A Terrible Mistake
By the time the Massachusetts governor ordered an end to the trials, Salem was in shambles. Farms had not been worked in months; houses and shops were is a state of decay. Viewing the wasted village around them, the majority of the residents in Salem Village came to realize that a terrible mistake had been made. Innocent men and women had been put to death.
But their admission of complicity came with an appropriate twist: while the people they executed were not in league with the devil, it was the devil that had deluded them into thinking it was so.
In the end, Salem recovered, although the trials go on. The Massachusetts legislature exonerated some of the accused witches in 1957. But to this day, descendants of other accused witches are still working to clear the family name.
(This article is reprinted with permission from National Review Online.)
Battle Between Heaven and Hell
Salem Village was the old part of the township. Those in Salem Village continued to work the land, with much of the produce going to support the booming town. Farmers watched their wealthy neighbors grow richer and leave behind the Puritan ethics of their founders.
Enter a new pastor, the Reverend Samuel Parris, who took up the plight of the Salem Villagers. Railing from the pulpit against the changing economic and social condition, he saw the current situation in Salem as nothing short of a battle between Heaven and Hell, Christ and Satan. He proclaimed the devil was lurking in their midst.
It turned out the devil was lurking in the Rev. Parris's own house. His daughter, nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris, and his niece, 11-year-old Abigail Williams, began having fits and mysterious maladies. They claimed to be under the power of Lucifer and began naming the “witches” responsible for their condition. As is typical in such cases, their accused were those on the fringes of society: a black maid, a 90-year-old recluse, and Bridget Bishop, “a woman of dubious character.”
But, with encouragement, the girls, who were soon joined by other “possessed” victims, began to accuse an ever-widening circle of villagers that included the most prosperous residents of Salem Town. By the time Bishop was hanged, over 150 area residents — including a four year-old — were crowded into Salem's small jailhouse.
The New Secularism
By the end of 17th century, the persecution of witches in Europe had been banished in the Age of Enlightenment. It was in part this new secularism that the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had left behind in England. The faith of the Puritans who reached the shores of North America was simple and strict: work hard, honor thy God, and resist the devil in all his forms.
It was on these principles that Roger Conant founded Salem in 1626, and which helped it become, by the 1690s, one of the leading seaports and economic centers in the New World. But at the start of 1692, Salem existed as a community with a split personality.
Salem Town, along the Ipwich Road, was a major thoroughfare for commerce. Its residents were innkeepers, shop owners, and sawmill operators. The wealthy class was growing.
