The Salem Witch Trials began in the Spring of 1692 after a group of girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. Under Puritan influence, a wave of hysteria spread through Massachusetts and a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases.
January 1692, 9 year old Elizabeth Parris and 11 year old Abigail Williams began having fits, including violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment as the source of their pain, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms.
In late February, arrest warrants were issued for the Parris' family Caribbean slave, Tituba, along with two other women, the homeless beggar Sarah Good and the poor, elderly Sarah Osborn, who the girls accused of bewitching them. The three accused witches were brought before magistrates and questioned, with their accusers in the courtroom having grand displays of contortions and screaming. Good and Osborn denied their guilt, however Tituba confessed. It is likely that she confessed hoping to save herself from conviction to be an informer, and she claimed there were other witches working alongside her in service of the devil. Hysteria spread and a number of other women were accused, including two women who were upstanding members of the community, and a 6 year old little girl, who was imprisoned for 7 months.
June 2nd, the court handed down its first conviction against a woman named Bridget Bishop, who was hung 8 days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town. 5 more were hung in July, five in August and 8 more in September. In addition, 7 other accused witches died whilst imprisoned, while the elderly Giles Corey, the husband of an accused witch, was pressed to death by stones after he refused to enter a plea.
Trails started to lose intensity around early 1693, and by that May, all those in prison on witchcraft charged were released.
Witch Trials, England.
It was not just in Salem that events like this occurred.
Theodore of Tarsus, an Archbishop of Canterbury during the 7th century, penned handbooks for Priests explaining the punishments for the sins of witchcraft. However, it wasn't until the 16th and 17th century that 'witch hunts' gained momentum across the UK.
The Pendle Witches 1612
In Lancashire, Elizabeth Southern, the matriarch of the Demdike family, had been a well known healer that used natural remedies and practises for over 50 years. It wasn't until an unlucky meeting between a travelling Pedlar and Southern's granddaughter, Alizon, that the family fell under scrutiny.
Alizon came across the Pedlar and asked him for some pins, an expensive item at the time due to them being handmade. Knowing that witches often use pins in their spells, the Pedlar refused and walked away. A short way down the road, Alizon saw the Pedlar stumble and fall (possibly from a medical incident such as a heart attack or stroke), and convinced herself that she had caused it. Struck with guilt for causing the man harm with her self-convinced power, she went to visit him on his sick bed a few days later. She seemingly confessed to being the cause of his illness and begged for his forgiveness.
Shortly after her confession, Alizon and her family were summoned and this caused a series of confessions that pointed to both friends and family. A single testimony sealed the fate of all 12 involved, and they were executed.
Kent and Canterbury's Ducking Chair
In the 16th and 17th Century, more than 20 executions took place in Kent, when the hysteria of witchcraft began. One of the county's earliest recorded cases was Eleanor Cobham, the second wife of Duke Humphrey, Lord Warden of Dover Castle. Eleanor was accused of treason and witchcraft, along with several of her acquaintances, such as Mary Jourdemain, a well known witch. Eleanor denied most of the charges, but she did admit to asking Mary for potions to help her conceive.
One of the suspects died whilst being tortured for information in the Tower of London. The other was hung, drawn and quartered for treason and the witch, Mary, was burnt at Smithfield.
There were some questionable and illogical methods which were used to identify if someone accused of witchcraft was in fact a witch. One of these methods you can still see today in Canterbury. This is the Ducking Chair.
The Ducking Chair was first used to punish and torture people, mainly women, for 'crimes' as simple as having a poor attitude towards their husband or adultery. However, this method was then used during witch trails.
The suspected witch would be strapped to the chair at the end of a long pole, then dunked under water. If the suspect died, they were presumed innocent of witchcraft. If they lived, they were presumed to be guilty of being a witch, and would be executed.
There is debate to this day around the Ducking Chair in Canterbury, which sits eerily proud above the canal, with people floating underneath in boats. Some argue that it should be removed and destroyed, or placed into a museum, as it is insensitive to women to display a method which was used for many years to torture and degrade females who did not fit into the societies standards. Other's however argue that this is a piece of history, and also attracts tourists.
Theories.
Back in Salem, when doctors could not come up with a medical explanation of the fitting that seemingly began to spread, they blamed witchcraft. As a very religious and strict community, this idea spread fear across many families.
Modern theories around what was afflicting these girls ranged from epilepsy, to boredom. However, most experts agree that these causes alone can not be what caused the girls anguish as it does not explain the uncontrollable fitting, spasms and the spreading throughout the communities.
Mass Conversion Disorder/ Mass Hysteria
This term, introduced by Sigmund Freud, is still a controversial diagnosis to this day. Dr Robert Bartholomew, a medical sociologist in New Zealand who has collected more than 3000 cases on Conversion Disorder dating back to 1566, states the Salem Witch Trials were 'undoubtedly' a cause of the psychogenic condition, in which 'physiological conflict and distress are converted into aches and pains that have no physical origin'. He describes that 'your body goes haywire; twitching, shaking, facial tics, garbled speech, trance states', which sounds very similar the afflictions the girls were suffering in Salem.
Bartholomew also comments how 'mass conversion tends to be mostly common in teenagers, overwhelmingly teenage girls, and it tends to start out at the top of the social order', noting how the first 2 women accused of witch craft in Salem were of high social status, and the next 2 girls to become afflicted by fits were the niece of the towns doctor and the daughter of the wealthiest man in town.
Ironically, Mass Conversion Disorder made a suspected return to the Salem area more than 300 years later.
There are two distinct types of hysteria:
1. Mass Anxiety Hysteria- this type tends to show up among people who belong to the same close, often isolated, group or community. It involves sudden tension and other symptoms of anxiety, which 'spread' and resolve fairly quickly.
2. Mass Motor Hysteria- this type tends to show up among people experiencing long-term stress and tension. It involves irregular motor symptoms that move from person to person gradually, and often lingers for weeks.
Mass Hysteria usually spreads verbally or visually, so people who see or hear someone with symptoms often begin experiencing symptoms themselves.
Examples of possible triggers:
- A community grief or disaster.
- An isolated community, particularly one that follows a strict religious faith and punishes any deviation.
- A pandemic or other threat that poses a risk of major health consequences.
This idea that an isolated, strictly religious community which punishes deviation may be a possible explanation for the spread of hysteria across Salem.
The Puritans believed that they were doing God's work, and there was little room for comprimise. Harsh punishments were inflicted on those who were seen as straying from God's work and women were expected to be modest and obedient. They believed in the Old Testament methods of punishment and people with differing faiths could be hanged, even missing Sunday Service could have you in stocks.
Whilst looking into the triggers and causes of Mass Hysteria/ Conversion Disorder, it is easy to see how living in these communities could effect its population, especially teenage girls. With the modern medical knowledge we have today, it is clear to make reasonable links, such as reflecting that Conversion Disorder does not last long, and the fact that the Salem Trials only really lasted around a year. Moreover, with a lack of scientific and medical knowledge, it is understandable that these strictly religious people, with no explanation of the cause of the girls torment, would turn to it being an effect of witch craft.
Despite this, a lot of innocent young girls, women and even some men, were tortured, imprisoned and killed.
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