The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem witch trials and the Hollywood communist hunt are both the worst examples of the purification of American land and one of the worst moments of American history. Over hundreds of people were innocently killed or died because of the accusations against them. They both had ridiculous ways to point people for what they were hunting for. Life was hard back then and so were the beliefs of their certain customs. But I never said there was never supporters, but many lacked confidence and courage to be in the public and that silence costed many, soon it was a phase of American history.

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.

Human beings always have been curious creatures. We are a species that is always searching for answers to unexplainable events. Take aliens for example. To us, aliens may or may not exist (depending on your individual belief of course). Yet we still take such an interest in them that we continuously search for answers and proof of alien. Now that we have modern day technology, we can attain “proof” of alien life-form somewhere deep in outer space. But given the date 1692 in New England, if we were to even come in contact with aliens it would have been considered some supernatural phenomena, and even cause quite a bit of hysteria. That is what happened to the puritans in Salem village during the Salem Witch Trials, in Massachusetts, in the year 1962. The puritans of Salem village were extremely paranoid, and they believed that if something can’t be explained then it had the devils influence. So when a group of Salem girls spoke up about the devil and witches, the villagers of Salem went into a panicked frenzy. Truth of the matter is that there were no witches in Salem nor was the devil at war against Salem; the Salem Witch Trials were only a result of endless lies, conspiracies, and side effects of an illness.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of trials in which twenty-four people were killed after being accused of practicing witchcraft. These trials were caused by different social climates of the area including the very strong lack of a governor, the split between Salem Village and Salem Town, and the strict puritan lifestyle during the time period. Tituba, the black slave, was a foreigner from Barbados. Her role in society was to take care of Mr. Parris’s family. Tituba’s situation contributed to her role in the witch trials because Mr. Parris promised her freedom if she confessed guilty. Tituba also realized that with her false confession of being a witch also helped keep her life, therefore she accused other people in the village

The seventeenth century was a time of great religious excitement both in Europe and America. It had been widely believed even before the Puritans left England that witchcraft was a well-practiced profession in Europe. The times for settlers in the New America proved to be quite different and so ever changing. With many new rules, laws, regulations and curfew a true government was being born. Throughout this vast change, religious beliefs became so strong to be studied and participated in. Religions that divided from Christianity and Catholic beliefs, such as Puritans, who had a clear vision of what their churches were going to be like. Witchcraft had been a crime a long time before the trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and prior

What was the reason behind the Salem Witch Trials in the Year 1692? This is a question that has been asked by historians everywhere for over three hundred years. Although the questions is easily posed by people, the answered discovered by historians are hard searched and revealed. The answer is difficult to give because there are numerous factors and events that helped create and influence the trials, even before the trials began. The main factors that started and fueled the trials were the politics, religion, family feuds, economics, and the imaginations and fears of the people throughout Salem and other surrounding areas.

Massachusetts Bay Colony, first settled into in 1630, was overwhelmingly controlled by Puritans. Their goal was to establish colonies based on the word of God. Salem, like many other towns at the time, had little distinction between church and state and focused all aspects of their society on God. (Roach) Due to these conditions, Salem became the site of the largest and most violent witch hunts in America. The significance of the trials comes from the large impact they had on American law. The conditions before, during, and after the Salem Trials were unlike the witch hunts in any other colonies in the New World or in Europe. However, towns and cities being struck with fear of the Devil were a common occurrence throughout the sixteenth century.

Historians called this period the dark time when men and women hunted for witches known as the Salem Witch trials. European descents brought them the belief in witches and the devil. These beliefs that they believed in so much were from the teaching of the catholic church. During the seventeenth century, people were executed for being believed they were witches and followers of Satan. Most of these executions were performed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Mainly all of the accused victims were women, many historians believe that the charges of witchcraft were a way to control the women who threatened to take the power away from the men. During the Salem Witch trials how did the outbreak of the trials start and did religious beliefs of the European descents affect the relations of the Salem witch trials?

In February of 1962, his daughter Elizabeth Parris, her cousin Abigail Williams, their friend Ann Putnam Jr., were found with the Parris family slave, Tituba, around the kitchen table. They were caught attempting to call upon evil spirits, and were then seen throwing strange fits and were not able to speak, hear, or see. They also were claimed to be twisted into uncomfortable and impossible positions.

1. What kind of book is this? List three evidences of this. There are a lot of genres for this kind of book. Drama, because there is a lot of disagreement that causes all the fighting.

During the time period of June to September 1692, twenty people were unjustly murdered after trials found them guilty of acts of witchcraft. The series of hearings and prosecutions of the accused witches in colonial Massachusetts marks one of the nation 's most notorious cases of mass hysteria. The reasons behind the trials and deaths are complex and multifaceted. Internal disputes, strict religious lifestyles, accusations from young children, witch hunting methods, spectral evidence, and even some medical theories all stand as causes of the Salem Witch Trials.

A few historical studies show that one or both slaves may not have been African descent but may have been Carib or Arawak Indians. By winter of 1691-92, Parris’ children were in need of a distraction from the dullness of their activities and studies; so they began to see Tituba in the afternoon while their parents were away. Elizabeth and Abigail would enjoy hearing stories about Tituba’s native Barbados; she would tell the girls about her knowledge of Folk Magic. Over time, these secret sessions with Tituba became very popular, that at least ten young girls (12-21). These ten young women would end up accusing nearly two hundred individuals of witchcraft, or better known as “the afflicted girls”.

Well hello my pretties! Witches in history, aren’t the kind that first come to people’s minds. They are often portrayed with pointed hats, big noses, and riding around on broomsticks. The common era has twisted witchery into a light subject, but fails to address the serious role it has played on the United States in its developing stages and the world overall. “The witch hunting craze that swept through northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries was the result… of genuine superstition and religious fervor combined with political motivations and paranoia. Peasants and nobles alike looked to supernatural causes for storms and diseases, but they also saw the trials as ways to gain office or wealth by eliminating their rivals.” This paranoia spread across the world and one of the most notorious cases landed right here in our country, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Trials shed light on the way court systems were run, cruel and unusual punishment, and psychotropics, or mind-altering substances.

Good morning/afternoon, my name is Piper Lenske, and I am the prosecutor in this case and it is my pleasure to represent the defendants. In the 1600’s, the defendants in this case were falsely accused of witchcraft by members of the Salem society who wanted to maintain their positions of power within the society. At the conclusion of the case we will ask for a verdict of guilty for these power seekers.

Many crucial events lead to the Salem Witch trials. The trials ended in a gruesome manner, and conflicts were at the root of the cause. The Salem Witch trials were the result of illogical-mass hysteria, and were induced by grudge holding people who used the trials to harm their foes.