1. In 1953, legendary writer Arthur Miller
depicted a story based on actual facts;
facts which remain horrifying even to this
day, despite being based on events which
took place over 300 years ago.The story is a
terrifying depiction of
how the accusations of
a group of children stirred up such fear in
their small community that it led to
persecution and hangings. But, what makes
the story so touching even till this day is that
it applies to all “witch”hunts; yes, witch
hunts taking place every day. t

2. Ladies and Gentlemen
Welcome
to the story of:

3. It is the spring of 1692. The small town of Salem, MA
had been established a mere forty years earlier, and had
yet to make it its mark on the rest of the world. However,
while not all were immediately aware, 1692 would be a year
of ‘revolution’ in America. No longer was everyone willing
to adhere to the strict lifestyle that had been set down by
their forefathers. While the town of Salem may have
appeared to be a serene and enjoyable place to live, it was
about to experience an event that would change their lives
forever. Little did they know, though, that their story
would still have a tremendous effect on us today.
Meet the people

4. The one, the only:
John Proctor

5. The Crucible Court
What did they see?

6. Abigail

7. Tituba

8. Elizabeth Proctor

9. John and Elizabeth

10. Analogy: The snowball effect
What Happened in
REAL HISTORY?
Analogy: The snowball effect

11. Salem—the Village History
1620: The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock.
1630: John Winthrop is elected the first governor.
1641: English law makes witchcraft a capital crime.
November, 1689: Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem, and Salem Village Church is formed.

12. The Year-1692
January
Parris’ daughter, Betty (9), and niece, Abigail Williams (11) begin acting strangely and babbling incoherently. The village physician documents their ailments as hysteria.
Hysteria is characterized as having severe fits and seizures.

13. The “Black Magic” Remedy
February 25, 1692:
Parris’ Caribbean Indian slaves, Tituba and John Indian, bake a “witch cake” with the girls’ urine to feed to the village dog.
Tituba, at the request of neighbor Mary Sibley, bakes the "witch cake" and feeds it to a dog.
According to English folk remedy,
feeding a dog this kind of cake, which
contained the urine of the afflicted,
would counteract the spell put on
Elizabeth and Abigail.
The reason the cake is fed to a dog is
because the dog is believed a
"familiar" of the Devil.

14. The Court’s Remedy Early March:
Samuel Parris files a complaint to the governor for a court to be issued. The colony operated in self-government until the end of 1693.
Preliminary Arrests
February 29, 1692: Arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
Pressured to identify the source of their affliction, the girls named three women, including Tituba, Parris' Carib Indian slave, as witches. On February 29, warrants were issued for the arrests of Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
Although Osborne and Good maintained innocence, Tituba confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her "sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog". What's more, Tituba testified that there was a conspiracy of witches at work in Salem.

15. The First 3 Accused
Tituba – Carab Indian from Barbados, Parris’ slave, married to John Indian, also a slave – practice of Voodoo
Sarah Good – beggar
Sarah Osborne – married her indentured servant & rarely attended church

16. The Investigations March 1, 1692:
Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin:
physically examine Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne for "witch’s teats."
“Witches teats” are imperfections on the bodies of afflicted or possessed persons.
George Beard’s description of medical instruments used include:
“examination with pins, all over the body, in order to detect the shriveled, callous and non-sensitive places, which were supposed to be diagnostic signs of bewitchment.[1]”

17. The “Fingers of God” Ann Putnam, Jr.
Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Ann Putnam, Jr., Sarah Bibber, Elizabeth Booth, Sarah Churchill, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, Sussana Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Mary Walcott
Ann Putnam, Jr.
Becoming afflicted shortly after Williams and Parris, Putnam(13) was one of the most active accusers during the trials . She claimed to have been afflicted by 62 different people, and testified in many trials. Some believe the continuance of the trials was due to the attention given to the accusers, which was unheard of in Puritan times.
In 1706, Ann Putnam Jr. was the only girl to offer an apology for her part in the witch trials. Some historians have speculated that her parents, Thomas and Ann (Carr), Sr., coerced Putnam to accuse those they were feuding with or sought revenge on. Many of the accused had some sort of relationship with the powerful Putnam family.
When her parents died in 1699, Putnam was left to raise her nine siblings aged 7 months to 16 years. She never married, and died in 1716.

18. Indictments: Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey
March 21, 1692: Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin examine Martha Corey. She is sent to prison.
They accuse 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse of bewitching them. Rebecca Nurse is the area nurse; she attended Parris’ daughter bedside early in 1692.
Photograph courtesy of:

19. Dorothy Good- a juvenile case
March 23, 1692:
Marshal Deputy Samuel Bradbrook arrests 4-year-old Dorcas(Dorothy) Good because of physical impairments.
The arrest questioned the imprisonment of the mentally and physically disabled.
Many of those accused of witchery awaited their fates inside small prison cells, approximately 6 by 4 feet.

20. Mitigation to a new court
May 14, 1692:
Sir William Phipps, the newly elected governor of the colony, arrives from England with a new provincial charter.
The charter rescinds the 1684 prohibition of self-governance within the colony.

21. The Testimonials’ Backlash
June 11: Arrests and examinations continue; Accused in neighboring communities of Andover, Ipswich, Gloucester, are tried and hanged on heretical charges.
In Salem:
Twenty-three suspected Salem witches are in jail.
These include John and Elizabeth Proctor, Bridget Bishop, and Giles Corey.
Bridget Bishop is the first to be hanged on Gallows Hill.
Bridget Bishop-
"I am no witch. I am innocent. I know nothing of it."

22. An Early Form of Due Process
June 10: Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns and Phipps advises caution in the witchcraft proceedings but also “speed and vigour.”
Many of the actions in Salem, Mass. are precedent cases for the framers of the constitution in the 1700s.

23. Right to Petition
July 23, Several convicted “witches” write petitions to the magistrates for release.
John Proctor writes of about the atrocities that led to their confessions.
An excerpt reads,
“My son, William Proctor, when he was examined, because he would not confess that he was guilty, when he was innocent, they tied him neck and heels till the blood gushed out of his nose, and would have kept him so 24 hours.”

24. John Proctor at his confession
“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! (…) How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”
~John Proctor in Miller’s Crucible
~taken from
Puritan’s often believed in a “good name,” as an endeavor of a good Christian life.

25. Testimony of Confessions
Some of those admitted that they were in league with the devil; that they had signed the devil’s book.
“These confessions, were mostly insincere, and were wrung and pressed out of the victims in order that they might save their lives.” ~George Beard

26. The sentences are carried out.
August 19: George Burroughs, John Proctor, John Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier are hanged. Elizabeth Proctor is spared because she is pregnant.
September 9: Six more tried and sentenced to death, including Martha Corey.

27. 21st century question: Can citizens refuse trial?
September 17: Nine more are tried and sentenced to death. Giles Corey refuses to stand trial.
September 19: Corey is pressed to death. This tortuous and inhuman punishment involves a stone to be placed on the chest of a man. As a result, the stone crushes a man’s heart and cavity.

28. Giles Corey’s death
Giles Corey refused to give testimony at the 1692 Witch Trials.
He would neither confess nor deny the charges brought upon him.
So, in order to obtain a statement, he was taken outside, a board placed across his body, and heavy stones piled on top It is said that his only words before he was crushed to death were: "More weight!"
Web excerpt from:
(left-bottom) a mysterious light illuminates Corey’s grave marker

29. Accusations of Public Officials
October 3:
Increase Mather delivers a sermon called “Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Impersonating Men.”
The speech casts serious doubt on the validity of spectral evidence—the girl’s ghoulish visions—and says, “It were better that ten suspected witches could escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned.”
Lady Phipps is the object of the speech.

30. The trials end…in 1693
January 1693: 49 of the 52 surviving people brought into court on witchcraft charges are released because their arrests were based on spectral evidence.
April 25: The court sits in Boston. None found guilty.
May: Sir William Phipps orders the release of all accused witches remaining in jail, on payment of their fees.
A total of 19 townspeople are hanged; 156 imprisoned (numbers vary).

31. Before Public Hangings

32. ~The Salem Witch Trial: Reader
Conclusion
1697: Samuel Parris is ousted from Salem Village Church and leaves the village.
Proctor’s petition before death:
The innocency of our case with the enmity of our accusers and our judges and jury, whom nothing but our innocent blood will serve their turn, having condemned us already before our trials…makes us bold to beg and implore favourable assistance of this our humble petition to his Excellency, that if it be possible our innocent blood may be spared.”
~The Salem Witch Trial: Reader

33. The Hanged Bridget Bishop George Burroughs Martha Carrier Martha Corey
Mary Easty Sarah Good
Elizabeth Howe George Jacobs, Sr.
Susannah Martin Rebecca Nurse
Alice Parker Mary Parker
John Proctor Ann Pudeator
Wilmott Redd Margaret Scott
Samuel Wardwell Sarah Wildes
John Willard
Died in Jail: Sarah Osborn, Roger Toothaker, Infant daugher of Sarah Good, Ann Foster, Lydia Dastin

34. How Could This Happen? Possible Explanations
Actual Hysteria
Psychological hysteria due to Indian attacks
Prejudices
Outcasts, differences
Old Scores
Land
Cooincidences
Placing Blame
Ergot poisoning?
bird-borne encephalitis lethargica
(double vision, sleep-like comas)
Ergot fungus growing on a stalk of wheat

35. Arthur Miller’s Crucible
Many scholars associate the Salem witch trials with Miller’s play.
Here, you can listen to Lincoln Center’s interpretation of Arthur Miller’s 1953 play:

36. But, what really makes The Crucible so special
even to this day, is that the story applies to the
events that we witness right before our own eyes.
Yes, we have allowed ‘witch hunts’ to continually
take place, proving that we have yet to correct the
mistakes that were made over 300 years ago.

37. In our day...
The End