Salem Witchcraft Trials

By Pamela E. Apkarian-Russell

(This story appeared originally in “Unravel the Gavel“.)

Have you ever wondered why the Salem Witchcraft trials have played such an important role in American history? Thomas Jefferson, when he wrote the Constitution, was acutely aware of many of the laws in 1692 which denied the accused the rights which we are granted. Spectral evidence; guilty until proven innocent; we can be very grateful to Jefferson that he learned from the Salem trials that these two laws denied us due process, and made sure they could not be used again. Jefferson was disassociated and distanced enough from all the political and commercial intrigue of the 1690s that he could put the trials and laws into perspective. Jefferson truly believed in separation of church and state and that tolerance of all religions would make this country great.

The word "Cult" is a very dangerous word in that it demotes someone else’s beliefs to mumbo-jumbo; that which is not worth considering, or is unacceptable. When the Salem witch trials took place, the law stated that witchcraft was a crime against the government. It ranked with treason and the penalty was death. Rep. Barr of the 7th District of Georgia would like to have this law reinstated. Three hundred years later and we still haven’t progressed much. Massachusetts hasn’t fully exonerated some of the accused after all this time.

As much as I admire Arthur Miller’s "The Crucible", the play is fiction and not fact. The play itself, or the script, is collectible on it’s own, as are posters and memorabilia from productions of the play, and the movie that recently came out. The Crucible has become part of the myth and contributes to the controversy and excitement that surround the subject. It is a who-done- it that, unless more documents are found, will never have an answer.

Even if documents are found, the answers probably never will be. Let’s look at a few of the interesting bits of information that we know.

A. Cotton Mather was extremely ambitious and wanted to become President of Harvard University.
B. The Putnam family was involved in many lawsuits and felt they had been cheated out of inheritances and greater prosperity. Ann, the wife, was very unstable, and uneasy in her mind as to her actions and the accepted mores inflicted by the severe Puritan church.

c. There were so many lawsuits between the village and the town that it makes today’s judicial load look light. Families suing families, ministers suing parishioners, and parishioners suing everyone. If money is the root of all evil then it was doubly so in Salem Village (Danvers of today). If your neighbor was more prosperous than you, it must be that you had been bewitched. The Thomas Putnam family was one of the major movers in this tragedy, and they had grudges that the courts could not appease.
C. Abigail Williams, just who was she? A kinswoman and only eleven years old but a chief protagonist in the trials and living in her kinsman’s home. No one knows what relationship she had to the Rev. Samuel Parris. Where had she come from? The greatest mystery of all is after the trials she disappears from all records. Did she die? If so, where are the burial records? Did she marry? If so, where are the wedding records? Did she move back to the Islands? If so, why are there no records of her travel, or of having left the area. She is not on the church record either. How does a young girl just disappear with no trace when a short time before she was so prominent a figure in the happenings in the area?
Parris, Cotton, Calef, and others kept records and not one word exists of what happened to her. This is very curious indeed.

D. The Rev. Parris bartered and dickered, like the merchant he was, with his congregation. He plead with them, he threatened them and he sued them. He was a man afraid of poverty, of loss of status, and of the devil-and the devil was anyone that would deny him of what he thought he deserved, both economically and socially.

E. Most of the people who were accused were fairly easy targets and a blow at the opposition, as opposed to a strike for justice. Religion, the law, economics, and social mores were all rolled into one and when the village divided into factions, pro and con the minister, trouble could only come of it.
So this is what led up to the trials that shook the colonies and had far reaching consequences. Is this the end to it? Hardly. There have been so many books written on the subject that one can fill a bookcase. Books have been appearing since the trials themselves. Caleb wrote "More Wonders of the Invisible World" making fun of Cotton Mather and the powers that were propelling the trials forward. Mather wrote a book defending himself, justifying his deeds and tossing in more than a few "What a fine fellow I am" braggadocio.

However, there are many records and documents of the times that are missing that could be very well sitting in a box tucked up in some attic. Three hundred years is a long time and yet, papers and documents of that time period still keep on appearing.

Perhaps, it is a dream that everyone interested in the trials has-of opening a box and finding the amendments of Parish’s sermons, or missing pages from the trials.

Since most of us will never be able to own these items, as they are salted away in museums, we can instead find items celebrating those fearful times from a later date.

Daniel Low owned a store in Salem which produced catalogues of the trinkets and treasures that they sold at the store and through the mail. Sterling silver jewelry and souvenirs, flatware and hollowware. Many are familiar with the sterling silver witch spoons, but Low made so much more.

Upham, who had the drug store that was at the front of the witch house, also had a gift line which sold post cards and painted china and other items that were pertinent to the witch or tourist trade. Though these were the giants in the witch trade, there were dairies, medicine companies (creams and astringents) and all types of others who capitalized on the witch logo.

Ipswich Hosiery still uses the logo of a witch as one of the "witches" came from Ipswich. Remember, many of the accused were not just from Salem Village or Salem town. There are nice boxes, labels and posters and cards from the Ipswich Hosiery Company that are very decorative and collectible.
Low started the souvenir craze and we can all be grateful to him as his inspiration has created tens of thousands of collectibles, and the ephemera is unending-as is the speculation on what happened to Abigail Williams.