Salem Witch Trials and Their Victims

RESEARCH ESSAY
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Salem witch trials is a tragic era in American history and the period of colonialism in Massachusetts from early 1692 to mid-1693. During this period, 200 people were charged with practising black magic. The afflicted people accused them and brought them to interrogation, primarily based on spectral evidence. Twenty people could not prove their innocence, and the court hanged them for the following devil and becoming his loyal servants to harm others. The atmosphere in the village of Salem was immensely horrible because anyone could be accused as a witch, whether they were church staff or a four-year little girl. In 1711 the colonial administrators confessed their mercilessness, pardoned the prisoners on a charge, and compensated their heirs. Salem witch trials were hanged and crushed to death; many innocent people were found guilty, while imprisoning many other accused people spread horror of violence and death in the town where people hysterically responded to the event, making it a disgrace to American history, constantly condemned through fiction and nonfiction literature.
Giles Cory, a hard-working farmer, was one of the victims of the Salem witch trials; he was accused by many afflicted people and pressed to death as his punishment. An afflicted girl, Ann Putnam, began the series of accusations against Cory. The other supposed victims were also in court on different days of trial, constantly accusing him of witchcraft. The people claimed he wanted to press them to death, and they could watch in visions the souls of people he had crushed to death. To add to his misfortune, the accusers experience affliction in the courtroom during the trial. For example, when he moved his head, "they had their necks and heads afflicted." Also, on holding his head on one side, "the heads of several of the afflicted were held on one side". During all hearings in the court, the judge insisted he answer the charges against him and confess his crime. He constantly declined their indictments that he "never had no hand in it". On his constant disagreement, the court suggested crushing him to death in their attempts to make him confess his devilish acts. They put heavy stones on his naked body one by one for many days to pressure him into a confession. However, the 80-years old farmer continued to claim his innocence unless he died under the heavy rocks. Giles Corey exemplifies the extreme torture in Salem for innocent people and their inhuman ways of getting confessions to declare capital punishment.[Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World, 310.] [Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World,310.] [Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World,310.]
Nehemiah Abbott Jr. is another victim of the spectral inflictions in Salem, bringing innocent people to the court and then to Gallows Hill. However, he was the only person the judiciary did not hang but liberated after hearing the witnesses. His main accusers were Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott, who reported him to be hurting them. On further inquiry, the afflicted witnesses declared that they are doubtful about his sin because "he is very like" the sinner, but not the same man. On asking, they confirmed that the wizard had "a bunch on his eyes", which Abbott did not have. Besides, the trial victim also confessed that he is "clear from this accusation". The court allowed the afflicted people to recognize him in light and respond according to their observation. Still, they did not confirm his identity, and the court acquainted him. The trial of Nehemiah Abbott epitomizes the plight of innocent people in Salem during witchcraft trials and their helplessness in front of the spectral witness. Nevertheless, the court set him at large, but he was the only one who experienced the horror of the courtroom without giving his life for undone sin.[Thomas Hutchinsan, "The History of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay," Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 2 (1936), 35.] [Hutchinsan, The History, 35.] [Hutchinsan, The History.]
The letters found written during1692 show the horror of witchcraft among people and their hysterical alertness for security at the expense of insane legal violence. The morality of the town of Salem was significantly impacted by the horrible fits of the afflicted people who claimed it was a result of witchcraft. They screamed, broke things, regulated their bodies in unusual positions, gave unknown sounds, and claimed to be threatened in dreams. Everybody fell for the mess hysteria; all they wanted was security, whether from hanging the whole town. A church operator's letter to the minister John Cotton shows their deep concerns to clear the village of witches. The writer visions that "five Andover witches" confirmed the devilish acts of the hanged people and call...