The trials had a substantial impact on the people within the province of Massachusetts bay, with twenty people executed for being found guilty of witchcraft.
Throughout the Salem witch trials around 150 men, women and children of the village and towns surrounding Salem were accused. By September 1692, in the pinnacle of the hysteria, eight people had been hanged, seven died during imprisonment and one man was crushed to death by stones.
THE END OF OYER AND TERMINER
The court of Oyer and Terminer was founded by Sir William Phipps in Salem, Massachusetts with the primary aim of trying and convicting accused witches. The court was later dissolved by Governor Phipps in October 1692. It was replaced with the Superior Court of Judicature, which held similar objectives but did so without allowing spectral evidence. While belief in the power of witches employing invisible spectres to torture victims was able to seal the fate of the accused in the court of Oyer and Terminer, it held little significance in the Superior Court of Judicature.
Eventually, the newly established court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting execution. In this way, the Salem Witch trials came to an end.
AFTERMATH AND LEGACY
On December 17, 1696, the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting for the tragedy of the trials on January 14, 1697. Reverend Samuel Sewell proclaimed his apology to the people of Boston's South Church on the day of fasting, in order "to take the blame and shame of the late commission of Oyer and Terminer at Salem". In 1711, the court deemed the trials unlawful, after various petitions were signed requesting for the convictions to be formally reversed.
Throughout the Salem witch trials around 150 men, women and children of the village and towns surrounding Salem were accused. By September 1692, in the pinnacle of the hysteria, eight people had been hanged, seven died during imprisonment and one man was crushed to death by stones.
THE END OF OYER AND TERMINER
The court of Oyer and Terminer was founded by Sir William Phipps in Salem, Massachusetts with the primary aim of trying and convicting accused witches. The court was later dissolved by Governor Phipps in October 1692. It was replaced with the Superior Court of Judicature, which held similar objectives but did so without allowing spectral evidence. While belief in the power of witches employing invisible spectres to torture victims was able to seal the fate of the accused in the court of Oyer and Terminer, it held little significance in the Superior Court of Judicature.
Eventually, the newly established court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting execution. In this way, the Salem Witch trials came to an end.
AFTERMATH AND LEGACY
On December 17, 1696, the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting for the tragedy of the trials on January 14, 1697. Reverend Samuel Sewell proclaimed his apology to the people of Boston's South Church on the day of fasting, in order "to take the blame and shame of the late commission of Oyer and Terminer at Salem". In 1711, the court deemed the trials unlawful, after various petitions were signed requesting for the convictions to be formally reversed.
"Such was the darkness of that day, the tortures and lamentations of the afflicted, and the power of former presidents, that we walked in the clouds, and could not see our way." - John Hale, 'A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft' (1702)
DEPICTIONS IN POPULAR CULTURE
Analysis of 'The Crucible'
Origin: Playwright Arthur Miller, 1953.
Motive: Written as an allegory of McCarthyism, in order to highlight the injustices faced during the trials in likeness to the acts of Joseph McCarthy.
Content/context: Dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem Witch Trials, produced almost 260 years after the event.
Intended Audience: Target audience was society of the 1950's, in an attempt to criticize the activities of Joseph McCarthy, who was leading a movement to find and prosecute suspected communists as if he were carrying out a witch trial at the time.
Perspective: Objective view of the Salem witch trials, slightly biased in order to highlight the prejudices and hysteria.
Reliability: The information provided is somewhat limited in its reliability as the play was produced to entertain and to express Millers objection towards McCarthy’s acts which involved making accusations of disloyalty against the state, without proper regard for evidence.
Origin: Playwright Arthur Miller, 1953.
Motive: Written as an allegory of McCarthyism, in order to highlight the injustices faced during the trials in likeness to the acts of Joseph McCarthy.
Content/context: Dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem Witch Trials, produced almost 260 years after the event.
Intended Audience: Target audience was society of the 1950's, in an attempt to criticize the activities of Joseph McCarthy, who was leading a movement to find and prosecute suspected communists as if he were carrying out a witch trial at the time.
Perspective: Objective view of the Salem witch trials, slightly biased in order to highlight the prejudices and hysteria.
Reliability: The information provided is somewhat limited in its reliability as the play was produced to entertain and to express Millers objection towards McCarthy’s acts which involved making accusations of disloyalty against the state, without proper regard for evidence.