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Puritan beliefs the crucible essays
The belief system of the Puritans
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A real fear feels like death, but less satisfying. These fears enthralled the minds of the naive and frightened during the most dangerous time to be alive in New England, The Salem witch trials. The fire inside the Salem Trials needs a fuel, fed to it from the spoon of the stupid, will grown until it burns everything in sight. Who knew a mere lack of knowledge could get 20 people killed and drag Puritan society through hell. Highly religious peoples had a large role in fueling the hysteria that occurred during the trials. The fear from being attacked during the Indian war also had a played a big role in why the Witch Trials kept going strong for so long. The Salem witch trials, fueled by fear and influenced by hardship of Puritan life and deep religious integration led to mass hysteria in the New England Colonies in 1692. The idea of witchcraft may have flourished in Salem but it certainly did not originate there. Known records of witchcraft stretch as far back as the 13th century. Many of the oldest ideas of the supernatural originate from Germany at the earliest (13th century) and other European countries like Russia and France (15-16th century). The original idea of witchcraft was thought of as having an affiliation with the devil. Specifically they thought of women to be witches because they were thought to be having intercourse with the devil himself. Many supernatural entities also originated in Germany like vampires and hobgoblins. Many more accusations were made throughout the 15th and 16th century all over Catholic Europe without cease. Witchcraft started popping up in the new world soon after 1647 when a young girl named Alse Young was hanged after being accused of causing misfortune to the children and families of Weth... ... middle of paper ... ...g in over twenty deaths, hangings and sacrifices. In a time where the fear of God was stronger than the fear of death, women and superstition were the victims. The thought process of people in Puritan New England is not as acceptable as it is now. Psychologists have determined that the symptoms expressed by victims of witchcraft match the symptoms commonly shown by one who suffers from Bolus Hystericus or a hysteria. Most of the judges and accusers were thought to have had Bolus Hystericus which is part of the reason why it got so out of hand. Beyond psychology the trials had other contributing factors. The Salem Witch Trials, fueled by fear and influenced by hardship of Puritan life and deep religious integration led to mass hysteria in the New England Colonies in 1692. The Puritans of New England were lucky they never found a real witch, real witches don’t burn.
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of prosecutions of men and women who were accused of practicing witchcraft or having associations with the devil. The first Salem witch trial began with two girls in 1692, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, who started to have “fits”, in which they would throw tantrums and have convulsions. The random outburst of the girls threw the town of Salem into a mass of hysteria. Although historians have not found a definite reason or cause for the witch trials, they have taken different approaches to explain the hysteria that took over Salem. Some historians approach a psychological theory by proposing the girls suffered from diseases that made them act out.
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.
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”, Exodus 22:18. In 1692 , in Salem Massachusetts , the Puritans believed everything in the bible, they also believed in witches and that witches should not be able to live.There were at least 3 causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria. There are: age, gender, and marital status , lying girls, and a divided town.
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
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.
As we may already know, the town of Salem was subject to an epidemic of the accusations of witchcraft that lasted over ten months. Witchcraft of this time period was not taken lightly. In England alone over 40,000-60,000 people were killed after being found guilty of witchcraft. Needless to say the people found witchcraft as a virus that infected the town. The first cases started off with the daughters of Samuel Parris, the town minister, accusing his slave, Tituba, of being a witch. She claimed that she and others in the town were witches and there was even a wizard. The town broke out in hysteria in further months. Over 100 people were put in jail because of accusations. The council that were to find these people’s innocence or guilt were corrupted as well because to claim innocence meant you were guilty and if you were to claim guilt you could be redeemed. Many of the items found incriminating were pins and voodoo dolls. Many of these people faced the psychological terror of being pressured into claiming guilt to a crime, you didn’t commit in front of a committee and scared the community to death that they were going to be subjected to. Many of the witnesses to these trials were said to have undergone physical distress or act inhumanly. Many historians say to these records that since their body was put under so much strain and fear of the witchcraft that surrounded them all the time, their bodies going through strange changes such as paralysis or temporary blindness with no real cause rather than stress. But many historians also believe the witnesses were voluntarily acting and committing fraud against the others. But why was this such an enigma to understand why this small town in New England was all of a sudden becoming a cen...
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.
When other people heard about all of what was going on in Salem they started turning on their neighbors thinking and mostly believing that these people were witches because of the way they would go about their everyday activities. During this time of panic and disorder, people started finding ways to torture these “witches” with many different tactics to see if they were real witches or if they were innocent. Most of the people involved in the horrible torture devices were killed because no human could stand these horrible tests
The Salem Witch Trials took place in the summer and into the fall of the year 1692, and during this dark time of American history, over 200 people had been accused of witchcraft and put in jail. Twenty of these accused were executed; nineteen of them were found guilty and were put to death by hanging. One refused to plead guilty, so the villagers tortured him by pressing him with large stones until he died. The Salem Witch Trials was an infamous, scary time period in American history that exhibited the amount of fear people had of the devil and the supernatural; the people of this time period accused, arrested, and executed many innocent people because of this fear, and there are several theories as to why the trials happened (Brooks).
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.
Many Puritans believed in supernatural interventions in the clergy and churches. They interpreted these as expressions of God’s will such events as lightning that struck one house but spared another, and epidemics that reduced the population of their Indian enemies (108). Witches were usually woman, who were accused of entering into a pact with the devil to obtain supernatural powers, which they then used to harm others. In Europe and the colonies, witchcraft was punishable by execution. “It is estimated that between the years of 1400 and 1800, over 50,000 people were executed in Europe for being accused of witchcraft” (109). Until 1692, the prosecutions of witches were local and sporadic, but over the years, many trials took place in the town Salem that made its name by its fanaticism and persecutions. This event started in 1691 when a group of young girls, including the head pastor’s daughter suffered from hallucinations and nightmares that were believed to be caused by witchcraft. Many people in Salem were accused of witchcraft and in the end, 14 women and five men were executed. Luckily, after word got out of this major trial, the governor of Massachusetts ordered that the remaining prisoners would be set free, while the clergymen of Salem named Increase Mather created an influential treatise,
In 1692, the occurrence of “witchcraft” began after the Massachusetts Bay Charter revolution and the outbreak of small pox. The rebellion caused hysteria and a sad injustice. Friends were pinned against friends; upstanding citizens were forced to flee for their lives and men and women were put to death (Jurist Legal News and Research Services 2008).The fear of the devil influenced the cruelty that took place. Most of the settlers that established their homes in the colony were puritans, a member of a group of English Protestants who revolted against the Church of England. The belief that God punished sinful behavior with misfortune did not help circumstances. The puritans targeted outcasts, people who never really fit it in; they wanted to rid the towns of these suspected sinners.
Witchcraft was as a capital crime in seventeenth-century New England. A hysteria over it was caused by a group of girls. (Kent 95). Witchcraft was considered a terrible crime throughout Europe; its punishment was death by hanging or burning. (Dolan 8). Everyone in the village of Salem believed in witchcraft, and only a few have tried to use it. (Kent 18). In 1692, Salem Village hysteria was a major event in United States history, which will never be forgotten. 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.
The Salem Witch Trials caused mass hysteria. If anything unusual happened, it was ruled to be the work of the devil. When someone was accused of being a witch, they were jailed. If they could not prove their innocence, they could confess to being a witch, or be hung. “Confession seems foolhardy to a defendant who is certain of his or her innocence.” (I don’t remember how to cite stuff: Witchcraft in Salem, USHistory.org). If they confessed, they would spend the rest of their life in prison. In order to avoid being hanged, people
When examined from the point of view of a human living in the 21st century, with political, religious, and natural freedom, the Salem witch trials seem ridiculous. Though there was an element of lunacy behind the witch-hunts, the motivation for the manhunts was well founded. When placed in a comfortable society, why would you seek something to destroy it? The people of Puritan New England had no reason to destroy their society. There was religious comfort in a country that allowed them to live as they pleased. The imposition of fear, created chaos of their world and gave birth to what some consider a reign of terror. Paranoia, accusations, trials, and killings engulfed the simple society of Puritan New England and caused a reaction that will forever be attributed to