Accused and Betrayed Throughout the late 1600’s women had been accused of being a part of witchcraft. In this time women went through many disgusting torture treatments and got charged with many different things. When a women had been accused she would be “treated” with many different types of torture until they had died or had admitted to doing witchcraft. Some of the tortures were called: “The Garotte”,” Dunking the Witch”, and “The Boots”. When a witch had to be tortured with “The Garotte”, a long wooden pole with either string or metal attached to it. This went around the victim 's neck and fastened them to the pole. A metal spike or knife on the pole was hit into the back of their neck. This broke their neck, causing a slow and painful death. Another was “Dunking the Witch”, this was considered a way to find out if the accused was really a witch. Their right thumb was tied to their left toe. The victim was then thrown into a pond or lake. If they floated, it "proved" that they were a Witch, because they must have used the magic to float. If the victim drowned, it meant they were innocent. Finally,” The boots” were two planks of wood, which were bound together by cords. Between the planks, they placed wedges covered in metal spikes. The planks were hit with a …show more content…
Two of the main women were: Tituba and Sarah Good. Tituba was the first witch to confess in Salem. She had apologized for hurting the people she had hurt and went on further to say that she did not mean any harm. She also told the prosecutors about the rest of the witches. One being, Sarah Good. Because the fact that she told the truth, Tituba did not have to go to trial and ended up being a big help with catching the rest of the witches. The other witch was Sarah Good. She had been accused by 7 people. One of those 7 was her own daughter, Dorcas Good. Sarah was arrested on March 23th and executed on July 19th.
An arrest warrant was issued out against for Tituba Indian in Salem Village on February 29, 1692. There were also arrest warrants out for Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. All three of these women were accused of witch craft and examined the day after they were captured. They were examined at Nathaniel Ingersoll’s tavern in the Salem Town. This examination was performed by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne.
Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne were the other two girls they were the first three girls in Salem to be accused of witchcraft. Many people were accused mostly middle-aged women and some men but even a four-year-old boy was. In March some girls in the village accused Martha Corey. Martha Corey was different from the rest of the others that were accused she was upstanding in the puritan congregation which meant that the devil could reach to the core of the village which scared many people. During fall of March many were examined and sentenced with death.
During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their good names, or reputation, was ruined. Other people did anything and committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft could get the individual out of trouble and keep their good name. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.
Tituba is most blamed for the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba was a slave from Barbados, where she was raised to gain the knowledge to invoke spirits as something she had no option to, now Tituba has to deal with the consequences through Gullibility, crudity, and Ignorance which all led her to be accused and responsible for the witch-hunt. Tituba was a slave that came from Barbados, and now is a slave in Salem, Massachusetts. Many specifics about her life are really unknown. Tituba later worked for Reverend Parris.
The community on the other hand wasn’t so tolerant. If the girls did have witchcraft it was not medical thing but a legal one. The girls were victims of a crime that could be punishable by death. When the girl’s situation didn’t improve they were to ask to reveal who their tormentors were. Three warrants went out for the witches.
They called the doctor over, but he could not find anything physically wrong with the girls, and suggested they were bewitched.5 They were questioned about who might do this to them, and they pointed the adults of the town in the direction of three social outcasts. These three women were questioned, and eventually one of them confessed. Tituba was the first to confess, saying the Devil came to her. She called out the other two women, and said they were witches as well. This sparked the mass hysteria that was the Salem Witch Trials.
This struck a fear through the whole town. Everyone became scared of being named a witch. After the witches were accused, there were trials in the courtroom to determine their guilt. If they were found guilty, they were punished. The majority of the retributions were by hanging, some also died in jail, and one was stoned to death.
In the early 1500’s witchcraft was punishable by death. In The Crucible nine-eight people were accused of witchcraft for selfish motivations. In 1931, two young women accused nine African American Boys of raping them because they were crossing state line and they were prostitutes’.
Most of the evidence was spectral evidence, a testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see the person afflicting them but “devil marks” on the body (moles or birthmarks), poppets(dolls used to cast spells on the represented person), pots of ointment, books of horoscope/palmistry, gossip/stories or “witch cakes”(rye flour and human urine of the afflicted person, which was fed to the dog to see if it was afflicted). Eventually doubts developed as to why so many respectable, wealthy people were guilty to such shocking crimes. Many of the accused were better off financially than the accusers and the accusers often gained their property. Governor Phips ordered for proof of guilt had to given by clear and convincing evidence and many of the trials ended in acquittals until the movement came to a halt. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was dissolved in late October 1962 and a Superior Court tried the remaining cases.
Lilli Walters Mr. Glorfield English 11a 15 December 2022 Us and Witches Imagine you and your friends have been caught dancing in the woods at night. You did not think it was a big deal, but before you know it you are accused of being a witch and threatened to be hanged. There is no good way out of the situation. If you tell the truth, saying you’re innocent and was just dancing for fun, everyone thinks you’re lying. If you tell them you are guilty of being a witch, that would be lying, and while they might release you, they will make you accuse others of being a witch.
Carol Karlsen 's The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England provides a sociological and anthropological examination of the witchcraft trends in early New England. By examining the records, Karlsen has created what she suggests was the clichéd 'witch ' based on income, age, marital status, etc. She argues that women who had inherited or stood to inherit fairly large amounts of property or land were at particular risk, as they "stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to the next." These women, Karlsen suggests, were targeted largely because they refused to accept "their place" in colonial society.
The little girls were also at the trials defending not Bridget, but themselves. Every time the ‘’witch’’ made an arm movement or rolled her eyes, the girls pretended the ‘’witch’’ was doing something to them. When Bridget mover her arms, the girls would throw their arms back in the air like Bridget used her witchcraft on them, which made the girls ‘’ drunk on power’’! Bridget insisted that she has never seen those girls before, but the town's population was 500 so she would of had to see them at some point in her life. Then she said she know not of a witch and how to practice witchcraft.
During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.
Tituba was a slave who served a very wealthy family, Sarah Good was a homeless beggar and Sarah Osborne was an elderly women who was sick and married her servant. Tituba was one of the first accused of being a witch. She was beaten in order to admit to being a witch. In order to make her beatings stop, Tituba accused three other women of being witches, and in return was not hung, but jailed. Sarah Good, the first of being accused, was a beggar and immensely old.
Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.