Salem Witch Trials: Summary

The Salem Witchcraft trials was an outrageous event that began in 1692, and ended May of 1693 seeing the execution of many people. Unfortunately most of the victims of this phenomenon were women. For the most part these women were accused for very trivial reasons, such as for being widowed, being of old age and living alone, or for simply collecting herbs and other plants. During this time in history women and men were treated very differently both as they should contribute in the home and in society, this would have presented reasons as to why women were predominantly accused of witchcraft, along with any religious beliefs. The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place at a time of a patriarchal society, the roles of men and women were different, along with how they were treated overall in society. This contributed to the stereotype of women being the ones predominantly associated with witchcraft.

In the colonial era in Salem, Massachusetts the idea of witches became present in this time, this caused the Salem Witch Trials which killed and falsely accused many people from 1692-1693. Those accused of being a witch or part of the witch trials usually had some strange oddity to them, or they were different than the average person. People with any abnormality from the regular society of 1692-1693 would have been accused of being a part of the Salem Witch Trials and was the cause of this horrific event that happened from around 1692-1693. The largest “abnormality” group was the females at the time, most females in this area and time period would be accused of being a witch which would lead to the idea of sexism. People who wouldn't attend church like the rest society would be thought as outcasts or abnormal, and people who always had to depend on others and were less than average society, would most likely be accused of witchcraft.

1. Salem, Massachusetts is known for the witch trails. The trails were all about how people claimed other residents in the town were witches to get the guilt of being called a which off of them. This phenomena spread though the entire town as people were proclaiming each other were witches and many were hanged for the crime of being a

Church was the foundation of life in New England. People in Massachusetts were Puritans colonists seeking freedom and religious acceptance by leaving England. The Puritan lifestyle was self-controlled and firmly enforced. Since Puritans were expected to live by a resistant code; they believed that all sins committed should be punished and that God would punish sinful behavior. When someone went against their codes, Puritans saw it as God’s will to not help them. In keeping up with the Puritan code of obedience, the many women to be accused of witchcraft in Salem were seen as divergent and social

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.

To learn more about the Salem witchcraft hysteria, Historian Paul Boyer, and Professor Stephen Nissenbaum sought to further understand the accusations of witchcraft. During the late 1600’s life in colonial New England was one led by religion and politics. Salem was broken up into two factions, Salem Village, and Salem Town. Salem Village, which was led by the Putnam family was a rapidly growing

The witch is a recurring symbol found in literature and popular culture from the earliest of times. She lived on the fringes of society, outcast and was treated with fear. The fear was the result of her being the ‘other’ to the power yielded by man, patriarchy and society. She was the other to all the ideals of womanhood that society had marked for women. Her power lay in her disruption of these authorities and her refusal to be controlled. The women not in accordance with the societal concepts were demonised as witches and stripped of her identity as a person, a woman.

Salem Witch Trials was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in the Salem Village of the 17th century New England. The trials caused executions of many people, mostly women. Salem Witch Trials exposed the different gender roles during the seventeenth century. Women were supposed to take on “wifely duties” such as, be mothers and housewives. Women were taught to follow the men. There were strict religious norms during the seventeenth century. There was rigid moral code believed that God would punish sinful behavior. Those who were under the covenant by the church of the Salem Village believed that Satan would select those to fulfill his work and those who followed Satan were considered witches. Witchcraft was considered a punishable crime. Salem Witch Trials revealed that gender played a role for the accused and accusers. The trials also revealed that one’s relationship with God will set deliverance from Satan’s attacks. Salem Witch Trials demonstrated how rumors, jealousy, and the idea of male dominance affected people of the Salem Village.

A large part of the problem is the way gender was viewed during this time, and it played a huge part in how during this time of the Salem witch trials it caused a lot of negative affects. Stated in the book “Most were women beyond childbearing age who were outspoken, economically independent, of estranged from their husbands or who in other ways violated traditional gender norms.”

Assess the differing interpretations of the causation of the Salem Witch Trials. Historians have offered many differing explanations for the causation of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, thus illustrating that historiography is ever changing. Numerous theories have attempted to interpret the causes of the mass hysteria from ergot poisoning to actual witchcraft. Many historical writers have attempted to assign only one single factor or event to the cause of the Salem Witch Trials, however, it is more likely to be an underlying number of factors and events intertwined and interrelated to be the issue for the historical event.

The change in nature of the construction of the Salem witch trials from Cotton Mather’s traditional recount of the 1692 witch crisis, The Wonders of the Invisible World: The Devil in New England, written in 1693, to postmodern writers of history, has resulted in the absence of objective truths that is merely manipulated to satisfy the historiographers’ purpose. Karlsen’s 1987 work, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, attempts to rediscover women’s history by shedding light on the “systematic violence against women” and preserving what she believes as ‘self-evident truths’. Therefore, her consultation of sources seeks to be truthful by acknowledging major reinterpretations made by John Demos and Paul Boyer

Throughout history the role of women in society has changed. For example in “A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard”, which took place in 1785 to 1812, women were seen as virtuous. In “The Devil in the Shape of a Women: Witchcraft in Colonial New England ” which took place in 1600s depicted women who didn’t fit into the social order as eden, evil. Social order in the 1600s showed males having primal power over political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. However when a women went against the social norm, for example being a widow in this patriarchal society, they were considered abominations. For instance, Karlsen’s novel when a women did not fit in, she was considered a witch. This allowed for a widespread

The history of witchcraft during seventeenth century New England is inherently a history of direct confrontations within communities where relationships become tainted with suspicion, revenge and anger. The documents in Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England have retold the events and stories of Puritan New England to give the modern reader an understanding of the repressive social institutions of religion and family structure which were controlling factors that lay behind the particular cases discussed in the book. However, in order to really interpret the structure of witchcraft, it is important to consider that social tensions (most likely a dispute or argument) combined with personal or familial bad luck, were the root of

No one knows what this test is, but Logan is determined to know what it is. 5 years ago, Logan’s sister went to take the test and never returned. Now, Logan is turning 13, and he’s running out of time.

Trials illustrated the fault of a legal system that depended on rumor evidence and promoted