Tempel Anneke Trial Essay

Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the seventeenth centuries, witch trials occurred in Europe. Many people were accused of being witches some of these people were accused of being witches for not following Christian beliefs at that time and others followed witch prosecutions for goods and money. Furthermore, the stereotypes of witches at this period also had a role in causing witch prosecutions. In this essay I argue how these three components led to the death of so-called witches. Firstly, I will discuss how the Catholic Church had an impact on most prosecutions. Secondly, I will explain how social stereotypes of that period have also influenced with the causes of prosecution of many alleged witches. Thirdly, I will discuss how

Witchcraft in early modern Europe was understood to be the combination of maleficium and diabolism. The term maleficium refers to the actual act of witchcraft, which was believed to be harmful magic or sorcery. Allegations of maleficium were simply the foundation for the crime of witchcraft. Diabolism is what made witchcraft a crime because it involved trading oneself for magical abilities from the Devil (xxv).

The conflict of the trials continued for months with no compromise in sight. The people of Salem needed to find more witches, so they used spectral evidence. If someone had a dream or vision of a certain person it was enough, and that person was accused as a witch (Fasting; Mather 74 80). Many people started to oppose these trials, and didn’t believe in spectral evidence, people opposed the witch trials, but they would say nothing because they may be the next one accused (Latson; Brooks). No one wanted to be accused, so they would do things to convince people that they were not witches. For example, people would put on a show at the trials of the witches (Kinchlow). Afflicted girls would have fits, and people would scream and yell at the accused. The trials were very strange, the judge and jury would act strange just like the people of Salem. The jury consisted of 12 men who decided the fate of the “witches” (Magoon 56; Roach 16). The judges were very lenient toward the people and didn’t really care what the accused had to say, if they listened to the accused they themselves may be accused. Five judges would hear the

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. These trials began after a group of young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several other locals of witchcraft. After this broke out a special court convened in Salem to “hear and determine” (Mather 328)

Bever clarifies why he believes historians often focus only on the rise of witchcraft rather than their decline. He believes the reason this occurs is because, historians assume “their defeat seemed self-evident” (Bever, 2009, p. 264). The author explains how the rise of witches occurred, “chain-reaction trials started with a few stereotyped suspects but gradually widened to include previously unsuspected commoners and eventually friends” (Bever, 2009, p. 272). Bever also gives discusses of how witchcraft came to affect the society and how it became “an integral part of late medieval culture and society” (Bever, 2009, p. 288). The work relates more specifically to the field of the first centuries of colonization because, although some ideas presented in this article can be inferred, most are not that of the general

By reading the two primary sources we are given a clear account of the Salem Witch Trials. John Hale describes the officials involved in the trial and those being prosecuted. Hale states, “I observed in the prosecution of these affairs, that there was in the Justices, Judges and others concerned, a conscientious endeavor to do the thing that was right.” he then later states “But what chiefly carried on this matter to such an height, was the increasing of confessors til they amounted to near about fifty.” While Governor phips goes into more detail in reference to the actual court proceedings, “When the Court came to sit at Salem in the County of Essex they convicted more than twenty persons of being guilty of witchcraft, some of the convicted were such as confessed their Guilt, the Court as I understand began their proceedings with the accusations of the afflicted and then went upon other humane evidences to strengthen that.” Only together the sources are able to give the reader the information needed, showing a disadvantage to using primary sources to evaluate history. These accounts illustrate comprehensively the picture of a court concerned with doing the right thing for their people and trying the accused in the way they see fit. They explain the use of accusations to testify against the convicted and

Imagine the terror of a mass hysteria hoax. During the sixteenth century, witch trials caused the deaths of thousands as chaos spread throughout Europe. Many European villages in history have witnessed witch executions and the imprisonment of suspected witches. The Crucible, along with the Salem Witch Trials and the European witch trials, have many similarities and differences that make them both memorable and important.

Nineteen were hung, one was pressed and tortured to death, hundreds were imprisoned, and five had died while waiting to be trialed in prison. They were just a victim of being someone’s personal vendetta. The witch trials were revolved around a group of women that were said to of witnessed witchcraft. These young women were thirsting after their enemies to get the type of justice they thought to believe was reasonable for things certain people had done in the past that enraged them. Witch hunts like these root back far, all the way back to New England. During the 17th century europe was swarmed with accusations of

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was first brought about as a game by young adolescent girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts. The young girls had falsely claimed they were possessed by devilish beings which were innocent men and women of Salem Village causing an uproar of witchcraft in their village. I believe the great hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials was solely out of boredom, meaning it was a break from the norm and caused excitement quite easily. Those who were accused went to “trial” but given the behavior of the young girls who had claimed to be possessed made it impossible to walk free. Those who went to trial were hanged at the hanging tree for the practice of witchcraft whether there was proof or not.

The witch trials of Salem are often thought to be a hysteria that can be categorized as fake and sometimes “crazy”. The trials started by the belief of the supernatural and the practice of the devil’s ability to grant people the ability to hurt others. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams are the two young ladies that began the stereotypical beliefs in witchery. Williams and Parris started having hysterical fits and “uncontrollable” tantrums filled with screaming and crazy-like seizures. The result of all the insane opinions and conclusions to society were nineteen hangings, and one pressing. The Salem witch trials were a result of hasty decisions and the fear of God’s anger on the people of society. Today, the trials would be seen as crazy or fictional.

Imagine living in a world where being yourself could get you accused and arrested under the suspicion that you are a witch. During the Salem Witch Trials, in the late seventeenth century, that is exactly what happened. Citizens had been accused of using witchcraft, and then after their trial they would most likely be put in jail. In a few cases these citizens were even hung. This society, the Puritans, believed that anything that went against their code, or morals was a sin. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of prosecutions against people who had been accused of witchcraft. This includes women, men, and the elderly for the most part. The Salem Witch Trials was a phenomenon that had been caused by the Puritans strict religious beliefs, social expectations, and the state of the economy at that time.

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

Many people know of the Salem witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692 spilling over into the year 1693. But for those who do not know, the Salem witch trials were a series of trials against men, women, and children accused of being a witch and or practicing witchcraft. In “The Devils Snare: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692” by Mary Beth Norton, the author recollects the stories of real life accounts of those accusers and the accused in Salem during that time. Mary Beth Norton explains the Salem witch trials differently than other books and articles by giving wide-ranging background on incidents leading toward the trials and how events in history were related to the trials.

She seeks to explain to readers what fairy belief is but also explores fairylore in different areas such as England, Hungary, Italy and Germany. Moreover, Henderson discusses the circumstances surrounding different witch’s situations. In the case of Alison Peirson of Byrehill, who was executed in 1588, there was an account of Alison’s uncle who lived in Fairyland, teaching her about medicines and charms. Isobal Gowdie of Auldearn, who was excuted in 1622, went on hunting parties with other witches, and had dinners hosted by fairies. This article was interesting to read because it provided in depth information and accounts surrounding fairylore, which was a topic I had never learned about before.

The use of witchcraft and magic became a taboo in early modern Europe. Most individuals living in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries believed that these witches could connect with a different realm to influence the world they found themselves in, the natural world. There was no way of pointing out a witch and so these arbitrary guidelines made by looking at stereotypes that outcasts had, led them early modern Europe into the witch hunts, where unfair trials meant the lives of innocent individuals were lost. Through the documents found in The Trial of Tempel Anneke, the use of witchcraft and other forms of sorcery were sought after to aid in time of need, but the actual practice of witchcraft and use magic were frowned upon by Christians who linked this practice to Satan and would culminate with the witch’s death after an unfair trial.