Salem Witch Trials Essay

The trouble in Salem began in January, 1692 when Tituba, a slave from the West Indies was talking to Elizabeth Parris, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams about their futures. After telling them their futures, the girls begin to cry hysterically and act strangely as if bewitched. These fits could be brought on by the idea that their futures as Puritan child-bearing women was at risk or also by the girl’s wanted attention that they had no chance at getting regularly in Puritan society. Tituba also is undergoing torments at this time, seeing specters and having the same type of fits that the other girls are having. As the fits begin to happen to other

During 1692 it was a very confusing time for the new Americans, known as The Salem Witch Trials. The witch trials was finger pointing and blame about who was a witch and who was not. People were afraid of the unknown and turned to religion and blamed witch craft on everything. This outbreak caused extreme confusion and disorder among an abundance of colonists in a community. The events that occurred describes a shameful time for colonists.

Twenty people were put to death for witchcraft in Salem during the 1692 Salem Witch Trial Hysteria. In The Crucible, a woman, Elizabeth Proctor, gets accused of witchcraft by a young girl by the name Abigail Williams, who just so happens to be having an affair with Elizabeth’s husband, John. Once John finds out Abigail accused his wife, he starts trying to find proof that all of these young girls are pretending that they are being hurt by these older women, just so that they will be hanged. The officials take Elizabeth and put her in jail, but cannot hang her because she becomes pregnant and she had no idea, so they are not going to harm the innocent child. John Proctor has no evidence that the girls are lying because his house servant,

In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity.

The infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials began in early 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts. It all began as a childlike game of a fortune teller to discover the future of the young girls. The Salem Witchcraft Trials began January of 1692, when two girls, Betty Paris (nine) and Abigail Williams (seventeen) , began to have fits and convulsions. They were seen by doctor William Griggs, and the only reasonable diagnosis he knew of was bewitchment. By the end of February, two other girls, Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard, became ill. All together, there were 10 girls that were afflicted. Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard accused Sarah Good, Tituba, and Sarah Osborne 's spirits of hurting them. Tituba, Reverend Parris 's slave, had

Life in New England was far more robust than in the Chesapeake. While in the Chesapeake, population growth greatly depended on new English immigrants, life in New England essentially revolved around large families. As a result, population growth was far more organic in New England, and moderate natural conditions permitted much longer lifespans for New Englanders. New England’s clean water and colder temperatures stopped the spread of disease and made building settlements easier than in the Chesapeake. Additionally, New England boasted small towns and smaller farms, with their economy largely made up of shipbuilding and fishing in the abundant rivers of the north.

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.

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

The Salem Witch Trials, which occurred in colonial Massachusetts, were an act of mass hysteria leading to the deaths of twenty citizens. In late 1691 a young group of girls, including Betty Parris and Abigail Williams who lived with Revered Samuel Parris, began asking an African American, or possibly Native American, slave named Tituba about witchcraft. They soon began acting abnormally and were diagnosed as being bewitched. In April of 1692, Ann Putman accused the first three people, Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osburne, as being witches. The next month, Governor William Phips established the Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle any cases involving witchcraft. Bridget Bishop was the first accused witch to be hung in June 1692, followed by

The minister’s response came back on June 15, 1692. The letter addressed their advice upon prosecution of those convicted of witchcraft. “We judge that, in the prosecution of these and all such witchcrafts, there is need of a very critical and exquisite caution, lest by too much credulity for things received only upon the Devil's authority, there be a door opened for a long train of miserable consequences, and Satan get an advantage over us; for we should not be ignorant of his devices” the ministers of New England declared. Following the advice of the New England ministers, the grand juries approved prosecutions against Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor, Martha Carrier, Sarah Wilds and Dorcas Hoar. Five of the women went to trial the same day. Those five women were found guilty and sentenced to death. Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes and even Rebecca Nurse were all hung to their deaths on July 19 1692. In the beginning of the month of August, the trial jury condemned several people; Martha Carrier, George Jacobs, Sr., George Burroughs, John Willard, Elizabeth Proctor, and John Proctor were all sentenced to death. However, Elizabeth proctor briefly got out of her execution because she was pregnant. Unfortunately everyone else was hung on August 19,

The first woman to be tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts was Bridget Bishop. She pled not guilty; however, after John Louder’s intense testimony, she was found guilty. Despite the lack of actual, physical evidence, the fear that Lounder’s words instilled in the local judges and citizens turned their hearts cold and their logic upside down.

The people that were apprehended were all different than the townspeople. The accusers targeted weak people and social outcast. The accusers all mostly lived near each other in the middle of town, and the people being accused lived on the outskirts of the town. This could have caused the hysteria because the accusers thought that people different than them must be witches.

the accused behalves were frequently in turn accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch Trials

This started the hysterical beginning of the Salem Witch trials, which resulted in many women, men, and children being accused of practicing witchcraft. Out of the one hundred fifty people accused in Salem, twenty of them were executed as witches, while others rotted away and died in jail. The people of Salem did not discriminate who they executed or who they sent to jail so the result was a diverse range of citizens being accused.

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