The Salem Witch trial was sparked by a few young girls playing a game. Then when they got caught, instead of admitting it and taking their punishment, they pretended it was real and that they had been possessed by demons conjured by witchcraft. This resulted in three women being promptly accused and arrested for practicing witchcraft which caused a chain reaction of denouncements, confessions and more accusations wrought by torture, trickery and then even more arrests. It was much like a snowball rolling down a hillside, getting faster and bigger as it goes.
To try and help get rid of the witch menace, the courts eased the rules of evidence needed to convict someone of witchcraft. In some cases, all that was needed were spectral sources of evidence, someone having a vision of a woman being a witch was acceptable as concrete evidence.
If you were accused and arrested, your best shot at living was to admit that you were a witch and repent. The ones that denied being a witch and insisted that you had rights which must be acknowledged were often times hurried through the process of trial and conviction.
Most of the convicted were hanged, one man was pressed to death with rocks, none were burned.
Another little known fact was that some children were also accused of being witches. Sarah Carrier (7), Thomas Carrier Jr. (10), and Margaret Toothaker (10), Abigail Faulkner Jr. (8), Dorothy Faulkner (10), Johanna Tyler (11) and also Dorothy Good (5), she was the youngest. None of them was tried, their parent(S) got the blame for the children being witches.
Contrary to popular belief, there were NO documented Witch Burnings in North America, most either died during the examinations or were hanged.
Although they will deny it until the end of time, the Christian Church foots the blame for ALL of the witch hunts, trials, and executions because of the one line in their bible, "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." which meant that they would be doing them a favor by killing them.
Giles Corey was pressed to death, the following were all hanged.
Bridget Bishop, George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, George Jacobs, Sr., Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, John Proctor, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott, Samuel Wardwell, Sarah Wildes, John WillardNo one died as a convicted witch in America again after the Salem witch trials. It was also the last of the religious witch hunts. Salem Village separated from Salem Town in 1752 and became the town of Danvers. However, this separation did not wipe away the history of the witch trials from its past. For over 300 years, historians, sociologists, psychologists and others continue to research and write about them to this day, and they continue to serve as a reminder of how politics, family squabbles, religion, economics and the imaginations and fears of people can yield tragic consequences.
What happened to the girls that started it all is not widely known. Surviving information regarding them has provided only small details as to what happened to them after the Salem witch trials. Whatever the future held for the girls, and whatever guilt the girls may have felt, they undoubtedly never forgot their involvement with the witch trials.
CLICK HERE to check out some of my favorite books about the Salem Witch Trials
Click on the link below to see my New Book Tianna Logan and the Salem Academy for Witchcraft - Find out about the book coming out in 2010.
Read Exerpts from the book. Learn how to make your own spells, Hand craft your own Wand or Besom.The official release date has not been set but you can order Pre-release copies from:
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