Video Gallery

Historical Background on the Salem Witch Trials

Go to Video Gallery Added Oct 11, 2016 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//jhs.jisd.org/apps/embed/?v=123753" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

Show Transcript

how many settlers arrived in New England in the early 1600s were searching for religious tolerance but ironically they were intolerant of others 70 years later they are intolerant sled to appear in The Witch Hunt 200 people were accused from simple Farmers to the governor pause  find David Hartman three hundred years ago new englanders believe the devil and witches were real and it come to destroy on the charges of a handful of teenage girls in Salem Massachusetts they executed 20 of their innocent Neighbors reasonable people ask what possessed Old Salem Village in 1692 in the late 1600s dramatic changes were transforming how people lived scientific and political changes industry and trade American seaports were thriving especially the town of Salem Merchants were making money Leaning Tower but next door in little Salem Village Puritan farmers were struggling to maintain a simpler life the new worldliness of salemtowne threatened to the farmer's Puritan values who was love lost between town and Village Family rivalries in The Villages desire for independence from the town divided at the town and Village even the village itself was divided the anxiety was building villagers led by the time Putnam family resisted and resented change other villagers led by the Israel Porter family had ties to Salem Town biz personal profit the pious Farmers influence was a roading finally the Rival disrupted over picking a new Village minister of position with influence and power beyond the power of the pulpit  dim the squad step Samuel Parris is struggling komplex man who is quick to see the devil's role in any misfortune  Paris The Minister's job was an opportunity to finally gain respect he had failed business he resented that he was obsessed with money so he made excessive demands for a house for land for guaranteed firewood Quinn money she'll be plentiful he said more money shall be paid to me well the villagers took sides Pro Paris anti Paris the Putnam Camp was for him the more worldly Porter Camp was against him  then something strange happened that pushed Salem Village over yaj  in the winter of 6092 it was incredibly cold one evening after dinner some young girls are the V which gathered at Reverend Parris house what happened the examinations and trials that followed were written down and are still with us three hundred years later upstairs Paris Indian slave Tituba was telling the girls fortunes it was black magic and forbidden the girls were fascinated before long the excitement turns deadly suddenly one of the girls saw something the ghostly form of a coffin then the ministers 90 call daughter Betty began to have convulsive fits she struggled and fought as if she were being attacked by something invisible tennis 11 year old is Abigail began to have fits to  the Reverend Parris was frightened where are sent for the village physician as the girls Battle of the Year selected people called it when dr. Griggs couldn't find anything physically wrong he diagnosed witchcraft he said the evil hand is upon them Paris worst fears of demons and the devil were being realized what in God's name is  what is a child  are you in pain what are you seeing your desperation the girls broke down and name names ketchup who else are there others they were three women of the village with questionable reputations a slave a beggar who smoked a pipe and an invilid woman who would marry her servant singer Aspen what was for a 29th warrants were issued the women were arrested the charge was witchcraft witchcraft accusations were none common and they usually ended with a few arrests but not in 1692 and Salem Village Paris slave Tituba brought before the Magistrate did you buy what do evil spirits have you familiarity with none  why do you hurt these children  I'm not hurt them you ever see the devil  the devil came to me and bit me how did you go  we ride upon six and are there their examination Tituba confessed to being in League with the devil but more importantly she corroborated the girls stories that Sarah good and Sarah Osburn were her fellow witches and she gave Vivid and convince descriptions to the court how they wrote upon broomsticks for meetings with a devil's but most importantly that there were other witches that she couldn't recognize why did you never tell your master  read what else have you seen with goody Osborne  another Siri  walks upright like a man only two legs put your bus confession was the spa Mark that set everything off her descriptions of witches riding sticks in the night just confirmed everyone's worst that Satan and his Legions of witches were here but where and who were they on March 1st 1690 who in Salem Village The Witch Hunt began  a sense of the past is very strong in Danvers tendons of the accused and their accusers still live here Richard Trask is in historian and the descendant of several of those accused and executed in 1692 what is spectral evidence evidence was The Afflicted children believe that they saw are the invisible shape something like a ghost of the witches except instead of being a ghost of someone dead it was the spirit of the witches the living and these witches were trying to hurt the children trying to convince them that they should sign the devil's book or if not they were going to Rack them to Pieces the interesting thing about spectral evidence is that no one else obviously could see these specters only the children themselves are the others who are being clicked it in the village Meetinghouse The Afflicted testified against the accused witches go to touch me most grievously she did pinch me and pick me and earned media mentor to write in her book put in the testimony of an Putnam and her mother play in the morning gave people an opportunity to speak out against their neighbors to take revenge at the heart of the Hysteria the fearful New Village minister there are devils as well as Saints here in Christ little church Reverend Parris start the Witch Hunt but he fanned the Flames from his pulpit  everybody is on one side all the other on March 23rd devout Church woman was accused those family rivalries we're starting to surface most of the accusers represented the village most of the boost representative Town interest the witch-hunt was gaining momentum and it was becoming clear that the devil was also an excuse to settle Bowl scores  Rebecca Norris was a grandmother and a fully covenanted member of the church but close to the Porter Family she was 71 yet they dragged her from her sickbed to answer Ann putnam's charges and Putnam  have you seen this woman her too  yes she beat me this morning Lord God knows I have not person is very I guess you stand right when there are so many wet  you do not know my heart what are sad thing is that a church member should be persecuted and charted  do you believe that these Affleck persons are Bewitched yes I do think they have accused you of hurting them if you think it is by Design then you must look upon them as murderers change what do you think of this I can't help it the devil may take my sheep when Rebecca nurse found innocent her accusers erupted insisting her Spectre was attacking them  chief justice Stoughton told the jury to Rican it did this time guilty July 19th Rebecca nurse was executed than excommunicated what will the summer of 1692 the convicted witches 19 of them were carted through the streets of salemtowne to Gallows Hill instead confessing they forgave their accusers and prayed they would be the last innocent people executed for the crowd all found they were hanging several at a time why would someone cess to being a witch after the trials had begun and after the first several executions and taken place those people in j understood that those people confessing will remaining in jail and maybe would be able to live where as those people who didn't confess would being brought go to trial and we're being executed so it was a way of at least staying for a period of time The Hangman's nose from the beginning there was a nun current of opposition to Wallace one of the judges left the court several ministers question The Rules of Evidence especially spectral evidence Albert Pike a magistrate appealed to the court of the witnesses he wrote we're both informers and the sole judges of the crime will buy fall Eva Governor phips wife had been accused so finally increase Mather was forced to act on October 3rd and a sermon to other ministers criticize spectral evidence the ten suspected witches should go free than that one innocent yes.  My draws a judge of which to be honest woman the judge of honest woman to be a witch on October 29th Governor Phipps dissolved the court the civil suits were brought to recover property of the accused those already found guilty we're pardoned the remaining accused were tried and exonerated no one would ever die again in our country convicted as a witch  lumitron began in Salem Village the miles took place in Salem Town three hundred years later the vestiges of the hysteria are more noticeable here in Salem town add each year some million visitors flocked to Salem to take in the witch Museum  stand in the stocks outside the witch dungeon then stop at The Witches Brew Cafe even the streets and Salem have a witch connection  the stereo took a limage of the evil witch on a broomstick has become the town's symbol it's made an industry out of its history Salem and Danvers are Subway still very much the same one very commercial the other the small-town neighbor that quietly remembers will The Witch Trials finally over in 1693 The Colony acknowledged the tragedy and the gross in justices and Molly people began to rebuild their communities and then 3 years later in 6096 for the general assembly of Massachusetts declared a fast how to atone for the evil that have been done to so many innocent people  the Reverend John Hale one of the accusers wrote such was the darkness of that day of the torture and Lamentations of The Afflicted and the power of the presidents we walked in the clouds and could not see our way  it was an ending and a passage to a new time of writer pause  image of the Court Samuel Sewell did what had never been done before by a Massachusetts my desire to take the blame and shame if it's asking pardon of men for my role in the late that same day Thomas Fisk and 11 other former jurors signed a petition we confess that we were not able to withstand the de the powers of Darkness bring upon ourselves the guilt the venison flood even one of the girls who instigated The Witch Hunt and Putnam confess that she had wrongly accused people  I decided to lie in the dust and honesty beg the Forgiveness of God and end of All Those whom I have given just cause of sorrow and defense but I did was ignorantly being deluded by Satan home or labeled persons of profligate and vicious conversation that hinted that there was something conspiratorial about their Hysteria Touch Above the slave whose testimony spark to the witch on recanted her story in fact she claimed that Samuel Parris had the confession  in 1752 Salem Village became independent of Salem town and changed its name to members that is tried to bury its memories of the witch trials ever since when the Witchcraft was all over Salem Village was really decimated by innocent people have been hanged how many families had been disrupted and the village really for Generations just didn't I talked about the Witchcraft anymore witch hunts on something of the dark past they are still something that draws Us in today at 2 turn we might think that all we talking about something that happened 300 years ago we talking about Puritans who were superstitious they weren't very sophisticated didn't happen to hang a bunch of witches what's that got to do with us when in fact when we talk about a Witch Hunt we're talking about anytime and which a community of people find easy scapegoats to difficult questions things they don't understand it says easy for us to understand it today when we look to our in past how the Japanese Americans were treated at the beginning of World War II Throne in basically concentration camps I think we and our own time must be able to watch for witch hunts in any form and an any guys with his much clearvision bravery and and pretty is as we can muster Salem in 1692 was the last of the religious witch hunts but there have been many $0.04 F Nick little racial witch hunts the people of Salem remember and show that history does not have to repeat itself on David Hartman I mean a math answers to the questions for rediscovering America the Salem the spark that started the witch on hysteria was the confession of Tituba Reverend parris's slave that she was in League with the Devil some of the accused confessed to being witches because if they confessed they would remain in jail but if they denied the charges they could be executed try this activity with your class write an editorial about the witch trials in Salem that might have appeared in a seventeenth-century newspaper then put them all together into a class editorial page to learn more members of the American Association of Librarians and assignment Discovery suggest the devil in the shape of a Woman by Carol and Carlson ask your librarian to help you explore the many resource the library has to offer

Video Gallery

Historical Background on the Salem Witch Trials

Popular Videos