Cynthia Johnsen;
Chad K. Ostler;
American Civilization 1700-023;
14 September 2011;
Dueling Documents #1;
Accusations and Defenses in the Salem Witchcraft Trials
Three women known as Sarah Bibber, Ann Putman and Mary Warren all testified against John Proctor a tavern owner. Their testimonies ultimately became the fate of John Proctor, and others accused of being Witches.
In reading all of these women’s testimonies against John Proctor are all the similarities of their stories and each woman almost stated the exact thing such as John Proctor was seen by all three women was hitting other women in the throat and almost choking her. Another accusation was that he would pinch the women or have them write something in a book he carried, and also drinking with him something red as blood. They all used the word torture in everything he did to them and John Proctor supposedly had tortured them numerous times, and they had apparitions or would experience some type of illusion of him.
My perception of how the community thought of Satan is that people perceived John Proctor as something very evil, dark a monster of a man who is being accused of almost God like powers. Can this one man have such strength and control over these women, or have these women conspired against him to hurt him maybe a bad love, being no man had accused John Proctor of these tortures. But if they claimed these acts and made people believe he was the devil, being a very religious time in the countries history and having great importance in the community then he could be tried and tortured.
In Proctors defense he tries to convince the jury and judge that nothing but “Innocent Blood” will be shed over these accusations as he states is called “Delusion of the Devil”. John Proctor, pg. 93.
But mainly falsely accusing five innocent young people of performing devilish acts of witchcraft, which could be a sermon by a certain type of religion that was practice in those days and seen a today as a religious cult. However the accused son William Proctor was also tortured until he confessed of these acts. John Proctor was telling the courts that these confessions of William and another accused were confessed because the men were tortured and bound by their feet and necks for long periods of time until they bleed.
John Proctor showed the jury that these acts were similar to “Popish Cruelties” In this statement I feel as if he was trying to get the juror’s to evaluate the types of in humane acts of torture to prove or coerce a confession was comparable to “Popish Cruelties” John Proctor pg. 93. And when deciding the fate of these men and women these facts should not be dismissed as the five innocent lives at hand that are innocent until proven guilty in the courts.
Therefore I feel that John Proctor gave it his all and tried to defend the others and hoped to save their lives from being taken over ultimately how much the people believed in the devil. And that if this man and others were capable of such torture, that they will now be tortured but are truly the innocent. Unfortunately he and the others did not win this trial and it is known as the “Salem Witch Trials.” This shows how strong the people’s religious beliefs of God and the Devil were.
