Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials

For starters, the most obvious cause of the witch trials, scapegoating, was very prominent. The scapegoating began when Betty’s father noted that her and Abigail were acting strangely, “Getting into Holes, creeping

There were many things that caused the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. One of the things that caused the Salem Witch Trials started with Parris’s, the one who experienced these things first, Indian Slave, Tituba. Tituba even admitted to being a witch and said that four women and one man were causing the strange illnesses. Another thing that caused the Salem Witch trials was an accused victim, Abigail Hobbs. She claimed to have seen the devil, which she said made her make a covenant with him, which made her wicked and have the ability to use witchcraft. Also, another thing that caused the Salem witch trials was when Cotten Mather argued that there was witchcraft in the city. He argued that a scripture said that there was witchcraft in the

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.

“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.

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

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.

    Finally, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was influenced by the fear of the devil. Back in Europe, global witch hunts were occurring. The idea of witches was then imprinted into the minds of the Puritans.  This causes men to believe that women would have sex with the devil and because they had sex with the devil they were bewitched (Doc D). Because of this, if you were accused during the Trials, the only way to save yourself was to confess guilt (Doc B). That was how freaked out they were! So, it is easy to assume that the fear of the devil was a key influence 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

What caused the Salem Witch Trials? Why was everyone so onto it, and wanting to kill someone because they do not believe in the religion Salem, Massachusetts wants a “Witch” to believe in just ‘Christianity,’ even though the villagers wanted to set their own rules, and believe in whatever they can. The Puritans had a governor in which the town of Plymouth had no Charter, nor laws to be enforced. But why come to this, why focus on Witchcraft, when you have other things to pay attention on - Smallpox, and being under attack with the French, and Native American People.

One of the earliest witch hunts in America happened thirty years before the Salem Witch Trials. This witch hunt swept through another colonial New England town in Hartford Connecticut in 1662. In March of 1662 parents John and Bethia Kelly’s 8 year old daughter passed due to an unknown sickness. Their daughter Elizabeth was fine just days before when she came back from a neighbor's house. Looking for any explanation to why this happened to them the mother saw the devils work. John and Bethia were convinced that their daughter was possessed by the neighbor Goody Ayres. The parents testified that Elizabeth became sick after she returned from the neighbor and called out to the father that Goody Ayres was upon her and choked her. After the death of little Elizabeth, accusations of bewitchment grew and fingers were pointed throughout the town. Hysteria grew throughout Hartford, a town where a generation had before witnessed the first witch execution.

I believe that the girls were playing a game but then it got too out of hand and they didn’t want to come forth because they got scared that they might get in trouble for joking around and got so many people killed. Now I think that them being actual witches is least likely because in my opinion there is no such thing is magic like that now I do believe that wiccans are true to a point but I don’t think that you can bewitch someone. Now the things that lead to the Salem Witch Trials is that there was a constant threat of Indians attacking, disease that were plaguing the colonists, the fact that the Puritans believed that Satan or Lucifer recruited witches, warlocks, wizards, smallpox, and even people who were admitting that they were witches.