American Horror Story: Coven is full of witchcraft and voodoo. This season follows the descendants of the witches who survived the famous Salem Witch Trails. The Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692 (“Salem Witch Trails”). A group of young girls in Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and were accused of witchcraft (“Salem Witch Trails”). Throughout this season, the descendants of the original Salem witches endured the 7 Wonders, which is series of tests that challenge their power to find who is strongest witch alive is (“American Horror Story Wiki”). This season also explored the long-held battle between the witches of Salem and the voodoo practitioners of New Orleans. Delphine LaLaurie was socialite in the early …show more content…
This season was set in the haunted Hotel Cortez, which was built to become a torture chamber (“American Horror Story Wiki”). H.H. Holmes, the inspiration behind James Patrick March, was considered to be one of America’s first serial killer. After Holmes was arrested, police began to poke around inside his hotel, which would be dubbed the “Murder Castle” in years to come (“H. H. Holmes”). The hotel was built for a serial killer to run in secret. It had hallways with fake doors, hidden vaults, and murder chambers (“H. H. Holmes”). March confessed he tried many drugs however none could satisfy him which led to his serial murder addiction (“H. H. Holmes”). It might be called Hotel Cortez in American Hotel Story’s fifth season but it is actually Los Angeles's Cecil Hotel (Hunt). People who stay there either die or get killed (Hunt). The inspiration for this season came from the true story of Elisa Lam being found dead in the hotel’s water tank (Hunt). This hotel was also Richard Ramirez, who is explained more later in this paragraph, favorite spot to kill (Hunt). It is also rumored that this hotel was one of the last places that the Black Dahlia, who was mentioned in a previous paragraph, was seen (Hunt). In the episode four, Mr. March hosts his annual “Devil’s Night” (“American Horror Story Wiki”). This is a dinner for some of the most famous serial killers. The first to attend is Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who killed seven of her clients in 1989 (“American Horror Story Wiki”). Richard Ramirez, also known as the “Night Stalker,” was a rapist, serial killer, and burglar who terrorized L.A. and San Francisco in 1984 (“American Horror Story Wiki”). Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer who raped, murdered, and dismembered seventeen men and boys over the time span of thirteen years (“American Horror Story Wiki”). He also practiced necrophilia and cannibalism (“American Horror Story Wiki”).
Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer. This book was published in 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Richard Godbeer examines the witch trials in the seventeenth century. When a young girl Katherine Branch of Stamford, Connecticut is stricken with unexplainable convulsions, her master and mistress begin to think it is caused by something supernatural. Godbeer follows the incident without any bias and looks into how the accusations and trials are handled by the townspeople and the people in charge of handling the trails. Godbeer’s purpose of writing this book is to prove that Salem was not the norm. Godbeer’s approach of only one using one case, slightly weakens his effectiveness that Salem was not the norm.
While most people are familiar with the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1692, many people are unaware that similar events were taking place in other parts of New England in the very same year. The book, Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, takes readers through an intriguing narrative of a young girl with claims of being bewitched. Although I was concerned at first about the book being in a narrative style, the author was very concise and used actual evidence from the trial to tell an accurate and interesting story.
The Salem witch craft trials are the most learned about and notable of Europe's and North America's witch hunts. Its notoriety and fame comes from the horrendous amount of people that were not only involved, but killed in the witch hunt and that it took place in the late 1700's being one of the last of all witch hunts. The witch craft crises blew out of control for several reasons. Firstly, Salem town was facing hard economic times along with disease and famine making it plausible that the only explanation of the town's despoilment was because of witches and the devil. As well, with the stimulation of the idea of witch's from specific constituents of the town and adolescent boredom the idea of causing entertainment among the town was an ever intriguing way of passing time.
	During the winter of 1691 and 1692 Salem Village had a mass hysteria over the possibility of witchcraft in their village. The movie shows this was brought on after Reverend Parris discovered some girls dancing in the woods. A black slave known as Tituba supposedly led the rite. Tituba was really American Indian Arawak in history though. Of course the village believed the girls were practicing magic but it may have been a result of the girls eating some moldy wheat. The girls suffered from violent fits.
The Salem Witch trials were when hundreds of citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were put on trial for devil-worship or witchcraft and more than 20 were executed in 1692. This is an example of mass religion paranoia. The whole ordeal began in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris. People soon began to notice strange behavior from Parris’s slave, Tituba, and his daughters. Many claimed to have seen Parris’s daughters doing back magic dances in the woods, and fall to the floor screaming hysterically. Not so long after, this strange behavior began to spread across Salem.
Salem Village, a small town in Massachusetts, is a very peaceful society. There are small fights, like when half of the village agreed to have a church there and half of the hoi polloi who doesn’t like the idea. Still, it was a very tranquil village. People there are Puritans. Puritans are strict Christian believers. They believe that women and children are to be seen, not heard. They believe that the devils and witches have specters, and specters can attack people. Puritans blame bad crops, death of others, and dreadful events on witches. It was still a halcyon village, until in 1692, when madness arrived in Salem Village, Massachusetts.
In the modern day it’s hard to believe there’s even still ‘’witch hunts’’ as you can say where a group of people are stereotyped as something without them doing the actual stereotypical thing. We live in a world where blacks are getting shot for no reason when they were just walking down the street unarmed and not harming anyone. Blacks and Latinos are always looked down upon in any shape or form. They could be driving a nice car they get pulled over for suspicion of a stolen car, they can get pulled over in an old broken car and they will get pulled over for suspicion of ‘’criminal activity’’. But if it’s a white person the cops will NOT bat a single eye at them despite being in the same situations as the black. And you know what the problem
American history is a collaboration of all of the wonderful events and the not so successful ones that make up this great country that we call the United States. Records of this fabulous nation date back all the way to dates way before our original founding fathers. However, few episodes of American history have aroused such intense and continuing interest ad the trials and executions for the witchcraft which occurred in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Historians have scrutinized the event from many perspectives; novelists and playwright from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Arthur Miller have capitalized upon its inherent dramatic possibilities. The value, then, of a collection of primary documents relating to this event would seem to be clear, or would it.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were the largest outbreak of witch hunting in colonial New England up to that time. Although it was the largest outbreak, it was not something that was new. Witch-hunting had been a part of colonial New England since the formation of the colonies. Between the years 1648 to 1663, approximately 15 witches were executed. During the winter of 1692 to February of 1693, approximately 150 citizens were accused of being witches and about 25 of those died, either by hanging or while in custody. There is no one clear-cut answer to explain why this plague of accusations happened but rather several that must be examined and tied together. First, at the same time the trials took place, King William's War was raging in present day Maine between the colonists and the Wabanaki Indians with the help of the French. Within this war, many brutal massacres took place on both sides, leaving orphaned children due to the war that had endured very traumatic experiences. Second, many of the witch accusations were based on spectral evidence, most of which were encounters of the accused appearing before the victim and "hurting" them. There were rampant "visions" among the colonies' citizens, which can only be explained as hallucinations due to psychological or medical conditions by virtue of disease, or poisoning.
In 1692 everyone was sure that the Devil had come to Salem when young girls started screaming, barking like dogs and doing strange dances in the woods. The Salem Witch Trials originated in the home of Salem's reverend Samuel Parris, who had a slave from the Caribbean named Tibuta. Tibuta would tell stories about witchcraft back from her home. In early 1692 several of Salem's teenage girls began gathering in the kitchen with Tibuta. When winter turned to spring many Salem residents were stunned at the acts and behaviors of Tibuta's young followers. It was said that in the woods nearby they danced a black magic dance, and several of the girls would fall on the floor screaming uncontrollably. These behaviors soon began to spread across Salem. This soon led to ministers from nearby communities coming to Salem to lend their advice on the matter. Many believed that the girls were bewitched. It is believed that the young girls accusations began the Salem witch trials, and they would gather at reverend Parris's house to play fortune-telling games with magic and with Tibuta. One of the games was for them to crack a raw egg into a glass of water and see what shape it made in the glass.
A group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts told the people of their town they were possessed by the devil and accused several women from their town of possessing them. The ringleader of the girls was Abigail Williams the niece of Samuel Paris the town’s priest. Abigail and her cousin Elizabeth Paris started having irrational fits and violent outburst. Since the girls kept having these violent outbursts Samuel Paris called for doctor William Griggs. Griggs examined the girls and diagnosed them with being bewitched. Soon there was a whole group of girls acting as if they were possessed as well, including; Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren. This group of girls kept up this horrible act all because Tituba Paris’ slave saw them doing
During the early winter of 1692 two young girls became inexplicably ill and started having fits of convulsion, screaming, and hallucinations. Unable to find any medical reason for their condition the village doctor declared that there must be supernatural forces of witchcraft at work. This began an outbreak of hysteria that would result in the arrest of over one hundred-fifty people and execution of twenty women and men. The madness continued for over four months.
The witch trials of the late 1600's were full of controversy and uncertainty. The Puritan town of Salem was home to most of these trials, and became the center of much attention in 1692. More than a hundred innocent people were found guilty of practicing witchcraft during these times, and our American government forced over a dozen to pay with their lives. The main reasons why the witch trials occurred were conflicts dealing with politics, religion, family, economics, and fears of the citizens.
The Salem Witchcraft was a series of undesirable events, which was powered by paranoia and fear. Though several witch trials occurred before the Salem Witch Trial, this was the most well known of all. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft which resulted to 19 men and women that were hanged, 17 innocents that died in unsanitary prisons, and an 80-year old man that was crushed to death by putting stones on top of his stomach until he confesses (movie: The Crucible). In some accounts, it was reported that two dogs were stoned to death for cooperating with the Devil. Why did the Salem Witch trial occur? Were these trials appropriate? Or were they truly a Devil's work? The Salem Witch Trials might have occurred for a variety of reasons such as people's ignorance that led to superstitions. It might have also occurred because people's crave for power, or it might also be because of fear.
Jeffrey Dahmer is notably one of the most infamous serial killers in the United States. Along with seventeen murders under his belt, he was also a pedophile, cannibal and necrophiliac. Jeffrey Dahmer’s last crime occurred over twenty years ago, but his name will forever be known.