Salem Witch Trial Essay

Cotton Mather accounts the witch trial of Martha Carrier through reporting the accusations and crimes prosecuted against her. This trial was unjust because prosecution occurred to explain unnatural events by using unfounded, spectral evidence. All unnatural events affected the witnesses negatively in matters of health or occupation. This led the people of Salem to create a scapegoat for their misfortune and other ‘witches’ to persecute those near to them in the fear of death.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a dark time in American history. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed during the hysteria. Ever since those dark days ended, the trials have become synonymous with mass hysteria. The witchcraft hysteria in Salem is when a group of young girls, who later came to be known as the “afflicted girls,” fell ill after playing a fortune-tellingdancing in the woods game and began behaving strangely. During this time period, people feared that the Devil was constantly trying to find ways to infiltrate and destroy Christians and their communities.

Paragraph 1- (Intro) The Salem Witch trials of 1692 were a dark and (prevalent) time for the people of Salem, Massachusetts. During this time, nearly 200-300 people were convicted of witchcraft, and over 60 were officially hanged by the government. This must all be looked at from the colonists’ point of view- they had come from a land where religion was the most important aspect of their everyday life, keeping beliefs close to heart. They took this aspect to the New World, the area inhabited with mysterious other people’s foreign to them, where fears of the devil replaced common fears of everyday life. The floodgates of scapegoating did not truly start, although, until Tituba, a young slave, confessed of witchcraft herself.

This essay will be describing what events that leads up to the brewing of the events that occurred in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Also, contemplates the role that superstition, religion, and politics played in the event. Along with the role that gender played in instigating and shaping the event. It is a story of inhumanity and greed.

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.

The Salem Gazette has the news about the so called “Salem Witch Trials”. These trials began in January of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts when Betty Parris, Tituba, Abigail Williams, and several other girls were found dancing in the forest, around a fire, in the middle of the night. This suspicious activity led to the hospitalization of young Betty Parris, and the rise of hysteria in our small, farm town. After questioning, none of the girls confessed until they were threatened to be punished.

This evidence helps explain the jealousy and boredom the young girls experienced during this period of time, Another possible cause for the Salem witch trials was that the girls were great liars and

Salem Witch Trials How would you like to be accused of something you did not do? During the Salem witch trials Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of John Proctor, was accused of witchcraft. Witchery was a huge deal in Salem, Massachusetts.

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.

Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials began in colonial America in 1692. Many people were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft during the beginning of America. The Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts began to fear that if the colonists close to them could in fact be witches. Most accused people had no evidence against them and twenty people lost their lives to the Salem Witch Trials. (www.smithsonianmag.com) These Puritans came to America because they wanted to Purify the Church of England.

Contrary to popular belief, the Salem Witch Trials should not be solely attributed to demonic ‘possession’, but rather a harmful pathogen: Ergot of Rye. There are many questions as to what actually occurred in the Massachusetts colony during this time. History.com identifies one of the main problems by claiming that that girls were

Salem, Massachusetts, USA and occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned and even more accused; but not pursued by the authorities. 29 were convicted of witchcraft but only 19 were hanged. The best known trials were in the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

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.

The accused were simply your everyday people who were disliked by most of the town or were just simply pointed at. For example,

One cause of the witch trial hysteria was the story of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the two were cousins, they decided to visit a fortune teller. This occurred on February 29, 1692, shortly after receiving their fortunes Parris’s father, who was a priest, began to notice that his daughter was acting strange, he eventually found out about the session with the teller and was