Abdeali Dalal. Dr. Jenkins. History 1301. February 13,

Godbeer refers to the situation with Katherine Branch. She was the servant of the Wescott family and began to get strange symptoms such as screaming from intense pain, or losing all of her mobility and not being able to move off of the ground. To check if she indeed was a witch, one of the neighbors tried “the sword test”. The sword test is supposed to be an accurate way to see whether a person is actually bewitched or not. To perform it, a person simply holds a sword above the person who is believed to be taken over by supernatural forces. If the person who is taken over by the supernatural forces laughs, then the sword test has indicated that they are indeed bewitched. Katherine Branch did indeed laugh when the sword was held above her head. However, some of the towns-people had already been having suspicions that Katherine had been faking her bewitching, so they decided to perform the test to Katherine in secret when she did not know. To confirm their suspicions, she did not laugh at all. Eventually Katherine Branch’s story ends with her accusing six women of witchcraft, but only two of them being acquitted. Godbeer uses this story as key evidence to show that the people were not so naïve in the seventeenth century. The courts were very careful as to who they were actually acquitting and random accusations of bewitching did not go through so

In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity.

To learn more about the Salem witchcraft hysteria, Historian Paul Boyer, and Professor Stephen Nissenbaum sought to further understand the accusations of witchcraft. During the late 1600’s life in colonial New England was one led by religion and politics. Salem was broken up into two factions, Salem Village, and Salem Town. Salem Village, which was led by the Putnam family was a rapidly growing

While spring is a time for growth, newlife, and awakening, in the spring of 1692 a rotten presence (both figuratively and literally) swept over Salem Village, Massachusetts when a group of young girls claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. Not only was this the spark of a religious uproar in the quaint, puritan town; but a spark that lit the match which eventually convicted over a hundred innocent people and claimed 20 lives. While the true pain of these trials cannot be seen in photographs or videos, it can be experienced through the words that have been written. In Marilynne Roach’s novel, “Six Women of Salem”, she tells the untold story of six women who underwent the grueling Salem witchcraft trials, and she evoked a strong sense of empathy for the victims through her use of first person narratives and factual evidence. Through these devices Roach successfully highlighted the twisted, prejudice, and uneducated society that America was, and, in some ways, still is today.

This is a book broken into chapters with 376 pages. This novel discusses the people and events that occurred during the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. The author, Emerson Baker, does this by taking a large number of primary documents, scholarly interpretation, and speculations from the centuries that surround the trials. Baker examines the trials inside the 1600 time period, he then places the trials into the bigger picture of American history

The Salem witch trials, that occurred in colonial Massachusetts, were a hostile part of American history. People lived in a constant state of paranoia and fear. A great number of people were accused of practicing witchcraft, which was thought to be connected to the devil, and some were even executed. Eventually, the colony realized the faults in the trials. By reading the primary sources ‘A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft Chapter II’ by John Hale and Two Letters by Governor William Phips, we are able to discover a wealth of knowledge about the aforementioned trials. The two sources allow the reader to gain insight into how the trials were flawed by showing the nature of the Salem Witch Trials, the evidence used to find the witches guilty, and the role native americans played in the trials. While also exhibiting how primary sources can be a disadvantage in navigating through historical events.

Many people are aware of the witch hunt that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692, however these same people may not be as familiar with the other witch hunt that also occurred in New England during the same year. Escaping Salem: the other witch hunt of 1692, written by Richard Godbeer, is a historical monograph that reconstructs the, mostly unheard-of witch hunt, that occurred in Stamford, Connecticut. The book also gives its readers insight into the minds of early American citizens. Thus, the theme of Escaping Salem, beside witchcraft, is human nature and Richard Godbeer’s thesis is that humans demonize others before recognizing their own share of human frailty. It is evident that he is biased toward the witches and sympathizes with them. This, of course, is not surprising since they were irrationally punished because of their neighbours unsubstantiated accusations. Richard Godbeer is currently a Professor of History at the University of Miami, who offers courses on a broad range of topics, including sex and gender in early America, witchcraft in colonial New England, religious culture in early America, and the American Revolution. He is also the author of 11 other historical monographs.

During the time period of 1691 to 1692 the town of Salem, a small thriving community within the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony, was struck by widespread hysteria in the form of witch trials. The way these trials and accusations played out are historically unlike any other witch trials found in European and American history. Historians have pointed to a number of economic, political, and social changes of the then existing institutions throughout the Massachusetts Bay area to be the cause of the Salem witch trials, along with the direction they took. If studied closely however, it becomes apparent that the main cause for the Salem witch trials can be found in the way the people of Salem viewed and

The courtroom filled quickly, and gossip flowed throughout the community. Early on in the trials, people already held strong biases regarding Kate Branch’s condition. For example, “The residents of Stamford were anything but hasty in cuddling that witchcraft must be responsible for Kate’s torments…some suspected that Kate was faking her symptoms” (Godbeer 33). While some did believe in witchcraft, the non-believers were prevalent, spreading their chatter throughout the community. It is interesting to note that elderly women, in particular, were targeted for being witches in the novel.

Witchcraft accusations and trials in 1692 rocked the colony of Salem Massachusetts. There are some different views that are offered concerning why neighbors decided to condemn the people around them as witches and why they did what they did to one another. Carol Karlsen in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman and Bernard Rosenthal in Salem Story give several factors, ranging from woman hunting to shear malice, that help explain why the Salem trials took place and why they reached the magnitude that they did. The theories put fourth by Karlsen of a society that accusations against women as witches explain the trail, and Rosenthals ideas of discourse in the community are supported or partially disproved by

The central issue at stake for people during the Salem witch trials were a series of hearing and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. It all started in Salem Village, in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. A man by the name of Richard Godbeer, the author of “The Salem Witch Hunt” and several other books is a professor at the University of Miami. Godbeer’s research and teaching interests center on colonial and revolutionary America. Also, his fields of interest are in gender, sex, witchcraft and religious culture.

Many people know of the Salem witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692 spilling over into the year 1693. But for those who do not know, the Salem witch trials were a series of trials against men, women, and children accused of being a witch and or practicing witchcraft. In “The Devils Snare: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692” by Mary Beth Norton, the author recollects the stories of real life accounts of those accusers and the accused in Salem during that time. Mary Beth Norton explains the Salem witch trials differently than other books and articles by giving wide-ranging background on incidents leading toward the trials and how events in history were related to the trials.

Witch hunts are nothing new, especially for America. From the McCarthy trials searching for hidden communists in America, to the Little Rascals Trials and others like them taking three year olds testimonies that had been altered by suggestive adults to ruin peoples lives. Even before independence the first witch hunt among the Puritan colonists had occurred. While many people today have a general understanding of what occurred in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, Frances Hill, author of Delusions of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials, went deeper to find the true story of the havoc that fell on the small town.

The Salem Witch Trials began in June of 1692 in the colonial Massachusettes. Salem Village, Massachusettes had been experiencing an interesting decade. During this time the town had just become accustomed to a new minister by the name of Minister Parris. Having being the third minister withing seven years, the minister was insecure about his position in the town. Emagining that the town was going through an unstable time period, the group did nothing more but make things worse. The victims of the Trials were accused of using “The Devil’s Magic” to harm others. This began when four teenage girls claimed to have been forced into witchcraft and began accusing radom people of withcraft to keep the attention off of themselves for their “Satanic” behavior. Abigail, Betty, Mercy, and Mary were four young girls that were sent to the woods- which were viewed as a place of the devil- to conjure up dead babies. The girls were caught by the minister and were accused and trialed. To keep themselves out of trouble the girls accused others of witchcraft causing them to be beheaded and hanged on several occasions. First the girls, with Abigail being the leader, accused Tituba of forcong them to do the Satanic things mainly because she was the most vulnerable to accuse. Her being the only black woman involved with the group was an easy target for Abigail.

In 1692, vast paranoia swept the New England countryside. Citizens of Salem were being accused of casting spells and being associated with the devil. This was a new occurrence in America, however, across France, Italy, Germany and England massive witch-hunts had been going on for three hundred years. In Salem Village, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1692, a group of young girls claimed to have been possessed by the devil. They accused several local women of witchcraft. Over a period of several months, one hundred and fifty more citizens including males, females, and even children were accused. The turmoil caused by the trials would endure for centuries.