Salem Witch Dbq

The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 when two girls began to exhibit strange behaviors. Hysteria broke out and many believed they had been bewitched. Out of fear, many were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the fist women to be accused along with Sarah Osburn and Sarah Good was Tituba, a slave to Reverend Samuel Parris. In the past there had been some loose accusations but Tituba’s confession made this time different. She was the first person to ever admit to being a witch. She went on to further explain that she was a witch for the devil and went into detail about her experiences practicing witchcraft. This caused a panic in Salem that led a full on witch-hunt. Around 200 people total were accused of being witches and 20 were killed during the Salem Witch Trials. (Foulds, D. E. p. 161, 168, 194)

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

Twenty four people died during the Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692, and at least a hundred more were sent to jail under the accusation of witchcraft. These trials first began when Betty Parris, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott were behaving oddly. The girls dashed under furniture, contorted in pain, and hallucinated, among other things. The people of a small Massachusetts colony called Salem panicked, not knowing what was causing the girls to act so oddly. There were three major reasons why this happened: childish behavior, religious beliefs and personal tensions between the two sides of the colony.

The English settler came from England establish a religion, they believed in the Bible, the devil, and witches. They said witches must die, so those who were accused were put on trailing usually killed. It started and ended in 1692 due to the mayors wife being accused of being a witch. When it ended over a hundred witches were released from jail. What made the salem people become hysterical about witches in 1692? The Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692 was caused by fear of being wrongly accused, being a witch, and the paranoia of being possessed by the devil.

To have a clear understanding of what happened in Salem, one must first understand the Puritans. This group of people greatly disagreed with the ways of the Church of England and desired to “purify” their religion. Their main desire was to be more doctrinally sound in their teaching, and to have more religious freedom. It is from them, that we have modern day Baptists. But to accomplish this, they departed from England and moved to Massachusetts. Originally, they were located in Plymouth, but over the course of time, the group began separating into different parts of Massachusetts. In 1606 Salem was founded, and this is where the Witch Trials occurred.

It all started sometime around February when Betty Parris became oddly sick, as well as her friends developing the same symptoms. With that being said, the talk of witchcraft came up. A doctor called upon the girls for examination, where he found no cure to the effect. He assumed it was something of the supernatural because witches mostly targeted children. The girls formed a group that consists of Abigail, Mary, Betty, Mercy, and some other girls that complained of the devil pinching and biting them. The town people believed them because they believed that the devil was real. The act that was played by the girls to the audience put innocent people in jail. The only way to avoid being hung is to confess to the devil’s work ( The Crucible). The court system was highly unfair. The court would ask the defendant to do a touching test where the defendant touched an afflicted person to see if their touch was assumed to be the touch of the witches (Famous American Witch Trials:Salem Witch Trials 1692 ). People who were accused as witches had no witnesses to testify on their side they can only speak for themselves based on influence in the community. The first to ever be accused was Bridget Bishop a 60 year old women. Her trial was held on June 2nd 1692 where people

The witch trials began when nine girls, known as the afflicted girls, experienced strange symptoms. In the beginning, there were only five afflicted girls: Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott, and Mercy Lewis. Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Booth later began experiencing the symptoms, which involved strange fits, irregular body contortions, and fevers. Although the symptoms seem phenomenal, modern theories suggest that the children were merely bored, abused, or had epilepsy, a mental illness, or a disease that was obtained from eating rye bread infected with a fungus. Reverend Samuel Parris, Betty Parris’ father, asked Dr. William Griggs to deduce the problem, and Dr. Griggs concluded that they were bewitched. The group of girls accused three women of causing their unnatural behaviors: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, a slave owned by Samuel Parris. The women were easy targets for the girls because they were outcasts (Brooks). Sarah Good was a beggar, Sarah

The beginning of the trials started in January 1692, when Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter, Elizabeth Parris, and niece, Abigail Williams, became sick. They did not expect that anything was unusual about their sickness, but when they continued to get worse they asked William Griggs, the village doctor, to give his opinion. The two girls would do strange things like hideout in holes, sit under chairs and benches, twist themselves into uncomfortable positions, and speak in their own language. After seeing their behavior, Doctor Griggs said that they had been bewitched; this was the start of the Salem Witch Trials. This news was terrifying, so Samuel called in other ministers to fast and pray with him.

I’m sure many of you have heard about the Salem Witch Trials, when many people were accused of witchcraft. When did it all start, you may ask? How? Well, two girls named Betty and Abigail Parris began displaying some odd behavior. They were having seizures and convulsions, shrieked loudly, entered trances, and suffered from high fevers. When their father finally called a physician, he said that the sisters may be enduring the effects of witchcraft. When asked who they thought were witches, they named three people: Tituba, a slave whom had been telling them stories about witchcraft from her native country, the Barbados; Sarah Good, a peasant mother; and Sarah Osborne, who regularly didn’t attend church. The two Sarahs

The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692, when a doctor was called to examine a group of teenage girls, who would act strangely by barking like dogs, throwing tantrums, and be seen performing dances in the woods. After the doctor gave them a thorough examination, he diagnosed them with bewitchment. The community came to the conclusion that punishment should be delivered to the person who did the bewitching. In July of 1692, a nine year old girl named Elizabeth Parris, the daughter of local reverend, began acting out suddenly. Elizabeth and her cousin, eleven year old Abigail, would shout blasphemies, have convulsions, enter trances, and “bark like dogs”. Eventually, Reverend Parris called the local physician, William Griggs. The doctor never

(4) (3) The townsfolk from Salem were considered very religious. They looked down on those who did not believe or follow God. Back then the 13 colonies still belonged to the British, making them follow their rules. The British had sent out a new law prohibiting witchcraft. So in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 a group of girls decided to go into

Next was Tituba, she played the victim card, she stated that is was Osborne and Good who made her do these evil acts and had no choice, but to comply. She talked about how a man kept following her around and telling her to join him and do what he says, so she did it because she was scared. In the trial of John Proctor, like we talked about in the class, The Salem villagers mainly accused the Salem town of being witches. He was very well- liked in the town, but not so much in the village which left him an easy target of such accusations. He spoke out against the trials which made people think he was on the witch confederacy. This lead to him being put on trial, although he had neighbors stand up for him and sign a petition, it was not enough. Next, for Bishop and Hoar they were arrested because of their traits of being confident and cunning, which was not thought highly of back in the day. There was also a doll having a pin through its neck which led people to believe that bishop was a witch. Hoar was reprieved because she confessed and wanted to find salvation. Bishop one the other hand was

These stories were most likely to be voodoo tales, and the girls also got involved in fortunetelling. Soon after these girls started to show symptoms of clinical hysteria, at the time diagnosed as satanic possession. Indeed, the girls “raved and fell into convulsions; one of them ran around on all fours and barked”. The people of the village thought the girls were tormented by witches, and the girls soon pointed out the first three witches to be convicted : Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. The Salem witch trials themselves happened between June and September 1692, and only by December 1692 the governor of Massachusetts “ruled out the use of spectral evidence, making it virtually impossible to convict any more of the

In January of 1692 8 girls started to act strange like creaming out in pain and saying invisible forces where pinching and biting them. Then the father/uncle of Abigail williams, and Betty Parris called the doctor and the doctor said it was the work of witchcraft. The girls then accused Tituba, Samuel Parris’ slave who told the girls stories about witchcraft. Corwin was the sheriff at the time and was a judge during the trials.

The Salem Witch Trials began in the spring of 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. There are a few religious and environmental factors that led to the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. There is also a lot of speculation about whether the first accusations were truthful, along with theories as to why these accusations were made. The first three trials began shortly after two young girls of Salem, cousins Abigail Williams and Betty Paris, began to show strange behavior. They were thought to be bewitched by the local physician. After some encouragement, Betty named Tituba, the Paris family slave. Then the girls accused two more women, Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good, of bewitching them. Their accusations resulted in a wave of hysteria, others being accused of witchcraft, and many trials throughout Massachusetts. These trials ended in May of 1693, resulting in 19 people, who were found to be guilty, hanged. One man was pressed to death with stones, and approximately 13 people died while in jail. It is estimated that 150 people were accused of witchcraft, but not all were pursued or brought to trial.