The Devil, the Witches and the Victims of Salem Nineteen were hanged, seventeen died in prison, 150 were imprisoned and one was crushed to death. All of them were accused, by a group of seemingly innocent young girls, of witchcraft and wizardry. The cry of witchcraft all began in the January of 1692 in the town of Salem. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria, that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended. The Reverend Parris speculated that witchcraft had aroused after the strange illness and behaviour of his daughter, Betty and niece, Abigail. Salem was already a god-fearing town, they had the stresses of everyday life in the 17th Century and witchcraft was a good excuse to use. By the summer of 1692, the Salem witch trails began. After the poor evidence and lies were given, a total of thirteen women and five men were hanged. One was even crushed to death. All were innocent. The spectres, that the "supposed victims" claimed to see, were all the court needed to charge someone with witchcraft. Later into the trials, the Superior Court of Judicature replaced the current Oyer and Terminer court and ruled out the spectres as hard solid proof. It was not until then, that the trials stopped and the truth was revealed. [IMAGE] Salem witch trial The girls that accused the innocent were the actual witches themselves. Story goes, that it was the Reverend Parris' slave Tituba, from the West Indies, was responsible for indoctrinating the young girl's minds with spells and rituals. The question I like to answer is, why did these girls accuse others of witchcraft and lost the lives of many? Some say it's because the girls had eaten bread, which was contaminated with a fungus and could've given the girls hallucinations. Others say it is because the girls were seeking revenge from other townsfolk over past jealousies. Others say it is because the girls were adolescents seeking attention. The girls might have enjoyed all the attention and benefits.
In the book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, Rosalyn Schanzer describes what happens all because two girls fell ill. When Betty and Abigail started having fits, a doctor diagnosed them as bewitched. Almost immediately they accused the first witch, their slave Tituba. From there all the accusations started pouring out, Ann Putnam Jr., a friend of Betty and Abigail, became “afflicted” as well as multiple others, and soon the jails were overflowing. The first “witch” was hanged on June 10, and the last “witches/wizards” were hanged on September 22. The most likely reasons for the accusations were a thirst for revenge, boredom, and peer/parental pressure.
Godbeer, Richard. A great idea. Escaping Salem: The Witch Hunt of 1692. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.
	Even though most people believe those young girls were the only ones accused, also grown men and women were too. History tells about how a neighbor’s pig fell astray into the Nurse family’s yard and Rebecca Nurse yelled at her neighbor. Soon after the neighbor feel ill and died of a stroke.
“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.
The period of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror was similar to the trials and tribulations faced by the characters of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The cycle of oppression, opportunity, and fear created the struggle for power that was key to the outcome of both events.
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. They chose to come live in America and choose their own way to live. They were very strict people, who did not like to act different from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women worked at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes. The Puritans were also very superstitious. They believed that the devil would cause people to do bad things on earth by using the people who worshiped him. Witches sent out their specters and harmed others. Puritans believed by putting heavy chains on a witch, that it would hold down their specter. Puritans also believed that by hanging a witch, all the people the witch cast a spell on would be healed. Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe. As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
Upon arriving 1692, Salem faced trial after trial that had destroyed their community. From having no governor, to not enough resources, to having to follow strict guidelines set by people with higher authority, it was a given something in Salem was bound to go wrong. The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and lasted for over six months. A total of two hundred people were accused for witchcraft and 19 people actually got convicted and executed, five of which were men. One man, Giles Corey, even got pressed to death because he refused to cooperate with the court. There’s no exact answer on why people started accusing other people of false accusations,
Salem Massachusetts became the center of a horrible tragedy, which changed the life of many people. It was a hard time, because of the bad crops and diseases. The people in Salem had to blame someone or something. This people accused innocent people by calling them witches. They were accused by having contact with the devil, hurting people, to pinch people on their bodies and more. These actions were result of hysteria. Maybe those extraneous symptoms were result of an illness or bacteria. On the Bible says “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This mean that any type of witch or curse will not live, so I think that quote or versus in the Bible want to explain that we need to fight against the devil, those people who are practicing witchcraft need to be light, to be with God. Those people were confused because is not necessary to kill innocent people and the Bible says that if someone kills is a sin.
In the book Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Trial of 1692 by Richard Godbeer, the witch hunt that took place in Stamford, Connecticut, was not as infamous as the witch hunt of Salem both witch trials taken place during the year 1692. Godbeer explains what occurred during the witch trial in Stamford. During this time period most of the Puritan New Englanders accused women who would act different or didn’t seem to fit in, of being a witch. The point that Godbeer portrays is how in early America during the seventeenth century Puritan New Englanders the morals and political motive in contrast with the religious mindset that surrounded most of the Puritans.
“Husbands implicated wives; nephews their aunts; daughters their mothers; siblings each other” (The New Yorker: Inside the Salem Witch Trials). The Salem Witch Trials began on June 2, 1692, with the trial of Bridget Bishop. Many more trials were to follow in the next four months. Twenty people were killed, including Bridget Bishop. The Salem Witch Trials were an inexcusable event.
Escaping Salem, the Other Witch Hunt of 1692 was written by Richard GodBeer. Many know about the Salem Witch Trails of 1692, however not many knew about the Witch Trials that happened in Stamford, Connecticut that same year. Richard GodBeer takes it upon himself to explain in depth the story of Kate Branch. GodBeer begins the book by describing the setting of the book, it was June in 1692 and the narrative would take place in a small town off the northern shore of Long Island. (Godbeer, 1) After the introduction of few characters one being Ebenezer Bishop, the first incident of a Witch encounter happens. As Bishop is walking, he hears a scream of immense pain and fright. This is when the main characters of the book are introduced. The young
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.
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
While most people are familiar with the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1692, many people are unaware that similar events were taking place in other parts of New England in the very same year. The book, Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, takes readers through an intriguing narrative of a young girl with claims of being bewitched. Although I was concerned at first about the book being in a narrative style, the author was very concise and used actual evidence from the trial to tell an accurate and interesting story.
During the time of the Salem Witch Trials the intertwining of religion and government did not allow citizens of Salem, Massachusetts the right to a fair trial, so it was the states responsibility to separate the two. In the 1600’s the Puritan religion was greatly enforced by the government. It wouldn’t be until many years later that separation of church and state became a law.