Witchcraft

// Witchcraft // From the Beginning: Punishments:
 * Beginning in 1692 in Massachusetts with Rev. Samuel Parris who brought back two slaves from the Carribbean, one of which who was a voodooist named Tituba.
 * Tituba, who was responsible for the care of Rev. Parris's daughter, Elizabeth(age 9) and his niece Abigal(age 11) began passing on stories of voodoo which began interesting the girls who then made a game of the practice.
 * With the girls acting very strange, such as random fits and contorting their bodies, and no medical reason to explain it,the Puritans believed it to be the devil's work, or witchcraft.
 * After tons of pressure placed over the girls' heads to name names and no way out without admitting to a game gone amiss, the girls named the slaves Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne and thus the Salem Witch Trials were born.
 * If one was found to be a witch, punishment would be cruel and unusual.
 * Most would be found guilty whether they were or not, and the most common punishment would be death by hanging.
 * Other punishments would be death by being pressed to death by boulders, being tied to a cross and being thrown in a lake(drowning), and being burned.
 * Those who were convicted but not sentenced to death were attained to a jail cell where they would most likely be tortured.



​ I Was Accused of Witchcraft : 1. Tituba- a Carribean slave and the first to confess to witchcraft and was sentenced to imprisonment where she was tortured. 2.Sarah Goode- one of the three first accused witches and seen as a "filthy, bad-tempered, and crazy woman and after found guilty of witchcraft was chained by heavy iron shingles. 3. Sarah Osborne- the third woman to be accused of witchcraft, Osborne was a hated woman for she didnt attend church and was found guilty and was chained along with Goode where she died. 4. Bridget Bishop- another accused witch but unlike the ones before her, Bishop was the first to be sentence to death by hanging. 5.George Burroughs- although a reverend of a church, Burroughs was thought to be the ring leader of the witches and was executed by hanging. For more information and the order in which people were accused visit []
 * People who were accused during the Salem Witch Trials:

How to Spot a Witch:
 * A sign of a witch was to have the accused recite the lords prayer, in which a witch wouldnt know due to their loyalty to the devil.
 * One of the more stranger tests to addentify a witch was to bake a cake made from rye flour and the accused's urnie and feed it to a dog. If one was a witch they would cry out in pain thus revealing themselves.
 * Most witch accusations came from people who claimed they witnessed a person performing spells or bewitching others. Also some claimed that the accused's spirit had appeared in their dreams and attempted to bewitch them.
 * Another strange way one would be accused as a witch was if they had a larger birthmark or they were seen as different by the community, such as red hair or green eyes.
 * One of the most redundent witch tests were to tie a person to a cross and throw them into a lake. If they float they were a witch but if the drowned then they were human but would have already been dead.



  The Last of the Salem Witch Trials:
 * Finally the colonies minister took a stand against the salem witch trials. The girl accusers who had gone mad with power had accused the govenors wife, lady Phis of witchcraft.
 * In response on october 29, governor Phis dissolved the court of over and termite. The governor then asked the general court to establish a superior court to finish the business.
 * Juries ended up acquitting most of those accused. Only three were convicted but they were reprieved by the Governor.
 * The Salem Witch Trials hysteria was finally over. Those who had participated in the hysteria in cluding the accusers, Clergy and magistrates all suffered from illness or problems in the following years.
 * In 1703 the Massachusetts colonial legislature began granting retroactive amnesties to the convicted and executed during the // Salem Witch Trials. //