Meet Ann Putnam Jr. at 12 years old who played a very important part in the witch trials of 1692 as one of three afflicted kids. Anna was the daughter of the Salem witch trials leader. She was born on October 18,1679 in Salem Massachusetts,she was one of three children, Thomas and Ann were her siblings and she was the eldest. In March,1692 she proclaimed to be affiliated. At this time, Ann’s Mother Ann was still mourning the death of her daughter and she claimed that later she had been attacked by witches.
Another person living in the Putnam house was a lady named Mercy Lewis. Mercy was an orphan as a child, but was remotely related to the Putnam family. How did Ann Putnam Jr. get involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692? It was the winter 1691/62 when Ann and a few other afflicted girls reportedly dawdling in fortune telling techniques this is also known as the venus glass, when the girls all dropped the whites of the egg into a glass and figured out whatever symbols and shapes appeared to try to find out about future husbands.
Soon after the incident that happened in January of 1962, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams began having seizures and they were showing symptoms of weird animal -like behaviors such as, saying it felt like an invisible spirit was pinching them and barking like a dog. Shortly after, Ann Jr and some of her afflicted friends started experiencing these symptoms as well Shortly after that, in about February a doctor named Dr. Griggs was asked to examine the girls he did not find anything wrong with the girls and he advised them they may be bewitched.
Shortly after, the three girls put out a few names of possible people bewitching them there names were: Sarah Osborne,Sarah Good and Tituba. The women were arrested on March 1st. One of the women named Tituba admitted that she happened to be a witch in Salem along with many other. When word got around it caused big chaos a huge amount of hysteria and concerns that the devil had taken over the town. This was the start of the Salem Witch Hunt. One of the victims of Ann Jr. ‘s anger was her neighbor named Rebecca Nurse. Ann was extremely progressive during the case against Rebecca Nurse.
A big part of this chaos was due to years of rivalry about a battle for land. Adding to this, Rebecca lectured the afflicted girls for playing with the fortune telling techniques. Rebecca Nurse was one of the ones to be accused at the start of the witch hunt and she was arrested on March, 24. To testify this Ann Jr. blamed Rebecca for pinching and biting her and forcing her to read and write in the Devil’s book. Ann Jr also made an accusation that Rebecca Nurse was attacking her mother at there residence on March 18.
However, Ann Jr was not the only one to accuse Rebecca many others included: Samuel Parris, Abigail Williams John Putnam jr. , Edward Putnam, Hannah Putnam Thomas Putnam, Elizabeth Hubbard , Mary Walcott, and Henry Kenney. However, Nurse opposed these accusations and was found not guilty on June 26,1692. Shortly after, a chief of Justice asked the jury to re-evaluate the decision. The jury reopened the case and announced Rebecca Nurse guilty. On July 19, 1962 she was hung at Gallows Hill.
The Witch trials continued, and the witch hunt spread to the whole town In july, Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott traveled to to Andover. In September, the afflicted girls were invited to Gloucester who during this visit the afflicted girls accused a big group of women for the use of witchcraft and they were to be hung. During another visit in October or November a couple more were accused and brought in.
A total of nine women were arrested. Ann Putnam Jr had accused about 62 people of performing witchcraft and 19 of them were executed here is a list of the people that were executed: Of the 62 people Ann Putnam, Jr. accused and testified against during the Salem Witch Trials, 17 were executed: Bridget Bishop (June 10), George Burroughs (August 19), Martha Carrier (August 19), Martha Corey (September 22), Mary Eastey (September 22), Sarah Good (July 19), Elizabeth Howe (July 19), George Jacobs, Sr (August 19), Susannah Martin (July 19), Rebecca Nurse (July 19), Alice Parker (September 22), John Proctor (August 19), Ann Pudeator (September 22), Wilmot Reed (September 22), Margaret Scott (September 22, 1692), Sarah Wildes (July 19), John Willard(August 19).
Three of them went unknown ,there names were: Tituba,John Alden Jr and Elizabeth Proctor They were either found not guilty, escaped from jail or never charged. These people accused of performing witchcraft were hung or other severe punishments which led to death. These witch trials continued and more and more witches were captured and were killed. During this unfortunate time period Salem Village was having some of their own struggles with: supporting themselves, making own food,raising meat and planting vegetables.
Not only that, but the Salem village was having many divisions and the children had many expectations. The children had very high expectations and were expected to behave just as well as adults. This meant that the children rarely played and had fun with each other. Many of the children during this time had learned how to read and mostly the bible, they were told all about how witchcraft and the devil was a sin and if people tried to perform it would result in an unfortunate consequence.
The books written for children were about sinful behavior and if they were reading them there would be punishment and the children would suffer painful acts. There was very little for the children to do to help increase their imagination just like many other kids, they loved, magical stories and fortune telling games, but these were no good. For,Tituba ran them and many parents did not want their kids doing them due to the hysterical behavior and them becoming bewitched. The Salem politics were affected during the trials.
The County Court of Essex stated that the village of Salem was neglected and they would all be dismissed by a an anti-Parris group. Reverend Parris was very flattered by this position and so he created a Mediation for peace sermon. This sermon was admitting that he put too much on the evidence and he did not receive or gain forgiveness for Salem this resulted in him moving out of Salem. A man named Joseph Green had replaced Parris and he had tried to regain and repair the congregation.
He did this by sitting the accusers next to the accused. This drastically helped and it helped bring more families back to the congregation. Towards the end of the Salem Witch trials , it resulted in many horrible actions. Many people were stuck in jail and were unable to pay for their time during the trials. Many others were convicted and had their land confiscated this left families homeless and broke. Shortly after,one of the accusers apologized her name was Ann Putnam and she was the only.
Many people made rumors and accusations about why the others never apologized, but it will never be known. Many of the accusers moved out of Salem and changed there names. They never talked about what had happened and it’s been lost in history. Not only did the Ann appologize , but the Massachusetts legislative apologized. They had repaired the community by by returning the rights to the witches to the official record. They also gave away money to , those families
