Instigation of the Hunt (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes
Instigation of the Hunt
Introduction
The Salem witch-hunt of 1692–93 began in the household of Samuel Parris, the Puritan minister of Salem Village. The hunt was sparked by a combination of factors involving Parris himself, a group of young girls who claimed to be bewitched, and Tituba, a servant in the Parris household. Understanding who instigated the hunt and why is crucial to explaining how the crisis escalated so rapidly.
The witch-hunt did not begin spontaneously—it emerged from specific individuals and circumstances within the Parris household. The convergence of religious authority (Parris), vulnerable children, and an enslaved servant created the perfect conditions for accusations to spread rapidly throughout the community.
Samuel Parris
Background and arrival in Salem
Samuel Parris (1653–1720) was born in London but migrated to Boston, where he attended Harvard University. After working as a plantation owner, he moved to Salem to become a Puritan minister. His appointment came after three previous ministers had failed to satisfy the congregation. Parris himself took over a year to accept the position, during which time he negotiated for increased salary and benefits, including free firewood and exclusive ownership of the minister's house.
Conflicts with the congregation
From the outset, Parris faced significant opposition from his congregation. As an outsider, he struggled to settle disputes within the community. Tensions worsened when the town refused to pay his wages after he purchased what they considered unnecessary items for the Puritan meeting house, such as gold candlesticks. This deepened the animosity between Parris and many Salem residents.
Parris's financial disputes with the congregation were not minor disagreements—they represented a fundamental breakdown in trust between the minister and his community. This conflict would later provide important context for understanding his role in the witch-hunt.
Inflammatory preaching
Shortly before the witch-hunt began, Parris delivered a sermon claiming that the church was under siege by the Devil, who was being assisted by "wicked men" in the community. This was clearly a reference to his opponents in Salem. Such inflammatory preaching helped create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear, making the community more receptive to witchcraft accusations.
Parris's sermon directly accused unnamed community members of being Devil's agents. This inflammatory rhetoric transformed existing social conflicts into spiritual warfare, setting the stage for witchcraft accusations to be taken seriously by the congregation.
Parris's role and motivations
Historians have questioned Parris's role and motivations in the trials. Some view him as self-centred and deceptive. Significantly, all the initial accusations involved members of his own household: his daughter Elizabeth, his niece Abigail Williams, and his servant Tituba. Parris also acted as a key witness at the trials, which suggests he may have had personal or political motives for encouraging the prosecutions. However, his exact motivations remain unclear and debated among historians.
The role of children
Fortune-telling experiments
During the winter of 1691, Samuel Parris's nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth and her eleven-year-old cousin Abigail Williams began experimenting with fortune-telling. They were curious about their futures, particularly about the social status of their future husbands. They used a device called a venus glass, which involved placing egg white in water and interpreting the shapes that appeared. The girls began sharing their findings with other young girls in Salem. According to later reports, on one occasion the venus glass revealed the shape of a coffin, after which supernatural events allegedly began.
Fortune-telling practices like the venus glass were already common in New England, though they were viewed by strict Puritans as devilish activities. The girls were engaging in a forbidden practice that was simultaneously widespread and condemned—a combination that likely heightened their anxiety when strange symptoms appeared.
Early symptoms of possession
In January 1692, Elizabeth Parris began exhibiting strange behaviour. She lost concentration, forgot prayers, and would bark like a dog when confronted by her father. She screamed loudly when hearing certain prayers and once hurled a Bible across a room. Her father believed that prayer would cure her behaviour, but this proved ineffective. Elizabeth's symptoms worsened: she began having fits and experiencing problems with her limbs.
Abigail Williams also began exhibiting similar strange behaviour. The local doctor, William Griggs, was called to examine the girls. He concluded that witchcraft was responsible and recommended prayer and fasting as a cure. Despite the Parris family already engaging in these practices, more girls began to show symptoms of possession.
The doctor's diagnosis of witchcraft was crucial—it transformed what might have been dismissed as childhood illness or misbehaviour into a supernatural crisis requiring investigation and prosecution. Medical authority gave credibility to the supernatural explanation.
Key child accusers
Several young women and girls became central accusers in the Salem trials:
Ann Putnam Jr. (aged 12) was the daughter of Thomas and Ann Putnam, one of Salem Village's most influential families. The Putnams played an instrumental role in spreading accusations. Ann Jr. was friends with Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams and in March 1692 claimed she was possessed, showing similar symptoms. She played a leading role in court prosecutions, and her name appears over 400 times in court documents. Notably, in 1706 she apologised for her part in the trials, claiming she had been deceived by the Devil when making her accusations.
Mary Walcott (aged 18) was one of the first to suffer fits. Her aunt, Mary Sibley, used counter-magic against some suspects, particularly Tituba. Mary's father Joseph married Deliverance Putnam after his first wife's death, making him brother-in-law to Thomas Putnam. Unlike some other accusers, Walcott remained relatively calm during proceedings, often sitting quietly knitting through trials, though she did occasionally show signs of possession.
Mercy Lewis (aged 19) accused eight people in total and gave evidence against them. Her parents were killed in an Indian attack, which she may have witnessed herself. She was sent to live as a servant with Reverend George Burroughs, who was later executed at the Salem trials partly based on her testimony. She also lived in Thomas Putnam's household before the trials, where she became friends with Ann Jr. and Mary Walcott.
Elizabeth Hubbard (aged 17) was one of the leading accusers, though less is known about her background. She lived in Salem with her great-aunt Rachel Hubbard Griggs and her husband William Griggs (the town doctor), working as a servant in their household despite being a relative. By the end of the trials, she had testified against 29 people, 17 of whom were arrested. Of those arrested, 13 were hanged (out of 19 total executions) and two died in jail. In court, she would have fits and often fell into trances, unable to speak.
Profile connections to note:
- The accusers were interconnected through family relationships and the Putnam household
- Ages ranged from 9 to 19 years old
- Many had experienced trauma (Indian attacks, servant status, family deaths)
- Their social positions varied from minister's daughter to household servants
Behaviour in court
The children were called as witnesses at the trials, and their evidence was central to many prosecutions. Because Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam were too young to testify directly, their accusations were endorsed by adults, including Ann's father. The girls' courtroom performances became notorious. They would collapse to the ground and scream in agony when they saw the accused.
Typical Courtroom Behaviour:
The girls would demonstrate dramatic physical reactions:
- Collapse to the ground when the accused entered the courtroom
- Claim to be bitten, pinched and strangled by the accused
- When the accused made movements (biting lip, clenching hands), the girls would mirror these actions and produce physical marks
- Fall into trances and become unable to speak
- Report spectral evidence: visions of the Devil as a black man, familiars like yellow birds, and gatherings of witches
This theatrical evidence was given significant weight by the court, despite its subjective and unverifiable nature.
Contemporary accounts describe their dramatic behaviour in detail. They claimed to be bitten, pinched and strangled by the accused. When the accused person made certain movements—such as biting her lip or clenching her hands—the girls would claim to experience the same affliction and produce physical marks. They also claimed to see spectral evidence: visions of the Devil appearing as a black man, familiars like yellow birds, and gatherings of witches.
The Problem with Spectral Evidence:
Spectral evidence—testimony about visions of spirits or supernatural entities—was highly problematic because it could not be verified or disproven. Only the accusers could "see" these visions, yet courts accepted this invisible evidence as proof of guilt. This created a situation where denying the charges was nearly impossible.
Motivations of the children
Historians have offered various interpretations of why the girls made their accusations:
Fraud and spite: For many years, historians presented the children as selfish frauds who pursued accusations out of spite. However, this interpretation is now considered too simplistic.
Boredom and frustration: More recent historians have concluded that the girls were likely bored and frustrated with their stifled upbringing in Puritan New England. The strict religious environment offered little entertainment or freedom, and the accusations may have provided excitement and attention.
Psychological disorders: Historian Bernard Rosenthal has suggested the girls may have been experiencing genuine psychological disorders, meaning their symptoms could have been real rather than faked.
Mixed explanations: Victorian historian Charles Upham offered a combination of explanations, including hallucinations, naivety and excitement on the part of the girls.
Response to insecurity: Carol Karlsen has suggested the accusations were a response to the girls' own insecurities. For example, Mercy Lewis had experienced a traumatic childhood and lived in poor economic circumstances. For her, the accusations may have been a form of escapism from harsh realities.
Trauma from Indian attacks: Mary Beth Norton has drawn attention to the role of Indian attacks on the frontier. Many of the girls had been directly or indirectly affected by these attacks, which traumatised them. The witch-hunt may have provided an outlet for this trauma and fear.
Understanding the complexity:
Modern historians reject simple explanations (pure fraud or pure innocence) in favour of recognising that multiple factors likely contributed:
- Real psychological distress from various sources
- Social pressures and expectations
- Adult manipulation and encouragement
- Cultural beliefs about witchcraft and the supernatural
- Individual circumstances and traumas
The truth likely varies for each accuser and probably combined several of these factors.
It is important to note that in the case of Ann Putnam and probably others, their parents played an important role in providing them with names to accuse, suggesting adult manipulation was also a factor.
Tituba
Background and status
Tituba worked as a household servant, or possibly a slave, for the Parris family, along with her husband John Indian. Historians have debated her origins, but it appears she and her husband were of mixed Caribbean and African heritage. Tituba was purchased by Parris in Barbados before being brought to Massachusetts. It is likely she played a role in looking after Elizabeth Parris and the other children in the household.
The witch's cake incident
Tituba first became embroiled in the witch-hunt through an incident involving counter-magic. Mary Sibley, the aunt of Mary Walcott, approached Tituba and John Indian asking them to make a witch's cake to counter the possessions affecting the girls. This cake included the urine of the afflicted children and was fed to the Parris family dog. The belief was that the dog would then sniff out any witches who had bewitched the girls. This counter-magic failed—the girls' fits only became worse. When Samuel Parris became suspicious of these activities, he filed charges against Tituba, triggering the witch-hunt.
The witch's cake as counter-magic:
The witch's cake represents a form of folk magic designed to identify witches—ironically, those who created it to help the afflicted girls ended up accused of witchcraft themselves. This incident shows how desperation led community members to use forbidden practices, which then backfired spectacularly.
Mary Sibley likely turned to Tituba for magical assistance because Tituba and her husband brought magical practices with them from the West Indies. Some historians have suggested that Tituba's stories from her homeland, possibly tinged with tales of demonic possession and Voodoo (a West African religion practised in the Caribbean based on belief in multiple gods, ancestor worship and magic), may have influenced the fantasies of the young girls.
Tituba's confession
According to surviving accounts, Tituba confessed quickly to making a pact with the Devil and naming other witches. She claimed that the Devil was a white man dressed in black who made her sign his book. She also claimed she had flown through the air using a pole and that other witches could transform into animals.
Historical debate
Despite the emphasis some historians have placed on Tituba's role in influencing the girls, there is no mention in court documents of her teaching fortune-telling to the girls. The venus glass technique they used was already common in New England and was viewed by Puritans as a devilish practice. This suggests the girls did not need Tituba to introduce them to such activities.
Tituba's forced confession:
Significantly, Tituba later claimed that she was beaten by Samuel Parris and forced to confess to witchcraft. This raises critical questions:
- How reliable was her confession?
- To what extent did Parris orchestrate the accusations?
- Was Tituba a scapegoat due to her vulnerable position as an enslaved or indentured servant?
Her claim of being coerced suggests that Parris may have deliberately created the crisis to serve his own purposes, using the most powerless member of his household as the initial target.
Key Points to Remember:
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Samuel Parris, the Puritan minister of Salem, faced significant opposition from his congregation and delivered inflammatory sermons about the Devil's influence just before the witch-hunt began.
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The hunt started when Elizabeth Parris (aged 9) and Abigail Williams (aged 11) experimented with fortune-telling using a venus glass and then began exhibiting symptoms of possession, including fits, screaming and physical afflictions.
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A group of young women and girls (including Ann Putnam, Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis and Elizabeth Hubbard) became central accusers, providing dramatic testimony in court that led to numerous arrests and executions.
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Historians offer various explanations for the children's motivations, including psychological disorders, boredom with strict Puritan life, trauma from Indian attacks, and manipulation by adults—it was likely a combination of factors.
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Tituba, a servant of Caribbean and African heritage in the Parris household, was among the first accused after the failure of a witch's cake ritual; her confession (possibly forced) described a pact with the Devil and helped escalate the crisis.