The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 were among the most surprising and violent episodes in the history of America. It wasn’t violent due to a lot of people dying, in fact, only 19 people were killed due to this event. However, hundreds had their lives changed forever. Some, without any hope of it ever going back to how it was prior to the Trials. No, it was violent due to the fact that it was neighbor turning on neighbor. People that were once viewed as friends were turning on each other. One of the noblest families in Salem was torn down from their decadence and thrown into the mud, many of them being accused of witchcraft, never to return to their former glory. What sparked this horrific scene in America’s history? Why did it happen? Why did it take so long for it to stop? And most importantly, were the trials a mistake? Or were there actually witches in Salem? …show more content…
A 15 month long war between the settlers and the Native Americans had just ended in 1676. It wiped out nearly a third of New England’s towns, obliterated its economy, and killed nearly 10% of the adult male population. The “war” was known as King Philip’s War. King Philip was the Native American’s “leader”. And during 1698, the English king and queen, William and Mary, started a war with France in the American Colonies. The colonists referred to it as King William’s War, and it put a strain on Salem’s economy due to an influx of refugees who were trying to escape the war.
As their puzzled father ,Samuel Parris, observed the two mysterious little girls creep under chairs and spin around on the ground he pondered where this weird behavior was coming from. In Salem there were two little girls who were envious of the rich, so they made it clear that they could make people tremble in fear if they did not like you or wanted what you had. Everyone in Salem was terrified because there were so many people being accused of witchcraft. 22 people were hanged because the two little girls were pretending to be afflicted. The Salem witch trial Hysteria of 1692 was caused by two poor, young girls who claimed to be afflicted because of jealousy.
Many of these troubles are believed to be the cause of the Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were in the shadow of the French and Indian War. This was believed to have serious repercussions on the small community. Also around this time Indian attacks were increasingly common causing the community to be very fearful and on edge. Salem had just been through a smallpox epidemic, one of the coldest winter yet, and the small community was growing at an alarming rate, making it increasingly hard to acquire land.
Since ancient times, the world was plagued with the beliefs of witches invading the air ways. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts between 1692 to 1693. The salem witch trials are important to know more about because people should know how others used to treat outcasts in the past. In the with trials the people who were murdered were social outcasts or people who don’t fit in the townspeople’s social circle. But others believe that people should believe in the devil and witchcraft as much as they believe in God.
The lying caused the witch trial hysteria. In 1692,In salem massachusetts. The puritans believed of what they read in the bible and becasue of the fales accusations twenty people died. One of them was a man and he was pressed to death. The three causes of the salem witch trails were the dividing towns,lying,and age.
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum wrote Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft to present a new interpretation of the Salem witchcraft trials. They used accurate information to expose the mystery behind the outbreak of witchcraft in Salem Village. Most writings based of the Salem witchcrafts have been distorted and altered to create more interest for the reader, rather than tell the facts. The fact is that economic and social power caused arguments between the Salem Villagers, and the disputes between the Salem Village people caused the Salem witchcraft trials.
Throughout History, women have long struggled and fought for the same equality, justice, and rights as males in society. Historians have two opposing views of what life was like in Puritan society. One side argues that Puritan society was a golden age for women as they worked alongside their husbands, had an important role in the household. However, opposing historians argue that Puritan women were inferior to men in the society for five main reasons. Women were inferior because they were supposed to be silent company, they only received half the inheritance of their brothers, they were meant to have and take care of the children, they received harsher punishment for their wrongs, and they had to follow strict rules.
It is viewed as the time a town was foolish enough to believe a group of crazed teenage girls. Witchcraft is considered fiction, reserved for fantasy novels and television shows. What must be remembered, however, is that despite the current view, the trials were a very serious matter to those of Salem 1692. To the people of Salem, they had every right to believe that what they were doing was justified.
The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts during the late 17th century (1692 and 1693 to be specific). During this time, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony provided compensation to the families of the convicted and admitted the trials were a mistake. To this day, the trials are commonly associated with paranoia and injustice, and have caught interest of many people more than 300 years later. However, the Trials casted a dark shadow on the surrounding Indian tribes-specifically the lives of the Wabanaki Indians.
The 1692 events in Salem were not caused by a single person. Rather, the horrific miscarriage of injustice that was unfair persecutions under the guise of witchcraft could be blamed on natural phenomena. When young girls of the Massachusetts town developed strange symptoms, such as vivid hallucinations and strange bodily sensations, the local town doctor could not explain why they had suddenly taken ill. Confused, he diagnosed them with the one thing that made sense to the suspicious religious town: Witchcraft. Now, modern science concludes that a simple fungus was responsible for the girl’s symptoms.
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.
The Salem Witch Trials: An Unforgettable Hysteria Accusations of neighbors, arrests of friends, and hangings of loved ones. That sums up the frightening event that took place in Salem, Massachusetts, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. It all began when two young girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, started experiencing fits of screaming and kicking. These fits spread to others and an outbreak occurred. The witch hunts left everyone feeling scared.
A precipitating factor would be that the colonists still valued English protection and feared the Catholic colony of New France who were fighting for fur trade. While the English colonies were preoccupied with the Glorious Revolution, French forces of the fur trade were seen attacking New York and New England. This developed into what is known as King William's War, which illustrated the conflict against France in Europe. It was caused by colonial outgrowth and lasted until 1697. The conflict is seen as a distinguishing mark that along with the English royal government there also came the weight of military security.
The Salem Witch Trials started when the people were being accused of practicing witchcraft. Massachusetts were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft, and 19 of them were executed(Kiger ,2018) All of the accused were part of a family. They were forced to leave their families and go to jail. The Salem Witch Trials lefted a long lasting effect on the community.
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.