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Who Do You Think You Are? Season Two
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Salem Stories
Sarah Jessica Parker’s tenth-great grandmother was accused during the Salem Witch Trials. Luckily for her, the court of Oyer and Terminer was dissolved before her case went to trial.
Learn more about the time when superstition and hysteria ruled our justice system.
Did you know?
- The first three women accused in Salem were Tituba, a slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman. Sarah Good was hanged, Sarah Osbourne died in jail. Tituba confessed that the other women were witches and spent a year in jail before being sold as a slave.
- The first case brought to the court of Oyer and Terminer was of Bridget Bishop; she was found guilty and was hanged on what was later called Gallows Hill.
- It was not until 1957, more than 250 years after the Salem Witch Trials, that Massachusetts formally apologized for the events that occurred in 1692.
- George Burroughs, an ex-minister accused of wizardry (witchcraft for a man) recited The Lords Prayer as he awaited the noose on Gallows Hill. He was hanged anyway, and twenty years later his children received monetary retribution for their father’s wrongful execution.
- “Witch cakes” were pastries created to help identify witches. The urine of young girls who had been "afflicted" (put under the spell of a witch) were mixed with rye meal and then fed to a dog. The process would supposedly make any nearby witch feel pain and cry out, identifying herself.
- One accused wizard, Giles Corey (age 81), or the Man of Iron, was pressed to death when he failed to plead guilty or not guilty to witchcraft. "Pressing" was when a person was stripped of their clothes then had a board lain upon his or her chest. Rocks or boulders were continually placed upon the board until the person confessed. After two days, Giles was asked to plead innocent or guilty, but the only thing the old man replied was “More weight!” until he died.
- The “touch test” was something Reverend Parris had administered to those who were suspected to be witches. A woman accused of witchcraft would be blindfolded and made to “touch” an afflicted girl. If the girl suddenly stopped convulsing and claimed that she was well, the accused woman would be convicted of witchcraft.
- Another test was the Lord’s Prayer test: the accused were asked to recite the Lord’s Prayer, and if a mistake was made, they would be convicted of being a witch. This was also used in Europe during the Inquisition.
- Another form of evidence used against supposed witches was evidence that the devil had “bitten” or “kissed” them. Essentially, any birthmark, mole or abnormal growth could be seen as a witch’s mark. As a final test, the mark was pricked. If the accused did not bleed, it was seen as clear evidence that she was a witch.
- One theory is that the afflicted young girls suffered from ergot poisoning, a fungus that grows on grains, such as rye, which was a staple grain in Salem during the winters of the late 1600s. The effects included delusions, hallucinations, and violent muscle spasms, among other things.
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