...Ever since the dawn of time, people have sought out revenge on others. The Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust are both events in which people sought revenge on other people, mostly for no reason. Some wanted eradication of witchcraft, while others another human race. The trials began during the spring of 1692, after the group of girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local woman of witchcraft.(Salem Witch Trials) The first convicted was Bridget Bishop, who was hung that June. (Salem Witch Trials)Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill,while some 150 men, women, and children were accused over the next several months.(salem witch trials) By September 1692,...
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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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...characters impact the plot of the play significantly. In situations of mass hysteria such as the Salem witch trials every word on the topic is believed to be the truth. Giles Corey says that he is worried because his wife is reading books everyone immediately assumes it is witchcraft. When Mary Warren is being set up to look like a witch and confesses that she works with the devil out of fear of being hanged she provides the judges with false information that Lucifer is in Salem. Tituba confesses that she works with the devil making anyone that is accused of being a witch that doesn’t confess seem guilty. These minor characters’ actions are the reason the Salem witch trials found so many innocent people guilty....
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...The Salem Witch trials, which took place in Massachusetts between the years of 1692 and 1693, have long been viewed as a mystery due to the sudden erratic behaviors and harsh punishments placed on those who were tried as “witches”. During the Salem Witch Trials, over two-hundred people were arrested for showing signs of witchcraft, which included biting, scratching, and screaming. Of the two-hundred who were arrested, nineteen were hanged and one was stoned to death. As Emerson W. Baker – an archaeologist who specializes in the study of the Salem Witch Trials – explained in his book A Storm of Witchcraft, that the witch trials were caused by a “perfect storm” of three big problems. (Baker) The main causes of the Salem Witch Trials were harsh winter weather, political discord, and religion....
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...Ben Arsenault October 29, 2015 In colonial Massachusetts in 1692, a series of witch trials took place in a town called Salem. Many theories point out the reasoning for this witch hunt, some say it was due to the belief in evil. Others say, the people in Salem were just acting, or maybe, it was a lack of knowledge. In events like the holocaust, post 9/11, and McCarthyism & the red scare, similar theories can explain the causes.This presents, that the reasons for the Salem witch trials are those same reasons for “witch hunts” throughout history. The belief in evil had a major role in the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials. After just one person in the village became ill and the doctor who evaluated that person said that it was not a sickness,...
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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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...The Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials were a series of court hearings and prosecutions of people accused of performing witchcraft and other supernatural abilities in colonial Massachusetts. These occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. Although they are referred to as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings were done in various towns: Salem Village, Ipswich, Andover, and Salem Town. These trials had a lasting effect on a multitude of things in the formation of the United States of America and its colonies. The trials brought about warnings of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, and profiling based off of social class. Thanks to these trials, America was able to take caution in them to help them eventually form the great country it is today. In order to completely understand the effect of the trials it is necessary to have a little information from the trials. Salem was originally founded in 1626 by a group of European fisherman. Over the years it had gotten a little larger of a town, but never too big. Overall in the incident, around 24 people died because of their accusations of being a witch; whether from being executed, tortured in order to get information, or being killed while in prison. Isolationism really added in influencing the mass hysteria of the people of Salem. They were all so far away from everyone else they essentially had no ways of communicating with anyone at all and they rarely got any news of anything. They...
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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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...The salem witch trials occurred between 1692 and 1693. They took place in the colonial Salem in Massachusetts. In total there was one hundred and forty-one people put in prison, nineteen were hanged and one person was even crushed to death. These trials were performed to find out what individuals in the colony were practicing witchcraft. Of the nineteen who were hanged fourteen were women and five were men. Some of the individuals that were in jail died before serving their time. When the bewitchings initially started in Salem they were only targeting younger girls but as they expanded, older women were included to the group. Hearings of the salem witch trials were initially passed on to different towns but the main trial was organized and...
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...Three Sovereigns for Sarah A notorious event in U.S history was the witchcraft hysteria that had mesmerized Salem, Massachusetts, had a few contributing factors. The village Salem, Massachusetts, had many trials for people who were believed to practice witchcraft. The accused people were sentenced to cruel deaths and the awaiting people were jailed and waited for trail. Some ways people were killed were by hanging, laying bricks upon them, and the rest died in prison. In total, 20 people were killed. Prison in those days were held in terrible condition which caused a mother and her son to die. The Salem witch trials would take place between February 1962 and May 1963. A possible contributing factor to the witch hysteria that took place in Salem, is the town was already a troublesome community. The town would...
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...The Salem Witch Trials was a crucial piece of American History. It was like inviting hell on earth and having a nightmare brought to life. It’s something that shouldn’t be repeated. There’s many unanswered questions to the real reasons the Salem Witch Trials began that experts discovered numerous theories. The lifestyle of the puritans, the disease that overcame, and the communities differences are all real reasons behind the Salem Witch Trials. In the late 17th century times were changing. It might have seemed for the better in some places, and in others not at all. America in 1692 was like freedom with ankle bracelets. Puritans came from Europe wanting to get away from the harsh ways of their homeland, and start a life with their own set of rules on the other side of the world. Yet, their rules were less crucial, but still strict. The young females thought and wanted their generation to be different. The puritans were austere on females especially on vanity. But since this was just the beginning of when people started coming Europe they had the same things in mind like freedom, new opportunities, and a new life just not the same ideas. The young ladies had gotten...
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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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...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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...The Salem Witch Trials was one of the most phenomenal events that had ever occur in history, that lead to which is now still a mystery on how it happened. During the 1600s, immigrants from England came over to a part of North America, which is known as New England. They were called the Puritans. Puritans were Protestant Christians that were upset with churches in England. Their arrival to Colonial Massachusetts was the purpose of starting a new life. The life of the Puritans revolved around religion and farming. Farming was difficult in Colonial Massachusetts because of the harsh winter and the rocky soil. Although life went on as usual, until the period of 1692. This was when things started to get suspicious around. They call this the Salem Witch Trial, that...
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...people of Salem are going through a time of panic and hysteria, because anyone can be accused of witchery. Some use this to their advantage, and accuse people for revenge, greed, or fame; others attempt to cease the madness and bring the truth about the Salem witch trials, and how they are false; some even wanted no part in what was happening around them. As portrayed in The Crucible, the Salem witch Trials forcefully involved innocent people, like Rebecca Nurse, who wanted to have nothing to do with the...
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