Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of prosecutions of people who were accused of acts of witchcraft or of being a witch in Salem, Massachusetts through the time period of February 1692 through May 1693. This was a dark time in history as more than 200 prosecutions took place and at least 20 people were killed during this time of fear and hysteria. The accusations began as three girls Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne were accused of witchcraft from other young girls in the community. During this time period, fear of the Devil was common as people in Salem were very devoted to their religion and religious practices. As one of the accused girls, Tituba, confessed to working for the Devil and admitting to being a witch, this caused panic and hysteria as a massive witch hunt took place to find more of these witches. This confession was the main reason behind months and months of fear and mass panic as it triggered more accusations.

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 Trials brought havoc among the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts starting in 1692. Many of the people within the town continued to have strong loyalties to their new Puritan religion and their old king back home. The church of England had moved away from the Catholic religion with the help of King Henry VIII and the Puritans were a new group of people who accepted the split from Catholicism but still believed that the church of England had a lot of aspects that remained with the Catholic religion. Despite this, loyalty to the king remained strong because the Puritans were not looking to break off from the Church of England instead they wanted to reform the religion and make it their own. These loyalties stretched to such an extent that any sin committed was also considered an act of treason and thus punished. The Salem community was constantly searching for evil within their town to prove their righteousness to God which lead to high rates of fear and paranoia in their daily lives. The strict Puritan religion soon became the root cause of the monstrous imagination that started to form within the community of Salem. Many people still feared the presence of Catholic ideas within their communities and in response were willing to go to any extent to irradiate these views. Some historians also account the beginning of the trials to divisions within the two towns of Salem that lead to tensions and turmoil between the townsmen. But without the increased belief in their new religion, women around town wouldn’t have been persecuted. The strict belief in the Puritan religion and culture was the root cause of fear and paranoia that led to the mass execution of many women and townspeople during the Salem Witch Trials.

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.

To begin, one cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was envious, young women. One piece of textual evidence that supports this cause is out of the 34 accusers, 67% of them were single females. Married women were the most targeted group for accusations of witchcraft (doc B). This evidence helps to explain the hysteria because most of the single women were jealous of the lifestyle others were living. Married women showed status in the community. They had security, a family, and money. These things would cause younger single girls to become envious of married women. Furthermore, another piece of textual evidence is the westside of Salem village were the poor people the accusers. On the eastside of Salem village were the wealthy the accused (doc E). This evidence helps to explain the hysteria because the poor single women were jealous of what the wealthy married women had. More married women were accused by young single women. 96% of accusers lived on the west side of Salem

Within the town of Salem, there seemed to be two regional divisions, being the rich and the poor. The west side contained most of the accusers and the east side contained most of those who were claimed to be a witch (Document F). In historical context, this information is reliable because it can be traced back to being documented in 1692 which is when the witch trials were in full swing. Townspeople could easily accuse one of being a witch, especially if there was a conflict between the two people,

In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, hysteria broke out throughout the town in an event that later became known as the Salem Witch Trials. They were the largest account of witch hangings ever in America, as 20 women and men were put to death for being accused of practicing witchcraft. Historians have been debating about how these trials were caused. The frenzy in Salem happened because at first, young girls were afraid of punishment and wanted to avoid it so they blamed older women and accused them of being witches. These accusations began to spiral out of control when the religion of the town supported the allegations, which causes paranoia and panic to spread throughout Salem, which blinded the townspeople from clues revealing that the

Since there never was a spurned lover stirring things up in Salem Village, and there is no evidence from the time that Tituba practiced Caribbean black magic, yet these trials and executions actually still took place, how can you explain why they occurred?

In 1692 the Puritans, colonists that believed in the bible, settled in America. They believed in witchcraft, and believed that people who study it should be executed. This led to many people being accused and executed. What made the Salem witch trials of 1692 such a threat and fear to the people of Massachusetts? The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 was caused by the fear of being possessed by the devil, by the fear of being accused and what your consequences would be, and lastly the belief of people being witches which was a crime worthy of death.

Puritan laws were extremely strict and the community needed to follow this laws, so everyone who went against the laws or did something that was against the law was viewed as a sin and that they deserved to be punished, this is why the community took the trials seriously and accused harshly the “witches”. There was hysteria because of the “witches” was among the streets of colonial Massachusetts, so the government and the judicial court, that were heavily influenced by puritanism, started a special court in Salem to hear the

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

The most compelling reason such witch trials became prominent in this era was because of religion. Throughout this time period, many of the religious village people believed in Puritanism, a religion that was created during the late 16th century in order to purify the Church of England. Puritans believe that it is absolutely necessary to be in a pure relationship with God in order to be able to redeem oneself. It is because of the

Between 1692 and 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts, 200 women were put under indictment, and 20 were executed because they were accused of witchcraft. Although all the cases against these women were false, this significant event displays paranoia and injustice. Many theories have been hypothesized on the reason why the trails happened. Social, political, religious, and economic factors played into the causation of this horrific madness. The hysteria, known as the Salem Witch Trials, were caused by the insanity amongst the people of the Salem, the hypocritical Puritan code, false accusations, and the misconception that there was a correlation between a lack of resources and evil spirits.

In 1692 in the quaint Puritan village of Salem Massachusetts, twenty lives were claimed to execution on charges of witchcraft, nineteen by hanging and one man was pressed to death. The causes of these deaths and the Salem Witch Trails can be easier understood when the culture of Puritan Colonial life is examined. The Salem community was rooted in the Puritan religion. Puritans believed like all Christians, that humanity was guilty of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve, and believed that Jesus Christ had died on the cross for their evils and all faithful Christians would be admitted to heaven following death. Puritans, also being Calvinists subsequently believed that there was nothing a person could do to ensure their fate, each person was predestined to enter either heaven or hell. This made the Puritan religion a fearful one, where its followers never felt secure. Puritans held a firm belief in the supernatural, they concluded that if the supernatural was disregarded then the very nature of God himself was being rejected. Puritans saw themselves as forces of good, fighting to rid the world of evil. Their certainty of the paranormal was profoundly engraved into their belief system which affected the course of the Salem Witch Trials tremendously.

For decades, opposing perspectives of different people and groups has led to contention in society. In communities around the world, this contention has built up fear and prejudice. However, as conflict is an inevitable part of any society, it can be expected to develop the greatest consequence possible. The Salem Witch Trials are an example of such conflict, as they resulted in many people being falsely accused for crimes, arrested, and killed. But what provoked this mass hysteria? Scholars have attempted to answer this question, but the most common idea is that it was due to a variety of economic, social, and physiological problems within the Salem village.