The Salem Witch Trials : A Time Of Hysteria And Confusion

The Salem witch trials were a result of mass hysteria. It was caused by false accusations. On May 1693, fourteen women, five men, and two dogs were executed for supposed supernatural crimes. The Salem trials have a unique place in our collective history today. (" Saxon, V,Procedure Used in...").

Salem Witch Trials: The witch trials were a series of hearings, and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692, through May 1693. The primary source of the trials is unknown, but it was most recognized when a group of young girls, from the village Salem, started to speak of the devil invading their home and try to take over through his “minions” that he persuaded to write in his book. This group of girls accused over 200 people for working for the devil, or being witches, and

These girls did not all show “symptoms” at one time. The first girl to start experiencing symptoms was Betty Parris. She was followed by Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis (History of Massachusetts). These girls were throwing tantrums, hiding under furniture and contorting to pain. Since panic and fear set in, witchcraft was the easy choice to make. In today’s medical science, these girls would have been diagnosed with boredom or epilepsy. Although at the time the cause was unknown, these symptoms were probably brought on from eating rye infected with fungus. The three victims were not the only ones accused. There were numerous cases of scapegoating running prevalent.

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)

In 1620, the Puritans faced an arduous journey, not knowing that seventy years later, their community would rip apart. One of the main reasons why these allegations started was because a few girls were showing demonic symptoms. These symptoms started with the daughter of minister Samuel Parris, in which she had fits that included contortions and random, uncontrollable, violent, screaming. Sadly, for early 17th century America, the belief in the supernatural was a very prominent idea. So the doctor decided to diagnose the girl with bewitchment, and soon other girls began having the same exact symptoms as her. These girls began accusing older women of bewitching them and arrest charges were made against them. Three women were brought forth to the judges and one confessed in order to have a lighter sentence. While it was thought the cause of these poor girls’ symptoms was bewitchment, it actually was just food poisoning from

Accusations had been made among the townspeople. Three women accused by the girls of bewitching the,

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of paranoia and mass hysteria. In this small town of Massachusetts hundreds were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were executed. Salem was home to very devout Puritans. The worries arrived when young girls would become sick with no explanation or cure. The doctors not knowing what the cause of the illness was, quickly pronounce the girls bewitched. It spread terror through the town. The girls, as well as other residents, started accusing others of witchery. Many accusations were because of vengeance or self-interest. There were rivalries between families over land or wealth. Neighbors started accusing each other in order to gain their land. The religious community had an intensified sense of fear that the Devil was walking among them. They believed witches were out to destroy the Puritans. In order to purify the village of evil they had trials for the accused.

In conclusion the Salem Witch Trials were a tragedy that would have never happened if it weren’t for one doctor that diagnosed two girls with bewitchment. The main causes were anger, fits, and

In late winter and early spring of 1692, residents of Salem Village, Massachusetts, a thinly settled town of six hundred began to suffer from a strange physical and mental malady. Fits, hallucinations, temporary paralysis, and “distracted” rampages were suddeny occuring sporadically in the community. The livestock, too, seemed to suffer from the unexplainable illness. With the limited scientific and medical knowledge of the time, physicians who were consulted could only offer witchcraft as an explanation. Psychiatric disorder is used in a slightly different sense in the argument that the Witchcraft crisis was a consequence of two party factionalism in Salem Village in this account the girls are unimportant factors in the entire incident. Their behavior “served as the kind of Roschach test into which adults read their own concerns and expectations.” Possessed individuals exhibited learned behavior patterns and that words and actions varied only slightly among them. The affected women experienced an inner conflict which was explained by the ministers as a struggle between good and evil. As to the physical symptoms: the fits, trances, and paralyzed limbs, among others, Karlsen attributes them to the afflicted girls’ actual fear of witches as well as the idea that once they fell into an afflicted state they were free to express

The Salem Witch Trials were cases shown before the local judges or magistrates regarding witchcraft.(Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice) Witchcraft was better known as the devils magic in Salem back then.(A Brief History) A group of girls called the afflicted girls decided to play a fortune telling game that caused a hysteria when it was over. The “afflicted girls” were said to have all started to get sick and act strange shortly after the game was over. The symptoms would come and go randomly. The girls could be found hiding in odd spots doubled over in pain with

The Salem Witch Trials were a set of hearings and prosecutions in Salem, Massachusetts that were nothing short of horrific and involved many people accused of witchcraft. The trials that took place were seen as moral in the eyes of the leaders in Salem but as we know today, they were most certainly immoral. Innocent women were hanged, drowned, and even an innocent man was pressed to death. The unforgettable events of the Salem Witch Trials began in 1692, when several young girls accused numerous women of the town of witchcraft. There were fears about religious extremists as many critics perceived witchcraft as being counterproductive.

The witch trials began when nine girls, known as the afflicted girls, experienced strange symptoms. In the beginning, there were only five afflicted girls: Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott, and Mercy Lewis. Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Booth later began experiencing the symptoms, which involved strange fits, irregular body contortions, and fevers. Although the symptoms seem phenomenal, modern theories suggest that the children were merely bored, abused, or had epilepsy, a mental illness, or a disease that was obtained from eating rye bread infected with a fungus. Reverend Samuel Parris, Betty Parris’ father, asked Dr. William Griggs to deduce the problem, and Dr. Griggs concluded that they were bewitched. The group of girls accused three women of causing their unnatural behaviors: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, a slave owned by Samuel Parris. The women were easy targets for the girls because they were outcasts (Brooks). Sarah Good was a beggar, Sarah

In January of 1692, the small village of Salem started to have troubles when young girls started to show odd behaviors. They see the doctor, and the doctor says that the girls are bewitched. The reverend tries to fix this, by using prayer and fasting but it does not help the behavior, it continues on and off for a period of time. There was no explanation for how the girls were bewitched, so people come up with many different theories about what was happening. It was said that the young girls only threw fits at specific times during the day, like when people were there to visit. But, if the girls were faking this, it was a very dangerous thing because they could’ve been tried for witchcraft and hung. As time went on, more girls started to show

In January of 1692, Reverend Parris of Salem had a daughter, Elizabeth, and a niece, Abigail Williams. His daughter was 9 years of age, while his niece was 11. They eventually started acting differently- screaming, uttering peculiar sounds, throwing things,

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.