In the village of Salem, Massachusetts 1692 witch hysteria broke out across the village. Out of all the accusations 20 innocent people were killed. 19 by hanging and one was stoned to death. Despite many theories to explain the village frenzy the most probable explanation is that they were lying. The other possible answers are because of the Puritan beliefs and Ergotism. The first and most probable answer is that the people of Salem were lying. Charles W. Upham says in document C that the three girls who started the frenzy were swept along with what they occasioned and that they were intoxicated by the terrible success of their lies. Children, especially girls, did not get much attention in the village, so when they realized that the
lies they told got them attention they kept building the lies to make sure they didn’t lose what they had gained. Document H tells about a 10-year-old boy who accused 17 people of being witches. The boy later admitted that he was lying. He simply wanted and loved the attention he got, but when it was all over he admitted that none of it was true. This suggests that he was not the only child/person that lied. Document E shows a map of the Salem Village split into the two families. The Putnams and the Porter's. The Putnams were the less fortunate and less wealthy side. The Porters had more political power, rich soil, and more money. The Putnams Side includes almost all of the accusers and the defenders and accused witches are on the Porter's side. This suggests that the Putnams were lying to gain wealth, power, soil and were lying to get revenge because they were the less wealthy family. The beliefs of the Puritans are also a possible reason for the witch hysteria. Cotton Mather's was a highly respected figure in the village, so anything he said was taken very seriously. Document A shows a paragraph of his writing. In this writing he says that witches are everywhere, including the homes of Christians. This of course induced fear in the village. Puritans strongly believed in Satan and turned to him when things got bad, and this blinded them. Their beliefs caused them to lie even if they were not aware of it. Signs such as a man being able to stick his finger in his rifle arm fully extended or having a blemish were things people could not control. Other signs like botching the Lord’s prayer were just mistakes, but because they believed so strongly they were unable to think logically and counted these things as signs. Ergotism could also be a possible explanation. Document D explains that ergot is a parasite fungus that thrives in damp, warm places. It grows on a large variety of cereal grains, including rye. Rye was a well established crop in New England. The harvesting took place in August and the Salem outbreak fits this timing. According to Samuel Sewall's diary the weather was damp and warm at the time of the outbreak, perfect for the parasite to infest. Ergot has 10% the activity of LSD and has symptoms like crawling sensation in the skin, tingling in the fingers, hallucinations, and delirium. Tingling sensations in the skin are also symptoms the accusers felt and the hallucinations could explain the alleged specters visiting people. The people may have just had ergot poisoning, which was a common result of eating contaminated rye. The Salem witch trials are a confusing, tragic time in our history. There are many possible explanations for this hysteric outbreak, including the most probable explanation, that the people of Salem were lying. The other answers could be the their beliefs and Ergotism. Although there are many theories the most logical and defendable answer is that they were simply lying.
Valley Forge, was the toughest obstacle the Continental Army had to face during the Revolutionary War. For about nine months in the cold winter, these soldiers stayed in this area for them to"... be close enough to Philadelphia to keep an eye on the British"(Background). By the end of the war, the colonists were victorious in gaining their independence. Regardless, I would abandon my position as a soldier at Valley Forge. My reasoning are due to the multiple hardship they endure such as living in a harsh environment, sickness that lead to death and lacked numerous resources.
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.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 were one of the bloodiest witch-hunts in America colonial history. The event started in the house of the new minister of Salem, Samuel Parris, when his daughter, Betty, suffered from mysterious symptoms, and later she accused her slave, Tibuta, for using witchcraft on her. Later, two other women, Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne, were accused of using witchcraft on other girls; right after the accusations, they were arrested (Lecture 9/13/2016). As a result, the hunt of witches began which led to hundreds of arrests, and nineteen accused were hanged (Text 190). Although three hundred years have passed, the true cause of the episode remains a mystery. Many scholars have conducted numerous studies of the trails, however,
More than 200 people were accused of the begin witches and of the two hundred, about twenty of them were killed. Eventually the people of Massachusetts realized that what they were doing was wrong. Many times the reason for someone to be accused of witchcraft as because if they were found guilty, then the court would receive the land that they had owned. If the court did not want the land, which they usually did not want, it was given to the person who had accused them of witchcraft.
Salem 1692, two girls ,Betty Parris, age nine, and her eleven year old cousin Abigail Williams, had a dream. They wanted to be the best actors in the village. They worked very hard to do that and they got twenty people killed. Betty and Abigail were Puritans and they are not supposed to lie or they would end up with the devil in the afterlife, but it seemed like they didn’t care. That’s why we ask, why were people blaming the innocent for being witches in Salem, 1692? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by two poor, young girls who acted possessed. There were also other people who took the risk of lying and accused other people. Most of the accusers were under the age of twenty and woman. The little girls caused the Salem Witch Trials hysteria by pretending to be possessed. Most of the accusers were poor and lived in the western part of the town.
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.
Because of two 11 year old girls jealous of the wealthy, 20 people died accused of witchcraft. Most of the accused were women, 13 women and 7 seven men were accused and killed. The two jealous little 11 year old girls wanted attention and were not as wealthy as some of the women across of town which caused the Salem Witch Trials. They were cousins and they wanted attention from their Father/Uncle. Jealousy caused the death of 20 people.
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.
Being isolated from any other group of people with different beliefs created a church led Puritan society that was not able to accept a lot of change. The church was against the devil, at the same time it was against such things as dancing and other premature acts. The reputation of the family was very important to the members of the community. When the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just themselves but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil took them over and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw members of the town standing with the devil. A community living in a puritan society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a difficult time dealing with what they consider to be the largest form of evil.
As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria. Puritan Lifestyle was one reason that might have caused the witchcraft hysteria in Salem.... ... middle of paper ... ... He believed strongly in having the witches of Salem executed for their wrong doing (Fradin 26-27).
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
The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria was a product of women’s search for power. This claim is supported by Lyle Koehler, from A Search for Power: The “weaker sex” in seventeenth-century New England (University of Illinois, 1980), explained and argues why this is true. Koehler mentions that the women were in search for more power and respect and power equality. She mentioned that the men were afraid of witches because they felt they were superior to them which brought in the question of who really was the superior gender. But really, the women accused others as being witches so as to gain more power from men. Basically, this showed that the women were not afraid of controlling or taking the power from men. In the seventeenth century, the men had power; so therefore, women did anything and would do anything to gain more power than the men. In puritan society, the only women with any significant power were mothers. They had powers not only in their homes but also in the public as long as they accused people of being witches. They also implicated others to achieve this power. An example that Koehler gave would be sociologist Dodd Bogart’s conclusion that “demon or witch charges are attempt to restore “self-worth, social recognition, social acceptance, social status and other related social rewards” is pertinent to the Salem village situation.
Women started to accuse other women and they also accused a few men. Murrin details that this caused a challenge in the local judical system: “…a number of judicial irregularities, including an unusual heavy dependence by the courts on spectral evidence ( when an accused witch’s spirit or specter, supposedly tormented the victim) and the use of open confessions by the accused to escape punishment” (339). New England had a organized way of doing things when it came it witches, but once accusations arose in Salem they started a new system which led their town into hysteria. “The Salem witch panic stands out, in part, because the judicial execution of twenty people within three months became an event of enormous drama in a region that hanged comparatively few offenders and in a colony that hanged only five people for witchcraft before 1692 and only one before 1656”
The notorious witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts occurred from June through September. It is a brief, but turbulent period in history and the causes of the trials have long been a source of discussion among historians. Many try to explain or rationalize the bizarre happenings of the witch hunts and the causes that contributed to them. To understand the trials and how they came to be, we must first examine the ideals and views of the people surrounding the events. Although religious beliefs were the most influential factor, socioeconomic tensions, and ergot poisoning are also strongly supported theories. A combination of motives seems the most rational explanation of the frenzy that followed the illness of the two girls. This paper looks closely at the some of the possible causes of one of the most notable occurrences in history.
The young girls were able to make such accusations and convict innocent people of witchcraft because they preyed on the fear of the residents of Salem. At the time, most people in Salem were Puritans, and they were strictly gullible; leading them to follow the biblical teaching that witches were real and dangerous, which incited fear in the society. Without fear, people would have simply disregarded the rumors as rubbish and the witch trials may not have happened; fear allowed the witchcraft hysteria to get as big as it did.