05.11
During the dark months of February though September, 1692, hysteria swept through New England, centered around the increasingly unbelievable accusations of witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Even Puritan ministers, Cotton Mather, whose writings on witchcraft had helped to fuel the flames, and his father, Increase Mather, became skeptical of the kinds of evidence the Salem court was using to convict accused witches. The testimony of afflicted young people, who claimed to have been visited by the spirits of the accused, and by the ghosts of their victims was referred to as “spectral evidence”. They questioned the credibility of the afflicted girls, the forced confessions of witches, and the court’s reliance on spectral evidence. When heads began to clear a little from the initial hysteria, some people began to question the veracity of the afflicted. The girls, then accused anyone who voiced doubt in their testimony. In all, about 200 people faced accusations of witchcraft. Nineteen men and women were hanged on Gallows Hill that summer. An 81 year old man was pressed to death for not entering a plea in his case. As many as 17 people died in prison, awaiting trial. The nightmare ended when powerful people, including the wife of the governor of Massachusetts, publicly denounced the proceedings, and were then accused of witchcraft themselves. Governor Phipps ordered the Salem court dissolved.
Salem was not through the dark times yet, however. Because the area was so consumed with the witch hunt, trials and executions, fields lay fallow. Very little harvest was reaped that year, leaving the town facing a long hard winter. Some relief came from the generosity of a wealthy villager who had fled Salem after being accused of witchcraft. Upon hearing of the town’s plight, he sent a shipload of corn to ease their suffering. The feud between the farming community and townspeople that contributed to the unrest had taken its toll, when people finally recognized that many of the accused were rivals or enemies of the powerful Putnam family, whose daughter, Ann, was the most dramatic of the afflicted. In 1697, it was Ann who became the only one of the afflicted girls to ever offer an apology or admit any culpability in the horror that gripped the area. She stood before her church while her apology was read, which stated: “ I desire to be humbled before God. It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time.” It is believed that Ann may have been as much a victim as those she accused, being manipulated by her parents and elders to achieve their own goals.
Salem, Massachusetts has had over 300 years to recover from the scars of these infamous injustices. How have they fared? Salem became one of the most significant seaports of early American history. It was given the very first to designation by Congress as a National Historic Site. Today, Salem is a thriving community of about 40,000 people, whose major industry is tourism. The city is a mixture of important historic sites, New Age and Wiccan boutiques, and Halloween and witch-themed attractions. In October, they host a month long Halloween festival. Touted as the “Ultimate Halloween Experience”, it will include, this year, a psychic fair, tours of haunted places in the city, featuring the “Witch House” and the House of Seven Gables, a Haunted Happenings Parade, a street fair, and the annual Halloween Ball. The popularity of the festival, and the history of the area, have inspired Salem to boast that they are the “Halloween Capital of the World”.
In Puritan households, women were totally subservient to men. It was believed that women were naturally and uncontrollably lustful, and more susceptible to temptation. It was, therefore, assumed that women were far more likely to enlist in the Devil’s service. The old adage that “children should be seen and not heard” described Puritan belief about child rearing. Girls were particularly oppressed, since toys and games were discouraged and girls were required to learn to spin, sew, cook and take care of a household. Boys, on the other hand, had the options to hunt, fish and explore the forest in their free time. 
1. You could declare your innocence. This plea was met with shrieks and convulsions of the afflicted girls, who were ensconced in the front row of the court, further incriminating you. Evidence would be brought forward by your neighbors and former friends attesting that crops failed or livestock sickened and died at your whim. The hysteria raged through the village, and new “afflicted ones” fell into fits and accused you of causing it. There was no hope. You would stand trial as a witch. The accused who were found innocent by the jury were greeted with the howls and shrieks of the afflicted, who claimed that you were torturing them right there in the courtroom. This would cause the magistrates to instruct the jury to reconsider, and the next verdict was always “Guilty”.
In the months between February and September of 1692, about 200 people were involved in the trials, either afflicted, accused, or giving evidence. Many of the accused were jailed, and even if found innocent, could not gain their freedom unless they paid for their room and board. As many as 17 people, including an infant, are thought to have died in prison during the trials.
There were many factors which caused the hysteria and horror of the Salem Witch Trials. Politics, religion, family feuds, fear and superstition all contributed to the atmosphere that spawned the one of the darkest moments in American history. In a few short months, as many as 200 people would be jailed, 19 hanged, and 1 tortured to death in this small New England town.
A village meetinghouse was built, and hired for its minister was one Samuel Parris, who was, by all accounts, a greedy and grasping man who used the word of God to justify his less-than-scrupulous behavior. His loyalties lay with the wealthy farmers, led by the Putnam family, who had been instrumental in hiring him and setting his controversial contract. The usual agreements of the day would provide a minister with a modest salary, use of a house, and firewood. Parris’s contract included these things, but at his insistence, also included the deed to the parsonage and the land surrounding it. Those citizens who wished to remain part of Salem Town, objected strongly to this, refused to attend the village meetinghouse, and withheld their local taxes, which were used in part to pay the minister’s salary and provide his firewood. In October, 1691, a new Village Committee was elected, mostly comprised of Parris’s opponents, and they voted to withhold his salary. Parris was forced to rely on private contributions to provide for his family, and the Putnam family was worried about losing their pet minister, and the support from his congregation for separating from Salem Town.
Young Puritan girls, aside from household chores, had little to do during the winter months. Play was discouraged, because it was a form of idleness, and especially in the Reverend Parris’s view, the idle mind was the devil’s playground. The girls, instead, formed reading circles, and would gather to read and discuss books of interest. During those winter months of 1691-1692, the popular topic of discussion was fortune telling and prophecy. In the Parris household, his nine year old daughter, Betty and her twelve year old cousin, Abigail Williams formed such a circle with their friend Ann Putnam, age twelve, and Ann’s friends Mercy Lewis, seventeen, and Mary Walcott, seventeen. The Parris family slave, Tituba, an Indian woman who had been purchased in Barbados, joined in the discussion group, and told the girls the stories of magic and witchcraft, spirit animals and demons, that were told by her people in South America. The circle of girls practiced fortune telling, to determine things like the trade of their future sweethearts. At one such gathering, Ann claimed to have seen an apparition of a specter in a coffin. It was after this incident that Betty, Abigail and Ann began to exhibit strange behavior, contorting and writhing, presumably in pain, speaking in gibberish and crawling under furniture. A doctor was called in, but could find no explanation for the girls’ symptoms, and no explanation, to a Puritan family in 1692, could only mean one thing…WITCHCRAFT!
In 2009, The National Retail Foundation conducted a survey of 8,526 consumers to determine the most popular Halloween costumes of the year. While the average holiday spending per person dropped about $10 from the previous year, costume sales were strong. The top ten costumes for adults in 2009, reflected trends in other entertainment categories. The recent popularity of vampire books, movies and television programs prompted a surge in vampire costume sales as well. Politically themed costumes and masks, which had great success in 2008, dropped out of the list entirely. Another surprise was the increased popularity of athletic and sports themed costumes, which garnered them a spot on the top ten list.
Here is the list, compiled by the NRF, along with the average amount spent for each costume:
Conspicuously absent from this year’s list were the Nurse costume and the French Maid. Also increasing in popularity, but not quite up to top ten standards were Gangster costumes, Fairy Costumes, particularly Tinkerbell, and Princess costumes.