The Crucible Discussion Preparation Paper

The first reason the Salem witch trials occurred was mainly because people were scared of the devil. The people of Salem were all Puritans and were extremely scared of Satan. Since they were so scared, once one person was accused, everybody became spectacle and believed that there was witchcraft in the village. The smallest little suspicions caused people to think that you were a witch. Even by the way you acted in one little way, the town would freak out

The Salem witch trials were a difficult time for the citizens of the Massachusetts Colony in the late seventeenth century. They were accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, which many believed to be real; so real that people were being imprisoned and executed for it. Between the years 1692 and 1693 there were over two hundred accusations and about 20 people and two dogs were killed altogether.

Introduction - The Salem Witch trials was a time of hysteria and confusion. People were being accused and giving false confessions of witchcraft being performed on the people of Salem, Massachusetts.

The Salem Witchcraft Trials were a series of trials in Salem, Massachusetts which accused many local women with witchcraft. The legal proceedings began in the spring of 1692. More than two hundred people were accused of this witchcraft. Of these two hundred people twenty were executed. The setting at the time of the Salem witchcraft trials was a period of unrest. There was increasing tension between the two main parts of Salem, which included Salem Village and Salem Town. “Salem town was a bustling port with a number of shops, large merchant’s houses, and local government buildings. In contrast, Salem Village consisted of a few scattered farms and farmhouses roughly clustered around the

In Salem, a small village in Massachusetts, a number of girls fell ill, and suffered from hallucinations and seizures. In a extremely religious Puritan New England, frightening and astonishing occurrences were often associated with the devil. The eternal fear of witchcraft caused the girls and the residents of Salem to blame other villagers of consorting with the devil. Old grudges and jealousies poured out into the open, thus causing an outbreak of mass hysteria, tearing apart the community as a whole. Within a few weeks, dozens of people were charged of witchcraft and nineteen were convicted and hanged.

The Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 when citizens turned on each other and accused their neighbors of witchcraft, the Devil’s magic. The trials, which lasted from June to September, resulted in nineteen men and women being hanged, one man being pressed to death, and many other people dying in jail. Almost as soon as it began, the hysteria that had swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended. There are many opinions as to why the witchcraft trials caused such hysteria in Salem but many conclude that it was triggered by a spoiled food supply, Puritan religious beliefs, the constricted roles of females in Salem society, and the political and social tensions in the colony.

According to Cotton Mather, Who is a leading minister and author of several books, “The Salem witchcraft trial where one of the most infamous episodes in American colonial history” (Dudley 26). Cotton Mather Stated, “In early 1692 some children in Salem...accused three women of bewitching them (Dudley 26). Salem was a village in Massachusetts close to Boston (Dudley 1). Over many of months people had been accused and executed over the thought of them using witchcraft (Dudley 26). Even though these people were accused there was no real proof showing that they used witchcraft, so innocent people died. The Salem witch trials were cruel, unneeded, and should have never happened in history.

In the rigid year of 1692, many men, women and children were put to death because they were believed to be witches and that they were taking part in the practice of witchcraft. The place where it occurred in is a small Puritan community of Salem Village. Witchcraft was forbidden to practice in the small town of Salem by the Puritans. It all started when a group of girls gathered in the home of Reverend Parris to listen to stories told by a slave (Salem). Along with listening to the stories, they also took part in playing fortune-telling games, which were strictly forbidden by the Puritans. Many people in the community believed that they were victims of witchcraft because of what they did and experienced and they were frightened by this thought. This event is what kick-started the Salem witch Trials in a small Puritan

Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a horrific time in the colony of Salem, present day Massachusetts. It was a low point in the American history where many people were accused and some people were even killed, at that time. It was a time when many women and some men were put on trial and tortured for being accused of being a witch and doing witch craft.

The Salem witch trials occur for three main reasons. The beliefs of the people, the hysteria and the economics of the towns. Belief was huge because they had a very strict, firm religion. As seen in document C. This is talking about how evil spirits are possessing people. They would believe that  if the bible said it it was true, so in document A with the quote “ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This says that witches do exist, so everyone believed they were around. The next factor is hysteria. The people became paranoid that there were evil spirits around them. Everything that wasn't normal became a reason to become a witch. It could be a slight twitch, crossed legs or anything else that isn't something everyone does. As seen in document

The Salem Witch Trials are an infamous part of American History that people have been fascinated with for centuries. Every year thousands of people flock to Salem to visit the memorials and see where the paranoia began. Many scholars have their theories as to why the Witch Trials took place. This essay analyzes two author’s interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials, one that more accurately describes the reason for the events and a second interpretation that falls short.

The Chronology and Collective Violence in 1692 of the Salem Witchcraft, is familiar to scholars, readers, and students. The mass witch-hunt of 1692 is where some communities experienced a short-term outbreak of accusations that involved less than a handful of citizens. Many of the residents that had been accused were most likely related to each other. Most of the witch victims fit under the common characteristics of the seventeenth-century beliefs about witches, making it very stereotypical. Richard Latner’s main focus of this article is to closely study the spread of allegations made in 1692 to help us get a better understanding on the witch-hunt. It was also to learn about the reasons why it had an outbreak, which quickly came to an end.

Salem witch trials shaped the people’s identity of the time by using their fears of what was happening outside of their village turning them into extremely gullible people. Then people started having symptoms that no one could explain at the time other than resorting to irrational answers, so what did cause these odd symptoms? This allowed for some of the least respected people to make others believe that their was witches and unholy beings among them, making people turn to the influence of the devil, but everything they uttered was a lie. Salem witch trials have a dark and interesting history that deserves to be looked into further, especially what their fears were, who started to make people believe in witches, and what caused those odd symptoms.

The point of “The Crucible by Arthur Miller in 1952” is to point out how humans go through the thought and struggles that happen when they get scared, or when something happens and someone shows up and they take the blame. They force it onto someone to help relieve their fear of what's going on, in this case witches they force people into admitting to being witches otherwise they hang. The crucible is stating to the audience that humans react terribly when one person brings a claim that makes sense to people who are scared of things going on so they overreact to what happened.

What do you know about the Salem Witch Trials? Do you think Witchcraft is real? The salem people were easily frightened by witchcraft because they were very religious group of people. The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. The salem people were really straight on believing there were witches. 200 people had stood accused of witchcraft.