Name: Omar Bakeer

Grade: 10 M
School: Khaled International School
Date: 9/14/2020

Salem Witch Trials

Back in spring 1692 in the small village of Salem, the people
of Salem, mainly their women were misconceived as witches. This
thought is due to the uncommonness of educated women when in
reality, women back then were very skillful healers with herbs and
natural plants. Due to the unprecedented misogyny and blatant
segregation between men and women. Women who are educated
were perceived as a threat.

Whenever a woman or man was accused of “Witchcraft” they

were subjected to be tried in a court where they would have to
endure three tests to determine whether the person in question was
a “witch”. These three tests included the swimming test, the prayer
test, and the pricking test.

The first test was typically the swimming test. As part of the
infamous swimming test, the accused witches in question were
often dragged to the nearest body of water, stripped to their
undergarments, and then tossed in to see if they would sink or float
since witches were believed to have spurned the sacrament of
baptism. According to this logic, an innocent woman would sink
like a stone, normally these women would have a rope tied around
them so they could be pulled from the water in case they sank, but
it wasn’t uncommon for accidental drowning deaths to occur.

The second test was the prayer test, it was believed that
witches were incapable of reading scripture out loud, so accused
witches would be forced to recite scripture without making errors
or omissions. While it may have simply been a sign that the
accused witch was illiterate or tense. It was commonly believed
that if the speaker was not able to recite the scripture they would
be linked with the devil. In 1712 it was applied in the case of Jane
Wenham, an accused witch who struggled to voice the words “lead
us not into temptation” and as a result, a punishment of hanging
proceeded as planned.

The third test was the examining for witch's mark, suspected
witches were often stripped and publicly examined for signs of a
slight blemish that witches were to receive upon making a deal
with the devil. This mark could supposedly change color and shape
and was also known to be insensitive to pain. Due to this belief if a
woman was found to have a blemish on her body it was normally
pricked for two reasons the first was to see the witches' reaction to
pain, and the second to see if the mark would bleed.

Men were only accused of witchcraft if they defended the

woman that is why most of the victims were women. Even if
passing all these tests it was not a guarantee that the person’s life
may be spared if she was still suspected of evil-doing they would
still be proceeded to a hanging or torture to death, at the end 14
women were hanged, 6 men were hanged and 1 man was crushed
to death for refusing to admit to being a witch.
 Times were different in the 18th century as time passed by,
these practices were later on banned everywhere and with that, we
conclude the Salem witch trials.
RESOURCES:
Snyder, Heather. "Giles Corey". Salem Witch Trials.
^ Demos, John (1983). Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of
Early New England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 11, 401-409.
ISBN 9780195033786.
^ Adams, 2009
^ Burr, George Lincoln, ed. (1914). Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases,
1648–1706. C. Scribner's Sons. p. 197.
^ "Massachusetts Clears 5 From Salem Witch Trials". The New York Times.
November 2, 2001.
^Paraphrase: (The Salem Witch Trials Explained, Hip Hughes, 2016)
^Paraphrase: (The Salem Witch Trials (1692) Cartoon, Simple History,
2016)