FREE ESSAY ON SALEM WITCH TRIALS

SALEM WITCH TRIALS

Chadwick Hansen. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, INC., 1969. 252pp.
Many people believe that the witch-hunt of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, was based upon
mere delusions of a few frightened teenage girls. Despite the popular viewpoint of many
other historians, Chadwick Hansen's book, Witchcraft at Salem, offers a generally
discarded point of view. He uses exhausted research and well-written material to argue
that the events of 1692 were true signs of witchcraft. Hansen proves this thesis by
elaborate descriptions of the girls who were afflicted and by extensive trial evidence. 
In many historical writings the girls that were afflicted by the witches were usually
branded as liars, who were afraid of the repercussion of taking part in the craft.
Hansen, however, takes the stand that the girls were, for the most part, believable. The
convulsive fits were so grotesque that eyewitnesses agreed that it was impossible for the
girls to be acting (1). The girls were believed above all others because the courts could
not bear the thought that the fits and loss of memory, appetite, hearing, sight, and
speech were false. Hansen goes on to describe the torment that the girls faced. They felt
themselves pinched and bitten, and often there were actual marks upon the skin (1).
Hansen's ability to describe to the girl's afflictions in such detail lends the reader to
believe that actual witches caused the torture of the girls. For markings to appear upon
the skin of the girls, where nothing physically had touched their skin, Hansen concludes
that it could only be a result of supernatural beings. 
Hansen's well-researched trial evidence is a very convincing argument. He presents the
reader with numerous cases and the process each went through. There were two cases
unparticular as to which Hansen writes about explicitly. He writes of a maidservant,
Tituba, and of a woman of the community, Dorcas Good. Both Tituba and Dorcas Good
admitted to being involved in the art of witchcraft. Hansen uses these confessions and
other numerous convictions for his basis that there was witchcraft in Salem. Fifty-two
people were indicted for witchcraft, for which many of them were accused due to spectral
evidence (205). Hansen relies greatly on spectral evidence as a basis for conviction,
because for the majority of the time that was generally (if not only) all the evidence
the court had to decide upon. 
The extensive sources Hansen cited for the foundation of his theory are historical
writings. Many of the works he cited dated back to the late 1600's and early 1700's;
however there are some that were as recent as the 1960's. There is a wide variety of
material, with over 175 sources cited. Hansen went to great lengths to ensure that the
material was accurate. He took a year off from teaching at Pennsylvania State University,
and traveled to the Massachusetts area to work with more desirable information. His
sources were well documented and extensively researched.
There were witches in Salem, however there were not a significant number. Some of the
girls were acting out of fear of the consequence of their actions in the craft. He has
provided much evidence on many different trials but failed to point out a significant
number of confessed witches. His weighty reliance on spectral evidence, as support to the
convictions of the accused women, is a serious misjudgment. Furthermore spectral evidence
was later viewed as an unreliable source due to the Devil's ability to impersonate
anyone. The witch trials were an important event in Puritan society; however, it is hard
to believe that among such a small number of people, there were a significant number who
practiced witchcraft. Furthermore, medical knowledge of seizures and their cause was
little known at this time. This avenue of thought would have enlightened known physical
actions of the women. Lastly the Puritan religion was a strict religion with some fanatic
beliefs which can cause people to manifest ideas in their thinking. Hansen's work on the
trials proves that a few people practiced witchcraft, however, that could not have true
of fifty-two people