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N0KFQ > TODAY 01.03.15 17:23l 52 Lines 2372 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 48711_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 1
Path: IZ3LSV<IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 150301/1516Z 48711@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
Mar 1, 1692:
Salem Witch Hunt begins
In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Goode,
Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, are
charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft. Later that day,
Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime,
encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches.
Trouble in the small Puritan community began the month before,
when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail
Williams, the daughter and niece, respectively, of the Reverend
Samuel Parris, began experiencing fits and other mysterious
maladies. A doctor concluded that the children were suffering
from the effects of witchcraft, and the young girls corroborated
the doctor's diagnosis. With encouragement from a number of
adults in the community, the girls, who were soon joined by other
"afflicted" Salem residents, accused a widening circle of local
residents of witchcraft, mostly middle-aged women but also
several men and even one four-year-old child. During the next few
months, the afflicted area residents incriminated more than 150
women and men from Salem Village and the surrounding areas of
Satanic practices.
In June 1692, the special Court of Oyer, "to hear," and Terminer,
"to decide," convened in Salem under Chief Justice William
Stoughton to judge the accused. The first to be tried was Bridget
Bishop of Salem, who was found guilty and executed by hanging on
June 10. Thirteen more women and four men from all stations of
life followed her to the gallows, and one man, Giles Corey, was
executed by crushing. Most of those tried were condemned on the
basis of the witnesses' behavior during the actual proceedings,
characterized by fits and hallucinations that were argued to be
caused by the defendants on trial.
In October 1692, Governor William Phipps of Massachusetts ordered
the Court of Oyer and Terminer dissolved and replaced with the
Superior Court of Judicature, which forbade the type of
sensational testimony allowed in the earlier trials. Executions
ceased, and the Superior Court eventually released all those
awaiting trial and pardoned those sentenced to death. The Salem
witch trials, which resulted in the executions of 19 innocent
women and men, had effectively ended.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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