The Salem Witch Trials Remain As A Main Area Of Interest For Colonial Historians

The Salem Witch Trials began in the late 1600’s and is widely known to this day as one of the darkest periods in American history. In this essay, I will be analyzing the context and origins of the trials, the hysteria that dramatically spread through Massachusetts, and the legacy that we’ve come to know today. (thesis statement will go here I just can NOT think of one and I’m tired of wasting my time trying. Help .)

The purpose of this book was to examine the history and social life of Salem Village to try to figure out what was the cause of the events that occurred there. I believe that the authors achieved their objective at least they did to me. Boyer and Nissenbaum's explanation for the outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Salem hinges on an understanding of the economic,

The Salem Witch Trials was an uncanny and eerie event of hearings and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. Although it lasted from 1691 to 1692, it lead to more than 200 people, including men and women, being accused and arrested of witchcraft and 20 of those people executed. The hysteria began with two young girls: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams claiming to be possessed by the devil, causing the “witch-fever” among the Salem village. In this essay the circumstances behind poor harvest, sickness and the conjecture of witches and witchcraft being highly considered as a cause in this era will be described. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by environmental factors because the Salem community had limited understanding of natural causes such as poor harvest, sickness and diseases.

The Salem witch trials, that occurred in colonial Massachusetts, were a hostile part of American history. People lived in a constant state of paranoia and fear. A great number of people were accused of practicing witchcraft, which was thought to be connected to the devil, and some were even executed. Eventually, the colony realized the faults in the trials. By reading the primary sources ‘A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft Chapter II’ by John Hale and Two Letters by Governor William Phips, we are able to discover a wealth of knowledge about the aforementioned trials. The two sources allow the reader to gain insight into how the trials were flawed by showing the nature of the Salem Witch Trials, the evidence used to find the witches guilty, and the role native americans played in the trials. While also exhibiting how primary sources can be a disadvantage in navigating through historical events.

The events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 have had historians scrutinizing over the causes for years. There have been several theories about how the situation became so out of control. The haunting story is well known in America, taught to our youth and has been the focus of numerous forms of media. We are familiar with the story but unfamiliar with the origin of its beginnings. The role of religion and the presence of mob psychology were the primary catalyst behind the Salem witch trials.

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.

Salem Village was a small settlement under the control of Salem Town in Massachusetts. The village was notorious for its witchcraft hysteria that broke out in 1692, and the execution of twenty accused of being witches and wizards. The incident became an interesting topic for both historians and playwrights. However, the bizarre witch trial and the girls’ mysterious symptoms disguised the social and political movement which subtly influenced the small village for half a century. Only recently have historians started to dig out the complete history of the witch trials, and (have) tried to integrate the isolated incident of witchcraft hysteria with the normal life in Salem Village. Therefore, a new interpretation of the Salem Witch Trials emerges, where the events in Salem Village actually represent an early form of urban and rural division. The newly found evidence suggests that witchcraft hysteria is a direct product of social instability, which was triggered by the rapid commercialization of 17th century New England, the division between urban town and rural village, and the rise of the new merchant class.

In 1692, the subjects of Salem Massachusetts turned on each other, and blamed hundreds for their own neighbors with Witchcraft. Amid the era of June to September 1692, nineteen individuals were unjustifiably killed after ridiculous trials discovered them liable of demonstrations of Witchcraft. The explanations for the trials themselves are perplexing and multifaceted. Financial matters, religious imperatives, financial class issues, corrupted nourishment supply, property question, congregational quarrels and juvenile young ladies ailing in consideration all remain at the center of the Salem Witch

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of infamous events that demand an explanation for their occurrence. The trials that took place in 1692 caused neighbors in the community of Salem Village in the colony of Massachusetts to turn on one another out of paranoia, accusing one another of witchcraft. According to Carol Karlsen, a longtime author of the subject, nineteen people were hanged and about 200 others were imprisoned (40). A few theories have been offered in order to explain the root of this mass hysteria. The theories in question need to be examined to see which holds the most credibility.

Colonial America has had its patches of conflict and strife. From the struggle for independence, to trouble with native peoples, to sickness, the colonies were no stranger to hardship. One of the most infamous historical events within the colonies was the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and 1693. Many theories exist regarding the root of this issue. During this time, due to the colonies’ belief in the occult, prejudice, and a possible spread of diseased food crops, many women were accused of witchcraft and were put to death wrongly, with no advocate for their freedom. Cotton Mather’s account of “The Trial of Martha Carrier” gives insight into this dark period in American history, including the root of the conflict that sentenced so many women to execution in one short year.

Since Salem Village was facing a wide variety of governmental and economical problems including the resistance of farmers, complications of ministers and their congregations and the shifting of authority, all of which contributed to the outbreak of accusations. It was during the early three months of the witch trials that Salem was welcoming and waiting for a new governor, Sir William Phips, to arrive. Since there was no governor, authorities lacked official resources and had no solution to the accusations aside from placing the accused in jail. Without resources, it was illegal to proceed with formal prosecutions which lead to an overwhelming overflow population in jails. When Sir William Phips arrived in late 1692, he appointed six members of his advisory counsel as a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to hear and determine witch cases. Also going on during this time was the mass population of farmers resisting the pressure of “commercial capitalism and the social style that accompanied it” (180). Many of the farmers and members of the community wanted to branch outwards of town and become independent farmers. The community was falling apart without a clear understanding of congregations and authority. ***Details**

In the article, The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: An Account, professor Douglas O. Linder attempts to put the Salem trials into historical perspective by highlighting the socioeconomic differences between the accusers and the accused. Furthermore, Linder’s uses a commentary “account” of the trials to support his criticism of the Massachusetts Judicial system. More specifically, Linder highlights moments in the trials in which spectral evidence, which bases itself upon dreams and visions, taints the integrity of the Judicial system. “Salem should warn us,” Linder argues, “to think hard about how to best safeguard and improve our system of justice.” It is worth noting that Linder is not fair to the individuals including Cotton Mather and members of the jury, who firmly believed in spectral evidence at the time of the trials. Furthermore, the author does not appear to push any political agenda.

“The weather was icy cold and it was the middle of winter when four figures were found outside of Salem village casting spells” (Nemphill, 1). In Salem Village there were many recorded witch accusations, in fact the Salem Witch Trials, the witch trials of the late 1600’s was one of Salem’s biggest hit of witch trials. The tension between the accused and the accusers was strong making the trials stronger and more intense. The Salem Witch Trials is an exploration in history because Salem Village was put in a position to grasp a chance at the devil, or to choose the right or wrong decision as a village.

The communities most affected were ones who were experiencing multiple crises concerning growth, gender and hostile groups. All of which Cotton Mather considered to be the work of Satan. He provided detailed interpretation of the Salem witchcraft trials in 1693 from an observer’s perspective. Mather’s work was a work written about the accounts on the date of June 29 1692, and more specifically about the trial of Susanna Martin. Throughout this paper we will be looking at the Salem with trials from an insider point of who Cotton Mather seemed to be writing to in his encounters, and what side he stood for in terms of sides and what his intent was to do with these

The central issue at stake for people during the Salem witch trials were a series of hearing and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. It all started in Salem Village, in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. A man by the name of Richard Godbeer, the author of “The Salem Witch Hunt” and several other books is a professor at the University of Miami. Godbeer’s research and teaching interests center on colonial and revolutionary America. Also, his fields of interest are in gender, sex, witchcraft and religious culture.