Salem Witch Trial Of 1692 Research Paper

The first reason the Salem witch trials occurred was mainly because people were scared of the devil. The people of Salem were all Puritans and were extremely scared of Satan. Since they were so scared, once one person was accused, everybody became spectacle and believed that there was witchcraft in the village. The smallest little suspicions caused people to think that you were a witch. Even by the way you acted in one little way, the town would freak out

The Salem Witch Trials brought havoc among the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts starting in 1692. Many of the people within the town continued to have strong loyalties to their new Puritan religion and their old king back home. The church of England had moved away from the Catholic religion with the help of King Henry VIII and the Puritans were a new group of people who accepted the split from Catholicism but still believed that the church of England had a lot of aspects that remained with the Catholic religion. Despite this, loyalty to the king remained strong because the Puritans were not looking to break off from the Church of England instead they wanted to reform the religion and make it their own. These loyalties stretched to such an extent that any sin committed was also considered an act of treason and thus punished. The Salem community was constantly searching for evil within their town to prove their righteousness to God which lead to high rates of fear and paranoia in their daily lives. The strict Puritan religion soon became the root cause of the monstrous imagination that started to form within the community of Salem. Many people still feared the presence of Catholic ideas within their communities and in response were willing to go to any extent to irradiate these views. Some historians also account the beginning of the trials to divisions within the two towns of Salem that lead to tensions and turmoil between the townsmen. But without the increased belief in their new religion, women around town wouldn’t have been persecuted. The strict belief in the Puritan religion and culture was the root cause of fear and paranoia that led to the mass execution of many women and townspeople during the Salem Witch Trials.

Salem, Massachusetts became famously known for the witch trials that took place in the late 1600’s. For the men and women residing in Salem, Massachusetts it was a time in which they lived in fear of allegations and deceit. Twenty men and women lost their lives during what is known as the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria. Socioeconomic tensions within the community are to blame for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600’s. Factors such as politics, religion, and social status all played a role in the deadly and devastating era.

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.

In 1692, in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts, 20 people were hanged for offenses they did not commit. But what was the charge against the 20? The answer would be witchcraft. The charges deeply affected the small community. Neighbor turned on neighbor. Every act that a person made would be carefully scrutinized, dissected, and repeated to others. This would lead to the question. What caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? The 3 main factors that would cause widespread panic in the town of Salem were gender, marital status, and age, actors and attention seekers, and neighbor conflicts within the village of Salem.

Many lives were lost in Salem Village during the summer of 1692. Twenty people, primarily married women, were executed for alleged witchcraft. Many individuals, primarily historians, continue to ponder the causes of the Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692. Clearly, there were a few possible causes of the hysteria; however, envious, young women; lying girls; and sexism stand out as the main causes.

The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. Because most of the trials were occurring in Salem, this meant that the accusations were happening among the Puritans themselves, which could very well be anything as long as the Puritans found it as contradicting their bible. Not only did the strict religion intolerance fuel the accusations and trials, but also the possible factor of ergot being involved which has been known to cause symptoms leading to hysteria.

The largest outbreak of witchcraft in America took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. A group of girls, including the Parris’s Indian slave Tituba, gathered in the Salem village and were attempting to see the future by decoding “messages”. Shortly after this gathering the girls started showing signs of the possessed (pg. 73). To this day people all over America are still amazed with the events that took place in this time. But why is that? The fear of the village fell heavily onto the judicial system, which later made people focus on the proper separation of government and religious beliefs. Mass hysteria broke out amongst the village and many people were being accused, therefore leading to many innocent deaths. Although there could be many theories as to the reason the witch trials in Salem began, there are two points of view that are very commonly shared amongst people. Some believe that the Salem witch trials were women unconsciously searching for power, whereas others believe it was an encephalitis epidemic.

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of paranoia and mass hysteria. In this small town of Massachusetts hundreds were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were executed. Salem was home to very devout Puritans. The worries arrived when young girls would become sick with no explanation or cure. The doctors not knowing what the cause of the illness was, quickly pronounce the girls bewitched. It spread terror through the town. The girls, as well as other residents, started accusing others of witchery. Many accusations were because of vengeance or self-interest. There were rivalries between families over land or wealth. Neighbors started accusing each other in order to gain their land. The religious community had an intensified sense of fear that the Devil was walking among them. They believed witches were out to destroy the Puritans. In order to purify the village of evil they had trials for the accused.

In 1692-1693, the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria occurred, resulting in 20 deaths out of the 200 accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, a practice that women were commonly accused of. Salem, Massachusetts, was a colony that consisted of Puritans, both Separatists and non Separatists alike. From the start, the Puritans believed that the Bible was true in all aspects: every word, every idea, every thought--was true. The Puritans also had minimal understanding of science, which led them to believe that phenomenon was an act of the Devil. Thus, when three young girls admitted to seeing demons and started behaving strangely, the Puritans grew progressively hysterical because they became more convinced that witches existed within Salem as they had little scientific knowledge. In a nutshell, the cause of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria were Puritan fundamentalism, misogyny, and hysteria.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he writes, “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller 77). This partially fictionalized tale of the Salem Witch Trials points to one of the causes of the trials, vengeance, but the over dramatized tale 's early stages were quiet. The Salem Witch Episode had humble beginnings in the town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, but evolved into one of the most widely known witch trials in American History. The gallows in Salem claimed the lives of nineteen men and woman during the spring and summer of 1692 due to the accusations of witchcraft with over a hundred people who were accused. After all the terror and the uproar of the trials occurred, everything came to a screeching halt (Linder 1). Due to the unique circumstances of this particular set of witch trials, from the rampant accusations to the discontinuation of the trials mass hysteria does not seem to be fault as with other witch trials, but a variety of factors. The Salem witch trials were not just a simple case of mass hysteria, but a combination of factors ranging from poisons to superstitions to scapegoats, resulting in the outbreak of the Salem Witch episode.

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials in the 1690s which accused society members of practicing witchcraft, they took place in Salem, Massachusets. What caused this mass hysteria to occur? Some contributing factors could include some socio-economic reasons, an overbearing Puritan society and the influential sense that witchcraft was taking place all over the world.

In Salem Massachusetts 1692, many innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft, or being possessed by the devil. The puritans believed everything in the bible and that people had been inhabited by the devil either by force or on purpose and needed to be killed. What caused the chaos in Salem, 1692? The witch trial hysteria was caused by the fear of being accused and hanged, or for being possessed when they weren’t. In that time, you would die either way, unless you confessed in which case you would be sent to church to fix yourself. Also, back then people were very proper and not allowed to sit improperly, otherwise they would get in trouble.

Einstein once said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who do nothing” (Gurteen). The Salem witch trials began in the Spring of 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. A group of young girls, who claimed to be possessed by the devil, began accusing a few women of witchcraft, which caused hysteria among the people in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Approximately 150 people were convicted of practicing witchcraft, 19 were hanged at Gallows Hill, and others died in captivity (“Salem Witch Trials”). These tragic events lead to the convictions of many innocent people in Salem Village and later in Salem Town, Ipswich, Gloucester, and other towns (Brooks). The Salem witch trials are a

Many things contributed to the witchcraft hysteria including the Indian wars of 1622. The Puritans believed there was a connection between the natives, the devil, and witchcraft. So it was not farfetched for this to have a tremendous impact on the people of Salem many of whom were survivors of the war. These people would tell stories of the atrocities that occurred lighting the imagination of those around them