Witchcraft Dbq

“You’re a liar! I’m no more a witch than you are a wizard! If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink!” This testimony is one out of the several given during the Salem Witch Trials which has become known as one of the mass hysterias to ever occur in American history. In 1692, individuals known as Puritans settled among a small village named Salem in what is now known as Massachusetts. The Puritans spent the beginning years of their settlement confronted with epidemics such as famine, disease, and Indian raids. Shortly after the Puritans were shaken by such issues, hysteria of the act of witchcraft circulated upon this small village which resulted in the death of countless men and women while hundreds of others faced

The main reason that innocent people of he 1690’s were accused of witchcraft is because of the moist, damp, living conditions that the people lived in. Food was scarce back then so their major source of food was rye bread. The damp conditions caused ergot to grow in the bread. Ergot is a drug that made people act stranger than usual. Some of the effects caused people to do things in which they do not remember.

¨More immediately, colonists often interpreted disorder as evidence that a malign, demonic force was at work in the land. If Indians raided them, strange sickness and deaths beleaguered them, or a woman seemed out of place and out of control, then Satan must have infiltrated their defenses. And if Satan had slipped into their midst, then someone must have assisted him. That person must be a witch, and probably a woman...¨ (Fiege 28). Strange occurrences such as stillborns, diseases and cow mutilation was the first time the perfect Puritan society was unable to control their environment or provide solid explanation of the happenings. The fear spread throughout the towns. Therefore, the establishment used witches and Satanic worship to explain these strange environmental events. The less powerful minorities such as women, Indians and the African enslaved people were blamed for and associated with witchcraft. ¨The fear that ran through the Essex County during its witchcraft crisis was rooted in the colonists´ conflicts with Indians over land... ¨(Fergie 51). As stated in the

The idea of witchcraft existed long before the 16th century, but only after the 16th century, the perception of witchcraft changed into an opposing view. Before the 16th century, people usually accepted women making their own medicines and administering it to cure disease or illness, but when the middle ages began and when millions of people fell into the hands of the plague (Black Death), witches started receiving negative suspicion for the activities. Citizens began accusing people with related features to a witch, good or bad, of treachery and acting upon the will of Satan. This, they connected to the Black Death as their doing.

The Salem Witch hunt in Massachusetts during the late 1600’s was caused by fear of the unknown. Abigail William, an 11 years old girl that lives in Salem is one of the affected girls in the Salem witch trials. She worked with the court to accuses other people that were believed to that they worship the devil. Mr. Danforth is one of the judges at the court and he put the people that are accused in jail, only if they confess that they work with the devil. The ones that didn’t confess were excommunicated by the church and then were hanged. This brought fear into the village and the village around it. The trials ended in two years but the fear of witchcraft still remain today in the

During the 15th and 16th century, the term ‘witchcraft’ was common and spread all around Europe. Witchcraft was believed to be a supernatural phenomenon that dictated many people’s fears of the world around them. Supernatural phenomena were the people’s attempts to explain the good and bad things that were happening around their towns. Due to their lack of knowledge in the medical field and of the outside world, people used magic and witchcraft as a justification for disease or growing crops (cite). Witches were believed to help the devil, using their powers to harm others. When the witch scare spread around, people were afraid of their friends and neighbors who could potentially be witches. The thought of not knowing who was a witch caused hysteria throughout many regions in Europe (cite). Witches were commonly

The Puritans set sail for Salem Town, Massachusetts in 1629 setting the stage for the first of the accused to be a witch (Schanzer 13). The fear of witchcraft most likely stemmed from King James. From April 1661- autumn 1662, 600 witches were found and 100 were executed (Witchcraft in the 16-17 Century). "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) is the Bible verse the Puritans were very confident of, and this lead to a very wicked and nasty time of death and witchcraft.

It is extremely difficult to imagine witches different than an ugly woman wearing a pointed hat, flying on broomsticks, especially when even the dictionary defines witches this way. As one of the representative symbols of Halloween, witches have always been associated with the Halloween festivity that initiates ebullience in the modern person. Back in the year of 1692, witches were also the cynosure of Salem, Massachusetts. The negative light that was casted on witches instigated an atrocious image of them. The reaction of Salem Village’s residents was completely irrational when they penalized the accused of capital punishment. The strange behavior of the children originated from their craving for attention. Then, the Puritans’ strong belief in God added to the controversy and caused them to believe that Satan was related with these witches. The competition between the east and west side of the village generated unintentional emotions of greed and jealousy for the less successful. Although others may claim to different causes of the Salem witch trials, several evidence directly points to the fact that this hysteria was ultimately engendered by the economic and political difference between Salem’s residents and the food poisoning produced by ergot.

For this essay I choose to write about witchcraft in the 16th and 17th century since I find the topic extremely interesting the write about. Given that we only have a paragraph about it in out History textbooks, I will have to look into other books and also search the internet to find what I need for the essay.

During the renaissance period people feared, ostracized, and killed what they thought were witches; but most of all they misunderstood what true witches were. Witchcraft is one of the oldest religions in the world, and was practiced by wise people who followed nature and were in tune with its forces. A bible verse and the fear of the unknown changed the whole perspective of witches. Witchcraft is one of the oldest religions in the world, it predates thousand of years before christianity and dates back 40,000 years to the paleolithic period. “The witches prayed to the higher powers or the spirits for help and guidance in resolving the problem by performing certain rituals and the whole process was called witchcraft.”

The idea of witches and witchcraft has always been a frightening one to past cultures and can still be today. The change that took place after religion was

The hunt against witches is recorded through history. They have been accused of perpetuating disease and harming others. In itself witchcraft “provides a means for navigating among the varied forces that comprise and shape material creation” (Michael 1) and for those who practice it receives means in controlling those forces. Those who deemed it unethical or could not understand instantly shunned even the innocent. In 1022 AD a witch has burned to death, the first recorded date

Black cats, owls, and ghosts oh my! The superstition is all around us whether it be the belief of witches, or just walking under a ladder, and breaking a mirror can cause bad luck. The belief or superstition that witches exist goes back to the source of it all. The belief in so called power called magic. In reality though witchcraft was deemed a dark magic. Such accusations of witchery took place in a town called Salem where trials were held for the accused, these trials were called the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This was a very dark time in colonial history; people were not only accused of what they called witchcraft, but even killed because of the hysteria that evolved from the accusations. Why did the idea that witches or magic existed amplify the fear the colonists already had of the supernatural? How many colonists were accused and how did that accusation impact their life? Were religious beliefs to blame for the many deaths that had occurred? Long before these trials occurred people accused others of witchery or the use of magic but not a single piece of evidence was found to corroborate the accusations. These new accusations were started by actual confessions of witchery by a women named Tituba. Her case aggravated the fears of the colonists at a time when they were already under siege by illness and famine. Apparently, the year 1692 was a very rough time for the colonists of

In 1692, people started doing strange behaviors such as convulsing uncontrollably, or crying in fear from a terrifying hallucination such as something dark and scary in their chimney. Due to the lack of medical knowledge at that time, the citizens automatically assumed it was witchcraft and out of panic, the Salem Witch Trials began. However, with advanced medical scientific experts around today, the theory that actual witchcraft was a thing has been dropped. What remains a mystery is “What was the real cause of the strange behaviors?”. The only thing that is certain is that it was not witchcraft. Even though the reasons behind the strange behaviors is unknown, there are many theories. One of them is the ergot poisoning theory. Ergot poisoning (also known as ergotism) comes from a fungus called Claviceps purpurea. This harmful fungus often sprouts up around grains such as rye; and a lot of bread is made from rye or wheat. Since bread was eaten a lot in Salem Massachusetts, this philosophy does have some valid points. The symptoms of ergot poisoning match what the supposed “victims of witchcraft” had as well; creating another supporting point to this theory. However, this philosophy also has some questionable considerations as well such as the fact that animals used for meat could have given the people alkoid poisoning from eating the fungus or the grains that it touched; or the fact some scientists also say that the people of Salem Massachusetts were too healthy to have a

Beginning in roughly 1450 continuing to around 1750, a fear of witchcraft in Europe led to many years of witch hunts and executions of a multitude of individuals, an estimated 70% of those accused being women. The idea of witches and witchcraft caused people to begin accusing others of almost anything, the accused becoming scapegoats for the people of Europe. The witches were defined as problems for cities and state to the people because they brought death, illness, failure of crops, misfortune and evil wherever they went, and they worshipped the devil, God’s powerful, malicious enemy.