Concepts in the Salem Trials of 1692

Paper Summary:

In this paper the author looks at the men and women of Salem, Massachusetts who were accused and executed during the hysteria of 1692 as a result of fear, superstition, and a court system that failed to protect them. He highlights how since that time, advocates of civil rights and human tolerance use the events of 1692 as a yardstick to measure the depth of civility and due process in society. The author tries to explain the incidents of 1692 through the fear of witchcraft as diagnosed by the local doctor when he could not explain the strange behavior of some of the village girls. The paper details the events as they were recorded and the aftermath of the hysteria and how the injustices were admitted. In conclusion the author reminds us that we need to learn from the mistakes that were made back in 1692 so that we may apply an understanding to our own society and its concepts of crime, justice and punishment.

From the Paper:

"In addition to allowing this case of double jeopardy, admissible evidence to the Court of Oyer and Terminer included spectral evidence. According to National Geographic, a specter is defined as an active agent of a living witch. It can interact with others, but cannot generally be seen by anyone except the victim of the evil. In contrast, a ghost is the active agent of a deceased spirit (nationalgeograpic.com). Thus, spectral evidence could be explained as the afflicted girls falling into convulsions as the accused witches stood up for questioning in court.The afflicted claimed that the accused specter was roaming the room, biting them, pinching them and often appearing as a bird or other animal someplace in the room, usually on a particular beam of the ceiling. Chief Justice Stoughton believed that God would not allow the Devil to assume an innocents shape, (Guiley 293) thereby postulating the use of spectral evidence."

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