Why Did The Witch Trials Cause Mass Hysteria

930 Words2 Pages

In the early 17th century the Puritans settled along the east coast near Boston, Massachusetts. The Puritan colony was originally formed because the founders of the colony believed that the church of England was not pure enough and split off to create their own “pure religion” based of the bible and christianity. Due to this extreme devotion to the Bible and Christianity sin of any sort was seen as the ultimate disgrace against God and their religion. Therefore, sign of any type was met with severe consequences, sometimes including death. The severe consequences surrounding sin and Satan at times caused mass hysteria due to the people becoming worried that they would be accused of sin or would be overtaken by the Satan. The Article “Witchcraft …show more content…

This so called “sin” was met with severe punishment with many of the girls accusing each other and being put on trial. The accusations became more and more numerous over the coming months. The only way to get off trial was to admit to your sin, repent and pass several test which included reciting biblical passages such as the Lord’s Prayer. Even if you were innocent, it was still in your best interest to admit guilt and plead for forgiveness because it was almost impossible to escape trial with your life if you did not admit to committing witchcraft and repenting. One of the most crucial pieces of the trial process is that to receive forgiveness and get off trial you had to give the name of someone who had committed witchcraft as well. This why the amount of people being accused and being put on trial grew exponentially over only a few weeks. The trial only came to a close after the reverend's wife was convicted of committing witchcraft and was sentenced to death but the trials were stopped before her execution. This exemplifies the idea that we only notice how harsh we treat sin until it affects yourself or someone you care about dearly. Once the trials were stopped the execution stood at 21 people and 2 dogs. The harsh consequences due to sin are extremely evident in the Salem Witch trials but it raises the question, are these consequences to

Open Document