Bizarre Facts You Never Knew About the Salem Witch Trials

The Salem witch trials began in Massachusetts in 1692 when two young girls accused three women of witchcraft after a series of inexplicable fits and violent outbursts.

As doctors couldn’t understand these hysterical symptoms, they diagnosed witchcraft which led the authorities to hold defaming trials against those accused of carrying out the work of the devil.

Witchcraft Craze

Christians had a strong belief that the devil could give certain people known as “witches” the power to harm others in return for their loyalty.

This crime was punishable by death and often times was used to justify inexplicable diseases, behaviors and deaths.

For example, people often couldn’t explain how their prized cow died and would blame it on a rival, accusing them of putting a hex on them.

European Influence

The Salem witch trial followed the witchcraft craze in Europe that spread throughout the continent from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches, mostly women, were executed.

The European craze was winding down by the time of the Salem witch trial, nevertheless, European influence was predominant in Massachusetts during the 17th century.

The Boston Witch Trials Before Salem

Irish-born, Ann Glover was the last person in Boston to be hanged as a witch four years before the Salem trials. Following an argument with the family she worked for, she was accused of causing the children to fall ill.

Speaking mostly in Gaelic, she was charged with being a witch as she failed to recite the Lord’s prayer in English, as only a witch could not recite a prayer. The Boston witch craze only sparked a wider influence in Massachusetts.

Infectious Diseases

The spread of the deadly virus, smallpox added fuel to the already lit fire within the village of Salem.

The people of Salem pointed their fingers at assertive and outspoken women and accused witches of putting a curse on those who contracted the disease, rather than consider it a result of poor health.

A woman named Martha Carrier was accused of spreading smallpox through witchcraft because she was outspoken.