Ellen

The Salem Witch Trials (click the title to see a sampling of Ellen's Powerpoint presentation. Keep in mind that the non-web version will be much better. Use your BACK button to return to this page.)   Independent Study Project Experience: 3rd Project Description: I wrote a report about the Salem Witch Trials. I made a powerpoint presentation to go with it. Primary Product: Powerpoint Presentation Define your project: A Powerpoint Presentation is a set of slides on the computer. each slide can have animation to go with it. The slides contain information on the subject. Objectives I did: 1 - I wrote a research report on my topic. 2 - I made a powerpoint presentation. 3 - I drew pictures of people on trial for witchcraft. Other objectives I will do: 1 - I will create a model of the hill where witches in Salem were hanged. 2 - I will print pictures of important figures in the Salem witch trials and mount them on my display. 3 - I will write facts about the trials and put them on my backdrop.

I think the Salem Witch Trials were very interesting. The Salem Witch Trials are fascinating and were a very serious issue in New England in the late 1600's. I had been thinking of this topic since last year because it had good information and was a cool project. This project was harder than I thought. I found it hard to research and find information. I hoped to learn more about what happened at the trials, but the information I found I did not understand much. I expected to learn more than i did, but I knew this was a difficult project and my report would pretty short. Research was very difficult. I could not find very many good resources. I had five books, but only three of them much valuable information. The books I had were very helpful, though. I wrote all my facts on separate fact cards. These fact cards were numbered according to a web I made to organize my information. I found two internet sites that were helpful, but most were not. It was hard doing research on the internet In 1688, John Putnam, one of the most respected elders in Salem Village, invited Samuel Parris to preach in the church. A year later, Parris accepted the job as the village minister. He and his family, including his wife Elizabeth, his daughter Elizabeth, or Betty, his niece Abigail Williams, and his slave couple Tituba and John Indian. At the Time of the Salem Witch Trials, there were two Salems; Salem Town and Salem Village. The trials took place in Salem Village. The witch trials began in 1692. A group of girls would gather at Reverend Parris's house to tell stories. They also learned of voodoo, black magic, and fortune telling from the Reverend's slave Tituba. She showed them how to make a crystal ball by floating an egg white in a glass of water. When one of the girls thought she saw a coffin, signifying death, the girls became scared. In February 1692, Rev. Parris's daughter Betty, and niece, Abigail Williams, became ill. They had fainting fits, screamed, and twisted their limbs around. Soon, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Elizabeth Hubbard were also ill. Dr. William Griggs could only come up with the conclusion that the "evil hand" was upon them. The first "bewitched" girls claimed the ones who tormented them were Rev. Parris's slave, Tituba, Sarah Good, and sarah Osborne. Later, at a town meeting, the girls went into fits as Good entered the room and again when Osborne did. Both denied any contact with the devil, but when Tituba came, she confessed to " signing the devil's book" with Good and Osborne. Some symptoms of affliction included loss of hearing, speech, sight, memory, and appetite. Other times the girls became completely motionless and simply stared. The afflicted girls also made barking, braying,and choking sounds. They were bitten and pinched by invisible people and afterwards they even suffered bite and pinch marks. Some historians think the "bewitched" girls were faking their problems. They think young girls did this because if a girl was afflicted, she could get away with behaving in a way that could get her severely punished without getting in any trouble. Girls could get away with things like throwing Bibles, shouting, crawling on the floor, and hiding under furniture. Some other historians think the girls accused others of witchcraft to hide their own connections with the occult. One historian believed the afflicted girls must have been mentally ill. He thought this was probably brought on by fear, conflict, and confusion of religion. One biologist suggested the bewitched girls symptoms were a result of convulsive ergotism. It was "once a common condition caused by eating contaminated rye bread," she wrote. Ergot is a mold that can develop in grains, especially in damp, warm weather. Ergotism could cause convulsions, choking, headaches, depression, delirium, hallucinations, and crawling and tingling sensations on the skin. Other scientists have disputed the theory. After the girls became afflicted, a neighbor, Mary Sibley, thought to try a kind of counter magic. She told Tituba to bake a cake using the afflicted girls urine. (Urine was thought to have supernatural power.) Then she told her to feed the cake to the Parris's dog. The dog would either become afflicted itself, or would point out the witch. Over a hundred people were accused of witchcraft at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Not only were women accused of witchcraft, but six men were accused also. Some historians believe most of the accused witches were women because at the time, they were seen as property, sinners, and inferiors to men. They were they were thought to be vulnerable to evil and the allure of the devil. Some accused witches accused others of being witches because if you were afflicted, you could not be a witch. Some daughters even accused their own mothers of witchcraft to save themselves. When Sarah Good was tried, she would not plead guilty. At her trial, her own husband said he saw the devil's mark on her body, and her five year old daughter testified against her. On August 19, 1692, Reverend George Burroughs stood trial and pleaded not guilty. He perfectly recited the Lord's Prayer which was thought to be impossible for a witch to do. The crowd was doubtful until Cotton Mather said it was merely a trick of the devil. Burroughs was hanged. Dorcas Good was the five year old daughter of Sarah Good. The afflicted girls claimed she learned witchcraft from her mother. She was put in jail and special chains had to be made to hold her because the regular chains were too big to hold her small limbs. A grand total of twenty four people died in Salem Village at the time of the witch trials. The first witch ever executed was Bridgett Bishop, June 10, 1692. She was hanged at Gallows Hill. Giles Corey was one of the few men accused of witchcraft in Salem. He refused to speak at his trial. To get a confession out of him, he was stretched on a field with a plank on his chest. Then placed heavy stones on the plank. He refused to talk. Stones were placed on him until he was eventually crushed to death. He was eighty years old. One historian said the Salem Witch Trials were not a strange outbreak, but a "mere incident, a brief episode in a biography of a perfectly natural superstition." Belief in witches was part of the Puritan Religion and putting witches to death was an acceptable and expected punishment. Cotton Mather has been considered one of the major villains of Salem Witch Trials. He strongly believed that all witches were evil, even those that practiced white, or good magic. He has also been called one of the fiercest witch hunters of the time, and held responsible for much of the hysteria and cruelty. Others think he was wrongly cast as a villain and was simply seeing that the devil was defeated. Cotton Mather was a brilliant yet quiet man. After getting a degree at Harvard at the young age of sixteen, he joined his father, Increase Mather, in the Second Church in Boston. He was also an author. Cotton Mather wrote and published more than four hundred works. He had three wives (not all at once) and a total of fifteen children. I learned a lot of miscellaneous facts that didn't fit into my report. Often times, accused witches would gather their mst valued belongings and fled to New York, or even farther. In Salem, Witches were blamed for things such as unexplained deaths, poor crops, and unusual weather. Some villagers in Salem used a charm, like a horseshoe over the door, to keep the witches away. Samuel Parris did not let Betty or Abigail play games like tag or hide-and-seek because he believed playing was a sign of idleness, and idleness allowed the devil to work his mischief. The Salem Witch Trials were one of the last episodes of witchcraft hysteria in the Western world. The number of afflicted people rose to nearly fifty during the witch trials. There are a lot of careers linked with the Salem Witch Trials. One career I could have is being an author. I could write books on the subject of the Salem witch trials and things linked to it. I would have to know a lot more about witchcraft and the trials than I do now. I would also need good writing skills. I could also be a historian. I would be doing a lot more research on this time in history, and other witch trials. I would have to develop my own theories and listen to the theories of other historians. I could have some different careers that are in some way linked to the Salem witch trials. I really enjoyed doing this project. I have learned a lot and understand the Salem witch trials a lot more. I think this project has made me smarter. I am now better at researching than I was even on my last I.S.P. project. I think I might even want to go further with this project this summer. I think this report is better than the ones i have done in the past. I think if I had more time on my project, I would have done a lot more research and would have a lot longer report. I think if I had more time, my project would have been bigger and I would have more information. I had a wonderful experience working on this project.   Glossary Affliction - a cause of pain, suffering, or distress. Braying - making the loud sound of a donkey. Contamination - unclean or unfit to use. Contraction - a tightening of the muscles. Convulsion - a violent spasm of the muscles. Hallucination - a false or distorted perception of reality. Hysteria - anxiety, emotional disturbance, an outbreak of uncontrolled feeling. Idleness - laziness Occult - mystic arts, such as magic. Pastorate - the position, rank, or duties of a pastor. Voodoo - a religion based on the belief of sorcery and the power of charms.   Bibliography Jackson, Shirley. (1956). The Witchcraft of Salem Village. New York. Kent, Zachary. (1986). The Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Chicago. Linder, Douglas. Famous Trials in History. [Online] Available http://www.law.umck.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BMAT.HTM, November 10, 2003. Marvel, Laura. (2003). The Salem Witch Trials. San Diego. Ross, Stewart. (1996). Witches. Bookfield, CT. Stein, Wendy. (1995). Witches. San Diego. Unknown author. Unknown title. [Online] Available http://salemweb.com/guide/witches.html, February 7, 2004. Unknown author. The Cotton Mather Home Page. [Online] Available http://gty.org/~phil/mather.htm, January 23, 2004.

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