The Salem Witch Trails in Massachusetts could be considered a horrendous, dramatic event. The European settlers from England passed the tales of fairies, vampires, and of course, witches, to the newer generations. Later, frightened neighbors accused one another of The Devil's Magic (Blumberg). It was children cursing each other, and adults accusing one another. There has been a belief of witches for thousands of years. Europeans were very superstitious between the 1300s and 1700s. Tens of thousands of people were executed for being convicted of witchcraft, therefore, the colonists of modern day Danvers, Massachusetts, exposure to the beliefs caused them to brutally execute each other. (Blumberg and Linder). In early January of 1692, the nine-year-old Betty Parris and her cousin, Abigail Williams, began having nightmares, acting like animals, complaining of strange pricks in their skin, wailing like "a banshee from the afterlife,” and contorting into shapes that wasn’t natural to a human (Blumberg). It was said that supernatural forces were confiding in them, and everyone’s fear came alive when the girls mentioned witches. Tituba, an Indian slave, taught her Caribbean voodoo-inspired magic to local girls, putting the idea of witchcraft in their minds (Aronson, 1). She was never trusted among the town because she was a foreign slave. Basic common “voo-doo magic” used in modern-day shows were the “incapable witchcraft” of the 1600’s. On February 29, 1692, Tituba, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Good were accused of The Devil’s Magic by the group of girls (Linder). Women were thought to have been more likely to be a witch, because women were considered lustful towards the Devil by nature (Blumberg). Tituba confes... ... middle of paper ... ..., 729-730). It was one of the earliest grotesque, horrific, mistakes of American history, all due to a selfish fear of the supernatural, that will never be forgotten. Works Cited Aronson, Marc. Witch-hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2003. Print. Blumberg, Jess. "Smithsonian.com." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. Linder, Douglas O. "The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692." The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. N.p., Sept. 2009. Web. 01 Nov. 2013. Mastin, Luke. "Salem Witch Trails." Salem Witch Trails (America, 1692 - 1693) - Witchcraft. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. "Salem Witch Trials." - Simple English Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013. The Young Reader's Companion to American History. Ed. John A. Garraty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. 384+. Print.
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Show MoreRosenthal. Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge Mass: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Spanos, Nicholas P.. "Witchcraft and social history: An essay review." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 21: 60-67. Print.
Donna M. Campbell. "The Salem Witch Trials." wsu. n.p., 2010. Web. 18 February 2014. .
Witchcraft is a belief in Satan who is known for tempting human beings and destroying their lives by creating desperation in mankind and leading them into the dark side. Humans are vulnerable and can easily be manipulated and used for one’s own gain. Witchcraft is considered evil, impure, a nightmare from hell, and a rebellion against religion since it associates itself with the Devil. The Devil is known to manipulate and attack an individual’s mind and gain control of them for wrongdoings. An individual can be blinded by evil and can be taken away from God to glorify the Devil. In the book Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts by Richard Weisman, the writer focuses on the origins of witchcraft in the village Salem in the 17th century. Weisman’s goal is to portray the people accused during the Salem trials as ordinary human beings and not witches; therefore, innocent lives had been killed due to merely popular allegations and an injustice court system.
Salem Witch Trials. (2013). The History Channel website. Retrieved 6:32, December 7, 2013, from http://www.history.com/topics/salem-witch-trials.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials began not as an act of revenge against an ex-lover, as they did in The Crucible, but as series of seemingly unlinked, complex events, which a paranoid and scared group of people incorrectly linked. And while there were countless other witchcraft trials, Salem’s trials remain the best-known. In Salem, fears of witchcraft perpetuated by popular writings were personified when two girls were said to be bewitched. A hysteria overcame the people of Salem, whose trials went awry. In less than six months, 19 men and women were hanged, 17 innocents died in filthy prisons, an 80-year old man was crushed to death, and two dogs were stoned to death for collaborating with the Devil (Richardson 6).
In the early winter months of 1692, in colonial Massachusetts, two young girls began exhibiting strange symptoms that were described to be "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect (examiner.com)." Doctors looked them over, but could not come up with any sort of logical explanation for their ailments. Therefore, the girls were accused of taking part in witchcraft. Soon, other young women in the village started showing similar symptoms. This "illness" of sort slowly made its way through the village to many of the residents. Soon, people started coming up with possible theories as to what started all the madness.
Weir, Robert, Historical Journal of Massachusetts, The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America, 2012. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/docview/1027932439
“Oh honey, those are the accused women for witchcraft” said Mother. “The one in the middle is Tituba. She even confessed to doing witchcraft. Tituba along with Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne should be hanged for witchcraft. Such a shame, oh well, hurry along now.” I later found out that “On Ma...
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of trials held before a magistrate which took place in many parts of Massachusetts, revolving around what was thought to be practice of witchcraft or “Devil’s magic.” Many girls from the town of Salem, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris in particular, falsely accused other townsfolk of possessing them or practicing witchcraft. The government officials of this town believed that the girls were telling the truth about what they claimed to have seen/know and their random outbursts caused by this “demonic possession” or having a spell put on them. This scam led on by a couple of teenage girls ultimately ended up taking the lives of 20 people before it was demanded to stop by higher Massachusetts government officials and the cases were proved as a mistake. Since then, many psychologists, philosophers, and historians have tried to figure out the motive of the teenage girls.
Blumberg, Jess. "A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials." Smithsonian Magazine. 24 Oct. 2007. 28 Oct. 2013 .
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.
It is human nature to become superstitious and fearful upon witnessing something they cannot explain or when they make a seemingly flawless observation that links one thing to another. It is often for the human mind to attempt the path of least resistance and instead leap to a conclusion rather than to pursue a more complicated answer. Such uneducated thinking took lead and from it arouse the prospect of witchcraft. The simple idea that if your neighbor were acting peculiarly or children, particularly female children, were misbehaving in some way that they must be a witch allowed an easy scapegoat for the minds of continental Americans and became a widespread accusation. The acts of the “witches” often varied, though they were commonly blamed
The Salem Witch Trials began in Massachusetts around 1692 and lasted till 1693. People started to get accused of practicing witchcraft which was known as “Devil’s magic” to the point where it was thought that nearly 200 colonist might be in the practice. Many religious people, most of which stood by the Christian faith, assumed that the Devil himself could give people the power to hurt others way of life in exchange for their loyalty.
Krystek, Lee. "Salem Witch Trials." The UnMuseum - Salem Witch Trials - Part II. N.p., 2006. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.