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Salem Witch Trials
Throughout history millions of people have been scorned, accused,
arrested, tortured, put to trial and, persecuted as witches. One would
think that by the time the United States was colonized, these injustices on
humanity would have come to an end, but that was not so. In 1692 a
major tragedy occurred in America, the Salem witch trials. It all began
when a group of girls accused others, generally older women, of
consorting with the devil. The witchcraft hysteria in Salem,
Massachusetts resulted from the strict Puritan code which aroused the
girls interest in superstition and magic and caused strange behavior.
The Salem witch trials were based on the Puritans and their God
versus Satan and his followers and their strict codes. Puritans had
always thought that they were the new chosen people, abandoning a land
of sin and oppression to establish the Promised Land (New England).
Puritans beliefs were rooted in contrasts. (1) They believed that if there
was something good there was something bad to contradict it, for
instance since there was a God, there must be a devil. Since there was
good, there must be evil, and since there were saints chosen to do God’s
work on earth, there must be witches who were instruments of the Devil.
(2) So if someone did not believe in witches it was considered heresy in
Salem. A witch was regarded as a person who had made an actual,
deliberate, formal pact with Satan and would do all in her in power to aid
him in his rebellion against God. (3) The Puritans believed that they
were living in a world of chaos and crime, and directed their efforts to
constantly guard against sin. (4)
Life in Salem Village was not easy at the best of times. Gaiety and
merrymaking were regarded as irreligious, and the people of the village
were somber and severe. Their lives were spent in hard work and
religious observance.
Even their relaxation was associated with the meeting house. On the
Sabbath there was a long service in the morning and another in the
afternoon. Village residents who came from outlying farms were not able
to get home before the services, and it gradually became a regular
practice for the time before the services to be spent in visiting and
conversation. This was the time when gossip and news were spread from
one to another. (5) Children would accompany their parent...
... middle of paper ...
...irley, The Witchcraft of Salem Village, Random House, New York,
1956,p.5.
8.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD.,1992, p13.
9.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD., 1992, p.12.
10.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD., 1992, p.86.
11.Jackson, Shirley, The Witchcraft of Salem Village, Random House, New York,
1956,p.17-18.
12.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD., 1992, p.86.
13.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD.,1992, p.81.
14.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD.,1992, p110.
15.Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. “Witchcraft.” 1996
16.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD., 1992, p.80.
17.Robinson, Enders, A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthrone’s House, Heritage
Books, Browie, MD, 1992, p.206.
In 1692 a portion of the Puritan community experienced a tragedy in their community that they thought would never happen Since they worshipped God and God was the most praised person...
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”, Exodus 22:18. In 1692 , in Salem Massachusetts , the Puritans believed everything in the bible, they also believed in witches and that witches should not be able to live.There were at least 3 causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria. There are: age, gender, and marital status , lying girls, and a divided town.
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.
with it and blamed the slave woman Tituba for forcing her to join the devil.
Salem Village, a small town in Massachusetts, is a very peaceful society. There are small fights, like when half of the village agreed to have a church there and half of the hoi polloi who doesn’t like the idea. Still, it was a very tranquil village. People there are Puritans. Puritans are strict Christian believers. They believe that women and children are to be seen, not heard. They believe that the devils and witches have specters, and specters can attack people. Puritans blame bad crops, death of others, and dreadful events on witches. It was still a halcyon village, until in 1692, when madness arrived in Salem Village, Massachusetts.
Some people say that the Salem Witch Trials were less a religious persecution than economic in purpose, using religion as a guise to gain property. I believe that the Salem witch trials were less a religious persecution than economical. I believe this for several reasons; one being that the accused witches were using their witchcraft on other people in the town and it was affecting them. Many people were accused of performing witchcraft and were persecuted for doing so. But I believe that people in towns accused others of "witchcraft" whenever something went wrong, because "witchcraft" was such a common thing back than. When the witches that were accused of this so called witchcraft, usually the rest of their family, if they had one, would have to sell their house and this gave the people in the town more land and gave other people outside of the town to move into the town. Since there were two distinct parts to Salem, it is believed that the rich people of Salem accused the poorer people so they could take over their land.
In the modern day it’s hard to believe there’s even still ‘’witch hunts’’ as you can say where a group of people are stereotyped as something without them doing the actual stereotypical thing. We live in a world where blacks are getting shot for no reason when they were just walking down the street unarmed and not harming anyone. Blacks and Latinos are always looked down upon in any shape or form. They could be driving a nice car they get pulled over for suspicion of a stolen car, they can get pulled over in an old broken car and they will get pulled over for suspicion of ‘’criminal activity’’. But if it’s a white person the cops will NOT bat a single eye at them despite being in the same situations as the black. And you know what the problem
...in them but rather a slew of reasons that must be sorted and used in conjunction with one another. The best explanation to the outbreak of accusations is a psychological and/or medical epidemic due in part to King William's War. Because many of the accusers were survivors of the turmoil of the war who had resettled in or near Salem, it can be said that if King William's War had been resolved in Europe before fighting broke out in the New World, it is quite possible that the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 would not have happened to the multitude that they did. It is impractical to say that they would not have happened at all because witchcraft and witch-hunting was something known to colonial culture long before the Trials of 1692. One can only speculate on how things would have been different in the New World if only King William's War was resolved in Europe.
In the end, the Salem Witch Trials didn’t have a very good effect on anyone in Salem. These trials also left a major imprint on Salem.
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.
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
This scene clearly shows us that she wants to be evil, but also, that she isn’t fully there yet. However, it mainly proves to us that underneath her confidence and assurance is a person, craving to become cruel. Scared of what she is going to do, about the guilt she doesn’t want to feel and mostly, about not being able to deal with it. She asks the devil to not let “heaven peep through the blanket of the dark”. This indicates us that she knows ...
The Salem Trials took place between the 10th of June and the 22nd of 1692 and in this time nineteen people. In addition to this one man was pressed to death and over 150 people where sent to jail where four adult and one infant died. Although when compared to other witch-hunts in the Western world, it was ‘a small incident in the history of a great superstition,’ but has never lost its grip on our imagination’ . It’s because of this that over the last three centuries many historians have analysed the remaining records of the trials in order to work out what the causes and events were that led to them.
to assist him. All of her actions are done out of devotion and allegiance to