Salem Witch Trials

Sharveen Param

Mrs. Woodward

Intro to Speech

Informative Speech

Topic : Salem Witch Trials

General Purpose : To Inform

Specific Purpose : To inform the readers about the tragedies and the crisis during the era of the Salem witch trials

Thesis : During the time of 1692, There was a place in Massachusetts that was known for its execution of witches due to witchcraft and associations with the devil.

1. Introduction

1. Attention Getter:
2. Reason to Listen : The Salem witch trials was important because In a larger sense, the rise of American democracy as a earthly entity where religious matters can be discussed openly and honestly, but not used in a court of law to decide verdicts and decisions becomes another relevant element from Salem.
3. Thesis statement: The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693
4. Credibility Statement:

1. I have been amazed by the fact that something like this would happen
2. The comparison between two different eras and a likelihood of magic is just preposterous

1. Preview of Main points:  

1. First, I will talk about who, what, when, and where the Salem Witch Trials are
2. Second, I will discuss about the Witches of the Salem Trials
3. Third, I will discuss How the Salem Witch Trials ended

1. Paragraph 1

1. For something like this to happen, we have to look at the Origins of the Salem Witch trials and its context.

1. In January 1692, 9-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams (the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village) began having fits, including violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren. In late February, arrest warrants were issued for the Parris’ Caribbean slave, Tituba, along with two other women–the homeless beggar Sarah Good and the poor, elderly Sarah Osborn–whom the girls accused of bewitching them.

1. Paragraph 2

1. The three accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming and writhing. Though Good and Osborn denied their guilt, Tituba confessed. Likely seeking to save herself from certain conviction by acting as an informer, she claimed there were other witches acting alongside her in service of the devil against the Puritans.
2.  As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse–both regarded as upstanding members of church and community–and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.
3. Like Tituba, several accused “witches” confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system. Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town. Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. In addition, seven other accused witches died in jail, while the elderly Giles Corey (Martha’s husband) was pressed to death by stones after he refused to enter a plea at his arraignment

1. Paragraph 3

1. Though the respected minister Cotton Mather had warned of the dubious value of spectral evidence (or testimony about dreams and visions), his concerns went largely unheeded during the Salem witch trials. Increase Mather, president of Harvard College (and Cotton’s father) later joined his son in urging that the standards of evidence for witchcraft must be equal to those for any other crime.
2. He believed that “It would better that ten suspected witches may escape than one innocent person be condemned.” Amid waning public support for the trials, Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer in October and mandated that its successor disregard spectral evidence. Trials continued with dwindling intensity until early 1693, and by that May Phips had pardoned and released all those in prison on witchcraft charges.
3. In January 1697, the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting for the tragedy of the Salem witch trials; the court later deemed the trials unlawful, and the leading justice Samuel Sewall publicly apologized for his role in the process. The damage to the community lingered, however, even after Massachusetts Colony passed legislation restoring the good names of the condemned and providing financial restitution to their heirs in 1711.

1. Conclusion

1. To summarize, I went over the basis of the Salem witch trials, discussed about the witches, and how the whole concept ended.

Works Cited

Young, Miranda. "Witchcraft: Then and Now." Prezi. Prezi Inc., 26 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.