For Halloween: The Salem Witch Trials

As the witch trial hysteria subsided in England, it began to flourish in the American colonies. The idea of a threat from witchcraft was brought from England where persecution took place from the 15th through the 17th centuries. Salem’s trials began at the end of a period of witch persecutions in Europe as the Enlightenment took hold.

The Puritans felt that the devil and witches were real and posed a danger to them. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s criminal code, witchcraft was the second capital crime. Accusations of witchcraft didn’t follow patterns. Witchcraft sporadically happened and in isolation for the most part.

Puritan worldview was normal at the time. John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, delivered a sermon titled “A Citty on a Hill,” meaning that the colony was a model Christian society with no separation of church and state. Eventually, with new settlers from other areas, Massachusetts became more religiously diverse.

During the trials, no one was without suspicion but men were often the accusers of women and young girls. When someone was accused of being a witch, more people accused them like in a crowd mentality.

Leaders had to believe in the accusation in order for them to be considered worthy of imprisonment and execution. On June 2, 1692, they found Bridget Bishop guilty. She was convicted and the first one executed for witchcraft on December 10, 1692.