Content

Question 1

How many were executed during the salem trial?

Answer 1

20

Question 2

Year - Salem witch-trials

Answer 2

1692-93

Question 3

What was the context of witch hunts prior to the salem trials?

Answer 3

• 100 cases in past 50 years
• 28 hung
• 25% conviction rate

Question 4

How many were accused and killed during the Salem trial?

Answer 4

• 200 accused
• 20 killed

Question 5

Who was Sarah Good?

Answer 5

• One of first accused
• Social outcast and 40
• Destitute after poor investments and didn’t marry for money
• Whole family homeless beggars
• Accused of hurting children
• Husband and daughter testified against her
• Accused Sarah Osborne

Question 6

Who was Sarah Osborne?

Answer 6

• Accused by Sarah Good
• A widow with relatively high social standings
• Lived openly with unmarried Irish indentured servant Alexander Osborne
• Attempted to remove children from inheritance

Question 7

Who were the first three accused?

Answer 7

• Tituba
• Sarah Good
• Sarah Osborne

Question 8

Give some examples of the nature of the accused

Answer 8

• Bridget Bishop & Martha Carrier - women with independent mind
• Reverend George Burroughs - only minister - borrowed money from Putnam family and was unable to pay back
• Rebecca Nurse - Well-respected - petition claiming her innocence and pardon from Governor Philps - Men of Salem convinced and executed
• Susannah Martin - widow - history of witchcraft - threat orderly transmission of property - dispute over fathers will

Question 9

What happened directly after the first three women were arrested?

Answer 9

• Village meeting
• Possessed girls gave evidence against the women
• Using spectral evidence
• Claimed the girls forced to sign the devils book, suckle familiars and inflicted with fits.

Question 10

What type of evidence was used during the trial?

Answer 10

• Spectral evidence
• BASED ON TESTIMONY THAT CLAIMED THE ACCUSED OR THEIR SPIRIT APPEARED IN DREAMS AND VISIONS

Question 11

What did Abigail and Deliverance Hobbs confess to?

Answer 11

• Attending a meeting
• Number of accused witches plotted to bewitch all Salem Village

Question 12

How did confessions affect the conviction rate?

Answer 12

• Improved the chances of suspects
• 50 confessed were freed

Question 13

What did Governor William Phips establish in May 1692?

Answer 13

• Court of Oyer and Terminer
• Officially hear the cases
• At trials - girls shrieked, wailed and shouted when the accused testified
• Half-hearted Devil Mark search also taken as evidence
• 1 judge resigned within a month due to suspicion of the legitimacy of proceedings

Question 14

How were convictions made more easily?

Answer 14

• Spectral evidence accepted in courts
• Accused allowed few resources to mount a defence
• Petitions from neighbours ignored
• Long-standing gossip was accepted as evidence

Question 15

Who was the first to be hung?

Answer 15

Briget Bishop - 10 June 1692

Question 16

Who was the first official witch executed in the colonies?

Answer 16

Alice Young

• Hung 1647
• In Connecticut
• 27 more were hung before the Salem trials.