Salem Witch Trials In The 1600's

Tori Humphrey Salem Essay September 30th, 2017 Dr. Wood The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Of those 200 people, 20 were executed 14 women and 6 men. The 6th man was essentially pressed to death with heavy rocks because he refused to be tried. The other were hung.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts a violent panic broke out. The Salem witch trial hysteria largely caused by religious beliefs, suspicious acts, and ergot poisoning. One main cause of the witch hysteria was religious beliefs. Puritans of the Church were strong holders of every small thing in the Bible.

The religion was a big part in the puritan’s belief system. Puritans believed that beings like the devil, angels, God, and of course witches. The puritans believed that the Devil would possess a normal being and turn them into and trouble seeking witch, as shown in the Background Essay. The first accused witch was Bridget Bishop, as show in Document C. The “afflicted” girls would act bewitched by her, as proven in Document D.

Richard Godbeer introduced “the salem witch hunt” in which he addresses various tragic dialogues occurring in Salem during the early modern period. During the course of Puritans, many followed strictly through the concept of catholic religious beliefs leading to apprehension in contact of compulsive behaviour influencing supernatural assumptions. Commonly the society detected this manifestation as witchcraft, overbearing that most poor, widowed and oddly conducted women were generally associated with demonic figures. During the trails mentioned in the authors book, we can sense a shift of emotion overbearing the figure being held in front of the jury and also to the people witnessing this horrific perturbation since most of women at the time,

The most infamous trials were held in Court of Oyers and Terminer. They were a series of hearing and persecutions for the act of witchcraft. Evidence were from gossip, stories and unsupported assertions that if a person who scoffed at the accusation or denied they were a witch became targets themself. (Linder 3)A serperating of accusers and accusing were often over land disputes. Puritans coming over to the Americans had minimum land and with increasing family size this often fueled disputes between neighbors where there economy was based off agriculture(Scott 1).

Salem Village, as part of the colony of Massachusetts Bay experienced turmoil from external and internal factors that contributed to the crisis known as the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692 to 1693. Being accused of witchcraft that lead to a trial was not unheard of before this event, however the scale and hysteria of the event can be attributed to a few factors. The mass hysteria experienced by Salem Village did not appear out of nowhere. There was a sense of unease and fear due to the ongoing war between New France and New England, King William’s War. Not far North of Salem Village there were raids of towns by Native American’s on behalf of the French, including Andover, Massachusetts where they burned the village, and in the following year

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show the alarming similarity between the witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600s to the witch hunts of his own time, the communist investigations of the 1950s. Arthur Miller was an American playwriter. He spoke out against the government and, once was even questioned by the United States Government about his un-American views. In the 1950s through the 1960s the United States and Russia were in the Cold War.

Salem Witch Trial History Women were not seen as humans in history. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during the years of 1692 and 1693. The Salem Witch Trials had an impact on women because they were said to be more likely to sin than men. Some of the reasons why women were said to be witches more often than men is because that people had strong religious beliefs that put more responsibility on women, ergot and crop diseases plaguing the lands, and there was few activities to do.

In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.

In general, the accusers were poor farmers of lower status and lived in the western part of the

The Witch Trials By: Natalie Boggs The Salem Witch Trials were a time between 1692 and 1693. It all started when two young girls who lived in Salem, Massachusetts started having theses fits out of nowhere one minute they would perfectly behaved children then the next they would start having these fits. The girls had claimed somebody had bewitched them and that they were possessed by the Devil. Many historians believed that the strange behaviors could be from the Rye the people in Salem had been eating but what the people of Salem didn't know was that there was a deadly bacteria on the Rye that could have caused the girls fits. I know that from research that the Salem Witch Trials where a time that many people claimed to be possessed by the Devil and they accused innocent people of bewitching them.

There are many reasons why justice is not best determined in the court of law. In Salem’s century, many people were the victims of the witchcraft trials by the court of law. Today people have better education and knowledge to decide someone innocent or guilty in a court of law. There is no guarantee that laws can give people justice because decisions from a group of people can decide someone’s life and future.

In 1692 the Salem Witch trials took over the Puritan religion. People were being convicted based on spectral evidence and being hanged based on the words of greedy awful people who were willing to kill someone just to accomplish some of their own selfish desires. Thoughtless reasoning clouded by a harmful religion is what caused the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Fear of the Devil, and witches who did his bidding, was very real in Salem at the time. People in Salem believed very much in plainness, the divine mission, and most of all grace.

The Puritans ran from persecution but then used the witch hunt to persecute innocent people based on the word of the women and men who had ulterior motives. The women used this opportunity to punish people they long had problems or resentment for. These women- Abigail, Tituba, and Mary- were aware of the power they felt when they were being heard by people in their community who were deemed Godly, upstanding citizens. So, they loved the sense of power they felt. Although the townspeople of Salem used religion as the reason for the witch hunt, the witch hunt created chaos because people started using it a revenge mechanism.

One topic brought up in the discussion was how perception changes over time. With the example of fire, fire used to be essential to survival back during the time of cavemen. In modern times, we have electricity and heaters so we take fire for granted. This idea can be connected to witchcraft because the way we view something changes based on our moral values and how we live. After doing background research about puritans the first time I read the book, I understood that Puritans placed a high value upon hard work, their religion, and living a honest and pure life so that they will be saved; however I never really connected their lifestyle to their belief in witchcraft.