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.

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.

Puritans settled in the Massachusetts town of Salem in 1630, with their leader John Winthrop. Winthrop claimed that Salem would be “As a City Upon a Hill,” meaning that the Puritans coming to the New World would set a religious and civilized example among other colonies. However, this wasn’t the case. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations and persecutions due to what was thought to be witchcraft among Salem townspeople. King Philip’s War played a role in the trials. It caused regional mass hysteria which lead to the accusing of witches in Salem. Samuel Parris was the local preacher of Salem and in 1691 he started preaching about the devil and focused more on hell instead of more positive things which also played a role in the crafting of the witch trials. Rich versus poor feuds, the desire to feel around and inspect women, and easily being able to have someone punished by accusing them of being a witch, fueled and motivated the Witch Trials of Salem in 1692.

“Witch Hunt” is a term often thrown around whenever a group of people is being sought out and punished for their actions, regardless of whether they are actually guilty or not. Throughout history, there have been hundreds of different “witch hunts”, and not all of them have been hunting for witches. A few examples include the persecution of Muslims in post-9/11 USA, the sexual assault allegations of male celebrities and politicians being brought to light in 2017, and the search for communists through McCarthyism in the 1950’s. The most famous witch hunt that involved witches, though, occurred in a small village in Massachusetts called Salem, in 1692. But what caused these trials, and what made them so different from all of the others? There were no witches in Salem, but there was the impact of a sexist society on teenage girls, a desperate grab for land, and a malfunctioning legal system that allowed innocent people to be put to death. These are the three main causes of the famed Salem Witch Trials.

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.

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.

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of executions done in colonial Massachusetts, where several people were accused of witchcraft between February 1692 and May 1693. These executions included fourteen women, and six men, all of these executions but one were done by hangings. The government and the population in the 1690’s in Massachusetts consisted of strongly puritans. Puritanism was a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that wanted to “purify” the Church of England from the remnants of the Roman Catholic. Puritans were the more extreme protestants, and they thought that the English Reformation did not purify every single thing they had of the Catholic religion. They believed that every individual was directly responsible to God, instead of a priest, etc. For example, a puritan minister called Richard Sibbes said: “The whole life of a Christian should be nothing but praises and thanks to God; we should neither eat nor sleep, but eat to God and sleep to God and work to God and talk to God, do all to His glory and praise.”

It only takes one word to ruin a person’s life. In Salem, Massachusetts,1692, there were mass amounts of witch hunts leading to dozens of executions. Social class tensions, intense religious beliefs and political approach led to the production of the Salem Witch Trials.

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

The Salem Witch Trials began when three girls were accused of witchcraft. In Massachusetts in the 17th century many people feared the devil was constantly trying to find ways to destroy people and their community. Salem was a strongly religious community. When Tituba, one of the accused witches, confessed that she and some others were witches and working for the devil, mass panic broke out. There had been previous incidents of witchcraft such as the case of Margaret Johnson who was accused and convicted in 1648 but no one had ever confessed of being a witch or stated that there were other witches working for the devil in their community. Although Tibuta’s confession was the main reason why the trials happened, there were other factors that contributed to the trials. Salem was under stress during this time period. In 1691, the king and queen of England issued a new anti-religious charter instead of reissuing the old charter and they also combined the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony and several other colonies into one. Puritans of this time feared their religion was under attack and they were worried they were losing control of their colony. The threat of their religion left people of the colony feeling uneasy. Other factors that led to the trails were a smallpox outbreak, rivalries between families, and fear of attack from Native American. The events that were taking place during this time were considered to be some of the darkest and most frightful times for the colony. The colonist were in constant had constant, fear, stress, and worry. The colonists believed that the devil was responsible for all 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.

People a long time ago believed that the Satan could give some demon possessed people the power to harm others. That became the start of the Witchcraft. Because of the belief that witches are inside the society, many women were executed as if they were the witches. In 1689, English started a war with France in the American colonies. This war made the life of the American colonists more strained and harsh. Also, the conflicts between the merchants and the farmers, the Salem Town, and the Salem Village, got bigger. The Puritans in the village thought that all this hardness was because of the work of the Devil and led to the Salem Witch Trials. The Witch Trials had occurred because of the beliefs but also because of the low status of women. Also,