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N0KFQ > TODAY 10.06.15 17:00l 62 Lines 2908 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 58163_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 10
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150610/1500Z 58163@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1692
First Salem witch hanging
In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop,
the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is
hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.
Trouble in the small Puritan community began in February 1692,
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. Under compulsion from the doctor and
their parents, the girls named those allegedly responsible for
their suffering.
On March 1, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian
slave from Barbados, became the first Salem residents to be
charged with the capital crime of witchcraft. Later that day,
Tituba confessed to the crime and subsequently aided the
authorities in identifying more Salem witches. With encouragement
from 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 and Terminer ["to hear
and 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 accused of witchcraft by more
individuals than any other defendant. Bishop, known around town
for her dubious moral character, frequented taverns, dressed
flamboyantly (by Puritan standards), and was married three times.
She professed her innocence but was found guilty and executed by
hanging on June 10. Thirteen more women and five 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 have been 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
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