The Witch Hunts : The Causes Of The Witch Hunts

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.

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. Marc Aronson. (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, November 1, 2003. 272.)

Between the months of June to September of 1692, the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts resulted in the hanging of 19 men and women; the deaths of five others, including two children, while imprisoned in jail; the pressing to death of an 80-year old man, and the stoning of two dogs for collaborating with the Devil. Hundreds of others faced accusations and dozens more were jailed for months during the progress of the trials. For over three hundred years these events have not only captured the general publics' imagination, but that of the academic community. Beginning with Charles Upham, in 1867, historians have attempted to explain the mass hysteria that swept through Salem in 1692. These accounts vary both in their

out in what is now the town of Danvers, then a district of Salem Town,

The large-scale witch-hunts that occurred from 1638 to 1651 gathered momentum via major happenings in the political, societal, and religious domains developing at the time. Individuals who had either political, religious or economic power in society, also known as elites, together had absolute control over the pursuit and prosecution of individuals who partook in witchcraft. The clergy played a crucial role in the witchcraft prosecutions and were slower than the state and localities to desert their beliefs in the reality of witches as the prosecution of witchcraft was, in their eyes, an effective tool to eradicate social deviance. Though local authorities and the Parliament did contribute to the witch-hunts significantly, without the kirk of Scotland declaring and encouraging this sanction on witchcraft, both other parties would not have taken the actions they ultimately did. This essay will provide a brief description of events that took place from 1638 to 1651 and then utilize evidence from a multitude of sources to argue that the religious elites were the most influential of these forces during the witchcraft prosecutions that occurred in the 1640s.

Witchcraft is the use of magical powers. Witchcraft is often regarded as “black” magic. The article called “The Salem Witch Trials: 1692-1693” states that “[s]ince the early fifteenth century, so-called witch panics had periodically swept across Europe, causing witch hunts, accusations, trials and executions” (“Salem” 1). Although some children and males were accused, the greater part of the arraigned individuals were female (“Salem” 1). A debatable amount of around forty thousand individuals were implicated and executed as witches between fourteen hundred and seventeen hundred and fifty (“Salem” 1). Although the causes of the witchcraft hysteria are debatable, there are three widespread and favored explanations for the hysteria within

Robert Calef was a merchant in Massachusetts during the witch hunts of 1692. The primary source that is being analyzed isn’t about him but is from many stories that he collected and put them together in a manuscript. This manuscript that contains true accounts about the trial and it included the attempted escape of Mrs. Cary of Charlestown Massachusetts told from her husband Nathaniel Cary’s viewpoint. I believe that Nathaniel Cary wanted this account to be written in order to highlight and expose how the puritans handled the witch trials and specifically the trial against his wife and to inform people of what was truly happening in New England at the time. In this primary source analysis, I will be discussing what this document tells us

History shows the remarkable things that society has done over the years, it also shows where society failed and mistakes were made. This is the case of the Salem Witch Trials. The people of Salem experienced an event that would change them and the course of this country forever. The mass hysteria and rampant paranoia that swept New England in 1692, is what turned neighbor against neighbor. The Salem villagers would accuse one another of casting spells, consorting with the devil, and being witches, all of which was a punishable crime in the 17th century. ("Search")

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he writes, “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller 77). This partially fictionalized tale of the Salem Witch Trials points to one of the causes of the trials, vengeance, but the over dramatized tale 's early stages were quiet. The Salem Witch Episode had humble beginnings in the town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, but evolved into one of the most widely known witch trials in American History. The gallows in Salem claimed the lives of nineteen men and woman during the spring and summer of 1692 due to the accusations of witchcraft with over a hundred people who were accused. After all the terror and the uproar of the trials occurred, everything came to a screeching halt (Linder 1). Due to the unique circumstances of this particular set of witch trials, from the rampant accusations to the discontinuation of the trials mass hysteria does not seem to be fault as with other witch trials, but a variety of factors. The Salem witch trials were not just a simple case of mass hysteria, but a combination of factors ranging from poisons to superstitions to scapegoats, resulting in the outbreak of the Salem Witch episode.

By examining the end to witchcraft, a reader can further see the importance of socioeconomic status during the trials. The afflicted girls discovered their role in putting an end to the allegations by accusing the highest members of Puritan society. Here a reader realizes it was not just mostly women who were accused, but mostly women of low socioeconomic status. Once women began denouncing the most prestigious members, others began speaking out and fighting in favor of the accused. For example, colonial economic and political leaders started objecting the accusations once “the bewitched had charged the wives of critics Moody, Hale, and Dane, as well as several members of Boston’s ruling elite.” On the off-chance that people never blamed the elite members of society who knows how long the Salem Witch Trials would have kept going.

What led to the Salem Witch Trials was merely domino effects and delusions. Whether possessed or not, many residents of Salem Village made a substantial amount of false accusations that resulted in nearly twenty deaths. Reverend Samuel Parris was elected minister in 1689 - three years prior to the mania of the Salem Witch Trials. His fervent urge of Puritanism further separated Salem Town, a prosperous town, and Salem Village, an agriculture based community. In January of 1692, nine-year-old Betty Parris, daughter of Samuel Parris, and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams of Salem Village started acting strange and began accusing people in Salem Town of witchcraft for possessing them. These accusations, quickly spreading by many of Salem

The Rise of Witch Hunts in Europe During the Early Modern Period Tens of thousands of people were persecuted and put to death as witches between 1570 and 1680 – known as the great age of witch-hunts. Europeans had an extensive range of magical beliefs and practices, mainly due to the Christian belief that magic exists. The elite believed in magic as fervently as the most ignorant peasant. It was believed that some members of the society sold their soul to the devil giving them power to inflict pain on others and take part in supernatural performances.

The “disenchantment of the world” marks something of a significant of moment in history. A time when the disbelief in witches grew to the size where it ended the persecution and execution of witches. Leaving behind an age of the supernatural and giving wake to the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was a time of great scientific strides for mankind. Is it a coincidence that this also happens to be the time in which we see a significant decline in the witch-hunting? As the beliefs surrounding magic and the supernatural begin their shift more towards skepticism it is worth noting some of the other factors that are believed to have come into play when talking about the decline in witchcraft persecutions. However, without substantial proof of how these other factors played a direct role on the decline of witch prosecutions it seems as though the only thing we know for certain is that the enlightenment played its part in changing the mindset of a great number people and helped to bring an end to the number of witches brought to execution.

Over the years in America, there has been several witch hunts. One might have believed if something wrongful happened, the population would prevent its reoccurence from happening again, but that is inaccurate. Witch hunts have repeated multiple times and people are not attempting to make a change or at least recognize the process of which a witch hunt occurs. In not acknowledging the hints of a witch hunt, or doing anything to prevent the situation, it causes history to repeat itself. Multiple lives have been negatively impacted wrongfully in search for wrongdoers. The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the article, “The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: A

Through a historical standpoint, humanity can be seen as a cyclic development in which old inclinations are further manifested to suit new social orders. As a result, issues that caused mass hysteria in an earlier era are often repeated again and we, just as the people of the old eras, are unable to recognize the flaws in our logic until it is too late. The witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries are perfect example, in that looking back today they seem like a stain on the history of mankind, but at the time being not many people stopped to think about the horrific acts they were committing As time progressed, and people no longer felt the need to ruin entire villages in order to fulfill their own philological desires, witch hunts, like many other trends, also came to an end. As of now, this end in mass witch-hunts can often be symbolized by the story of Anna Göldi, who not only signifies the change in how people thought, but also signifies the occurrence of excessive accusations in times of fear and ignorance.