Special Meeting on the Issue of Witchcraft Witch Trials of Salem, 1692
A NOTE FROM YOUR CRISIS DIRECTOR, SILVIA IAMMARINO Dear Participants: Allow me to introduce myself: I am Silvia Iammarino, your humble Crisis Director for The Salem Witch Trials at OSUMUN 2018! My staff and I are so excited to experience the creativity, knowledge, and passion that each of you will bring to this committee/ I am currently a third year student at OSU studying World Politics and French with minors in Neuroscience and Economics. My most time-consuming activity is CCWA: the fantastic student organization on campus that just happens to be the backbone of this very conference each and every year. Aside from my work on the executive board as the Director of Membership, I am incredibly active with our competitive Model UN team and have travelled around the world in the past three years to many conferences. I have also been involved with OSUMUN since my freshman year. I served as the assistant chair for the Refugee Crisis General Assembly in 2016, and as the chair for the Iranian Coup D État committee in 2017. I have participated in Model UN since the 7 th grade. My first committee was an ECOSOC General Assembly focusing on the future of GMOs and sustainable agriculture. I immediately fell in love with MUN after I witnessed this group of young people who brought their talents to the table and worked cooperatively together to solve real, relevant issues. That being said, as a Crisis Director, I highly value teamwork in committee as opposed to correct parliamentary procedure and expect all of you to form alliances, be open to working with different people throughout the weekend, and use your portfolio powers in unique ways. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me after reading this background guide with any questions you may have. My team and I have worked hard all year to prepare this committee for you, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that this weekend will be a 100% guaranteed good time! Best, Silvia Iammarino Iammarino.15@osu.edu
ALSO INTRODUCING YOUR CHAIR, CHARLES WOODRUM Hello everyone, My name is Charles Woodrum and I am currently a junior at Ohio State with a double major in Physics and Mathematics. I grew up just north of Youngstown, Ohio where my family and I operated a small corn/soybean farm alongside a certified tree farm. My high school was very small and did not have a MUN team. I had no exposure to MUN until the very beginning of my sophomore year when I joined the Collegiate Council on World Affairs. I attended MCMUN, my first model UN conference, in Montreal, Canada in January 2017, and I look forward to attending many more before I graduate next year. When I m not researching entanglement entropy in Bose-Einstein condensates or doing things related to CCWA, you can find me enjoying any one of my many hobbies which include, running, hiking, cooking, reading Greek, speaking Polish, discussing politics, doing physics, and singing ancient byzantine music.
I. COMMITTEE STRUCTURE. Welcome to Colonial Massachusetts, everyone! This committee will simulate a Salem general body meeting where delegates will discuss the growing issue of witchcraft in Salem. You all will represent the best educated, well-known townspeople of Salem. Your citizens are counting on you to rid the town of the Devil. This body will also function as the Court of Oyer and Terminer, convened historically in Salem Town for the first time in 1692. Your chair, Mr. Charles Woodrum, will be acting as Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton: the Chief Magistrate responsible for providing the final judgment for those who have been accused of being a witch. The goal of this section is to prepare you for how the committee will operate throughout the weekend. Understanding the rules is key to developing your character and formulating your goals for the committee, so I highly encourage you to read it all the way through! Crisis. This committee will follow the general Crisis format of Model UN. Each person will be assigned a character with specific powers they can use throughout the committee, called portfolio powers. Delegates will be called upon to solve or tackle both the long-term aims of the meeting that this committee is simulating, but also the near-set goals that the committee may need to deal with in order to function. These goals will be directed by myself and the crisis staff, but will be influenced primarily by YOU and the people who you work with! Crisis Notes. This committee will be observing the Pad System. Two legal pads of the same color will be provided for each member of the committee. You will turn on one or both pads to the staff with your crisis notes without ripping them out the pad acts like a crisis book if you will. There is no need to bring additional paper for crisis notes as they will not be accepted, but we do encourage you to bring in paper and pens for note-passing and directive-writing purposes. Portfolio Powers. For the first time in OSUMUN history, the members of this committee will be given their portfolio powers individually (via email). Normally, the portfolio powers are included in the background guides in crisis committees, but we are making an exception because there may or may not be characters, MEN OR WOMEN, with peculiar, magical-seeming powers. This structure allows for a bit more creativity because you will be able to selectivity share the powers you are given. When you are notified of your powers, I will also give you a few suggestions for who to work with based on similar powers/values. This in no way limits you to those particular people to work with in committee. With that being said, some of you may be wondering if some people will have better powers than others. The portfolio powers are designed to be as equal as possible, seeing that there are naturally some more influential positions than others. HOWEVER, the judging of the committee
when it comes time for rewards is based on how one uses his or her powers no matter what those powers actually are. More information can be found in the Awards section. Trials. Seeing that this will eventually turn into judiciary committee, I fully expect to have multiple trials. The rules for parliamentary procedure will be utilized at the chair s discretion due to the obscurity of the committee. If you desire to put someone in trial (either a committee member or a person outside of committee), you must write a directive including the guilty party, the accusation, and the proposed punishment. The directive must have: - TWO sponsors - ¼ of the body as signatories And will be passed based on a simple majority vote. **Other directives will not follow the same rigid rules; separate rules for directives will be set the first day of the conference. ** Awards. There will be several awards given at the end of the conference: - 1-2 Verbal Commendations - 1-2 Honorable Mentions - 1 Outstanding Delegate Award - 1 Best Delegate Award - Awards will be decided at the discretion of the Chair, Crisis Director, and staff based on performance in the following categories: - Knowledge of portfolio powers and character accuracy. How well can you represent the opinions and personality of the character you were given? - Creativity. How well can you expand the actions of your character beyond what you were given while still sticking to the information you were given? - Cooperation. Can you work with the people around you, both in committee and in crisis, to have an even larger impact? - Involvement. How active are you in committee, giving speeches? Are your speeches meaningful and thought-provoking? Are you actively writing crisis notes? Are your notes of high-quality? I would like to reiterate that while there is no number scale, awards will be deliberated carefully and administered in the fashion we see being the fairest. Inquiries about awards can be directed to me, Silvia. Historical Accuracy.
This court will strive to be as historically accurate as possible. The committee may stray from historically accurate events at the discretion of the chair in order to accommodate the flow of debate. The court itself, originally made up of only 9 men, has already been altered to have more people and include women. REMEMBER, not all the people accused of witchcraft were women in Salem! Anyone around you could be a witch. If you feel that the committee is straying too far from historical accuracy, please feel free to have a discussion with the Chair or the Crisis Director at any point during the conference and we will try to accommodate. II. USEFUL VOCABULARY. Break Our Fast. Chamberpot To eat the first meal of the day. To have breakfast A container to go to the bathroom in during the nig or during bad weather. In the days before indoor plumbing, peop usually went to the bathroom outside. Cod A kind of ocean fish. Curds A soft cheese, like cottage cheese.. English Grains that were grown in England, such as wheat Corn.. rye, and oats. Fortnight Goodwife. Two weeks. A title of address used like we use "Mrs." A child
Husbandmen. Indian Corn... Kindled. Marjoram. Master.. Persecuted would call a married woman Goodwife" to show respect. A married man would be called "Goodman." Men who make their living through agriculture, or farming the land. The kind of corn found in the new world. Maize. Set fire to. An herb (plant) used for cooking and medicine. A title of address given to someone respected like Governor. Also, he wife of the Governor would be addressed "Mistress." Punished with pains and penalties for holding a ce belief or opinion. Physic Medical treatment.. Sabbath A day of rest and worship; for the Pilgrims it was.
To Stand Watch. Weary Very tired. Willful Stubborn. Yoke. Witch hunt. Mass hysteria. Puritans. Witchcraft.. Sunday. To guard the town. A group of men would take occasional military training so that they could defend their tow from attack. Used to fetch water. A piece of wood that goes ov the shoulders, with a bucket hanging on each side. The act of seeking and persecuting a perceived ene The mass public near-panic induced by the specul of witchcraft in Salem. A group of people who discounted the church of England and Worked towards religious, moral, and societal reforms. The practice of using the powers of the devil in a malicious way.
III. NEW ENGLAND AND PURITANISM. This map denotes the New England Colonies. See Salem, just north of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. New England Puritans lived their lives in geographical, political, and religious isolation. Communities were separated by many days of travel and trips to England and the Old World took weeks or even months. Parts of the government that were not directly controlled by the church hierarchy were obeying their strict interpretation of the Bible. The citizens of Puritan communities were not permitted to belong to or have any external connection with members of other Christian sects.
The Puritan movement began during the reign of Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603). Elizabeth I compromised with Catholics and Catholic sympathizers in England as she permanently established the Church of England. Sections of the population that were vehemently anti-catholic pushed back, only to be successfully oppressed for a time. Under the succeeding monarch, James I, Puritans were considered a faction of the Church of England and pushed for moderate reforms most often the ending of traditions seen as too Catholic. Some of these were making the sign of the cross, exchanging rings at marriage, and bowing when the name of Jesus was spoken. Due to various political conflicts, Puritans moved beyond a theological wing of the Anglican Church; during the English Civil War (1642-1651) and the political conflict that followed, Puritans became a major force within England, influencing the balance of power within warring factions considerably. However, they were never able to amass enough support among the general public to create the society the imagined, and thus immigration to New England increased dramatically. Puritanism in New England began to thrive, while in England, Puritans allied themselves with Oliver Cromwell, who died in 1658. With his death, Puritans saw their influence in the Old World slip, which led to a further exodus to America. In Plymouth Colony, Christmas was deemed illegal in the year 1659. This is symbolic of the strict, precarious nature of the religious sect.
In America, Puritanism began its own, new evolution. At the beginning of the 17 th century, most Puritans considered themselves loyal members of the Church of England, only believing that the church was insufficiently reformed and far to Catholic in nature. However, the Puritans that are now referred to as Pilgrims were separatists, who wished to start their own church separate from the Church of England. Pilgrims established the colony at Plymouth, while the colonies in Massachusetts (where the Salem witch trials took place) were founded by nonseparatist Puritans, though some influential separatist preachers did spend time ministering there. In New England, Puritanism did have its own philosophical distinctions (the discussion here will focus on those of the Massachusetts colonies) depending on the colony in question. They believed in double predestination, the idea that God had chosen the elect and the damned from the moment of creation, and that earthly life was a temporary passage to eternal life. They also believed that the saved (those who would enter into Heaven, i.e. the elect) would adhere to a covenant of grace (their salvation was earned by faith alone, and not by good works on earth). These Puritans also strongly believed in sola scriptura, that God communicated to the faithful through scripture alone. Thus, Divine revelation was not taken seriously and was often grounds for banishment (this will be strictly enforced during the conference, any attempt to claim Divine command or Divine revelation directly from God will be ignored or punished). Unlike communication from God, communication from Satan was a much more realistic claim in Puritanical New England, and witchcraft was a common claim. Witches were almost always females, as Puritans believed that women had inferior bodies and that having an inferior body would make one more susceptible to demonic influence. Meanwhile, blacks and Native Americans were considered creatures who were unable to control their susceptibility to Satan s
whispers. Interestingly, the more likely a woman was to inherit land or gain other forms of social power, the more likely she was to be accused and convicted of witchcraft. Within the family unit, husbands were seen as the spiritual leaders, and women were supposed to serve them obediently, though they had some autocracy in matters of childrearing and household management. Women had no role in the clergy and no role in the governance of the community. Strictly within marriage, couples were allowed and even expected to enjoy their sexuality without any real restrictions, as it was considered a gift from God. A failure in this regard was grounds for divorce (1/6 of divorce cases was a result of male impotence in Massachusetts). Meanwhile, Puritans accepted moderate drinking, but disliked celebrations of holidays, dramatic entertainment (plays) and games of chance. IV. POLITICAL and LOCAL CONTEXT. At the time of the Salem Witch Trials, Salem was split by deeply rooted socioeconomic divides. To the north (and the home of almost all alleged witches) was Salem Village, which was mainly inhabited by simple farmers who never had much success cultivating the rocky land. A threehour walk away was Salem Town, a hub for trade populated by wealthy merchants. The stark differences in income and way of life between the two places led to distrust and resentment among the citizens. While the prospering merchants encouraged economic growth, the impoverished farmers believed wealth contradicted their Puritan values. Reverend Parris, a rigid Puritan and extremely compelling speaker, exacerbated
this ever-growing rift between the two places by powerfully and articulately denouncing the affluent lifestyle of Salem Town in his sermons. 1 In addition to its internal rivalry with Salem Town, Salem Village was also affected by external strife. In 1692, the people of Salem were recovering physically, economically, and mentally from a British colonial war with France. The psychological effects of fighting a war from which they did not stand to gain took just as much of a toll as the drain on resources and population. A recent smallpox outbreak had also weakened both the physical population and its morale. With their limited knowledge of the science behind disease, the people of Salem believed that they were being punished for an unknown, general evil perpetrated by someone in the town. They lived in fear of attacks from the nearby Native American tribes, whom they viewed as vicious, barbaric, and extremely threatening. They were suspicious of their neighbors, but they were terrified of outsiders. 2 At the time of the Trials, William Phips was the Governor of Massachusetts and resided in Boston. In Salem, Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton and Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth took charge. V. THE COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was designed by Sir William Phips in Salem, Massachusetts and it was founded on May 27 th, 1962 for the sole purpose of trying those accused of witchcraft. The name has Latin roots: oyer and terminor translates to to hear and to determine. Phips arrived in Salem in May from England as a newly appointed governor and was eager to take 1 http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/life/divisions.html 2 http://www.history.com/topics/salem-witch-trials
control of the growing witch-uation. The hysteria needed to be addressed quickly in order to avoid a spark in hysteria and risk endangering the newly founded colonies. Phips appointed nine judges to the court: Jonathan Corwin of Salem, Thomas Danforth of Boston, Bartholomew Gedney of Salem, John Hathorne of Salem, John Richards of Boston, Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, Peter Sargent of Boston, Samuel Sewall of Salem, and Wait Winthrop of Boston. These appointed judges worked on Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, who served as the chief magistrate for the Court. The court first convened on June 2 nd, 1692. VI. LEGAL PROCEDURES. The debut of a case before the Court of Oyer and Terminer usually began with a formal complaint against an alleged witch for a loss, illness, or death of a citizen. The complaints were taken by local magistrates (the equivalent of a police man in the 1690 s), and if deemed credible, the man/woman accused would be arrested. The accused person would then be brought to a public examination during which they would be pressed to confess to witchcraft. If there was determined to be grounding evidence, the accused would then be to transferred to a higher court, in most cases the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The laws that governed the convictions in Salem were a mixture of biblical passages and old colonial statutes. Interestingly, laws already existed that described what to do in the case of a witch. The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopted the following statute in 1641: If any man or woman be a WITCH, that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death. Two common charges were (1) afflicting with witchcraft and (2) making unlawful covenant with the Devil. Once indicted, the defendant went to trial and was either found to be guilty or not guilty of the charges. If found guilty, the accused witches would either
be hanged or stoned to death. There were three types of evidences that the Court would typically reply on: (1) confession, (2) testimony of two eyewitnesses to acts of witchcraft, or (3) spectral evidence (when the afflicted girls were having their fits, they would interact with an unseen assailant the apparition of the witch tormenting them). It is important to note that the court never convicted someone on the basis of spectral evidence alone. The court typically looked for additional evidence such as witch marks on the person s body, prior conflicts, bad acts, lack of religious devotion, etc. The Salem Witch trials were a dividing time for the people of Salem Colony. Neighbors testified against neighbors, children against parents, and husbands against wives. Children died, families were destroyed, and churches began to remove members whom they felt displayed acts of witchcraft. Additional Notes. This committee will begin on February 1 st, 1692, just days before the initial outbreak of accusations begins. This meeting is called by Lieutenant Gov. William Stoughton, who will act as the chair. As you read, the Court of Oyer and Terminer does not begin until June of that year. For the first half of committee, this body will simply be an advisory board to William Stoughton, and for the second half, the committee will function as the court (disregarding historical accuracy as to who was actually on the court and who was not). THUS, you should spend most of your time during the first half investigating claims of witchcraft and settling public hysteria, and during the second half, acting as a legal body to try and prosecute defendants.
You will be given a crisis update as to when Phips (governor of Massachusetts) grants you the charter to become a court to indicate the half-way point. Character List (Portfolio Powers will be provided through individual emails): Arnold Wood Archibald Baptist Reverend Samuel Parris Reverend Cotton Mather Reverend John Hale Reverend Samuel Willard John Hawthorne Jonathan Corwin Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth Prosecutor Thomas Newton Thomas Brattle Colonel Nathaniel Saltonstall Colonel Bartholomew Gedney Thomas Putnam Samuel Sewall John Richards The Honorable Peter Sargent Wait Winthrop
Richard Purry Dr. Joseph Gladwell Additional links. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unraveling-mysteries-tituba-salem-witch-trials- 180956960/ http://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-salem-witch-trials/ http://laceyellis.com/portfolio/word%20processing/salem%20witch%20trials.pdf http://historyofmassachusetts.org/salem-witch-trials-victims/ Final Note: Congratulations, you made it to the end of the Background Guide! I would like to reiterate that the date of our first meeting in June 2 nd, 1692. Together, we need to put an end to this mass hysteria in Salem! Come prepared with your portfolio powers memorized and ready to argue. As always, please reach out to me with any questions. - Silvia