Salem cadı mahkemeleri

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Salem Cadı Mahkemeleri, Massachusetts'e bağlı Essex, Suffolk ve Middlesex kontluklarında Şubat 1692 ile Mayıs 1693 arasında gerçekleştirilen ve sonrasında cadılık ile suçlanan bir grup insan için sulh yargıçları tarafından yönetilen yerel mahkeme duruşmaları ile devam eden dinletilere denir.

Duruşmalar sırasında birçok kişi yetkililer tarafından aranmamasına rağmen suçlanmış, 150'den fazla insan tutuklanmış ve hapse atılmıştır. Duruşmalara bakan iki mahkeme, 29 kişiyi suçlu bulmuş ve cadılıktan ölüme mahkum etmiştir. Suçlananlardan on dokuzu, on dört kadın ve beş erkek, asılmıştır. Suçlananlardan bir adam yalvarmayı reddettiğinden dolayı ağır kayalar altında sıkıştırılarak idam edilmiştir. En azından suçlananlardan beş kişi ise hapishanede ölmüştür.

Her ne kadar "Salem" Cadı Mahkemeleri olarak anılsalar dahi, 1692'deki ön dinletiler bölgedeki birçok yerde gerçekleştirilmiştir: Salem Köyü, Ipswich, Andover ve ayrıca Salem Kenti, Massachusetts. En bilindik duruşmalar 1692'de Salem Kentinde Oyer ve Terminer Mahkemesinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu mahkemeden önceki duruşmalarda dinlenilen yirmi alti kişi bu mahkemede suçlu kabul edilmiştir. 1693 yılında Salem Kentinde, ayrıca Ipswich'de, Boston'da ce Charlestown'da ele alınan Yüksek Mahkemenin ilk dört celsesi otuz bir cadılık duruşmasından sadece üç sanığı suçlu bulmuştur.

Konu başlıkları 1 Arkaplan 1.1 Politik İçerik 1.2 Bölgesel İçerik 1.3 Ekonomik İçerik 1.4 Dini İçerik 1.5 Sosyal İçerik 2 Olaylar 2.1 İlk Ortaya Çıkışı 2.2 Resmi dava : Oyer ve Terminer Mahkemesi 2.3 Yüksek Mahkeme, 1693 3 Yapılan Yasal İşlemler 3.1 Genel Bakış 3.2 Hayali kanıt 3.3 Cadının Keki 3.4 Dokunma Testi 3.5 Duruşmalar ile İlgili Çağdaş Yorumlar 4 Sonuç ve Kapanış 4.1 Vatandaşlık Haklarını Kaybetmişlerin Kararını bozma & Yaşayanlara ve Ailelerine Verilen Tazminat 4.2 Kaybedilenler için Anıtlar 4.3 Popüler Kültürde, Medyada ve Edebiyatta Salem Cadı Mahkemeleri 4.4 Bildirilmiş Izdırap Hakkında Tıbbi Teoriler 5 Ek Okumalar 5.1 Ayrıca Bakınız 5.2 Dış bağlantılar 5.3 Makaleler ve Kitaplar 6 Notlar ve Referanslar

[değiştir] Arkaplan

Cadılık suçalamalarının sayısındaki sıradışı artış nedeniyle, bu olayın tarihsel içeriğinin çeşitli birçok yönünün özel olarak katkıda bulunduğu ele alınır.

[değiştir] Politik İçerik

Massachusets'a 1629'da tanınan ayrıcalıklar Kral James II Sir Edmund Andros'u Yeni İngiltere Yönetimi'nin başına getirmesi ile 1684 de iptal edilmişti. ^[1] Kral James II The Glorious Revolution da tahtından mahrum bırakıldığında 1689'da Andros da yerinden edilmiş ve Mary ile William İngiltere'de tahta çıkmıştır. Simon Bradstreet ve Thomas Danforth vali ve vali yardımcısı seçilmiştir. Aynı zamanda "doğuya doğru" (günümüzün Maine kıyıları) yerleşmeye başlayan İngiliz kononiciler ile Fransızlar tarafından desteklenen Wabanaki Yerlilerinin arasında gerginlik çıkmış, bu gerginlik sonradan Kral William'ın savaşı olarak anılan savaşa neden olmuştur.

Bu sayfa, başka dilde bir Vikipedi'den çevrilmektedir. Siz de yardım etmek istiyorsanız ya da çeviri yarıda kalmışsa, çalışmaya katılan kişilerle iletişime geçip, sayfanın durumunu onlara sorabilirsiniz. Sayfanın geçmişine baktığınızda, sayfa üzerinde çalışma yapanları görebilirsiniz.

[değiştir] Bölgesel İçerik

1689'da, sonunda Salem Köyü, Salem Kasabasındaki kilise tarafından kendi sözleşmeli kilise topluluğunu oluşturma ve kendi papazını atama iznini yapılan bir çok talepten sonra aldı. Samuel Parris in ilk atanan papaz olmasından ve bu görevin karşılığında kendisine papaz evinin tapusunun verilmesinin ardından, Salem Köyü ve civar köyler görüş ayrılığına düşmüş, bölünmüşlerdir.

Andover'da ise kilise, kasabanın kuzeyinde uzun zamandır kasabanın papazı olan Francis Daniel ve kasabanın güneyinde kasabanın kilisesinin öğretmeni olan Thomas Barnard'ın önderliklerinde olmak üzere iki ayrı cemaate sahip olacak şekilde ayrılmıştır.

Daha fazlası için, bakınız:

• Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1974.
• Enders A. Robinson, Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, Heritage Books, Bowie, MD, 1992.

[değiştir] Ekonomik İçerik

Özellikle ekonominin tarıma dayalı olduğu uç bölgelerde olmak üzere, aile bireylerindeki sayı artışı aile içi ve komşular arası toprak anlaşmazlıklarını körüklemişti. Hava durumundaki bir değişim veya küf, mantar gibi hastalıklar kolayca bir yıllık ekini yok edebiliyordu. Orta boyuttaki bir aileyi doyurabilecek olan bit tarla, bir kuşak sonraki aileyi doyurmakta yetersiz kalmakta ve çiftçileri daha çok Amerikan yerlilerinin yaşadığı el değmemiş topraklara doğru gitmeye zorlamıştı. Püritanlar bu yeni topraklarda bir teokrasi oluşturmaya yemin ettiklerinden dolayı, dini çoşkunluk ortadaki durumu gerginleştirmekte idi. Ekin, hayvan ve çocuk kayıpları, deprem ve kötü hava gibi felaketlerin nedeni Tanrı'nın gazabına dayandırılmaktaydı.

Daha fazlası için, bakınız:

• John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and Culture of Early New England, Oxford, New York, 1982.

[değiştir] Dini İçerik

Puritanlar yeryüzüne inmiş bir melek olarak gördükleri şeytan da dahil olmak üzere, tanrının ve meleklerin bulunduğu görünmez bir dünyanın varlığına inanıyorlardı. Puritanlara göre bu görünmez dünya içinde bulundukları görünür dünye kadar gerçekti.

Büyücülük ve Malvarlığı Konularına Dair Pratik Tedbirler (1689) adlı kitabın yazarı Cotton Mather, Boston masonlarından olan John Goodwin'in dört çocuğunun sergilediği garip davranışları anlatmış ve bu davranışların nedenini ise Mary Glover adında bir İrlandalı çamaşırcı kadının onların üzerinde büyü yapmasına dayandırmıştır. Boston'un Kuzey kilisesinde papaz olan Mather, cadılığa katı bir şekilde inanıyor ve bastırdığı broşürler ile bu fikrin yayılmasını sağlıyordu.

Daha fazlası için, bakınız:

• Richard Godbeer, The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, Cambridge: New York, 1992.
• Perry Miller, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1939.
• Richard Weisman, Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th Century Massachusetts,University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst, 1984.

[değiştir] Sosyal İçerik

Puritan topluluklarının sahip olduğu ataerkil inançlar da durumu gerginleştirmekteydi.Kadının erkeğe itaat etmesi gerekliliğine güçlü bir şekilde inanıyorlardı. Bir kadının, bir erkeğe nispeten yaradılışından kaynaklanan nedenlerle, şeytanın hizmetinde çalışması olası görülüyor, aynı zamanda da doğuştan şehvetli oldukları düşünülüyordu. Ayrıca, küçük bir kasabanın sahip olduğu atmosfer sırların saklanmasını güç kılıyor, insanların birbiri ile ilgili olan fikirlerinin kolayca hakikat olarak kabul edilmesine yol açıyordu.

"Çocuklar görünen fakat duyulmayan olmalıdır" felsefesinin benimsendiği bir çağda, elbette çocuklar sosyal hiyerarşinin en altına bulunuyorlardı.Oyuncaklar ve oyunlar gereksiz görülmekte ve çocuklar oyun oynamaktan yıldırılmaktaydı. Kız çocukları daha fazla kısıtlamalara maruz bırakılıyordu. Erkek çocukları avlanabiliyor, balık tutabiliyor, ormanı keşfedebiliyordu.Sıklıkla marangozların ve demircilerin yanında çıraklık yapıyorlar, ancak kız çocukları ise çocukluktan itibaren iplik eğirme, yemek pişirme, dikiş dikme, örgü örme eğitimlerini alarak ailelerine ve kocalarına hizmetçi olmaları için hazırlanıyordu.

Daha fazlası için, bakınız:

• Elizabeth Reis, Damned Woman: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1997
• Carol F. Karlsen, Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, Norton: New York, 1987.

[değiştir] Olaylar

[değiştir] İlk Ortaya Çıkışı

1692 yılında Salem köyünde yaşayan Papaz Samuel Parris'in 9 yaşındaki kızı Betty Parris ve (kızının da kuzeni olan) 11 yaşındaki yiğeni Abigail Williams, Beverley dolaylarında vaizlik yapan John Hale, tarafından "çok güçlü sara krizi ya da etkin doğal afet" olarak adlandırlan ruhsal sarsıntıyı geçirmeye başladılar.Köyün eski vaizi Deodat Lawson'ın görgü tanıklığına göre; kızlar bağırıyor, eşyaları fırlatıyor, garip sesler çıkarıyor, yerlerde sürünüyor ve kendilerini anormal şekillere sokuyorlardı.Kızlar iğnelerin vücutlarında açtığı yara ve deliklerden de şikayetçiydi.William Griggs olduğu tahmin edilen bir doktor, kızlarda fiziksel rahatsızlığa dair bir işaret bulamamıştı.Bir süre sonra, köyde yaşayan başka bir genç kadının da benzer davranışları göstermeye başladığı öğrenildi.Lawson'un Salem Köyü misafirhanesinde verdiği vaazlar artık acılı serzenişler ile kesilmeye başlamıştı.^[2]

Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, ve Tituba.^[3] 'dan oluşan üç kişi Betty Paris, Abigail Williams, 12 yaşındaki Ann Putnam, Jr. ve Elizabeth Hubbard'a ızdırpap ve acı vermek iddiası ile suçlanıp tutuklandılar.

Sarah Good yoksuldu.Yemek ve barınak için komşularından yardım istemiş ve dilencilik yapmış biriydi, daha sonra ise Sarah Osburne'un resmi hizmetçisi olmuştu. Sarah Osburne ise kilise toplantılarına çok nadir katılması ile bilinirdi.Tituba ise Püritan'lardan farklı etnik kökene sahip bir köleydi ve suçlamalar için açık bir hedefti.Bu kadınların hepsi de büyücülük suçlamaları için "olağan şüpheliler" tanımına uyuyordu.Zaten kimse de onların arkasında durmadı.1 Mart, 1692'de büyücülük suçlaması ile yerel sulh hakiminin karşısına çıktılar.Bir kaç gün süren sorgularının ardından hapishaneye gönderildiler.

Mart ayında suçlamalar; Martha Corey, Dorothy Good (tutuklama esnasında hata yapılarak Dorcas God olarak anıldı), Salem Köyü'nden Hemşire Rebecca ve Ipswich dolaylarından Rachel Clinton isimlerine de yöneltildi.Martha Corey kadınların suçlanmasındaki yersiz şüpheciliğe karşı düşüncelerini kendini örnek göstererek dile getirdi.O'nun ve hemşire Rebecca'nın alacağı cezalar topluluğu da yakından ilgilendiriyordu, çünkü Martha Corey ve Hemşire Rebecca Salem Köyü'ndeki kilisenin tam bir müdavimiydi.Eğer böylesi namuslu insanlar cadı olabiliyor ise herkesin cadı olabileceği fikri uyanabilirdi.Bu halde kilise üyeliğinin de suçlamalara karşı bir güvenlik getirmiyor olduğu söz konusu edilirdi.Sarah Good'un kızı Dorothy Good sadece 4 yaşında olmasına rağmen sorgulandı ve yanıtları annesinin cadılık ile ilişkilerini kanıtlayan birer itiraf olarak değerlendirildi.Mart ayının sonunda, Ipswich'de yaşayan Rachel Clinton da Salem Köyündeki olaylara ilişkin alakasız suçlamalar ve büyücülük nedeni ile tutuklanıyordu.^[4]

[değiştir] Resmi dava : Oyer ve Terminer Mahkemesi

The Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in Salem Town on June 2, 1692, with William Stoughton, the new Lieutenant Governor, as Chief Magistrate, Thomas Newton as the Crown's Attorney prosecuting the cases, and Stephen Sewall as clerk. Bridget Bishop's case was the first brought to the grand jury, who endorsed all the indictments against her. She went to trial the same day and was found guilty. On June 3, the grand jury endorsed indictments against Rebecca Nurse and John Willard, but it is not clear why they did not go to trial immediately as well. Bridget Bishop was executed by hanging on June 10, 1692.

In June, more people were accused, arrested and examined, but now in Salem Town, by former local magistrates John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and Bartholomew Gedney who had become judges of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Roger Toothaker died in prison on June 16, 1692.

At the end of June and beginning of July, grand juries endorsed indictments against Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Procter, John Procter, Martha Carrier, Sarah Wilds, and Dorcas Hoar. Only Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin and Sarah Wildes, along with Rebecca Nurse, went on to trial at this time, where they were found guilty, and executed on July 19, 1692. In mid-July as well, the primary source of accusations moved from Salem Village to Andover, when the constable there asked to have some of the afflicted girls in Salem Village visit with his wife to try to determine who caused her afflictions. Ann Foster, her daughter Mary Lacey Sr., and granddaughter Mary Lacey Jr. all confessed to being witches. Anthony Checkley was appointed by Governor Phips to replace Thomas Newton as the Crown's Attorney when Newton took an appointment in New Hampshire.

In the beginning of August, grand juries indicted George Burroughs, Mary Eastey, Martha Corey, and George Jacobs, Sr., and trial juries convicted Martha Carrier, George Jacobs, Sr., George Burroughs, John Willard, Elizabeth Procter, and John Procter. Elizabeth Procter was given a temporary stay of execution because she was pregnant. Before being executed, George Burroughs recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly, supposedly something that was impossible for a witch, but Cotton Mather was present and reminded the crowd that the man had been convicted before a jury. On August 19, 1692, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., George Burroughs, John Willard, and John Procter were hanged.

In September, grand juries indicted eighteen more people: Ann Pudeator, Alice Parker, Mary Bradbury, Giles Corey, Abigail Hobbs, Rebecca Jacobs, Ann Foster, Sarah Buckley, Margaret Jacobs, Mary Lacey Sr., Wilmot Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Rebecca Eames, Margaret Scott, Job Tookey, Mary Witheridge, Mary Parker, and Abigail Faulkner Sr. The grand jury failed to indict William Procter, who was re-arrested on new charges. On September 19, 1692, Giles Corey refused to plead at arraignment, and was subjected to peine forte et dure, a form of torture in which the subject is pressed beneath an increasingly heavy load of stones, in an attempt to make him enter a plea. Dorcas Hoar, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey, Mary Bradbury, Mary Easty, Wilmot Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Margaret Scott, and Abigail Faulkner Sr. were tried and found guilty. Abigail Hobbs, Ann Foster, Mary Lacey Sr., and Rebecca Eames pled guilty. On August 22, 1692, only eight of those convicted were hanged: Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Wilmot Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, and Margaret Scott, reportedly called by Salem minister Nicholas Noyes, the "Eight firebrands of Hell". Dorcas Hoar was given a temporary reprieve, with the support of several ministers, to make her confession before God. Aged Mary Bradbury escaped. Abigail Faulkner Sr. was pregnant and given a temporary reprieve.

Mather was asked by Governor Phips in September to write about the trials, and obtained access to the official records of the Salem trials from his friend Stephen Sewall, clerk of the court, upon which his account of the affair, Wonders of the Invisible World, was based.

This court was dismissed in October by Governor Phips, although this was not the end of the trials.

[değiştir] Yüksek Mahkeme, 1693

In January 1693, the new Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery convened in Salem, Essex County, again headed by William Stoughton, as Chief Justice, with Anthony Checkley continuing as the Attorney General, and Jonathan Elatson as Clerk of the Court. The first five cases tried in January 1693 were of the five people who had been indicted but not tried in September: Sarah Buckley, Margaret Jacobs, Rebecca Jacobs, Mary Whittredge, and Job Tookey. All were found not guilty. Grand juries were held for many of those remaining in jail. Charges were dismissed against many, but sixteen more people were indicted and tried, three of whom were found guilty: Elizabeth Johnson Jr., Sarah Wardwell, and Mary Post. When Stoughton wrote the warrants for the execution of these women and the others remaining from the previous court, Governor Phips pardoned them, sparing their lives. In late January/early February, the Court sat again in Charlestown, Middlesex County, and held grand juries and tried five people: Sarah Cole (of Lynn), Lydia Dustin & Sarah Dustin, Mary Taylor , and Mary Toothaker. All were found not guilty, but were not released until they paid their jail fees. Lydia Dustin died in jail on March 10, 1693. At the end of April, the Court convened in Boston, Suffolk County, and cleared John Alden by proclamation, and heard charges against a servant girl, Mary Watkins, for falsely accusing her mistress of witchcraft. In May, the Court convened in Ipswich, Essex County, held a variety of grand juries who dismissed charges against all but five people. Susannah Post, Eunice Frye, Mary Bridges Jr., Mary Barker, and William Barker Jr. were all found not guilty at trial, putting an end to the episode.

[değiştir] Yapılan Yasal İşlemler

[değiştir] Genel Bakış

After someone concluded that a loss, illness or death had been caused by witchcraft, the accuser would enter a complaint against the alleged witch with the local magistrates.^[5]

If the complaint was deemed credible, the magistrates would have the person arrested^[6] and brought in for a public examination, essentially an interrogation, where the magistrates pressed the accused to confess.^[7]

If the magistrates at this local level were satisfied that the complaint was well-founded, the prisoner was handed over to be dealt with by a superior court. In 1692, the magistrates opted to wait for the arrival of the new charter and governor, who would establish a Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle these cases.

The next step, at the superior court level, was to summon witnesses before a grand jury.^[8] A person could be indicted on charges of afflicting with witchcraft,^[9] or for making an unlawful covenant with the Devil.^[10] Once indicted, the defendant went to trial, sometimes on the same day, as in the case of the first person indicted and tried on June 2, Bridget Bishop, who was executed on June 10, 1692.

There were four execution dates, with one person executed on June 10, 1692,^[11] five executed on July 19, 1692,^[12] another five executed on August 19, 1692 (Susannah Martin, John Willard, George Burroughs, George Jacobs, Sr., and John Proctor), and eight on September 22, 1692 (Mary Eastey, Martha Corey, Ann Pudeator, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd, and Margaret Scott). Several others, including Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor and Abigail Faulkner, were convicted but given temporary reprieves because they were pregnant (Chronology). Though convicted, they would not be hanged until they had given birth (Chronology). Five other women were convicted in 1692, but sentence was never carried out: Ann Foster (who later died in prison), her daughter Mary Lacy Sr., Abigail Hobbs, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury.

Giles Corey, an 80-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem (called Salem Farms), refused to enter a plea when he came to trial in September. The judges mistakenly believed that the law provided for the application of a form of torture called peine forte et dure, in which the victim was slowly crushed by slowly piling stones on a board laid upon the victim's body. (British law had, in reality, abolished this practice twenty years earlier.)[1] After two days of peine fort et dure, Corey died, his chest crushed, without entering a plea^[13]. Though his refusal to plead is often explained as a way of preventing his possessions from being confiscated by the state, this is not true; the possessions of convicted witches were often confiscated, and the possessions of persons accused but not convicted were confiscated before a trial, as in the case of Corey's neighbor John Proctor and the wealthy Englishmen of Salem Town. Some historians hypothesize that Giles Corey's personal character, a stubborn and lawsuit-prone old man who knew he was going to be convicted regardless, led to his recalcitrance^[14].

Not even in death were the accused witches granted peace or respect. As convicted witches, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey had been excommunicated from their churches and none was given proper burial. As soon as the bodies of the accused were cut down from the trees, they were thrown into a shallow grave and the crowd would disperse. Oral history claims that the families of the dead reclaimed their bodies after dark and buried them in unmarked graves on family property. The record books of the time do not mention the deaths of any of those executed.

[değiştir] Hayali kanıt

Much, but not all, of the evidence used against the accused was "spectral evidence", or the testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see the apparition or the shape of the person who was allegedly afflicting them. The theological dispute that ensued about the use of this evidence centered on whether a person had to give permission to the Devil for his/her "shape" to be used to afflict. Opponents claimed that the Devil was able to use anyone's "shape" to afflict people, but the Court contended that the Devil could not use a person's shape without that person's permission; therefore, when the afflicted claimed to "see" the apparition of a specific person, that was accepted as evidence that the accused had been complicit with the Devil. Increase Mather and other ministers sent a letter to the Court, "The Return of Several Ministers Consulted", urging the magistrates not to convict on spectral evidence alone. A copy of this letter was printed in Increase Mather's "Cases of Conscience" published in 1693. See facsimiles of page 73 and page 74 of this rare book. The publication "A Tryal of Witches", was used by the Magistrates at Salem, when looking for a precedent in allowing "spectral evidence".^[15] Finding that no lesser person than the jurist Sir Matthew Hale had permitted this evidence to be used in the trial and the accusations against two Lowestoft women, held in 1662 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England , they also accepted its validity and the trials proceeded.^[16] Other evidence included the confessions of the accused, the testimony of another confessed "witch" identifying others as witches, the discovery of "poppits," books of palmistry and horoscopes, or pots of ointments in the possession or home of the accused, and the existence of so-called "witch's teats" on the body of the accused.

[değiştir] Cadının Keki

At some point in February 1692, likely between the time when the afflictions began but before specific names were mentioned, a neighbor of Rev. Parris, Mary Sibly (aunt of the afflicted Mary Walcott), instructed John Indian, one of the minister's slaves, to make a "witch cake", using traditional English white magic to discover the identity of the witch who was afflicting the girls. The cake, made from rye meal and urine from the afflicted girls, was fed to a dog.

According to English folk understanding of how witches accomplished affliction, when the dog ate the cake, the witch herself would be hurt because invisible particles she had sent to afflict the girls remained in the girls' urine, and her cries of pain when the dog ate the cake would identify her as the witch. This superstition was based on the Cartesian "Doctrine of Effluvia", which posited that witches afflicted by the use of "venomous and malignant particles, that were ejected from the eye", according to the October 8, 1692 letter of Thomas Brattle, a contemporary critic of the trials.^[17]

According to the Records of the Salem-Village Church, Parris spoke with Sibly privately on March 25, 1692 about her "grand error" and accepted her "sorrowful confession." That Sunday, March 27, during his Sunday sermon, he addressed his congregation about the "calamities" that had begun in his own household, but stated, "it never brake forth to any considerable light, until diabolical means were used, by the making of a cake by my Indian man, who had his direction from this our sister, Mary Sibly", going on to admonish all against the use of any kind of magic, even white magic, because it was essentially, "going to the Devil for help against the Devil". Mary Sibley publicly acknowledged the error of her actions before the congregation, who voted by a show of hands that they were satisfied with her admission of error.^[18]

Other instances appear in the records of the episode that demonstrated a continued belief by members of the community in this "effluvia" as legitimate evidence, including accounts in two statements against Elizabeth How that people had suggested cutting off and burning an ear of two different animals How was thought to have afflicted, to prove she was the one who had bewitched them to death.^[19]

Traditionally, the "afflicted" girls are said to have been "entertained" by Parris' slave woman, Tituba, who supposedly taught them about "voodoo" in the kitchen of the parsonage during the winter of 1692, although there is no contemporary evidence to support the story^[20]. A variety of secondary sources, starting with Charles W. Upham in the 19th century, typically relate that a "circle" of the girls, with Tituba's help, tried their hands at fortune telling, using the white of an egg and a "glass" (a mirror) to create a primitive crystal ball to divine the professions of their future spouses, and scared one another when one supposedly saw the shape of a coffin instead. The story is drawn from John Hale's book about the trials,^[21] but in his account, only one of the "afflicted" girls, not a group of them, had confessed to him afterwards that she had once tried this. Hale did not mention Tituba as having any part of it, nor when it had occurred.

Tituba's race is often cited as Carib-Indian or that she was of African descent, but contemporary sources describe her only as an "Indian". Research by Elaine Breslaw has suggested that she may well have been captured in what is now Venezuela and brought to Barbados, and so may have been an Arawak Indian^[22], but other slightly later descriptions of her, by Gov. Thomas Hutchinson writing his history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 18th century, describe her as a "Spanish Indian".^[23] In that day, that typically meant an Indian from the Carolinas/Georgia/Florida. Contrary to the folklore, there is no evidence to support the assertion that Tituba told any of the girls any stories about using magic.

[değiştir] Dokunma Testi

The most infamous employment of the belief in effluvia -- and in direct opposition to what Parris had advised his own parishioners in Salem Village -- was the "touch test" used in Andover during preliminary examinations in September 1692. As several of those accused later recounted, "we were blindfolded, and our hands were laid upon the afflicted persons, they being in their fits and falling into their fits at our coming into their presence, as they said. Some led us and laid our hands upon them, and then they said they were well and that we were guilty of afflicting them; whereupon we were all seized, as prisoners, by a warrant from the justice of the peace and forthwith carried to Salem"^[24] Rev. John Hale explained how this supposedly worked: "the Witch by the cast of her eye sends forth a Malefick Venome into the Bewitched to cast him into a fit, and therefore the touch of the hand doth by sympathy cause that venome to return into the Body of the Witch again".^[25]

[değiştir] Duruşmalar ile İlgili Çağdaş Yorumlar

Various accounts and opinions about the proceedings began to appear in print in 1692.

Deodat Lawson, a former minister in Salem Village, visited Salem Village in March and April, 1692, and published an account in Boston in 1692 of what he witnessed and heard, called "A Brief and True Narrative of Some Remarkable Passages Relating to Sundry Persons Afflicted by Witchcraft, at Salem Village: Which happened from the Nineteenth of March, to the Fifth of April, 1692". ^[26].

Rev. William Milbourne, a Baptist minister in Boston, publicly petitioned the General Assembly in early June, 1692, challenging the use of spectral evidence by the Court. Milbourne had to post 200£ bond or be arrested for "contriving, writing and publishing the said scandalous Papers".^[27]

On June 15, 1692, twelve local ministers -- including Increase Mather, Samuel Willard, Cotton Mather -- submitted The Return of several Ministers to the Governor and Council in Boston, cautioning the authorities not to rely entirely on the use of spectral evidence, stating, "Presumptions whereupon persons may be Committed, and much more, Convictions whereupon persons may be Condemned as Guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable, than barely the Accused Persons being Represented by a Spectre unto the Afflicted".^[28]

Sometime in 1692, minister of the First Church in Boston, Samuel Willard anonymously published a short tract in Philadelphia entitled, "Some Miscellany Observations On our present Debates respecting Witchcrafts, in a Dialogue Between S. & B." The authors were listed as "P.E. and J. A." (Philip English and John Alden), but is generally attributed to Willard. In it, two characters, S (Salem) and B (Boston), discuss the way the proceedings were being conducted, with "B" urging caution about the use of testimony from the afflicted and the confessors, stating, "whatever comes from them is to be suspected; and it is dangerous using or crediting them too far".^[29].

Sometime in September 1692, at the request of Governor Phips, Cotton Mather wrote "Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches, Lately Executed in New-England," as a defense of the trials, to "help very much flatten that fury which we now so much turn upon one another".^[30]. It was published in Boston and London in 1692, although dated 1693, with an introductory letter of endorsement by William Stoughton, the Chief Magistrate. The book included accounts of five trials, with much of the material copied directly from the court records supplied to Mather by Stephen Sewall, his friend and Clerk of the Court^[31].

Cotton Mather's father, Increase Mather, published "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits," dated October 3, 1692, after the last trials by the Court of Oyer & Terminer, although the title page lists the year of publication as "1693." In it, Mather repeated his caution about the reliance on spectral evidence, stating "It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that one Innocent Person should be Condemned".^[32]. Second and third editions of this book were published in Boston and London in 1693, the third of which also included Lawson's Narrative and the anonymous "A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches, sent in a Letter from thence, to a Gentleman in London."^[33]

A wealthy businessman in Boston and fellow Harvard graduate, Thomas Brattle circulated a letter in manuscript form in October 1692, in which he criticized the methods used by the Court to determine guilt, including the use of the touch test and the testimony of confessors, stating, "they are deluded, imposed upon, and under the influence of some evill spirit; and therefore unfit to be evidences either against themselves, or any one else"^[34].

[değiştir] Sonuç ve Kapanış

Although the last trial was held in May 1693, public response to the events has continued. In the decades following the trials, the issues primarily had to do with establishing the innocence of the individuals who were convicted and compensating the survivors and families, and in the following centuries, the descendants of those unjustly accused and condemned have sought to honor their memories.

[değiştir] Vatandaşlık Haklarını Kaybetmişlerin Kararını bozma & Yaşayanlara ve Ailelerine Verilen Tazminat

The first hint that public response for justice was not over came in 1695, when Thomas Maule, a noted Quaker, publicly criticized the handling of the trials by the Puritan leaders in Chapter 29 of his book Truth Held Forth and Maintained, expanding on Increase Mather by stating, "it were better than one hundred Witches should live, than that one person be put to death for a witch, which is not a Witch"^[35]. For publishing this book, Maule was imprisoned twelve months before he was tried and found not guilty.^[36]

On December 17, 1696, the General Court ruled that there would be a Fast Day on January 14, 1697, "referring to the late Tragedy, raised among us by Satan and his Instruments"^[37]. On that day, Samuel Sewall asked Rev. Samuel Willard to read aloud his apology to the congregation of Boston's South Church, "to take the Blame & Shame" of the "late Commission of Oyer & Terminer at Salem"^[38]. Thomas Fiske and eleven other trial jurors also asked forgiveness^[39].

Robert Calef, a merchant in Boston and long-time public adversary of Cotton Mather, republished Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World in 1700 with additional material added to it, broadly criticizing the proceedings, under the title "More Wonders of the Invisible World"^[40], bringing the issue back into public debate. John Hale, minister in Beverly and present at many of the proceedings, had completed his book, "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft" in 1697, but it wasn't published until 1702, after his death, and perhaps in response to Calef's book. Expressing regret over the actions taken, Hale admitted, "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"^[41].

Various petitions were filed between 1700 and 1703 with the Massachusetts government, demanding that the convictions be formally reversed. Those tried and found guilty were considered dead in the eyes of the law, and with convictions still on the books, those not executed were vulnerable to further accusations. The General Court initially reversed the attainder only for those who had filed petitions^[42], only three people who had been convicted but not executed: Abigail Faulkner Sr., Elizabeth Proctor, and Sarah Wardwell^[43]. In 1703, another petition was filed^[44], requesting a more equitable settlement for those wrongly accused, but it wasn't until 1709, when the General Court received a further request, that it took action on this proposal. In May 1709, 22 people who had been convicted of witchcraft, or whose relatives had been convicted of witchcraft, presented the government with a petition in which they demanded both a reversal of attainder and compensation for financial losses^[45].

Repentance was evident within the Salem Village church. Rev. Joseph Green and the members of the church voted on February 14, 1703, after nearly two months of consideration, to reverse the excommunication of Martha Corey^[46]. On August 25, 1706, when Ann Putnam Jr., one of the most active accusers, joined the Salem Village church, she publicly asked forgiveness. She claimed that she had not acted out of malice, but was being deluded by Satan into denouncing innocent people, and mentioned Rebecca Nurse in particular^[47], and was accepted for full membership.

On October 17, 1711, the General Court passed a bill reversing the judgment against the 22 people listed in the 1709 petition (there were seven additional people who had been convicted but had not signed the petition, but there was no reversal of attainder for them). Two months later, on December 17, 1711, Governor Joseph Dudley also authorized monetary compensation to the 22 people in the 1709 petition. The amount of 578 pounds 12 shillings was authorized to be divided among the survivors and relatives of those accused, and most of the accounts were settled within a year^[48], but Phillip English's extensive claims weren't settled until 1718^[49].

Finally, on March 6, 1712, Rev. Nicholas Noyes, and members of the Salem church reversed Noyes' earlier excommunications of their former members, Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey^[50].

[değiştir] Kaybedilenler için Anıtlar

Rebecca Nurse's descendants erected an obelisk-shaped granite memorial in her memory in 1885 on the grounds of the Nurse Homestead in Danvers, with an inscription from Whittier. In 1892 an additional monument was erected in honor of 40 neighbors who signed a petition in support of Nurse^[51].

Not all the condemned had been exonerated in the early 18th century, and so in 1957, descendants of the six people who had been wrongly convicted and executed but who had not been included in the bill for a reversal of attainder in 1711, or added to it in 1712, demanded that the General Court formally clear the names of their ancestral family members. An act was passed pronouncing the innocence of those accused, although it listed only Ann Pudeator by name. The others were listed as "certain other persons," still failing to include Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott by name^[52].

The 300th anniversary of the trials was marked in Salem and Danvers by a variety of events in 1992. A memorial park was dedicated in Salem with a stone bench for each of those executed in 1692. Speakers at the ceremony in August included Arthur Miller and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.^[53] Danvers erected its own new memorial^[54], and reinterred bones unearthed in the 1950s, assumed to be those of George Jacobs, Sr., in a new resting place at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead^[55].

In 1992, The Danvers Tercentennial Committee also persuaded the Massachusetts House of Representatives to issue a resolution honoring those who had died. After much convincing and hard work by Salem school teacher Paula Keene, Representatives J. Michael Ruane and Paul Tirone and others, the names of all those not previously listed were added to this resolution. When it was finally signed on October 31, 2001 by Governor Jane Swift, more than 300 years later, all were finally proclaimed innocent.^[56].

[değiştir] Popüler Kültürde, Medyada ve Edebiyatta Salem Cadı Mahkemeleri

Ana madde: Cultural depictions of the Salem Witch Trials

The story of the witchcraft accusations, trials, and executions has captured the imagination of writers and artists in the centuries since the event took place, many of which interpretations have taken liberties with the facts of the historical episode in the name of literary and/or artistic license.

[değiştir] Bildirilmiş Izdırap Hakkında Tıbbi Teoriler

Ana madde: Medical and psychological explanations of bewitchment

Although it is not widely believed that the girls who made the original accusations were actually possessed by the devil, the cause of the symptoms of those who claimed affliction continues to be a subject of interest. Various medical and psychological explanations for the observed symptoms have nevertheless been explored by researchers, including psychological hysteria in response to Indian attacks, convulsive ergotism caused by eating rye bread made from grain infected by the fungus Claviceps purpurea, and an epidemic of bird-borne encephalitis lethargica.

Modern academic historians are less inclined to believe that the cause for the behavior was biological, exploring instead motivations of jealousy, spite, and a need for attention to explain behavior they contend was simply acting. -->

[değiştir] Ek Okumalar

[değiştir] Ayrıca Bakınız

People of the Salem Witch Trials The Crucible A Break with Charity Jury Nullification McCarthyism Red Scare

Spectral evidence Supernatural Torsåker witch trials Pendle witches Salem, Massachusetts Andover, Massachusetts

Thomas Ady Würzburg witch trial Ramsele witch trial North Berwick Witch Trial Bideford witch trial Bury St. Edmunds witch trial

[değiştir] Dış bağlantılar

• Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692
• A documentary archive including original court papers on the trials, maps, interactive maps, biographies, and internal and external links to more resources.
• University of Virginia: Salem Witch Trials (includes former "Massachusetts Historical Society" link)
• Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II, by Charles Upham, 1867, from Project Gutenberg
• Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria
• SalemWitchTrials.com essays, biographies of the accused and afflicted
• The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils (1693) by Cotton Mather (online pdf edition)
• The 19th and 20th Centuries". Destination Salem. 12 April 2006.

[değiştir] Makaleler ve Kitaplar

• Aronson, Marc. Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. Atheneum: New York. 2003. ISBN 1-4169-0315-1
• Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. 1974. ISBN 0-674-78526-6
• Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, eds.. Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England. Northeastern University Press: Boston, MA. 1972. ISBN 1-55553-165-2
• Breslaw, Elaine G.. Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies. NYU: New York. 1996. ISBN 0-8147-1307-6
• Brown, David C.. A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692. David C. Brown: Washington Crossing, PA. 1984. ISBN 0-9613415-0-5
• Demos, John. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-19-517483-6
• Godbeer, Richard. The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge University Press: New York. 1992. ISBN 0-521-46670-9
• Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. Brazillier: New York. 1969. ISBN 0-8076-1137-9
• Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Doubleday: New York. 1995. ISBN 0-306-81159-6
• Hoffer, Peter Charles. "The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History". University of Kansas: Lawrence, KS. 1997. ISBN 0-7006-0859-1
• Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: Vintage, 1987. [This work provides essential background on other witchcraft accusations in 17th century New England.] ISBN 0-393-31759-5
• Lasky, Kathryn. Beyond the Burning Time. Point: New York, NY 1994 ISBN 0-590-47332-8
• Le Beau, Bryan, F. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials: `We Walked in Coulds and Could Not See Our Way`. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 1998. ISBN 0-13-442542-1
• Mappen, Marc, ed. 'Witches & Historians: Interpretations of Salem. 2nd Edition. Keiger: Malabar, FL. 1996. ISBN 0-88275-653-2
• Miller, Arthur. The Crucible — a play which compares McCarthyism to a witch-hunt. ISBN 0-14-243733-6
• Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Random House, 2002. ISBN 0-375-70690-9
• Reis, Elizabeth. Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, NY. 1997. ISBN 0-8014-8611-4
• Roach, Marilynne K. The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-To-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege. Cooper Square Press, 2002. ISBN 1-58979-132-0
• Robinson, Enders A. The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft 1692. Hippocrene: New York. 1991. ISBN 1-57766-176-1
• Robinson, Enders A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables. Heritage Books: Bowie, MD. 1992. ISBN 1-55613-515-7
• Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge University Press: New York. 1993. ISBN 0-521-55820-4
• Sologuk, Sally. Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers. Milling Journal. Second quarter 2005.
• Spanos, N. P., J. Gottlieb. "Ergots and Salem village witchcraft: A critical appraisal". Science: 194. 1390-1394:1976.
• Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts'.' Alfred A. Knopf: 1949. ISBN 0-385-03509-8
• Trask, Richard B. `The Devil hath been raised`: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692. Revised edition. Yeoman Press: Danvers, MA. 1997. ISBN 0-9638595-1-X
• Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft. Reprint from the 1867 edition, in two volumes. Dover Publications: Mineola, NY. 2000. ISBN 0-486-40899-X
• Weisman, Richard. Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst, MA. 1984. ISBN 0-87023-494-3
• Wilson, Jennifer M. Witch. Authorhouse, Feb. 2005. ISBN 1-4208-2109-1
• Wilson, Lori Lee. The Salem Witch Trials. How History Is Invented series. Lerner: Minneapolis. 1997. ISBN 0-8225-4889-5
• Woolf, Alex. Investigating History Mysteries. Heinemann Library: 2004. ISBN 0-431-16022-8
• Wright, John Hardy. Sorcery in Salem. Arcadia: Portsmouth, NH. 1999. ISBN 0-7385-0084-4

[değiştir] Notlar ve Referanslar