Salem Witch Trials Short Story

During the late 1691 several young girls began to suffer fits and nightmares, attributed by their elders to witchcraft (Foner 106). Tituba who was a slave from Barbados that lived with two of the girls that were having fits as a servant. The girls invited several friends to share this delicious, forbidden diversion. Tituba’s audience listened intently as she talked of telling the future. Villagers sat spellbound as Tituba spoke of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds, and a white-haired man who bade her sign the devil’s book.

This court document is about six servants and a slave who left their master, were caught, and what their punishments were. At this time, growing tobacco required a lot of labor from indentured servants and slaves. The occasion for why this document was written is that several indentured servants and a slave escaped. There was just a judge, no juries or lawyers, which is similar to what happened in the Salem Witch Trials. The audience of this document are judges in other colonies.

Between 1692 and 1693, in Salem Village, Massachusetts, the Salem witch trials were taking place. In the event, many were accused of witchcraft and some were even executed. This event had left many curious as to what caused the people to accept witchcraft and treat it as a crime. To explain the trials, Paul Boer and Stephen Nissenbaum wrote the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft in which they analyzed and broke down key components of the witch trials.

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.

The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 in Massachusetts. The trials began when young girls around Salem started acting up. They would start to scream and bark like a dog, fall to the floor, and would be spotted dancing in the woods. The accused witches had to be looked over carefully, the examiners would look for physical evidence, they would look for spectral evidence, have them recite the Lord's Prayer, or they would wait for them to confess. (www.ushistory.org/us/3g.asp) .

A similar pattern throughout the crisis was seen. All those accused where not born in Salem even if they had lived there all their life or were Indians (linking them to the American Indian war in 1622-1624) or those who were previously accused of witchcraft. Also mentions the afflicted girls and fortune telling how they all got scared when a coffin appeared in one of their

The Accused Witches of 1692 The year of 1692, accused witches were being hung left and right. About 134 people were accused of being a witch or wizard, these hangings mainly occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. What caused the exaggerated behavior of 1692? The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 could have been caused by the puritans religion, acting or lying, and ergot poisoning. One possible cause of the Salem witch trial could have been the cause of religion because the ministers and church leaders had to let everyone know about witchcraft and that they needed to end it.

“Speak only when spoken to.” These words are something that many women have heard throughout history. They have heard it from their parents, their husbands, and their brothers. It is a phrase that is intended to belittle women and silence them when they are not in the privacy of their own homes. In a time and place where young girls were taught that freedom and individuality were privileges that they were not able to enjoy, it is easy to see how the search for a voice and attention could have negative consequences.

The Salem witch trials began in October 1692, where the towns people of Salem Village Massachusetts thought they were being attacked by a conspiracy of witches. The Puritans also thought of North America as the devil’s territory, a super natural enemy. During the spring of 1692 a group of young girls started acting really bazar they claimed to possessed by the devil. The girls accused many older local women of witchcraft, usually all the women accused were usually outcasts. The result of those young girls Salem Village began a special court to hear the cases of accused women.

Having converted from a pagan to a catholic I have been ridiculed by peers and called a devil worshipper. I find it funny that when people hear the words witch or magic they automatically think there is an association with the devil. At a certain point I started to feel like it was 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts the only things missing were a noose and giant cross. What’s funny is that my interest in the Salem Witch Trials is what began my obsession with all things Wiccan. Unbeknownst to my family I started practicing and I started to become addicted.

There were bizarre things that happened throughout history, but the most bizarre thing was the women in the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials happened in 1692. The Salem Witch Trials was the oddest thing that happened in Massachusetts. During the Salem Witch Trials young girls displayed odd behaviors, physicians were called to examine the girls and could not find any natural causes of their odd behavior, and the young girls were pressured into revealing who was controlling them ( “The Salem Witch Trials, 1692”).

The first four colonies of America were, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, following with Connecticut. John Winthrop, Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, along with Anne Hutchinson, were few of the founders of the first colonies. Centered around religion, after escaping religious persecution, these colonies based the way they lived their lives around the Bible, Church, along with the New testament. The Puritans emphasized religious obligations and followed strict guidelines pertaining to the Bible. They broke away from the church of England and became their own religion following the teachings of the Bible as well as the Old Testament.

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.

True Story: The Salem Witch trail took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. A group of girls accused of witchcraft, when Reverend Samuel Parris niece and daughter were ill and rumors spread that it was witchcraft. Sarah Osborne, Sarah Goode and Tituba were accused of being around when the girls were doing rituals and made the girls do the rituals. Abigail’s allegations began to grow blaming many innocent people.

The Salem witch trials was one of the most absurd and tragic events in history of pre-colonial America. A fine example of how believing in accusations and hearsay could affect a lot of people in a short span of time. the justice system is flawed and prejudice was allowed to reign over the people. I found this topic very interesting even though it is one of the most regretted in history. I’ve always been the type of person who likes reading all those weird and peculiar things on the internet.