Salem Witch Trials Dbq Essay

Between June 10 and September 22, 1692, 20 people were hanged in Salem after being accused of witchcraft. The trials began with a group of young girls claiming to be possessed by the devil, accusing local women of being witches and conducting their witchcraft on them. Within Puritan societies, there were very strict gender roles and religious beliefs, along with extreme economic tensions all contributed into the chaos of the Salem Witch Trials.

Within Puritan society, women were thought of as less than men which would have caused them to want to seek out and gain attention, therefore having importance in their community. Young girls in particular were making these accusations and spreading the hysteria around. Women would go to the extremes

of blaming other women, therefore placing a false accusation on someone which they knew wouldn’t result in a trial. Documents show that there is a great possibility that young girls were making up these accusations as lies in hopes to gain attention. As an example, Charles Upham states in Salem Witchcraft “It was perhaps their original design to gratify a love of mischief by creating...excitement in their neighborhood…” (G). Also, document E shows charts of the accusers and the accused’s marital status, gender and age. After examining these charts, you can tell it was mainly young, unmarried women who were accusing, while the accused tends to be older, married women. This may lead you to question, were these girls only doing this in order to gain attention they felt deprived of within Salem?
People in Salem, such as Cotton Mather, had very specific religious beliefs.

Puritans, for example, believed strongly in God and the Devil. These views may have led them to believe that the Devil was what was causing all of the hysteria and witchcraft in Salem. Document C is an expert from Cotton Mather which states “go tell mankind that there are devils and witches...New England has had examples of their existence” which shows he believes there are witches in Salem that may have been brought upon by the Devil. Mather was thought of very highly in Salem and much of his beliefs and ideas are what everyone followed. He was a Puritan and had very strong beliefs in God and the Devil. Since his word was thought of so highly it may have caused people to help him in spreading false rumors about what was happening due to how they felt about God and the Devil. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (A) displays another point of witchcraft being a religious matter. This quote appears in Exodus 22:18 within King James version of the bible as part of the first 10 commandments. Since at this point there was no separation between church and state, this Exodus may have translated into society and caused the finger pointing to begin, which only lead to continued

hysteria.
In conclusion, it is obvious Puritan societies had very strong religious and gender role beliefs along with economic tensions which all resulted in the mass chaos of the Salem Witch Trials. In comparison to this event, McCarthyism which swept across America in the form of a Cold War, was another example of an alleged “witch hunt” nearly 250 years after the witch trials. McCarthyism was people pointing the finger of people being communists, who would then point the finger at someone else to get the blame off of them. Much like the Salem Witch Trials, people wanted to get the blame off of them by blaming others in hopes they would no longer be at fault for being communist. All in all, the Salem Witch Trials were caused by girls of a younger age, Puritan religious leaders and economic tensions. Based on this criteria, what are the chances an event quite similar could occur again in our future?