Unfairness In The Salem Witches By Rosalyn Schanzer

What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a large source of chaos for the small town that ruined the lives for people and their families. During this time many innocent people were accused of witchcraft and were thrown in jail while some were even hanged. It was a terrible event in history that was caused by jealousy, town division, and young girls.

“Mary Walcott,Anns step cousin ,named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56) how in the world would 69 witches/apparitions haunt you without killing you in a matter of hours. the main points of the essay are that if you lie about something very big you might have it turn out bad,such as the hangings or torturing and the people in trial who pricked thereselves for evidence that the witch was a witch. Another main point is that you need to think before you act because it might get someone or yourself in trouble or harmed. The significance of the trials were very low. There was not but a little

Preceding the Salem witch trails, the court fell under attack. Those who made confessions began to recant them. Though they played a direct role in the executions of innocent people, they insisted that they only made accusations out of force. In Document 77, Margaret Jacobs describes the ordeal of how she was told to either confess or be hanged. In another record, “Declaration of Mary Osgood, Mary Tyler, Deliverance Dane, Abigail Barker, Sarah Wilson, and Hannah Tyler,” the girls contend, “There was no other way to save our lives, as the case was then circumstanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such and such persons as the afflicted represented us to be; they out of tenderness and pity persuaded us to confess what we did confess”

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.

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.

Caporael in 1976 proposed that the girls convulsions and hallucinations may have resulted from ergot poisoning. This theory is supported by the several key factors, such as ergot being a popular fungus that grew on grains which is geographically near the location of the “inflicted young girls”. The poisoning may have caused the girl’s initial physical symptoms, but their behavior afterwards is left mysterious. The evil deeds done by specters, which were brought upon by witches, could only be seen by accusers, so spectral evidence was hard to prove accurate or inaccurate. The Magistrate, however, instead of investigating this case, corroborated the evidence with empirical evidence to support it.(Real History Behind The Salem Witch Trials, 2011, 2:30)

Most of the evidence was spectral evidence, a testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see the person afflicting them but “devil marks” on the body (moles or birthmarks), poppets(dolls used to cast spells on the represented person), pots of ointment, books of horoscope/palmistry, gossip/stories or “witch cakes”(rye flour and human urine of the afflicted person, which was fed to the dog to see if it was afflicted). Eventually doubts developed as to why so many respectable, wealthy people were guilty to such shocking crimes. Many of the accused were better off financially than the accusers and the accusers often gained their property. Governor Phips ordered for proof of guilt had to given by clear and convincing evidence and many of the trials ended in acquittals until the movement came to a halt. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was dissolved in late October 1962 and a Superior Court tried the remaining cases.

Eighteen other people followed Bishop and one hundred and fifty men, women, and children were accused through the following months. Though the Massachusetts General Court later cancelled guilty decisions against suspect witches and granted securities to their families, bitterness remained in the community, and the agonizing legacy of the Salem Witch Trials would suffer for centuries. Belief in the supernatural, more specifically in the devil, came into view in Europe around the early 14th century. As

I want to explore this because this was a very important part of American history where the court systems were all ruled practically by religion and how the court systems rules were changed after the fact so that something like this would never happen again. The court systems were affected after this event because the rulings in these cases were very unfair to the accused. Some supposed witches were accused because they were seen in a dream of an accuser. I have two questions that I wish to explore in this paper; what was the cause and effect of these trials and what changes were implemented in the courts so people were given a fair

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.

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,

John Proctor, who portrays the questioning views of puritan society {ADJSC}, questions the truthfulness of witch trial through evidence that the court uses to find the victims guilty, which leads him to challenge the court {ADVSC}. Miller states that “John Proctor would rebel against, for the time of the armed camp had almost passed….” (24) This means that Proctor has a rebellious nature, not having agreed with the court. Due to his stubborn attitude shown towards the court he creates a disagreement between him and the court. In this disagreement Proctor becomes a partisan for those being tried by this idea of spectral evidence, which can only be testified by the affected subject in a situation {PAPP}.

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.

The novel displays many decisions made by the people, in which, they are aware that one must be with the court or they are against it. Members of the community know they cannot sneak by interrogations without fully believing in the court or else they will be hanged for witchcraft. Putnam states, "there is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark" (Miller 16), but perhaps the real murderers are right in front of the people the whole time, calling themselves a

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