...Salem Witch Trials By: Lewis Tejada The Salem Witch Trials were a long, drawn court case in which both men and women alike were accused of practicing witchcraft. The final result was the deaths of 20, 24 including the ones who died while in custody. While the trials were well documented, the hysteria leading to them is unidentified. After looking at the 5 documents, I believe the cause of this is due to; power, money, and jealousy and paranoia. These factors played a monumental role on who was accused and who the accusers were. Power influenced who was accused and who the “victims” were. The accused were mostly married women who were between the ages 41-60. This meant they had accumulated lots of recognition over the years due to their...
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...argue that the Salem witch trials were a result of hysteria, the accusations were primarily caused by gender and class tensions, Puritan world views, and the Indian Wars. These causes are explored in the texts “The Historiography of Salem Witch Trials”, “Witchcraft”, “Puritan Beliefs and the Salem Witchcraft Trials”, but most importantly in Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”. “The Crucible” deals with women and young girls in 17th Century Salem, MA. These women were being accused of practicing witchcraft and dealing with the devil. The gender and class tensions along with Puritan world views combined to create this hysteria that led to these women going to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to public hanging. The Indian Wars were not the main focus in “The Crucible” because it was also meant to be a commentary on the McCarthy trials in the 1950s during the Cold War. Gender tensions contributed to to the accusations of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, as demonstrated in the film “The Crucible”. One example of this was the scene in (“The Crucible”) where the girls ask Tituba to help them get a husband with casting spells. There were many fears among the adolescent girls and that...
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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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...Fares Alkatanani Ap Language March 19, 2024 Mrs. Evans What were some of the possible causes of the witch trials? Le Beau, Bryan F. “Factional Politics Provoked the Crisis in Salem Village.” The Salem Witch Trials. Edited by Laura Marvel. Greenhaven Press, 2003. pp. 113-117. 30 - 36. LeBeau examines the role of internal conflicts within Salem leading up to the trials. He argues that economic tensions and land disputes charged the Salem witch with hysteria. The article takes a further look at power struggles between Salem Town and Village and how they only deepened social tensions, contributing to the occurrence of the trials. The political state of Salem is in crisis. Many were in disagreement, causing high tensions. Salem is divided into...
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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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...Salem witch trials Sabrina Armstrong Com/220 April 24, 2010 G.L. Beck Salem witch trials: a drug induced hysteria What happened in Salem in 1692? The people involved in the Salem witch trials were more than just names, dates and places; they were people with lives and families as well. The Salem witch trials started with three girls falling ill with mysterious symptoms that the doctors could not explain by medical science during that point in history. Many people still wonder today why the hysteria took place. Some people believe that, what caused the hysteria was a by-product of children’s self-delusions. Other people believe that while, the hysteria fueled the Salem witch trials it was not the cause of the trials. A handful of people instead believe that it was drug induce by a toxic fungus called ergot. Ergot is a mold often found on plants such as rye, wheat, and barley, which during the witch trials and still today people made bread from these plants. St. Anthony’s fire is also another name for ergotism. Ergot is a type of food poisoning; that during; Medieval Times was frequent. Although ergot does not include LSD, it does contain ergotamine, which is the hallucinogen that LSD derives from. The evidence suggests that digesting food with ergot in it will poison people and make them sick; this was a major aspect in the Salem trials but no one realized this until recently, when historian and behaviorist psychologist Linnda Caporael did a study on the trials...
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...is a hideous thing that can cause people to do things that some of us would never imagine doing today. Or maybe some of us would, but only to an extent. One of the most known events more than likely known by this was the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by many other things as well. However, the main causes of the trials were town division, lying girls, and jealousy. As above, the first reason for the Salem Witch Trials was town division. “The people in the western half of Salem Village farmed poorer land and lost political power” (Document E). What this means is that ultimately the poor were accusing the rich of witchcraft because they felt threatened and wanted to hold more power than they did. Most think that it was because the women of the town wanted to get to the men for the money, but the accusations were not only made by women. In Document B it is shown that approximately 20% were male, but the majority were still female. So what did the men want? Land? Or perhaps the wives? Since nobody alive was actually a witness, all there is, is historical information that is hoped to be accurate....
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...innocent people in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. There is a great deal of speculation around the actual causes of the Salem witch trials. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, had the theory that “the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity...
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...S., in two different time periods). For example, you could discuss accepted "truth" about the Earth's position in the universe today compared to that of the 1600s. After reading the text it truly seems like “truth” and “reality” are always changing. What seems to be 100% true right now may seem silly one hundred years from now, or even in a few years. I agree that “reality is a product of the cultural and historical period in which it exists." An example that came to mind is the Salem witch trials. The witch hunt occurred in Massachusetts between the years 1692 and 1693. During this time people believed that the Devil could give give others special powers. The Salem which trials came about shortly after thousands of accused witches in Europe were executed in their own witch hunt. Throughout the entire Salem witch trials over 200 people (mostly women) were accused of being witches influenced by the Devil, and around 20 were executed. The event that sparked the Salem witch trials was when the Reverend’s daughter and niece began to act in very strange manners. They would make strange noises, scream, throw objects, and have shaking episodes where their bodies would contort. The town’s doctor believed these episodes were the result of magic or the supernatural. A month later, three women were blamed for the attacks. The women charged with the crimes were a female slave, a homeless woman, and a poor elderly woman. When questioned all claimed to be innocent except...
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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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...The Salem witch trials took place in 1692-1693, executing people accused of practicing witchcraft. In result of the executions and accusations it affected the community and their religion. For eight months, colonists in Massachusetts went on a witch hunt. Hundreds of people were “cried out” against. One hundred seventeen women and thirty-nine men were accused and within a four month period fourteen women and five men were hung and one man was pressed to death. The concept of witchcraft is often treated as a cultural ideology providing a scapegoat for human misfortune. This was particularly the case in the early modern period of Europe where witchcraft was seen as part of a vast diabolical conspiracy of individuals following the Devil undermining Christianity, eventually leading to large-scale witch-hunts, especially in Protestant Europe. (The History of Witchcraft and Demonology) In Christianity and Islam, sorcery came to be associated with heresy and to be viewed as evil. Among the Catholics, Protestants, and secular leadership of the European Late Medieval/Early Modern period, fears about witchcraft rose to an all time high, and sometimes led to large witch hunts. Throughout this time, it was increasingly believed that Christianity was engaged in an apocalyptic battle against the Devil and his secret army of witches, who had entered into a diabolical pact. In result , thousands of people were executed, and others were imprisoned, tortured, banished, and had lands and...
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...A Representation of the Accused Witches of Salem The Salem Witch Trials were a series of executions that took place in Salem, Massachusetts during the years 1692-1693. These executions took place due to a large number of people in Salem being accused of witchcraft. The amount of tried witches primarily consisted of women, although men were also accused. This paper argues that a specific pattern can be found with regards to how the women accused of witchcraft were viewed in their society. In particular, women who stood out in a negative manner were often the victims of public accusations, especially those represented as religious heretics, deviant members in society, and social outcasts. In order to interpret the Salem Witch Trials, one must...
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...What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? In the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, the devil took the souls of weak-willed people, which were wizards and witches. This event was called the Salem Witch Trials, which consisted of numerous people allegedly practicing witchcraft. To prevent the witchcraft they hunted and tried the accused. The punishment for practicing witchcraft was death. Every historian had a different thought on what caused the event. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum suggested that the most reliable form of evidence was supernatural strengths, weaknesses or unusual physical characteristics. The Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692 was caused by Puritans belief of the devil, Bridget Bishop spreading the practice of witchcraft to others, and Cotton Mather’s story of the sermon and manuscript. One cause of the witch trial...
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...In late March 2011, a Muslim third-grader was found hanging unconscious in his school in Louisville, KY. It was not the first time Muhammad had been bullied and abused. This is happening all over the World, and we need to change it. In Arthur Millers the Crucible, Witch Trials were taken place all over Salem. Most trials were corrupt, they were listening to teenagers during the trials. The trials were not accurate, due to them believing the teenagers that were being accurate and not choosing anyone that was weaker or different from the group of teenagers. The teenagers were choosing anyone less superior to them. This is happening in real life. Teens of all ages and even adults are making fun of Muslims due to their religion. Both the Salem witch trials and our actions and views show that fearing something we do not understand causes hatred toward a group of people. The Salem witch trials show that fearing something we do not understand causes our actions to get out of hand. In The Crucible...
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...The Salem Witch Trials and The Civil Rights Movement are both very tragic. They are both similar even though they are in different times. They are very similar in the fact of hysteria, the innocent lives taken, and prejudice. In the Salem Witch Trials, which started in 1692 in a town called “ Salem”of Massachusetts (History). During the Salem Witch Trials there had been a lot of hysteria because people didn't know whether somebody was a witch or not, or whether they would be accused ( History ). This is similar with the Civil Rights Movement in the fact of how African American...
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