Nineteen men and women hung from the tree of destruction, for they were the ornaments of hysteria. New England was supposed to be a land of opportunity for the Puritans. During the summer of 1692, Salem Village proved to a wretched example of this; twenty people were falsely accused of witchcraft and were accordingly jailed and executed. Salem’s infamy has bewildered many, for nobody truly knows in entirety what caused the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Clearly, there were a few possible causes of the hysteria; however, envious, young, single women; sexism; and lying little girls stand out as the main causes. To begin, one cause of the Salem Witch Trial hysteria was envious, young, single women. One piece of textual evidence that …show more content…
A historian by the name of Charles Upham, came out with a book called Salem Witchcraft. He talks about how the children, mostly the little girls, and how they were just acting about being possessed or having seen a witch in the village. In the excerpt of his book, he states, “Once or twice they were caught in their own snare,” (Doc D). Charles basically admitted that the girls were lying on some things that they were doing or saying. The man was a historian and studied the Salem Witch Trials for all of his adult life. Having that knowledge of him, we could tell that his information is pretty accurate. One should trust a historian with what they say. They have done the research for us so we did not have to. Finally, Bridget Bishop and her examination. The examiner was asking Bridget if she has ever seen the “afflicted girls” before. Of course she says no. The little girls told the examiner that she bewitched her first husband to death. Making her seem like a horrible, no-good witch (Doc C). The man who recorded this incident was Samuel Parris. Samuel was the minister for Salem Village. He was also the father of the afflicted girls. Now knowing of those two facts, one may think that there was a bias against Bridget because of them. The little girls were lying to their father since they are his kids. They know that if they tell Samuel something on the lines of someone being a witch and
Mary Beth Norton (2002) explains that new accusations of witchcraft would spread beyond Salem’s outcasts and onto more respected members of society. Typically witchcraft was viewed as a working- class crime, but soon two upstanding Salem church members, Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse, were accused. Rebecca Nurse was one of six women tried during the Court of Oyer and Terminer’s second sitting, from June 28th to July 2nd. Her trial proved to be particularly shocking. Nurse was convicted despite a petition of support from thirty-nine friends and neighbors, and active family efforts to discredit her accusers.
In this essay, this transcript for the trial of Bridget Byshop will be examined, and the context of these proceedings will be explained.
With In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Mary Beth Norton becomes another participant in the search for the rationale behind what remains perhaps the most irrational collective failure of discretion that America has ever seen. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings held in Massachusetts. As Norton writes, the unrest began in February 1692, when two young girls in Salem Village had sudden, severe fits of hysteria which doctors could not explain with any earthly diagnosis. As more young girls in the village began to experience similar quasi-epileptic fits, the girls and their relatives began to accuse others in the village of bringing about the fits through "witchcraft." The ensuing sequence of events was
In 1692, A town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village became known for one most documented cases of mass hysteria in history. This saga started with three girls: Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Parris, and Ann Putnam a neighborhood friend. Abigail Williams, the niece of the town’s minister, began to display weird and questionable behavior. The town’s physician,William Greggs, was called to determine the cause of this sporadic behavior. The town’s physician determined that the three girls were under “the Devil’s influence” and they had been bewitched.
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem , people are worried of witches from the “Invisible world” to Salem. Everyone went crazy after the two girls got “bewitched” and started accusing people. Many died for no good reason because the accusations were all made up.
First, the Salem Witch Trials happened in 1692. In Salem Village, the minister’s daughter, Betty Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams, severely got sick. The girls felt pinching sensations, knife like pains, and the feeling of being choked. Everybody thought it was witchcraft, the girls accused three women, the first was Tituba. Tituba told the girls stories, and showed them magic tricks.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 have become a prominent event in American culture. A series of the witch trials took place near Salem, part of the Massachusetts colony, in which more than 150 men and women were accused of witchcraft and dozens deteriorated in jail for months without trials. Those who were found guilty were hanged on nearby Gallows Hill. Only a combination of economic conditions, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies can account for the mass hysteria, spiraling accusations, trials, and execution that occurred in Salem Village, Massachusetts.
1692 was a bad time for women in Salem. Most lower class women were accused of witchcraft and killed. A lot of bad things were done to these innocent women, a lot of the time they were tortured to get a confession or to prove she was a witch. Some of these torture methods were inhumane and didn’t really prove anything. They were burned, stretched,crushed, swam; many methods were used and a lot of the time the odds weren’t in the accused’s favor.
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
The Witch Trials By: Natalie Boggs The Salem Witch Trials were a time between 1692 and 1693. It all started when two young girls who lived in Salem, Massachusetts started having theses fits out of nowhere one minute they would perfectly behaved children then the next they would start having these fits. The girls had claimed somebody had bewitched them and that they were possessed by the Devil. Many historians believed that the strange behaviors could be from the Rye the people in Salem had been eating but what the people of Salem didn't know was that there was a deadly bacteria on the Rye that could have caused the girls fits. I know that from research that the Salem Witch Trials where a time that many people claimed to be possessed by the Devil and they accused innocent people of bewitching them.
Cotton Mather, in the previous quote mentioned, spoke of such “witchcraft” that was set to occur three years after he said it would. From the time he said the quote, to the actual trials of 1692, no evidence is directly given aside from Mather’s opinions. The quote very well could have been false information, but because he was so highly regarded (especially for holding a position of religion), it was taken earnestly. The minister later on switches opinions from his original beliefs, causing controversy to arise (was Mather telling the truth, or did he talk as a publicity stunt?). Charles W. Upham, a United States representative from Massachusetts, nearly 200 years after the Trials, wrote about how much of a publicity stunt that the witchery was.
The Salem Witch Trials were a gruesome part of our history in America. More than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft during years of 1692 through 1693. Historians believe that Ann Putnam Jr. and other accusers were badgered to accuse certain people. The parents (of the afflicted girls), Thomas Putnam and Reverend Samuel Parris told the afflicted girls to accuse others, were thought to be seeking out revenge for the accused. Most of the accused victims were either very wealthy or were social outcasts.
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,
The Salem Witch Trials : People Involved, Causes and Trial Tests Considered to be one of the most infamous events in United States history, the Salem Witch Trials caused around 200 people to be executed while seven men and 13 women were given the death penalty. There were many people involved that greatly influenced the Salem Witch Trials. Witch Trials tests were performed hundreds of times in order to determine who was a witch. Occuring in 1692, the Salem Witch Trials were a series of events that involved many people, had several different causes and performed dozens of witch trial tests. During this time, there were many people involved that greatly influenced the Salem Witch Trials.
The Witchcraft Trials 1. Question: How did the Salem witchcraft trials reflect attitudes toward women and the status of women in colonial New England? Answer: The people of Salem looked down upon property owning widows or any women who did not fit the social norm. The upper echelon wanted the women of Salem to be of lower rank than the males and any women who was not subordinate to a man was considered suspect.