Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials

The first reason the Salem witch trials occurred was mainly because people were scared of the devil. The people of Salem were all Puritans and were extremely scared of Satan. Since they were so scared, once one person was accused, everybody became spectacle and believed that there was witchcraft in the village. The smallest little suspicions caused people to think that you were a witch. Even by the way you acted in one little way, the town would freak out

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

According to Document B, 23 of the 29 accusers were under the age of 21. Due to Puritan beliefs, teenage girls had to stay home and complete chores. According to Evidence Set C, two of the girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, were fed up with it. They started talking to a slave by the name, “Tituba”. Tituba told the girls magical stories and played fortune-telling games with them. The girls began to feel guilty that they went against their religion, so they began accusing Tituba of being a witch. This made the girls feel less guilty, as what they were accusing Tituba of doing was much worse than what they were doing. Other girls from around the village began to join them in accusing outcasts. According to Document D, the girls enjoyed acting bewitched. Their acting certainly tricked the adults. According to Document C, the girls would act bewitched every time the person accused would make a movement such as shake their head, or move their eyes.

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.

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

In the year (1692) witch trials held the Salem area hostage people were terrified. People of

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.

The Salem witch trials of 1692 entailed a series of cases conducted by local magistrates charging witchcraft within the Massachusetts Bay Colony region. Within one year, over 200 individuals faced accusations, and 20 were executed. The definitive moment where these trials began was when Reverend Samuel Parris found something wrong with his daughter and other young girls after they had been conducting fortune-telling, so he called in a doctor to investigate; however, the doctor could not identify illness, so Puritans then attributed the children’s strange behavior to the devil. The girls began accusing their supposed tormentors, and the town fell to chaos. However, even though this short-term causation offers a prompt explanation, it is crucial to recognize the degree to which deep-rooted belief systems and long-term causation affected the progression towards conflict. The religious superstitions ingrained in Puritanism was a catalyst that significantly contributed to Salem’s already tense environment, leading the townspeople to succumb to witchcraft hysteria and take accusatory measures in 1692.

Every nation at one time or another undergoes a period of darkness and despair. Making its way overseas from Europe; to a little town in Massachusetts Bay Colony, known as Salem, would soon find themselves to be the next victim’s amongst the witch hysteria. In 1692, as the town feared of being consumed of black magic, many men, mostly women, and a few children would find themselves under attack of being accused of witchcraft by their fellow townsmen. Instead of investigating into possible causes to the extremely violent outburst, hallucinations, muscle spasms, and vomiting; the work of the devil would be to blame. In this essay we will take a look into the beginning of the so called ‘witch hysteria’ and how it began. Journey to discover more about who the victims were and how they were wrongly accused and executed. As well as discovering what was believed to be the reasoning behind the illness which lead the accused to forever be damned as a witch. And finally, exploring into how the town recovered once the infamous Witch Trials ended. With only in a years’ passing, Salem would forever be remembered as a colony which was consumed of witches, and to this day has led to the sad and historical legacy of the Salem Witch Trials.