While witch trials in Europe were beginning to fade out in the mid-17th Europe, the surrounding areas of Europe and Colonial America during 1692 and 1693 had brief outbursts of hysteria in Salem in the New World.
In “Against Modern Sadducism” (1668), Joseph Glanvill made the claim that he could prove the existence of witches and ghosts in the supernatural realm, when he wrote about the “denial of the bodily resurrection and the [supernatural] spirits.”
Glanvill claimed that ingenious men should believe in witches and apparitions. If they doubted the reality of spirits, they not only denied demons, but the almighty God too. Glanvill set out to prove the supernatural could not be denied, and those who did deny apparitions where considered heretics as it also disproved their beliefs in angels. Glanvill, as well as works by Cotton Mather, attempted to prove that “demons were alive.”
Accusations
The witch trials started after people were accused of witchcraft by teen girls like Elizabeth Hubbard, 17, and some even younger.
Recorded Witchcraft Executions in New England
The earliest recorded witchcraft executions was Alse Young in 1647 in Hartford, Connecticut. Historian Clarence F. Jewett included others who were executed in New England in his 1881 book.
Political Context
People came to the New World of Colonial America to escape religious persecution and build a Bible-based society. Living by a closed sense of the supernatural, the original 1629 Royal Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was vacated in 1684 when King James II installed Sir Edmund Andros as governor of the Dominion of New England. Andros was ousted in 1689 after the “Glorious Revolution” in England replaced the Catholic James II with Protestant co-rulers William and Mary.
Simon Bradstreet and Thomas Danforth, the colony’s last leaders under the old charter, resumed their posts as governor and deputy governor, but lacked constitutional authority to rule due to the old charter being vacated. With tensions between English colonists settling in “the Eastward” (present-day coast of Maine and French-supported Wabanaki Indians of that territory in what came to be known as King William’s War. This was 13 years after the devastating King Philip’s War with the Wampanoag and other indigenous tribes in southern and western New England. In October 1690, Sir William Phips led an unsuccessful attack on French-held Quebec between 1689 and 1692, Native Americans attacked many English settlements along the Maine coast, leading to the abandonment of some of the settlements and resulting in a flood of refugees in areas like Essex County.
A new charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay was given final approval in England on October 16, 1691. News of appointment of Phips as new governor reached Boston in late January, and a copy of the new charter reached Boston on February 8, 1692. Phips arrived in Boston on May 14 and was sworn in as governor two days later, along with Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton. The first order of business for the new governor and council on May 27, 1692 was a formal nomination of county justices of the peace, sheriffs, and the commission of a Special Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle the large numbers of people sitting in jail.
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum were postulated that without a valid charter, the colony had no legitimate form of government to try capital cases until Phips arrived with a new charter. Disputed by David Konig, pointing out that between charters, according to the Records of the Court of Assistants, the colony tried and condemned a group of 14 pirates on January 27, 1690, for acts of piracy and murder in August and October 1689.
Local Context
Salem Village (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts), known for its fractious population, had many internal disputes between the village and Salem Town (present-day Salem). Arguments about property lines, grazing rights, and church privileges were rife, and neighbors considered the population “quarrelsome.” In 1672, the villagers had voted to hire a minister of their own, apart from Salem Town. The first two ministers, James Bayley (1673-79) and George Burroughs (1680-83), stayed only a few years each, departing after the congregation failed to pay their full rate. (Burroughs was subsequently arrested at the height of the witchcraft hysteria and was hanged as a witch in August 1692.)
While ministers’ rights were upheld by the General Court and the parish was admonished, each of the two ministers still chose to leave. The third minister, Deodat Lawson (1684-88), stayed for a short time, leaving after the church in Salem refused to ordain him—and not over issues with the congregation. The parish disagreed about Salem Village’s choice of Samuel Parris as its first ordained minister. On June 18, 1689, the villagers agreed to hire Parris for £66 annually, “one third part in money and the other two third parts in provisions,” and use of the parsonage.
On October 10, 1689, they voted raised his benefits to grant him the deed to the parsonage and two acres (0.8 hectares) of land. This conflicted with a 1681 village resolution stating that “it shall not be lawful for the inhabitants of this village to convey the houses or lands or any other concerns belonging to the Ministry to any particular persons or person: not for any cause by vote or other ways.”
Although prior ministers’ fates and level of contention in Salem Village were valid reasons for caution in accepting the position, Rev. Parrish increased the village’s divisions by delaying his acceptance. Unable to settle his new parishioners’ disputes: by deliberately seeking out “iniquitous behavior” in his congregation and making church members in good standing suffer public penance for small infractions, he contributed significantly to the villagers tension, increasing unabated bickering. Historian Marion Starkey suggests that in this atmosphere, serious conflict may have been inevitable.
Religious Context
In regards to constitutional turmoil during the 1680’s, Massachusetts government was dominated by conservative Puritan secular leaders. Influenced by Calvinism, the Puritans opposed many of the traditions of the Church of England, including the use of the Book of Common Prayer, the use of clergy vestments during services, the use of the sign of the cross at baptism, and kneeling to receive communion, all of which they believed constituted popery. King Charles I, hostile to this viewpoint, as well as Anglican church officials, tried to repress these dissenting views during the 1620’s and 1630’s. some Puritans and other religious minorities had sought refuge in the Netherlands but ultimately made a major migration to colonial North America to establish their own society.
These immigrants, consisting mainly of families, established several of the earliest colonies in New England, of which the Massachusetts Bay Colony was the largest and most economically important. Intending to build a society based on their religious beliefs, colonial leaders were elected by the freemen of the colony—individuals who had their religious experiences formally examined and had been admitted to one of the colony’s Puritan congregations. Colonial leadership was made from prominent members of their congregations and regularly consulted with local ministers on issues facing the colony.
By the early 1640’s, England erupted in civil war and the Puritan-dominated Parliamentarians emerged victorious, and the Crown was supplanted by the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell in 1653. Its failure led to restoration of the old order under Charles II. Emigrations to New England slowed significantly during these years, and Massachusetts, a successful merchant class began to develop that was less religiously motivated than the colony’s early settlers.
Gender Context
Most of the people accused of witchcraft were women (around 78%). But the overall Puritan belief prevailing over New England culture was that women were inherently sinful and more susceptible to damnation than men were. Throughout their daily lives, Puritans, especially Puritan women, actively attempted to thwart the Devil’s temptations to overtake them and their souls. While Puritans believed that men and women were equal in the eyes of God, this wasn’t so with the Devil. Women’s souls were seen as unprotected and weak in their vulnerable bodies. This may explain why women were more likely to admit guilt of witchcraft than men. Historian Elizabeth Reis suggests that some actually believed that they may have truly given into the Devil, with many believing they may have done so temporarily. However, some may have confessed just to be reintegrated into society and be spared their lives.
Quarrels between neighbors often incited witchcraft allegations. This was certainly the case when Abigail Faulkner, accused of witchcraft in 1692, admitted she was “angry at what folk said,” and the Devil may have temporarily overtaken her, causing harm to her neighbors. Women who refused to conform to the norms of Puritan society were likely to be the target of witchcraft allegations, especially those who were unmarried or did not have children.
Local Rumors of Witchcraft
Before 1692, rumors of witchcraft in neighboring Salem Village and other towns, Cotton Mather, a minister of Boston’s North Church (don’t confuse with the later Anglican North Church associated with Paul Revere), was a prolific publisher of pamphlets, including some that expressed his belief in witchcraft. In his book, “Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions” (1689), Mather talks about his “oracular observations” and how “stupendous witchcraft” affects the children of Boston mason John Goodwin.
Mather writes how the Goodwins’ eldest child was tempted by the devil and stole linen from the washerwoman Goody Glover. Glover, of Irish Catholic descent, was noted as a disagreeable old woman and accused by her husband as a witch, leading some to be accused of casting spells on the Goodwin children. After the event, four of the six Goodwin children began having strange fits, or what some referred to as “the disease of astonishment.” These manifestations began to be attributed to the disease that would be associated with witchcraft. Symptoms included neck and back pains, tongues being drawn from their throats, and loud random outcries. Other symptoms also included having no control over their own bodies like becoming limber, flapping their arms like birds, or trying to harm others as well as themselves. These symptoms would heighten the craze of 1692.
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