Salem's Personal Legend Of The Shepherd

LeAnn Struckman paper’s thesis is that the Puritan community, the weather, political events, and illnesses that were happening to the Salem region led to the Salem witch trial. This is supported by looking at the Puritan community and establishing the context behind the event. The paper starts by looking at the importance of the Massachusetts Bay Charter. This gave them the right to establish a colony in the New England area and the protections that came with it. The Puritans believed and desired to create an ideal society in the New World that England would want to emulate. The paper claims that the Puritans believed that the church and state should not be separate, which made their Puritan religious doctrines flow over into their government. This influences the role of the church and its membership. The Puritans believed in a strict system to gain membership of the church. Church membership carried over into the governance of the state and certain political rights like voting. The following generations were not as involved with the church and membership soon declined as they were unable to meet the strict standards. This decline created tension within the church, which created the need for reforming the standards of membership. However, with the change in membership there still was tension between the Puritans.

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

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. Marc Aronson. (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, November 1, 2003. 272.)

Hysteria is defined as an exaggerated or irrepressible emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, hysteria rocked a small Puritan community. Over the span of four short months, nineteen people were hanged to death and another was pressed to death by stones. Puritans in the community accused one another of witchcraft—a crime punishable by death—and so hysteria swept the village. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 remain a mystery to this day; however, religious, economical, and social reasons were undoubtedly to blame.

Salem Village was one of many non-urban inhabitants. They were looked upon as country folk because of their interests and beliefs in the church and growing tobacco to survive in this new land. There was not much for children to do except go to church, work on the fields, or go to school. You can imagine how bored these children can get. In such a secluded lifestyle as this, you would be a crazy person if you were at all different, and this episode would be so different that it would be traumatic to the people of this small village. Traumatic as it was, I believe the people just did not know how to react in such a situation.

The Salem Witch Trials was a very dark period in our history that occurred in the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. These trials began in February 1692 and ended in May of 1693. There were over two hundred individuals who were accused of practicing witchcraft. Of those two hundred accused, nearly twenty innocent souls were lost. This was one of the most severe cases of mass hysteria in recorded history. There was a great effort exhorted by the Massachusetts General Court to declare a guilty verdict, that the framers of the United States Constitution went to great lengths to never let this type of tragedy occur again; commonly known as the eighth amendment. Remarkably so, some may argue that there were similarities in Salem and the

     After teaching the boy a lot about the journey he will go through, the king gave him omens to follow. Santiago sells his sheep, and travels to a town on his way to Egypt. He finds a man that could take him past the desert to Egypt. So the boy gives him the money that he got for the sheep. When the man shows Santiago the town for a little Santiago loses him in a crowd of hundreds shopping in the markets, and loses all his money. The boy learns not to trust anyone, and is told that there are many thieves in that town.

The Salem Witch Trials began during the spring of 1692 after a group of young girls in Salem Village, MA, said they were being possessed by the devil and accused local women of witchcraft. With chaos running around the village, the special court began taking on cases. Bridget Bishop, the first convicted witch, was hung that June month. Many people of the Salem community had major consequences including death and harrassment. Belief that the devil could give certain humans, or witches, power to harm others in return for their loyalty emerged throughout europe as early as the 14th century. All of this chaos and phenomenon led to a pointing fingers game of who is guilty. Chaos also brought up the question of why it happened, malice, spite, or

In Rosalyn Schanzer book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem a story is told about a time when Salem, Massachusetts was flooded with witchcraft accusations. In 1692 Betty Parris and Abigail Williams started having mysterious fits. After a doctor examined the girls he diagnosed them with being bewitched! The people started a hunt for all witches in the new land. The first cause are the accusations, the second cause, the fits and the third cause is anger.

New evidence from researchers say that jealous women may have caused the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. During the year of 1692, the people of Salem began to hang and accuse so-called “witches,” more than twenty people were killed. In Document B, there is evidence that young women were targeting older women. It shows that young women accused older women, but the reasons why are unclear.

During the early 1900s the Puritans and Quakers were two of the most common religions in America. The Puritans were known for trying to keep their community as close to their beliefs as possible. That meant their laws came from the bible and that if they were broken then there were to be serious consequences. They also believed in witches and other supernatural beings at this time; this is why they had the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. At this time women were still seen as weak and inferior to the men of the day so they didn’t have many rights.

In the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials the Puritan men were superior to women (Faragher, 60). This was shown by men being highly literate compared to women who were low in literacy due to women not being able to go to grammar school (Faragher, 59). Another way this was shown is by married women not being able to make contracts, own properties, vote, or hold office. The Puritans also believed that the social hierarchy was created by God. This was important because the Salem Witchcraft Trials focused on outsiders being the first people to be accused of being witches. Most of the victims of the Salem Witchcraft Trails came from the commercial eastern side, or where they had less money. The victims came from either Anglican, Quaker, or Baptist

Life in the New England colonies during the 1600’s proved to be harsh with the constant fear of Native American attacks, scarce food, freezing winters, and conflicting opinions about religion. From this perpetual state of distress, the Salem Witch Trials were birthed, causing a wave of hysteria in Salem Village and Salem Town. Though the exact day and month is uncertain, historians can claim that the trials emerged in early 1692 and came to a close in 1693. The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 with more than one hundred fifty people being accused of practicing witchcraft, and the trials finally ended with the courts declaring there was no evidence in the cases being tried, and the Governor stopped the trials because his wife was accused.

The primary fear that is apparent in the philosophy, “In unity still lay the best promise of safety” (5) is the fear of being accused of making a contact with the devil. In the quote, Miller shows that the citizen’s best way to feel safe is to act the same way everyone else is. He reveals that Salem has a strict social standard such as attending church every Sunday. Breaking away from the unity of their standards will make them victim to false accusations of witchcraft and contracting with the devil. In such a small town, the town folks are quick to notice changes and sometimes try to exploit their neighbors or friends for their personal interests. However by being conforming to Salem’s societal standards, it ensures your safety because one

Salem was divided geographically and politically into Salem town the sea port and Salem village a small farming community. The Salem village's struggled for power; one led by the porter family advocating close ties with the town, another group led by the Putnam family fighting for independence. A Sinister pattern began to emerge, many of the accusers belonged to the Putnam faction, many of the accused girls were a part of the Porter faction. Five of the nine accusing girls reside at Thomas Putnam and Samuel Parris. A total of eight members of the Putnam clan help sentence nearly fifty accused witches. All of the accusing girls had direct links to the household of Rev.Parris who testified against ten accused witches.