Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

Seeking religious refuge, the Puritans were Protestant Christians that believed in predestination. They were fundamentalists who believed in a literal translation of the bible and took their religion very serious. Based on the religious text, the mentioning of devils and witches caused speculations and even hysteria in Salem in 1692. It was thought that the devil would enter a normal person’s body using it to carry out sinful and outlandish actions. A witch might cause a faithful husband to commit adultery or a young girl to cry out in church. Admission of guilt, unusual powers or physical traits, anger followed by mischief, and spectral evidence (evidence that a victim was “visited” by a demon) were all signs that a person was a witch. Starting off in New England, the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 was born through the accusations of people practicing witchcraft.

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 Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, but most of them women.

Salem Witch Trials, one of the worst times in history, many people were killed by hanging, and pressing. There was only one person to be killed by getting crushed, it was 81 year old Giles Cory, they put a board on top of him, and people interrogated him, trying to make him testify against his wife Martha, whenever he refused to testify against her they put a pile of rocks on top of the board, eventually getting to the point where he couldn’t take the pressure of all the rocks and died, 3 days later his wife was accused and hung.

The Salem Witch Trials were a constant and consistent occurrence in 1691 Massachusetts; hangings became consistent, but the fear of the unknown became the true evil unleashed amongst the dark times that reigned upon Salem. Such atrocities were caused by a development of preposterous dispositions created by desperation and fear. The colony ran into hardship after exposure to illness, misfortune, and power struggles. Due to their religious ideology, they believed that an evil force was responsible for their hardship, and was responsible for wreaking havoc within their civilization.

Neighbors accused neighbors of witchcraft, and the fright was mounting. (Sutter par. 4) The accused were mostly women, and to make them confess, different methods of torture were used. The confessions and trials of the accused witches were nonsense. Often, torture would continue until the victim had no choice but to confess of being a witch, and most of the confessions were forced. Trials and hangings continued and by the early autumn of 1692, doubts were developing as to how so many respectable people could be guilty. The educated elite of the colony began efforts to end the witch-hunting hysteria that had enveloped Salem. Increase Mather then published a work entitled Cases of Conscience, which argues that it were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned. This urged the court to exclude spectral evidence. With spectral evidence not permitted, the remaining trials ended in acquittals and all the convicted and accused witches were let out of jail in May of 1693. By the time the whole witchcraft incident ended, nineteen convicted witches were hanged, at least four accused witches had died in prison, and one man, Giles Corey, had been pressed to death under rocks. About one to two hundred other people were arrested and imprisoned on witchcraft charges. The witchcraft accusations in Salem had taken the lives of at least twenty-four people.

The Salem Witch Trials The Salem witch trials began in Salem Massachusetts during the spring of 1692. The first “witch” convicted was Bridget Bishop, she was publicly hanged the June. Under British Law people thought to have been consulting with the devil or other spirits where considered felons. There where two different forms of confrontation, the afflicted and the accused. The afflicted where those supposedly possessed whom cried out the names of those possessing them.

They would scream out, contort their bodies, and became very violent. When questioned, these girls pointed the finger at three woman and accused them of performing witchcraft on them. These three were Tituba a slave, Sarah Goode a homeless beggar, and an elderly woman named Sarah Osbourne. Records show that even during the trial for Goode and Osbourne the girls were tormented. “The indictments for Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were based on the spectral evidence that had taken place at their examinations. Sarah Good was later executed on June 29 1692 on charges of malefic witchcraft, Sarah Osborne died in prison on charges based solely on spectral evidence” (Kreutter, 2013, pg.

Most people believe that during the Salem witch trials the supposed witches were burnt at the stake which was not true; however, during the witch hunt in Europe, most of them were burnt. The Salem witch trials were a series of executions that took place in Salem Town and Salem Village, Massachusetts. These trials happened because the people were believed to have practiced witchcraft. Throughout these trials, twenty people were executed, and many more put in jail. Throughout history and in modern times, witches were seen as evil mythical people who were possessed by the devil; this was the case in 1692 in Massachusetts.

The first victim was Bridget Bishop, as she was tried for witchcraft some years prior, but was acquitted. She didn’t get as lucky as she was to be the first person executed in the Trials for witchcraft. Bishop was executed on June 10th, 1692 and more soon followed after her. George Burroughs was brought up to the gallows and then recited The Lord’s Prayer, much to the astonishment of the town. Cotton Mather would have let Burroughs down but then said that George wasn’t a preacher at all, and all hell, and the Trials broke loose and Mather left Burroughs hanging, pun intended. It seemed as if people would randomly be called out and not even days later they would hang or in Giles Corey’s case, be pressed to death for witchcraft. It was at a point that the trials got way out of hand and the ones that were still in prison were let go, but their reputation would still be permanently damaged for being called out as a witch months

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

Far later on, once his perceived immediate threat was handled, it was time to handle the long-term. When King James had The Bible translated from Hebrew to the “Old English Bible (His own variation of the Bible) he created a few “new” passages of his own making, one of those, being “Thou Shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Exodus: 22:18 – King James Bible)

What cause the Salem Witch Trials? In Massachusetts there was an uproar about people practicing witchcraft. People were accused of practicing witchcraft and were hung. When people are wrongfully accused of something is generally means that they did not do something that others think they did. The witch trials it lasted for about a year and a half until Massachusetts finally apologized for the uproar. The Salem Witch Trials happened a long time ago and there are still stories of the witch trials today. There was lots of people accused of being a witch and they were arrested. The most interesting thing about the witch trials is how it all started. The Salem Witch Trials was a big event back in the 1692-1693. The theme of the Salem Witch Trials is that people were wrongfully accused of practicing witchcraft.

In February of 1692, in the town of Salem Massachusetts, young girls began claiming they were being possessed by the devil and accused multiple women of witchcraft. By June of that same year Bridget Bishop was the first to be hanged on charges of witchcraft. The hanging gallows were eventually dubbed “Salem’s Gallows Hills” where 18 others were hanged for witchcraft. By September 1692, hysteria diminished and the public turned against the trials. Though they were later declared baseless by the Massachusetts General Court and indemnities were given to the families of the victims, “bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries” (Salem).

Have you ever been called a witch or heard it someone else be called it? Now and