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Puritan witch trials
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The witch trials of 1692
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Witchcraft Hysteria in Puritan New England In 1692, the problems following Massachusetts’s change from Puritan Utopia to royal colony had an unusual increase in the witchcraft hysteria at Salem Village (now the town of Danvers). Although the belief in witchcraft had started a huge problem in Salem, almost 300 New Englanders (mostly lower class, middle-aged, marginal women – spinsters or widows) had been accused as witches, and more than thirty had been hanged. With this issue in Salem all superiority in its scope and intensity. The general colony’s way of life was experiencing some problems. These problems lead the community to believe that the devil was at work in the village. A few teenage girls became inlet listeners to voodoo stories told by Tituba, a West Indian slave, and began acting strangely. For no reason at all they started shouting, barking, groveling and twitching. The town doctor had come to the conclusion that they had been bewitched. When the girls were told this, they pointed to Tituba and two older white women as the offenders. The criminals were captured with a panic as word spread that the devil was in their presence. As the three women were being asked questions the possessed girls rolled on the floor in convulsive fits. Tituba shocked everyone when she confessed to the charge but also told that many others in the colony were practicing the devils work. All this hysteria in the town started causing many problems. The crazed girls began pointing fingers at many residents, including several of the most respected people of the community. Within months, the jail in Salem was over its capacity with townspeople that were accused of performing witchcraft. Seeing how the townspeople believed everything the girls were saying shows how gullible the community is. Ten months later, nineteen people had been hanged, stubborn Giles Corey who refused to plea Guilty or not Guilty was pressed to death by heavy stones, and more than 100 others jailed. Accusations spread wider and went way beyond the borders of Salem. This worried colonial leaders and they decided that the witch – hunts were out of control. The jury had about seen enough when the girls accused Samuel Willard, the pastor of Boston’s First Church and president of Harvard College, of practicing witchcraft. The governor disbanded the special court and ordered the remaining suspects released when he was stunned that his own wife was accused of worshiping the devil.
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft is a concise, 231 page informational text by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Published in 1974, it explores the economic and social conditions present in the Salem village during the 1600s that led to the hysteria surrounding witchcraft. Multiple graphs and illustrations are present, as well as an average sized font, an abundance of footnotes typically on the left page, and a prominent voice from the authors. The book was written to serve as a more comprehensive informational piece on the Salem witch trials due to the authors finding other pieces written about the same topic to be inaccurate. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum wanted to create something that utilized
The Salem Witch Trials occurred because “three women were out in jail, because of witchcraft, and then paranoia spread throughout Salem” (Blumberg). In the Salem Village, “Betty Paris became sick, on February of 1692, and she contorted in pain and complained of fever” (Linder). The conspiracy of “witchcraft increased when play mates of Betty, Ann Putnam, Mercy, and Mary began to exhibit the same unusual behavior” (Linder). “The first to be accused were Tituba, a Barbados slave who was thought to have cursed the girls, Sarah Good, a beggar and social misfit, and Sarah Osborn, an old lady that hadn’t attended church in a year” (Linder). According to Linder, Tituba was the first to admit to being a witch, saying that she signed Satan’s book to work for him. The judges, Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, “executed Giles Corey because he refused to stand trial and afterwards eight more people were executed and that ended the Witch Trials in Salem”
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
As we may already know, the town of Salem was subject to an epidemic of the accusations of witchcraft that lasted over ten months. Witchcraft of this time period was not taken lightly. In England alone over 40,000-60,000 people were killed after being found guilty of witchcraft. Needless to say the people found witchcraft as a virus that infected the town. The first cases started off with the daughters of Samuel Parris, the town minister, accusing his slave, Tituba, of being a witch. She claimed that she and others in the town were witches and there was even a wizard. The town broke out in hysteria in further months. Over 100 people were put in jail because of accusations. The council that were to find these people’s innocence or guilt were corrupted as well because to claim innocence meant you were guilty and if you were to claim guilt you could be redeemed. Many of the items found incriminating were pins and voodoo dolls. Many of these people faced the psychological terror of being pressured into claiming guilt to a crime, you didn’t commit in front of a committee and scared the community to death that they were going to be subjected to. Many of the witnesses to these trials were said to have undergone physical distress or act inhumanly. Many historians say to these records that since their body was put under so much strain and fear of the witchcraft that surrounded them all the time, their bodies going through strange changes such as paralysis or temporary blindness with no real cause rather than stress. But many historians also believe the witnesses were voluntarily acting and committing fraud against the others. But why was this such an enigma to understand why this small town in New England was all of a sudden becoming a cen...
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.
As a seemingly wise and educated man, throughout the novel Gulliver's Tarvels, the narrator cleverly gains the reader's respect as a thinking and observant individual. With this position in mind, the comments and ideas that Gulliver inflicts upon those reading about his journeys certainly have their own identity as they coincide with his beliefs and statements on the state of humanity and civilization in particular. Everywhere Gulliver goes, he seems to comment on the good and bad points of the people he encounters. Sometimes, he finds a civilization that he can find virtues within, but he also encounters peoples and places which truly diusgust him in their manner of operation and civility. Overall, Swift gives Gulliver a generally negative and cynical attitude towards the manner in which his current day English counterparts behaved cleverly disguised in the subtext of his encounters with other nations that either contrasted the way they lived, or mirrored unflatteringly his contemporaries lifestyles.
Natoli, Joseph. "William Blake." Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition (2002): 1-12. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
The conditions of the present scenario are as follows: a machine, Siri*, capable of passing the Turing test, is being insulted by a 10 year old boy, whose mother is questioning the appropriateness of punishing him for his behavior. We cannot answer the mother's question without speculating as to what A.M. Turing and John Searle, two 20th century philosophers whose views on artificial intelligence are starkly contrasting, would say about this predicament. Furthermore, we must provide fair and balanced consideration for both theorists’ viewpoints because, ultimately, neither side can be “correct” in this scenario. But before we compare hypothetical opinions, we must establish operant definitions for all parties involved. The characters in this scenario are the mother, referred to as Amy; the 10 year old boy, referred to as the Son; Turing and Searle; and Siri*, a machine that will be referred to as an “it,” to avoid an unintentional bias in favor of or against personhood. Now, to formulate plausible opinions that could emerge from Turing and Searle, we simply need to remember what tenants found their respective schools of thought and apply them logically to the given conditions of this scenario.
Exposure to ultraviolet rays with indoor tanning can cause various cancers, The World Health Organization’s international agency for research on cancer puts “tanning beds and tanning lamps into its highest cancer risk category.” Tanning beds should not be used if they are in the highest cancer risk category, tanning beds are shown to increase the risk of all forms of cancer. Also Using a tanning bed at a younger age can increase the chances of getting melanoma later in life. “using tanning beds before age 30 increases your risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent.” Tanning beds can affect you even more if you're using them as a teen or young adult. Melanoma is the most severe type of skin cancer and “Melanoma is the leading cause of cancer death in women 25-30 years old” by using a tanning bed you can get this very deadly form of cancer, on average someone dies every hour due to melanoma. Tanning beds causes various
Sunbeds were first created in Europe (“History of” n.pag.). They are a primary cause of many types of skin cancer such as melanoma and other dangerous and undesired health conditions (“Sunbeds, tanning” n.pag.). It is mistakenly assumed that tanning beds have less of a negative affect from UV rays than UV rays from the sun (“Sunbeds” n.pag.). Only 36 states have a law prohibiting minors’ use of tanning beds (“11 Facts” n.pag.). The negative effects of the use of sunbeds seem to greatly outweigh the positive effects. The damage from tanning beds is long-term and irreversible (“Sunbeds” n.pag.). Rules and regulations regarding tanning beds have not, in the past, been enough to prevent numerous cases against tanning bed companies from arising. Sunbeds are a growing problem in America that is greatly ignored (“Sunbeds, tanning” n.pag.).
Through metaphors in Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift showed that the self-indulgence of humanity will lead to their ultimate failure unless they learn to become kinder and more selfless. Each island in Gulliver’s Travels shows a different trait standing alone causing it to be just as bad as being self-indulgent. This type of failure will cause separation and isolation, which could lead to mental instability.
In Book IV, Lemuel Gulliver’s fourth and final journey places him in the land of the Houyhnhnm, a civilization of intellectual, sensible horses, and senseless, inferior, and indecent humans. As Swift does throughout the novel, he ties his satire closely with Gulliver’s perceptions of the different world around him in his last adventure; these chapters do not change the method of Swift’s satire.
...an king, England's management of laws, government, religion, and conquests were absolutely appalling. While Gulliver boasts of his country's achievements, the king is horrified. Swift implies that humans have the potential to overcome corruption while simultaneously disparaging English practices of such evil intent.
human corruptions, had so far opened my eyes and enlarged my understanding, that I began to view the actions and passions of man in a very different light, and to think the honour of my own kind not worth managing; which, besides, it was impossible for me to do" (Swift 13). Here, Gulliver starts to shy a...
The human brain has the ability to store and recall infinite amounts of information from previously learned actions, and instructions to newly learned data, and thought’s. So why is it, that human memory is faulty? There are many theories as to why certain memories are easily forgotten and others are engrained so deeply that it takes no energy at all to have the information recalled. Regardless, humans begin to learn as well as forget information from the time of birth till we are laid to rest. Early childhood memories are just one set of memories many tend to forget. Other factors that contribute to a lack of memory can include negative thinking, decay, encoding failure and interference, mental illness, and trauma.