Betty Paris And Abigail Williams Research Paper

Confused on what was going on, the village turned to the doctors in which said that it was a form of witchcraft. The Reverend asked the girls who was behind all of this, thinking that the girls couldn't do this on their own. Three names came up in the conversation with the girls. On February 29, 1692, three arrests were made. One was Sarah Good who denied the accusations and blamed it on the other woman, Sarah Osbourne, who also denied the whole thing. During the trial of the three women, the other one accused, a slave of Reverend Parris named Tituba, had admitted to being a witch. She claimed that four women and a man had claimed that if she did not hurt the children then they would hurt her. The hunt went on to find more witches that were responsible in which led them to a respected church member Reverend George Burroughs, a former minister in Maine. The villagers went to Maine and brought him back to Salem to be tried for witchcraft.

All the horrified villagers and upperclassmen saw the witches in action they saw the monstrous effect that black magic was apparently having on poor little child Abigail and twelve year old Ann Putnam Jr., a spell bounded choreography of outburst and spasms. “Look to her! She will have a fit presently,” one girl would cry out, pointing to another, who would promptly commence convulsing. “At other times they warned, ‘We shall all fall!’ and about seven girls would pass out, babbling to the floor. The head of the courtroom on that day was Thomas Danforth, deputy governor of Massachusetts and Harvard’s longtime treasurer, one of the several senior colonial officials . Betty's father called in more authorities to decide if witchcraft was the reason for the girl’s illness. Seeing that nothing was working not the praying or the vigils nor the sermons. Reverend decided to call in the doctors. Being puritan they did not believe in science but there were no options left. Betty was sent away, and did not participate in the trials; the other girls were joined by other young women in staging publicly putting on displays of their distress when in the presence of accused

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in seventeenth century Massachusetts. The small Puritan town of Salem was first burdened with the accusations of witchcraft in January of 1692, according to the article “Salem Witch Trials” on “History.com.” The article also states that two local girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, began having violent fits accompanied with bloodcurdling screams (“Salem Witch Trials). When the girls never healed, the town doctor, William Griggs, was called to the girls’ homes says the article “The 1962 Salem Witch Trials.”

Suddenly people seemed very paranoid and soon residents were placing blame on one another and accusing each other of witchcraft. In a fifteen month period between 1691 and 1692 nearly twelve dozen people were accused of witchcraft in or near Salem (Norton, p8).

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted with an actual sickness, or were experiencing them because of some sort of psychological reason is widely debated, though it is known that the sisters accused their maid, Tituba, of forcing them to participate in witchcraft with her. Some who theorize about the causes of the trials dismiss the Parris girls involvement in the beginning and instead attribute the outbreak of accusations to judgement upon the members of society who break social or religious rules, or who struck the upright members of society as ‘strange’ and ‘suspicious’, such as the homeless, the poor, and old or widowed women. The cause of the hysteria that went on in Salem after this is what is speculated by so many. There are probably hundreds of theories out there, but a few in particular are more widely known, accepted, and supported than others.

The infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials began in early 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts. It all began as a childlike game of a fortune teller to discover the future of the young girls. The Salem Witchcraft Trials began January of 1692, when two girls, Betty Paris (nine) and Abigail Williams (seventeen) , began to have fits and convulsions. They were seen by doctor William Griggs, and the only reasonable diagnosis he knew of was bewitchment. By the end of February, two other girls, Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard, became ill. All together, there were 10 girls that were afflicted. Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard accused Sarah Good, Tituba, and Sarah Osborne 's spirits of hurting them. Tituba, Reverend Parris 's slave, had

In 1692, Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem was shocked to discover his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth (known as “Betty”) and his eleven-year-old niece Abigail Williams acting extremely strangely. The young girls were screaming and crying and contorting their bodies into strange and uncomfortable positions. The girls said they felt like their bodies were being pricked with hundreds of needles. Their hysterical episode was described as "beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect". An unknown doctor, (historical evidence suggests that it was Doctor William Griggs) examined the girls and could not find anything physically wrong with them. There were no signs of any illness that he knew of. Most accounts say that this doctor was the first one to suggest that the girls’ behavior could be a result of witchcraft.

Following this, in January 1692, nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams began having fits. The fits included violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor by the name of William Griggs diagnosed the girls with bewitchment, other girls in the area began to exhibit similar symptoms. After Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams both had symptoms of being witches, it spread like wildfire in the community, followed by many others having similar symptoms. As stated by A&E networks, a historical archive website, “As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse–both regarded as upstanding members of church and community–and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.” After a while the trials became very overwhelming and concerning to others in the community. The historical events of Salem are documented, however historians have yet to come to consensus on the true cause of the hysteria.

On January 20th, before the three women were accused, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris began to have fits, and complained that they were in pain (Source 2). In February, a doctor first examined the girls, ruled out that it was witchcraft, and then examined Tituba, who confessed to him that she was a witch (Source 2). As other girls began to show signs of affliction, the citizens of Salem began to fill with fear, and went to the court to get help. The court began the official trials, and worked alongside the afflicted girls to rule out who was evil, and who was good.

The first to do so was a young girl by the name of Betty Paris. These girls suffered through a series of fits, hiding under furniture, writhing in pain, screaming and crying for no apparent reason, and fevers. These girls were later called the “afflicted girls.” A local doctor examined them and found nothing physically wrong with them. There then arose the idea that they were bewitched. Many scientist have tried to explain what had happened to these girls and many theories have surfaced. Some believe that they had eaten rye infected with fungus. Others believe they had epilepsy or a mental illness. Then there is the popular theory that these girls just suffered from boredom and wanted attention. People in the community pushed them to say who was the one behind their agony and so the girls accused the first three women, Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and a slave named Tituba. These women were easy targets, all being somewhat social outcasts. This helped the community rally behind the girls and believe their story. There was another turn of events that occurred during questioning, Tituba confessed to being a witch and being recruited by Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn. The colonies had accused and executed witches in the past but few to none had ever confessed. This sudden knowledge sent the area into a frenzy and the witch hunts

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

The first trial in Salem, Massachusetts wasn’t even a real trial. It was more of a preliminary hearing to see if they have enough evidence. It was on March 1, 1692 that Sarah Good, Sarah Osbourne, and Tituba were questioned on whether or not they participated in witchcraft. Sarah Good was a poor beggar while Sara Osbourne, sometimes known as Goody Osbourne, was just social outcast. That essentially made them very easy targets. Tituba was the was the one who accused Sarah Good and Osbourne, which the girls agreed. They were mercifully attacked and questioned, hoping to elicit a confession. Betty and Abigail, along with the other girls, were present during this interrogation. Every time they would denied witchcraft the girls would

Abigail Betty's cousin also wanted to be part of practicing witchcraft and I think that's when her uncle thought maybe she had done something to Betty and he told her to cure her. I believe that the truth about Abigail was that she wasn’t a witch .Betty wanted to do witchcraft . Although Abigail had seemed a little scared .One day both of them had gone to the forest and danced ,they had went to the forest ,because the village people believed that when you dance your dancing with the devil.. A few days later I believe they were asking Abigail and Betty what they were doing there and they had said that Mercy was there too. Mercy supposedly had said that she was not doing anything bad that she was just “looking”at them dance . A few days

The witch trials began when nine girls, known as the afflicted girls, experienced strange symptoms. In the beginning, there were only five afflicted girls: Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott, and Mercy Lewis. Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Booth later began experiencing the symptoms, which involved strange fits, irregular body contortions, and fevers. Although the symptoms seem phenomenal, modern theories suggest that the children were merely bored, abused, or had epilepsy, a mental illness, or a disease that was obtained from eating rye bread infected with a fungus. Reverend Samuel Parris, Betty Parris’ father, asked Dr. William Griggs to deduce the problem, and Dr. Griggs concluded that they were bewitched. The group of girls accused three women of causing their unnatural behaviors: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, a slave owned by Samuel Parris. The women were easy targets for the girls because they were outcasts (Brooks). Sarah Good was a beggar, Sarah

In Salem Massachusetts during the spring of 1962 the witch trials began. These trials stimmed from a diagnosis by a local doctor named William Griggs, in January of 1692 who diagnosed two young girls with “bewitchment” after they were having fits that included: violent expressions, writhing and uncontrollable outburst of screaming. In February, after other young girls began to have similar signs, four arrest warrants were issued due to the girls accusing Tituba, Parris’ Caribbean, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn of bewitching them.