In order to properly understand the mass hysteria that resulted in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, it is important to take into consideration the issues that impacted the daily life of colonial Massachusetts as well as that of Salem Village. Some of the more obvious issues were the threat of attack by Native American tribes and the ongoing battles between the British and the French.  In addition, there had recently been a smallpox epidemic.


More significant were the differences of opinion that had arisen between Salem Village (Village) and Salem Town (Town).  Salem Village was a farming community that was situated approximately five to seven miles to the north of the prosperous Salem Town whose port was active in fishing, shipbuilding, and general trading activities.  In the 1670s, the Village’s requested permission to establish its own church due to the distance to Town’s church.  After some time, the Town reluctantly granted the Villages request for a church. It placed a  restriction that the Village could form a committee of no more than five members for the purpose of assessing a tax to hire a minister.

The first three ministers hired by the Village were not ordained. This meant that they were unable to provide communion or even have a church with members. Therefore, the residents of the Village still were required to maintain a relationship with another church.

In November 1689, the Village finally hired an ordained minister – the Reverend Samuel Parris – and finally the Village had its own church.

  Having a ‘church’ provided the Village with some degree of independence from the Town, which in turn created some animosity.

While Reverend Parris was initially welcomed with open arms the residents of the Village, his teaching and leadership style along with issues regarding his contact began to divide the Church members.  The increased costs associated with having an ordained minister along with the upgrades required to make their meeting place into a church placed a strain on the Village and created a division amongst the Church members.

Also, Reverend Parris was ideologically opposed to the ‘Half-Way Covenant’ that had been accepted by the Salem Town church and which those who resided in Salem Village had become accustomed.  The Half-Way Covenant provided that the offspring of individuals who had not yet converted to the Puritans but who had been baptized were able to be baptized and become a Church member with voting rights.  The Reverend’s opposition to this covenant further strained the Church members to the point that by the fall of 1691, there was dissension about continuing to pay Reverend Parris’ salary or even provide him and his family with firewood during the upcoming winter months.

 

In January 1692, Reverend Parris’ daughter, 9-year-old Elizabeth, and niece, 11-year-old Abigail Williams, became quite sick.  When the children’s conditions worsened, they were seen by a physician named William Griggs, who diagnosed them both with bewitchment.  Then several other young girls from Salem Village also displayed similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren.

By late February 1692, local authorities had issued an arrest warrants for the Reverend Parris’ slave, Tituba.  Additional warrants were issued two other women that these sick young girls accused of bewitching them, Sarah Good, who was homeless, and Sarah Osborn, who was quite elderly.

These three arrests would mark the beginning of the Salem Village witch trials.  Between February 1692 and May 1693 when this hysteria ended, more than two hundred people had been accused of practicing witchcraft and approximately twenty were executed.

It would take several decades before the controversy that surrounded the witch trials would begin to settle down, and it would be several hundred years before the name of the last of the witches would be cleared.