Smithsonian.com

Salem witch craft is a cool topic to learn about

A good article overall, but I take issue with the assertion that "Many involved..publicly confessed error and guilt." Sewall, Ann Putnam, and who else? What is your definition of "many?"

Says the same thing that everyone else says Maybe you could come up with some more information for us Thanks LaRie

Witchcraft is a serious matter.It requires those that have spiritual insight to deal with it,many atimes mistakes are made in the course of trying to determine the truth.i love the topic.

over all you did a good job, but we who are writing reaserch papers need more facts.

MY (TO THE SEVERAL GREATS)GRANDMOTHER, MARTHA, OF CHELMSFORD, MA WAS ACCUSED OF WITCHHOOD IN 1691 BEFORE ALL THE WITCHES IN SALEM. SHE WAS IN THE BOSTON JAIL FOR JUST A LITTLE OVER A YEAR. IN LATER 1692 AND 1693 THEY CAME TO THEIR SENSES. SHE WAS RELEASED UNDER BAIL (300 LB). WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HER AS THE BOSTON COURT RECORDS WERE BURNED. FOR THE MOST PART THE DISITUTE WERE ACCUSED AS THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO PROTECT THEMSELVES.

can u give more detail?

That is so sad all those innosent pepploe I hate that.

I have a question about the 4 year old girl. What is her real name, Dorothy is just the third name I have heard. I have heard so many different names and 2 stories about the 4 year old child did she or didn't she die? I am studying this and I am in dier need to know.

The Salem Witch Trails was a bad time. I'm sorry that all those people had to die because of the stupid "afflicted" girls.I agree you need more facts for us who are writing reports and doing projects on this topic.Even though not enough facts, this site was a good site overall.I NEED FACTS!

OK first the 4 yr old girl's name was Dorcas. she wasn't as bubbly and cheerful and healthy as she once was before the Salem witchcraft trials after her father payed to get her out of jail. and she didn't die.

I'm doing an extra credit paper on the Salem Witch Trial for Hitstoy and this website heped my A LOT!!! Thank you so much! I love the way the site is set up and layed out and I love all of the wonderful information it included! Thanks again!

I think the way these people were accused was crazy. I have found great intrest in this topic. the Salem witch trials is great to learn about.

What ever happened to Elizabeth and her baby?

well elizabeth had the baby, and had gotten remarried 4 yrs. after proctors death to another man.

whatever happened to Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams? how about Mary Warren and Tituba,Rev Parris' slave? I find this whole business of the Salem and Andover witch trials fascinating. These types of things are the reason our country now practices the virtue of innocent until proven guilty.

this page on salem witchcraft trials is very good i learned a alot about the witchcraft trials and it helped me alot on my paper thank you so much lee ray thompson

This article made very interesting reading. I would love to know the sources of your information. Are those available? If so, where? Thank you.

You should have more detail on witchcraft magic it's really cool.

Personally I believe in witchcraft even if everyone thinks im crazy Is till dont get why every one thought it was so bad it would be awesome to have magical powers and they discriminated against that.

witches arent evil no religion is wrong the way they see god but they shouldnt force people into their religion

it was good information thank you

witches are not real, only spiritualy.

that you so much for this information, it really helped with my 12 page report.

i love that you put the history of the salem witch trials on your page, however from a site about the actual town i would expect a more in depth look and more detailed story. with all do respect i learned more information in the books i read on the topic for my research paper than a website on the town of salem itself. if you were to add more detail and explain the unprinted facts on the topic such as Giles Corey and mabe a psychological profile on why he felt the need not to testify guilty nor innocent. or the story on the 4 year old child and when she was released from prison. the fear that indians livind on the outskirts of the villiage were assumed to be of a magical being or mabe explain that it has been proven that everyone who was having the "Fits" was under the influence of LSD from a fungus that was discovered in the rye used to make there bread due to the weathers conditions that year, all i ask is something unheard of.. new like the fact that judge Hahorne's great great great grandaughter still lives there. Thank you...Dominique(16 yr. old student)

this was very helpful for my history day report-MG

Good basic info. For more in-depth info try reading the article by Linnda Caporael or Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair by Mary K Matossian. My favorite book is: Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 by Bernard Rosenthal. For the story of Giles and Martha Giles go to: http://www.witchway.net/times/giles.html. As for Dorcas Good, four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good, she became the first child to be accused of witchcraft when three of the girls complained that they were bitten by the specter of Dorcas. (The four-year-old was arrested, kept in jail for eight months, watched her mother get carried off to the gallows, and would "cry her heart out, and go insane.") Good luck on your research papers!

theres too mouch of a story going on then there is hard facts overall its a great sight if your looking to summarize it instead of r=writing a report

i would like to know more about them because we are studying them in history thanks..

hehey this is so cool im doing my socil studies project xthat is wrong 4 people to acuse people to whitch craft people dieing for something they didnt do

but how did they effect history?!!!!!!

hello do you know any other refrences we could use we are doing a project on them please can you respond before christmas thank you.

I think that it is stupid that all these people had to die beacuse some possesed girls said so that they were practicing witch craft.

First of all you morons if you want more information then go to another website or article. If you didn;t notice the title says "A BRIEF History of the Salem Witch Trials," so it isn't supposed to be "more detailed." He did an excellent job!

THIS ARTICLE IS TITLED "A BREIF HISTORY OF THE SALEM WHICH TRIALS" SO IT DOES A GREAT JOB OF GIVING YOU THE INFO THAT THE TITLE DEACRIBES. THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME WITH MY PROJECT... I ONLY NEEDED A SUMMARY OF IT AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I GOT. TO THOSE OF OYU DOING EXTENSIVE PROJECTS TRY TYPING HISTORY OF SALEM, OR SOMETHING MORE DESCRIPTIVE IN THE TOOL BAR WHEN RESEARCHING. IT HELPED ME ALOT WHEN I DID PROJECTS IN IT FOR ENGLISH AND HISTORY SEVERAL YEARS AGO. YOU COULD ALSO TRY RESEARCHING EACH INDIVIDUAL YOU HAVE A QUESTION ON,YOU WILL DEFINATELY FIND THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESIONS THAT WAY.

THIS IS AN AWSOME TOPIC,but it gets booring after awile

I am doing a project on this particular topic and this website helped a lot. However, I need websites and links with an AUTHOR!!! (HELP!) Unless it a government site, I can't use it w/out an author. Any suggestions? Oh and by the ways i think Jessica (?) was asking the four year old's name,, I'm pretty sure it was Dorcas. (That's what it said in some books I've read.)

I'm doing a Social Studies Fair Project about this topic...Thanks for helping, it's a big help.

I'm sorry but most of this article contains basic, superficial material. Whereas it's well-written, it could have easily been comprehensively written; the overall significance of the Salem Witch Trials demands a profounder treatment.

I am doing a huge project on this topic and i think you need more details and spacific events....and some of the names are wrong....i really think you should try to do more research and update the site....

Hi i am researching the Salem Witch Craft Trials for my National History Day project and I was just wondering if maybe you could mention the amount of people that were accused and the many methods that they may have used. Thank you.

Im doing a project on salem witch trials I think it's really interesting please though use more detail

Actually I have researched Sarah and her daughter, and while in prison, Sarah's daughter, who was 5 years old at that time was also charged with witchcraft and killed. After the loss of everything she held dear in life, and just before hanging, Sarah's final words were; God shall give you blood to drink, and her executioner (Hathorn)died 20 yrs later, as a result of an aneurysm (he choked on his own blood). The author of the House of Seven Gables was the great grandson to Hathorn (sp), but changed his name to Hawthorne out of shame over the shameful Salem witch trials and other similar incidents brought about by his ancestors. The author, Hawthorne lived in the House of Seven Gables after his great grandfather and father, and at the time it only had 4 gables, but he discovered 3 more that had been renovated and then he wrote his book to try to atone for his ancestors sins.

If my memory serves me correctly, Harriet S. Tapley wrote "Chronicles of Danvers" which is very accurate. Also, Richard Trask of Town of Danvers Archival Center is a recognized authority on this subject.

One thing puzzles me which no one seems to have mentioned. In the 3rd paragraph of this excellent summation, the author states that: "Controversy also brewed over Reverend Samuel Parris, who became Salem Village's first ordained minister in 1698..." But then in the next paragraph, we have the following: "In January of 1692, Reverend Parris' daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and niece Abigail Williams, age 11, started having 'fits.'" So how could "Rev." Parris be regarded as a "reverend" in 1692, six years before he was ordained? And if he wasn't ordained until 1698, how come he wielded such authority in 1692? And--even more to the point--why on Earth would the Church ordain him after such a horrible fiasco as the Salem Witch Trials--which were the scandal of all New England by that time? And, of course, I shouldn't even have to point out that the Salem hysteria had nothing whatsoever to do with any form of actual Witchcraft. None of the accused (with the possible exception of Tituba) were practitioners of Witchcraft or any other magickal tradition. They were all devout Christians. This is a case of fundamentalist Christians turning on their own people, in the complete absence of genuine Witches. And it is certainly ironic that today, Salem is the "Witchcraft Capital" of the entire US, with more actual Witches and Wiccan businesses than anywhere else. Blessed Be, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, Headmaster Grey School of Wizardry www.GreySchool.com

I REMEMBER A STORY THAT ONE OF THE ACCUSED DENIED BEING A WITCH BUT ADMITTED BEING ROMAN CATHOLIC AND WAS HANGED ANYWAY. I WAS ALSO UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT COTTON MATHER WAS NOT THAT HELPFUL AND THAT THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL'S BACK WAS ACCUSING THE GOVERNOR'S WIFE OF BEING A WITCH.

Thanks for the info. I'm doing my history fair project on one of the witches Bridget Bishop and this info helped!

This information helped me with my research, but do you have any more?

is the ipaswitch clan real and did it even happen like in the movie the covenet

thanks, im doing report on this topic and i had great information! awesome.

Wow!!!!!!!! Salem sounds like a awesome place!!!that whole thing was freaky

I personally think this website needs to have more information about the Salem witch trials because at our school, a lot of people are doing this project so if you got more information on this topic, more people would probably come on your website than most people do now!

this is a really good site to find info on. I am using it for a project for National History Day. It is a good thing i found this or i would have been completely lost.

tells you every thing that you would want to know

the salem witch trails are very interesting, but then seem a little off to me because it was young girls who were accusing older woman of witch craft. what i wonder is that back then families would pass on farms to the oldest son. the younger children were most of the time left nothing especially young girls. these girls feared they wouldn't be married and have no land. so my question is "were these young girls targeting older woman for competion of marriage and land? once these supposed witches were exacuted, their lands were avaiable. plus these women were not ever given a fair trail. these women said they were innocent, but still the courts didn't believe them. that is something to look at. but of course maybe it was diease that caused these strange behaviors to young girls only.....

The abuse of judicial process which was evident from the very beginning in the Salem Trials should be a lasting warning to all Americans. This is what happens when you allow the religion and the government to make common cause. If anything deserves to be classified as "evil" it is the behaviour of the upright Puritan community which allowed children as young as 4 years old to be pressured into making testimony that enable their own parents to be executed. It is all a matter of public record. The Puritan community preferred to be drawn into a maelstrom of paranoic fundamentalist superstitition rather than investigate the matter properly. In the end it destroyed the reputation to the extent that the remaining residents decided on a name change. The perpetrators of this persecution were allowed to get away with a partial apology and the claim that they never meant to do harm. I find that the hardest thing to believe about this whole incident. The rhetoric of some of the candidates in the American election seems to reveal that religious mania continues to keep the electorate from looking at the facts as it did during the time of Salem, Massachusetts when the entire community was in the grip of self-destructive "Christian" paranoia.

hi, i am doing a history day project for school and i was wondering about the things below. It would be awsome if your able to answer these questions. You might heard from me and 2 other of my friends again. thanks a lot. -Was the Salem Witch Trial a hoax or not? -How did they deciced to stop. -What changed there minds. -Wat are there names?

i have heard that the 4 year old daughters real name was dorcas. i read this in a book written by a historian. is her name dorcas or dorothy or is dorcas a nickname of dorothy?

Ok, so I have to write a short story on this topic, and I can't figure out a way to start it. Can anyone tell me what events led up to any of this happpening?

This is horrible:( I am a report on them and everything is so upsetting. I think the girls should not have said that those people were doing it if they wer'nt.

I am a student at a University in California and we were discussing this in our American Lit. class yesterday. Someone mentioned there has been information brought out that the grain, eaten by both humans and animals, may have been tainted with a mold spore or some other biological naturally-occurring toxin and that is why people had "fits" and that the cattle dropped dead. There are so many things we now know about now that people didn't at that time. Also, people can consume grain or other foodstuffs that are contaminated in some way and all react differently. This may be akin to people eating poisonous mushrooms or other such things that people now consume to intentionally produce hallucinations. Something to think about. We also brought up the point that when people are confronted with things that are unknown to them, they still sometimes react by ostracizing or labeling the people involved as suspicious.

I'm very intrested in historical witch trials i love the movie The Covanent because it was so good, about different withes and everything else. I try to get on the Internet to look up the witch hunt in salem. My friends think i am wierd because i enjoy reading about things like that but its the truth. see you later

omg this is so great!!!! I got an A on my project

This act of violence was very rong!

I love history. This is one of my favorite units. I`m part puratin but that dosent mean I agree with them.

this is very sad to many and to me tell more about the kids.

Hi. I think its totally stupid that people didn`t have fair trials. I think the judge was friends with the person acting and teamed up against the suspected witch. Or The beleived possed person was really acting screaming,throwing theirself around the room and the judge beleived everything. If you should tell me they should have a judge thats not gullable and unfair!!!

I think this site is very helpful for many of my projetcs!

i cant figure out how to get this page in MLA format. could someone help?

this is good for my hisocial fiction book report it helps a lot on the book i read called "the witch of blackbird pond."

I am very interested in the facts and the names of all who were named as witches,and those who are there ancestors.My mothers maiden name was Owens. I have heard that there were witches in our family. I would like to go back into the book of names to see if any of those accused of witch craft are ancestors. Please let me know if and where I could find this book.

This was fascinating, not just the 'brief history,' but all these comments. A few are by people whose ancestors were directly affected by the witch trials; many are by students looking for help for research papers. My problem with this article and others in what's mostly a gorgeous, glossy magazine is the lack of footnotes and bibliographies. If the editors would simply ask the authors to provide this rudimentary information, students could seek out the works they need and read them firsthand.

Iam doing a web hunt on the Salem Witch Trials, for school. And I have really always been interested in stuff like this, and it seems like people have alot to say about Witch Craft,and the trials of the Salem so called witche's. And there is alot of theories about it, but no one will ever know the REAL story or TRUTH about any of this. And that really suckes, but we just have to accept things for what they are and how they come to us. C ya...P.S I beat myself up pratically because I really want to know the actual TRUTH, but thats life and every thing happens for a reason. So like I said we will never know the actual truth. J.B

I learnt about the subject during my history studies in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. I think that history shows us many examples of mob-behavior that lead to disasters. In my mind I can even see the seeds of cruelty from Salem in the 20th century Nazism.

im doing a reaserch report and this helped but i need an authors name and when this article came out.

how did this website find the informatio n. if a book what book?

I am the GGGG+Granddaughter of Sarah Pease and although the death of the others accused is important, I would like to learn what happened to Sarah and others like her after the hysteria died down. This article is well written, but only a beginning to a great many that have been written.

THis is a very intresting topic to do and a very good one for a reasearch papper for any seniors

well can i find the date of last change???????

i think this is a very interesting topic, and i wish the article had more information. It feels like the tip of the iceberg.

I have been seaching the Salem Witch trails and thngs for the past 10 years. My son acually did it by getting me to watch Charmed, I know thats the Wicken Way nor is it really posssible sometimes when I am waching it I wonder if there are really witches out there that can do good stuff like that , even though I know its only a T.V show, it makes me really belive that there most likely now or in the 1600 the are good wiches out the waching over us.Some poeple think its crazy and its not even posssible at all but I beleive it really could be or is true. Thank u for the things u gave me to reas and discover. I hope to fine out more. Alli

I'm write a research paper for my engligh, this information, was very help for. I Thank You ..