August 11, 2024 • 25 mins
One of history's most infamous episodes of mass hysteria. We unravel the dark history of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693, a period that forever scarred colonial Massachusetts. We'll reveal how deeply-rooted Puritan beliefs, which cast women as inherently sinful and susceptible to the devil's influence, led to the tragic persecution and execution of many innocent people. Our exploration doesn't stop there; we'll also shed light on the contrasting methods and demographics of the Salem trials compared to European witch hunts, offering a comprehensive understanding of this grim chapter in history.
Prepare to be captivated by the harrowing tales of those ensnared by the witch hunt frenzy. We'll take you through the brutal and bizarre tests used to identify witches. Tune in for an eye-opening examination of the Salem Witch Trials, a cautionary tale of how fear and ignorance can lead to unspeakable injustices.
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Be Weird. Stay Different. Don't Trust Anyone!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Welcome to Dark Crossroads Podcast, hosted by
Roxanne Fletcher.
This is your stop for allthings true crime and paranormal
.
From the infamous story of theNew Bedford Highway Killer to
the chilling tale of the BlackEyed Children, dark Crossroads
Podcast is a truly deep diveinto the stories that frighten
and fascinate you.
All links to the show will beprovided in this episode's
(01:33):
description, and don't forget tolet us know what you think of
today's episode.
One of the most notorious casesof mass hysteria broke out in
colonial Massachusetts betweenFebruary 1692 and May of 1693.
(01:55):
Within just three months, a lotof damage was inflicted on the
villagers of Salem Town, so muchto the point where the
community never really recoveredfrom it.
In such a short time, as manyas 200 people would be accused
of witchcraft and imprisoned,and a total of 25 innocent lives
would be taken.
19 people were executed and 5died in what was called witch
(02:20):
jail, and one man was torturedto death for refusing to give a
plea.
Here is everything that youneed to know about the dark
history that lurks on the groundof Salem Massachusetts.
There's a lot of factors thatwent into why the witch trials
would occur, ranging betweenracism, lack of medical
knowledge and discrimination dueto gender and social status.
(02:43):
The biggest reason of them all,however, was due to religion
and religious extremists.
There is a lot of in-depthinformation about religion in
relation to the witch trials,but this is just going to be a
brief summary of what thatentails.
The villagers of Salem Town werePuritans, and the Puritan
religion started in England as areformation and attempts to
(03:06):
purify the church.
Martin Luther and John Calvincreated this idea due to not
agreeing with the Roman CatholicChurch.
The Puritans that did not wantto live by the way of the Roman
Catholic Church, most of whichwere families, left England and
made their way over to Americaand formed the Massachusetts Bay
Colony and became known as theAmerican Puritans.
(03:29):
The five main beliefs in thisreligion include absolute
sovereignty, human depravity,predestination, covenant theory
and individualism.
Puritans believed that God hadthe ultimate power and had power
over everyone's lives, and thePuritan religion revolved around
the good nature of God and thewickedness of the devil.
(03:50):
They believed that, regardlessof the amount of power and
control that God had overeveryone, the devil still had
the ability to control peoplewho were weak and easily
manipulated to feed into hisevil temptations.
The devil was clearly linked tosin and anything that brought
happiness or pleasure was seenas giving in to the devil's
(04:11):
temptations.
Sexuality and diversity,meaning anybody who had a mind
of their own or had basic humanemotions or attractions, would
(04:32):
be seen as evil and thereforewould be a witch.
A very famous quote about thewitch trials is all witches are
women, but not every woman is awitch.
This religion was also verydiscriminatory towards women, as
around 78% of all accusedwitches would be women.
(04:52):
Puritan belief was that womenwere inherently sinful and had a
higher but not in the eyes ofthe devil, and women's souls
were seen as unprotected due totheir weak and vulnerable minds
(05:14):
and bodies.
This belief was further fueledduring the witch trials due to
so many women confessing.
However, it is speculated thatthe women who confessed either
truly believed that they werebeing taken over by the devil or
that they confessed to simplysave their own lives.
One of the wild things aboutthese trials was that most
people who confess were allowedto live.
(05:36):
Witches who confessed weregiven the chance to reform
themselves, while the people whowere executed were the ones who
refused either to confess or togive a plea at all.
In Europe, during the witchtrials during the 15 and 1600s,
witches who confessed were alsoeither exiled or fined, but also
not normally executed.
European witch trials wereactually far more heinous and
(06:00):
brutal than the Salem witchtrials, with up to 80,000 people
being executed, which was 80%of them being women and most of
the accused being over the ageof 40.
Most of the accused in Salemwere actually children and
teenagers between the ages of 12to 20.
Other differences betweenEuropean and Salem witch trials
(06:21):
were that no one was burned atthe stake.
In Salem, everyone who wasexecuted was executed by being
hung and won by crushing withrock.
Executions in Europe rangedanywhere between hanging,
burning at the stake, drowningand guillotine.
It is not known if it was athing in Europe, but in Salem,
another punishment, along withdeath, was that the government
(06:43):
would take all of your land andfortune, even if you had a
family.
This caused some people, likeGiles Corey, the man who was
pressed to death under torture,to not confess in order to make
sure that his family kept hisinheritance.
Torture methods in both Europeand Salem are were horrible,
normally consisting of burning,dunking, cutting, severe sleep
(07:05):
deprivation, pressing.
The heretic's fork, the pair ofanguish, the iron maiden,
witch's brittle, the rack, theiron boot, the scavenger's
daughter, the bastinado, thejugs, sexual embarrassment and
general restriction and torture.
There were a number of teststhat would be conducted to
determine whether somebody was awitch or not, taking place in
(07:27):
both Europe and Salem.
The most common test was theskin test.
The accused would have to becompletely stripped down and
checked throughout their entirebody for the devil's mark.
These marks were normallylittle red or brown bumps and
blemishes, typically beingthings such as moles, birthmarks
, scars, freckles and extranipples.
(07:48):
Smallpox was also very commonduring these times, but at the
time nobody knew what smallpoxreally was and just assumed it
was part of the devil's mark.
The second most common test wasthe pricking and scratching
test.
When no marks could be found onthe person's body, they would
normally prick multiple areas ofthe accused's body with needles
(08:09):
to see if they would bleed.
They believed that a possessedperson would either not draw any
blood or much blood at all, sothey would constantly prick
multiple areas of the body untilthey got the results that they
were looking for.
Sometimes they would even havethe victims of the accused come
in and scratch them.
It was believed that thevictims would feel relief from
(08:31):
their curses if they scratchedthe person who had cursed them
and if they felt relief, thatmeans the accused really was a
witch.
Those tests were very similarto the next common test, which
was the touch test.
The accused person would simplytouch their victims and if the
victims felt any sort of pain atall, they were deemed to be a
(08:53):
witch.
In the European 1662 case ofRose Cullender and Amy Denny,
the two elderly women werecharged with cursing two young
children.
Whenever the accused witchestouched the girls, their fists
would unclench, signifying thatthe women were witches.
However, the court wanted tomake sure their reactions were
(09:14):
genuine, so they had the girlsblindfolded and touched by other
members of the court.
The girls still proceeded tounclench their fists when
touched, which showed that thegirls were faking.
However, that unfortunately didnot save the two women and they
were executed anyway.
There also was the incantationtest.
The accused witch in this testwould verbally order the devil
(09:38):
to leave the victim's body.
If the victim who happened tobe cursed was cured, the accused
was deemed to be a witch.
There was a famous case inEurope during the 1600s where
Alice Samuel, along with herhusband and daughter, were
accused of cursing five girlsfrom a wealthy family.
The judge had the three ordereach individual girl to be
(09:58):
relieved of the demon that hadpossessed them, and when the
girls would each suddenly stopthrowing a fit, they were
apparently cured and the threepeople were convicted and were
executed.
The next is the prayer test.
The accused witch would beordered to recite the Lord's
Prayer or a section of ascripture by memory.
If they made one error, theywere a witch.
(10:20):
This test was also heavily usedin European countries and it
was a terrible test to useagainst people who had trouble
with their speech.
In 1712, jane Wynnum, who wasaccused of being a witch, had
trouble speaking the wordsforgive us our trespasses and
also lead us not into temptation.
(10:41):
She was assumed to be a witchsince she couldn't flawlessly
speak the prayer, thus beingpossessed by the devil.
However, even speaking theprayer with no trouble at all
couldn't always save you frombeing executed.
During the Salem witch trials,george Burroughs spoke the
prayer perfectly and he wasstill convicted, as they
(11:02):
believed the devil could betricking them.
Another test was the swimming ordunking test.
With this test, the accusedwitches were bound by their
wrists and ankles and would bedropped into a body of water.
If the accused floated, theywould be deemed a witch.
If the accused sank, they wereinnocent, but often would drown
(11:25):
before they could be saved.
This particular test was usedwell before the Salem Witch
Trials in European countries.
Normally it was used againstsuspected criminals, where they
would be thrown into the waterand a higher power would decide
their fate.
It was banned in many Europeancountries during the Middle Ages
but was brought back during the17th century for the infamous
(11:49):
witch hunts.
In 1710, the swimming test wasused as evidence against a
Hungarian woman to convict herof witchcraft.
She was later severely beatenand was burned at the stake.
Another test that was used wasthe weight test.
Witches were believed to bevery light and would be weighed
against the weight of the Bible.
(12:10):
If they were lighter than theBible, they were deemed to be a
witch.
However, this obviously neverever worked.
So whenever this test wouldfail, they'll go off and conduct
another test.
But the most bizarre test ofall of them was the witch cake
test.
A cake would be made with ryeflour and the urine of the
(12:33):
accused witch or anyone with thesymptoms that started the witch
hunt to begin with.
The cake would then be fed to adog and if the dog portrayed
the same symptoms as the accusedwitch, then the accused would
be deemed a witch.
They also believed that the dogwould specifically point out
who the witch was.
(12:54):
And now that we're on the topicof dogs, two dogs were also
accused and found guilty ofwitchcraft and would also be
executed.
Much of the evidence that wouldbe used against the accused
witches was spectral evidence,which was basically images and
aspirations of the accused beingseen by the afflicted, and the
(13:16):
afflicted would claim that thisaspiration inflicted a curse
upon them.
It was believed that only thedevil could allow these
aspirations to appear, even indreams, and the accused witches
would have needed the devil'spermission to be seen.
Therefore, they must be a witch.
It all started with Betty Parrisand her cousin Abigail Williams
(13:37):
, who were the ages of 9 and 11,the daughter and niece of
Reverend Samuel Parris and nieceof Reverend Samuel Paris.
The two children began to havefits described as beyond the
power of epileptic fits ornatural disease to affect.
The children acted out andwould scream, throw things,
crawl around on the ground underthe furniture.
They would utter strange soundsand words that nobody could
(14:00):
understand.
They would contort themselvesinto the strangest of positions.
The girls would also complainabout pain similar to being
pricked with needles.
Shortly after, two otherchildren, ann Putnam Jr, who was
12 years old, and ElizabethHubbard, were also acting in a
very similar way.
284 years later, it wasproposed that the children were
(14:23):
exhibiting symptoms ofconvulsive ergot poisoning.
The first three women who wereaccused and arrested of
witchcraft, who were allegedlythe witches responsible for
afflicting the children, wereSarah Good, Sarah Osborne and
Tituba.
Tituba was the very firstperson who was accused of
witchcraft by Ann Putnam Jr,first person who was accused of
(14:47):
witchcraft by Ann Putnam Jr.
Historians believed that amajor cause of the witch trials
were due to a huge family feudbetween the Putnam and Porter
families.
Other villagers would get intoheated arguments, which would
often turn physical, simply overtheir opinions regarding the
feud.
All three of these women weresome kind of outcasts within
this community.
Tituba was an enslaved SouthAmerican Indian woman from the
(15:11):
West Indies who most likelybecame a target due to her
ethnic differences compared tothe rest of the villagers.
She was accused of attractingyoung girls with her stories of
enchantment regarding talesabout sexual encounters with
demons swaying the minds of menand fortune-telling.
Sarah Good was accused due toher reputation of scolding the
(15:35):
children too harshly and oftenmuttering angrily under her
breath, and Sarah Osborne wasaccused and was seen as actively
rejecting her religion.
She was also accused of havingher own self-interest after
getting remarried and trying togain control over her son's
inheritance from her firstmarriage.
(15:57):
Others were accused ofwitchcraft in the following
March Martha Corey, rebeccaNurse, rachel Clinton and
Dorothy Good.
Martha Corey is one of the mostfamous victims in the witch
trials due to being such aprominent woman in the local
community.
She was also a very activemember with the town's children
(16:18):
and was very well liked andrespected.
She never supported the witchtrials as she didn't believe
that witches, warlocks or magicexisted.
She and her husband Giles Coreysat in on the witch trials a
few times, and Martha hadexpressed her skepticism of the
trials and tried to defend thewomen who were being accused,
(16:38):
saying that she did not believethat they were witches.
The next time her husband Gileswanted to attend a meeting, she
said no and neither of themdecided to go.
This caused her to be accusedof not only conspiring with the
witches, but also of being awitch herself.
This shocked many people in thevillage because if someone like
Martha could be a witch, thenanyone could be a witch.
(17:00):
The community were also deeplytroubled by the accusations
against Rebecca Nurse, as shewas also a devoted member of the
church in the Salem town.
Sarah Good, even though she wasa four-year-old child, was also
interrogated and her answersseem to have suggested that she
was in cahoots with her motherand witchcraft.
Rachel Clinton was arrested dueto the offenses unrelated to the
(17:23):
girls in Salem.
In April, sarah Cloyce, who wasRebecca's sister, and Elizabeth
Proctor were arrested.
The two women were brought infor a meeting and examination
with John Hawthorne and JonathanCorwin.
During the proceedings,elizabeth's husband, john
Proctor, stepped in to defendher, which led to his arrest on
(17:43):
the same day.
Within the next week, gilesCorey, abigail Hobbs, bridget
Bishop, mary Warren andDeliverance Hobbs, who was the
stepmother of Abigail Hobbs,were all arrested and all
examined.
Abigail, deliverance and Maryall confessed and started making
accusations against otheralleged accomplices, which
(18:05):
caused the arrest of Sarah Wilds, william Hobbs, who was the
father of Abigail and husband ofDeliverance, nehemia Abbott Jr,
mary Easty and Mary English,edward Bishop Jr and his wife,
sarah Bishop.
On April 30th, george Burroughs, lydia Dustin, susanna Martin,
dorcas Hoare, sarah Morey andPhilip English, who was Mary's
(18:29):
husband, were also arrested.
Nehemia Abbott Jr was releasedafter the person who accused him
withdrew their accusation InMay.
John Willard and ElizabethCoulson were also arrested and
more and more accusations wouldbe made, but many of the accused
witches were able to evadegetting caught.
(18:49):
Arrest warrants were sent outfor 36 more people while
examinations were continued forthe people that had been
arrested in the village.
There were a total of 62 peoplein custody at this time getting
examined.
Following these examinations, alist of people would be executed
in many different ways.
(19:10):
All other people who wereeither waiting for their
executions or in prison waitingfor their trial were ultimately
let go after the trials came toa permanent stop when Governor
William Phipps' wife was accused.
Of course, the governor onlydecided to end the trials when
it was somebody that he lovedgoing to the hanging tree.
(19:30):
Elizabeth Proctor was supposedto be executed along with her
husband, john Proctor, but wasultimately delayed and kept in
prison so she could give birthto her baby.
By the time the baby was born,the trials had been put to an
end and her baby savedElizabeth's life.
Sarah Good's four-year-olddaughter, dorothy Good, who was
(19:50):
also accused of witchcraft, wasalso spared.
She was never charged, but waskept in prison for nearly nine
months and was so traumatized bywhat she experienced that she
was never able to fully recoverand was never able to go off and
live a normal life on her own.
She was completely unable tocare for herself for the rest of
(20:13):
her life.
Martha Carrier also had twochildren that she was forced to
leave behind Thomas, who was theage of 10, and Sarah, the age
of 8.
In the end, some historiansbelieve that the horrific events
that occurred in Salem left agood message upon the world.
They argue that the trials lefta occurred in Salem left a good
message upon the world.
They argue that the trials lefta sort of taboo mark in America
(20:33):
about mixing religion withgovernment.
They also say that this left aconstant reminder in our minds
about the importance of dueprocess in the legal system and
the dangerous effects ofpremature panic and overreaction
to mass hysteria situations.
Researchers also recently foundthe execution site for the
(20:55):
trials in 2016.
Gallows Hill was discovered ona rocky outcropping located near
a Walgreens in Salem,massachusetts.
In November of 2001, after the300th anniversary of the trials,
the Massachusetts legislatorpassed an act exonerating all
who had been convicted andnaming each of the innocent,
(21:17):
with the exception of ElizabethJohnson, who was cleared by the
Massachusetts Senate on May 26thof 2022, the last conviction to
be reversed, alrighty, so it'sthat time, guys, to say goodbye,
(21:39):
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my listeners for your continuedlove and support and for sending
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(22:01):
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(22:23):
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Welcome to Dark Crossroads Podcast, hosted by
Roxanne Fletcher.
This is your stop for allthings true crime and paranormal
.
From the infamous story of theNew Bedford Highway Killer to
the chilling tale of the BlackEyed Children, dark Crossroads
Podcast is a truly deep diveinto the stories that frighten
and fascinate you.
All links to the show will beprovided in this episode's
(01:33):
description, and don't forget tolet us know what you think of
today's episode.
One of the most notorious casesof mass hysteria broke out in
colonial Massachusetts betweenFebruary 1692 and May of 1693.
(01:55):
Within just three months, a lotof damage was inflicted on the
villagers of Salem Town, so muchto the point where the
community never really recoveredfrom it.
In such a short time, as manyas 200 people would be accused
of witchcraft and imprisoned,and a total of 25 innocent lives
would be taken.
19 people were executed and 5died in what was called witch
(02:20):
jail, and one man was torturedto death for refusing to give a
plea.
Here is everything that youneed to know about the dark
history that lurks on the groundof Salem Massachusetts.
There's a lot of factors thatwent into why the witch trials
would occur, ranging betweenracism, lack of medical
knowledge and discrimination dueto gender and social status.
(02:43):
The biggest reason of them all,however, was due to religion
and religious extremists.
There is a lot of in-depthinformation about religion in
relation to the witch trials,but this is just going to be a
brief summary of what thatentails.
The villagers of Salem Town werePuritans, and the Puritan
religion started in England as areformation and attempts to
(03:06):
purify the church.
Martin Luther and John Calvincreated this idea due to not
agreeing with the Roman CatholicChurch.
The Puritans that did not wantto live by the way of the Roman
Catholic Church, most of whichwere families, left England and
made their way over to Americaand formed the Massachusetts Bay
Colony and became known as theAmerican Puritans.
(03:29):
The five main beliefs in thisreligion include absolute
sovereignty, human depravity,predestination, covenant theory
and individualism.
Puritans believed that God hadthe ultimate power and had power
over everyone's lives, and thePuritan religion revolved around
the good nature of God and thewickedness of the devil.
(03:50):
They believed that, regardlessof the amount of power and
control that God had overeveryone, the devil still had
the ability to control peoplewho were weak and easily
manipulated to feed into hisevil temptations.
The devil was clearly linked tosin and anything that brought
happiness or pleasure was seenas giving in to the devil's
(04:11):
temptations.
Sexuality and diversity,meaning anybody who had a mind
of their own or had basic humanemotions or attractions, would
(04:32):
be seen as evil and thereforewould be a witch.
A very famous quote about thewitch trials is all witches are
women, but not every woman is awitch.
This religion was also verydiscriminatory towards women, as
around 78% of all accusedwitches would be women.
(04:52):
Puritan belief was that womenwere inherently sinful and had a
higher but not in the eyes ofthe devil, and women's souls
were seen as unprotected due totheir weak and vulnerable minds
(05:14):
and bodies.
This belief was further fueledduring the witch trials due to
so many women confessing.
However, it is speculated thatthe women who confessed either
truly believed that they werebeing taken over by the devil or
that they confessed to simplysave their own lives.
One of the wild things aboutthese trials was that most
people who confess were allowedto live.
(05:36):
Witches who confessed weregiven the chance to reform
themselves, while the people whowere executed were the ones who
refused either to confess or togive a plea at all.
In Europe, during the witchtrials during the 15 and 1600s,
witches who confessed were alsoeither exiled or fined, but also
not normally executed.
European witch trials wereactually far more heinous and
(06:00):
brutal than the Salem witchtrials, with up to 80,000 people
being executed, which was 80%of them being women and most of
the accused being over the ageof 40.
Most of the accused in Salemwere actually children and
teenagers between the ages of 12to 20.
Other differences betweenEuropean and Salem witch trials
(06:21):
were that no one was burned atthe stake.
In Salem, everyone who wasexecuted was executed by being
hung and won by crushing withrock.
Executions in Europe rangedanywhere between hanging,
burning at the stake, drowningand guillotine.
It is not known if it was athing in Europe, but in Salem,
another punishment, along withdeath, was that the government
(06:43):
would take all of your land andfortune, even if you had a
family.
This caused some people, likeGiles Corey, the man who was
pressed to death under torture,to not confess in order to make
sure that his family kept hisinheritance.
Torture methods in both Europeand Salem are were horrible,
normally consisting of burning,dunking, cutting, severe sleep
(07:05):
deprivation, pressing.
The heretic's fork, the pair ofanguish, the iron maiden,
witch's brittle, the rack, theiron boot, the scavenger's
daughter, the bastinado, thejugs, sexual embarrassment and
general restriction and torture.
There were a number of teststhat would be conducted to
determine whether somebody was awitch or not, taking place in
(07:27):
both Europe and Salem.
The most common test was theskin test.
The accused would have to becompletely stripped down and
checked throughout their entirebody for the devil's mark.
These marks were normallylittle red or brown bumps and
blemishes, typically beingthings such as moles, birthmarks
, scars, freckles and extranipples.
(07:48):
Smallpox was also very commonduring these times, but at the
time nobody knew what smallpoxreally was and just assumed it
was part of the devil's mark.
The second most common test wasthe pricking and scratching
test.
When no marks could be found onthe person's body, they would
normally prick multiple areas ofthe accused's body with needles
(08:09):
to see if they would bleed.
They believed that a possessedperson would either not draw any
blood or much blood at all, sothey would constantly prick
multiple areas of the body untilthey got the results that they
were looking for.
Sometimes they would even havethe victims of the accused come
in and scratch them.
It was believed that thevictims would feel relief from
(08:31):
their curses if they scratchedthe person who had cursed them
and if they felt relief, thatmeans the accused really was a
witch.
Those tests were very similarto the next common test, which
was the touch test.
The accused person would simplytouch their victims and if the
victims felt any sort of pain atall, they were deemed to be a
(08:53):
witch.
In the European 1662 case ofRose Cullender and Amy Denny,
the two elderly women werecharged with cursing two young
children.
Whenever the accused witchestouched the girls, their fists
would unclench, signifying thatthe women were witches.
However, the court wanted tomake sure their reactions were
(09:14):
genuine, so they had the girlsblindfolded and touched by other
members of the court.
The girls still proceeded tounclench their fists when
touched, which showed that thegirls were faking.
However, that unfortunately didnot save the two women and they
were executed anyway.
There also was the incantationtest.
The accused witch in this testwould verbally order the devil
(09:38):
to leave the victim's body.
If the victim who happened tobe cursed was cured, the accused
was deemed to be a witch.
There was a famous case inEurope during the 1600s where
Alice Samuel, along with herhusband and daughter, were
accused of cursing five girlsfrom a wealthy family.
The judge had the three ordereach individual girl to be
(09:58):
relieved of the demon that hadpossessed them, and when the
girls would each suddenly stopthrowing a fit, they were
apparently cured and the threepeople were convicted and were
executed.
The next is the prayer test.
The accused witch would beordered to recite the Lord's
Prayer or a section of ascripture by memory.
If they made one error, theywere a witch.
(10:20):
This test was also heavily usedin European countries and it
was a terrible test to useagainst people who had trouble
with their speech.
In 1712, jane Wynnum, who wasaccused of being a witch, had
trouble speaking the wordsforgive us our trespasses and
also lead us not into temptation.
(10:41):
She was assumed to be a witchsince she couldn't flawlessly
speak the prayer, thus beingpossessed by the devil.
However, even speaking theprayer with no trouble at all
couldn't always save you frombeing executed.
During the Salem witch trials,george Burroughs spoke the
prayer perfectly and he wasstill convicted, as they
(11:02):
believed the devil could betricking them.
Another test was the swimming ordunking test.
With this test, the accusedwitches were bound by their
wrists and ankles and would bedropped into a body of water.
If the accused floated, theywould be deemed a witch.
If the accused sank, they wereinnocent, but often would drown
(11:25):
before they could be saved.
This particular test was usedwell before the Salem Witch
Trials in European countries.
Normally it was used againstsuspected criminals, where they
would be thrown into the waterand a higher power would decide
their fate.
It was banned in many Europeancountries during the Middle Ages
but was brought back during the17th century for the infamous
(11:49):
witch hunts.
In 1710, the swimming test wasused as evidence against a
Hungarian woman to convict herof witchcraft.
She was later severely beatenand was burned at the stake.
Another test that was used wasthe weight test.
Witches were believed to bevery light and would be weighed
against the weight of the Bible.
(12:10):
If they were lighter than theBible, they were deemed to be a
witch.
However, this obviously neverever worked.
So whenever this test wouldfail, they'll go off and conduct
another test.
But the most bizarre test ofall of them was the witch cake
test.
A cake would be made with ryeflour and the urine of the
(12:33):
accused witch or anyone with thesymptoms that started the witch
hunt to begin with.
The cake would then be fed to adog and if the dog portrayed
the same symptoms as the accusedwitch, then the accused would
be deemed a witch.
They also believed that the dogwould specifically point out
who the witch was.
(12:54):
And now that we're on the topicof dogs, two dogs were also
accused and found guilty ofwitchcraft and would also be
executed.
Much of the evidence that wouldbe used against the accused
witches was spectral evidence,which was basically images and
aspirations of the accused beingseen by the afflicted, and the
(13:16):
afflicted would claim that thisaspiration inflicted a curse
upon them.
It was believed that only thedevil could allow these
aspirations to appear, even indreams, and the accused witches
would have needed the devil'spermission to be seen.
Therefore, they must be a witch.
It all started with Betty Parrisand her cousin Abigail Williams
(13:37):
, who were the ages of 9 and 11,the daughter and niece of
Reverend Samuel Parris and nieceof Reverend Samuel Paris.
The two children began to havefits described as beyond the
power of epileptic fits ornatural disease to affect.
The children acted out andwould scream, throw things,
crawl around on the ground underthe furniture.
They would utter strange soundsand words that nobody could
(14:00):
understand.
They would contort themselvesinto the strangest of positions.
The girls would also complainabout pain similar to being
pricked with needles.
Shortly after, two otherchildren, ann Putnam Jr, who was
12 years old, and ElizabethHubbard, were also acting in a
very similar way.
284 years later, it wasproposed that the children were
(14:23):
exhibiting symptoms ofconvulsive ergot poisoning.
The first three women who wereaccused and arrested of
witchcraft, who were allegedlythe witches responsible for
afflicting the children, wereSarah Good, Sarah Osborne and
Tituba.
Tituba was the very firstperson who was accused of
witchcraft by Ann Putnam Jr,first person who was accused of
(14:47):
witchcraft by Ann Putnam Jr.
Historians believed that amajor cause of the witch trials
were due to a huge family feudbetween the Putnam and Porter
families.
Other villagers would get intoheated arguments, which would
often turn physical, simply overtheir opinions regarding the
feud.
All three of these women weresome kind of outcasts within
this community.
Tituba was an enslaved SouthAmerican Indian woman from the
(15:11):
West Indies who most likelybecame a target due to her
ethnic differences compared tothe rest of the villagers.
She was accused of attractingyoung girls with her stories of
enchantment regarding talesabout sexual encounters with
demons swaying the minds of menand fortune-telling.
Sarah Good was accused due toher reputation of scolding the
(15:35):
children too harshly and oftenmuttering angrily under her
breath, and Sarah Osborne wasaccused and was seen as actively
rejecting her religion.
She was also accused of havingher own self-interest after
getting remarried and trying togain control over her son's
inheritance from her firstmarriage.
(15:57):
Others were accused ofwitchcraft in the following
March Martha Corey, rebeccaNurse, rachel Clinton and
Dorothy Good.
Martha Corey is one of the mostfamous victims in the witch
trials due to being such aprominent woman in the local
community.
She was also a very activemember with the town's children
(16:18):
and was very well liked andrespected.
She never supported the witchtrials as she didn't believe
that witches, warlocks or magicexisted.
She and her husband Giles Coreysat in on the witch trials a
few times, and Martha hadexpressed her skepticism of the
trials and tried to defend thewomen who were being accused,
(16:38):
saying that she did not believethat they were witches.
The next time her husband Gileswanted to attend a meeting, she
said no and neither of themdecided to go.
This caused her to be accusedof not only conspiring with the
witches, but also of being awitch herself.
This shocked many people in thevillage because if someone like
Martha could be a witch, thenanyone could be a witch.
(17:00):
The community were also deeplytroubled by the accusations
against Rebecca Nurse, as shewas also a devoted member of the
church in the Salem town.
Sarah Good, even though she wasa four-year-old child, was also
interrogated and her answersseem to have suggested that she
was in cahoots with her motherand witchcraft.
Rachel Clinton was arrested dueto the offenses unrelated to the
(17:23):
girls in Salem.
In April, sarah Cloyce, who wasRebecca's sister, and Elizabeth
Proctor were arrested.
The two women were brought infor a meeting and examination
with John Hawthorne and JonathanCorwin.
During the proceedings,elizabeth's husband, john
Proctor, stepped in to defendher, which led to his arrest on
(17:43):
the same day.
Within the next week, gilesCorey, abigail Hobbs, bridget
Bishop, mary Warren andDeliverance Hobbs, who was the
stepmother of Abigail Hobbs,were all arrested and all
examined.
Abigail, deliverance and Maryall confessed and started making
accusations against otheralleged accomplices, which
(18:05):
caused the arrest of Sarah Wilds, william Hobbs, who was the
father of Abigail and husband ofDeliverance, nehemia Abbott Jr,
mary Easty and Mary English,edward Bishop Jr and his wife,
sarah Bishop.
On April 30th, george Burroughs, lydia Dustin, susanna Martin,
dorcas Hoare, sarah Morey andPhilip English, who was Mary's
(18:29):
husband, were also arrested.
Nehemia Abbott Jr was releasedafter the person who accused him
withdrew their accusation InMay.
John Willard and ElizabethCoulson were also arrested and
more and more accusations wouldbe made, but many of the accused
witches were able to evadegetting caught.
(18:49):
Arrest warrants were sent outfor 36 more people while
examinations were continued forthe people that had been
arrested in the village.
There were a total of 62 peoplein custody at this time getting
examined.
Following these examinations, alist of people would be executed
in many different ways.
(19:10):
All other people who wereeither waiting for their
executions or in prison waitingfor their trial were ultimately
let go after the trials came toa permanent stop when Governor
William Phipps' wife was accused.
Of course, the governor onlydecided to end the trials when
it was somebody that he lovedgoing to the hanging tree.
(19:30):
Elizabeth Proctor was supposedto be executed along with her
husband, john Proctor, but wasultimately delayed and kept in
prison so she could give birthto her baby.
By the time the baby was born,the trials had been put to an
end and her baby savedElizabeth's life.
Sarah Good's four-year-olddaughter, dorothy Good, who was
(19:50):
also accused of witchcraft, wasalso spared.
She was never charged, but waskept in prison for nearly nine
months and was so traumatized bywhat she experienced that she
was never able to fully recoverand was never able to go off and
live a normal life on her own.
She was completely unable tocare for herself for the rest of
(20:13):
her life.
Martha Carrier also had twochildren that she was forced to
leave behind Thomas, who was theage of 10, and Sarah, the age
of 8.
In the end, some historiansbelieve that the horrific events
that occurred in Salem left agood message upon the world.
They argue that the trials lefta occurred in Salem left a good
message upon the world.
They argue that the trials lefta sort of taboo mark in America
(20:33):
about mixing religion withgovernment.
They also say that this left aconstant reminder in our minds
about the importance of dueprocess in the legal system and
the dangerous effects ofpremature panic and overreaction
to mass hysteria situations.
Researchers also recently foundthe execution site for the
(20:55):
trials in 2016.
Gallows Hill was discovered ona rocky outcropping located near
a Walgreens in Salem,massachusetts.
In November of 2001, after the300th anniversary of the trials,
the Massachusetts legislatorpassed an act exonerating all
who had been convicted andnaming each of the innocent,
(21:17):
with the exception of ElizabethJohnson, who was cleared by the
Massachusetts Senate on May 26thof 2022, the last conviction to
be reversed, alrighty, so it'sthat time, guys, to say goodbye,
(21:39):
but before I do so, I just wantto send a thank you to all of
my listeners for your continuedlove and support and for sending
in cases that you want coveredand stories that you want read
on the podcast.
We truly accept all stories,including scary, paranormal and
funny.
Any cases you want covered orstories that you want read on
the podcast, just please sendthem in to
(22:01):
darkcrossroadspodcasts atgmailcom.
Thank you for hanging out againtoday and if you want any more
information about the podcast orcases and stories that we cover
, then head on over to thewebsite at
wwwdarkcrossroadspodcastcom.
There you can find all of theinformation about the podcast, a
link to our merch and also ourblog covering all of the cases
(22:23):
that we cover.
You can also find us on allsocial media platforms.
Don't forget to like, share,rate, review, subscribe wherever
you're listening to us.
You can subscribe to thepodcast for bonus information.
There is a link in all episodesin the notes that we'll send
you to our subscription page andwith that you will get bonus
content, discount on futuremerch and a lot of extra goodies
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Every single dollar that comesthrough donations or through our
subscription goes straight intothe podcast, helping fund
research, and it really helps usout and keeps this podcast
going.
And with all of this said,please don't forget to be weird,
stay different and don't trustanyone.
Dark Crossroads podcast isbrought to you by Problem
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Wildlife.
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