Do you have a neighbor that you really just don’t like? In 1600’s Massachusetts, there was a solution! You could tell everyone that they were a witch. Sure it might ruin their life, but hey, they’re out of yours. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials that occurred during Colonial America where many people, mostly women, were falsely accused of and wrongly punished for performing witchcraft. There is a well documented history of these accounts, including the causes, the results, and similar cases throughout history. During the end of 1692 and the beginning of 1693 there were a series of court cases where over 100 members of the town of Salem, Massachusetts were accused of being witches. Witches are defined as people with special powers …show more content…
One prior instance occurred no too far from Salem. The Massachusetts Bay colonists accused and convicted Margaret Jones of witchcraft is 1648 (Brooks). One reason this didn’t cause a mass hysteria, she didn’t plead guilty. Nobody in the colonies had ever heard someone claim guilty to witchcraft and state other community members were witches working for the same goal as themselves. In Europe during the sixteenth through the eighteenth century there was another witch hunt that is almost synonymous to the one in Salem. There was a widespread moral panic suggesting that malevolent witches were trying to bring down the church for three centuries. These trials were heavily concentrated during the Wars of Religion in the seventeenth century, though sporadic trials occurred toward the end of the eighteenth. This could be due to the Witchcraft Act of 1735. The last known trial was 1782. These trials were on a much more massive scale as 40,000 to 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed. One of the biggest and most remembered events in history could even be related to the trials; the Holocaust. From January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945, Jews in Europe were constantly subjected to horrible mistreatment by the Nazis. This eventually led to the deaths of over 6 million Jews. Just like the “witches” of Salem, European Jews were the scapegoat for the Third Reich of Nazi Germany. Both groups, the villagers of Salem, and the people of Germany, blamed one group of people for social issues happening during their respective period of time. A less known incident would be the Los Angeles “zoot suit” riots. A zoot suit is a style of suit popularized during the 1940’s by African, Chicano, and Italian American communities. By the beginning of 1943, the riots would begin. Sailors would beat and strip anyone wearing a zoot suit. They got away with the crimes. This could be compared to the people of Salem,
Alternative Explanations of Witch Behaviors During the Salem Witch Trials By: Chloe Lindner In 1692, a group of girls were accused of performing witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts. After the first accusations were made, more than 200 men, women, and children were convicted. The colonists believed the strange behavior of the accused to be the result of demonic possession and other supernatural forces.
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.
Guilty or Proven Innocent? The Salem witch trials occurred from February 1692 to May 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts. During the Salem witch trials no single person or family was safe from persecution. Once accused of witchcraft you were incarcerated and appeared at a hearing in the courts.
Nearly anyone from the New England has heard of the famous Salem Witch Trials. A year of persecution, leading to the accusation of nearly 200 citizens of all ages. No one was safe; men, women, children, even pets stood trial and 20 were hung for the supposed crime of witchcraft (Blumberg). 1692 was a year of witch hunting. Most today blame the trials on hysteria, or perhaps a bad case of paranoia.
The peak of witch-hunting occurred between 1560 and 1630, which saw a drastic rise in hunts, trials, and executions throughout much of Europe. In some cases, witch hunts and trials would escalate into a full-blown witch panic, where entire villages, towns, or regions got caught up in the hysteria and witnessed a large number of hunts and executions within a short period of time. Unfortunately, it is somewhat difficult to establish what specific factors led to any particular witch hunt; it is an even greater challenge to comprehend the complexities behind the outbreak of a complete panic. However, throughout the peak of the witch hunting period it is evident that witches were increasingly perceived as a malevolent threat to the public good,
The Salem witch trials was one of the most famous witch hunt in history. More than 200 accused witched occupied the local jail. 19 people executed, were hanged, one pressed with rocks to death and few more died in jail within a year from 1692-1693. It happened in Salem Village, New England in Massachusetts, now known as Danvers. Witchcraft was second among the hierarchy of crimes which was above blasphemy, murder and poisoning in the Puritan Code of 1641.
In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts had the first accusations of witchcraft. Trials were held and concluded in 1693, where fourteen women and five men were executed. Many other trials were held in different towns, the most famous being in Salem. It all began when a group of girls made false accusations toward older women, that they were interacting with the devil. The Salem Witch Trials shaped the American society and affected the way America deals with crime today.
Braulio Escalera Professor Leon History 100 October 14, 2017 Midterm • Section 1: 50% of total grade 1. Identify and describe the importance of five (5) of the following terms: Salem Witches Trial: being a witch indicates that you have super natural or specific devil powers and you can use them against humans by hurting them in return of their soul or loyalty. The story of the Salem Trial witches began in the year 1692 after several young girls were accused for being witches in Salem village, Massachusetts. After the accusations some witches were hanged on June 1692. But the people that were accused of witchcraft were not only women, some of them were men too.
The Salem Witch Trial Inquiries The perception of the people that lived in the 1600’s were that differences between isolated people and the common community were seen as witchcraft. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of peculiar accusations in a colony in Massachusetts mainly between February 1692 and May 1693. These Salem Witch Trials were also mainly about the Puritans that lived in a rural city of Massachusetts. In the 1600’s those in small towns were extremely close to one another so it would affect the entire town population.
Hello, Lander~~ Good post this week. Salem was the place, where infamous Witch Trials since 300 hundred years. There were 14 women and 5 men died at Gallows Hill. Witchcraft was (and is) the survival of fragmented pagan belief systems mainly collected from the folklore of Celtic Britain and Ireland.
In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge.
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
The Salem Witch Trials The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England.
February 1692, Salem, Massachusetts. A town run by religion. As if tensions and jealousy weren’t high enough the witch trials begin accusing people left and right of being possessed by the devil. For example old man Jacobs was accused of being possessed by the devil and entering a little girl’s room in the middle of night. Even with all the reasonable evidence on his side he was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.