Other forms of finding a witch was by torture, were the accused would tortured by various devices for various amounts of time. Some of those devices include, the rack, thumbscrews, and the breast ripper. It is unknown what type of torture was used on Rebecca West. In the journal kept by Nehemiah Wallington, that torture was used to coerce a confession from her. It is not clear if Hopkins ordered her to be tortured or not. The witch-finder general, Hopkins, main method of extracting a confession from his victims was torture. In Wallington’s accounts he reported that the young Rebecca West, was tortured until she confessed to her accused crimes. Wallington states the following: “She said she found herselfe in such extremity of torture and amazement, …show more content…
that she would not enure it againe for the world; and when she looked upon the ground she saw her selfe encompassed in flames of fire and presently the Grand Inquesr called for her where they admit but one at a time and as soone as she was thus separated from this Mother Miller, the torturers and the flames began to cease whereupon she then confessed all she knew and said thank you so soone as her confession was fully ened she found her contience so satisfied and disbardened of all tortures that she thought herself, the happiest creature in the world, with all affirming that the divel can take any shape and speak plaine English.” It could be assumed that the torture inflicted on Rebecca West was most likely the reason that she had confessed to being a witch.
When reading Wallington, one person can assume that in many of the trials brought on by the witch finder general most likely included torture to extract the confession from the accused. The writings by Nehemiah Wallington show that the young women convicted were not only accusing their peers but also confessing to the crimes of witchcraft under torture. According Gaskill, people put on trial would be tortured to “erode diabolic defenses, with proofs, and discover truth” However, the law at this time in England, allowed the use of torture at the state level but the laws were not always clear. Which is why, according to Gaskell, Stearne believed that they could be bent. Like seen in Rebecca West’s confession, torture in the Essex Country’s trials, was a means of not only extracting a confession, but also in at least these trials finding more presumed witches in the village. The bending of the rules on torture is another example of how the court systems during the Essex Witch trials were corrupt during the civil war. Laws that were previously in place were being ignored and
broken. Some evidence brought up in the Essex, witch trials were also seen in many other trials across Early Modern Europe, for example the concept of the devil. During the Essex, Witch trials Rebecca West reported to see the devil in many forms. One of the more significant images of the devil was a handsome suitor for Rebecca. Rebecca and the devil were married and then consummated their marriage. Many of the witch trials in Early Modern Europe, included tales of witches having sex with the devil. In his book The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Brian Levack, reports that sex with the devil would be cold and hard. The devil would also use semen from other males. Levack also reports that some witches were accused of having sex with demons. It is uncertain if was a factor in the trails of Elizabeth Clark, Ann West, or Rebecca West. However, the concept of demons was.
For example, Betty Paris and Ruth Putnam in the movie could not wake, but in Wilson’s historical depiction the only symptoms the afflicted girls had were: slipping into trances, cowering in corners, blurting nonsense, and collapsing into shrieking epileptic fits. Miller’s beginning scene of “The Crucible” where the girls were dancing and conjuring spirits in the woods with Tituba is not something that is known to have actually occurred. In Wilson’s historical depictions, Tituba is accused of being a witch because she made the witch cake, but in the film Abigail accuses her in order to avoid punishment because of what her and the girls were caught by Reverend Parris doing in the woods. Tituba’s confession in the movie was whipped out of her, but according to the historically she was interrogated, not whipped. Miller also changed why Martha Corey was accused in the film it is because her husband, Giles Corey, said she was reading suspicious books, but according to Wilson it was because Abigail said she saw her specter on the beams during sermon. According to Wilson’s historical depiction of the Salem Witch Trials, jailers would torture children to get them to confess their mother was a witch, but Miller did not put that in his
In many ways, the trials that delivered verdicts that often lead to an alleged witch’s death were often based on the word some respected member of the community or another. On close inspection, it becomes clear that most of the individuals accused and punished for practicing witchcraft led lives that were considered out of the ordinary, and were usually marginalized by society, as a result. After many innocent lives had been lost, Increase Mather, a Harvard College academic and a respected member of society, urged the Massachusetts’s legal representative to change the standards governing evidence on witchcraft to be equal to other crimes. The Massachusetts General Court later deemed the trials as being unconstitutional and unlawful since they did not adhere to the due process. Magistrates such as Samuel Sewall, who were responsible for executions in the trials, apologized publicly for their actions to undermine the people’s rights. The court also ruled on offering financial compensation to the heirs of the executed suspects in 1711. The Salem Witch Trials are now widely accepted as unjustified killings resulting from inaccurate accusations made due to mass hysteria, religious extremism and social
The Salem Trials took place between the 10th of June and the 22nd of 1692 and in this time nineteen people. In addition to this one man was pressed to death and over 150 people where sent to jail where four adult and one infant died. Although when compared to other witch-hunts in the Western world, it was ‘a small incident in the history of a great superstition,’ but has never lost its grip on our imagination’ . It’s because of this that over the last three centuries many historians have analysed the remaining records of the trials in order to work out what the causes and events were that led to them.
All participants in the witch-hunt were influenced by the society that existed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem operated as a theocracy, a government ruled by and subject to religious authority. In a theocracy, people's sins are not forgiven, so that when they commit an indiscretion, they are left feeling guilty. "The witch-hunt was....a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims." (p. 7) Characters such as Abigail Williams and Mrs. Putnam used the witch-hunts in the way cited above, as a method of confessing their sins without being accountable for them. Others used the chaos created by it for their own benefit. Thomas Putnam made his daughter Ruth accuse both George Jacobs and Rebecca Nurse so he could buy the resulting unclaimed land after they were hung. Any character that accused, confessed, or in any way joined the witch-hunt failed his or her test.
The justice system is designed to protect the people that it serves but during the trials the accused witch had two choices, death or imprisonment.
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Disaster in Salem, the author discusses how the Salem Witch trials started and how the Puritans believed the witches should be tortured or killed for being a witch. Many people were accused of being witches. Many people thought the accused should die but some were somewhat nice and didn’t think they should die just in prison. Every puritan believed them because the dad was a reverend and everyone believed him so they all accused people. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials were disease, revenge, and attention.
Rebecca Nurse was known to all as a saintly woman. She followed God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Lord was her savior and protector. But because of mass hysteria, Mrs. Nurse was incriminated of exploiting witchcraft. This aghast most people because the most religious person they knew had been a witch. This was false. Rebecca Nurse was not a witch and had not demonstrated witchcraft by any means. She was innocent. She, like John Proctor, was solicited by Reverend Hale to confess but to no avail. Rebecca Nurse had held an immaculate reputation, and she was not about to let it get defamed by some false accusation. Rebecca Nurse, again like John Proctor, was hung for her falsely accused treacherous actions. This again is a prime example of what people will go through in order to keep a reputation that is accepted by
One of the first people to be charged, was Rebecca Nurse, wife of Francis Nurse, a well-respected man of the community. This disturbance caused great anxiety amongst the people in Salem, as they would have least suspected Rebecca Nurse to be one to deal with the Devil. "If Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing's left to stop the whole green world from burning." Goody Putnam was the one to accuse her of witchcraft, for the death of her seven babies, but even with no just proof, Rebecca Nurse is hanged for "sending her spirit out on them."
... truth, denying her involvement as a witch, but be hung anyway for "lying" under oath. On the other hand, an innocent victim could lie and confess her involvement as a witch, accuse another witch instead and be let "off the hook". However, if the innocent victim lied and confess, but wasn't willing to turn in another witch, she would be hung anyway. (Starkey, 17) This created quite an ironic situation coming from a Christian based community of purity and holiness.
This trial was held in Salem but people all around Salem who were accused of witchcraft were bought to Salem for trial. The Salem Witch Trial was a trial for people being accused of associating with witch craft. Over 100 men and women majority of them being women were in this trial. The trial had a 3 step process first was a confession then a testimony of two eyewitnesses to the act of witchcraft and a rare ‘’spectral evidence’’ where most of these witches didn’t make it too. A spectral evidence is when the accused person’s spirit or spectral appeared in a testimony dream when the accused witch was at another location. During a trial if you could recite the ‘’Lord’s prayer’’ you were not a witch and you could indeed be let go during trial just for reciting the prayer (Louis-Jacques, Lyonette. "Http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/10/29/the-salem-witch-trials-a-legal-bibliography-for-halloween/." The University of Chicago Library News. 29 Oct. 2012). The trial was during the Puritan times so people believe during trial, these witches could harm anyone in the court houses (Purdy, Sean. ‘’Conjuring History: The many interpretations of The Salem Witch Trials.’’ Reviver Academic Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, 2007, pp. 2.). At the end of the trial 19 men and women were hanged at Gallows
Anne Whittle was the first of the Pendle witches tried, she had confessed to being a witch in all of her examinations and blamed Elizabeth Sowtherns for introducing her to witchcraft, but plead not guilty to the crimes of using witchcraft to harm others. After examination of Anne Whittle, the Justices of the Peace examined those that were accused with her about the actions of Anne Whittle in relation to acts of witchcraft. Notably, James, Alizon, and Elizabeth Deuice all testified against Anne Whittle accusing her of multiple witchcrafts. Anne Whittle was found guilty of using witchcraft to harm people, and sentenced to death. Anne Whittle’s case was not the only one of the cases from Pendle Forest that resulted in execution. Executed along with Anne Whittle were, James Deuice, Alizon Deuice, Elizabeth Deuice, Anne Readfearne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewytte, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, and Isabel Robey. Of the eleven cases from Pendle Forest that went to trial, ten people were executed, Margaret Pearson was deemed guilty by the jury but not executed. Instead of execution, Margaret Pearson was forced to stand on a pillar in the market for four market
There was a plethora of torture devices used on those accused of witchcraft in the 1500’s, Duncane was fortunate to only have experienced a few. The first device used on Duncane was a vice called the pillwinkles, also known as thumbscrews, which crushed the bones in her fingers. When that did not work, her head was “thrawed”, which consisted of it being bound with rope or cord, then twisted and wrenched savagely. When she still would not confess, a diligent search of her body was conducted where the Devil’s mark was found on her throat.
The judges also decided to allow the so-called “touch-test” (defendants were asked to see if their touch, as was generally assumed of the touch of witches, would stop their contortions) and examinations of the bodies of the accused for evidence of “witches’ marks” (moles or the like upon which a witch’s familiar might suck)
It was really an odd way of how the Salem witch trials all started. Something so big is caused by a group of such young girls. They were known as the “afflicted girls” (Brooks). There were about a total of 9 girls involved. Supposedly after playing a fortune-telling game they all started to act out in very abnormal ways. Three of the girls: Mercy Lewis, Betty Parris, Mary Warren, were all examined by Dr. William Griggs and he suggested that they were bewitched (Brooks). During this time Salem separated into accusers and the accused. One of the accused women was a former slave, Tituba. She of the three women accused confessed the use of witchcraft. All three of the women were arrested and questioned. Tituba confessed seeing a few girls acting weird and confessed treating some of the girls in a rude way. She however did n...
The Puritans were notably fearful of the devil. The traumatic event that triggered this was possibly the epidemic and the removal of the royal charter. If it was not that, it could have been a different disease that struck the Puritans. “Another possibility is that the girls contracted encephalitis, a disease carried by mosquitoes. Encephalitis can cause fever, headaches and confusion” (Krystek). The confusion could have lead them to think that they were indeed witches or that they witnessed witchcraft. When the accused were interrogated by some of the people in the community, it was not a peaceful encounter. They forced a false confession from innocent people, it was a smart way of interrogation. A way the examination went was, “And then they would try to push the person to see, ‘Well, haven't you done some sin? Haven't you let the Devil in the door even just a little bit?’ Then these women who were good Puritan women kind of had to admit that, ‘Yeah, okay, maybe a little bit I let Satan in the door’” (Reis). The people from the community manipulated the accused. These women were vulnerable, and were clueless. When they questioned