Salem Witchcraft Trials

Individuals had to ensure their salvation by having a personalized relationship with the Lord instead of just doing good works in the hope of going to heaven. The thought was that the Pope was human and could make errors, but the Scriptures were infallible. As such, obeying the Lord was more important than obeying the Pope or the king, and the colonists themselves looked into the scriptures and read about the basic human rights that were granted by God - and often withheld by the monarchy. Believers of this new doctrine were called New Light Worshipers. Old Light Worshipers such as Puritans, Anglicans, and Calvinists, which originally made up the religious majority, decreased as New Light beliefs, such as Evangelism and Modernism, became more

The seventeenth century was a time of great religious excitement both in Europe and America. It had been widely believed even before the Puritans left England that witchcraft was a well-practiced profession in Europe. The times for settlers in the New America proved to be quite different and so ever changing. With many new rules, laws, regulations and curfew a true government was being born. Throughout this vast change, religious beliefs became so strong to be studied and participated in. Religions that divided from Christianity and Catholic beliefs, such as Puritans, who had a clear vision of what their churches were going to be like. Witchcraft had been a crime a long time before the trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and prior

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

Far too often in history, a person’s negative or evile views have influenced others to commit terrible atrocities. In the 1930s, Adolph Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the declining economy, high unemployment rate, and other ills in the world. Because he was a master orator , he easily convinced the German citizens to agree with his views, including the belief that the Jewish people should be punished, causung their mass execution during World War II. In recent years, leaders of various terrorist cells have used similar tactics of vengeance, brotherhood, and patriotism, recruiting impressionable young adults, promising eternal salvation as a reward for torture, murder, and even suicide. Closer to home , in Massachusetts during the 17th century, a few people negatively influenced normally snae, religious, and honorable Puritans into believing witchcraft had taken a hold over the community. What evidence convinced such religious people it ironically and hypocritically offer torture and mass hangings as a

From the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to World War II and McCarthyism in the 1950s, many negative effects were brewed by hatred and discrimination against the innocent population.

Black magic. The Dark Arts. Voodoo. Sorcery. Conjuring. Witchcraft. No matter what they chose to call it, witchcraft was an evil association with the devil and the use of magic or the alleged use of magic, in the eyes of the Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts. And it was the “alleged” part that caused the Salem Witchcraft Trials tragedy of 1692.

What happened in Connecticut and Maryland? Witch trials were held for a multiple account of people, mainly women. In today’s time, no one would ever think of hanging someone for witchcraft. However, back in the 1600’s, it was a whole other ball game. Connecticut was the first state to hold an actual witch trial, while the Salem Witch Trials in Maryland were just around the corner. What makes these two historical events so important are there similarities and how much unnecessary death was involved.

The Salem Witch Trials, taking place between February 1692 and May 1693, arose from a period of mass hysteria regarding witchcraft. The puritanical society of New England emphasized a need for a Bible-based society, which caused a fear of the supernatural and gave rise to the false accusations of “witches.” With testimonies of witches rooted in the Old Testament, the idea of witchcraft eventually made its way into the superstitious and everyday Puritan life, and was fueled by the rejection of the group during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Imagine you were alive 400 years ago in the 1600’s, medicine has not yet been developed and people were aloud to call them selves “healers” or doctors because frankly they were slightly smarter than everyone else. Yes, it may be quite amusing coming up with different ways you can heal people in your own devious potions. In more ways than none, these healers had a potion for everything. But, this is not the case in 1692 when the Salem witch trials began in Salem Village, Massachusetts after a group of youngsters claiming to be possessed by the devil and accusing multiple women in the community of witchcraft. It all began with Betty Parris very ill, curled up staring at something on the wall that her father could not see. This was the beginning of the Salem with trials. Born as the son and grandson of Puritan divines, Cotton Mather became a well-respected minister in Boston and feared witchcraft and believed it to be the devil’s work.

Many assumptions have been made by historians to explain the occurrence of the Salem witchcraft trials, and on why the afflicted girls behaved the way they did, but yet there still seems to remain a sense of doubt on this issue. It seems that this case is not just because of one factor such as Ergotism, but several more. The affliction started by mind suggestion. The early beliefs and superstitions in Puritanical society that were practiced on an everyday basis supported the idea that the behaviors and physical conditions of the afflicted girls were the evil works of the witches, and the Devil. Among many Puritans, this belief becomes a fear, and then this fear becomes like an additional topping that adds up to causing convulsive hysteria

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted with an actual sickness, or were experiencing them because of some sort of psychological reason is widely debated, though it is known that the sisters accused their maid, Tituba, of forcing them to participate in witchcraft with her. Some

After community members came to their senses, the trials came to an end after the realization of what was taking place occurred. “New Englanders believed in witchcraft both before and after 1692, yet in no other year was there such a severe persecution of witches” (Matossian 355-357.). After the trials were over, some of the people on the court admitted to mistakes being made about those that had been executed (Hoffer n.pag.). Because of this, evidence is a key part when accusing someone of something so that mistakes will not be made. “The result is an impoverished, … distorted, view of a germinal phase in our people’s history: Salem appears as a brief and dark chapter... “ (Demos 3.).

The Salem Witch Trials took place in early 1692. During these trials around 150 people were accused of being witches by a group of young girls. The girls claimed that these “witches” had the power to harm them as a result of giving their loyalty to the devil. The Puritans strict culture and previous tension due to the fear of native american attacks bordering the village made it more susceptible to falling victim of the widespread chaos known as the Salem Witch Trials.

110 of the people that died in the salem witch trials where women. And they were hung. In 1692 lot of people died because of witchcraft. There was a couple of men that were hung but on of them was pressed. I will later talk about people and how they would tell the truth and then they would not be killed read to find out how that

In the late 1800, the cities populations rose extraordinarily. So the questions are where did those people come from? What was so attractive about the cities? What problems did the cities face? What were the solutions to those problems?