Witchcraft In The Salem Witch

LeAnn Struckman paper’s thesis is that the Puritan community, the weather, political events, and illnesses that were happening to the Salem region led to the Salem witch trial. This is supported by looking at the Puritan community and establishing the context behind the event. The paper starts by looking at the importance of the Massachusetts Bay Charter. This gave them the right to establish a colony in the New England area and the protections that came with it. The Puritans believed and desired to create an ideal society in the New World that England would want to emulate. The paper claims that the Puritans believed that the church and state should not be separate, which made their Puritan religious doctrines flow over into their government. This influences the role of the church and its membership. The Puritans believed in a strict system to gain membership of the church. Church membership carried over into the governance of the state and certain political rights like voting. The following generations were not as involved with the church and membership soon declined as they were unable to meet the strict standards. This decline created tension within the church, which created the need for reforming the standards of membership. However, with the change in membership there still was tension between the Puritans.

From the time of the 1690’s the entirety of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. “The Puritan lifestyle was restrained and rigid: People were expected to work hard and repress their emotions or opinions. Individual differences were frowned upon.” (Salem Witch Trials, The World Behind the Hysteria). These people believed that doing anything sinful would result in punishment from God. Just as much as they believed in God, they also believed in the Devil. Keeping up with the Puritan code, it led to the first women being accused of witchcraft. They were viewed as pariahs, and seen differently. Had the Puritan government let the afflicted defend themselves, not be so dependent on religion, not investigating the facts or scrutinize the trials the killing of many could have been prevented. The hangings from the trials would ultimately be the last in America.

It all comes back to two young kids they were acting strange they were not them self people believed that they were possessed by the devil they were thought to be witches. how did the devil become associated with witches and witchcraft?

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,

This investigation will focus on the question: What role did Tituba 's confession to be a witch start the mass hunt for the witches in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692? This investigation will include details on the events that occurred after Tituba’s confession in Salem during 1962 and 1963. It will also include a brief description of society at the time and what societal pressures may have led to this horrific time.

In 1692, a series of trails over witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts resulted in the deaths of fourteen women and six men. Witchcraft thought to be a widespread epidemic plaguing the colonies during the seventeenth century. Many believed the Devil walked among the colonist looking to lure them into doing evil. Unfortunately, the continually growth of paranoia involving the Devil and his minions, economic conditions, social strife, and personal jealousies can account for the arrests, trials, and deaths of twenty accused individuals in the spring and summer of 1692.

Mid-January 1642, 9-year-old Betty Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, with the help[ of the Parris slave Tituba, participated in an act that set off a spark that would start the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria. Wishing to know about their future, Betty and Abigail suspended a raw egg in a glass over a light.The images would act as messages and clues. Although this seems innocent enough after this “reading” they began to display unusual behavior associated with possession symptoms. This led to a full scale investigation and arrests of the slave Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne under the charges of witchcraft. Tituba was the only one to confess, this confession unknowingly saved her from the gallows that Good and Osborne would soon meet. This first event led to hundreds of other trials and hunts that put both men and women into jail or even hung.

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?

Salem 1692, were witches real, were the people of salem in any danger, or was this all just a simple misunderstanding. There had never been an event so miscalculated in history question still is why had it happened? Back then the word that was feared the most was that one word that should almost dever be said, devil and it had its own name for a reason.

Known as the trial of the century, it sparked a sequence of events that are remembered in history today as the infamous Salem Witch Trials. In the spring of 1692, citizens of Salem, Massachusetts, were accused of practicing the sin witch craft. Nineteen people were hung over the course of the trials, each of them civilians who were fellow residents to the accusers during the trials. The witches that were executed though did not go silent into the night, few stood up for themselves and fought for their own innocence. Along with the help of some companions, the townsfolk who were put on trial were able to voice their opinion on their execution.

Witches in Salem Massachusetts! In 1692 10 young girls got sick and no one knew what was going on including doctors. The main individuals involved were the girls that got sick and called witchcraft upon three other girls, The three individuals that were called out were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn, and a Caribbean slave named Tituba. Let’s not forget Sir William Phipps the governor of Massachusetts.

Salem was a small town that was filled with people who believed in witchcraft back in 1692. People have been put in trials for months that led to death. Witchcraft began in the homes of a village minister named Samuel Parris. His nine-year-old, Betty and his niece, Abigail said they have been “bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, necks, and back turned this way and that way, and returned back again.” The youngest one, betty, began to complain saying she felt “pinching, prickling sensations, knifelike pains, and the feeling that she was being chocked.” Weeks later, three more girls started to experience the same symptoms. Witchcraft became a crime and the hunt to find witches began. 40,000-60,000 people were executed in early modern Europe. Ministers of that time would call Salem the invisible world. They believe in demons, witchcraft, familiar, and magic in the seventeenth century of New England. Salam villagers

The first accusations were made by Reverend Parris’ niece, Abigail and daughter Betty. At the time Parris’ daughter was sick and no one could diagnose her with any medical issues. She showed symptoms of throwing temper tantrums, spoke in strange manners, and sensations of being pinched, among others. Health professionals believe that their actions were reflections of post-traumatic syndrome or perhaps abusive parents (The Economist, A31). Had Betty’s behaviors been examined by professionals today, they may have been able to diagnose her properly. There were other girls aged between 11 and 16 years, who complained of similar symptoms such as a lofty amount of emotions and pains, which were then given the authority to accuse the witches who were responsible (McHugh 20). At first glance it is evident that the girls were probably going through adolescence,

I chose to read In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 for my book review. I chose this book because I have always been fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials and I wanted to learn more information about the trials. The author of this book was Mary Beth Norton, Norton is a professor at Cornell University and from reading her biography on the Cornell website I could tell that she was well versed in the Salem Witch Trials. Norton wrote In the Devil’s Snare in 2002; in the book’s introduction Norton states that her narrative “builds on the research and interpretations advanced in prior works on Salem; at the same time it disagrees with many aspects of those interpretations.” Norton also goes into detail to explain the

A 17-year-old girl, Nola, and her mother would go searching for several jobs to protect their witchcraft identity. The first place they reach is called Low Beck, where they work to pick berries for a blackberry farmer and his wife. The farmer offered them food and cold water to drink when suddenly his actions showed a sense of sexuality towards Nola. Nola kicked the farmer’s knee and they had ran away from Low Beck. In the town of Haymarket, lived a silversmith and his servants, where Nola and her mother went to ask if they could work. Innis, the silversmith, and his son, Kirwyn welcomed the two women in the household. Also, Alan and Brinna were the servants that worked there for the silversmith. From time to time, Nola would gather hair from one of the servants that lived there, and she would cast a spell that caused shadowforms to appear in the water. Nola was casting a spell meanwhile Kirwyn had fired them because he said that her mother was a witch.