Pickety witch, the Pickety witch, who's got a kiss for the Pickety witch?
Today let's look into the Salem Witch Trials and books about or inspired by these events
Only 4 days till Halloween!
History
The Salem
witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people
accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May
1693. More than 200 people were accused, nineteen of whom were found guilty and
executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man, Giles Corey,
was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in
jail. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of the United States.
Whilst witch trials had
begun to fade out across much of Europe by the mid-17th century, they continued
the fringes of Europe and in the American Colonies.
The events in Salem
became a brief outburst of a sort of hysteria in the New World, while the
practice was already waning in most of Europe.
In Salem Village, in
February 1692, Betty Parris, age 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams,
age 11, the daughter and niece, respectively, of Reverend Samuel Parris,
began to have fits described as "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or
natural disease to effect. The girls would scream, scratch themselves and drop
on the floor shacking as in epilepsy seizures. The doctor was called, but he
couldn’t determine what was wrong with them. He then of course said –
Witchcraft!
Reverend Parris let’s
say was not the best and kind-hearted person, so he ordered his daughter and
niece to tell who was causing them to act like this and the girls pointed their
fingers to their servant – Tituba, among with Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
This started the long
and horrible events, as more and more people were accused of being witches and
imprisoned, sentenced and died either from execution or from poor living
conditions in the prisons. The afflicted girls would come to court and start
screaming and jumping up and down while the person accused of being a witch
would stand in front of the jury and they would stop screaming only when the accused
would admit of being a witch.
How it was determined if
the accused was a witch? If the person simply admitted it no one would question
it, however there was also another way. If the accused could not recite the
Lord Prayer, it was a sign that the person was working for the devil. Of
course, there were cases when the new comers to Salem came from Ireland and
simply only spoke Gaelic, not even knowing English.
How were people punished
for being witches? Well they were simply killed or left to die in prisons. Most
popular way to murder the accused was by handing or by pressing the person to
death by stones.
After 1692 there are no
more prosecution for witchcraft, since the legal system changed, and they
simply did not interfere with the folklore accusations. By then majority of
people had understood what had happened and how many people were killed without
reason.
Do I believe Salem had
witches? Yes, however, I think the term witch can also be changed into healers.
People who understood herbs and that one plant or another can help to reduce
pains or seizures were simply considered devil worshipers, because people
followed religious fanatics like Parris without even giving it a second
thought. His made Tituba to my mind was also simply a healer who knew about
herbs and myths or folklore from Barbados and taught two small girls some
folklore tricks and treats and the two girls were to ignorant or too bored and
didn’t even understand what havoc and horrible events they caused. Burning of the witches was actually done mostly in Europe and in earlier times, I think no witch was burned in Salem.
Ok, in all honesty, I
believe there could have also been people gifted with certain gifts of
understanding nature and what goes around.
Books
1. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
2. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde
3. The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
4. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speace
5. The Salem Witch Trials: A Day By Dy Chronicle of Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Boarch
6. Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry
All of these books deal with either real events, the accounts of real people involved or accused of being witches or deals with fictional characters going through the horrible events in their life simply for being different.
What is your witch go to book? And what would you add to this list?
HAPPY
HALLOWEEN
AND
HAVE A SPOOKY READING
0 comments:
Post a Comment