Essay about The Salem Witch Trials

New England in the seventeenth century was a difficult place to live. The raging winds of winter, the ravaging Indian tribes and the many diseases that killed both livestock and family members often had inhabitants believing that they were being punished by God for their sins, or that their afflictions were caused by something much more sinister. Anyone who threatened traditional gender and societal roles was seen as a potential threat to both themselves and the rest of the community. The outbreaks of witch accusations that occurred throughout New England during this time reflected how unsettled the settlers really felt about their lives. This is reflected in both the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials and the Stamford, Connecticut witch trials even if these trials had different results.

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 changed the class of the Puritans and how they look at religion. Also that during the Salem Witch Trials was mainly focused on women. The first is that it was due to ongoing social, economic and geographic conflicts between the village and the church. This argument was supported throughout Boyer and Nissenbaum's book, and in fact was the entire basis for their book. They used extensive research of village and church records as well as sermon logs and personal accounts to prove that the trials were in fact a calculated attack on many 'radical' individuals.

The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. Because most of the trials were occurring in Salem, this meant that the accusations were happening among the Puritans themselves, which could very well be anything as long as the Puritans found it as contradicting their bible. Not only did the strict religion intolerance fuel the accusations and trials, but also the possible factor of ergot being involved which has been known to cause symptoms leading to hysteria.

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

In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity.

The largest outbreak of witchcraft in America took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. A group of girls, including the Parris’s Indian slave Tituba, gathered in the Salem village and were attempting to see the future by decoding “messages”. Shortly after this gathering the girls started showing signs of the possessed (pg. 73). To this day people all over America are still amazed with the events that took place in this time. But why is that? The fear of the village fell heavily onto the judicial system, which later made people focus on the proper separation of government and religious beliefs. Mass hysteria broke out amongst the village and many people were being accused, therefore leading to many innocent deaths. Although there could be many theories as to the reason the witch trials in Salem began, there are two points of view that are very commonly shared amongst people. Some believe that the Salem witch trials were women unconsciously searching for power, whereas others believe it was an encephalitis epidemic.

Suddenly people seemed very paranoid and soon residents were placing blame on one another and accusing each other of witchcraft. In a fifteen month period between 1691 and 1692 nearly twelve dozen people were accused of witchcraft in or near Salem (Norton, p8).

The Salem Witch Trials has been argued as one of the most important and controversial topics in American history. The Salem Witch Trials concluded the war between faithful people and evil people, and brought the long awaited justice to Salem village. Different historians presented varying opinions about the consequences and effects of the Salem Witch Trials. Reverend Samuel Parris played a pivotal role in preaching Christianity as well as eradicating evil from Salem village at that time. Religion was enforced among the people of Salem village, which created dispute against church-members and the non-church members. Moreover, religion created social segregation and disunity existed between these two groups of people. When it was revealed that witches were diminishing the holiness of Salem village, witch-hunt was initiated, and proved to be very effective, resulting in many witches being brought to justice.

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.

The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were a dark time in American history. There were many possible causes of the Salem Witch Trials. A few major causes that led to the Salem Witch Trials were religion, reputations, and lack of laws.

The religious beliefs and authority of the witch trials was one of the three causes of the witch trials. Firstly, the puritans feared the devil. Puritans of Salem had a “fear of the devil because a commonly accepted belief was that he could give witches the power to hurt people as a reward for their loyalty” (Brooks, 2011). They also were afraid because they had to abide by rules that the church

In the 1600’s, Puritans from England moved over to the Americas hoping to spread the Bible’s teachings, which included the persecution of witches. Many people were accused of being witches and were hung. The effect of this was much hysteria among the colonists. What is the reason there was so much hysteria during the Salem witch Trial of 1692? The Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692 was caused by the fear of being accused or hung for the crime of practicing witchcraft, the belief that people could be witches, a crime worthy of death, and the paranoia of possibly being possessed by the devil.

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.

Salem Witch Trials: Casting a spell on the people Today, the idea of seeing a witch is almost inconsequential. Our Halloween holiday marks a celebration in which many will adorn themselves with pointy black hats and long stringy hair, and most will embrace them as comical and festive. Even the contemporary witchcraft religious groups forming are being accepted with less criticism. More recently, the Blair Witch movie craze has brought more fascination than fear to these dark and magical figures. So, it becomes no wonder that when our generations watch movies like the Crucible, a somewhat accurate depiction of the Salem Witch Trials, we are enraged and confused by the injustice and the mayhem that occurred in 1692. For most, our egocentric