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While this year’s International Women’s Day theme calls for gender-balanced world, it is still a fact that many women are treated unequally and discriminated across different pillars of society. Various historical accounts revealed how women suffered from patriarchal social system since then. One of the most notable was the Salem Witch Trials that occurred from February 1692 to May 1693 at Salem, Massachusetts. It reported more than 200 accusations and 19 executions by hanging of whom 14 women were punished, as they were found guilty of being witches (Wallenfeldt, 2019).
Although being a witch was not solely associated on being a woman, 78% of the accused were female, according to Carol Karlsen (as cited by DeMasi, 2011). As explained by Godbeer, this was because females were seen as the weaker sex and were more susceptible to devil’s influence as noted on the story of Eve and the fall of men into sin. Moreover during this time, Puritan women were only confined to the roles of being faithful wives, mothers, caretakers and companions. Beyond these roles and expected demeanor would mean that they had connived with the evil; thereby, becoming witches (as cited by Rosen, 2017). Additionally, witches were commonly depicted as elderly, economically useless and haggard women. In this regard, this paper aims to describe three groups of women in Salem witch trials and how their behaviors affected the course of events in this part of history.
The First Trio: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba
Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam, Jr. had sudden physical disturbances such as convulsions and utterances of strange sounds on January 1692. The doctor then, told them that they were bewitched. A month after, the afflicted children accused Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; Sarah Osborne, an old poor woman; and Tituba, an Indian slave for their sicknesses. As the accused were social outcasts and deviants, they were easily convicted (Blumberg, 2007).
Sarah Good’s father was a rich innkeeper; however, because of litigations, she was left with no inheritance. She married Daniel Poole, an impoverished servant, who died in 1686 and left her with debts. As a consequence, her family with her second husband William Good was homeless, as they had to pay these debts. Sarah Good was socially unpleasant because of their condition; hence, she was regarded as a nuisance in their community. By 1692, they were already beggars (Jobe, 2001).
Sarah Good’s personality favored her conviction for being a witch. Sarah told on her diary that despite of their hopeless situation, she still had pride and her neighbors perceived her resentfulness and murmurings as evil doings. Sarah was accused on muttering from Mr. Parris’ house, but according to Sarah, it was an expression of thankfulness for what her child received. Moreover, Sarah was accused by her neighbors for tormenting their children by pinching, squeezing, choking cursing and killing with a knife. Sarah was even seen with an appearance of wolf by some accusers (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1979). On the contrary, Sarah Good pleaded her innocence and service to God. Instead, she accused Osborne as the one who hurt the children. In spite of this, she was imprisoned and sentenced to death by hanging. In a short while, her 6-year old daughter followed her in prison for 7 months also due to witchery (Jobe, 2001). Finally, on July 19, 1692, she was executed. Indeed, her tragic story from poverty just showed unfair incrimination that involved her daughter with only spectral evidences and testimonies of fellow women.
Second of the trio was Sarah Osborne, the widow of Robert Prince. Robert Prince owned a 150-acre farm, next to the Putnam’s. Prince, who died in 1674, wrote in his last will that the land will be given to his two sons and for the time being while they were young, it would be entrusted to Sarah his wife. However, Sarah hired Alexander Osborne as an indentured farm hand and immediately married him, in only a short time after Prince’s date. Afterwards, Sarah tried to take full control of her late husband’s estates that led into series of legal battles between her and her children, who were defended by Putnam’s (Carroll, 2001).
Because of her actions, Osborne was a plain target of the accusers who happened to be relatives of her rivals. Moreover, she was pointed out by Sarah Good and Tituba as the one who afflicted the children. On the other hand, Osborne admitted that she rarely attended church meetings. But she defended herself by claiming that the devil had the ability to take the shape of an individual even without his/her compliance. Many believed this theological perspective that eventually caused an end to Salem witch trials. However, Osborne was not able to go into trials as she died inside the prison on May 10, 1692 (Carroll, 2001). Besides Osborne’s fornication, Osborne was convicted of witchcraft because she deviated from the established patterns of land inheritance.
The third was Tituba. She was an Indian slave who worked for the Parris’ household. On the other note, references were inconsistent on her race and origin. Some indicated that she was a Negro, half-breed and Carribean. But one thing was certain. She was an outsider and could be easily manipulated by her authorities as per her status. Consequently, Tituba was accused of witchcraft and she was the only one among the three who confessed to it. According to her, she saw different animals such as black dog, hog, red cat and black cat that ordered her to hurt the children. She added that her master threatened her to confess or else she would be beaten. Likewise, she also identified Go...