As so the beginning of the witch hunts of American history, in January 1692, eleven-year-old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris begin behaving much as the Goodwin children acted three years earlier. Soon Ann Putnam Jr. and other Salem girls begin acting similarly.Sometime in Mid-February a local doctor (historically assumed to be Doctor Griggs), attends to the "afflicted" girls, and first suggests that witchcraft may be the cause. Then in February Parris’s slaves, Tituba and John Indian, bake a “witch cake” with the girls’ urine and feed it to a dog. Other girls, including Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard, begin having fits. They accuse Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osburn of bewitching them. Then on February 29th based on formal complaints from Joseph Hutchinson, Thomas Putnam, Edward Putnam and Thomas Preston, Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin issue warrants to arrest Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba for afflicting Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard.
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The examination of a witch
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The life of a Puritan woman was full of intolerance and chastity and the time frame of the Salem Witch Trials were no different. During these accusations, trials and conviction the women were put through many tests. The examination process was one of ridicule and embarrassment. The examination of a witch was looking at the body of the “witch” was meant to carry the witch’s mark. The painting of this process gives a deeper understanding of how this took place. The room seems cramped and small, crowded full mostly men and only a few women. All the individuals in the room are fully dressed. Most of the men that are in the room are focused on a single individual. There is young woman in the center of the room. She is half dressed with her back to the frontal view and it is bare. There are three other ladies that are touching at her or point to different areas of her bare naked back. In the forefront of the painting there are two people a man and a woman both who have seemed to of fainted. The look on everyone face is anger or fear. Except for the young woman being examined, worry is what is across her face. She is probably scared of what is to come of this process and knows that the people of Salem are on a “witch-hunt.” Additionally at the background of the painting, what can be assumed is the main door is wide open with several people vying to enter, while another man in what looks like a fireman hat is stopping these individuals from entering with a stick in his hand. What this image sparks to mind is that we know in today’s society a woman would never be stripped down in front a group of people let alone in front of men. Because of gender norms today the idea the image brings is one of outrage and question. How could a group of townspeople and church believers to this to one of there own?
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. Sometime within March 1st and 5th the accused witches are examined in the Salem Village meetinghouse by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. The examination of a witch was looking at body of the “witch” was meant to carry the witch's mark. (Kallen 88)This normally took the form of an excrescence or area of skin that was insensible to pain, or a supernumerary teat from which the witch's familiar spirit, which normally took an animal form, was thought to suck blood. Thus the body of the witch might be subjected to penetration by bodkins or needles as the insensible spot was sought, or to searches for the teat, which was generally expected to be located on the suspected woman's genitals or anus. (Kallen 25)The women are sent to prison two days later. This trend of women accusing other women of affliction and witchcraft goes on for the next several months and by the end of April twenty-three women who are suspected are in jail. Then as it happens by May, another thirty-nine people are arrested for witchcraft. May 10th Sarah Osburn dies in jail. On June 2nd Phipps appoints a Court of Oyer and Terminer to try accused witches. Bridget Bishop is tried and sentenced to hang.
The jails of Salem and Boston would be described today as torture chambers. Inmates considered the most dangerous—such as witches---were kept in dungeons. These were dark, bitterly cold, and so damp that water ran down the walls. They reeked of unwashed bodies and human waste. All prisoners were forced to suffer inhuman treatment. (Carlson 99) They were kept hungry and thirsty, and they froze in the winter. During the Salem witch hysteria, even the four-year-old Dorcas Good was incarcerated in a Boston prison for alleged witchcraft.
Salem Witch Trials
Modern Day Hysterias
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