Cause Of The Salem Witch Trials

If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe. As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.

Some people have already been hanged and I have recently been accused of witchcraft. You see, on March 21st, 1692, I was accused of putting young girls under spells by Ann Putnam Sr. and Abigail Williams. I was also accused by many other young girls, and even some older, married, seemingly sensible women. I believe that Ann accused me of this ridiculous crime because of the land dispute in our town. For over fifty years, the Nurse's and the Putnam's have been fighting over one piece of land.

After these late night sessions with Tituba the girls started to have weird fits. These fits were probably caused by the fear the girls gained while listening to her stories. Reverend Parris saw his daughter and niece having weird fits. He called in th... ... middle of paper ... ...ny innocent people were killed during the Salem witch trials. 140 people were accused, 19 people were hanged, 1 person was pressed to death, and 13 people died in prison.

This obviously was occurring before the craziness of the witch trials. Yet, after the witch trials began, the sisters turned against each other. After getting into a huge disagreement, Deliverance states that “[her] blood boiled through [her] and rushed to [her] fists and sent them flying at [her] sister”(138). The stress of the witch trials led hysteria to fall upon the town, leading to fights, disagreements, and accusations. Not only was this found in this novel, but it is also featured in The Crucible.

The people of Salem were caught up in a hysteria of accusing many innocent woman of witchcraft, even though it started as just a couple young girls who had acted strangely. Witchcraft was a terrible crime that was punishable in severe ways. Witchcraft was a major crime in the seventeenth-century in New England. In 1692, in the village of Salem there were strange things happening to the people. (Dolan 4).

The events that took place in Salem in 1692 are a part of a greater pattern throughout our history to persecute innocent people, especially women, as "witches." According to the history channel there was a story where three young women were accused of witchcraft. They were brought in front of the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne who questioned them. on the day of the trial the accusers were screaming and withering in pain yet two of the three withes pled not guilty . While the last women pled guilty likely thinking that she would save herself from conviction by ratting out the other people.

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed for this. Eventually, the town admitted the trials were a mistake and repayed the families of those killed in this horrible scenario. Since then, the story of the trials has become crazy with Satanism and injustice, and it continues to baffle the imagination of our generation more than 300 years later. Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty.

Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians and people of other religions strongly believed that the Devil could give a few people known as witches the power to cause harm to others for their loyalty. In the 1600s, a Reverend’s daughter and niece started having “fits”; they would scream, throw things, make weird noises, and put themselves into strange positions. Claiming that they were being “bewitched” by other townspeople, these young girls caused one of the most controversial court cases ever to be considered: the Salem Witch Trials. Some of the witches were tortured and thrown into jail; they had to pay for their food and many other things. They also had to pay for the chains they were held in; many of them died in these very chains.

Witchcraft Hysteria in Puritan New England In 1692, the problems following Massachusetts’s change from Puritan Utopia to royal colony had an unusual increase in the witchcraft hysteria at Salem Village (now the town of Danvers). Although the belief in witchcraft had started a huge problem in Salem, almost 300 New Englanders (mostly lower class, middle-aged, marginal women – spinsters or widows) had been accused as witches, and more than thirty had been hanged. With this issue in Salem all superiority in its scope and intensity. The general colony’s way of life was experiencing some problems. These problems lead the community to believe that the devil was at work in the village.

Many of the American colonists brought with them from Europe a belief in witches and the devil. During the seventeenth century, people were executed for being witches and follower of Satan. Most of these executions were performed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Mostly all of the accused were women, which makes some modern historians believe that the charges of witchcraft were a way of controlling the women who threatened the power of the men. During the witchcraft trials, hundreds of arrests were made, and some were even put to death on Gallow’s Hill (Karlsen 145).