Witch Hunt

Witch Hunt
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A witch is considered to be a person who “possess a supernatural, occult or mysterious power to cause misfortune or injury to others” (Levack, 2015). In the 17th century, witches were believed to be evil and cronies of the devil. According to Olson (1992), there was an ingrained conviction in fear of witchcraft and magic. They were seen as the cause of death and misfortunes as well as the ‘destroyers of souls’. Witches were shunned away as enemies of the society and faced harsh penalties, e.g., being buried alive, burnt to death or hanged. Witchcraft in the 17th century was practiced in most of the countries, e.g., Germany, Switzerland, France, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Salem, New England, etc. Each of the colonies and territories had a different mode of punishment for the accused people.
In 1692, Massachusetts Bay Colony and Salem experienced an eruption of witch frenzy. The vulnerability to this epidemic was as a result of other challenges that were facing at that time. For instance, there were disputes among the people in Salem village which were a hub for agriculture and Salem town which constituted of cosmopolitan people (Olson, 1992). This contributed to the cultural conflict between the traditional people of Salem and the arising commercial culture of the Yankee people (Olson, 1992). Additionally, the village church which was the backbone of their morals was experiencing discord which led to some ministers being coerced to leave.

Moreover, the current minister was not adored by the people at that time.
However, the key challenge that deepened this crisis was the limbo state of the government (Olson, 1992). This was as a result of England revoking the colony’s “self-governing charter.” Annulling the charter denied the colony’s administration legal foundation to exercise its rights. Consequently, this exposed the community to a chaotic political, economic and social system. Other problems that faced the colony during this time include smallpox endemic, drought, attacks from the French and Indian raid threats. This catastrophic environment made the public vulnerable to witch hysteria since the leaders (precisely the church minister) blamed the ‘devil’s army’ in this case the witches as the source of these calamities.
This witch panic started when some girls in the village developed complications after visiting Tituba who was a slave in Samuel Parris home. Tituba regaled the girls with voodoo, “told their fortunes, explained their dreams, and showed them charms and spells which they could use to catch a husband” (Olson, 1992). These girls started crying and screaming without any reason and fell into trances and paroxysms. This was strange to people of Salem and was convinced of the witchcraft practice by Tituba especially after the doctor examined the girls and did not find any physical harm on them that would be causing their suffering.
Trials in Salem took a turn when they introduced ‘spectral evidence’ as a basis for conviction of the accused witches. Spectral evidence according to Olson (1992), endorsed the use of ghosts and dreams to indicate the accused as guilty, i.e., if a villager attested that the accused had cursed or beat him/her when dreaming or came to him/her in the form of a specter, it was accepted and undisputed. This type of evidence incriminated the accused fully and refuting it was not possible. This type of evidence was biased, i.e., one would be sentenced based on a person’s nightmare.
The tormented girls identified Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne as the source of their affliction. These three women were tried, found guilty and sentenced to jail. They were all from the lowest caste of the Salem society, i.e., Tituba was a slave at Parris household, Osborne and Good were considered outsiders with Good begging from the villagers for basic needs to survive. Unlike these women, the rest that followed on the accusation list were prominent members of the society, e.g., Martha Corey who was wife to an affluent farmer and Rebecca Nurse, wife to a prosperous landowner (Olson, 1992). This nullified the logic that the girls were only pointing out the powerless in the society as witches. Additionally, anyone who questioned or did not support the witch trials was regarded an enemy of the people and in most cases ended up being accused as a witch, e.g., Martha Corey.
These trials in Salem came to a halt after the accusation of prominent people in large numbers that the public started questioning. The validity of using the girls to point out the witches and use of spectral evidence was enraging the community. Additionally, Governor Phips dismantled the court of Oyer and Terminer mandated to carry out these trials (Olson, 1992). Henceforth, the use of spectral evidence was ruled out as illegitimate. In 1702 the General Court ruled the Salem witch trials as unlawful, and this was a significant step towards the healing of Salem community and other affected communities that this practices had spread to (Olson, 1992).
Similarly, to these events in Salem, it is possible to experience the same in today’s world. Fear and panic can be a cause of such events in today’s society which is dynamic. The main variance between then and now is that, with the technological advancements, the results would be more chaotic. That is, with just a click masses can be influenced in an instant. Concisely, the witch hunts and trials of Salem are a vital part of the history of America that we should learn from to prevent a repeat of the same in future.

References
Levack, B.P. (2015). The Witchcraft Source Book. Routledge.
Olson, L. (1992). Witch Hunt. Constitution, Spring-Summer.