DBQ: The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

How far would you go to get what you want or admire ? In Massachusetts Bay there's a variety of things young foolish girls would do. Which left a mark in time, the period of The Salem Witch Trials Hysteria 1692. Furthermore, to say the Salem witch trials was when male and women were either an accuser or the accused of witchcraft but, that was acquisitiveness the time. Finally, to say The Salem witch trial Mania was caused by three main reasons, the first reason for the hysteria in Salem Village was when the young, single women of Salem accused older, married women of witchcraft to get a husband for themselves. The second reason was that the beset girls was lying and there parents protected them. The third reason was the conflict of the west (farmers) and the east (Political/wealthy).

Hysteria is defined as an exaggerated or irrepressible emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, hysteria rocked a small Puritan community. Over the span of four short months, nineteen people were hanged to death and another was pressed to death by stones. Puritans in the community accused one another of witchcraft—a crime punishable by death—and so hysteria swept the village. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 remain a mystery to this day; however, religious, economical, and social reasons were undoubtedly to blame.

1692 was a hard time to live in. People could be accused of being a witch even without proof, so if you had an enemy at this time it was easy to say she's a witch. So you might be asking yourself, what caused the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692? There really isn't a right there answer to this question, it could have been a lot of things, but the most logical answer would be either malicious intent, empowerment, or jealousy.

In the 1600s, a group of Protestant Christians, known as Puritans, migrated to the New World to form a colony completely based on the Bible. Because the Puritans were fundamentalists, they believed everything said in the Bible was a true word of God, and thus, they believed everything in the Bible to be true. This included the Devil and witches. The Devil could possess a human’s body and turn them into a witch. During the 17th Century, witchcraft became a serious offense and lead to 24 deaths. The causes of these many deaths were deep religious beliefs, relations of the church and government, and bored girls striving for attention with the infliction of paranoia.

In Rosalyn Schanzer book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem a story is told about a time when Salem, Massachusetts was flooded with witchcraft accusations. In 1692 Betty Parris and Abigail Williams started having mysterious fits. After a doctor examined the girls he diagnosed them with being bewitched! The people started a hunt for all witches in the new land. The first cause are the accusations, the second cause, the fits and the third cause is anger.

The Salem Witch Trials were a sequence of hearings, prosecutions, and hangings of people who were thought to be involved in witchcraft in Massachusetts. These trials occurred between February 1692 and May 1693("The Salem Witch Trials, 1692." ). The Trials resulted in the execution of twenty people, in fact, most of them were women. The first of the trials began in several towns in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, such as Salem Village (currently known as Danvers), Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover("Salem Witch Museum." ). The most infamous trials were tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692, in Salem Town. Robert Calef, the author of More Wonders of the Invisible World, a book composed throughout the mid-1690s denouncing the recent Salem witch trials of 1692, summarized the trials saying

The Salem Witch Trials were a huge part of history, full of controversy and mystery, it confused historians today and in the past. The Trial’s killed approximately 20 people and 14 of them were women, mostly killed by hanging. Many people were convinced that children and women could be witches, and that’s why these short lasting trials went down in history.

During the summer of 1692, 19 women and men were hung in Salem for being accused of having practiced witchcraft. These people were the Puritans, immigrants from England who had come to the United States in search of a land that wasn’t influenced by Protestant Christianity. Being fundamentalists, the Puritans believed that every word of the bible to be the truth, hence, they believed in witchcraft, evil spirits, and the devil. This interpretation of the Bible, though, allowed them to persecute innocent people for being witches that caused havoc in their society. Although there were many, the three main causes of the hysteria in the Salem Witch Trials were the Puritans’ everlasting belief in the Bible, the power of suggestion, as well as the

Salem Witch Trials: In Salem Massachusetts, there were a series of trials and executions, leading to the death of innocent people, who were mainly women accused of witchcraft. Twenty people were sentenced to death based on mere accusations. Some of these victims were placed in the position of a scapegoat for problems these people did not understand at that time. The other portions of victims were people that their communities considered as outcast. When the trials had ended peoples outlooks on what had taken place changed. Too bad they didn’t change sooner; otherwise a lot of lives could have been saved.

In the year of 1692, Salem Village, Massachusetts went through an event known as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This odd occurrence all started whenever 2 young village girls encountered a West Indian Slave woman to learn about thier futures. One of the girls claimed to see a coffin by looking into a glass with egg white in it. In the months following this incident, one of the girls father, Reverend Samuel Parris reported the girls suspicious behavior. He reported that they had been crawling in holes, under chairs and stools, and mumbling ridiculous phrases. Reverend Parris later found out about these girls meeting with the indian woman and professed that the girls were not sick, but rather possessed. This “possession” spread rapidly and the witch hunt began.

In 1691, the weather had early rains and warm weather in the spring and hot and stormy weather in the summer. This weather conditions made it easy for a parasitic fungus called ergot to be grown. Ergot is found in rye bread which was commonly eaten in Salem. It can cause hallucinations, mania, and delirium.

New evidence from researchers say that jealous women may have caused the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. During the year of 1692, the people of Salem began to hang and accuse so-called “witches,” more than twenty people were killed. In Document B, there is evidence that young women were targeting older women. It shows that young women accused older women, but the reasons why are unclear.

In today’s society we are always hearing about teens, predominantly teen girls, threatening each other via social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Ask.fm and this type of crime can be traced back to several centuries ago, like during the Salem Witch Trial in 1692. This incident arose not only because adolescents were in quest of attention but also because back in the seventeenth century religion played a starring role in the community and according to the bible verse Exodus 22:18 “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Doc A). For that reason people who were identified as witches were hanged and that created massive tension throughout the community between the different age groups and genders.

The events which took place in Salem in 1692 could be described as awful and unjust. 19 innocent people were hanged, another person pressed to death and 4 others died in jail. Witches or Wizards are what they called these people, people who made pacts with the devil. The idea of witches provoked fear into the puritan fundamentalist society. Further more, two young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, were said to have been acting strangely.

In 1692 the town of Salem, Massachusetts experienced a time of mass panic and paranoia. This was an age of anxiety after a lot of social change and upheaval. Some of the causes of this mass panic stemmed from Salem’s religious beliefs and authority, politics, and social– politics. Although there are many contributing factors there is no single explanation for the events that took place in Salem.