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Critical interpretations of witch hunts in salem
Different religious influences into the Salem witch trials
Critical interpretations of witch hunts in salem
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Witchcraft was a highly widespread phenomenon in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. In many different places, there were many different factors which allowed the rise of witchcraft persecutions or witch trials. In some areas, power played a main role behind the influence toward witchcraft accusations. If we examine American witchcraft, particularly in Salem, Massachusetts, we can see people with high recognition behind the early stages of witchcraft accusations in the village of Salem. Such people include government officials, such as judges, and the Parris family, where Samuel Parris is a well known, Protestant minister who held tremendous influence to his followers. It is through some Salem documents where this power structure is evident. The power of the Parris family is where the rise of witch trials in Salem begin. However, the recognition of Samuel Parris was not simply because he was the village minister; his job title was …show more content…
For instance, rumors spread when “two children of the Parris family became sick with peculiar fits [with] odd sensations[, and] painful muscle spasms” which could not be understood. Supporters of Parris would express great concern when him or his family would experience these scary events, and were eager to find an explanation. Their. explanation would be witchcraft. This is similar to the idea that amidst famine in areas such as Europe, elites would turn to vulnerable people to blame for witchcraft. In addition, vulnerable people in Salem village who “did not support Samuel Parris” would be accused. It would be as a result of sick children in the Parris family, where judges would begin to take part as officials to confirm or disconfirm witchcraft. Therefore, judges would become the most powerful during the witch trials, while the Parris family and its supporters would still have high abilities of influence during
In Exodus 22:18, it says “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” It was chaos In Salem, Massachusetts, during 1692, 19 people were accused and hanged and one brutally pressed. this is because the puritans believed almost everything the bible said. One subject that the bible covers, is that the Devil is real and really clever, and is able to enter a normal person's body and turn them into a witch. There are three interconnected causes that might have caused the drama, and panic that was the Salem witch trial hysteria, which are: age, gender, and marital status, lying girls and they’re folk tales they made up, and a divided town.
Woodward, Walter “New England’s other Witch-hunt: The Hartford Witch-hunt of the 1660s and Changing Patterns in Witchcraft Prosecution” OAH Magazine of History, 2003. 8. Cavendish, Richard. The. “A History of Magic” New York, 1977 pg 69-79 9.
During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, more than twenty people died an innocent death. All of those innocent people were accused of one thing, witchcraft. During 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts many terrible events happened. A group of Puritans lived in Salem during this time. They had come from England, where they were prosecuted because of their religious beliefs. They chose to come live in America and choose their own way to live. They were very strict people, who did not like to act different from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women worked at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes. The Puritans were also very superstitious. They believed that the devil would cause people to do bad things on earth by using the people who worshiped him. Witches sent out their specters and harmed others. Puritans believed by putting heavy chains on a witch, that it would hold down their specter. Puritans also believed that by hanging a witch, all the people the witch cast a spell on would be healed. Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. 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.
People are mad at Parris because of everything that is going on: “Tonight, when I open my door to leave my house- a dagger clattered to the ground” (Miller 1324). Parris, the town minister, is getting a lot of blame for all that has been going on lately in Salem. His neighbors wanted to prove a point of how angry they are by throwing a dagger at his door. Parris is a coward and is too afraid to just tell the truth about what happened in the woods that night with the girls. He is afraid his own name will be in parish, yet he is not worried about anyone else’s danger. The town has been torn apart with all of this witchcraft nonsense: “There be so many cows wanderin’ the highroads, now their masters are in jails, and much disagreement who they will belong to now” (Miller 1321). Animals are being left uncared for and are just running ransom through the streets. People are arguing about who they belong to, wanting to keep the animals for themselves. Neighbors are accusing each other of witchcraft, and causing a lot of trouble. The tension is high, with a deep craving of revenge. (PrepPh). Some accuse because they want to take over that persons land for their own, or they have a bad history with them and want them gone. No reason is a good reason because they are not solid facts, just false accusations. A fear of riots runs through the town. Salem is surely unraveling, along with everyone in it.
Hinds, Maurene J. Witchcraft on Trial: From the Salem Witch Hunts to the Crucible. Library ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
To better understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to understand the time period in which the accusations of witchcraft occurred. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics, and rivalry with nearby Salem Town all played a part in the stress. There was also a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of an attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. Soon prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from towns surrounding Salem.
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.
In The Crucible we have Reverend Samuel Parris who is the town minister and also the one everyone turns to for justice. Firstly being in a Patriarchal Society where the men have authority over the women and moreover being a respected religious leader, Reverend Parris is one of the sole authoritative figures we get introduced at the very beginning of the play. In Act I when they discover that something is plaguing the young girls in the town and they suspect witchcraft as the source if their illness, the townspeople approach Reverend Parris for answers. As the town’s figure head, they turn to his authority to expose the witches in their community and save the town from witchcraft. Without even any evidence to back his claim, Reverend Parris is just asked to declare that there is witchcraft and only then will action be taken. Given his authority, only he had the power to make such wild accusations and not be questioned about his claims. As Putnam simply explains to Parris that he need not worry about making wild accusations as no one would question his credibility given his innate authority in the town. Without much evidence to back his claims, Parris could simply throw speculated accusations and given his power, his claims were taken seriously.
“He’s come to overthrow this court!”(85) the acidic words were spat out by the Reverend while the veins in his neck protruded. His eyes hazed as he became consumed by his valiant effort to silence the voice of John Proctor. Reverend Parris was determined to save his reputation at the cost of others lives. The prayer of the poor and the helpless became muddied as the accusations of the girls grew louder. It condemned numerous souls, on false pretenses to further the sickening personal agenda of the entitled. Parris along with Judge Hathorne, Thomas Putnam, and Danforth are the greatest offenders of this way of life. They used the fact that the society had constricted itself to only the words of The Bible to take advantage of the citizens of Salem. The deeply immersed religious characteristics have formed the society to consider any other writing or education intolerable. The paucity of education within The Crucible caused vulnerability in their society and sanctioned them to become susceptible to an inequitable and corrupt trial for the citizens of Salem by only following the teachings of the bible. If they had a greater perspective and focused on logic rather than superstition then the trails
One strong way to defend themselves was having others sign a petition claiming he/ she was innocent (Uschan pg. 21). One famous line used was “I have nothing to do with the witchcraft or the Devil and would never harm a soul.” This usually never worked. Another common lie from women to be “I am a mother and would never harm another child.” (Reis). It would cause the judge to think about them hurting someone else's child, but it also usually never worked. A really famous claim used by a lot of people was that they weren't in the state at the time and couldn’t be the accused witch they were claiming (Uschan pg. 21). To support their claims, they would bring in a supporter to agree with whatever statement they had claimed. The supporter
The book begins with a brief history of the colonial witchcraft. Each Chapter is structured with an orientation, presentation of evidence, and her conclusion. A good example of her structure is in chapter two on the demographics of witchcraft; here she summarizes the importance of age and marital status in witchcraft accusations. Following this she provides a good transition into chapter three in the final sentence of chapter two, “A closer look of the material conditions and behavior of acc...
McBain, J. ‘The Salem Witch Trials: A Primary Source History of the Witchcraft Trials in Salem, Massachusetts’, (Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 2002)
Reverend Parris is rigorously obsessed with perpetuate his power because he is a coward. Before the Salam Witch Trials began, he required that he gets more money and things. Once the witchcraft rumors starts, Parris is afraid people will start accusing him and then eventually remove him from his position. He begins blaming others,