The devil is the most vile and wicked being to ever exist. He is smart and cunning that he can take over a person’s body and turn them into a witch, giving them unimaginable powers. In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many of the residents believed in the devil and witchcraft. Soon their belief became stronger, as strange events started happening around the town. Without anything to lean on they blame the devil and witches for the causes of the unknown. Soon accusations of witchcraft began, friends turned on one another, families turned against each other. In the end 19 people died and 1 pressed to death. But belief alone couldn’t have started the whole hysteria, there are many contributors that could have helped fan the flames. I believe the …show more content…
In Doc. E, recreated by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, it shows a map of Salem and locations of accusers, defenders and accused witches. In the west side of Salem it is shown that there are more accusers than in the east side. (Doc .E) The same as in the east side but there are more accused than accusers. There is a reason behind more accusations on the east side. The east side had been gaining more political power and were more economically financed then the west side which had poorer farmlands and were losing political power. (See note: Doc. E) It would be more reasonable to accuse residents on the east side, if one was from the west side. The town was divided by money and power, leading to hatred and resentment of the rich that added fuel to the …show more content…
An example of this is from Doc. C, recorded by Samuel Parris, a minister of Salem Village. It is a record examination of Bridget Bishop’s trial, the first person to be executed for witchcraft. She was tired of 3 girls who claimed she was a witch. (Doc. C) Whenever Bridget moved, the girls would scream in pain, go into fits, and turn their eyes up. All three girls simultaneously moved at the same time and had the same movements. In the words of Charles Upham an 19th century historian, “no doubt they were great actors”. (Doc. D)They were acting to get into the action. Most possibly they were acting because they dug too deep within their lies, and were afraid they would get caught. To avoid great punishment they acted, they lied to save themselves and in result had innocent people
\The infamous Salem witch trials, you may have heard of them, but do you know about the famous event which many book, movies, and even its own T.V. show are revolved around. From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women all been accused of witchcraft, were brought to Gallows Hill. Gallows Hills is also known as witch hill that is where they killed all the men and women accused. Now you may be thinking what they did that was so bad it’s just witchcraft, it was a common belief that people could pledge allegiance to Satan and become witches with supernatural power to harm others. The thing that made people start this witch hunt would be when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams the daughter and niece
There are several incidences in history when someone was accused of witchcraft. Maybe they didn’t have anything to do with witchcraft but if someone said it, everyone believed them. Some many people’s lives were taken because of something they didn’t do not had a part in. From June – September 1692, 19 men and women have been convicted of witchcraft. They were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village for hanging.
The most infamous examples of witch paranoia occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. What became known as the Salem Witch Trials began on March 1st 1962, with two ill young girls, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris, accusing Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and an Indian slave, Tituba of performing witchcraft on them. There are several documents of them petitioning for their freedom but ultimately, one admitted to being a witch and so the trials went on. Over the next few years several women and a few men would face the same paranoia based accusations, many tortured and killed in brutal ways.
Ministers told the accused citizens of Salem that if they exposed more witches of the town, God would bless them. The reality of him saying this, was that if the supposed witches did not confess more names, they would suffer the consequences. This infected Salem with a fear of being executed and led to many people wrongly accusing others of witchcraft in order to save themselves from death or torture. This is seen specifically in “The Crucible” when Reverend Hale tells Tituba that she will have God’s blessing if she helps uncover other witches in the village. Betty and Abigail go on to accuse 11 others of interacting with the Devil.
Many people at the time believed in that big of a reality of witchcraft, it's clear that all of it was about more than just witchcraft. In 1692, during the winter was when the
Over the course of the trials, over two hundred people were accused,7 fifty
The three were brought before Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, the civil officers. Osborne and Good plead innocence, but Tituba plead guilty. This is a conversation between Hawthorne and
The Salem Witch Trials was a chain reaction of girls accused of being witches, when women were given unfair punishments for being “witches.” Witch Trials started when “two young girls began suffering from fits, uncontrollable screaming, and body contortions” (Biography.com). One of these girls was Bridget Bishop. At this time, doctors did not know what was happening
Judgment and jealousy go hand in hand. Mrs.Putnum accuses the most holy woman in Salem of witchcraft because Goody Nurse is able to bear children and Mrs.Putnam cannot. Rebecca never sinned, but was hung with no evidence to prove she was one with the devil. Abbotson states, “With no firm evidence, men and women accused of being witches by young girls in the town, were hanged by inflexible judges when the would not confess. ”(Abbotson 190).
Although the beginning of witchcraft cannot be dated, it was believed to be a very real thing by many, even arguably all civilizations. Throughout history many horrendous trials have been focused on witches/wizards. Historically one of the most well know trails was the one that took place in Salem. The Salem Witch Trails occurred in 1692, this conflict caused death, the downfall of a community, and diminished the trust of 100’s of people. Many religious beliefs, mixed with fear of witchcraft, and a lack of knowledge resulted in 200 accused and 19 permanently suffering.
The ordeal of the Devil commenced in the home of Salem’s Reverend Samuel Parris. Parris had a “slave from the Caribbean named Tituba, and several of the town’s teenage girls began to gather in the kitchen with Tituba in 1692” (Porterfield). The girls were believed to have danced a black magic dance in the nearby woods, and in trials the girls would fall on the ground and start screaming hysterically. Soon this behavior began to spread across Salem. To become bewitched, the Puritans believed a witch must draw an individual under a spell.
In the bible the Devil was talked about, saying that the devil is real. The devil was known to be smart and to enter a person's body and turn them into a witch. This is what those people believed, that is part of their religion. There has been many theories on the Salem Witch Trial, the ones I think most likely cause is Salem Witch Trial Hysteria is Religion, Lying, and the Power of Suggestion.
The Salem Witch Trials was an event caused by much more than a town full of “witches”. The small town in New England in 1962 faced one of the United States’ most disastrous mass genocides. A group of ten young girls accused roughly 200 people of making deals with the devil. Many of the accused were hanged at Proctor’s Ledge by Gallows Hill, while a few died in the jails waiting for their death sentence. The accusations were based almost entirely on spectral evidence, or evidence from the supernatural.
In January of 1692 a series of witch trials, caused by economical stress and fear of the devil, began in Salem. The Salem witch trials included executions that ended in devastation and the death of several men, women, and even children. The stress of the King William’s War in Europe caused people to flee to the closest place which was Massachusetts. With the overpopulating town the people ran out of occupations to offer and dwelling places. Christians and religious people believed that the devil used this time of stress to overtake their religious society.
The Accusations coming from Salem were far outside any previous pattern of witchcraft allegations ,not just women ,but men ,not just poor local people disliked for being angry or resented for their neediness ,but leaders of the community. Until recently ,historians saw that this last group of accusations as a sign