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Rachel Henderson Ms. Herring 7th Grade ELA 11/10/17 What Happened During The Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials was mostly just about the fear, and sicknesses, or blaming of other people in Salem. They sometimes blamed other people for bewitching them to save themselves from getting killed, and to imagine it was just two little girls that started this whole conflict. The conflict made people scared, and afraid of what could happen in their near future. In the January of 1692 two girls, Elizabeth Parris and her cousin Abigail, were throwing, screaming, and contorting or moving themselves into strange positions. Reverend Parris, Elizabeth's mom, called a doctor to check up on the two little girls. The doctor was believed to be Dr. William Griggs, examined the two girls and said there was nothing wrong with them and that they were bewitched. Paranoia spread and everybody was scared of the devil, and his “witches” he used to get to everybody. Christians accused people, and ended up closing some churches because even a priest was accused of being a witch, sentenced, and hung. Soon people wouldn't trust anybody. They feared people would bewitch them, or their children. Others were requesting that people be hung because they are bewitched, while others were worrying about their children who were accused and wanted the …show more content…
They were hung, some were executed in other ways but hanging was most common. Some died from illnesses, or old age in the prison they stayed in. It wasn't right, but they still had the fear, and at least it only lasted for a year instead of several years causing more deaths. Imagine 200 deaths a year, or more depending on who was accused. Some people did survive it and only had to stay in prison, days, weeks, or months. That still didn't stop them from watching the deaths of their child, or family. It was a sad time, and a good example of scapegoating, and fear even back
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of prosecutions of men and women who were accused of practicing witchcraft or having associations with the devil. The first Salem witch trial began with two girls in 1692, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, who started to have “fits”, in which they would throw tantrums and have convulsions. The random outburst of the girls threw the town of Salem into a mass of hysteria. Although historians have not found a definite reason or cause for the witch trials, they have taken different approaches to explain the hysteria that took over Salem. Some historians approach a psychological theory by proposing the girls suffered from diseases that made them act out.
The movie Three Sovereigns for Sarah was about the Salem Witch Trials and what happen during it. The Salem Witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecution of people who were accused of witchcraft. I'm going to be talking about the religion, superstition, the victims, the afflicted girls, and some of the executions. The trials were not right what so ever but was a very important part of history.
The Salem witch craft trials are the most learned about and notable of Europe's and North America's witch hunts. Its notoriety and fame comes from the horrendous amount of people that were not only involved, but killed in the witch hunt and that it took place in the late 1700's being one of the last of all witch hunts. The witch craft crises blew out of control for several reasons. Firstly, Salem town was facing hard economic times along with disease and famine making it plausible that the only explanation of the town's despoilment was because of witches and the devil. As well, with the stimulation of the idea of witch's from specific constituents of the town and adolescent boredom the idea of causing entertainment among the town was an ever intriguing way of passing time.
Most of the accusations were made against innocent people for reasons of economic conditions, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies. Of course there was also the fact that people weren’t aware of the certain mental illnesses caused by their environment. For example the one of the first people to be accused of witchcraft was a young girl named Betty Paris who one day became very ill with convulsive erogtism. Ergot is a fungus that invades growing kernels of rye, so it is very likely that she got sick from simply eating bread. Since people were scientifically unable to explain her sudden seizures and hallucinations she was accused of witchcraft.
...appenings of everyday life turned into something more. From the belief that women were more susceptible to evil intimidation and for having a weaker constitution since Eve was tempted by the Devil to having a non-existent court system to settle disputes between neighbors or just the fact that there were people who saw an opportunity to gain personal wealth, the Salem witch hunt and trials was more than just a religious cleansing of the community by pious people. They were a microcosm of what could happen when people do not understand the relationships between themselves, their neighbors and the natural cause and effect of the world around them.
During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, more than twenty people died an innocent death. All of those innocent people were accused of one thing, witchcraft. During 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts many terrible events happened. A group of Puritans lived in Salem during this time. They had come from England, where they were prosecuted because of their religious beliefs. They chose to come live in America and choose their own way to live. They were very strict people, who did not like to act different from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women worked at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes. The Puritans were also very superstitious. They believed that the devil would cause people to do bad things on earth by using the people who worshiped him. Witches sent out their specters and harmed others. Puritans believed by putting heavy chains on a witch, that it would hold down their specter. Puritans also believed that by hanging a witch, all the people the witch cast a spell on would be healed. Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe. As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
First, the Puritan values and expectations were strict, and those who had defied their teachings would have been at a much higher chance of being accused as a witch. Second, economic struggles within Salem Town and Village had further divided the two, by crop failure and livestock death. Ultimately causing economic damages. Third, personal opinions and disputes had contributed to the trials and accusations. The law system was unfair during the trials, so when or if someone was accused the court would side with the accuser, unless of course, they were a witch themselves. In conclusion, the people who died and who were accused of witchcraft were not really witches, Salem and it’s inhabitants were under the influence of mass hysteria, personal beliefs and grudges that eventually became the chaos of the Salem witch hunts of
This was the belief of many of the Puritans, in Salem. Puritans had such strong religious beliefs, that to them it seemed highly plausible that the devil was using their peers as pawns to carry out his evil influence on the world. Another thing that fueled the Puritans belief of bewitchment was a book written a few years previously called Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions by Cotton Mather. This book explained symptoms of four children who had been bewitched by their laundress. The symptoms that Mather described were the same symptoms the town seemed to be plagued with. This only added to the belief that the town had an outbreak of witches. Many of the doctors in the town started blaming illness that could not be diagnosed on witchcraft. In 1692, Williams and Elizabeth Parris began acting out of the ordinary by dashing around, complaining of strange pains, and jumping under things. They visited their local doctor and he told them they must be bewitched because there activities were so unexplainable. Another medical case that was thought to be witchcraft was that of Martha Goodwin. She began screaming, complaining of unusual pain, and demonstrating different behavior than normal. The symptoms that were shown in Martha Goodwin were so out of the ordinary that the doctors did not know what could be causing these problems. The doctors decided the child must be a victim of witchcraft and arrested her parents under the assumption that they were
To better understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to understand the time period in which the accusations of witchcraft occurred. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics, and rivalry with nearby Salem Town all played a part in the stress. There was also a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of an attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. Soon prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from towns surrounding Salem.
In 1692 everyone was sure that the Devil had come to Salem when young girls started screaming, barking like dogs and doing strange dances in the woods. The Salem Witch Trials originated in the home of Salem's reverend Samuel Parris, who had a slave from the Caribbean named Tibuta. Tibuta would tell stories about witchcraft back from her home. In early 1692 several of Salem's teenage girls began gathering in the kitchen with Tibuta. When winter turned to spring many Salem residents were stunned at the acts and behaviors of Tibuta's young followers. It was said that in the woods nearby they danced a black magic dance, and several of the girls would fall on the floor screaming uncontrollably. These behaviors soon began to spread across Salem. This soon led to ministers from nearby communities coming to Salem to lend their advice on the matter. Many believed that the girls were bewitched. It is believed that the young girls accusations began the Salem witch trials, and they would gather at reverend Parris's house to play fortune-telling games with magic and with Tibuta. One of the games was for them to crack a raw egg into a glass of water and see what shape it made in the glass.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in the summer and into the fall of the year 1692, and during this dark time of American history, over 200 people had been accused of witchcraft and put in jail. Twenty of these accused were executed; nineteen of them were found guilty and were put to death by hanging. One refused to plead guilty, so the villagers tortured him by pressing him with large stones until he died. The Salem Witch Trials was an infamous, scary time period in American history that exhibited the amount of fear people had of the devil and the supernatural; the people of this time period accused, arrested, and executed many innocent people because of this fear, and there are several theories as to why the trials happened (Brooks).
During the early winter of 1692 two young girls became inexplicably ill and started having fits of convulsion, screaming, and hallucinations. Unable to find any medical reason for their condition the village doctor declared that there must be supernatural forces of witchcraft at work. This began an outbreak of hysteria that would result in the arrest of over one hundred-fifty people and execution of twenty women and men. The madness continued for over four months.
In 1692, the occurrence of “witchcraft” began after the Massachusetts Bay Charter revolution and the outbreak of small pox. The rebellion caused hysteria and a sad injustice. Friends were pinned against friends; upstanding citizens were forced to flee for their lives and men and women were put to death (Jurist Legal News and Research Services 2008).The fear of the devil influenced the cruelty that took place. Most of the settlers that established their homes in the colony were puritans, a member of a group of English Protestants who revolted against the Church of England. The belief that God punished sinful behavior with misfortune did not help circumstances. The puritans targeted outcasts, people who never really fit it in; they wanted to rid the towns of these suspected sinners.
The Salem Witch Trials occurred from 1692 to 1693. When two girls, aged 9 and 11, started having strange and peculiar fits, the Puritans believed that the cause of these actions was the work of the devil. The children accused three women of afflicting them: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Tituba was a Caribbean slave owned by the Parris family. Sarah Good was a homeless woman. Sarah Osborne was a poor elderly woman. Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good pleaded innocent. Tituba admitted, “The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.” She described seeing red cats, yellow birds, black dogs, and a black man who asked her to sign his “book”. She confessed to signing the book. All three wo...
Around the 16th and 17th century, superstition grew among the people during the time that witches were thought to be real. Because of the lack of knowledge and misconceptions, many people became superstitious and afraid, causing harsh punishments to be given to the accused “witches.” Another factor was those certain people who would go around accusing their enemy of being a witch, just for an easy way to get rid of that person.