...The Salem Witch Trials, of 1692, occurred in Salem Massachusetts. This is a case where people accused other people of witchcraft. Salem was a town governed by strict Puritan religion, and to have such a charge labeled against you could cost you your life. According to Boyer and Nissenbaum, there were many worldly reasons for the events that happened so many years ago. In this essay, the authors make their findings based on scientific analysis and much historical research. Paul Boyer and Stephen argued that the Salem Witchcraft Trials took place because of the separation of the east and west, the choosing of the ministers of the church, and the agricultural and merchant interests. After much research, “took their list of accusers and accused the...
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...The well-know Salem witch trials began when a group of girls were diagnosed with bewitchment after showing symptoms of uncontrollable outbursts of screaming and contortions. These symptoms spread to other young girls in the community and most likely were caused by other reasons that could have included epilepsy, child abuse, mental illness or even a disease caused by eating rye bread infected with fungus. Nevertheless, the bewitchment diagnosis stuck. Some of the young girls claimed to be possessed by the devil and a few of them accused certain women in the community of being witches. The people of Salem, who already lived in fear from the real world dangers such as political instability, small pox and Indian massacres, were terrified of this evil. The hysteria this caused spread throughout colonial Massachussets. The Puritans were...
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...of the minister of salem village randomly started having screaming and violent outbursts. The doctor diagnosed them with being controlled by witches. After they have been diagnosed other females started mimicking the same symptoms that the two girls had. The young girls accused a caribbean slave, Tituba, and other women of using witch spells on them. Years latter it was revealed they were lying, and Abigail Williams were the mastermind behind the lies of the young girls being bewitched. The people Abigail Williams accused of being witches were brought to the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and being questioned while the teens who lied about them being...
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...THE BEGINNING AND END OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALSIntroductionThe Salem witch trials have been drawing attention of researchers and historians for manycenturies due to the unexplained nature of the events and their continuance. From the 17thcenturyuntil now scientists present and explore different possible reasons which caused the witch hysteriain Salem and brought harm to many people.The Salem witch trials were a series of prosecutions which began in Salem town, stateMassachussetts, in 1692, and the consequences of the trials lasted till 1697. In 1692, two little girlsstarted to demonstrate weird and frightening behavior including convulsions and hallucinations.Very quickly several other girls and some adults developed the same symptoms, and...
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...Salem Witch Trail essay You are a witch.Would you do anything for jealousy attention or revenge? The Salem Witch trial was a time where many people of the village were being accused of witchcraft it was a very hectic period of time. The cause of the effect of salem witch trials of 1692 was revenge, attention, and jealousy. We all know about revenge and perhaps we all have done it in some point in our life. Salem witch crafts hanging were common and it is related to revenge because once a person was pressed to death most of his or her family would be executed. Document A there were many people who were related and executed like Mary Parker and Alice Parker. So this goes to show how revenged occurred because it did not matter if you were not a witch.This document shows that some people were related and that caused them to accuse their family members,and in document A it also that many whom were lady,which could...
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...The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day. Religion was a very strong influence in the lives of Puritans as they followed a very strict moral code and based their entire lives on their faith. Most Puritans were taught from the Bible that "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Doc. A), which explains why the witch scare was taken so seriously and why the accused were punished so harshly. They believed and feared that "evil spirits were all around" (Doc. C) as noted in Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions by Cotton Mather, who at that time was a reputable expert in the "invisible world." It seems strange to 21st-century dwellers that people believed that witches could be identified by marks of the devil, as portrayed in an 1853 painting by T.H. Matteson (Doc. D). Today, it is frightening to imagine that people accused others of “bewitching your first husband...
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...The Crucible In the tragedy play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller there were a lot of characters involved with the Salem witch trials, but there were only three characters who were responsible for it. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials who several young girls were supposedly afflicted by witchcraft. And so the girls accused innocent people in their town for witchcraft also mostly accusing people who they or their families dislike so they would be hanged. In total 20 people were killed due to the witch trials. The three characters who were responsible for the Salem witch trials are Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and Betty Parris. Abigail Williams has most part why the witch trials started because she knew this was all a...
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...commit? During,1692 in Salem, Massachusetts there was a very bizarre hysteria going around. What caused the Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692? There were three causes of the Salem Witch Trial hysteria. These were gender, age and marital status, town division wealth and power, and the lying girls. To begin with, there were three causes of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria which were gender, age, and marital status. One piece of evidence that supports this cause, is the document B. Twenty-three accusers were single, as opposed to the six married women. Furthermore, another piece of supporting evidence, is the majority of the accusers were mainly single women from the ages of sixteen through twenty. This evidence helps to explain the hysteria and the hangings. According to the Document B, the majority of the girls were single and at the age between sixteen and twenty years old. In addition, the girls had to follow a very strict lifestyle, which maybe they wanted to get out of their situation and find a man to marry.Thus, because of the girl's odd behavior, one way we could assume why these girls would do this is because of the strict Puritan lifestyle.This...
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...believed that he could possess anybody and cause numerous types of disasters, so thus the period of hysteria began. In a span of few months many were accused and hanged because of the false accusations. What actually caused the Salem witch trials of 1692? The three main components that caused the hysteria were: religion, envy, and excitement. The background history mentions that the Puritans were fundamentalists, meaning that they believed the Bible no matter what,“ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” ( Doc. A). If the Bible told the Puritans that the witches were foul creatures, the Puritans believed the Bible and did everything in their power to destroy the witches. Cotton Mather was an influential minister in the New England colonies. He preached, “These evil spirits are all around...but the houses of Christians, where our God has had his constant...
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...next being accused of witchery? That was exactly what occurred in the Salem Witch trials of 1692. When neighbors turned on each other and loyalties were broken in this tragic event. In the Spring of January 1692, a few girls in the village of Salem started to experience strange behavior. Muscle contortions, seizures, and sudden bursts of screaming. After the doctor said that it was a case of bewitchment, the girls immediately started to accuse their neighbors of bewitching them. This shows how certain circumstances cause people to lose loyalty to each other because of their shared fear of the unknown. Salem was a small town but its geography actually affected the trials. The town of Salem was on the...
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...“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” - James A. Baldwin Throughout history, justice systems have been involved in more corrupt situations than anything else in human history. It is morose to think that something that can be so pure is so terrible. The Salem Witch Trials and The Scottsboro Boys Trials are some of the most horrific events involved with a cheating justice system. Although these events took place years apart from each other, the stories still hold moral truth: A court that is corrupt is as dangerous as a loaded gun. The Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693) were a long, drawn out portion of American history. (Miller) American has always tended to be afraid of what it could not understand. (Miller) During the 1950s, a movement led by Senator Joe McCarthy sought to seek and identify members of the Communist Party, but in reality he was just pointing fingers at people he did not like. (Miller) To retaliate, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible which is about The Salem Witch Trials. (Miller) Miller knew that if...
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...Between February 1962 and May 1693, a series of executions, known as the Salem Witch Trials, occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. One of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the trials resulted in accusations being brought against around 200 people, 19 of whom were found guilty and executed. The motivations behind these hearings serve as a subject of debate among historians. Puritan beliefs held by the residents of Salem resulted in an extreme fear of witchcraft for nearly every member of the village. However, many of the executed, accused witches had individuals who stood to gain from their deaths. This essay investigates the extent of which the trials were affected by religion compared to politics. By analyzing both primary and secondary...
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...Hemphill, C. Dallett. "Women in Court: Sex-Role Differentiation in Salem, Massachusetts, 1636 to 1683." The William and Mary Quarterly 39, no. 1 (1982): 164-75. This source pints out the fact that men held power and authority over women since the beginning of Salem and throughout its development. The law was enforced by patriarchal figures and women were subjects who were expected to follow it. While Salem was a patriarchal society, it surprisingly also allowed women to testify in court and were active in their duties outside of the household. Women were aware of the social issues that surrounded them. This source shows the shift that occurred in Salem and caused women to eventually feel “economically helpless”. The experience of abuse between...
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...Katherine Harrison- An Explanation Behind the Madness Although witchcraft is commonly associated with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, there were also other trials throughout the century across colonial New England. It is important to look at some of these other trials also in order to see their cultural and historical impacts. The impacts are often overlooked because all of the attention tends to be put towards the Salem trials. One trial in particular, the 1669 trial of Katherine Harrison, is interesting to look at because of its particular circumstances. Although the essays by two respected historians, Jane Kamensky and Carol Karlsen, never address the trial specifically both seem to offer explanations for Katherine Harrison’s particular witchcraft circumstances. In order to fully compare the accuracy of their explanations to her situation a few things need to be addressed. First off there shall be a brief history of witchcraft in New England, then a clear description of the case against Katherine. Following that there shall be a summary of the historians’ individual viewpoints from their essays. Then finally, and most importantly, is the evidence of why Karlsen and Kamensky have explanatory power in the Harrison case. Witchcraft trials started around 1648 in New England and were fueled by the strong faith of the Puritans. The Puritans, a devout religious group, believed that Satan was an angel who had turned against god, and that witches had been possessed by Satan....
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...relate because of the way the trials were held. The Crucible just like The Red Scare has something to do with convicting, killing innocent people and imprisoning. In the Salem witch trial, people were in trepidation of witch craft the same way that Americans were in apprehension of communism. Around this time and between The Cold War, Joseph McCarthy was a first-term senator from Wisconsin and he had won the election in 1946 after a campaign, which he then criticized all of his opponent’s failure to enlist during WWII. By the end of time, McCarthy lost some allies. He kept his job and lost his power. He died in 1957 at 48 years old. The Red Scare has always been said to be the most effective of WWI. The Salem witch trials didn’t have any type of cause and there were even some reports of more witchcraft in other towns. Arthur Miller had become very fascinated with the environment and how it affected society as a whole. Arthur also wrote an essay in 1996 called “Why I Wrote The Crucible; Authors answer...
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