Twenty people executed, two hundred or more jailed, and the whole town of Salem in hysteria. Lasting two years, the Salem Witch Trials not only tore families apart, but killed many along the way as well. People were jailed from the reasoning of the court with no legitimate evidence. This historical time, in 1692-1693 was one of the most insane and violent periods that people living in small towns and villages experienced. In both Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Lisa Rowe Fraustino’s I Walk in Dread, hysteria, the Salem Witch Trials, and Mccarthyism are featured as main topics that create a similarity of themes.
Hysteria began after a group of girls were possessed by the devil. In Salem, Massachusetts is where most people were accused of witchcraft. There were 19 men and women that were hung and one man was pressed to death with big rocks. There were many people that had never did witchcraft and they were accused of it and put in prison. After they were put in prison they had to wait many years for their trial.
This verdict triggered an investigation that took 25 lives and more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft; prisons filled with wrongly accused people, and concerned the people of the community of Salem, Massachusetts. In the year of 1692 a group of several young girls, some being, Bridget Bishop, Alice Parker, Mary Easty, Betty Parris and Sarah Hubbard, were arrested, who were claimed by other colonist to be possessed by the devil. Later in February of 1692 arrest warrants were made to three women; all of them were accused by the group of young girls with the symptoms of the sickness, that they bewitched them. These three women names were a homeless beggar, Sarah Good, an elder Sarah Osborn and a Caribbean slave, Tituba. These three women were brought to court to be trialed for using witchcraft.
Through the trials, Elizabeth and the other girls had accused many of witchcraft, and by June 16, 1692 nineteen more people had been hung (Mills). “By the end of the trial Elizabeth Hubbard had testified against twenty-nine people, seventeen of whom were arrested, thirteen of those were hanged, and two died in jail” (Nichols par 4). While Elizabeth Hubbard would stand and testify in court, she would show her odd behaviors and by this she caused many people to have a life of hurt, or a life ending in
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
After these late night sessions with Tituba the girls started to have weird fits. These fits were probably caused by the fear the girls gained while listening to her stories. Reverend Parris saw his daughter and niece having weird fits. He called in th... ... middle of paper ... ...ny innocent people were killed during the Salem witch trials. 140 people were accused, 19 people were hanged, 1 person was pressed to death, and 13 people died in prison.
One theory suggests that to get back at the Porters, the Putnam family had their girls accuse anyone in the community that were allied with the Porters of being witches. There is some evidence for this, as almost all the "bewitched" girls came from families connected to the Putnams (Krystek). Old feuds between the accusers and the accused was spurring charges of witchcraft (Linder). Even though we have some evidence to back the theories of the Salem witch trials up, the most logical theory is that the people of Salem were all just putting on an act. Everyone had a motive to either hurt someone they despise or have feuds with, or just to save themselves.
In the small town of Salem, Massachusetts the fear of devil worshipers and witchcraft spread through the town like wild fire. In the years of 1692 and 1963 men and women accused of witchcraft were gathered up and imprisoned or killed. 200 men, women, and children were accused of witchcraft and there were at least 20 deaths . The majority were hung but there was one man that was pressed to death, and four known deaths in prisons. The rest of the accused were thrown in jail for months with out trials .
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.
The Salem Witch Trials were started by a couple of bratty girls who decided it would be enjoyable to accuse someone of being a witch, and then contort their bodies and act afflicted any time that person came around. Sadly, the accusations of these girls were taken very seriously by the judge and adults of Salem. People were convicted of witchcraft simply because they had irregular moles or blemishes on their faces. Yes, the people of Salem were in a mass hysteria, filling up jails with “witches” to the point where the jails reached capacity and they could not fit any more people in them. They were able to accuse these people through mob mentality, Puritan culture, and forced conformity.