2 Events that Changed Massachusetts

Salem Witch Trials, and King Phillip’s War – An Overview…

Peter Castoldi

Salem, Massachusetts was a very well-developed colony that, like other colonies of time
such as Jamestown, Virginia; and the sort, had faced many hardships and times of rejoice in their
quest to build that perfect colony – the one that would offer the most opportunities for the
colonists, and the practices of religion. There were two main events that changes Massachusetts
and set a whole new variety of standards for the colony and its lifestyles: these events were King
Phillip’s war and the Salem Witch Trials, which both had significant impacts.
Back in the year 1650 in Massachusetts, things were going relatively well in terms of
food production and the puritans had a sense of unity and a sense of purpose, and this is all
coming from a society, mind you, that has sailed across the oceans away from England to build a
new colony that is now thriving. By the time the year 1670 came upon Massachusetts, they were
selling 6,000,000 (six million) pounds of Cod and that became the main export for
Massachusetts. From this perspective on things, one would assume that since people were doing
well and they were catching fish that everything would be good, right? Wrong: This is because,
on the horizon, there loomed a huge problem and this would result in the first important even in
Puritan Massachusetts - King Phillip’s War - which was fought from 1675-1676. The cause of the
war started in 1657, while everything in Massachusetts was going well, and a man named
Massasoit, who was the head of the Wampanoag, died and he was replaced by his sons Alexander
and Phillip and in 1662. Phillip became the great chief of the tribe after Alexander had died: So,
what was the problem here? Well, Phillip had a very different opinion of the English and he
doesn’t think that the English are ok: in other words, he is quite annoyed with them and “would
like to see some changes”. Phillip was a man who very arrogant and cocky and he thought that
he was the equal of the King of England, and that all of the puritans should bow down before
him – the puritans weren’t equals (in his mind). He was angry through the loss of the land and he
was also angry because the English would let the animals stray off from the farms. In 1665, there
was an incident that took place that brought tensions to the boiling point. There was a Nantucket
Indian who said the word “Massasoit” in front of Phillip – he just simply said the name – and as
a result of that, Phillip wanted to kill the man because it was thought to be taboo to mention the
name of a dead ancestor. What does this have to do with the war? As it turns out, the English
found out about this and in response told Phillip that he was crazy, and wasn’t all there. In 1671,
Phillip made a plan to kidnap the governor of Plymouth which didn’t work out as planned, and
the English found out and were livid over this matter: even still, they weren’t at the point of war.
In 1675, this was the last straw: there was an incident that involved 4 Wampanoag Indians who
were walking on a frozen lake and one of the Indians was a friend of the puritans – according to
the Wampanoag, the other one slipped and fell and drowned in the water. According to the
puritans, they thought that they killed the warrior because of the fact that he was friends with a
puritan. After hearing about this, the English captured the Indian who they thought was
responsible and they brought him to trial and they executed him. Shortly after this, Philip
launched one of the most massive military invasions in the history of the MA (Massachusetts)-
Indian relations. He sent thousands of military units: To put the invasion in perspective, at the
time, in 1675, there were 90 towns in Massachusetts and Phillip’s army raided 52 of them and
they massacred everyone in sight. When people went out of their homes, Indians were there to
“greet them” and scalp them.
The second major event that took place in Massachusetts, which is well-known to
everyone in New England (and possibly even in the United States) is the Salem Witch Trials that
Events that Changed Massachusetts | Witches and War
2 Events that Changed Massachusetts
Salem Witch Trials, and King Phillip’s War – An Overview…
Peter Castoldi

took place in (none other than) Salem, MA. This is a very different “territory” so-to-speak of the
history of Massachusetts that deals with a different type of battle: that of not physical battle, but
mental as well: battles with the (supposed) supernatural forces. The Witch Trials started in 1692
and during this time there was mass hysteria brought about in Salem because of this outbreak in
witchcraft – as a result of this outbreak, there were 20 people and 2 dogs that were executed in
suspicion of witchcraft. The puritans thought that it was all coming to an end in 1692! The basic
thing that one must understand is that Europeans, throughout the Middle Ages, were absolutely
and completely committed to the belief that there was a Devil and that there were witches. The
height of witchcraft hysteria happened between the years of 1550-1650, when close to 100,000
(one hundred thousand) people were killed because they were suspected of being a witch.
According to European belief, witches were thought to have practiced something called
maleifcium which roughly translates to “evil that is perpetrated through supernatural methods”
and the most dominant thing that the witches were believed to focus on was fertility. What does
fertility mean – it focuses on birth and life, essentially. Another European belief was that they
thought a witch has specific relationships to the spawn of the devil and they also believed that
they would make men “sterile” (meaning that they would not be able to bear children). Alongside
birth of people, they also thought that witches focused on the inability to grow crops (infertile
soil).

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”

- Exodus 22:18

All of this thinking was summarized in a book, in 1486, by a guy named

Heinrich Kramer, whom was German, and the pope at the time was Pope Innocent
VIII, and he asked Heinrich to write a book that would do a few things:
– Inform people to know when you are in the presence of a witch
– What you do when you are in the presence of a witch
– What witches do
– How you can investigate and punish a witch
This was the book to buy during the time period and the book was titled Malleus
Maleficarium which translates to “the hammer of witches” and this was the 15th
century equivalent of the “The Idiot’s Guide” series that is known and widely-read,
today. The Pope and Kramer also talked about the use of torture and they used
something called a Strappado (as seen right), which was a device in which the
victim's hands are first tied behind their back, and then he or she is suspended in
the air by means of a rope attached to wrists, which most likely dislocates both
arms. Weights may be added to the body to intensify the effect and increase the
pain. They would strip the accused witch down and they would examine their body
– this was another career in Europe – and you needed to be trained to know how to properly
examine a witch and they would search the body for clues. Another thing they needed to be
trained in is how to avoid contamination: it was highly recommended that the witch hunters and

Events that Changed Massachusetts | Witches and War

2 Events that Changed Massachusetts
Salem Witch Trials, and King Phillip’s War – An Overview…
Peter Castoldi

examiners had blessed salt in their pockets that has been blessed by a priest. You also had to have
blessed herbs on you when you did some examining. Last but not least, when the witch would be
brought into the courtroom, they would be brought in backwards so they wouldn’t look at the
judges and the other people in the room to bewitch them!
The word Salem means “peace” (derived from “Shalom” meaning peace) and there was
mostly fishing and other trades of the sort happening here. What happened in 1692? Well,
everything began in Samuel Paris’s home (the reverend of Salem) and in his home, some very
strange things began to happen. In late 1691, two young girls Betty Paris and Abigail Williams
and they would have spastic fits and act strange and have convulsions – their speech were also
very heavily impaired. Naturally, the reverend became alarmed because they were acting in ways
that suggested some dark influence and he was constantly asking his little children what was
happening. Eventually, Betty and Abigail point their fingers at a woman named Tituba who was a
slave of the reverend Paris and lived in the house, who was older than the two girls. The little
girls said that she was a witch and that she has influenced them and that she took them out into
the woods to have meetings and cast spells upon them and asked the girls to do things. Reverend
Paris, once his daughter blamed Tituba, goes to Tituba and asks her to fess up about being a
witch and to “help her along” he beats her and eventually she said “yes, I am”. There were other
examples of possible-witch cases in Salem, MA even before the trials – examples of these people
include:

• 1648: Charlestown. Margret Jones. Jones was a fortune teller and a healer. Medicines
produced violent effect. Touch produced pain and vomiting.
• 1656: Boston. Ann Hibbens. 1640s gets in argument with carpenters. Won court case but
did not apologize for conduct. In 1650s neighbors noted her “natural crabbedness of
temper”
• 1662-1664:Hartford, Connecticut. Rebecca Greensmith. Spoke in tongues and plotted
against neighbors. Admitted to carnal relationship with the devil.

These two events played a major role in the history of Massachusetts. King Phillip’s War
essentially ended the relationship with the natives that pilgrims kept for so long before the war,
and the Salem Witch Trials played a major role in religion and the test of faith for the puritans in
order to fight the evil forces of the devil and not to fall prey to the supernatural. These two
events, taking special consideration towards the Salem Witch Trials, made the pilgrims wake up
and realize what they have done and what had become of Salem, Massachusetts during those
periods in time.

Events that Changed Massachusetts | Witches and War