Salem Witchcraft Trials Essay

Based on these five articles; The Salem Witch Trials hysteria was caused by a mixture of trend followers and the jealousy within their society. When viewing documents A, C, and D, it is clear that many children would watch others and follow their lead. In Documents B and E, it is clear that the citizens in Salem tended to be jealous of what they did not have. In documents A, C, and D, it is shown that many children in their society would copy what they saw others would do.

The year was 1692 when people called Puritans who believed in spreading their beliefs, in which witchcraft is forbidden. Anyone accused of being a witch was hanged, 20 people died. It all ended after the goner of Salem’s wife was accused. The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 was caused by being accused of being a witch which also was a crime worthy of death and being possessed by the devil.

The Salem Witch Trials started on February 29, 1692. Two young girls accused their slave woman, named Tituba, of putting a curse upon them when getting their fortune told to by her. They reported strange behaviors, ridiculous speeches and muttering, creeping under chairs, and getting into holes. Three women were accused of this crime, but only Tituba admitted to practicing witchcraft which saved her life. This spiraled into the hysteria of witchcraft. Three things that might have caused the hysteria of 1692 were land disputes, power of suggestion, and acting.

The last reason is a divided town. First of all, the first cause of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692 is gender, age and marital status. According to document B, twenty nine accusers out of thirty four accusers were female. 28 out of the 29 female accusers were single and 14 out of the 29 female were under the age of 20. This just goes to show that young women were jealous of older married or widowed women.

“You're a witch!” is something that was probably said a lot in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692. The people of Salem went crazy and in the end 20 people were killed because they were believed to be witches. The Salem witch trials were caused by jealousy of wanting. What kind of wanting? Woman who wanted men, people who wanted to be wealthy, and the people who wanted attention.

The Witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts began in 1692. The witch hysteria was started by two young girls who later though recounted the story as false. The people who believed in this was the Puritan community because of their devotion to God and the church. The Salem Witch Trial Hysteria in 1692 was mainly caused by health reasons but social and religious reasons were underlying causes. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by health reasons.

You're on trial, someone has accused you of murder. You know you are innocent but the crowd chants and chants, “murderer”. Everyone is swept up by the frenzy and no one is listening to your pleas. The ignorance, paranoia, and jealousy of the people had brought panic. This is what 17th century Salem might have felt like. Everyone accusing each other of witchcraft and in the end over 100 people are imprisoned with 20 people hung at gallows hill. However, this is not why the Witch Trials actually occurred. The mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials was caused by the socioeconomic problems the inhabitants of Salem experienced.

The Salem witchcraft trials began because people were paranoid of witches that they just started to accuse people that they disliked or people who were acting weird of being witches. The Salem witch trials ended because the mayor’s wife was accused of being a witch. What made the Salem witch trials such a threat to people in Massachusetts in 1692? The Salem witch trials drama started in 1692 because of how much people feared witches and they started to accuse people.

The number of different interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials illustrates that historiography is ever changing. The historians, Hale, Starkey, Upham, Boyer and Nissenbaum, Caporal, Norton and Mattosian have all been fascinated by the trials in one way or another because they have all attempted to prove or disprove certain elements about the trials. By analysing their augments about the causes of the Salem Witch Crisis, it is evident that this historical event can be examined from a range of different perspectives and interpreted in a range of

During the time period of 1691 to 1692 the town of Salem, a small thriving community within the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony, was struck by widespread hysteria in the form of witch trials. The way these trials and accusations played out are historically unlike any other witch trials found in European and American history. Historians have pointed to a number of economic, political, and social changes of the then existing institutions throughout the Massachusetts Bay area to be the cause of the Salem witch trials, along with the direction they took. If studied closely however, it becomes apparent that the main cause for the Salem witch trials can be found in the way the people of Salem viewed and

Salem Village in Massachusetts was a normal town, with normal people, until the end of the 1600’s when a witchcraft epidemic drove on by fear took the lives of 19 people. Although people at the time thought these “witches” were working for the devil, it is now recognized that the trials were merely a product of the people’s environs. Most of the people in Salem attended a Congregational church where they learned about the punishment of God for a multitude of sins, including witchcraft. The Puritan church was very influential in the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 because they believed they were taking a stand for their religious beliefs. This was specifically true in the case against Tituba, the Indian slave, owned by Reverend Samuel Parris.

Salem Witch Trials: The witch trials were a series of hearings, and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692, through May 1693. The primary source of the trials is unknown, but it was most recognized when a group of young girls, from the village Salem, started to speak of the devil invading their home and try to take over through his “minions” that he persuaded to write in his book. This group of girls accused over 200 people for working for the devil, or being witches, and

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of trials in which twenty-four people were killed after being accused of practicing witchcraft. These trials were caused by different social climates of the area including the very strong lack of a governor, the split between Salem Village and Salem Town, and the strict puritan lifestyle during the time period. Tituba, the black slave, was a foreigner from Barbados. Her role in society was to take care of Mr. Parris’s family. Tituba’s situation contributed to her role in the witch trials because Mr. Parris promised her freedom if she confessed guilty. Tituba also realized that with her false confession of being a witch also helped keep her life, therefore she accused other people in the village

The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 when two girls began to exhibit strange behaviors. Hysteria broke out and many believed they had been bewitched. Out of fear, many were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the fist women to be accused along with Sarah Osburn and Sarah Good was Tituba, a slave to Reverend Samuel Parris. In the past there had been some loose accusations but Tituba’s confession made this time different. She was the first person to ever admit to being a witch. She went on to further explain that she was a witch for the devil and went into detail about her experiences practicing witchcraft. This caused a panic in Salem that led a full on witch-hunt. Around 200 people total were accused of being witches and 20 were killed during the Salem Witch Trials. (Foulds, D. E. p. 161, 168, 194)

The largest outbreak of witchcraft in America took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. A group of girls, including the Parris’s Indian slave Tituba, gathered in the Salem village and were attempting to see the future by decoding “messages”. Shortly after this gathering the girls started showing signs of the possessed (pg. 73). To this day people all over America are still amazed with the events that took place in this time. But why is that? The fear of the village fell heavily onto the judicial system, which later made people focus on the proper separation of government and religious beliefs. Mass hysteria broke out amongst the village and many people were being accused, therefore leading to many innocent deaths. Although there could be many theories as to the reason the witch trials in Salem began, there are two points of view that are very commonly shared amongst people. Some believe that the Salem witch trials were women unconsciously searching for power, whereas others believe it was an encephalitis epidemic.