By Cristian Raiber
In 1962, Samuel Parris, his wife Elizabeth, their daughter Betty, Samuel's niece Abigail Williams and their slave Tituba moved in a little village called Salem, in Massachusetts, invited by the elders of the village for his naming as the Village Minister. A year before, Samuel was invited to be the village's preacher, but he ended up in Barbados. As soon as they moved in, Betty was showing some strange illness. The symptoms were really strange: she would all of a sudden jump and run like she was being chased by something. She would hide under chairs and tables, had a high body temperature that went with shivering, the typical signs of fever, and there was more. She was contorting her face like she was in great pain.
Witchcraft was soon suspected, as Betty's close friends Mercy Luis, Mary Walcott and Ann Putnam were showing the same signs. It wasn't long until there were seven girls touched by this illness and everybody' finger was pointing to witchcraft practices. Help came from a neighbor of the Parris'. She gave Tituba a recipe of a witch cake, believed to set the girl free. The slave baked the cake only to find out that it wasn't helping. But Tituba was previously suspected of witchcraft because she kept telling the girls voodoo and magic stories. So, she and two other women were arrested between the 25th of February and the 29th of February: Sarah Osborn and Sarah Good. They are the first people to be accused of witchcraft in Salem.
The examining of the three women took place at the meeting house. They were questioned and the children testified. Historians believe that the three girls walked away with some reprimands, and it is assumed that Tituba did not plead guilty to the witchcraft charges. It didn't take long before four other women were accused of witchcraft. They were Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easy, Sarah Cloyce and Martha Corey.
All these cases of witchcraft accusations determined the then Governor Phips to create a special court where these cases of witchcraft would be tried. It was named "Court of Oyer and Terminer", and the very first woman to be tried here was Bridget Bishop. She had a questionable character and there were two self-confessed witches that Bridget was practicing witchcraft. This court obviously had nothing to do with justice, and pretty soon turned into a house of gossips, people coming here to testify out of malice more than anything else. Bridget Bishop was eventually sentenced to death by hanging and by the nightfall she faced death. However, this was only the beginning, as more people were accused of witchcraft. One of them was Rebecca Nurse, a very respectable person and God fearing also. Many of these so called witches were innocent. One incident stands out, the death of Giles Corey, who had heavy stones placed on top of him for two days before he died.
You can read more about Witchcraft and Witchcraft symbols on Witchcraft history
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