Importance of the Legal system.
The things that happened in Salem Legally were far from fair. People were able to accuse based on dream they would have, or visions, they could’ve used anything against someone they thought was a “witch” even though they usually had no proof behind it. If that wouldn’t work, they would turn to torture for confessions out of people. This changed our legal system for the better by changing the fact that we now need viable evidence to use in court, the truth must be proven and not just presumed and of course we no longer use torture as a way to get the truth out of people in the court of law. All this also brought us the bill of rights and being entitled to fair and unbiased legal process.
Gender and Power.
During the Witch Trials roughly 75% were women being accused of witchcraft, a lot of these women were older, unmarried or widowed, or “social outsiders”, those who didn’t conform to gender norms of the time. The gender roles in 1692 were set in place to control women who didn’t “stay in their place”. A woman who was labeled as a “witch” was someone who had more power than the men did, someone who the men feared, these women had power over their bodies, the economics for example owning land as a widowed woman, spiritual power like being a midwife, healing, or folk medicine and lastly social power such as not needing a man to help her live. The modern parallels to today’s world are the fact that the women are still outspoken especially those of color, however women today in most parts of the world have total right over their own body’s, what they have to say, and their own economics.
Cultural References & Lessons.
The trails had a pretty big influence on our literature, TV shows, movies, and tourism. The playwriter Arthur Miller wrote the play “The Crumble” in 1953, the play is a fictionalized account of the trails, the play shows the characters of John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse showing people how they kept their honor even though it costed them their lives. The song “king” by Lilith Czar is a feminist rock anthem that plays on themes of female empowerment and rebellion and is often associated with reclaiming of the witch figures. There are many TV shows and movies that are tied to the Salem Trails such as the show “Salem” (2014-2017) is a historical fantasy drama set in Salem during the trials, showing what happened during those times. There was a big influx of tourism spots from the Trails such as of course Salem Massachusetts is one of the biggest tourist spots to check out, as well as the Salem Witch Trails Memorial and the Salem Witch Museum where you can go and learn about the past and the history.