Martha Carrier Research Paper

Your Excellency, Judge Danforth. You know, I have graduated from Harvard College and I am an expert in all things witchcraft and the supernatural. When I first arrived in Salem, I was tangled in a web of lies and a sheet of deception. In this trial, I believe that the accused are innocent people with good names. There is absolutely no mark upon my credibility and it is in my honest opinion that hysteria is running through Salem. Your Honour, Abigail Williams is nothing but a whore who wants to dance

When in reality, there were no witches, it was all false notations of Abigail's’ lie that lead into something greater than it should have been.“It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits” (Mary Warren, Act 3, p. 100)

The Salem witch trials, that occurred in colonial Massachusetts, were a hostile part of American history. People lived in a constant state of paranoia and fear. A great number of people were accused of practicing witchcraft, which was thought to be connected to the devil, and some were even executed. Eventually, the colony realized the faults in the trials. By reading the primary sources ‘A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft Chapter II’ by John Hale and Two Letters by Governor William Phips, we are able to discover a wealth of knowledge about the aforementioned trials. The two sources allow the reader to gain insight into how the trials were flawed by showing the nature of the Salem Witch Trials, the evidence used to find the witches guilty, and the role native americans played in the trials. While also exhibiting how primary sources can be a disadvantage in navigating through historical events.

Suddenly people seemed very paranoid and soon residents were placing blame on one another and accusing each other of witchcraft. In a fifteen month period between 1691 and 1692 nearly twelve dozen people were accused of witchcraft in or near Salem (Norton, p8).

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 hysteria, craze, trials, and deaths, still rest an unsolved case. The theories of politics, rivalries, religion and the “circle girls” seem the most believable, in my eyes. However, as the happenings in Salem village still continue to mislead and amaze not only historians, but many others, the witch trials lie a great turning point for Salem, and the lives of many; let alone

Rebecca Nurse was a suspect during the Salem Witch Trials. A minister said, “You are a witch. You know you are a witch,” to Rebecca. Rebecca answered, “You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink.” This proves that once a victim is condemned, it is almost impossible to prove them

The Salem witch trials were trials for people who were being accused of worshiping the devil. They believed the witches were out to harm others in supernatural ways. They were believed to be able to turn into animals, cause others to become possessed by looking at them, and were accused of being the cause of illness or miscarriages. However, there are many false theories about the Salem witch trials causing many controversies. One of the bigger controversies was if people were really being possessed by the three women. Often times, if doctors could not find a cause to an illness they will blame it on witchcraft. “Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the spring of 1691 and winter of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He could not find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnosis of unseen conditions at the time”. They believed there had to be a cause to everything and if something

During the event of the Salem Witch Trials, hundreds of innocent people were accused of witchcraft and put in jail. Martha Corey was one of these; she was accused by twelve-year-old Anne Putman, and laughed so much at the accusation that it convinced others that she was guilty. Rebecca Nurse was put in jail under the accusation of floating in children’s rooms at night and

The outbreak of witchcraft accusations of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts was a devastating period for those involved in the crisis. Because of the random and frequent witchcraft accusations made throughout the time of the trials, the reoccurring characteristics that were often indicative of an individual’s likelihood of being accused of witchcraft were not always consistent. In John Demos’s book Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England he includes a diagram containing nine points of what he believes to be the definitive characteristics of a “typical” witch during the Salem witchcraft trials. It is important to note that Demos’s portrait of a witch identifies the “typical” witch, not every witch. For

Judge: Abigail Hobbs, you are brought before Authority to answer to various acts of witchcraft. What say you? Are you guilty, or not? Speak the truth.

People in Salem thought that there was witchcraft going on when people were acting weir. One piece of evidence that the people of Salem used to prove that there was witchcraft was Mr. Collins saw Betty fly over the barn. “Mrs. Putnam glancing at Betty: How high did she fly, how high?” Page 12. Word about Betty flying over the barn spread through the town. The Revere is worried that people will think that his daughter Betty will be accused of witch craft. Abigail was caught dancing with Tituba by her uncle. “Abigail: Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it and I’ll be wiped if I must be. But they’re speaking of witch craft. Betty not witched.” Page 9. The people of Salem are blaming people of witch craft if they are acting

During the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials, accusations of witchcraft were made most often with reasons beyond that of simply fear.

Throughout the history of witchcraft it has been hard to establish if any of these accusations on ‘witches ' were actually true due to lack of records and proof, although it now seems certain that the vast majority of women incited were innocent. In the book "The Bewitching of Anne Gunter" we can see how these allegations can be completely fabricated for personal gain and revenge.

Mary Ann Cotton was born October 31 1832 and died on March 24 1873. She was England’s first female murderer as her murders reached the front cover of every single news stand in Britain. She is best known for killing three of her four husbands, apparently in order to collect on their insurance policies. Overall she killed and poisoned 21 people in total ,including eleven of her thirteen children. Moreover, she grew up in the City of Sunderland, Endlnad. At the age of 8 her parents moved the entire family to the County Durham village of Murton. While in school, she was extremely lonely and did not make any friends. Right after the move, her father fell to his death down a mine shaft. After her father’s death, her mother remarried to George Stott. Mary found it difficult to get along with him and at the age of 16 she eventually moved out to become a nurse.After three years studying to become a nurse, Mary’s dreams fell apart as she returned home to live with her mother and eventually became a dressmaker.