Essay On The Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials Dbq

598 Words3 Pages

Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials. In document B it shows a chart of the accused and it says that there were 134 people accused and 110 of them were female. It also shows that 76 out of those 110 women were married and were about the age between 41-60. It also shows a chart that shows the accusers and it states that a total of 29 women accused them and 23 of them were single and were about the age of 11-20 years old. They were young women who were seeking to find a husband. The thing …show more content…

In document C its shows the examination of Bridget Bishop recorded by Samuel Adams. The thing that makes this case significant is that Samuel Adams nine-year-old daughter Betty had accused someone of witchcraft. This meant that if Samuel Adams did not prove that Bridget was a witch, her daughter was lying and was going to be known as a liar for the rest of her life and it would have looked bad on Samuel Adams family. So he was determined to prove her guilty and get her killed for something she didn 't do just to save his family from embarrassment and judgment. In document D it also shows a paragraph written by a historian in the 19th century. In this paragraph, he says that “people became intoxicated… by the terrible success of their imposture (acting), and were swept along …”(Charles Upham). This meant that people saw how they were lying or acting about people being witches and people seemed to believe them so they wanted to keep doing it, even though it affects them it was a life or death situation and people took it as a

Open Document