Throughout history witches have either been feared or revered. Salem, Massachusetts has become a city known for witches. In 1692, 24 people died as accused witches. Nineteen of them were hung, one man was pressed to death and four others died in jail awaiting trial (Breslaw 186).This was the one of the largest witch hunts in American history. But the witch hunt occurred in Salem Village and not Salem Town. Salem Village has since become Danvers (Salem Web).
 

        The number of those accused reached 142 and of those only 25 lived in Salem Village or near it (Boyer and Nissenbaum 190).Usually only women were thought of as witches but this case of witch hunting involved men also, seven men, in fact (Salem Witch Museum). John Proctor was the first man accused of being a witch (Karlsen 38).
 

        A witch was considered a disagreeable woman who was at best aggressive and abrasive and at worst ill-tempered, quarrelsome and spiteful. A person was labeled a witch if they were deviant from the social norm. The norms of one group of people varied from one another with "prevailing class, gender and racial assumptions"(Karlsen 118). The actions of one group were not the actions of another and deviating from it was looked down upon. It could also be grounds for naming someone a witch (118).
 

        Being a accused of being witch could come from many sources. Sometimes it was a personal feud, especially if a tragedy had soon followed. Sometimes it was the deviation from the norm stated above. Some of the accused witches were against the minister Samuel Parris. Accusations were made when people felt powerless over things they couldn't control like droughts, plagues, Indian attacks or war. Colonists believed that witches had the power to create such occurrences and "the prosecuting of enchanters enabled settlers to rationalize that although they were powerless to control the forces of nature, the controllers could be regulated." Thus many people being named witches were scapegoats to release their anxieties (Booth 111).
 

        A few things that emerge about the accused that were very interesting are the locations of where they lived and their social status. Fourteen of the accused lived in Salem Village and twelve of them lived on the eastern side, the side closest to Salem Town, whereas, the accusers tended to live on the western side of the village. Also, defenders of witches tended to live on the eastern side of town and were generally neighbors of the accused (Boyer and Nissenbaum 35).
 

        Demographics show that it was usually the old, middling or unexpectedly well off women who were more likely to be called a witch (Karlsen 119). Men were more likely to be called witches when they were outsiders and rose above or dropped severely below their station in life (Boyer and Nissenbaum 209). Of the thirteen women hung only one, Sarah Good, was under 40 years old (Karlsen 65). Sarah Good was 38 (Breslaw 112). No man over forty was executed and most were middle aged (Karlsen 291).
 

        The witch trials began because some girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putman began to dabble with the occult in the winter of 1691. They were soon joined by Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott. They were using a "crystal ball", a glass of water and the white of an egg, to divine what their future husband's occupation would be. The shape of a coffin was seen and it frightened the girls. Betty Parris soon began to have pains in December of 1691. A doctor was called in and when no physical cause could be found the doctor suggested that an "evil hand" was at work (Boyer and Nissenbaum 2). But it was almost a full month or more before the first accusations of witches began on February 29 when three women, Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were named.
 

        Writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century would have you believe that Tituba helped the girls in their pursuit of magic. Stories that say with her help the girls got into "satanic practices, drawing blood or dancing naked in the woods" were all fictionalized. Actually, there is no direct evidence that she had anything to do with the girls dabbling in the occult. In fact the crystal ball was more in line with English folklore than the witchcraft of the West Indies (Breslaw 90-92).
 

        Tituba, who was a slave to Parris, was from Barbados and she confessed to being a witch and implicated others. She only confessed after she was beaten by Parris and forced to confess. She knew some "magic" she said but that was only how to make a witch cake and how to protect herself from evil. The witch cake, which is a mixture of rye meal and urine, was of English origin. Tituba only made the cake after Mary Sibley, a church member of the village, came to her and asked her to help. Tituba only did it to help Betty  and made the cake on February 25. Mary Sibley was not punished for her part in the making of the witch cake but this was most likely because she was white and because she was a church member (Breslaw 96).
 

        Soon after making the witch cake, the girls who had only been experiencing mysterious pains, now suffered from choking sensation, disjointed limbs, convulsions and possible hallucinations. After Tituba's arrest the "affliction" soon spread to others in the village (105).
 

        Tituba was given credibility in her testimony when anyone else of her race would not be believed. Most people of in the seventeenth century believed that all Indians and Africans knew magic and evil spells and their word would never be taken over that of a white person. Actually, without her testimony the trials would never have taken place (106).
 

        It was her blending of English folk lore magic with other elements from other cultures that made her story believable. She not only confirmed that Good and Osborne were witches but she also implicated others, like Martha Cory. Her testimony was so wild that the girls would scream from fright. She gave the answers the magistrates wanted to hear because the truth would not satisfy them (115).
 

        Why did she give them this story and confess to being a witch when she was not? It could be for many reason. Perhaps she was aware of the witchcraft cases in Boston and how the accused were treated. She may have also know that between 1680-1692 only one person was executed as a witch. She may have also know that those who confessed and showed how sorrowful they were were likely not to be executed but looked on with sympathy (115).
 

        Two things gave her credibility. One was that she spoke like the whites around her. She didn't speak with "a non-standard English, a Creolized version that drew on one or another native American syntax" (162). She was able to mimick English ways in speaking, dressing and religion to hide her "alieness" from other people (161).
 

        Another thing that gave her testimony credibility was that other people who were giving testimony against the accused picked up elements from her testimony and used them to their advantage. When parts of her story were strange and different from know English witchcraft they would change it to fit their needs. March 5 was the last day of her testimony and the magistrates had what evidence they needed to know that the Devil was indeed in Salem. They had "the Devil's book, a cabal of night-riding witches, and incidents of maleficium" (132).
 

        Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were both named with Tituba. They continued to deny any involvement with the Devil and denied being witches. Osborne dies in jail before her trial could take place.
 

        Good was found guilty of inflicting pain on the girls and causing pain and even death to others in the village. Good was accused by people she had approached for food or shelter and had been denied. They said she went away muttering and then soon after a tragedy would befall them. Good did not show contentment with her life or deference (Boyer and Nissenbaum 205). Good was hung on July 19. Good was joined in jail by her four year old daughter Dorcas, when she was claimed to be a witch. Dorcas spent nine months in jail and was never right in the head again (Boyer and Nissenbaum 5).
 

        Osborne was named a witch because she was a deviant from the norm of society. She denied her children from her first marriage to Robert Prince their inheritance when she married Alexander Osborne. Osborne had been an indenture servant to Sarah and as "later testimony hinted" he had been more to her than just a servant. It was this deviation that most likely led to her being named a witch (194).
 

        The next to be accused was Martha Cory. She was a member of the village church and wife of a prosperous landowner and would be harder to prove to be a witch. It was only after several people claimed that the specter of Martha came to them and taunted them that she was put on trial (Breslaw 137). She denied being a witch and hurting the "afflicted" girls. But during her testimony the girls would shout out that they were being pinched and choked by her. When Martha bit her lip the girls claimed that she was biting them(Booth 213).
 

        Rebecca Nurse, another church member, was named next in the trials. In her first trial, the jury came back with a not guilty ruling but the judges made them go back and deliberate some more on the evidence. Because of this the jury felt that the only sentence the judges would accept was one of guilty (Booth 167). Nurse had been named by Tituba and others followed in her accusation (206).
 

        Many of the witches were found guilty based on spectral evidence. This was the claiming of the "afflicted" to see the specter of the person and that this person was hurting them or trying to make them sign the "Devil's book" or just to touch the book. Spectral evidence was allowed because witches supposedly had the ability to send their image to hurt the people they intended and it was only through the power of the Devil that they could do this. After the last of the hangings on September 22, spectral evidence began being questioned and was no longer admissible (220).
 

        Family members of accused witches were also not to be spared. Soon after Martha Cory was jailed as a witch her husband Giles was also named a witch. He had at first entered a plea of not guilty. But when he realized that he would be found guilty of witchcraft if he continued to claim he innocence he refused to speak at his trial. Refusing to speak at the trial meant he could not be tried legally (Salem Web). To force him to confess and agree to a trial he was given peine fort et dure, which is placing weights on top of the body to force a confession. Giles did not speak and after two days of unbearable pain he asked for more weight so that he may die quickly (Booth 182).
 

        The trials ended in October of 1692 when the court of Oyer and Terminer, the court that oversaw the trials, was dissolved by Governor Phips (Salem Witch Museum). The most ironic thing about the trials is that those who confessed were freed after imprisonment and those that proclaimed their innocence were hung. That innocent people died because others said that they were witches and used their specter to torment them when no one else could see this specter. If spectral evidence had not been allowed many would not have died.
 

        The aftermath of the trials greatly changed Salem's attitude toward witches. It certainly changed their attitude toward the families of those accused and executed. In 1711  the families that request restitution for the deaths of their family members were paid. Payments were made to 21 families and the total amount was 578 pounds. The family of John Proctor who was hung on August 19 received the most at 150 pounds. The smallest amount of  six pounds 10 shillings went to the family of Ann Foster. Alison D'Amario, Director of Education at the Salem Witch Museum said, "There are many descendants of those accused during the Salem witch trials still living in the Salem area and actually around the country." As to what their descendants think of their ancestors D'Amario said, "We get many requests from them concerning information about their ancestors."
 

        Today in Salem witches are celebrated and loved. There is a witch museum, a witch dungeon museum and the Salem witch village. Salem even now has their own "official" witch. Laurie Cabot was named the official witch of Salem by Governor Dukakis in April of 1977. To become the official witch she had to bypass the City Council, who said "that they did not want any 'person or spirit' being the official witch of Salem." The city of 38,000 people claims to be host to 2,000 practicing witches (Forerunner).
 

        Today Salem witches are a tourist attraction to get people to come to the city. Perhaps it is to make up for past wrongs done to those who died innocently as witches. Perhaps too it is to make money to further education of what really happened in 1692 so that people get the true story. And also perhaps it is just to make some money for money's sake.
 

        Today a witch is seen as someone who worships nature and all things in nature. This is going back to the beginning roots of paganism. Witches do not believe in the Christian Satan. Witch is the Celtic word for wise and was only changed to be something evil when the Christians went on their crusades (McTigue).
 

        Witches have two basic rules: Do what you will but harm no one and what ever you send out you get back three times. These rules are also known as the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated. It is only logical for a witch to wish good for someone, because it will come back to them. If they are good to others, others will be good to them (McTigue).
 

        By the Constitution of the United States witches have the right to the freedom of their religion because witchcraft is a religion. Witches are also entitled not to be harassed or punished for their choice. Witchcraft, like any other religion in America, is a legal religion. And just like any other religion witches have the right to worship as they wish "without bias or prejudice" (Celtic Crow). Today there is even the Witches' League for Public Awareness which was started by Cabot in 1986. It is a "non-profit educational network dedicated to correcting misinformation about Witches" (Salem Web).


        What actually caused the trial of 1692? The real truth of why so many people cried witch then has been lost. What the people thought then and if they actually believed their neighbors to be witches are gone. What actually caused little Betty Parris to start acting as though inflicted with pain by supposed witches? What we have is evidence of imagined specters, tales from an intelligent Indian who gave a story to please the magistrates when the truth would not be accepted, and 24 people died as a result. Today in Salem a memorial stands to honor those that died, those that were hung and for Giles Cory who was pressed to death. It stands as a remembrance of something terrible that happened and should never happen again.

                                                            Laurie Cabot, The Official Witch of
                                                                        Salem, Massachusetts

Those Who Died  (Salem Witch Museum)
hung on June 10         Pressed to death on September 19
Bridget Bishop                  Giles Corey
July 19
Sarah Good                      Died in Prison awaiting trial
Elizabeth Howe                  Ann Foster  (nd)
Susannah Martin                 Lydia Dustin  (March 10)
Rebecca Nurse                   Roger Toothaker  (June 16)
Sarah Wildes                            Sarah Osborne  (May 10)
August 19
George Burroughs
Martha Carrier
George Jacobs, Sr.
John Proctor
John Willard
September 22
Martha Corey
Mary Easty
Alice Parker
Mary Parker
Ann Pudeator
Wilmott Reed
Margaret Scott
Samuel Wardwell
 

                                                                    Works Cited


Breslaw, Elaine G.  Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies.  New York: New York         University Press, 1996.

Booth, Sally Smith. The Witches of Early America.  New York: Hastings House, 1975.

Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, Massachusetts:     Harvard University Press, 1974.

Celtic Crow.  The Witch's Massachusetts State Law Memorandum.   (www.CelticCrow.com/legal/pwp_masslaw.html)

D'Amario, Alison.  Personal interview. 24 Nov. 1997.

Grady, Lee.  "Dukakis' Official Witch?"  Forerunner  October 1988.(www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0161_Dukakis_Official_Wit.html)

Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: Vintage Books, 1987.

McTigue, James.  "A Morning with Laurie Cabot" MoonScents and Magickal Blends. 1996.(www.moonscents.com)

Salem Web. Salem Massachusetts Witch Trials.(www.salemweb.com/witches.htm)

Salem Witch Museum.  Salem Witch Museum Education- Salem, Massachusetts.        (www.salemwitchmuseum.com/learn.html)