Magic Of The Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials was a very dark period in our history that occurred in the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. These trials began in February 1692 and ended in May of 1693. There were over two hundred individuals who were accused of practicing witchcraft. Of those two hundred accused, nearly twenty innocent souls were lost. This was one of the most severe cases of mass hysteria in recorded history. There was a great effort exhorted by the Massachusetts General Court to declare a guilty verdict, that the framers of the United States Constitution went to great lengths to never let this type of tragedy occur again; commonly known as the eighth amendment. Remarkably so, some may argue that there were similarities in Salem and the

The Salem Witch Trials began in 1691 when many young women began experiencing fits of hysteria and were labeled as witches. Although there were rumors of witches prior to the trials, the signs of hysteria that the young women were showing were like pouring gasoline to the flames that were already burning rapidly. What started with two young girls, who were relatives of Reverend Samuel Parris, became an epidemic in the town of Salem of people accusing each other of being witches. More than 200 people were accused of being a witch, and 20 were killed. These people are considered the scapegoats of the corruption that took place in Salem.

In 1692 the area of Salem town and Salem village became very vulnerable to conflict. Severe weather such as hurricanes had damaged land and crops, the effects of King Phillips War began to impact New England society, and colonists were being forced off of the frontiers by Native peoples. The Church and the government were in heavy conflict. And those residing in Salem began to grow suspicious of one another when some prospered and others hadn’t (Marcus, p13).

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

Nineteen were hung, one was pressed and tortured to death, hundreds were imprisoned, and five had died while waiting to be trialed in prison. They were just a victim of being someone’s personal vendetta. The witch trials were revolved around a group of women that were said to of witnessed witchcraft. These young women were thirsting after their enemies to get the type of justice they thought to believe was reasonable for things certain people had done in the past that enraged them. Witch hunts like these root back far, all the way back to New England. During the 17th century europe was swarmed with accusations of

History shows the remarkable things that society has done over the years, it also shows where society failed and mistakes were made. This is the case of the Salem Witch Trials. The people of Salem experienced an event that would change them and the course of this country forever. The mass hysteria and rampant paranoia that swept New England in 1692, is what turned neighbor against neighbor. The Salem villagers would accuse one another of casting spells, consorting with the devil, and being witches, all of which was a punishable crime in the 17th century. ("Search")

"Thou shall not suffer a witch to live,” Exodos 22;18. Men or women with an unexpected flap of skin on a person's body or as “witch”s tit”. Anger followed by mischief. A man that could hold a rifle, arm barrel. What do these things have similar?They were all accused of witchcraft. In 1692 they were many trials accusing people of witchcraft. What could have caused the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692? These causes were that they were fundamentalist,ergotism,hysteria.

Discoveries show, that it all ended up to be a hallucinations due to Ergotism, contained in rye bread (Doc N). This poisoning caused one of the symptoms presented in most “witches”, hallucinations, which caused the person to see through the eye what the brain has created. Hallucinations occurred to a nurse with abnormal characteristics, as in, physical harassment, and long-winded false statements (Doc L).This poisoning was more common in women and children, revealing a more logical explanation as to why there were only women accused of witchcraft (Doc E and N). Thus, a contamination of a grain is the root of this growing legend.

Salem Witch Trials was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in the Salem Village of the 17th century New England. The trials caused executions of many people but mostly women. Salem Witch Trials exposed the different roles men and women were supposed to play during the seventeenth century. Women were supposed to take on “wifely duties” such as, be mothers and housewives. Women were thought to follow the men. The trials also revealed that there were strict religious norms during the seventeenth century. There was a rigid moral code believed that God would punish sinful behavior. Those who were under the covenant by the church of the Salem Village believed that Satan would select those to fulfill his work

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

First of all, I wanted to talk about what Salem Witch Trial is and who are the persons involve in this event. Salem Witch Trials, according to Encyclopedia Britannica is “A series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted “witches” to be hanged and many other many suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” There are many people involve in Salem Witch Trials and I’ll be going to describe their role in this event, followed by the different case studies of witches.

Well, a theory could be that many individuals did not understand the concepts of natural events. For instance, storms, war, and famine is part of life and the world. First off, the weather can not be controlled it is normal, war is caused by a conflict with other humans that can come to an agreement. Famine can be caused by not being able to afford food at that is expense due to farmers having to tax their harvest. Many blame all of these reasons on witchcraft because that is their escape from the

The Salem Witch trial and the Holocaust were very analogous events because the people in both of these events were oppressed and were treated under severe circumstances, but the people that were affected by the Salem Witch trials were in better circumstances than the people living during the Holocaust and in the concentration camps. During the Salem Witch trials, the people convoluted in it were given appropriate living conditions, while in the Holocaust, they were excruciating for most people. The Salem Witch trials transpired from 1692 – 1693 in Massachusetts. More than two hundred people were suspected of the begin witches and of the two hundred, about twenty of them were executed.

The start of Witch Trials first took place in Europe in the 1300’s. However, in the year 1692, the Witch Trials had made their way into America; changing history forever. The Witch Trials took place in a town named Salem, Massachusetts. The idea of witchcraft feared many of the townspeople because they thought that the devil gave power to the witches as a reward for staying loyal to him (“The Salem Witch Trials”).

This period in America can be summed up in two words: Hysteria and Craziness. The 1692 notorious Salem witch trials started after some young girls from Salem Village, Massachusetts, purported to be possessed by demons. The girls accused some local women of bewitching them. As the wild hysteria spread across Massachusetts, a court was specially set up to listen to the cases. Bridget Bishop was the first witch to be convicted and later hanged in June. Eighteen more were hanged at the infamous Salem’s Gallows Hill, and several more children, women and men were sentenced as well, some months later. By September the same year, the craziness and hysteria had started to decrease, and public views turned against the rulings (Baker 2014). Even though the Massachusetts General Court eventually canceled the guilty judgments against the convicted and awarded compensation to their family members, resentment spread across the community. The agonizing legacy of the witch trials would be felt for many centuries.