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The Salem Witch-Hunt, 1692

Questions you might ask yourselves

1. What happened in the village of Salem at the end of the 17th c.?
2. Why?
3. Why did this particular event impress and egged American playwright

Arthur Miller into writing the play The Crucible (1953)

If you cannot answer, read below!

Fits of hallucination, dizziness, delusion were invoked by a group of young

maidens from the town of Salem, (Massachusetts) as the outcome of diabolical

machinations and witchcraft undertaken by some adult women in their

community. Nineteen of the accused were convicted and executed by hanging

after trial. The first victim was Bridget Bishop. The witchcraft accusations in her

case (purchase of a small amount of dye for painting the clothes of a witchcraft

poppet) went almost unproved and the sentences were influenced by her

doubtful reputation (three times married, tavern matron) rather than

demonstrable facts.

The hysteria did not last more than one season (spring-autumn 1692). Soon,

public voices (minister Cotton Mather and his father, the Harvard College

President) against this hysteria made themselves heard. Seven years later, the
trials were declared unlawful by the Court of Massachusetts, the victims

rehabilitated and Samuel Sewall, chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior

Court of Judicature made a public apology for supporting the trial.

Scientists later looked for possible causes of this unusual phenomenon of

collective hallucinations and launched the hypothesis that it might have been the

result of a fungus that had attacked the rich harvest of rye that year (the houses

of the accusers lying very close to the rye area).

Twenty century playwright Arthur Miller used some real life references such as

name of characters (Abigail Williams, the first accuser, Tituba etc.) the trial

episode and most of all, the frightening snowballing effect of the initial

accusations in his famous play and anti-McCarthist manifesto the Crucible. He

compared the poorly supported Salem accusations to the equally poorly

supported accusations of communism undertaken by Senator Mc Carthys trials

at the beginning of the 50s in the past century.

Millers play became a symbol for both the abuse of power by anybody in

authority (the Puritan ministers of the Salem community) and of the way public

opinion can be manipulated by narrow minded and prejudiced people in power

to support false causes. The process of change and transformation that some of

the characters in the play undergo spells out in dramatic form Millers belief in

the mission of true art and theatre:

"By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the

passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up a new

relationship between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the
other inventions of man in that it ought to help us know more, and not merely to spend

our feelings."

--Arthur Miller, from the "Introduction to his Collected Plays" (source:

https://www.ibiblio.org/miller/crucibleteachnotes.html

For more info, go to:

http://www.history.com/topics/salem-witch-trials/videos/salem-witch-trials

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