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Analysis of the salem witch trials
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The fairness of the Salem Witch Trials was anything but what you would think. The trials, held in Salem, Massachusetts, were a tragedy in the 1600s where dozens of innocent people were accused and hung for supposedly using witchcraft. The very young (mostly 9 year old) girls accused witch after witch across the town of Salem. The book, Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, by Rosalyn Schanzer, gives a historical account of the trials and of those accused. The unfairness of the Salem Witch Trials is revealed through the use of spectral evidence, false evidence, and the underlying reasons some were accused. First of all, accusers stating spectral evidence is one example of the unfairness of the trials. Spectral evidence is evidence accusing someone’s apparition while their human body was some other place. For instance, one …show more content…
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” was the Puritan leaders’ standpoint, as they fervently trusted the Bible and this perspective comes straight out of the Bible (The DBQ Project Document 1). So by this standpoint, they thought it was better that if there was a chance that someone was a horrid witch, then they should be killed. This encouraged the leaders to abolish all possible witches, which eventually took the lives of dozens. Also, “...the minister George Burroughs as their scapegoat because they disapproved of his unusual religious views” clearly shows that the people accused could have a strong part in personal disagreement or controversy(Shanzer 114). Finally, “ if the Putnam family, Reverend Parris, and Lewis were out for revenge, they were about to get it” reveals that the accusers were clearly out for revenge on Nurse’s mother, and took it out on Nurse herself over a family controversy (Shanzer 51). Clearly, the reasons of why people were accused should be considered when discussing the fairness of these
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.
What do you think caused the Salem Trials? In 1692 20 witches were hanged in Salem, Massachusetts. Mostly women were involved. In this article you will learn why gold diggers caused the Salem Trials.
...in their family to become sick and possibly die. Many people were accused of witchcraft. More than twenty people died all together. One person was flattened to death because he was accused of witchcraft. When people were accused they had to go to jail, which the conditions were terrible. Then, they had to get a trial from the Court of Oyer and Terminer. After an accused witch had their trial, and went to jail, they would be carted off to Gallows Hill. This was the hill where all the witches were hanged. After a witch was hanged, later that night, their family would usually take the body down and give it a proper burial. The Salem Witchcraft Trials were one of the most terrible times in the history of America. As you can see the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
I think this goes to show how deeply Puritans analyzed and practiced their faith. The fact that they were able to accuse people of witchcraft and convince people that they were possessed by the devil also shows how powerful the church was at the time in order for these trials to occur. In his work, Wonders of the Invisible World, the Puritan minister Cotton Mather goes in to detail what the proceedings and times of the Salem Witch Trials were like. Mather believes that these works of the devil were planning attacks on the people of the time. I think that some of these beliefs are similar to what we see around the world today. I think that this ideology is similar to what we think of terrorism at the time. With the recent terror attacks in Paris, many people are living with great fear. I think that the Salem Witch Trials are similar to what the world is doing to chase down terrorists. I think that this is similar because our country and the rest of the world is spending countless time and resources to hunt down terrorists in order to make our world better and free of
The Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. At this time there appeared to be an outbreak of witches. This started when the children of the Goodwin family begin having mysterious fits. The doctors, not knowing what had happened to the children, blamed it on witchcraft. From that point on many people were accused of being a witch and were killed. This occurred for many different reasons; either they were hanged for their crimes, crushed by stones for refusing to stand trial on their cases, or from waiting in the jail for so long before their case came up. As people began to investigate the Salem Witch Trials further they came up with two explanations; either the people of Salem were begin acted through by the devil or
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 Witch Trials were a time in history where people were wrongly accused of being witches. In the spring of 1692 the Salem witch trials began. During the trials women were wrongly accused of being witches. When accused of being a witch they were tortured, tested, put on trial, and most of the time executed if not put in jail. The townspeople tortured the accused witches in the most inhumane ways. This was a very dark and eerie time for the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts (P., Shaunak).
...ty men and women had been accused of being witches. Of those, nineteen of them plead innocent and were hung. One man refused to acknowledge the accusation and refused to enter a plea. He was legally crushed to death. Of the ones who plead guilty and were sent to jail, many contracted illnesses and later died. The outbreak of hysteria caused many to suffer and die, families to break apart, and a society to succumb to the whims of children. In the Puritans quest to create a perfect society based on pure beliefs only created a society ripped apart by tension, anxiety and fear.
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.
Eight months in a prison cell without sunlight, starved for days, and alone, this was like for four year old Dorothy Good. Her mother was accused of Witchcraft and she went down with her. A child lost eight whole months of her life due to the Salem Witch Trials. Fortunately today the United States has the Constitution that prevents any more children like Dorothy Good from losing their childhood and mother due to the Salem Witch Trials. The Witch Trials took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts from February 1692 until May 1693. They consisted of multiple hearings and several prosecutions of people accused of Witchcraft. The Salem Witch Trials was a tragic part of history that twenty unfortunate victims lost their lives to. Luckily, in present time the United States has a Constitution that has various laws that make sure the count of victims will not go up due to them being “witched”. The Salem Witch Trials are not likely to recur because of the First, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
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 Puritans were notably fearful of the devil. The traumatic event that triggered this was possibly the epidemic and the removal of the royal charter. If it was not that, it could have been a different disease that struck the Puritans. “Another possibility is that the girls contracted encephalitis, a disease carried by mosquitoes. Encephalitis can cause fever, headaches and confusion” (Krystek). The confusion could have lead them to think that they were indeed witches or that they witnessed witchcraft. When the accused were interrogated by some of the people in the community, it was not a peaceful encounter. They forced a false confession from innocent people, it was a smart way of interrogation. A way the examination went was, “And then they would try to push the person to see, ‘Well, haven't you done some sin? Haven't you let the Devil in the door even just a little bit?’ Then these women who were good Puritan women kind of had to admit that, ‘Yeah, okay, maybe a little bit I let Satan in the door’” (Reis). The people from the community manipulated the accused. These women were vulnerable, and were clueless. When they questioned
Analysis and Comparison of the Witch Trials In modern times, the most infamous witch trials are the one that occurred in Salem. These specific witch trials are known for the unjust killings of several accused women and men. The Salem witch trials of 1692, is a big portion of what people refer to, when they want to analyze how Puritan life was during the colonial period. According to ‘Salem Witch Trials’, “The witch trials are often taken as a lens to view the whole Puritan period in New England and to serve as an example of religious prejudice…”
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
Accusations of witchcraft ran rampant in the 17th century colonial settlements in the United States. The individuals accused, mostly women, were put on trial and punished, if found guilty. The most well-known of such cases on public record are the Salem Witch Trials. Between February, 1692 and May, 1693, hearings and prosecutions were set up to deal with those accused of dabbling in the dark arts in the cities of Andover, Salem, and Ipswich, all in Massachusetts Bay. These trials came to commonly be referred to as the Salem Witch Trials because some of the most notorious cases were heard in the Oyer and Terminer courts in Salem. At the time, practicing witchcraft was considered a serious crime, and was often punished with serious consequences.