Salem Witchraft and Bridget Bishop

In order to find reality, the myths about Salem Village must be purged. This is accomplished through studying individual stories and the mythologization of them. By reading Salem story and learning about individual stories it is possible to recreate a more factual account of the events of 1692. But first, there are certain myths that must be purged. There are many examples of myths about Salem Village witchcraft, such as the account of Tituba as the responsible party who was the spark that lit the flames of 1692.

Sarah Good can be studied as she was portrayed as an evil old hag, but in reality, at t

Stories of past witchcraft contained so-called evidence that helped further establish a viable case against Bridget Bishop. “June 2d, 1692. John Blye, Senior, aged about 57 years, and William Blye, aged about 15 years, both of Salem , testifieth and saith that being employed by Bridgitt Boshop, alias Oliver, of Salem, to help take down the cellar wall of the old house she formerly lived in, we, the said deponents, in holes in the said old wall belonging to the said cellar found several puppets made up of rags and hogs’ bristles, with headless pins in them with the points outward, and this was about seven years last passed” (47). Not only could this evidence not be proved, but the deposition implied witchcraft that supposedly happened seven years ago. Why wait until the present time to speak of it? This is significant because the time delay between the supposed event and the actual deposition implies possible backing from the state in order to aid them in their indictments and executions of Salem Village “witches.” “Events of seven years earlier were not easily confirmed, and nobody in the court, in any case, seemed interested in pursuing the credibility of such stories” (Rosenthal 76).

Nonetheless, Bridget Bishop “. . . served as a paradigm of the executed person as social deviant, the outsider who falls prey to a community devouring the eccentrics on its margin” (71). Who, though, is responsible for the accusations, indictments, and executions in 1692 of witches such as Bridget Bishop? The charges came in the form of depositions in which there were accusations of offenses by the accused, sometimes dating back twenty years prior. These depositions were legally accepted, possibly even pursued or solicited by the state. There was a radical departure from the traditional way of handling cases of witchcraft, in which people such as Hathorne not only discouraged the naming of other witches, but encouraged it. There was a reversal of traditional ways in which the state and judiciary replied to the issue of confession. Rules were contradicted in terms of confession and execution. Confessing witches were not executed. Actually , only the accused who did not confess, such as Bridget Bishop, were executed.

In the same style as the Blye case, the testimony of William Stacey also dates back many years; significantly, too many years to make the story credible in modern times. “William Stacy of the Town of Salem, aged thirty six years or thereabouts, deposeth and saith that about fourteen years ago, this deponent was visited with the smallpox.” and Bridget Bishop paid him a visit (Boyer 41). Soon after that he was afflicted by several of her pranks such as the missing of his money. He even accused her of visiting and sitting at the foot of his bed in the middle of the night. The most serious accusation from Stacey against Bishop deals with the death of his two year old daughter. “This deponent doth verily believe that the said Bridget Bishop was instrumental to his daughter Precilla’s death about two years ago. The child was a likely, thriving child, and suddenly screeched out and so continued in an unusual manner for about a fortnight, and so died in that lamentable manner” (42). Testimony against Bridget Bishop, including that of Richard Coman and john Londer, mainly includes stories about Bishop visiting men in the middle of the night and men being attacked by her. As in the cases of the afore mentioned men, it is said that Bridget Bishop “. . . presently came and lay upon my breast or body, and so oppressed him that he could not speak not stir. . .” and “. . . clearly did see Bridget Bushop, or her likeness, sitting upon my stomach. And putting my arms off of the bed to free myself from that great oppression, she presently laid hold of my throat and almost choked me” (45). The is the nature of the Bridget Bishop case, the extent to which men had sexual fantasies about

Some topics in this essay:
Bridget Bishop, Salem Village, Salem Possessed, Sarah Bishop, Boyer Nissenbaum, Oliver Salem, bridget bishop, Bridget Bishop’s, William Stoughton, Salem American, Cheever Bridget, salem village, salem village witchcraft, village witchcraft, “ , individual stories, disorderly house, sarah bishop, witch trials, accused confess, stories told, stories affected events, bridget bishop recorded, bridget bishop “, bishop “,