Commentary on the Infamous Salem Witch Trials

In January 1692 a group of young girls in Salem Village in Massachusetts became consumed by disturbing fits, seizures, violent actions and really loud screams. A doctor in the village diagnosed the girls as being victims of black magic. A few months later the infamous salem witch trials began in February of 1692 and ended May of 1693 in Massachusetts. More than 200 people were wrongly accused of witchcraft and 20 of them were executed. 19 of the executed where hung and one of them was crushed to death. Some of the judges during the witch trials where Samuel sewall, william stoughton and Jonathan corwin. The most notorious of them was Jonathan corwin he was a very

Kappanadze, Margaret. "Baker, Emerson W.: A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience." Library Journal 15 Sept. 2014: 92. General OneFile. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.

Salem was a city of Christian puritans. Between 40 – 60 percent of the women ranging from 15-44 years of age were unmarried, widows, spinsters, and midwives in the 16th century. All them were in danger of being accused because of either their lifestyle or practices represented as a threat to the church, traditional family structure or the normal status quo of male domination. Salem village was a very religious and form close bonds between each other.

According to Cotton Mather, Who is a leading minister and author of several books, “The Salem witchcraft trial where one of the most infamous episodes in American colonial history” (Dudley 26). Cotton Mather Stated, “In early 1692 some children in Salem...accused three women of bewitching them (Dudley 26). Salem was a village in Massachusetts close to Boston (Dudley 1). Over many of months people had been accused and executed over the thought of them using witchcraft (Dudley 26). Even though these people were accused there was no real proof showing that they used witchcraft, so innocent people died. The Salem witch trials were cruel, unneeded, and should have never happened in history.

The Salem Witch Trials, which occurred in colonial Massachusetts, were an act of mass hysteria leading to the deaths of twenty citizens. In late 1691 a young group of girls, including Betty Parris and Abigail Williams who lived with Revered Samuel Parris, began asking an African American, or possibly Native American, slave named Tituba about witchcraft. They soon began acting abnormally and were diagnosed as being bewitched. In April of 1692, Ann Putman accused the first three people, Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osburne, as being witches. The next month, Governor William Phips established the Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle any cases involving witchcraft. Bridget Bishop was the first accused witch to be hung in June 1692, followed by

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was a tragic time in New England that was caused by the choas of mass hysteria. The inciting incident that started this event was in January 1692, when two young girls were afflicted with convulsions and halleucionations, and witchcraft was apointed the blame. Most of the accused were women a generation above the accusers, who were young women ages 11-20. The accused were also linked to 'socially unaccepted behavior.' The onslaught of accusations made it clear action needed to be taken, so Governor William Phips created a court so that the precedings were as fair and as close to the law as possible. However, the judges had contrasting views, one believing whole-heartedly that witchcraft had torn the town apart, the other doubting the entire crisis. Also, the court accepted spectral evidence,

The Witch trials happened amid the spring of 1692, after a social event of young women that were living in Salem Town, Massachusetts, were thought to be controlled by the devil and were reprimanded for witchcraft. A surge of disturbance spread all through Massachusetts. An extraordinary legitimate court in Salem was heard the occurrences of the various young women. The primary understood indicted witch was Bridget Diocesan; she was hung the next June. Eighteen different pilgrims took after Religious administrator and his convictions to Salem's Hangman's tree Slope, which is the place most hangings occurred , while 150 more men, ladies and youngsters were likewise blamed for witchcraft throughout the following couple of months. When September

In Rosalyn Schanzer Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem everybody started to accuse each other of being a witch. Which lead to witch hunts and trials, just because two girls woke up one morning having terrible fits. In the trials all the evidence that they had against the accused witches was spectral evidence and they also believed every bit of malarky that came out of the afflicted peoples mouths. The most unfair trials were the ones done by the court of oyer who were on the bandwagon for using spectral evidence and believing in everything.

The Salem Witch Trials was a series of investigations and persecutions that led to nineteen so called “witches” to be convicted and hung and others to be imprisoned. It started June of 1692 and lasted until May 1693, in a Salem village in the Massachusetts bay colony which is now known as Danvers, Massachusetts. It involved the Puritan community of the Salem village, the nine-year-old daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris her name was Elizabeth Parris, his eleven-year-old niece Abigail Williams, a friend of the girls eleven year old Ann Putnam, Parris’s slave Tituba, a homeless lady named Sarah Good, and an elderly lady name Sarah Osborn, the trial occurred when Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams fell sick and started having unusual spells that consisted of them yelling, throwing things, making strange noises and bending their bodies in strange positing and regular medicine could not cure them of these spells. They called a local minister to come and observe the young girls while they were having these unusual spells and he later diagnosed them will being “bewitched”. The Salem witch trials were a long year of trials, where there were three ladies being accused of witch craft, many accusations were made during the trial and ended with many people being convicted and hung while others were imprisoned. So, what exactly happened during the trial?

The Salem Witch Trials were the ultimate denouement of 300 years and 50,000 deaths resonating from witch hunting that began in England. Over this time period these witch hunts grew exponentially, ultimately climaxing in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. During this time, the Puritans who lived in Salem were ruled by a theocracy which took its governing laws and rules by beliefs and scriptures from their holy book. The theocratic government paired with the misogyny of the time period was cause for scores of women to be tried for being a witch. Pleading guilty or not, and confessing or not, those accused of witchcraft were tortured to death by various methods.

Throughout history, there have been many cases of discriminatory accusations of people, including the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a string of trials, hearings and prosecutions of many people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts between the dates of February 1692 and May 1693. The trials ended up leading to the execution of twenty people, men and women, but mainly women. The Salem Witch Trials that took place about three hundred years ago affected the lives of everyday civilians during that time in ways such as politically, religiously, economically, fearfully, mentally, and sometimes in other various other ways.

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted with an actual sickness, or were experiencing them because of some sort of psychological reason is widely debated, though it is known that the sisters accused their maid, Tituba, of forcing them to participate in witchcraft with her. Some who theorize about the causes of the trials dismiss the Parris girls involvement in the beginning and instead attribute the outbreak of accusations to judgement upon the members of society who break social or religious rules, or who struck the upright members of society as ‘strange’ and ‘suspicious’, such as the homeless, the poor, and old or widowed women. The cause of the hysteria that went on in Salem after this is what is speculated by so many. There are probably hundreds of theories out there, but a few in particular are more widely known, accepted, and supported than others.

The Salem witch trials were a difficult time for the citizens of the Massachusetts Colony in the late seventeenth century. They were accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, which many believed to be real; so real that people were being imprisoned and executed for it. Between the years 1692 and 1693 there were over two hundred accusations and about 20 people and two dogs were killed altogether.

History generally regards the period of Salem witchcraft trials as a radical instatement of religious zeal which favored superstition over reason and targeted a large number of women over a much smaller number of men. Admittedly, the 1692 witchcraft crisis is a very complex historical episode, yet seeing as the majority of the people involved were women, it can be perceived as a gender issue, and illustrative for the definition of the role of women in New England. The present work's aim is to outline the colonial mindset concerning women and present relevant theories by means of analyzing three cases of witchcraft accusation together with delving into the accusers' perspective.

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. These trials began after a group of young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several other locals of witchcraft. After this broke out a special court convened in Salem to “hear and determine” (Mather 328)