Summary: The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trial is a historically located incident stirred by the accusations of an Indian slave woman, named Tituba, who confessed to the practice of witchcraft under the pressure and physical force of colonial slave owners in 1692. She escaped execution, unlike many accused women, because of her ability to acclimate to the culture and society of her oppressors. In Breslaw’s portrait of Tituba’s life starting with her ambiguous Amerindian-Caribbean roots, she shows how Tituba’s first step in acclimating to British-colonial society was to force her mother tongue to take a backseat to the language introduced and enforced by English colonizers who captured “American Indians to sell as slaves in Barbados” for the purpose of providing slave labor to British colonies in

The article “An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials”, written by Thomas Brattle who is a Harvard graduate and a Boston merchant, states a view against the Salem Witch Trials and what they are doing (Dudley 29). On the other side Cotton Mather, a leading minister in Boston, wrote “A Defense of the Salem Witch Trials” which is favored on continuing the trials (Dudley 26). The Salem Witch Trials are a very absurd way to get rid of the so called witches, and should be put to a stop. The article “An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials” stated, “The justices order the apprehended to look upon the said children, which accordingly they do; and at the time of that look, … the afflicted are cast into a fit.”

The small town of Salem, Massachusetts, was the setting for the trials. It was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony 1600’s. It was located almost alone in the New World, and was strongly religious. Salem’s habitants were afraid that the Devil would enter and destroy Christians and their communities. This plus the fear of witches made everyone approve witch trials.

The stress of multiple negative events happening one after the other surely did affect the outcome of the trials. Before 1692, Salem was one of New England’s most divided communities. Colonial America was not as organized and connected as America is today. Salem Massachusetts in the 17th century was very small and isolated. People who lived there were in constant fear of being attacked by native tribes that surrounded their colony.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 was the most infamous witchcraft episode in United State's history. Set in a Puritan New England settlement, Salem Village, the original ten females became afflicted between January 1682 and the madness would not end until May 1693. Salem Village, Massachusetts became engulfed in hysteria. During this time, one hundred and fifty-six people accused of witchcraft, fifty-four people confessed, fourteen women and five men were hanged, a man was pressed to death, three women and a man died in jail. In addition, an infant, who was born in the jail died as welled.

I am here to tell you about what I have discovered by investigating your town of Salem. As I was sitting back listening to all the trail I noticed some things that are rather wrong in my opinion. I believe that Abigail Williams and John Proctor did have an affair with each other, Mary Warren was telling the truth about the girls who were faking witchcraft being used on them, and with the witch trials going on Salem is starting to fall apart. These are just three out of the many things I found wrong due the trials. Everybody in the whole town knew there was always something going on between them to.

REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.

Although many people have their assumptions as to what specifically caused the Salem Witch Trials, no one has a definite account of what caused them. One must use logic and knowledge to come to choose and realize multiple factors that played a part. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by religion, politics, teenage boredom, family feuds, economic conditions, and fears of the people. The overall effect of the trials did not have a serious effect on American society as a whole, but only as Salem as a whole. During the spring of 1692, a hysteria swept through the little town of Salem, Massachusetts (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts) that will end as quickly as it began.

Nonetheless, the Salem Witch Trials was an event that baffled the public and left the world astounded. The Salem Witch Trials happened during the time of 1692 through 1693. The Salem Witch Trial took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Although witch trials happened in a few

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 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 the book, The Witches: Salem 1692, the author Stacy Schiff attempts to condense a large volume of research into a cohesive narrative that tries to avoid to much speculation. There is some contention that the book does speculate into the motives of primary accusers that some reviewers have intimated are bordering on fiction. However, the author defends her arguments logically, and her inferences do seem to bridge the gaps effectively. One of the items that causes some confusion, to both the historically curious, and to the researcher is that the author has created a list of dramatis personae in which the historical figures are labeled as a cast of characters which might make the book seem fictional.

The Salem Witch trials popped up around 1692 and they were a disaster. The reason why they came up was because of their religion. The people in the town of Salem were puritans. This means their religion was very strict and that they believed in the devil. The way this all started was that the people who were accused of being witches were acting funny.

In conclusion, the Salem Witch Trials affected the little Puritan settlement of Salem, Massachusetts in several

These refugees were from northern New York, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. The displaced people created a strain on Salem’s resources because they did not have their own resources and they used others. That aggravated existing rivalries between families with ties to the wealth port of Salem. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1). The first witch case involved Reverend Parris’ daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and his niece Abigail Williams, age 11, in January 1692.