an that sometimes would appear as a dog or hog, and he would ask her to sign his book to do work for him (the devil). She declared that she was a witch, and that she, Good and Osborn had flown in the air over the poles. More and more trials, confessions, and denials followed this initial act by Tituba. When the women would come into the courtroom the girls would scream and say that they were being hurt, or other various horrid things by the “witch” When it was all over, nearly 25 died. Sarah Osborn died in prison; Sarah Good, Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, George Burroughs, Martha Corey, Mary Easty were all hanged; and the husband of Martha Corey, Giles, was pressed to death under two heavy stones which took a period of two days. He and his wife were the last victims of the witch-hunt that had become an epidemic in this little village of Salem. Early Autumn of 1692 brought an ending to this awful period in American history. Many doubts were starting to develop in people of the town due to the social stance of some of the accused held. Increase Mather published a book entitled “Cases of Conscience” which argued the morals behind what had been taking place over the past few months. There are many theories that have developed since the end of the witch trials of Salem. These ideas have also come up in the study of the witch-hunts in Europe. Where people making this up? Where their social reasons that they wanted certain murdered and used witchcraft as the mode? As one can see, over this period the concept of what a witch was become skewed from the original definition. During the times between the 1300’s to the late 1600’s, the practice of religion of witchcraft became somewhat of a secret society. What these secret witches were practicing was not in the same form that the church categorized witchcraft as. After the late 1600’s, witchcraft remained a quiet practice by its followers. Then, in 1897, a...
