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SALEM WITCHES
September 2016 Discover American History
Meg Chorlian, Editor Debra M. Porter, Senior Art Director John Hansen, Designer Ellen Bingham, Copy Editor and Proofreader Naomi Pasachoff, Editorial Consultant, Research Associate, Williams College James M. O’Connor, Director of Editorial Jestine Ware, Assistant Editor Christine Voboril, Permissions Specialist Frances Nankin and Hope H. Pettegrew, Founders
Advisory Board
Eric Arnesen, Professor of History The George Washington University Diane L. Brooks, Ed.D., Director (retired) Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Office California Department of Education Ken Burns Florentine Films Beth Haverkamp Powers, Teacher Milford, New Hampshire
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Maryann Manning, Professor School of Education University of Alabama at Birmingham Alexis O’Neill, Author and Museum Education Consultant Lee Stayer, Teacher Advent Episcopal Day School Birmingham, Alabama
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Sandra Stotsky, Professor of Education Reform 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality University of Arkansas
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CONSULTING EDITOR
ABOUT THE COVER
Marilynne K. Roach is an illustrator, writer, and researcher who is a life-long resident of Massachusetts and lives a train ride away from Salem. She has written several books on the subject of the Salem witch trials. Having researched the 1692 trials for decades, she finds that new bits and pieces of information continue to turn up.
The Salem witch trials were held in a court before a jury, but it was impossible to defend against spectral evidence, which were claims by the accusers that they had “seen” the accused person’s spirit or ghost exhibiting witch-like behavior.
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F EATU R E S
A C T I V I T I E S
38 All About Salem Crossword Puzzle
2 Before Salem
by Andrew Matthews
6 Stressed Out
DEPARTMENTS
by Jennifer Raifteiri-McArdle
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The Witch Scare Begins
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Young Puritans
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Order in the Court!
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The “Late Troubles at Salem”
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Never Forget
by Marilynne K. Roach
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by Marjorie Rackliffe
by Marjorie Rackliffe
by Barbara Brooks Simons
Examining the Evidence: An Interview with Marilynne K. Roach
1 Editor’s Note 24 Did You Know? 40 Going Global
by Bryan Langdo 42 Brain Ticklers 43 Your Letters 44 Just for Fun 45 Dr. D’s Mystery Hero by Dennis Denenberg 46 Spotlight On . . . by Ebenezer 48 Say What? 49 Cartoon Connection by K.E. Lewis
by Jennifer Raifteiri-McArdle
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by Will Bremen
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by Meg Chorlian
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Modern Witch-Hunts
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Witchy Characters
by Marcia Amidon Lusted
by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers and Andrew Matthews
During the witch trials, the atmosphere was so frightening that family members accused one another of being witches!
EDITOR’S NOTE Good thing Puritans didn’t celebrate holidays. Can you imagine how awkward large family get-togethers might have been in the years that followed?
The Salem witch trials is a topic that is hard to fathom today. To even begin to understand what happened, we need to forget our 21st-century lives and try to imagine life in Salem in 1692. At that time and in that place, people believed that Devil-worshipping witches were real. As fear and hysteria spread, hundreds of people faced accusations of being witches, and 20 innocent people were killed. The more I read about the trials, the more fascinating and layered the history became. In the end, however, I kept wondering one thing: What would I have done in Salem in 1692 if I or someone I knew was accused? How would you answer that question?
Editor
Before Salem by Andrew Matthews
T
he word witch often brings up an image of an old woman with a hooked nose and a pointy chin wearing a peaked black hat and a black dress. She spends her time stirring a brew of nastysmelling things in a cauldron. She creates mischief, casting spells and cursing people as she flies through the night on a broomstick with her black cat. Today, people understand that this concept of a witch is not real. Yet, until a few hundred years ago, people believed that it was true. They also believed that witches were the servants of the Devil.
The Middle Ages was the period in European history from about a .d. 476 to 1453, between antiquity and the Renaissance. Heretics are people who hold controversial opinions, especially in public opposition to the Roman Catholic Church. The Inquisition was a court held in the Roman Catholic Church to identify and persecute heretics or church members who publicly dissented from the Church’s beliefs.
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Versions of witches evolved over many centuries. Ancient civilizations believed in multiple gods and goddesses who could inspire good and evil. People prayed to certain gods for their aid and intervention—to help the sick or promote healthy crops or provide blessings. Several goddesses in Greek myths were closely associated with darkness and moonlit nights: Artemis, goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and childbirth; Selene, goddess of the moon; and Hecate, goddess of the spirits of the dead, witchcraft, and magic. Hecate particularly shared many characteristics later attributed to witches. She lived in tombs and appeared at crossroads on clear nights, accompanied by spirits and howling dogs. She had knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants. She was present when the spirit entered and left the human body—at birth and at death. Over the centuries, a shift occurred away from worshipping many gods. The rise of Judaism and Christianity introduced the idea of one God as the image of good, and the Devil or Satan as the image of evil. As Christianity spread and became more established in Europe, religion and religious leaders held enormous influence on people’s lives. Church leaders dismissed the existence of witches as superstition and as not being in agreement with Christian beliefs.
Toward the end of the Middle Ages, witchcraft and magic became closely associated with the Devil. Witches were credited with all kinds of powers. They were said to transform themselves or other people into animals and to enter hidden places by leaving their bodies behind. They were believed to make spells and potions capable of inspiring passion, creating delusions, and changing love to hate. They were believed capable of causing illness and bringing about storms and other disasters. To carry out their secret plans, witches met together after dark. They were said to recruit followers by getting them to sign their names in the Devil’s book. The mostly Christian Europe of the 15th century believed it was waging a war against the Devil and his followers. Witchcraft became a crime so terrible and evil that sparing the innocent was not as important as punishing the guilty. Any means, including torture and false promises, was justified if it led to the discovery and punishment of the guilty. Since women were viewed as spiritually and physically weaker than men, they were considered more vulnerable to the attacks and corrupting influence of the Devil and more likely to become his followers. Witch-hunting was supported by the most powerful men of the age. In 1320, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John XXII, declared that witches were heretics. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a decree that defined the powers of the Inquisition to be used for the suppression of witchcraft. Two years later, two German friars, Henry Kraemer and Jacob Sprenger, published the Malleus Maleficarum, or The Hammer of Witches. The publication stated that acts of witchcraft were real, dangerous, and associated with the Devil. The work provided information on how to fight and destroy witches. It supported the use of torture and suggested that if
Over time, practicing sorcery or magic became connected with witches doing the Devil’s work.
FAST FACT While the vast majority of accused “witches” over the centuries were women, men were accused of practicing witchcraft, too.
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DID YOU KNOW?
to be ous “witch” he most fam of Arc. pe was Joan ro u E in d te u llied exec nt girl who ra sa a e p h c n e vading Joan was a Fr defeat an in to y rm a h c n tured the Fre She was cap s. n a e rl O t a d over to English army f 1430, turne o g n ri sp e itch, in th of being a w d se u c c a , the English at the stake and burned ter was in 1431. She la int. declared a sa
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Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for being a “witch,” but her real “crime” may have been that she was a woman who stepped outside the accepted boundaries between men and women in the 15th century.
Fear and hysteria can make people do terrible things.
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the “guilty” party could not be made to confess, it might be because the Devil had power over her or him. From the 15th through the 18th centuries, tens of thousands of accused “witches” were burned at the stake in Europe. The witch-hunts reached their height between the late 1500s to the mid-1600s. The accused came from a variety of backgrounds, but they were more likely to be women, poor, or elderly. They also often showed an independence from male authority or an outspokenness that was not considered appropriate for the time. It was not until the 18th century that witch-hunting was discredited and witches and witchcraft were proclaimed imaginary. In the American colonies, the persecution of “witches” occurred on a smaller scale. While hundreds were accused, less than 35 New Englanders were executed for witchcraft. Hartford, Connecticut, was the site of the first public hanging of a “witch” in 1647. Several other executions took place in the years that followed, and four convicted “witches” were hanged in 1662. Twenty men and women were victims of the 1692 Salem witch trials.
In the colonies, as in England, it was against the law to be a witch, but it was a civil issue in the colonies, not a religious issue as it was in England. As a capital crime, “witches” in the colonies were hanged. Today, it is difficult to fully understand the actions and behaviors of people 300 years ago. And yet, forms of witch-hunts have taken place in the United States since then. Check out the article on page 32 for a look at modern-day situations in which fear and hysteria have led to the persecution and mistreatment of innocent people. t
Germany led an aggressive effort to eliminate “witches” in western Europe. Here, three victims are publicly burned in the city of Derneburg in 1555.
Anne Whitehouse contributed to this article.
Women Healers O
ver the centuries, women traditionally have been the caretakers of the home and families. In their preparation of meals, they developed a vast knowledge of herbs and plants. They discovered that some plants worked as medicines or pain relievers. From generation to generation, women passed down their self-taught understanding of natural remedies to relieve suffering and ease pain in their families and communities. Mothers, sisters, and other female relatives also often exclusively cared for pregnant women. This was mostly because it was considered indecent for any man other than a woman’s husband to see her in any unclothed condition. The many complications that were associated with
by Catherine Williams
childbirth meant that most mothers faced the process with a certain amount of fear. Midwives or women attendants developed a knowledge and a confidence that men lacked: how to help deliver children and to ease pain during childbirth. During the Middle Ages, men—but not women—had the opportunity to attend medical universities. As medicine developed into a profession for men, they may have felt threatened by the role of self-taught women healers. By the 15th century, both religious and civil leaders in Europe began suggesting a connection between women healers and witches. Catherine Williams was a senior editor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
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d e s s e r SSttressed t u O Out eiri-McArdle by Jennifer Raift
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Puritan colonists in the 1600s remained on the alert for all sorts of danger: Native Americans, deadly diseases, political turmoil . . . and witches.
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alem was a community under stress. Residents faced constant threats in their daily lives. Real threats included attacks from Native Americans, unresolved political issues between England and the Massachusetts Bay colony, outbreaks of deadly diseases, and severe weather that impacted crop growth. A less real but still great fear was belief in the existence of the Devil and his constant attempts to corrupt people.
Fear of Attack Native American groups had lived in the Massachusetts Bay area for centuries prior to the arrival of the first English colonists in 1620. While the Puritan and Native American cultures were vastly different, initial interactions between the two groups were mutually beneficial. The growing community of Puritans and their claims on the land, however, became a major obstacle to continued coexistence with the Native Americans.
Hoping to drive the Puritans away, native groups launched attacks on their towns or settlements. Sometimes the attacks were quick raids, other times they turned into longer wars. King Philip’s War (1675–1676) was a Wampanoag-led rebellion that spread throughout present-day New England. Colonial towns were destroyed, and several thousand people died on both sides of the conflict. It was particularly devastating to the Wampanoag and the Narragansett Indian populations.
The first English settlers in Massachusetts began working immediately to build a permanent home.
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With their homes burned and families killed, displaced settlers straggled into towns looking for a safe haven. The fear of attacks created an unsettled atmosphere in Massachusetts. It also reinforced the Puritans’ sense that they lived on the edge of a wilderness.
Political Uncertainty
Clashes between New England colonists and Native Americans in the 1600s destroyed entire towns and settlements.
Revoked means made invalid by recalling or reversing.
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When King Charles I of England granted a royal charter to the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629, it gave the company the right to self-government. The charter didn’t specifically state that the governor and officers of the company had to remain in England to conduct their business. At that time, certain groups, such as the Puritans, feared for their ability to practice their faith without persecution in England. Seeing an opportunity for political and religious freedom in the New World, the Puritans decided to set sail with their charter and set up their company’s government in the colony itself. Over the decades, the Massachusetts Bay Company repeatedly violated the charter’s terms. It established religious laws and discriminated against other religious groups such as Anglicans and Quakers. English leaders, preoccupied by a civil war, did not actively try to stop the company’s attempts at self-rule until 1684, when King Charles II revoked the charter. King James II, who succeeded his brother to the throne in 1685, created the Dominion of New England in 1686. It combined British colonies in present-day Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey under one governor. The newly appointed governor, Sir Edmund Andros, began by abolishing local legislatures and raising taxes. He also voided all land titles that had been created under the former colonies. In some cases, decades of work completed by the colonists to improve the land and build homes suddenly became irrelevant. Andros then established high fees to reinstate the titles. Those who refused to pay lost their land. Several years of political and legal uncertainty in Massachusetts Bay ended when a royal charter was restored in 1691. It united Massachusetts Bay with colonies in Plymouth and Maine. By then, individual residents in and around Salem had fought with one another over land rights and shifting property lines.
Colonial Wars Tensions between France and England erupted into armed conflict in their North American colonies during King William’s War (1689–1697). Battles along the frontier between New France (present-day Canada) and New England led to more displaced people and families without homes. As some of them trickled into Salem, they added to the community’s already strained society and resources and created more stress and mistrust among the residents.
FAST FACT In 1752, Salem Village officially separated from Salem Town to become the town of Danvers. Salem is now a city.
An Atmosphere of Intolerance Puritans were intolerant of anyone who failed to follow their strict civil and moral codes. They believed that following the Bible’s teachings, regular church attendance, and good behavior shielded them from God’s anger. They also believed that God showed his displeasure by sending wars, epidemics, or crop failures. Puritans also encouraged neighbors to monitor one another and report improper behavior, which led to an unhealthy interest in the activities of others.
Town Versus Village Local politics were another source of tension. Salem consisted of a town on the coast and a village inland about five miles away and a two-hour walk. The villagers were mostly small farmers who worked hard to earn a living from the soil. The town was a prosperous port in which educated and wealthy citizens engaged in fishing, shipbuilding, and a profitable trade with London. Although the town depended on the village for food, the town leaders set the crop prices and collected taxes from the villagers. The town also controlled the church and church attendance. As the village grew, however, its residents petitioned for the right to have their own minister and church closer to where they lived. In 1672, the town agreed. By that time, Salem Village had grown enough to develop a different identity from Salem Town.
Now I’m stressed out!
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Church was an important part of Puritan life, and attendance at meetings—even when it meant walking a great distance such as between Salem’s town and village—was required to remain in good standing within the community.
Ordained means invested with the authority of a minister or priest. Smallpox was a highly infectious, often fatal, viral disease.
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But the villagers were not in complete agreement about their new church. They argued about how to pick the minister and who would be expected to pay for the support of the minister and his home. Petty disputes in the village became so common and constantly shared with the town that the town leaders finally asked the villagers to stop involving them. Those unresolved issues boiled over in 1691. Two years earlier, Salem Village had hired its fourth minister in less than 20 years, the Reverend Samuel Parris. Parris was the village’s first ordained minister, but his sermons denouncing the worldly ways and economic prosperity of Salem Town created conflict among the villagers. Some farmers agreed with Parris and felt that the “worldliness” of Salem Town threatened true Puritan values. But other villagers did not care for Parris and his fiery sermons. A few households refused to pay their share of his salary. They also refused to supply firewood to the Parris household, which had been part of the agreement when he was hired. Then, in 1692, an outbreak of smallpox hit Massachusetts. To the Puritan residents living in Salem at the time, it may have seemed as though an already hard life had become particularly cursed. When Parris’s sermons hinted at the Devil’s presence in Salem, it seemed easy to accept that as a possible explanation for Salem’s problems. t Jennifer Raifteiri-McArdle lives in central British Columbia not far from Historic Barkerville, a restored goldrush town. When not chasing chickens and cattle, she writes for young readers and draws and paints.
The Parrises’ slave, Tituba, may have dabbled in magic with the village children during the long, cold winter of 1691–92.
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he panic that led to the Salem witch trials started with little things. In January 1692, two girls began making strange noises, complaining of headaches, and crawling under the furniture. They made odd gestures and babbled sentences no one could understand. The girls were nine-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Parris and her 11-year-old cousin, Abigail Williams. Betty’s father was the minister in Salem Village, the rural part of the port of Salem Town in Massachusetts. Besides Betty’s parents, the Reverend Samuel and Elizabeth Parris, two other children
lived in the home: Betty’s 10-yearold brother, Thomas, and 5-year-old sister, Susanna. The family also owned two enslaved people, John and Tituba Indian. Before becoming a minister, Parris had worked as an English merchant in Barbados, where he had inherited his father’s sugar plantation. Tituba may have come from Barbados. The Parrises could not figure out what was the matter with the girls. Their strange actions may have been part of a game that went on too long. Or they may have frightened themselves with forbidden fortunetelling. Parris had no
The
Witch Scare Begins by Marilynne K. Roach
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The afflicted girls in the Parris household had such violent outbreaks that they had to be watched constantly.
Sure sounds like something scared those girls!
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doubt told them that trying to learn the future would only attract evil spirits. Yet, some people in Puritan Massachusetts did make the attempt. That winter, at least two local girls used an English folkcharm to learn who their future husbands might be. It is not clear if Betty and Abigail were involved in the fortunetelling, but they may have known about it. Just the knowledge of something forbidden may have thoroughly frightened them.
The girls probably were aware that there was plenty to be afraid of in Massachusetts at the time. Ministers held a central role in Puritan communities, so the parsonage was probably full of the latest news about frontier attacks, government interference from England, and pirates off the coast. Near the end of January, French forces from Canada and their Algonquin allies attacked and burned York, Maine, and killed the minister. York was not that far from Salem. The girls also may have understood that residents of Salem Village did not agree that Parris was the right minister for the community. Some people had stopped paying their share of his salary, and the parsonage woodpile was nearly used up. The issue of firewood supply became a big problem as winter approached and temperatures dropped. New England winters were often harsh and cold, and without a supply of wood, the Parris family could not keep warm or cook meals. Nothing seemed secure. Betty and Abigail could well have been afraid of something or many things, their symptoms a result of their fears. At first, the Parrises treated the malady like any illness. They tried home remedies and prayer, but those attempts did not stop the strange symptoms. They called in local physicians, one after another. No one could find a physical reason for the girls’ illness. One of the doctors finally suggested that the girls might be “under an evil hand”—or suffering from a witch’s curse. Word of the possible diagnosis spread through the village. Meanwhile, the girls could not be left alone. Friends and neighbors
came to help. One February day, neighbor Mary Sibley came to the parsonage to keep an eye on the girls. She showed John and Tituba how to make a charm against witchcraft. It was supposed to cancel out the evil magic. Instead, Betty and Abigail became more distressed than before. They convulsed and claimed that they were being bitten, pinched, and stuck with pins. They reported apparitions and said that they were what caused their pain. Betty and Abigail must have been asked who was hurting them. Eventually, the girls gave names— people who seemed likely to cause harm, people who unnerved them, or names heard in gossip. Tituba’s name was first, then two other women were added. Illtempered Sarah Good had come to the parsonage begging. Sarah Osborne was a sickly woman. Her sons thought their mother’s second husband had stolen their late father’s farm from them. Two girls in two other households also began to act bewitched: Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard. On February 29, after days of storms and floods, four men from the village registered a complaint before the Salem magistrates. The three women named by Betty and Abigail were arrested then questioned in the village on March 1. All four girls were present as witnesses. Flinching, contorting, and crying out in pain, they blamed the accused for their affliction. Good and Osborne denied the charges of witchcraft but were held for trial. Tituba also denied that she was a witch, at first, but under relentless questioning, she began telling the magistrates what they
seemed to want to hear. She claimed that witch spirits had hurt her too and described groups of witches flying to the village. The magistrates took what she said to mean she collaborated with witches and that she was a witch herself. By the end of the session, Tituba was also jailed to await trial. People were left wondering who the other witches were and how many there were. As the number of accusers and accused grew, the panic spread. t Marilynne K. Roach is a writer, illustrator, and researcher who has been studying the Salem witch trials for decades.
A parsonage is the official residence provided by a church to its parson. Apparitions are ghostly figures. Magistrates are civil officers with powers to enforce the law.
Older, less affluent women who lived on the fringes of society became the initial targets of the witch-hunts.
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Young Puritans by Jennifer Raifteiri-McArdle
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C
an you picture what life was like for a Puritan The Puritans believed that an educated, literate child living in Massachusetts in the late 17th community was essential. Being familiar with God’s century? Most families lived in a home that word in the Bible protected people from Satan’s consisted of only a few rooms heated by a central attempt to corrupt them. Thus, children were fireplace. No one had privacy, and several children taught to read, either at home or at a dame school, often shared a bed. There was no electricity, runif a family could afford it. Education focused on ning water, or indoor bathroom. Bible readings and teaching right from wrong. The Everything was made by hand and at home, education of girls usually ended once they knew which required time and effort. Nearly all the how to read. Boys who hoped to attend a university members of a family worked six days a week continued their education. from dawn to dusk. After the morning meal Hard work was important to everyone’s survival. and devotions, the day’s chores began. Even Children were expected to work hard and young children completed small tasks obey their parents. Parents believed such as gathering sticks for firethat the will of children needed wood, weeding the garden, and to be broken, and the puncollecting eggs. ishment for bad behavior Girls were taught the could be harsh. Children skills needed to be wives were allowed time to mpany was o C ay and mothers: how to play, and adults played B s tt h e Massachuse rt h o N in s ie n cook and preserve food musical instruments rst colo one of the fi ake public m to s for winter, how to spin and danced for recrew la ss merica to pa s, towns 0 A 4 16 e th In flax and wool to make ation and enjoyment, andatory. education m families were 0 5 st a cloth and clothing, and but those moments le t a consisted of ns that t a w o th T r. e h c a how to care for livestock. came only after chores hire a te expected to families re o m r o They learned how to were completed. 0 10 consisted of a e id v ro p to make butter, cheese, soap, Church meeting was d were expecte l. o o h sc candles, beer, and cider. r a large part of Puritan a m gram Older daughters helped care life. From sundown Saturday for and watch younger siblings evening until sundown Sunday and learned how to care for the sick. evening, no work was done. Most girls’ tasks kept them in or around the Members of the church were expected home and under a mother’s watchful eye. Winters to attend services, which involved long sermons. were particularly hard, when girls spent more time After church, families passed the rest of the day indoors with little to fill their time. quietly, perhaps discussing the sermon. A second Boys enjoyed more freedom than girls did— church-going day took place during Devotions are acts of most of their chores were outside the home. They the week. religious reflection or cut and stacked the firewood, which was a big job The Puritans built communities that prayer. Literate means able to because wood was needed to heat the home and centered on God, the church, and the read and write. cook the food. They explored outdoors while teachings in the Bible. Puritan beliefs A dame school was a hunting or fishing. They were set up to learn a prepared children to be devout, Godschool setting within trade such as miller, furrier, or blacksmith, so fearing adults. Those same values also a home, in which an educated woman that they might become the head of their own created problems when the idea that taught a range of household someday. Childhood was considered witches had corrupted their commuyoung children how to read, write, and over by age 14. nity was introduced in 1692. t
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DID YOU KNOW?
understand arithmetic.
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h t e C n i o r u e r d t r ! O by Marjorie Rackliffe
W
illiam Phips, the trial and sentencing came last. new governor of Ironically, the defendants who the province of refused to lie and insisted on Massachusetts Bay, arrived in their innocence never avoided Boston on May 14, 1692. He being hanged, while terrified found the jails overflowing with people who confessed to being people accused of witchcraft. The witches and named other witches first arrests had taken place in early avoided the gallows. March, but the colony lacked an official The Court of Oyer and Terminer court to prosecute the cases. Armed wasted no time. Just two weeks after its Massachusetts Bay Colony formation on May 27, Bridget Bishop was with a new charter and the authority governor William Phips to act, Phips established the Court of hanged on June 10. She was the first of Oyer and Terminer (oyer means “to 19 people who were eventually convicted hear” and terminer means “to deterof being a witch. Although Bishop was not the mine”). He promptly approved the appointment of first to be accused, her reputation for fighting with eight justices and one chief justice to hear the witchher husband and using coarse language and a prior craft cases. The justices were picked from among claim of witchcraft made the case against her seem the leaders in Boston and Salem. Most of them easy to win. More than 10 people came forward to firmly believed that witches existed, and they were offer evidence of Bishop’s “guilt.” determined to root out any evil influences in their The case against Bishop—and the others who folcommunity. The chief justice, William Stoughton, felt lowed her—was based on spectral evidence. Spectral particularly strongly, and he led the court’s effort to evidence was a legal term referring to evidence from identify and punish all witches. the spirit world. One person described Bishop’s spirit There were several steps to the legal proceedings. stealing eggs and then changing into a cat. Another First, someone registered an official complaint. If person testified that the money Bishop had paid it proved valid, the accused was arrested and queshim disappeared from his pocket as he walked away tioned to see if there was sufficient reason to bring from her. Still another person claimed that Bishop’s him or her before a jury. That meant exhausting and spirit had tried to drown her. Other “witches” were repeated questioning by at least two magistrates. The accused of pinching, choking, scratching, or biting accused was also examined for physical signs of a people. Spectral evidence meant that the hysterical witch, such as a mole or birthmark. If the investigatales of teenaged girls and young women were treated tions supported a case, the accused then appeared as hard evidence. The accused people were left trying before the grand jury so it could gather evidence to prove their innocence and defend themselves from and the defendant could enter a plea. The things that only their accusers could “see.”
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When Tituba, the Reverend Samuel Parris’s servant, confessed to witchcraft, people believed that the Devil was present in their village. After Bishop’s hanging, the accused understood what was at stake. Many of those who confessed to being witches did so under the threat or pain of torture. Some of the accused confessed freely, believing themselves to be witches or at least not purely good in the eyes of the society in which they lived. Not everyone was comfortable with the proceedings. One justice quit the court after Bishop was hanged. A few brave souls spoke out against the young accusers. The court ignored those protests. As fears of witches and witchcraft took root and spread, those who tried to dismiss the claims of witchcraft often became the next to be accused. John Proctor came forward to defend his wife and ended up being accused and convicted himself.
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DID YOU KNOW ?
ne justice in the Court o f Oyer and Terminer, Jo hn Hathorne , led the que in a way tha stioning t suggested he believed accused’s gu in the ilt, not in try ing to get to Hathorne ba the truth. dgered the a ccused peop twisted their le to confess words, and tr , identify oth ie d to g e t them to ers who were witches. Hath ancestor of orne was an Nathaniel H awthorne, th author. Haw e 19 th-century thorne chan ged the spell his last nam ing of e to be diffe rent from his relative. Still , Puritan New England pro an interestin ved g setting for a n u m b er of his famou s works.
Magistrates repeatedly questioned the accused “witches” while they waited in prison, in the hope of getting a confession.
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The “evidence” that was presented at the trials, however false, resulted in conviction after conviction.
As the accused waited their turn for trial, they were kept in jail—a horrible experience that sometimes lasted for months. Accused “witches” were confined to the dungeons, which were dark, windowless areas. Rats were common, and bathrooms did not exist. The prisoners often were kept chained in irons because it was believed that iron counteracted magic and that restricting a witch’s movements prevented the ability to perform witchcraft. Prisoners also had to pay a fee and had to contribute money for their own food. Even after the witch-hunt ended, some accused people remained in jail because they owed money to the jailer. And
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many of the accused, but not yet convicted, people had their possessions confiscated while they were in jail awaiting trial. The prison experience destroyed the physical and the emotional health of those who were jailed. Dorothy Good, the young daughter of Sarah Good, joined her mother in prison as an accused witch. After nearly eight months, Dorothy was released, but the experience scarred her for life. Among those who died in prison was Sarah Osborne, one of the first to be accused and convicted of being a witch. Even respected members of the community became victims of the village’s hysteria. Described
as a kind, devout, grandmotherly person, Rebecca Nurse was accused of witchcraft. Friends and neighbors came to her defense, and a jury initially found her “not guilty.” Stoughton, determined to get a conviction, urged the jury to reconsider its verdict. It brought back a charge of “guilty.” Governor Phips then stepped in and pardoned Nurse, but he was pressured to reverse his ruling. Nurse was hanged on July 19. Of the 20 men and women to be put to death during the Salem witch trials, Giles Corey met a different fate than hanging: He was slowly pressed to death beneath a plank upon which great stones were placed. Corey had refused to enter a plea because without it, the court could not proceed with a trial. By preventing a trial and the guilty verdict that was sure to follow, Corey hoped to keep his personal possessions from being confiscated. He wanted to make sure that his family would inherit them. The court’s attempt to get Corey to confess failed: The only words he uttered were “more weight” before he died. The bodies of the people who were hanged as witches were hastily buried near Gallows Hill
Victims of the Salem Witch Trials Hanged on July 10, 1692 Bridget Bishop, Salem
Hanged on July 19, 1692 Sarah Good, Salem Village Rebecca Nurse, Salem Village Susannah Martin, Amesbury Elizabeth Howe, Ipswich Sarah Wildes, Topsfield
Hanged on August 19, 1692 George Burroughs, Wells (Maine) John Proctor, Salem Village John Willard, Salem Village George Jacobs, Andover Martha Carrier, Andover
Pressed to death on September 19, 1692 Giles Corey, Salem Farms
Hanged on September 22, 1692 Martha Corey, Salem Farms Mary Easty, Topsfield Alice Parker, Salem Ann Pudeator, Salem Margaret Scott, Rowley Wilmot Redd, Marblehead Samuel Wardwell, Andover Mary Parker, Andover
At first, Giles Corey seemed to support the idea that his wife, Martha, may have been casting spells, but he later refused to testify against her or even enter a plea in his own defense.
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Men as well as women were convicted of being witches. This scene from the Salem Witch Museum depicts the hanging of John Proctor at Gallows Hill.
where they died. In some cases, the family of the deceased secretly retrieved their loved one’s body to bury it in an unmarked grave on family land. After the last hanging of eight men and women on September 22, people realized that good people were being put to death. Almost all the convicted people had denied the charges of witchcraft right up until the end. The exception was Samuel Wardwell, who had initially confessed, accused others, and then retracted his confession. George Burroughs, a former minister in Salem Village, had calmly recited the Lord’s Prayer without error before he was hanged, which was thought to be an impossible task to complete by a true witch. In the end, the witch-hunts spread to 24 different communities, including Amesbury, Andover, Gloucester, Ipswich, Salisbury, and Topsfield.
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More than 200 people faced accusations of being witches, and more than 150 were arrested. Other than Wardwell, the people who confessed remained in jail to be used as witnesses to identify other witches. The panic ended before they could be tried. Accused by children, neighbors, and even their own family members—husbands turned in wives, children accused parents—20 innocent people were executed, and four adults and an infant died in prison. The dark chapter in America’s history known as the Salem witch trials lasted less than a year, yet it would cast a long shadow over the centuries that followed. t
Marjorie Rackliffe is a self-taught American history geek who never tires of learning.
The “Late Troubles at Salem” by Marjorie Rackliffe
B
y the end of September 1692, 20 people in Massachusetts Bay were dead by order of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. While Chief Justice William Stoughton had no regrets and appeared determined to continue the witch-hunts, other men had grown uneasy. A few prominent people began to express their concerns publicly. The Reverend Increase Mather, a well-respected and influential Boston minister, became alarmed at the court’s process. While Mather did not question the existence of witches, he wondered if innocent people were being put to death. On October 3, an essay he had recently completed, Cases of Conscience, was shared with other Boston ministers. It questioned relying exclusively on spectral evidence to convict a person of witchcraft. He cautioned, “[I]t were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned.” The Reverend Samuel Willard, another influential Boston minister, also tried to silence the witchcraft hysteria. He had spoken publicly against the unjust trials. He wrote a fictitious argument between two men, one from Boston and one from Salem. In it, he pointed The Reverend Increase Mather’s son, the Reverend Cotton Mather, offered a defense of the witch-hunts in The Wonders of the Invisible World.
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It is good to know a few people tried to be the voice of reason!
The Reverend Increase Mather tried to uphold the efforts of the court and the justices while also warning against the use of spectral evidence.
out the irony of the situation in Salem: If a person confessed to being a witch, he or she survived, but if a person claimed innocence and denied being a witch, he or she was tried, found guilty, and executed. Also in early October, Thomas Brattle, a well-known scientist and Boston merchant, wrote a letter that offered a description of what was taking place in Massachusetts Bay. The letter was copied and shared in Boston. In it, Brattle condemned the methods that the court had been using in the trials. He too believed that spectral evidence should not have been allowed, and he was scornful of how the “bewitched” girls had been treated as visionaries. Pointing out how families had been ruined by the court’s irresponsible pursuit of witches, he wondered if people would someday “not look upon these things without the greatest of sorrow and grief imaginable.” The growing public unease pushed Governor William Phips to take action. He dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer on October 29, 1692. More than 100 people accused of witchcraft remained in jail, however. Phips ordered a new court—the Superior Court of Judicature—to conduct the remaining trials. Spectral evidence was not allowed in those proceedings. All but three people were acquitted, and Phips eventually pardoned those three people in May 1693. But while some people seemed to wrestle with feelings of guilt and remorse, there remained a general refusal to acknowledge what had taken place. A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft, written by the Reverend John Hale and published in 1702, attempted to make sense of the events of 1692.
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Acquitted means to be freed or cleared of a charge or accusation. Slander is a false or injurious statement or report about someone.
Thomas Maule was a Quaker and a Salem Town resident who took issue with the Puritans’ handling of the trials. He compared it to their persecution of Quakers. In 1695, he wrote Truth Held Forth and Maintained. It claimed that God would condemn the leaders of the Court of Oyer and Terminer for putting innocent people to death. Maule was arrested for slander and blasphemy. He spent a year in jail before being tried, but the jury refused to find him guilty. On January 14, 1697, Massachusetts declared a day of fasting and prayer as a public acknowledgement and apology before God and the community of the great wrong that had been committed. Samuel Sewall alone publicly apologized for his part in the trials as a justice in the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Sewall stood up in front of the Boston congregation as his minister read his note of apology. Sewall accepted “the blame and shame” of the witch trials court. Guilt also seemed to motivate about a dozen jurors from the trials, who also came forward to ask God’s forgiveness. Only one of the “bewitched” girls ever publicly apologized. Twelve-year-old Ann Putnam Jr. had testified against all but two of the people who were hanged. In August 1706, as she prepared to formally join a Puritan congregation, she asked for forgiveness for her role in taking the lives of innocent people, blaming the Devil for her actions. Although some restitution was eventually made to the families of the executed and accused, the damage to lives was far reaching. Most of the accused people discovered that their personal property had been confiscated while they waited in prison for a trial. Once they were freed, they went back to living with neighbors, or in some cases with family members, who had accused them of being witches. t
Blasphemy is an irreverent act, writing, or utterance concerning God or a sacred being. Restitution means the effort to bring back to a former condition or to restore.
Justice Samuel Sewall asked his minister to read the apology he wrote for his role in the witch trials.
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Know
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Ch ris War e
ou Did Y
y
b ted a r t illus
In the last 100 years, the portrayal of witches in popular culture has come a long way. Meet some of the best good witches. Glinda, known as the Good Witch of the South in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book (1900) and the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz movie (1939), uses her special powers to help and protect others, particularly the Munchkins and Dorothy.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch was introduced in 1962 in Archie Comics. She is kind and friendly and secretly uses her powers to help her friends when they get into jams. In 1996, Sabrina Spellman was the subject of a television sitcom based on the comic. 24
In the 1988 action fantasy film Willow, Fin Raziel is a sorceress who uses her magic to help the movie’s main character, Willow, overcome the odds as he fulfills his mission to protect an innocent baby from the evil Bavmorda.
Author Madeleine L’Engle introduced Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which in A Wrinkle in Time in 1969. These three otherworldly beings appear as witches to Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin, and they use their powers to help the children rescue Meg’s and Charles Wallace’s father.
Hermione Granger—the smart, overachieving young witch from the Harry Potter book and movie series—made her first appearance in 1997. The fact that her parents are muggles (nonmagical) makes Hermione’s skill as a witch even more impressive. 25
T E G R O F R E NEV by Barbara Brooks Simons
What a beautiful space to stop in and reflect and remember.
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ix towering locust trees shade a small square park in Salem. It is located near a historic cemetery and a block away from bustling downtown shops. As you step across the paving stones at the entrance, you notice words carved there. They are the protests that the accused people made: I am no witch. I am innocent. As you step into the park, you speak more softly. So do other people. Around the square are low walls of cut granite, with 20 rough-cut pieces of stone jutting out.
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The stones look like benches, but as you walk along the path, you see a carved name and a date on the surface of each stone: one for each of the 20 women and men executed during the witch trials of 1692. The first reads Bridget Bishop Hanged June 10, 1692. The next five stones record five hangings on the same day, July 19, 1692. The victims’ names are Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good, and Sarah Wildes. And so, you walk slowly around the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. Flowers are on nearly all of the
stones. A few are store-bought bouquets, others are just wildflowers, picked nearby and left by visitors as if to say, “Sorry” or “We remember you.” The last eight stones record the final day of executions: September 22, 1692. More than 300 years later, Salem’s past has helped shape its current identity as a tourist spot—especially at Halloween. The town is filled with fun shops and spooky museums selling “witchy” souvenirs. But people never forgot the town’s tragic past and the dreadful events of the summer of 1692. In 1992, the
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300th anniversary of the witch trials, the Tercentenary Committee chose to remember and honor the injustice done in 1692. One result was the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. A National Endowment for the Arts grant helped fund the project. More Tercentenary means than 240 designers submitted plans. 300th anniversary or celebration. The winning entry was a collaboration An attainder is the between architect James Cutler and artdishonored state into ist Maggie Smith: a simple but moving which a defendant is placed when a open square with stone benches. sentence against him At the dedication of the memorial on or her for a capital August 5, 1992, the main speaker was offense is handed down. Elie Wiesel. A survivor of the Nazi death
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camps in World War II (1939–1945) and winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Price, Wiesel spoke about the importance of resisting intolerance and oppression. Another speaker at the ceremony was African American actor GregAlan Williams. Williams received the first Salem Award for Human Rights & Social Justice for his heroic actions during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He stepped in to defend a Japanese American man who was being beaten by a mob. The Salem Award is part of the community’s effort “to keep alive the lessons” of the witch trials and to turn the events of 1692 into a continuing fight for human rights. Since 1992, the annual award has been given to someone who fights for tolerance and understanding. Winners have included men and women working for local, national, and worldwide issues that range from immigration rights to prison reform and education for women and girls in Pakistan. By 2012, 20 years after the 300th anniversary of the trials, about 6 million people had visited the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. The stonework was restored and the memo-
rial rededicated. Williams gave the keynote speech. The ceremony also included a procession of descendants of the witch trial victims. Before the memorial was built, there had been few official apologies for what had happened. In 1711, the colony reversed the attainders that had been placed on some of the victims by passing a bill that legally cleared their names and restored their civil rights. It also awarded their families 600 English pounds. Events may have been too fresh in peoples’ minds to support a more sweeping and public apology, and some families may still have feared being publicly associated with accused “witches” to push for more.
W
hat made the girls of Salem behave so crazily? Their symptoms weren’t completely unfamiliar. Earlier reports from Europe had included similar strange behavior—which also had been blamed on witches. As time passed, however, other hypotheses were suggested. Was it mass hysteria? Mental illness? Bored teenagers getting carried away in an effort to get attention? Or, perhaps, meals that included poisoned rye bread? In the early 1970s, Linnda Caporael, a graduate student at the University of California in Santa Barbara, was doing research on the Salem witch trials. At the time, some people were experimenting with hallucinogens, and Caporael recognized a similarity to the Salem girls’ behavior. Caporael put the modern-day chemistry and the past stories of witchcraft together to come up with a possible answer. Her conclusion was ergot, a yellowish fungus that grows on cereal grains, especially rye and wheat. Could ergot poisoning be the answer to the 300-year-old mystery? She published
In 1957, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued another official apology. It passed a bill, but the bill did not include all of the people tried or executed as witches. It mentioned only “Ann Pudeator and certain other persons.” In October 2001, the state amended the half-apology of 1957. The legislature passed a bill that finally and officially stated all the victims’ names and cleared them of any wrongdoing. Once the legislature approved the act, Acting Governor Jane Swift signed it. The witch trials victims’ descendants found justice at last. t Barbara Brooks Simons is a freelance writer living in Boston. In researching this article, she discovered an ancestor who lived in Salem in the early 1600s but who moved to Rhode Island around 1638.
WAS IT POISON?
her theory in an article in Science magazine in 1976. At first, other facts and researchers seemed to back up the idea. The land and the weather in 1692 were both ideal for the spread of ergot. The fungus thrives in wet, marshy land, similar to the farmland in the western part of Salem Village. Weather conditions that year were right, too—a cold winter and rainy spring. Nearly all of the afflicted girls lived in the village and would have eaten rye bread made from their family’s grain. Other researchers strongly disagreed. Ergot poisoning requires a diet deficient in vitamin A, which was not the case in Salem Village. Also, if ergot was present in the grain, it should have poisoned more members of the village, not just the small group of girls. People continue to disagree over what might have triggered the witch trials. —B.B.S.
Hallucinogens are drugs that cause strange mental and physical symptoms.
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Examining the Evidence Very interesting!
AN INTERVIEW WITH MARILYNNE K. ROACH by Meg Chorlian
A
life-long resident of Massachusetts, Marilynne K. Roach (RIGHT) has turned her curiosity about the Salem witch trials into a professional outlet. She has written several books on the subject. She shared her thoughts about the trials and why, more than 300 years later, they continue to interest people.
How did you get interested in the subject of the Salem witch trials? I have to admit, the spooky aspect of the subject attracted me first. I’d occasionally read the few books the local library had on the subject, although they turned out to be not all that accurate. During the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, the city of Salem published a guidebook that encouraged me to visit. That first trip made me want to know more about what really happened. The more I looked, the more I wanted to know.
How many books have you written on the subject? Three of my books on the trials have been published. In the Days of the Salem Witchcraft Trials is an introduction for young readers of the daily life interrupted by the witch panic. My other two books are for adults. The Salem Witch Trials: A
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Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege covers nearly everything that happened, and Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials is a biographical focus on specific individuals. I also contributed the glossary that identifies all the names that appear in the court papers for the 2013 edition of the Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt.
What do you think was wrong with the girls who started the hysteria? It might have been fear that sparked Betty and Abigail’s symptoms. Once adults raised the possibility that evil magic was at work, that development would have been even more frightening. Their reactions against the heightened concerns could seem to be a confirmation of that original fear. But since dozens of individuals were considered “afflicted” at different times during
the course of the trials, there could have been a variety of motives and reasons, conscious and unconscious.
from our modern lives that people seem to feel superior to the people of 1692 and miss the lesson of this disaster.
What is the biggest myth that persists about the trials?
In your research, did you ever stumble across a particularly interesting piece of testimony or story?
There are so many myths that have grown around the trials: that the condemned were burned, that they really were witches, that the accusations were a plot to grab a neighbor’s land. None of them are true.
What is the most important lesson to take away? Don’t jump to conclusions. Something bad may be going on, but ask yourself, is it what it first seems to be, or is it something else? Examine the evidence.
By reading everything I could from and about the period, I put together a scrap of testimony with early 20th-century articles on Salem land ownership and local oral traditions to verify the site of the executions. Other people concerned with the 1692 trials recently added computerized mapping of the site, and the results back up the claim. (Check out the press release about the findings at news.virginia.edu/content/uvas-help-salem-finallydiscovers-where-its-witches-were-executed.)
Why do you think the witch trials fascinate people today?
Do you wonder how you would have behaved if you had lived in Salem during that time?
The spooky aspect continues to intrigue people, as it did me, but the whole situation is so far removed
I like to think I would have kept my head and been brave, but I really don’t know. t
The witch hysteria began in Salem Village, but it quickly spread to more than 20 surrounding towns and settlements.
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MODERN S T N U H H WITC by Marcia Amidon Luste
d
T
Senator Joseph McCarthy led a hunt for Communists in the United States in the 1950s.
Witch-hunts, in this sense, refer to investigations carried out to uncover secret activities but that are actually used to harass and undermine people with different views.
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he Salem witch trials provided a disturbing example of how hysteria and fear can lead to innocent people becoming victims. Since then, there have been other examples of people becoming the targets of “witch-hunts” in the United States. One of the most famous modern witch-hunts took place in the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin focused on identifying Americans who had Communist sympathies. Communism was believed to be a dangerous political theory at that time. It was contrary to everything that the capitalistic United States stood for. Suspected Communists were forced to appear before McCarthy’s Senate committee to answer questions about their patriotism and activities. In his hunt for Communists, McCarthy trampled on the constitutional rights of Americans. People lost their jobs, and their reputations were ruined during the McCarthy era. Also in the 1950s, gay and lesbian people became the target of a witchhunt in the Lavender Scare. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, barring homosexuals from working in the federal government. Gay and lesbian people were considered more likely to be Communists sympathizers, and they were believed to be security risks because their lifestyle made them vulnerable to blackmail. About 5,000 people were fired, while thousands more people saw their career opportunities become limited or destroyed. The investigations also publicly identified homosexuals at a time when society was unaccepting of alternative lifestyles. The order remained in effect until President Bill Clinton rescinded it in 1995. During World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945), mass hysteria led to certain groups being persecuted or singled out as scapegoats. Those conflicts resulted in the U.S. government identifying wartime “enemy aliens.” Enemy aliens were people living in the United States who had once lived in the nations then fighting against America. During both
wars, some people of German and Italian descent were viewed with suspicion and questioned or detained. A large number of Japanese Americans became the target of more intense government persecution during World War II. After Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order, declaring the West Coast to be an exclusion zone. The order prohibited any Japanese Americans from living along the coast. About 110,000 Japanese Americans were forced to move to isolated, inland relocation camps during the war. More than half of them were U.S. citizens. Not only were their civil rights ignored, but they had to leave behind homes, jobs, and businesses they had built. Religious affiliations have also sparked witch-hunts. During the 1930s and 1940s, members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were frequently attacked and persecuted for their religious beliefs. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not observe national holidays or participate in politics, which seemed unpatriotic to other Americans. Their refusal to serve in the military during wars or to contribute to war efforts also brought them into conflict with government leaders. Today, followers of Islam in America are often viewed with fear and hatred. In 2011, Representative Peter T. King from New York led government hearings in which he tried to claim a connection between radical terrorist groups and Muslim Americans. Those hearings fed on the anxiety people felt about Islamic terrorists after the 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks. Studying and understanding history encourages a rational and thoughtful process to avoid future harmful witch-hunts. t Marcia Amidon Lusted has written 135 books and more than 500 magazine articles for young readers. She especially loves writing about history.
By definition, hysteria involves uncontrollable emotion or panic.
The Manzanar War Relocation Center in California was one of 10 remote camps in which Japanese Americans were forced to live during World War II.
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The Witch of Endor delivers a prediction to King Saul that spells doom for him.
S
torytellers have used witches for many purposes in spinning their tales. They make great characters—we cheer when good witches use their powers to shift the balance for good, or we get goose bumps when evil witches succeed in carrying out their evil plans. They create a bridge between the real world and the spiritual world. Here is a look at some famous literary witches or witch-themed stories. In the Bible’s Old Testament, King Saul seeks out the Witch of Endor for advice on how to defeat an army of Philistines. She shares a message from the prophet Samuel. Samuel warns that King Saul has failed to obey God and has lost favor with him. Samuel predicts that the king will meet a bad end. When King Saul survives but loses the battle, the witch’s prediction terrifies him, and he kills himself. Oral folklore preserved the ancient legends of Britain’s King Arthur, but a 12th-century written account by Geoffrey of Monmouth popularized the stories. Both male wizards and female witches play important
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by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers and Andrew Matthews
Witchy
When the Three Weird Sisters greet Macbeth, they set in motion a horrible series of events.
roles in King Arthur’s life. The great wizard Merlin is an invaluable teacher and mentor to the young Arthur. He shares prophecies about the future and generally guides Arthur as he learns how to become a king and strives to be a kind and just ruler. Meanwhile, Arthur’s half-sister, Morgan le Fay, uses her magic ability to thwart Arthur, ruin his wife, Guinevere, and destroy his idea of a chivalric court. Morgan learned her craft from Merlin. English playwright William Shakespeare used prophetic witches in his tragedy of Macbeth. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth meets the Three Weird Sisters (witches) on a lonely heath. They are joined by Hecate, queen of the witches, who calls up spirits that foretell Macbeth’s rise from general in the Scottish army to king of Scotland. The witches do not perform any evil actions. They simply plant the idea of what Macbeth can achieve. It encourages him to follow an ultimately tragic course—one that pushes him to commit multiple acts of murder. The witches’ eerie supernatural powers allow Shakespeare to hold the attention of his 17th-century audience. In the early 1800s, classic fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm almost always used witches to represent forces of evil. Wicked witches or fairies cast spells and otherwise threaten the happiness of heroes and heroines in Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, The Little Mermaid, and others. In Beauty and the Beast and The Frog Prince, witches cast spells on the princes, condemning them to animal form until someone shows that they love them. A bad fairy or witch condemns Sleeping Beauty to a sleep and the Little Mermaid to a silence that
Characters
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can be broken only by a kiss. The power of love breaks the evil spell, allowing good to triumph over evil. L. Frank Baum’s children’s classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in 1900, culminates in a scene in which Dorothy and her friends confront the Wicked Witch of the West. A fatal weakness in the evil witch makes it possible for Dorothy to defeat their tormentor: The witch melts when Dorothy throws water on her. Several classic works use the events of 1692 Salem to create plots that explore societies in which people are thought to be witches by their neighbors. The House of the Seven Gables, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1851, is set in 19th-century Salem, Massachusetts, but it includes flashbacks to 1692 and the witch trials. Colonel Pyncheon, desiring a piece of land owned by Matthew Maule, accuses Maule of witchcraft and sees that he is hanged. Before he dies, Maule curses the Pyncheon family. Pyncheon then builds a seven-gabled house on the land he seized from Maule. The story follows the fate of the 19th-century residents of the house, which appears to be haunted. Arthur Miller published The Crucible, a fictionalized play based on the Salem witch trials, in 1953. Miller wrote it during the McCarthy era, to draw parallels between Salem’s historic witch trials and the modernday witch-hunt being led by Senator Joseph McCarthy to identify Communists in the United States. In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, written by Elizabeth George Speare in 1958, teenager Kit Tyler arrives in colonial Connecticut in 1687 after living a freer life in Barbados. She immediately is set apart from her new community by her strange dress and ways. She befriends an elderly Quaker woman, who is thought to
Perhaps the most horrible fairy tale witch is the one who tries to cook and eat Hansel and Gretel!
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I am so glad Hansel and Gretel outsmart the witch!
In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf emerges as a powerful wizard who fights on the side of good.
be a witch because of her different beliefs. These works explore the fear of witchcraft and how some people use the hysteria that comes with fear to injure others. Two British authors created works that put a new spin on witches and wizards for readers of all ages. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings fantasy trilogy was published in 1954. Gandalf the wizard plays an important role in the battle to save Middle-earth from the evil Sauron. As Gandalf’s powers increase, he confronts Saruman, a once-good wizard who has switched his allegiance to Sauron. Like Tolkien, J.K. Rowling invented an entire magical world in her seven-book series published between 1997 and 2007. Rowling’s stories pit armies of witches and wizards against one another in a fight between good and evil. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley and their large family, Professor Albus Dumbledore, and Professor Minerva McGonagall are just a few of the good witches, while Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange, Dolores Umbridge, and Draco Malfoy and his parents use their magic for evil. Witches and what witches represent add drama to any plot and serve writers and storytellers well. From classic literature to modern fantasy, some of our favorite stories would not be the same without them! t
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger are a few of the most powerful good “wizards” and “witches” in the 21st century!
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All About Salem
Crossword Puzzle C
by Will Bremen
an you solve this puzzle about the Salem witch trials? All the information can be found in this issue. Answers on page 48.
ACROSS
DOWN
2. The Reverend Increase _____ was
1. Bridget _____ was the first person
an influential and respected Boston minister who weighed in on the trials.
4. _____ evidence, or claims by the accusers of seeing the spirits of the accused “witches” doing evil things, was allowed at the trials.
6. Without a royal _____, the Puritans living in Massachusetts Bay felt politically adrift.
11. One reason that residents of Salem
12.
to be hanged as a witch.
3. The Salem Witch Trials _____ is a small park with 20 rough-cut stone benches, one for each person killed in 1692.
5. The Parris family slave, _____, may have tried to demonstrate magic to the Salem Village girls.
7. Justice John _____ used forceful methods of questioning during the witch trials to get convictions.
were on edge in the late 1600s was fear of random attacks by _____ _____.
8. Former Salem Village minister George
The Court of _____ and Terminer was set up in the spring of 1692 to hear the witchcraft cases.
9. The family of the Reverend Samuel
_____ found himself accused of being a witch. _____ was at the center of the initial outbreak of witchcraft hysteria.
13. Chief Justice William _____ aggressively led the hunt for witches in Massachusetts Bay.
14.
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The witch hysteria began in _____, but it spread to more than 20 other settlements.
10.
Residents of Salem _____ wanted their own, separate church from Salem Town, but they argued about how it should be supported.
1
2
3 5 4
6
7 9
8 10
11
12 13
14
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G GoINAL La ng do
GLoB
by
an Bry
CIRCE In Greek mythology, Circe is a powerful witch who specializes in herbs and magical potions. She appears in Homer’s Odyssey, when Odysseus and his men stop on her island during their long journey home. Wolves and lions—controlled by Circe’s magic—surround her house while she sings and works at her loom. She invites Odysseus’s men to a feast and, after slipping a potion into their drinks, turns them into swine. With help from the god Hermes, Odysseus resists Circe’s magic. He convinces the witch to undo the spell and then remains with Circe for a year, feasting and living a life of luxury until his men convince him to continue the journey home.
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Bad Witches
M
eet some classic international witches, whose actions range from mischievous to plain evil!
Ba ba Ya ga
Unlike some witches, Baba Yaga doesn’t fly on a broom. This witch from Russian folklore zooms through the air in a mortar, using a pestle to steer and a broom to erase her tracks. Deep in the forest, she lives in a hut that walks on chicken legs. A fence made of human bones and topped with skulls surrounds the hut. Despite her intimidating home, Baba Yaga is extremely wise, and people sometimes go to her for help. But any visitor must be polite and do what the witch says. When Vasilisa the Beautiful asks Baba Yaga for light, the witch makes the young woman sort corn kernels and separate poppy seeds from soil. Vasilisa is aided in the task by her magic doll and returns home with the light, but many who enter Baba Yaga’s hut never leave. The old woman has been known to eat people—especially children!
The White Witch
Also known as Jadis, the White Witch is the main villain in two of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia books. In The Magician’s Nephew, she destroys all life in her home world except for her own. When she arrives in Narnia, she eats an apple that will make her live forever. The apple, however, turns her entirely white and makes her miserable. She goes into hiding and practices magic for a thousand years. Backed by an army of wolves, giants, and other magical creatures, the White Witch terrorizes Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She casts a spell that plunges the world into endless winter and uses her wand to turn her enemies into stone.
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N I A R B LERS TICK
I didn’t know there was going to be a quiz!
read kle to see how well you Give your brain a little tic . If you als on the Salem witch tri and understood this issue in why. false, see if you can expla believe an answer to be Answers below. gic powers ved that witches with ma lie be s an rit Pu nd gla En 1. New existed. ¨ False ¨ True s house of the children in the Parri sed cu ac a ub Tit ve sla e Th 2. engaging in witchcraft. ¨ False ¨ True ed to hear d Terminer was establish 3. The Court of Oyer an 2. the witch trials in May 169 ¨ False ¨ True lined illiam Stoughton was inc W e tic Jus ief Ch , als tri e 4. During th reference. free if they had a good to let accused people go ¨ False ¨ True
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ed to itted in the court and us rm pe s wa e nc ide ev l tra 5. Spec hes.” convict the accused “witc ¨ False ¨ True the Salem trials sed of witchcraft during cu ac le op pe e th of All 6. were women. ¨ False ¨ True in 1692 were convicted and executed 7. The people who were . ent of any crime in 2001 eventually declared innoc ¨ False ¨ True “Betty” the household, Elizabeth False. Two young girls in ermined from above: 1. True. 2. False. Stoughton was det Answers to Brain Ticklers itching them. 3. True. 4. some s, accused Tituba of bew accused were women, but Parris and Abigail William e. 6. False. Most of the execute all witches. 5. Tru to find, prosecute, and hcraft, too. 7. True. men were accused of witc
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URS Yo TTER LE
Beautiful Girl
Loved Ones
The ones that aren’t here are here. The ones that are gone aren’t gone. Look deep inside yourself, and you will find strength of the ones that have been here all along. Grace Calfee, age 10 Santa Clara, California
Meghan Holmes, age 9 Furlong, Pennsylvania
Chicago The Transcontinental Railroad Helen Keller Write to us! Draw a picture or write a poem or short essay that connects to one of the above COBBLESTONE themes on which we currently are working. All contributions must be your original work. Include a note from a parent or legal guardian clearly stating: “This is my child’s original work, and COBBLESTONE has permission to publish it with my child’s name, age, and hometown, in print and on-line.” We will include as many as we can in the upcoming issue to which your work relates.
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J URSFuTn Fo
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’s Dr. D ery
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A Witch With a Heart ithout a doubt, this month’s mystery hero is the most recognized movie witch. Her character perfectly captures how most of us picture what a wicked witch should look like! The actress who played this famous witch, however, had an angelic side in real life. Little information is available about our mystery hero’s childhood. She was born in 1902 and grew up in Ohio. After attending a public school, she earned a degree at Wheelock College. She loved acting, but her parents insisted that she have a “back-up” career. Our hero taught kindergarten classes until she found success as a stage actress and then a movie actress. Her appearance as the evil witch in a now-classic 1939 movie forever shaped her fame. While our hero was on screen for only 13 minutes, her acting and cackling were so powerful that her scenes made a deep impression on viewers, especially children. According to the American Film Institute, out of 100 movie villains, our hero’s character was ranked fourth scariest of all time! One of her most famous lines in the film was, “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.” In real life, our mystery hero loved children and animals. She became a major supporter for animal rights and protecting pets. She appeared with her cat in public service ads on television to remind people to prevent unwanted, homeless animals by spaying and neutering their pets. It was a cause to which she devoted many hours. So, follow the yellow brick road to learn the name of this month’s mystery hero. Answer on page 48.
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erg— De ne n b Dennis n r. a D th s a re wn r mo ing also kno roes. Fo d sp ea k u s n a , g “Dr. D”— ry and real he in h c a es 4 te ro , e to g loves his e’s been writin ca. Visit www.h k and o h ri o , e b rs m g a A innin 20 ye ll over award-w eroes a bout his . ab o u t h a ll a rn lea ards .com to ir tue trading c -V ro e H is h
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The Salem Witch Museum T
he story of the 1692 Salem witch trials can be experienced in 21st-century Salem, Massachusetts. Since it first opened in 1972, the Salem Witch Museum has worked to offer visitors an experience that educates and provides an opportunity to understand the famous trials. Using historic trial documents from 1692, the museum presents more than a dozen staged scenes that re-create the terrible events that occurred in the area more than 300 years ago. The site also explores the meaning of the word witch over the years, and it shares examples of contemporary witch-hunts, making connections between the past and the present. Check it out on-line at salemwitchmuseum.com.
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FOLKLORIST CHALLENGE For entry information and eligibility, go to www.epals.com/folklife2016.
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CHALLENGE BEGINS
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TM
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Goodman and Goodwife
exp ns loring the origi
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ntil the mid-1700s, “goodman” or “goodwife” was commonly used with a married man’s or a married woman’s last name to reflect his or her role as the head of a household. Their use indicated that the person was not of noble birth. They were meant to address someone courteously, similar to how we use “mister” and “misses” today. “Goody” was an abbreviation for “goodwife.” “Master” and “mistress” were used to address upper-class members of society.
Answers to All About Salem Crossword Puzzle from page 38: 1 B
Answer to Dr. D’s Mystery Hero from page 45: Margaret Hamilton
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Picture Credits: Cover, 5 (T), 17 (B), 36 (BR) Sarin Images/Granger, NYC—All rights reserved; i (UR,), 45 AF archive/ Alamy Stock Photo; i (BL), 26–29 (BKGD), 26 (C), 27 (T), 27 (B), 28 (T), 28 (B) Meg Chorlian; ii (R), 3 (T), 4 (T), 6 (L), 7 (C), 8 (L), 10 (T), 12 (UL), 13 (BR), 14, 18 (T), 19 (B), 21 (BR), 22 (BL), 23 (BR), 48 (T) © North Wind Picture Archives—All rights reserved; 2–6 (BKGD) © guy harrop/Alamy Stock Photo; 2 (UL) © Oleksiy Maksymenko Photography/Alamy Stock Photo; 5 (B) Elena Schweitzer/Shutterstock.com; 6–10 (BKGD) andreiuc88/Shutterstock.com; 11–13 (border), 32–33 (BKGD) AlexHliv/Shutterstock.com; 11 (T), 31 (B) Everett Collection Historical /Alamy Stock Photo; 14–15 (BKGD) eurobanks/ Shutterstock.com; 16–20 (BKGD) M. Unal Ozmen/Shutterstock.com; 16 (T), 22 (TR), 33 (BR) LOC; 20 (T), 46 Courtesy Salem Witch Museum; 21–23 (BKGD) murengstockphoto/Shutterstock.com; 29 (B) Irina Kozorog/Shutterstock.com; 30–31 (BKGD) Pavlenko Volodymyr/Shutterstock.com; 30 (TL) vchal/Shutterstock.com; 30 (R) Courtesy Joyce Kelly; 34–37 (BKGD) Romolo Tavani/Shutterstock.com; 37 (T) ©Topham/The Image Works; 37 (B) ©Warner Bros. Pictures/ Topham/The Image Works; 38–39 (BKGD) Fona/Shutterstock.com; 39 (cauldrons), 48 (BL) Paul Crash/Shutterstock. com; 44 (TL) Howard Klaaste/Shutterstock.com; 44 (BR) Sarah Cates/Shutterstock.com; 50 Valeri Potapova/ Shutterstock.com Editorial office: COBBLESTONE, 70 East Lake Street, Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60601. Telephone: 312-701-1720.
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Lucky or Not?
W
hat’s a witch without a sidekick? The close association between witches and black cats probably dates to the Middle Ages. People developed a fear of witches and their evil nighttime activities. Black cats—with their nocturnal habits and their dark coats allowing them to move unseen in the shadows—became linked with witches. Sometimes, cats were viewed as servants doing the witch’s bidding. Other times, black cats were believed to be witches or the Devil—evil beings who had transformed themselves into feline form. Interestingly, depending on where you are from, a black cat can mean opposite things. In Great Britain and Japan, a black cat is considered a sign of good luck or good fortune. In other parts of the world, crossing paths with a black cat is believed to bring bad luck. Still another superstition claims that a black cat walking toward you brings good luck, but a black cat walking away from you is taking the good luck away!
