There were a multitude of causes that led to the brewing of the Salem witch trials. Some of which were lack of education, superstition based on their religion. Also quarrels over land and power in the church and village politics.
To begin lack of education played a major role in the brewing of of the Salem witch trials, without education the common folk did not know enough to have self motivated thoughts. If they do not have enough education to have self motivated, they cannot doubt what the reverend says or create their own opinion on the matter. This helped the witch trial get much larger than it should have been.
Another reason was the superstition based on their religion. Most people during those times were strongly devoted to their belief and religion, and because they nothing better or more than their religion. When the girls accuses someone and did their whole act. No one questioned it. No one knew enough to form a question about it. People only knew their religion and the superstitions of the church and the people around them.
Another possible reason was village politics. More land meant more power in this era. The more land a person had, the more position in the village and a higher position in the church. In the movie if they accused people with land and the people were found guilty of witchcraft, they were hung and the nearest land owner would be able to receive the land if no inheritance was in place. That's why many people had reason to join in the hysteria.
The Salem Witch Trials were a time of paranoia and mass hysteria. In this small town of Massachusetts hundreds were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were executed. Salem was home to very devout Puritans. The worries arrived when young girls would become sick with no explanation or cure. The doctors not knowing what the cause of the illness was, quickly pronounce the girls bewitched. It spread terror through the town. The girls, as well as other residents, started accusing others of witchery. Many accusations were because of vengeance or self-interest. There were rivalries between families over land or wealth. Neighbors started accusing each other in order to gain their land. The religious community had an intensified sense of fear that the Devil was walking among them. They believed witches were out to destroy the Puritans. In order to purify the village of evil they had trials for the accused.
1692 was a hard time to live in. People could be accused of being a witch even without proof, so if you had an enemy at this time it was easy to say she's a witch. So you might be asking yourself, what caused the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692? There really isn't a right there answer to this question, it could have been a lot of things, but the most logical answer would be either malicious intent, empowerment, or jealousy.
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
The primary cause to the Salem Witch Trial hysteria was the depth of belief. There were twenty-four people accused who died, nineteen of which were hanged, as said in “Document B”. The people of Salem believed that evil spirits were surrounding them and that Satan is said to have ‘employed’ the witches, read in “Document C”. Their beliefs even got them to examine the accused, shown in “Document D”. Depth of belief helped cause the hysteria in Salem because people completely believed their neighbors were witches. This caused everyone to accuse everyone.
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 final cause of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria is the Puritans strict religion. According to Evidence Set B, the Puritans believed that there was a Devil, and that this devil would enter the body of the social outcasts, therefore turning them into a witch. This lead to the Puritans not trusting the outcasts, which made the outcasts an easy target for the
The Salem witch trials were horrendous days in which a reasonable amount of people died, and it certainly caused a severe impact in the society that the colonizer were trying to create. The strong connection that the colonizers had with regard to the bible was a very important fact in it. Plenty of people felt that Satan was behind all the witchery that was going on, and some other thought that Satan wanted to “colonize” them through enchantments. Hence, people was getting crazy when it came to hunting witches, and some even got to the point of killing two dogs because they thought those dogs were witches. Consequently, I believe that a big cause of the Salem Witch Trials was that people was getting crazy when it came to hunting witches.
In 1692, in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts, 20 people were hanged for offenses they did not commit. But what was the charge against the 20? The answer would be witchcraft. The charges deeply affected the small community. Neighbor turned on neighbor. Every act that a person made would be carefully scrutinized, dissected, and repeated to others. This would lead to the question. What caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? The 3 main factors that would cause widespread panic in the town of Salem were gender, marital status, and age, actors and attention seekers, and neighbor conflicts within the village of Salem.
Most of the people that were tried were over the age of 40 and were accused by people between the ages of 16 and 18, which tells a lot. There a three main reason why the hysteria went crazy. There were many reasons why the witch trials took place and how they were able to keep spreading, But there are three that really helped in spread. Fear,Mass Religion, and Jealousy were major roles in the witch trials The first reason the salem witch trials were able to spread like a wildfire was due to the penalty of being a witch.
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials in the 1690s which accused society members of practicing witchcraft, they took place in Salem, Massachusets. What caused this mass hysteria to occur? Some contributing factors could include some socio-economic reasons, an overbearing Puritan society and the influential sense that witchcraft was taking place all over the world.
It all began in 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, a Puritan town. Ironically, this supposed religious town, put 20 people to death for witchcraft. The invisible crime had made itself prevalent in the town through two girls, Betty Parris, age nine, and her 11 year old cousin Abigail Williams. These two girls, in order to escape punishment for witchcraft, accused two local white women and the slave Tituba (What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692?, Background Essay). It was this first accusation, that set forth the next turn of events. From here, the number of accusers grew. Suddenly, everyone’s neighbors became witches and the jails began to overflow. A special court was built to hold trials, however, the judicial system was biased along with the rest of the town. They allowed their set religious beliefs interfere with logical reasoning and evidence. Hence, the bias. The court proved all for not though, when it ordered a mass hanging on September 22, ending the witchcraft epidemic in Salem. To this day, historians still don’t fully understand what caused the hysteria in Salem. Thus, it could only be theorized the causes of such an event. Taking a gander at probability, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were likely rooted in scapegoating, greed, and bias.
The religion of the townspeople supported the witchcraft accusations that were spreading. Back then, the people of Salem read the Bible extremely literally. In the book, it says, ‘“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Doc 1) This is how the executions began and how more and more people became convinced that witchcraft existed. After these three women were jailed, this set off a large stream of accusations that continued for the next few months. In the Bible it says that mostly women were bewitched, and since the people took the Bible very seriously, a large portion of the accused were female. Around 24-30 males were accused while 88-110 females were. (Doc 5) Also, since the Bible said that witches must die, 20 people were executed. Some were hanged, some died in jail. (Doc 2) The support of their religion caused paranoia to break out, introducing the last cause of hysteria.
I am writing this report today to explain the major reasons behind the horrific witchcraft trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in the years 1692 and 1693. For years this event has been ignored. However, after analyzing the evidence in this case, I have some startling news to share. First, I will share with you the various theories that make the most sense. Then I will explain what I believe caused the Salem community to respond in such a cruel and violent way.
The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. Because most of the trials were occurring in Salem, this meant that the accusations were happening among the Puritans themselves, which could very well be anything as long as the Puritans found it as contradicting their bible. Not only did the strict religion intolerance fuel the accusations and trials, but also the possible factor of ergot being involved which has been known to cause symptoms leading to hysteria.
In the year (1692) witch trials held the Salem area hostage people were terrified. People of