The Witch Trails of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692

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In February of 1692, over two hundred people were accused and tried for using witchcraft in New England. The most infamous of these witch trials were performed in Salem Town, Massachusetts. Even though there was little to no evidence that the accused were actually practicing witchcraft or had “signed a contract with the devil, there were a few erratic outbursts, and weird happenings in town that people said were a result of demonic activity and someone had to be blamed. That is how the trials started. The legalistic townspeople needed an explanation for the erratic happenings because they feared to admit they didn’t know what was really happening. The trials ran between February of 1692 and May of 1693. In Salem alone, there were over 30 deaths because of these trials. Nineteen of the accused were hung, at least 11 died in prison, and one died from being crushed under heavy stones. During this time, America was very religious, and ardently believed in God and Satan. Most of the population consisted of English Protestants or Puritans, who used their religion and the Bible as an excuse for the trials. Scriptures from Exodus, Leviticus, and Acts were pulled from the Bible to strengthen their argument, but were used incorrectly and out of context. During this time, it was believed that there was a large amount of occult experimentation, mostly due to curiosity. Cotton Mather, a minister from Boston, says that "many inhabitants of New England, and young people especially, had been led away with little sorceries, wherein they did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God….” It was common belief that people who practiced magic were in a contract with the Devil. What this basically meant is that they sign... ... middle of paper ... ...ld be”. No he would investigate the illness, and examine the person thoroughly. He would look at what they ate and where they went. Who knows maybe there was a bad crop that caused them to become sick. Maybe the trials were one big conspiracy. Since the Porters and the Putmans –the two largest families in Salem– were related to almost everyone in the town except each other. For all we know, one of the families could have decided they were tired of disagreeing on the future of the village and took matters into their own hands. Poisoning the minister’s daughter and niece, asking a relative or wife to act crazy around other people so they would believe said wife or relative was bewitched making them able to place blame on pretty much anyone they wanted. One thing for sure is that the people of Salem were afraid, and feared not knowing why these things were happening.

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