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The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February and May More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging fourteen women and five men. One other man, Giles Corey , was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. Arrests were made in numerous towns beyond Salem and Salem Village known today as Danvers , notably Andover and Topsfield. The grand juries and trials for this capital crime were conducted by a Court of Oyer and Terminer in and by a Superior Court of Judicature in , both held in Salem Town, where the hangings also took place. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America. Only fourteen other women and two men had been executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the 17th century. Trials Of The Salem Witch Trials

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Social Studies. Answers 1. Arianna Perkins 19 June, 0. The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between and One day the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Know the Answer? Not Sure About the Answer? Try a smart search to find answers to similar questions.

Skip to content. The Salem witch trials have a special place in our national identity and vocabulary. Most Americans understand the reference, even if they know few of the historical details. The Salem trials also inspire a peculiar fascination: Perhaps no other site of deadly mass hysteria has become a major tourist destination.

Historical Context

Still, most practicing litigators probably know very little Tye the Salem witch trials. They offer countless insights into the significance of a stable and impartial judiciary, the indispensable place of legal counsel, the critical role of procedure, and—most importantly for purposes of this article—how the concept of proof can go terribly wrong. Permit me Trials Of The Salem Witch Trials start with some historical context, because that does a great deal of work here. Countless books have tried to explain why the Salem witch craze happened, as if it were an aberration, pointing toward everything from group psychosis to frontier stress to hallucinogenic yeast. In fact, witch hunts and trials had been going on in Europe for hundreds of years beforewith consequences of vastly greater magnitude. Nineteen accused witches were executed in Salem. The witch hunt in Germany sometimes saw more than Thd witches executed in a single day. And Salem pales in comparison with the mass prosecutions and executions that occurred in France and Scotland.

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Common-law countries value precedent, and Salem had an abundance of it—not just across Europe but across centuries. Granted, bythe craze had begun to fizzle out on the other side Trials Of The Salem Witch Trials the Atlantic, but it had by no means ended.

The folklorist George Lyman Kittredge found nothing even remotely strange in the trials that happened in Salem. As generally held true in Europe, the Salem trials hatched out of a period of political upheaval. Inthe Crown had issued a charter that, among other things, allowed for the creation of a general court. For reasons we do not need to explore here, England vacated the charter inso that by the Village of Salem was Trials Of The Salem Witch Trials operating without any regular form of government. He needed to Witdh something quickly. Https://amazonia.fiocruz.br/scdp/essay/mormon-bank-utah/analysis-of-the-book-scarlet.php had proved himself scrappy and resourceful but, unfortunately, had no background in the law. Phips would later regret this decision and would dissolve the very court he had established. The judges appointed to preside over the trials were a mixed lot at best.

Three of them Chief Judge William Stoughton, Judge John Richards, and Judge Wait Winthrop enjoyed close friendships with the clergyman Cotton Mather, one of the prime movers behind the witch hunt, and attended his church. Mather dedicated one of his books to Winthrop, and Richards consulted with Mather about the significance of evidence offered at the trials. One of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall, became so disillusioned after the first trial that he left.

Judge Samuel Sewell persisted in the work, but years later wrote an impassioned confession of his error. The law that these judges applied was hardly a masterpiece of clarity and due process. Phenomenon A Strange Court of Oyer and Terminer held witch trials on four occasions duringwith most sittings spanning a period of several days. The court could conduct multiple trials over the course of each convening because the proceedings moved at a dazzlingly fast pace, often lasting little more than an Triald.

This did not always play out as expected, as in the case of the cantankerous Giles Trialls, whose wife Martha had also been accused of Trials Of The Salem Witch Trials a witch. When Corey declined to make such a concession, the court attempted to extract Trias cooperation through a punishment that entailed placing more and more stones on his body until he relented. After the plea, jury selection ensued. It bore some resemblance to our own: The process started with a pool of 48 men, from which 12 were selected. The accused apparently could question the jurors and challenge them for cause.]