The Full Truth about the Salem Witch Trials
Little known facts about a dark chapter in American history
In 1692, the community of Salem, Massachusetts, was preoccupied with the Salem witch trials, in which suspected occult practitioners were charged with using their dark powers to do damage to unsuspecting members of the community.
There is no question that there were women in Salem who were witches who used their spiritual wizardry to bewitch young teenage girls in particular, resulting in other-worldly sounds coming out of their mouths and producing astonishing bodily contortions. It was easy to see that malevolent forces were at work.
Determined to protect their community from the infestation of demonic powers, the city fathers went to work to identify the culprits. Unfortunately, demons were manifesting themselves in the shape and appearance of members of the Salem community, and these spectral manifestations were interpreted as proof that the ones being represented had been dabbling in the dark arts.
It is perhaps unsurprising that the first woman the powers of darkness victimized was Rebecca Nurse, a 71-year-old grandmother and the leading prayer warrior and intercessor in town. When she was found guilty and hung (none of the witches of Salem were burned at the stake), the most powerful opponent of Satan in town was taken off the board, and the Prince of Darkness had a free hand.
One of Rebecca Nurse’s accusers said that he had seen Nurse’s spirit tormenting Ann Putnam, Sr, at her home that March. It’s actually quite likely that the whole saga was triggered initially by an inter-family dispute over the border of a piece of property the Nurses farmed. (All of Rebecca Nurse’s accusers were members or close friends of the Putnam family.)
Perhaps more to the point, Rebecca Nurse had admonished Ann Putnam, Jr, and several other girls against dabbling in the occult. Rev. Samuel Parris wrote, “she had several times severely rebuked the accusing girls for their folly and wickedness, when meeting in their circles. In this way, she probably incurred the displeasure of Ann Putnam and her mother – her principal accusers.”
The girls were fond of one ritual in particular: dropping egg whites into a glass of water and interpreting whatever shapes or symbols appeared in an attempt to learn more about their future husbands. One girl saw a coffin in the water, and “was afterward followed with diabolical molestation to her death; and so died a single person.”
Not long after, other girls in this coterie began exhibiting startling manifestations: fits and seizures and strange behavior such as barking like dogs and complaining that invisible spirits were pinching them.
Nurse’s numerous accusers testified that she regularly appeared at their homes in spirit form to torment and attack them. Nurse denied all of the accusations, stating during her examination on March 24:
“I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent and God will clear my innocency…The Lord knows I have not hurt them. I am an innocent person.”
She was, in fact, found not guilty at the end of the trial. But immediately after the “not guilty” verdict was read in court, the girls resumed their epileptic-type fits in the courtroom, and accused her again with a certain amount of vehemence. At which point, the jury foreman reconvened the jury at the judge’s behest and this time it returned a verdict of guilty (so much for double jeopardy). She was summarily sentenced to death and hanged just 19 days later.
Her death brought an end to the Salem Witch Trials because the rest of the town held her in such high esteem it caused them to question the testimony of the impressionable young girls who sent her to her grave. (The young Ann Putnam, Nurse’s primary accuser, pointed the finger at 62 additional people in Salem, 17 of whom were hanged.)
The Massachusetts legislature officially restored Rebecca Nurse’s name in 1711. Ann Putnam died in 1716 at the age of 37; her health had gone into a state of decline after the Salem ordeal. She publicly confessed her wretched part in this travesty in 1706, admitting that she had fallen victim to a “great delusion of Satan” and was particularly sorrowful about her part in the death of the utterly innocent Rebecca Nurse.
All told 25 people were executed as witches before the fever broke. A self-confessed witch by the name of Tituba, who came from an island in the Caribbean, was the mentor to these confused girls and introduced them to the occult practices which nearly destroyed an entire community.
Cotton Mather, an influential clergyman in New England, became deeply concerned almost immediately that innocent people were being executed by gullible and undiscerning people, including judges, prosecutors, and jury members.
Although reluctant to interfere with the courts, the execution of Rebecca Nurse, who was a woman of impeccable reputation and sincere faith, prompted Mather and 11 other clergymen to write a letter to the judges overseeing the trials warning them against the admission of spectral evidence in a court of law. Such evidence was not derived from facts on the ground but from people’s dreams and visions.
Said these pastors, “Convictions whereupon persons may be condemned as guilty of witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable than barely the accused persons being represented by a spectre…inasmuch as it is an undoubted and notorious thing that a demon may by God’s permission appear even to ill purposes, in the shape of an innocent and virtuous man.”
Unfortunately, the wisdom and insight of these mature men of God and men of the word of God was rejected, and the death toll continued to mount.
Rebecca Nurse’s death brought an end to the Salem Witch Trials, because the rest of the town held her in such high esteem it caused them to question the testimony of the impressionable young girls who sent her to her grave.
One takeaway from this saga is to recognize that it is not an innocent thing to dabble in spiritism and the occult arts. Another is to recognize the reality of Satan’s presence in the world. He does exist and wages abiding war against mankind, especially those who follow Jesus Christ. And the last takeaway is that, while the left has turned the demonizing of the Christian clergy into an art form, in this case mature men of the cloth were not the problem, they were the solution.
Thanks for the analysus, Bryan; I read "The Crucible" in high school (1973!!) but had forgotten the real facts it represented...our adversary is ever a liar, a cheat, a theif, and loves to destroy; those who worship him are like him and it's a blessing to have the guidance of faithful men of God who discern spiritual things rightly, if only those who profess Christ all had wisdom enough to listen! May our Great God give us all ears to hear and wisdom to follow the direction of His anointed servants to the benefit of the Body of Christ!
I wrote another comment earlier that (apparently) wasn't recorded? Anyways...... Great insight, mi amigo! God bless you!