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Religion in the salem witch trials
Puritan religion during salem witch trials
Judicial systems salem witch trials
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The 1690’s brought what today is known as the Salem witch trials which caused controversy, and more in the small town of Salem. The witch trial all started in a little town called Salem in Massachusetts and was started with lies and deception. The Salem Witch Trials was all started because of a group of young women who claimed to have been in contact with the devil. These young women accused many innocent women for it and many of the accused women were hanged. In the group, there was several women of different ages. They would fake something every time the person they accused would come near them and then the accused would be sentenced based on what the women did. They also planted a seed of paranoia into the people by accusing …show more content…
There was 2 main men that where involved in the trials as the prosecutors and the chief justice of the court. Both men had important jobs but one had a more say rather than the other. The first man was named John Hawthorne, he was the local magistrate but then later received an offer from Governor Sir William Phips to be the judge for the trials. The second man was the Chief Justice of the court and his name was Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton. They also participated in other jobs involving the trial and they put all their work into finding all the witches in Salem. Such as Hawthorne who was not just the judge but also took part as the prosecutor and “he appeared to be on the sides of the accusers”. Not just Hawthorne but also William he would rule over the trial by putting all his “determination to eradicate all witches from Massachusetts Bay Colony” by his religious beliefs influencing his decisions. Hawthorne and William both had a position in the trials by one judging and prosecuting them and the other saying which person was guilty or not by using his
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.
Macy and Gilchrist carried out the trials and appeals, including the Glossip case - grandstanding personal confidence in State’s witnesses, withholding evidence, subporning jury, and inflaming jury’s prejudices. Gilchrist was noted as the “Black Wizard” and Macy was repeatedly known for his prosecutorial misconduct. http://truthinjustice.org/gilchrist/macy-gilchrist.htm
guilty established truth as a defense against libel and was a landmark victory for freedom of the press. It also set a precedent
During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, more than twenty people died in 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.
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
This trial was held in Salem but people all around Salem who were accused of witchcraft were bought to Salem for trial. The Salem Witch Trial was a trial for people being accused of associating with witch craft. Over 100 men and women majority of them being women were in this trial. The trial had a 3 step process first was a confession then a testimony of two eyewitnesses to the act of witchcraft and a rare ‘’spectral evidence’’ where most of these witches didn’t make it too. A spectral evidence is when the accused person’s spirit or spectral appeared in a testimony dream when the accused witch was at another location. During a trial if you could recite the ‘’Lord’s prayer’’ you were not a witch and you could indeed be let go during trial just for reciting the prayer (Louis-Jacques, Lyonette. "Http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/10/29/the-salem-witch-trials-a-legal-bibliography-for-halloween/." The University of Chicago Library News. 29 Oct. 2012). The trial was during the Puritan times so people believe during trial, these witches could harm anyone in the court houses (Purdy, Sean. ‘’Conjuring History: The many interpretations of The Salem Witch Trials.’’ Reviver Academic Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, 2007, pp. 2.). At the end of the trial 19 men and women were hanged at Gallows
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.
... like Hester. He is implying that she is the victim and that the Puritans are actually at fault for this sin. Hawthorne's main goal is to convey the Puritans as sinful and unholy. He does not approve of the sin they hide and he thinks there should be punishment for their actions.
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.
Not every break with felony precedent worked against the accused. Occasionally, courts recognized the inherent disadvantage for those charged with piracy, granting limited counsel to defendants, something unheard of in felony proceedings. Courts were usually trying to minimize any post-trial cries of injustice by allowing representation, knowing the courtroom limitations on counsel and the structure of the hearings mitigated the potential risk to convictions. Paul Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Court during the John Quelch trial, permitted defendants counsel, declaring before the court “The articles upon which you are Arraigned, are plain Matters of Fact; however, that you may no Reason to complain of Hardship, Mr. James Meinzies, Attorney at Law, may assist you, and offer any Matter of Law in your behalf upon
These are not the only reasons for urgency to find a killer; the Solicitor General of Atlanta’s circuit, Hugh M. Dorsey, desperately needed a successful conviction because he had recently failed to convict two accused murderers. He was concerned about putting together a case that would hold up in court; no matter what lengths he had to go to in order to accomplish this. Overtime, it became obvious that Dorsey did not necessarily believe that Frank was guilty, but recognized that the political values of his position were uncertain.
The Salem Trials took place between the 10th of June and the 22nd of 1692 and in this time nineteen people. In addition to this one man was pressed to death and over 150 people where sent to jail where four adult and one infant died. Although when compared to other witch-hunts in the Western world, it was ‘a small incident in the history of a great superstition,’ but has never lost its grip on our imagination’ . It’s because of this that over the last three centuries many historians have analysed the remaining records of the trials in order to work out what the causes and events were that led to them.
“The trial was brought to a speedy conclusion. Not only did Judge Evans find the twelve guilty, fine them $100 each, and committed them to jail, but five people in the courtroom who had served as witnesses for the defense arrested. […] The police were then instructed to transfer the seventeen prisoners that night to the county jail”(30).
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem in 1804 and was descended from the original founders of Salem. His most notable ancestors were William Hathorne and his son John Hathorne. William Hathorne was a zealous magistrate who had fled from Europe with other Puritans to escape religious persecution. Once Salem was established he became well known for his cruelty against Quakers, most notably having them whipped in public. His son John Hathorne was one of the judges responsible for the conviction and execution of witches during the mass panic of the Salem Witch Trials, and became known as "The Hanging Judge." Due to his family's sordid history Hawthorne added a "W" to his name in order to distance himself, yet he used his ancestry in his writing.