Salem Witchcraft Trials

Salem Witchcraft Trials occurred at Salem, Mass., the result of a belief in witchcraft assignable not to Puritanism, but to the temper of the times as evidenced also in England and on the Continent. Before 1688 four persons had been hanged for witchcraft near Boston, but the principal outbreak of persecution took place in 1692, when an epidemic disease resembling epilepsy spread through Danvers (part of Salem). Discouraged by the inability of physicians to control this disease, and encouraged by sermons from such clergymen as Cotton Mather, the belief was soon widespread that evil spirits in the form of witches were able to afflict the people at large. Increase Mather is frequently held responsible for fomenting the trials, although his Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits (1693) showed a rational attitude in disapproving “spectral evidence.” During the prevalence of the delusion, in the spring and summer of 1692, 19 persons were hanged; one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death; 55 were frightened or tortured into confessions of guilt; 150 were imprisoned; and more than 200 were named as deserving arrest. Learned and distinguished men promoted the delusion by acquiescing in the proceedings of the court instituted by the governor, Sir William Phips. When the governor's wife, some near relatives of Cotton Mather, and the sons of ex‐Governor Bradstreet became objects of suspicion, the spell began to break. Many of the accusers published solemn recantations, and Samuel Sewall was among those who did public penance, he for his part as a member of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer.

A Brief and True Narrative of Witchcraft at Salem Village (1692) was written by Deodat Lawson; Cotton Mather's affirmations are to be found in The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) and A Brand Pluck'd Out of the Burning (1693), to which Robert Calef replied in More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700). Mather in turn replied in Some Few Remarks Upon a Scandalous Book …by One Robert Calef (1701). A 20th‐century edition of the Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases (1914) was edited by G.L. Burr. Novels about Salem's witchcraft cases include John Neal's Rachel Dyer, Paulding's The Puritan and His Daughter, De Forest's Witching Times, and Esther Forbes's A Mirror for Witches; poems include Longfellow's New England Tragedies; and plays include J.N. Barker's Superstition, Cornelius Mathews's Witchcraft, Mary W. Freeman's Giles Corey, Yeoman, and Arthur Miller's The Crucible.