Salem Witch Trials and the Bill of Rights
The Salem Witch Trials and the 6th Amendment
History 115
Thomas Richards
April 11, 2012 A little 9-year-old girl named Betty and her older cousin giggle as they hurry home. It 's getting late and it looks like it might snow. They whisper back and forth about what they have recently learned. The local fortuneteller had just informed them of the trade in which their future husbands would be employed. But they must hurry back before someone notices their absence, or worse yet, discovers where they 've been. Betty is especially worried that her father might find out what she has been up to. You see, Betty comes from a devout Puritan family and her father is a Reverend. This type of behavior would be seen as most scandalous because this is Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Is it possible that these seemingly innocent acts taken by someone so young could escalate and end up impacting the drafting of the 6th Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights.
What Happened in Salem? The most popular historical perspective of what occurred is that in early 1692, the Rev. Samuel Parris’s 9-year-old daughter Betty and his 12-year-old niece Abigail, “began to fall into horrid fits”. There has been debate as to whether these fits were real, or if the girls were just acting. The village doctor could not explain these bizarre “fits”, and blamed it on the supernatural. One must understand that these were Puritans, their belief system at that time gave a great deal of power to the spiritual world. If something good happen to somebody they were said to be in God 's good graces. If something bad happened to somebody, it was said to be the devil 's work. Betty and Abigail continued experiencing these bizarre “fits”. They screamed, threw things, made strange sounds, and contorted their bodies into strange positions. Rumors in the village began to spread of witchcraft. Shortly thereafter an 11-year-old girl named Ann experience similar symptoms. On
History 115
Thomas Richards
April 11, 2012 A little 9-year-old girl named Betty and her older cousin giggle as they hurry home. It 's getting late and it looks like it might snow. They whisper back and forth about what they have recently learned. The local fortuneteller had just informed them of the trade in which their future husbands would be employed. But they must hurry back before someone notices their absence, or worse yet, discovers where they 've been. Betty is especially worried that her father might find out what she has been up to. You see, Betty comes from a devout Puritan family and her father is a Reverend. This type of behavior would be seen as most scandalous because this is Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Is it possible that these seemingly innocent acts taken by someone so young could escalate and end up impacting the drafting of the 6th Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights.
What Happened in Salem? The most popular historical perspective of what occurred is that in early 1692, the Rev. Samuel Parris’s 9-year-old daughter Betty and his 12-year-old niece Abigail, “began to fall into horrid fits”. There has been debate as to whether these fits were real, or if the girls were just acting. The village doctor could not explain these bizarre “fits”, and blamed it on the supernatural. One must understand that these were Puritans, their belief system at that time gave a great deal of power to the spiritual world. If something good happen to somebody they were said to be in God 's good graces. If something bad happened to somebody, it was said to be the devil 's work. Betty and Abigail continued experiencing these bizarre “fits”. They screamed, threw things, made strange sounds, and contorted their bodies into strange positions. Rumors in the village began to spread of witchcraft. Shortly thereafter an 11-year-old girl named Ann experience similar symptoms. On
Bibliography: Adams, Gretchen A. The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Boyer, Paul S. Salem Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record. Cambridge: Northeastern University press, 1972. Cornell. Bill Of Rights. March 2010. http://topics.law.cornell.edu/consitution/billofrights (accessed April 5, 2012). God. The Bible. Heaven: King James Version, 0000. Goss, David K. The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide. Greenwood, 2007. Handler, J. G. Ballentines 's Law Dictionary: Legal Assistant Edition. Albany: Delmar, 1994. Jensen, Gary F. The Path of the Devil: Early Modern Which Hunts. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Monk, Linda. The Bill of Rights: A User 's Guide. New York: Close up Foundation, 1991. Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.