Salem Witch Trial Essay

This goes to show how easily it was back then to get someone to be arrested and put to death. One could just accuse someone they dislike of being a witch, and people would then join in to also due to the hysteria. In her trial, all of the evidence is based on eyewitnesses, such as Allen Toothaker, an eyewitness himself. After one of Carrier’s children attacked him, Toothaker had enough and “... was going to strike at Richard Carrier but fell down flat on his back to the ground, and had not power to stir hand or foot, until he told Carrier he yielded; and then he saw the shape of Martha Carrier go off his breast”. Not only is this evidence highly unlikely to be true due to the lack of scientific evidence of witches back then, but there were no other people to back up his claim, thus meaning Toothaker could have made the whole thing up just to make Carrier look more guilty than she already did.

In Defense of Rebecca Nurse     Your Majesties, Judge Corwin and Judge Hathorne, our defendant Rebecca Nurse, a highly respected member of the Salem community, has been wrongly accused of practicing witchcraft. We believe that these profound accusations against, the honest and trustworthy, Rebecca Nurse were fabricated by those who are trying to cause harm to the Nurse family. This accusation of practicing witchcraft is serious and is not to be taken lightly.   A warrant for the arrest of Rebecca Nurse was issued on March 24, 1692 (Salem Witch Trials Notable Persons). This warrant was issued due to the Putnams accusation that our defendant practices witchcraft.

Spectral evidence mainly relies upon dreams and visons as sources of proof. The letter, however, did very little to prevent the increasing number of executions. Mather had difficulties recruiting help from the governor of the colony, Sir William Phipps, since he was occupied in Maine battling native Americans. As the of 1992 summer went by, the witch trials would only escalate in their lethality. After the execution of five women on the 19th of July, Mather gave a sermon at Simon Willard's Third Church in Boston, where he further condemned the witch hunt.

The Mather’s played a role in the trials as well, Cotton Mather was the minister of Boston’s Old North Church. Cotton was a true believer in witchcraft and accused many people. Increase Mather was his father, who was the Boston Minister and mostly believed in witchcraft until his wife got accused of it, then he knew it was all

The results of the trial in Stamford was that Mercy Disborough was temporarily convicted of witchcraft while Goody Clawson was acquitted. The consequences for Mercy Disborough were that despite months and jail and continued peer accusation, she was acquitted. The consequences for the townspeople are blurrier, but it is evident that persistent hysteria was not one of them. The results of the trial in Stamford were largely reigned in from the massive hysteria and mass convictions associated with contemporary witch trials by the law.

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.

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.

Moreover, another example of this is Abigail’s grievance with John Proctor. She is furious that he no longer shows love for her so she tries to kill his wife to regain his affection. By pretending to be attacked she uses the already growing concern of witches to assists her in her endeavor to gain John Proctor’s love. Therefore, these grudges lead to many innocent people who were falsely accused and

The count of Salem gave an unfair trial, to those individual who contradict of witchcraft. The only deference, the people of Salem is to say the truth or lie. However the witch trail shows the difference between saying the truth and saying

The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

In this article, the author, Edmund S. Morgan discussed how witch trials became an issue in the Salem Village which dispersed to other towns. The witch trials were well known in the sixteenth century. In the beginning, Morgan stated “the trials occurred at a time when the people of Massachusetts were passing through a very difficult time.” (Morgan, 47) The author clearly wanted to inform the readers that Massachusetts was already in a rough state to begin with until the witch trials came along.

The novel A Delusion of Satan written by Frances Hill describes the history of the Salem Witch Trials (“Salem”) in 1692, the causes and effects of the witch hysteria, and the biographies of major characters associated with the trials. In the novel, Hill started out explaining the Puritans’ beliefs and customs, the gender roles of men and women in Salem and why women were easily accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft in the 17th century. During that time, women were easily accused of practicing witchcraft because they were viewed as physically, politically and spiritually weaker than men. Men were perceived as the power, status, and worthy in the society, and they dominated women’s behavior and social status. In the 17th century,

However, records from the Salem trials show that her original convicted crime was not witchcraft, but having an “independence of mind”, and being an “unsubmissive character”. She was “…indicted for the bewitching of certain persons” and blamed for a smallpox outbreak that she had ‘caused’ by

The Witches were able to project themselves as innocent beings before attack an unsuspecting victim. Of course, the only sources Mather’s had to back up his arguments were his spiritual faith, the Bible, and court

Gender roles played a heavy role in colonial society, and the women who did not conform to these roles were easy targets for witchcraft accusations. Women who were post-menopausal, widowed, unmarried were not fulling their “duty” to society of bearing children and thus could come under fire (Lecture.) Those who were aggressive, out spoken, or did not do as another wished could also bring cries of “witch!” (Lecture.) This is highlighted in Cotton Mather’s Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, one of these accused women Susana Martin stands trial with many of the testifiers being men who had been wronged by Martin in some way or another.