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The Salem Witch trials. It was a horrible time for all the people in Salem. A horrible time for everyone, but the accusers, expectedly the original accusers. The First accusers in the Salem Witch Trials were Elizabeth Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams. In January 1692, Elizabeth and her cousin Abigail started to move around in peculiar ways and putting their bodies into peculiar shapes. Now Elizabeth’s father, Samuel Parris the minister for the Salem’s church didn’t know what to do. So Samuel Parris decided to call the doctor, but the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with either of the two girls. So they decided that the only thing it could be is witches. That is what all started the Salem witch trials, but what people today don’t know is if the original accusers were acting or if they were mental.
There is no way to know for sure what was happening to the accusers during the witch trials or why they started in the first place, but there are a some interesting theories. The first theory is the either both girls had some mental disease. That theory is unlikely, b...
The Salem witch trials of 1692 were one of the bloodiest witch-hunts in America colonial history. The event started in the house of the new minister of Salem, Samuel Parris, when his daughter, Betty, suffered from mysterious symptoms, and later she accused her slave, Tibuta, for using witchcraft on her. Later, two other women, Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne, were accused of using witchcraft on other girls; right after the accusations, they were arrested (Lecture 9/13/2016). As a result, the hunt of witches began which led to hundreds of arrests, and nineteen accused were hanged (Text 190). Although three hundred years have passed, the true cause of the episode remains a mystery. Many scholars have conducted numerous studies of the trails, however,
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. The other theories can be backed up just as well. But everyone has their own opinion. We may never know the true cause of the Salem Witch Trials.
(Doc. C&D) Their names were Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams. They asked a West Indian slave woman named Tituba to help them know their fortunes. The two girls started acting strange over the next several months. Their father was curious about the two girls behavior. They would crawl into holes and creep under chairs and stools. The two girls accused two white women and Tituba for practicing witchcraft ,when they were being accused, and for putting them in such pain. The three women were sent to jail in Boston. Only Tituba confessed she was practicing witchcraft, which she was, but the other two white woman didn’t want to say they did something that they didn’t do and that is what started it
It could have started due to peer pressure / bribery, illness / emotion, or even something that had happened in the past prior to the trials. However, some people do not believe that these are some of the possible causes of the trials. Some believe that the witch trials could have started because of their strong belief in their religion. The trials could have started from more than one cause. However, people might not figure out the actual cause of the trials, even if there are many theories that are very likely to pinpoint what
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Disaster in Salem, the author discusses how the Salem Witch trials started and how the Puritans believed the witches should be tortured or killed for being a witch. Many people were accused of being witches. Many people thought the accused should die but some were somewhat nice and didn’t think they should die just in prison. Every puritan believed them because the dad was a reverend and everyone believed him so they all accused people. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials were disease, revenge, and attention.
“If they confessed to the charges, it was because most were frightened, hungry and emotionally drained. Others were plagued by feelings of unworthiness or pressured by panicked family members who feared its impact on the rest of the family (Foulds 42).” Many assumed that witchcraft was hereditary, therefore spouses, siblings, and even children of accused witches were brought in.
The book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer is about the Salem Witch Trials. In January 1692, three women were accused of being witches by two girls who claimed to be “tortured” by them. More and more women and men were accused for about a year until the trials stopped. Overall, more than 200 people were accused, but why? There had to be a reason for these people to be accused. Some of the top reasons for people to be accused of witchcraft were poorness, feuds or revenge, and different opinions/beliefs.
The events of the Salem Witch Trials. In Salem the witchcraft hysteria, first began in January of 1692. It all started when a group of young girls who later come to be known as the “afflicted girls”. They became known as that because they fell ill after paying a fortune – telling game and began acting strangely (Charles W. Upham). The reason why it ended up with “witch trials” because it was unnatural to other people. They all started experiencing the same symptoms, which consisted of suffering “fits”, hiding under furniture, contorting in pain, and experiencing fever. Soon later on they caught other things like epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, mental illness or even a disease brought on by eating rye infected with fungus. “In February, Samuel
One of the first things that began the Salem Witch Trials was three little girls becoming sick and then the Salem people accusing three women of putting spells on the three children. In January of 1692, Reverend Parris’ nine year old daughter, Betty, and his eleven year old niece, Abigail, started having huge fits. They would throw things, say things in odd ways,...
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.
In the summer of 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, two girls, known as Betty, daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams who was taken in by the family of the Parris’ started acting very strangely. They had muscle spasms, seizures, contorted their body in strange ways, and yelled gibberish. Rev. Samuel Parris took them immediately to see their doctor, but finding nothing physically wrong with the girls he blamed witches. No one knows for sure the exact cause of the Salem Witch Trials, but there are many different theories. After the strange actions, 3 women were blamed, Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good, and Rev. Parris’ slave Tituba. Tituba admitted to telling the girls spooky stories about the supernatural and even claimed to have seen the devil. Good and Osborne pleaded innocent.
One of the accused was Samuel Parris’ Caribbean slave Tituba. Sarah Good was a homeless beggar who was also accused. The last person was a poor elderly woman, Sarah Osborn The three women were brought before Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne who were judges of the court for questioning. The young girls who accused the women were present in the courtroom displaying spasms, contortions, screaming, harsh movements, and animal noises (Aronson). The reason behind the girls behaving like that was to show the courtroom and the judges what the effects were for being bewitched. Osborn and Good denied that they were witches. They were then thrown in jail until they were given a trial and an examination. Good was pregnant and the town didn’t want to kill an innocent human being so they waited until the baby was born to hang Good. The baby, however, ended up dying in the jail right before Good was hung. Osborn ended up dying in jail from a long term illness she was fighting. Tituba on the other hand confessed that she saw the devil, and claimed that she had accomplishes in helping the devil against the Puritans. Since she confessed all that happened to her was being put in jail for life. Others who were accused included Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse who both were upstanding members of church and the community. Sarah Good’s four year old daughter was also accused. To say that a four year
The trials began in January, 1692 when nine young girls became ill after playing a fortune-telling game. These girls would later be known as the “afflicted girls”. The first girl to experience symptoms was Betty Parris, followed by Abigail Williams, than Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott, and Mercy Lewis. After these girls were affected, the other four started to experience the same symptoms, which consisted of, “suffering “fits,” hiding under furniture, contorting in pain and experiencing fever” (History of the Salem Witch Trials). Modern theories suggest that all of the girls might have been suffering from boredom, child abuse, or even mental illness. After being examined by a doctor who suggested they were bewitched, two of the girls named three women who they thought
They blamed a lot of other people for what they did instead of pleading guilty to their crimes. Every time someone got close to giving them up they accused that person to keep playing the victims. Several people were hung and thrown in jail and one man was pressed to death. In the end, 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 of them were executed. Later after the trials were over, the judges said the trials were a mistake and regret ever having them and believing those girls. The judges and higher authorities even compensated the families for the mistake and publically apologized. After some later investigations the rest of the people being held in jail were eventually