Salem Witch Trials Of Salem Village

Innocent people were being accused of witchery. One reason, all the young ladies shouted out names of innocent people saying they saw them with the devil. The young girls were accused so they confessed and lied to the about other people to save themselves. Another, Mary Warren then accused John Proctor of being the Devil's man. Mary Warren said that John was the one that controlled the women. Innocent people are being accused by young women that are just trying to save themselves.

These girls did not all show “symptoms” at one time. The first girl to start experiencing symptoms was Betty Parris. She was followed by Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis (History of Massachusetts). These girls were throwing tantrums, hiding under furniture and contorting to pain. Since panic and fear set in, witchcraft was the easy choice to make. In today’s medical science, these girls would have been diagnosed with boredom or epilepsy. Although at the time the cause was unknown, these symptoms were probably brought on from eating rye infected with fungus. The three victims were not the only ones accused. There were numerous cases of scapegoating running prevalent.

All the horrified villagers and upperclassmen saw the witches in action they saw the monstrous effect that black magic was apparently having on poor little child Abigail and twelve year old Ann Putnam Jr., a spell bounded choreography of outburst and spasms. “Look to her! She will have a fit presently,” one girl would cry out, pointing to another, who would promptly commence convulsing. “At other times they warned, ‘We shall all fall!’ and about seven girls would pass out, babbling to the floor. The head of the courtroom on that day was Thomas Danforth, deputy governor of Massachusetts and Harvard’s longtime treasurer, one of the several senior colonial officials . Betty's father called in more authorities to decide if witchcraft was the reason for the girl’s illness. Seeing that nothing was working not the praying or the vigils nor the sermons. Reverend decided to call in the doctors. Being puritan they did not believe in science but there were no options left. Betty was sent away, and did not participate in the trials; the other girls were joined by other young women in staging publicly putting on displays of their distress when in the presence of accused

political and personal issues which divided village long before 1692. At bottom, geography and history divided Salem Village and Salem Town. Situated in the interior from the bustling mercantile town of Salem, Salem Village remained

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

Frances Hill, a specialist in the Salem witch trails, once described the event as “providing an astonishingly clear and instructive model of the universal and timeless processes by which groups of human beings instigate, justify, and escalate persecution…the steps are easy to trace, by which a few deranged, destructive human beings led ordinary mortals down the dark paths of fear, hatred, and envy to demonize and destroy innocent victims.” These trials will most likely be an occasion where historians will always wonder how and why. How did the people of Salem begin to be affected by witchcraft? Why were they so willing to accuse each other, ultimately ending in twenty deaths? By looking into the history of the village and its’ social conditions, this paper will explore the possibility that Reverend Samuel Parris, in fear of losing his position within the community, used the Bible, his supporters, and the villagers’ beliefs to scare Salem into believing witchcraft was alive in their village.

Salem was a very disperse community in the Massachusetts Bay colony with a growing Puritan community in the northern America. Towns in the colony were scattered by a half days travel or more. In view of this, transportation and communication was a very slow and the settlers were threatened by the attack of bears and other wild animals. Puritans were spiritual people and believed that God is the ruler of everything they possessed. The puritans believed that they were the chosen people and therefore they had to seek perfection. They were also of the believe that it was God who provided them with good health, riches and fortunes. Salvation was an important virtue of the puritans and God could take away their salvation if they sinned and went contrary to the bible. Also, misfortunes and bad things happened to them as a presence of evil and showed Gods disapproval of their salvation. Bible reading, fasting, prayers and preaching formed an integral part of the puritan community

Salem Village was a small settlement under the control of Salem Town in Massachusetts. The village was notorious for its witchcraft hysteria that broke out in 1692, and the execution of twenty accused of being witches and wizards. The incident became an interesting topic for both historians and playwrights. However, the bizarre witch trial and the girls’ mysterious symptoms disguised the social and political movement which subtly influenced the small village for half a century. Only recently have historians started to dig out the complete history of the witch trials, and (have) tried to integrate the isolated incident of witchcraft hysteria with the normal life in Salem Village. Therefore, a new interpretation of the Salem Witch Trials emerges, where the events in Salem Village actually represent an early form of urban and rural division. The newly found evidence suggests that witchcraft hysteria is a direct product of social instability, which was triggered by the rapid commercialization of 17th century New England, the division between urban town and rural village, and the rise of the new merchant class.

The Salem people were all Puritans and Fundamentalists. This means that they took every single word in the Bible literally. One example is found in Exodus 22:18, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to die”(Document A). If this verse were to be taken literally, then it means to kill any person convicted or accused of being a witch. Another example is found in an entry from one of the Colonial New England’s top ministers, Cotton Mather. Before the Salem Witch Trials even occurred in 1692, Mather was preaching/writing about invisible forces and evil spirits that lived among them(Document C). Therefore, because the villagers were fundamentalists, they felt that they had to kill witches because even the top ministers had been preaching about sinister forces years before the witch

In 1692 nineteen women and men were accused of witchcraft. There has to be reasons for the accusations; however, scholars disagree on what led the accusers to accuse the "witches". Some believe it was character traits that led the village to do this act; others still think it was sexist’ intolerance. Because religion is the biggest factor of being Puritan, religious persecution is the main motive for making people of Salem accuses others of witchery; because of its fundamental part in the Puritan society.

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.

Salem was a city of Christian puritans. Between 40 – 60 percent of the women ranging from 15-44 years of age were unmarried, widows, spinsters, and midwives in the 16th century. All them were in danger of being accused because of either their lifestyle or practices represented as a threat to the church, traditional family structure or the normal status quo of male domination. Salem village was a very religious and form close bonds between each other.

Over 20 died and over 200 people between 20 and 80 years of age were imprisoned for two years. For over a decade people believed those living in a small Massachusetts town had a peaceful farming life; however, in the month of February of 1691 things took a dramatic turn. The Salem Witch Trials only happened for two years but is one of the most known stories about the puritans and how they fought against an evil force.

These unalterable trials began after a group of six girls claimed to be possessed by the devil and started accusing many local civilians of witchcraft. As news traveled in through this small town, more and more people became apart of the hysteria. It soon traveled through the rest of Massachusetts as well. Due to all of the accusations, a special court assembled and heard the cases of civilians that were being accused. Bridget Bishop was the first of too many men, women and children to be accused and

Salem village is located in Massachusetts it’s a small town by the north shore that was once part of New England and was once a puritan colony. Salem village had so many different things to do in that colony such as business, trading, farming and ship building it had easy access to the sea for trading and marketing. In the 1690s Salem village had a population of six hundred residents through the village and farmers. The economy in 1692 was terrible everyone wanted part of anything just to survive as it was expanding more villager stated hiring slaves and workers jealousy started spreading. Salem village was scared to be exposed to all different diseases that where around 1600’s also scare of starvation