The Salem Hysteria Of Salem Village

The trouble in Salem began in January, 1692 when Tituba, a slave from the West Indies was talking to Elizabeth Parris, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams about their futures. After telling them their futures, the girls begin to cry hysterically and act strangely as if bewitched. These fits could be brought on by the idea that their futures as Puritan child-bearing women was at risk or also by the girl’s wanted attention that they had no chance at getting regularly in Puritan society. Tituba also is undergoing torments at this time, seeing specters and having the same type of fits that the other girls are having. As the fits begin to happen to other

Puritans in Salem were colonists that had left England to seek religious tolerance. The life of a Puritan was extremely restrained and strict. Reverend Samuel Parris, was appointed minister to the village’s only church in 1689, to later have strong objections lodged against him in 1691. Parris’ response was that the Devil was set on destroying their, to which his job was to bring God back to Salem village. The first to be afflicted was his daughter, Betty, and niece, Abigail. After trying to cure both girls, it was concluded that witchcraft was the cause of their inability to control their own bodies. The majority of villagers who were accused of witchcraft did not belong to the covenant, implying that those who didn’t live the same life as a Puritan were easily the ones behind the witchcraft. During these accusations, mostly women were accused of witchcraft. As mentioned in ___________ , it said that “As Richard Latner has recently shown, there was ‘an environment of divisive religious contention’ in

From the time of the 1690’s the entirety of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. “The Puritan lifestyle was restrained and rigid: People were expected to work hard and repress their emotions or opinions. Individual differences were frowned upon.” (Salem Witch Trials, The World Behind the Hysteria). These people believed that doing anything sinful would result in punishment from God. Just as much as they believed in God, they also believed in the Devil. Keeping up with the Puritan code, it led to the first women being accused of witchcraft. They were viewed as pariahs, and seen differently. Had the Puritan government let the afflicted defend themselves, not be so dependent on religion, not investigating the facts or scrutinize the trials the killing of many could have been prevented. The hangings from the trials would ultimately be the last in America.

In 1692-1693, the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria occurred, resulting in 20 deaths out of the 200 accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, a practice that women were commonly accused of. Salem, Massachusetts, was a colony that consisted of Puritans, both Separatists and non Separatists alike. From the start, the Puritans believed that the Bible was true in all aspects: every word, every idea, every thought--was true. The Puritans also had minimal understanding of science, which led them to believe that phenomenon was an act of the Devil. Thus, when three young girls admitted to seeing demons and started behaving strangely, the Puritans grew progressively hysterical because they became more convinced that witches existed within Salem as they had little scientific knowledge. In a nutshell, the cause of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria were Puritan fundamentalism, misogyny, and hysteria.

Three centuries ago, the Puritan religion was the base of the Salem village and many townspeople strongly believed in the existence of witches and witchcraft. According to the common Puritan belief, witches were in alliance with the devil and were granted power to harm. People were blamed for illness, failed crops, to bad weather, and many other things that were evident centuries ago. Due to the belief in witchcraft villagers were, perhaps, inclined to the most improbable explanations. The Puritans held strict views, ways of living, perspectives fears, and fantasies. Many Puritan ministers used the the fear of witchcraft to scare the believers into following the church. Historians believe these strict Puritan ways of life may have brought upon the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. At the time, witches and witchcraft were a serious and viewed as a real threat; almost as real as

Salem Village was a very traditional, colonial community where the women stayed at home cooking and cleaning while the men worked and made the decisions. After watching Three Sovereigns for Sarah I noticed that the girls were bored of the same bible study and were immediately fond of the idea of voodoo and magic which came about because of Tituba, their housemaid. The girls wanted to believe there was something there, a spirit of sorts so they forced themselves to act in such a way that they would cause question and suspicion among the villagers. The girls wanted attention whether it was on good or bad terms so they played along with the hysteria of witchcraft, blatantly lying to the faces of those who were superior to them. The girls knew there was no evil spirits

In 1692, a town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village found itself in one of the most well-known cases of mass hysteria. This saga started with three girls Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam a neighborhood friend. Abigail Williams, the niece of the town’s minister, began to display weird and questionable behavior. The town’s physician William Greggs, was called to determine the cause of this sporadic behavior. The town’s physician determine that the three girls were under “the Devil’s influence” and they had been bewitched. What started as a silly game between children, slowly brought the town of Salem to the edge of insanity. This insanity lead to the killing of 25 innocent people due to their crimes of witchcraft. When scholars look back at the Salem Witch Trials they often time ask the question “What were the key factors in the spread of hysteria throughout the town of Salem?” Most scholars contribute the widespread of hysteria to three important factors; these factors include social, political, and religious tension that occurred in Salem Village. Each one of these factors played a key role in the start of the Salem trials and why it spread so rapidly throughout Salem Village.

In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts was the setting for an infamous American witchcraft. It was the years when people are plagued with superstitions and monstrous fears that spawned witch-hunts on both sides of the Atlantic. That also maintains a wide witch panic that was a product of a community undergoing severe religious and cultural change. Besides, the Puritans had lost the royal charter that had allowed them to govern their colony free from interference by the mother country. The result was that many leaders and citizens began to see satanic conspiracies at work that eroded the cherished institutions of their already shaky society.

The Salem Witch Trial is famous for its sudden outbreak, widespread influence, and mass accusations. The traditional story of the witchcraft hysteria starts from the strange illness that was experienced by the local minister’s daughter and niece, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, who claimed

In the year of 1692, Salem Village, Massachusetts went through an event known as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This odd occurrence all started whenever 2 young village girls encountered a West Indian Slave woman to learn about thier futures. One of the girls claimed to see a coffin by looking into a glass with egg white in it. In the months following this incident, one of the girls father, Reverend Samuel Parris reported the girls suspicious behavior. He reported that they had been crawling in holes, under chairs and stools, and mumbling ridiculous phrases. Reverend Parris later found out about these girls meeting with the indian woman and professed that the girls were not sick, but rather possessed. This “possession” spread rapidly and the witch hunt began.

The Salem witch craft hysteria of 1692 was caused by people thinking they could be possessed by the devil, the belief that witches were real and the fear of being accused for being a witch. Actions caused hysteria in Salem. These little girls were acting strangely, so they accused someone as a witch. In “Document C” it says they the girl accused did not even know what a witch was.

The question on the table is, what caused the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This is a question that has been debated about for centuries. Some think that witchcraft was very much alive in Salem although others believe that the first girls who were accusing the witches were crazy and making up stories. In this paper I am going to prove to you my point which is: the hysteria about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 was due to a small lie or prank that went bad. The girls who started the Salem Witch Trials were just crazy. Although I am not necessarily sure whether the girls were blatantly being crazy or if they had some sort of mental illness where they legitimately believed what they were saying. These girls sparked the flame of fear in the Puritan community.

The Puritan society of Salem is full of tension. When rumors of witchery begin to materialize, allegations and rumors spread. Some citizens of Salem accuse others of witchcraft for personal gain or to protect their reputation, but others genuinely believed that the devil was present in their village. Due to peer pressure and accusations of witchcraft in Salem, mass hysteria ensued and numerous victims were jailed or hung.

This horrid era in which people believed that witches had came to bewitch them all came about by hatred. "Maybe their tormentors were the usual suspects, people their family didn't usually like”(Schanzer

Dating back to the bible and the development of structured religion anything pertaining to the devil and witchcraft was condemned. Witchcraft is known as the practice of magic and the utilization of spells and spirits. It was believed in the early times of societies that if you performed witchcraft you worked with the devil and were considered evil. England had ruled in 1641 that witchcraft was a crime, around this time in England and its surrounding countries in Europe there was an abundance of witch hunts and trials taking place. Witch hunting had become a phenomenon. In 1626, European Puritans migrated to the United States and established Salem. These same Puritans had the same ideals as when they were in Europe and were still very religious.