They didn't see it coming or know how to stop it back then

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 18, 2024

"Perhaps Satan’s goal had been not to recruit witches but to trick the court into executing the innocent."

That was from The Bill Of Rights Institute, The Salem Witch Trials, Malcolm Gaskill, University of East Anglia. In 1692, the demon was very busy in Salem Village. People were suffering and wanted to blame someone. The influential people gave them witches, and hate gave them the targets.

Usually, I stay out of politics. These are not usual times. What is happening now is correlated with what happened in Massachusetts in 1692. I am surprised so few noticed it.

People have been conditioned to blame someone else for their problems. Too many are pointing fingers at what they consider easy targets. Fueling hatred against others with no power to cause or fix their misery deflects the absence of efforts on their part to solve problems. It happened in Salem because it was allowed to happen. Everyone going against the ridiculous claims made became another target, and they found themselves accused. It was a vicious circle designed to keep it going so that enemies were caught in the web of lies. It is happening again.

"Villagers were emboldened to voice their own suspicions of other witches, which led to more arrests. The accused were brought to the public meetinghouses and urged to confess so they could be brought back into the Christian fold. Most people gave credence to “spectral evidence”, evidence based on visions and dreams, in which the afflicted claimed they could see invisible spirits flying around the room and causing them pain. Even a four-year-old girl, the daughter of one of the accused, Sarah Good, was imprisoned for witchcraft. Before long, the witch hunt had spread to several neighboring communities."

None of it was real. None of the accusers experienced what they claimed. They did not have to prove a single word they said; all they had to do was claim they believed it happened.

Samuel Parris, a corrupt minister, fueled twisted religious beliefs. After children in his household made outrageous claims, they blamed witches, and the plot to use them began. Realizing they had the power to manipulate others, the seeds were sown in the minds of others, like the Putnam family.

"Thomas Putnam (Jr.) was from the third generation of Putnams in Salem Village. He was the eldest son of Thomas Putnam (Sr.), who himself was the eldest son of John Putnam, one of the founders of Salem Village who had arrived from England in the 1640s. The Putnams were a powerful and wealthy family, yet by the 1690s, Thomas Putnam was seeing his prospects diminish as property continued to be divided with each generation. He watched as neighbors like the Porters and the Nurses, who lived closer to Salem Town, became more prosperous. Thomas Putman had also aligned himself with the new village minister in 1689, Samuel Parris, a man who did not have everyone’s support. Disagreements about the minister’s wage, and firewood, and ownership of the parsonage caused ongoing division in the community."

None of those in charge had any power to change the harsh winter, grow crops that could not be grown, or eliminate illnesses. None of them had the power to stop the indigenous people from attacking towns and villages to take back their land. They used their power to deflect attention from them and place it where it didn't belong, on other citizens. After all, solving problems requires work and a lot of thought. Pointing fingers was easy and added to their power and wealth. They confiscated the property of those they charged with witchcraft and billed them for the time they spent in jail.

They ignored the 10 Commandments when they falsely made accusations against others and were willing to murder. They broke the rule of requiring evidence and then broke another rule of not torturing to achieve confessions and naming others.

Dozens suffered under inhumane conditions as they waited in jail for months without trials; many of the imprisoned were also tortured, and at least one died in jail before the hysteria abated in 1693.

So much of the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials comes down to the failure of the court and the laws during that time: Laws that made such things as visions, dreams, and even the testimony of spirits permissible evidence. And a court that accepted accusations so flimsy they would seem laughable today if they weren’t so horrifyingly unjust…(New England Law)

The more I see what is happening today, the more I think about what happened in 1692. People claim to be Christian, much like the Puritans did. With real evidence, some claim it's nothing more than a witch hunt, which requires no proof. They want to control what other people believe and how they worship. They want to control how other people live while proving they don't care about them. They only care about themselves and how they can use their power for their gain and not for the sake of the people they claim they want to serve.

The rights we have today to protect us from what the people of Salem Town and Village endured are still under the 1st Amendment because of what people got away with. Read the list of Amendments to see what other rights we have and discover how many of them apply to what happened in Salem.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The difference between us now and the residents of Massachusetts back then is that we see all the signs because of technology. They didn't see it coming or know how to stop it back then.

Kathie Costos

Author of The Scribe Of Salem, The Visionary Of Salem, and 13th Minister Of Salem.