The Trial Essay

Maggi Evans Research Paper The Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted

the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials occurred in 1692 and 1693 in colonial Massachusetts. “More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft – the Devil’s magic – and 20 were executed” as detailed by Jess Blumberg on the web article A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials (Blumberg 2007). The trials had a major impact on the American society and the effects could be seen in colonial America as well as today. Why did the injustice of the Salam Witch Trials occur and why did

pattern appeared throughout the trial that the supporters of a church in Salem village were the accusers who accused the opponents of this new church. Due to long feuds between different families the Witch Trials turned into ending those long feuds by accusing the person of being a Witch. Furthermore, during the trials Cotton Mather, a Puritan clergyman and highly educated individual, made account of the trials from a biased point of view. Mather wanted to continue the trials until every witch was found

The Salem Witch Trials Witchcraft was defined as the act of invoking spiritual powers to accomplish a supernatural task- such as placing a curse upon a neighbor or predicting the future (Goss 1). In the belief of the ancient Israelites, being able to tell the future was limited to the realm of God was considered a form of witchcraft; these were also the beliefs of the puritans. The Puritans were a group of Christians, similar to the Pilgrims, envisioned a reformed Christian society; eventually they

The Salem Witch Trials During the seventeenth century, many Puritans became fed up with the Church of England and its devilish ways. They wanted to break free from it, and make changes elsewhere. They got permission to set up a colony in Massachusetts Bay, and soon after that, over twenty-thousand Puritans fled from England to America. They decided to base their colony on the word of God, and believed God would protect them if they followed his commandments. This meant that if anyone were to sin

theory, many people were accused of being witches and using witchcraft. The most notorious series of hearings and prosecutions for those accused of witchcraft took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, known as the Salem Witch Trials. Beginning in February 1692, the trials would go on for over a year. The first accusations took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, but would later also take place in Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover, which are also located in Massachusetts. It started with two young

Were people accused of witchcraft given fair trials? In my opinion, they were not. Based on the information gathered from the three documents, many of the men and women accused of witchcraft were doomed before the trial even took place. There are many reasons as to why the trials were unfair before they even started. First, a big reason why the trials were so unfair was because of the church. They could use their influence on society to decide who has jurisdiction over certain areas, giving

The “Salem Witch Trials” were very, very crazy. They were events in which people blamed others of witchcraft… witchcraft! They believed these people have been possessed by the devil’s black magic and could possess others with the same evil magic, thus starting the tale of the witches of Salem. Stories of devils that possess certain people with some of their black magic, date as far back as the 1400s. The stories started in Europe and spread very wide in colonial New England. During all this the quaint

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

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. Political, local