What constituted evidence of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England?

Question

Update: New info:
The evidence was generally oral testimony, such as claims that the accused witch had caused harm to the accuser/the accuser's family or property

any other idea?

Answer 1

Pretty much, if someone said you were a witch, you were. "Witches" were treated as guilty until proven innocent, and how do you prove you're innocent of something like that? All it took was a cow's milk going sour, or a cat running down the road, and boom--you must be a witch. It began with 3 young girls who were playing at fortune telling with a slave girl--they began speaking in tongues and claiming other people had bewitched them. Since the father was the local minister, and at the time it was believed that children didn't lie, the people they accused were tried as witches. When the trials were held, the girls showed up and started acting as if they were bewitched. Naturally, the "witches" were convicted. Some were burned, but most were hung or pressed with stones. If you confessed and repented, you could save yourself, but your property was confiscated. One man who was convicted was pressed with stones, but rather than confess and leave his family with nothing, his final words were "more stones!" It was funny, but the Salem had two basic factions within the town, and all those who were accused of witchcraft were from one side, and were accused by the other. The witchhunts finally ended when someone went so far as to accuse the wife of the governor of Massachusetts of being a witch.

Answer 2

You are referring to the Salem witch Hunt? After someone concluded that a loss, illness or death had been caused by witchcraft, the accuser would enter a complaint against the alleged witch with the local magistrates. The magistrates would then examine the accused, to prove or disprove the charges. Upon being convinced, the accused was jailed and the superior court was given the case.
This was a time when people could be accused, imprisoned, tried, and executed with little or no evidence as to their guilt (to the crime of witch craft) or their innocence.
It was 300 years ago this year that a panic seized Salem, Mass. A group of young girls and a West Indian slave named Tituba began acting strangely. They would shake uncontrollably and fits ravaged them. They began a hysteria that had neighbor pointing at neighbor, God-fearing people incarcerated, and terror ripping through a small New England town. The evidence used to convict the Salem Witches? These magistrates based their judgments and evaluations on various kinds of intangible evidence, including direct confessions, supernatural attributes (such as "witchmarks"), and reactions of the afflicted girls. Spectral evidence, based on the assumption that the Devil could assume the "specter" of an innocent person, was relied upon despite its controversial nature.

Answer 3

Darn near anything. Everyone became so paranoid that they would be accused of witchcraft, that they would blame someone else, to take the heat off of themselves. There are accounts that are baffling. For instance, there was one woman who visited another, and after she left a cow died. The visiting woman was then accused of witchcraft. Once accused, a woman would be told that she needed to confess to witchcraft. If she did, then thay had their evidence. If she refused, she was accused of lying, AND witchcraft, and was sentenced to death. There was no way out.

To fully appreciate and understand what happened in New England (not just Salem), you need to understand the Puritan religion and beliefs. You also need to look at the demographics of the area - under Puritan tradition, land was constantly being sub-divided amongst sons, and as the tracts became smaller, many sons moved west to find more land. This left the area with many females, and very few men. Women literally had to fight for husbands, as an unwed woman was not permitted to move or leave on her own. Accusing each other of witchcraft was one way to put down the other woman, increase the odds of securing a husband. Also, if a woman didn't wed, she was under suspicion of being a witch, because it appeared that no one wanted to marry her. A grudge was often reason enough to accuse someone.

You might want to visit your local library and read "Entertaining Satan" by John Putnam Demos. It takes an excellent look at the culture of New England and the witchcraft phenomenon.

One note of caution - there are many similarities, but also some major differences, between what happened in Salem, and witchcraft in the rest of New England. The Salem trials and witchraft in NE as a whole are not synonymous.

Answer 4

There was no real evidence of witchcraft. Basically a few little girls started the whole thing. They behaved oddly and blamed a black servant I believe. Said she practiced witchcraft and it just kept going and going. Putting people on trial in those days was rediculous. Pretty much everyone was presumed guilty before the trials even started.

Answer 5

I think that's when they threw the "witch" in water. If she floated it was proof and she was burned at the stake. If she drowned it was proof she was not a witch.

Talk about damned if you do and damned if you don't!