually
counseled caution and restraint to the more zealous civil authorities.
It was the opposition of some of the clergy, in fact, that helped
end the witch trials. Boston pastor Cotton Mather, who is often
falsely accused of urging authorities on, said, "It were
better that ten suspected witches should escape than that one
innocent person should be condemned.
 In
the course of months, there came a reaction as people began to
come to their senses, and realize what was back of all the hysteria.
Parris was driven from Salem and other prominent witch hunters
were required to confess their hypocrisy in the whole affair.
Often forgotten too
is the fact that some Massachusetts actually were practicing witchcraft-although
it is difficult to tell whether this practice was mere superstition
or real demonic activity. Even if this activity were only superstition,
nearly everyone at that time, not just the Puritans, believed
that it was genuine witchcraft and that it must be relentlessly
punished. In the century before the Salem witch trials, for example,
over three thousand accused witches were burned in the Swiss canton
of Vaud alone. Salem, by comparison, was restrained.
Critics of the Puritans
also ignore the repentance of Salem. Within five years the citizens
of Massachusetts held a day of prayer and fasting to implore God's
pardon for their actions. One of the judges in the trials, Samuel
Sewall, was overcome with guilt when his son read Matthew 12:7
during the family's devotions-"But if ye had known what this
meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have
condemned the guiltless." Sewall, in remorse, went to church,
confessed his guilt to the congregation, and asked for forgiveness.
Anne Putnam, one of the hysterical girls, likewise stood before
the congregation in Salem Village and humbly apologized for being
"an instrument for the of accusing of several persons of
a grievous crime, whereby their lives were taken away restraint
to from them, whom now I have just grounds and good reason to
believe they were innocent persons.
 "What
exactly happened in Salem Village? No one today can be quite sure.
We do know - certainly, however, that innocent people died because
of fear and hysteria. We know too that the reputation of Massachusetts
Puritans has been blemished. Regrettably, the worthy in contributions
of early American Puritanism have been obscured by the wild fanaticism
of a few and by an eager willingness of later generations to believe
only the worst.
*The man who was pressed
to death, Giles Cory, suffered for his refusal to enter a plea
to the charge of witchcraft. According to English law at that
time, a man who refused to plead was to be pressed with weights
until he offered a plea. Cory died after two days under enormous
weight, never relenting. According to legend, all that he ever
said was" More weight." Historians differ over why Cory
refused to plead. The most popular explanation is that by not
pleading, Cory could not be convicted. If he had been convicted,
Cory's property would have been forfeited to the state, and by
dying for his silence, Cory saved his property for his heirs.
Cory's heirs did not include his wife, Martha, however, who was
one of those hanged for witchcraft.
For selections from
the writings of Salem judge Samuel Sewall, see Bob Jones University
Press's AMERICAN LITERATURE for Christian Schools (Second Edition),
pp. 47-50.
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