Salem Witch Trials Essay

In early 1692 Salem village, Massachusetts began to experience strange occurrences among their residents. Victims suffered from strange mental and physical illnesses. The randomness of the victims, and their unusual symptoms, led residents to suspect a supernatural explanation. These suspicions eventually led to the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Past historians have concentrated their research on the accused, while Laurie Winn Carlson focuses on the afflicted in her novel, A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. Carlson offers an innovative, knowledgeable explanation of witchcraft’s link to organic illness. She focuses on the physical symptoms of “possession”, which can include convulsion, hallucinations, distorted language and paralysis; which are all congruent with the symptoms of encephalitis lethargica. Carlson expertly supports her case with accounts of Puritan religious and medical beliefs, histories of witchcraft and mental illness, scientific studies of plagues, colonial diaries and court records to those of the encephalitis lethargica epidemic in the early twentieth century. In eight chapters, Carlson convincingly argues that the victims suffered encephalitis lethargica and offers persuasive evidence for organic explanations of other witchcraft victims throughout New England. A Fever in Salem is a stimulating understanding of one of America’s most unusual moments and offers a retreat from the Freudian, Marxist, feminist, and

Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. It started when a group of young girls showed odd behavior as well as them, also claiming to be possessed by the Devil. At that time most of the people in Massachusetts were Puritans who heavily believed in Devil as real as God. Puritans recognized that the accusers were influenced by the Devil. In the 21st century, it is hard to admit that the main cause was only the devil.

The witchcraft crisis started in January 1692 when two young girls started to suffer from “fits” which they soon recognized as witchcraft. The two little girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, were reported by eyewitnesses to have uncontrollable fits where their bones broke, mysterious cut marks appeared, and odd body disfigurement. In the following months, more and more people said that they were being tortured by

Evidence from the text that proves this is, “'I know nothing of it. I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.’ . . . . Then she turned up her eyes, and the eyes of the afflicted were turned up” (Doc C). The girls were acting. The accused witch would not have used her ‘powers’ during a trial. The accused was trying to prove she was not a witch, so she would not try to do otherwise. Another piece of evidence that supports the cause is, “. . . as recorded by Samuel Parris . . . . Note: Samuel Parris was the minister of Salem Village. Parris’s nine-year-old daughter Betty had earlier made charges of witchcraft against the family’s Carib slave, Tituba” (Doc C). The afflicted girls during this case was the writer’s daughters, which makes him biased against what was truly happening during the trial. The girls had also already accused another person for witchcraft, and Parris would have been more inclined to believe the lies coming from the girls. Obviously, lying little girls was a cause of the Salem WItch

In early 1692, a priest’s daughter and niece started to act out. They had raging fits, made weird sounds, and continuously complained of fever and pain. As time went on more and more girls were affected, that’s when adults started being concerned. After the doctor examined the girls and tested all of his remedies, and declared that it was supernatural. The girls were questioned if they knew someone who would do this to them they listed three women: Tituba (an Indian slave), Sarah Good (a beggar), and Sarah Osborne (a local gossip).

The Salem witch trials represents a time of collective, social paranoia of the unknown. This same type of anxiety arose during the Cold War with McCarthyism and the red scare. To a certain extent, paranoia still exists today in the form of fearing terrorists and being suspicious of sleeper cells. The Salem witch trials consisted of judicial hearings of women in colonial Massachusetts that were accused of witchcraft from 1692 to 1693, which resulted in twenty executions with most of them being women (Goss 4). Like much of the collective paranoia that arises in this country, the Salem Witch Trials were rooted in racism.

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

There have been many theories and conspiracies following up the Salem Witch Trials of 1962 in Salem, Massachusetts. Many claims try to explain the existence of witches during the time but very few try to disprove those claims as well. Although they hold strong arguments only one theory has been able to be proven scientifically through the accounts of actual victims. Ergot poisonings have been very evident through the beginning of the “bewitchments” and throughout the trials. In 1962, eight young girls began to experience sickly symptoms and strange happenings that no nurse or doctor could explain. As they were left clueless with no explanation they concluded that girls were “bewitched” and ended up accusing three elderly women of being the witches of Satan while conducting spiritual acts of terrorism on them for sacrificial reasons. These women admitted to the crime and were sentenced to jail although more accounts of the same symptoms and happenings were spreading to even more people in the area. The theory of ergotism may be proven by the location and time period of the trials, the side effects of the ergot poisoning, and even the authentic accounts of the “bewitched” victims.

== = The Salem Witchcraft trials started in 1692 resulting in 19 executions and 150 accusations of witchcraft. This was the biggest outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in colonial New England. The trials began because three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam began having hysterical fits, convulsions and terrifying visions after being caught engaging in forbidden fortune telling[1].

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

Wasn’t attributable of a physical malady, the community reasoned that it must been According to Blumberg, the Salem of witch trails was a really bad part of the United State. There were people who didn’t understanding why they were getting accused. This happed during 1692 and 1693 in Massachusetts. This happened during this time. The main parts that started and fueled the trials were politics, religion, family, feuds, economics, and the imaginations and fears of people (Sutter). The seeds of the hysteria is afflicted Salem village, Massachusetts were sown on January 1692 when groups of young lady’s began to display wild behavior. The physicians called to examine the girls could find no cause of the disturbing behavior. If the source affliction the work of Satan. Witches invaded of Salem. February village began; raying and fasting in order to rid itself of the devil’s affect the girls were pressured to reveal who’s in the community controlled their behavior. March 11, 1692 there was a day of fasting and also, prayers in the Salem during the days of community’s ministers, the rev. Monday 21st on March magistrates of Salem appointed to come to examination of the goodwife Corey about twelve of the clock they went into the meeting house, which was thronged with the spectators (The Salem witch Trials). Ann Putnam Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, and Mary Warren all charge they were, no longer friends they were not nice. “The girls complained into grotesque poses, fell

The Salem witch trials were trials for people who were being accused of worshiping the devil. They believed the witches were out to harm others in supernatural ways. They were believed to be able to turn into animals, cause others to become possessed by looking at them, and were accused of being the cause of illness or miscarriages. However, there are many false theories about the Salem witch trials causing many controversies. One of the bigger controversies was if people were really being possessed by the three women. Often times, if doctors could not find a cause to an illness they will blame it on witchcraft. “Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the spring of 1691 and winter of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He could not find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnosis of unseen conditions at the time”. They believed there had to be a cause to everything and if something

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.

humanity would have come to an end, but that was not so. In 1692 a

The girls in Salem were suffering from fits. They were hiding under furniture, had a fever and had pain constantly and were fatigued. The girls could not have been faking these symptoms. Since people cannot make themselves have a fever and cannot make themselves faint. They were suffering from the disorder because when the young girls heard of what was going on they started doing it as well. No one ever caught the illness unless they were stressed out about the news and believed they might have had it. They were not faking the symptoms because it caused people that they knew to be hurt as well and they still could not stop. The mass hysteria in Salem was from the puritans who thought the devil was was making people sick. The girls were very stressed out thinking they could be accused of witchcraft next that when they heard of the symptoms that some young children apparently had they seemed to get them too. All, the symptoms they had are all under the category of conversion disorder so now people can draw the conclusion that they just all thought they were sick. The girls in Salem were not faking the disorder of having conversion disorder.