The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and

North America, 1580-1750

Module includes the following ma in topics :

★ The North Berwick witches in Scotland 1590-1597

★ The Lancashire Witches of 1604-13
★ The Great Witch Hunt, in Bamberg, Germany, 1623-32
A Level History ★ Matthew Hopkins and the East Anglian witch craze, 1645-
47
★ Cotton Mather and the Salem witch hunt, 1692-93
https:/ / schoolhistory.co.uk/ a-
level/
 Learning Objectives Important Terms

At the end of the lesson, the students

should be able to: ❖ 1688 Revolution

❖ Determine how the after-effects of ❖ Salem Witch Trials

the 1688 Revolution, India n threats ,
economic cris is and s ocial tens ions ❖ Court of Oyer and Terminer
led to the witch craze
❖ Dis cus s the events of the Salem ❖ Spectral evidence
Witch Trials
❖ Analys e the influence of Cotton ❖ Cotton Mather
Mather on the growing hys teria of the
witch craze in Salem ❖ Superior Court of J udicature
❖ As s es s the reas ons for the ending of
the witch hunt, s pecifically Increas e ❖ Governor William Phips
Mather’s and Governor Phips ’ roles
 Module Content
Cotton Mather and the Salem witch hunt,
1692-93
a. Weakened authority following the
1688 Revolution, Indian threats,
economic crisis and social
tensions
b. Influence of Cotton Mather, his work and
ins tigators including the roles of Elizabeth
Parris , Abigail Williams , children and
Tituba, nature of victims , trials and
executions
b. Reas ons for the ending of the witch hunt,
roles of Cotton Mather’s father and
Governor Philips , the general pardon
 Content Overview

The Salem Witch Trials went on from February 1692

until May 1693. They were a series of hearings and
prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in
colonial Massachusetts. The growing hysteria is
often attributed to Cotton Mather because of his
account ‘The Wonders of the Invisible World’, which
seemed to be a justification for the witch trials.

As the witch craze spread throughout the colony, the

Court of Oyer and Terminer was created to handle
witchcraft cases. Over the next several months,
hundreds of people, women, men and children alike
were accused, tried and executed. The Salem witch
hangings were the last witch executions in the
United States.
 Weakened authority following the 1688 Revolution, Indian threats, economic crisis
and social tensions

The belief in the supernatural

capability of the Devil to give
certain humans the power to
harm others in return for their
loyalty was an existing idea
widespread in colonial
England as early as the 14th
century.

Around the 1690s, the harsh

realities in the rural Puritan
community of Salem Village
triggered the Salem Witch
Trials. Salem Village Massachusetts
At the time, Salem Village (pres ent-day Danvers , Mas s achus etts ) was s till experiencing the after-
effects of the 1688 Revolution, or the Glorious Revolution, that took pla ce from 1688-1689, in
which Ca tholic King J ames II of England was overthrown and s ucceeded by his Protes tant
daughter Mary II and her Dutch hus band, Prince William III of Orange.

The war ravaged regions of

ups tate New York, Quebec
and Nova Scotia, s ending
refugees into the county of
Es s ex, a nd s pecifically Salem
Village. Thes e refugees
created a s tra in on Salem’s
res ources a nd aggravated the
exis ting rivalry between
families with ties to the
wealth of the port of Salem
and thos e who s till depended
1688 Revolution on agriculture.
Along with the a fter-effects of the
wa r, Sa lem wa s als o going through
a s mallpox epidemic, fea rs of
a ttacks from neighbouring Native
America n tribes , and rivalry with the
more pros perous community of
Salem Town (pres ent-day Salem).
Purita n villagers believed that all of
the quarrels were works of the Devil
who had s ent agents in the form of
witches to inflict mis fortunes on
their la nd.

Thes e tens ions , fuelled by the

res idents ’ s us picions and
res entment towards their
neighbours as well as outs iders , led
to the Sa lem Witch Trials . Salem Witch Trials
 Influence of Cotton Mather, his work and instigators including the roles of Elizabeth
Parris, Abigail Williams, children and Tituba, nature of victims, trials and executions

In January 1692, Elizabeth Parris

and Abigail Williams, both young
girls, began having uncontrollable
fits, contortions and outbursts of
screaming.

At the time, Salem Village was

populated mostly by Puritans who
believed in the Devil. After local
doctor William Griggs diagnosed
Parris and Williams as having been
bewitched, the Puritan community
agreed that they had been victims
of witchcraft. A depiction of Tituba as a witch with the children she bewitched
After the news of their s aid ‘bewitchment’, other young girls , including Ann Putnam J r, Mercy
Lewis , Eliza beth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren, began s howing s imilar s ymptoms .

The girls then began

accus ing a homeles s beggar,
Sarah Good, poor elderly
Sarah Os bourne, a nd a Native
America n s lave working for
the Parris hous ehold, Tituba,
who was known in the
community to have played
fortune-telling games des pite
it being s trictly prohibited by
the Purita ns . So in late
February, arres t warrants
were is s ued for the s aid
A depiction of Tituba as a witch with the children she bewitched women.
The three women accus ed of
witchcraft were brought before the
magis trates J onathan Corwin and
J ohn Ha thorne, with the a ccus ers
coming to court in hys terical
‘bewitched’ mode.

Good and Os born denied their guilt,

but Tituba admitted to it in the
effort to s ave hers elf from a certain
conviction by acting as an informer.
As s he revealed many more names
of witches , hys teria s pread
throughout the community and
beyond into the res t of
Mas s achus etts .
A witch execution by hanging
As more people were accus ed and more names were confes s ed, the
trials s oon began to overwhelm the local jus tice s ys tem. In May 1692,
newly a ppointed governor of Ma s s achus etts , William Phips , ordered
the es tablis hment of a s pecial court for witchcraft cas es in Suffolk,
Es s ex and Middles ex counties . This was known as the Court of Oyer
and Terminer.
Bridget Bishop

On 2 J une, Bridget Bis hop was the

Court of Oyer and Terminer
firs t conviction ha nded down by this
s pecial court. She was ha nged eight
days later on what would become
known as Gallows Hill in Sa lem
Town. More a nd more people were
executed in the next months : 5 in
J uly, 5 in Augus t and 8 more in
September.
Cotton Mather, a New Engla nd Puritan
clergyma n and a prolific writer, had
attempted to demons trate the reality of
demonic s pirits through his 1689 s tudy
entitled ‘Memorable Providences , Relating to
Witchcrafts a nd Pos s es s ions ’.

In Ma ther’s s tudy, though he urged for the

punis hment and pros ecution of the Devil’s
work, he expres s ed his dis approval of the
methods us ed in the trials and s ugges ted a
punis hment milder than execution. In fact, he
wa rned the judges agains t ‘s pectral
evidence’ (tes timony about dreams a nd
vis ions ). However, this went unheeded and
regis tered no public protes t.
Cotton Mather
 Despite Mather dis approving of
the executions , he s till wrote ‘The
Wonders of the Invis ible World’,
which made the cas e for the
s upernatura l, a nd s eem ed to be a
jus tification for the Sa lem Witch
Trials . Some his toria ns s ay that
Mather was pres s ured by
Governor Willia m Phips to write
the account.

Though his account focus ed on

the s uperna tural phenomena a nd
made no attempt to s tart a
pros ecution, by 1700 his words
were found to have ca us ed
hys teria, ma king him fully
res pons ible for the trials even
Cotton Mather's essay for judges heading off to trials in Salem years after.
 Reasons for the ending of the witch hunt, roles of Cotton Mather’s father and
Governor Philips, the general pardon

Cotton Mather did not desire to cause

hysteria with his writings. So, with the
help of his father, Increase Mather, who
was also the president of Harvard
College, they urged that the standards of
evidence for witchcraft must be equal to
those for any other crime.

On 3 October 1692, Increase wrote to

Governor Phips to end the trials. When
Phips arrived in Salem, he was shocked
to find many townspeople dead and in
jail. Increase Mather
 Women were not the only ones who were
victimis ed by the trials as men and even Trials
children were accus ed of witchcraft too. continued in
By the end of the Salem Witch Trials in J anuary a nd
1693, 24 people had died, mos tly by February of
hanging. 1693. However,
out of the 56
people indicted,
As the hys teria began to abate a nd only three of
public opinion turned agains t the trials , them were
Governor Phips decided to dis s olve the convicted.
Court of Oyer and Terminer in October of They, a long
1692, after accus ations of witchcraft with everyone
extended to include his own wife. As a held in cus tody,
replacement of the Court of Oyer a nd were pardoned
Terminer, Phips es tablis hed a Superior in 1693 by
Court of J udicature that mandated the Governor Phips .
Governor William Phips dis regard of s pectral evidence.
There is n’t exactly one primary reas on for the witch craze as there were s everal factors that
allowed the hys teria to s prea d.

However, the witch hunts and

trials brought las ting changes
to the United States legal
s ys tem and court procedures :
playing a role in the advent of
the guarantee of the right to
legal repres entation, the right
to cros s -examine one’s
accus er, and the pres umption
of innocence ra ther than of
guilt. The Salem witch
hangings were the las t witch
executions in the United
States . Witch Hangings
 Glossary of Terms

1688 Salem Witch Court of Oyer Spectral Superior Court

Revolution Trials and Terminer evidence of Judicature

Also called the A series of A special Refers to Replaced the

Glorious hearings and court testimonies Court of Oyer
Revolution, it
prosecutions established by in which and Terminer
took place from
1688-1689. of people Governor witnesses in October
Catholic King accused of William Phips claimed that 1692 and was
James II of witchcraft in in May 1692 the accused mandated to
England was colonial to handle appeared to disregard
overthrown and Massachusett witchcraft them and did spectral
succeeded by
s from cases them harm in evidence
his Protestant
daughter Mary II February 1692 a dream or a
and her Dutch until May vision
husband, Prince 1693
William III of
Orange.
 Assessment 1

From your analysis of the “[D]o not lay more stress on pure spectral evidence than it will
text in source A, answer bear ... It is very certain that the Devils have sometimes
the following questions: represented the Shapes of persons not only innocent, but also
very virtuous. Though I believe that the just God then ordinarily
❖ Wha t is s pectral provides a way for the speedy vindication of the persons thus
evidence? abused.”
❖ Wha t was Cotton
Ma ther’s opinion of Cotton Mather 1692
it? SOURCE A
❖ Wha t is the link
between s pectral
evidence a nd the
Salem Witch Trials ?
 “Vilified for nearly three centuries, he has been portrayed as sinister and
bloodthirsty, “the representative of all the hateful features of his time,” an
Assessment 2 “insufferable young prig,” “the Salem witch-hanger,” having “a crooked and
diseased mind.”

Nate Pickowicz 2019 (from https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/who-

was-cotton-mather-2019-10/#fn9)
SOURCE B
Analyse closely sources B
and C. How do they differ “[Cotton Mather] was a bewildering man, capable of selfishness and
in terms of describing selflessness, given both to excesses and to asceticism, noble and self-
Cotton Mather? Why do effacing at times, and petty and self-righteous at others. He could be the
pleasant and witty gentleman to his friends, yet he distrusted wit and
you think there are laughter. He despised and feared sexual gratification, but he married three
underlying differences? times, fathered fifteen children, and enjoyed the marriage bed at least as late
Use historical facts to as his fifty-fifth year when his wife’s illness forced celibacy upon him. He
support your answer. was an opponent of Quakers and Antinomianism, but his private worship
approached enthusiasm.”

Historian Robert Middlekauff

SOURCE C
 Assessment 3

“In January 1692 Betty’s and Abigail’s increasingly strange

behaviour (described by at least one historian as juvenile
delinquency) came to include fits. They screamed, made odd
From the perspective of sounds, threw things, contorted their bodies, and complained
modern science, how of biting and pinching sensations.”
would you explain the fits
and hallucinations of the (from https://www.britannica.com/event/Salem-witch-
victims that were trials)
described during that SOURCE D
time as the work of
witchcraft?
 Assessment 4
How far do you agree that
Cotton Mather was
merely pressured by
Governor William Phips to
write ‘The Wonders of the
Invisible World’? Use your
analysis of source E and
your historical knowledge
to justify your answer.
Miller writes, “If ever there was a false book produced by a man
whose heart was not in it, it is The Wonders [of the Invisible
World].” In fact, most modern historians concur with Miller’s
assessment that Mather “was insecure, frightened, [and] sick at
heart” over the whole ordeal.Furthermore, Mather decried the use
of spectral evidence (testimony that the spirit of an accused witch
appeared to the witness) to convict the accused, though his cries
were ignored.
Nate Pickowicz 2019 (from
https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/who-was-cotton-mather-
2019-10/#fn9)
SOURCE E
 Learning Synthesis

Provide a synthesis of what you have learned in this module by answering the questions below.

QUESTIONS:

1. How did the 1688 Revolution, Indian threats, economic crisis, and social tension affected
the witch craze in Salem?
2. How did the Salem Witch Trials started?
3. What was the role played by William Phips in the witch trials?
4. Why was the Court of Oyer and Terminer created?
5. How did Cotton Mather's accounts affected the witch hysteria in Salem?
6. How did the Salem Witch Trials ended?
7. What was the role of Increase Mather and Govern Phips in the end of the Witch trials in
Salem?
END OF RESOURCE