What if I told you the Salem Witch Trials wasn’t a mystery but a hoax. Let me break this down. The Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts 1692. During that time period there was a high number of people being accused of BRUJERIA (witchcraft). Now people didn’t have an explanation of this so now in the present day many theories have come up as to why the witch trials took place. In my opinion I think the Salem witch trials were caused by Jealous females looking for a wealthy husband. Why you ask well let me tell you. Coming from Doc E imagine Salem divided in half, straight through the middle. Making an east and west side. Now on the east side imagine 5 witches spread around with only 30 accusers. Fair amount, right? On the west side imagine 17 witches and 2 accusers. Much more witches than accusers. Not only are the numbers different but here 's the thing, the west side of Salem had been gaining more wealth than the east side. The east side had lost complete political power and farmed poorer land while the west side gained wealth and political influence. This clearly started a fight between each side which led to people accusing others. Making those people seem like they were doing that for the money. Which in fact …show more content…
The other percent were either single or widowed. So the key target was a married women. Not to mention that these accused women were in their 40s to 60s. That means they were in their prime time or had the most wealth they could at that age. While because of that the accusers were single women around the age of 16-20. Knowing that it would make you think that these young women would like some money. I mean during that time period if you were a young lady your highest goal was to marry a wealthy man with a lot of land. Many wealthy men were married so clearly their (female accusers) targets were going to be the women married to those wealthy
One thing that might have caused the witch trials is profit, “ Mary Walcott ,Anns step cousin ,named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This almost proves that she might have been accusing people for money/profit. “Abigail Williams, fingered 41 different witches for attacking her; Ann Putnam Jr. accused 53;her servant Mercy Lewis named 54; and a girl named Mary Walcott who was Ann’s step-cousin, named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This means they were fervently,maliciously, wanted to abolish some of these people,and that most of the accusers stated accused more than 40 people. “Not all witches are human beings.
As a result of the Salem Witch Trials, there were multiple improvements made to the court procedures. Because one could be sentenced by someone simply accusing them, with no viable proof, there were lots of random, petty accusations as aforementioned. The first of these corrections was the right to legal representation. When one was accused of witchcraft, there was no opportunity for their side of the story to be told or represented. Next: the right to cross-examine the accuser; before The Salem Witch Trials, the accuser had no responsibility or consequence to their accusation.
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, there is a catastrophe in Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1690’s. There were accusations after accusations after accusations about witchcraft. Also, people weren’t satisfied with just accusing one person. In the end, 25 lives were lost.
Document E shows us that thirty-two out of thirty-four accusers lived on the west side of town. This would mean that almost all of the accused lived on the east side of town. According to the note on Document E, the people living on the east side of town tended to be more affluent and had more political power. In the contrast, the accusers that lived on the west side had very little to no wealth, and they had no political power. This evidence helps explain the hysteria because it shows that loss of wealth and power can cause resentment.
The Causes of the Salem Witch Trials Much of modern America’s fear and infamous interest in witches has been derived most likely from the profound Salem Witch Trials. “The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft,” stated History.com authors. However, many historians still deliberate how such events occurred in the first place. Based on several presented documents, some conclusions suggest that there was a prominent cause to the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. All in all, the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family
Salem was a town divided into two sides, the west side being poor, and the east side being where wealthy people stayed. Document E shows that the accusers were mainly on the west side, and the accused witches were mostly on the east side, this showing that the poor were the ones mainly accusing the rich and wealthy. Document E’s evidence is backing up the theory that another cause of the Salem witch `trial hysteria was Salem being divided, with one side accusing the other. “Although” statement where you agree there might be other contributing causes. It is true that other causes may help explain the hysteria.
The majority of those accused were women, often from marginalized backgrounds. Women who defied societal norms or possessed independent wealth and property became prime targets for accusations. The trials served as a means to control and suppress women who did not conform to the established social
The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,
Women often accused other women for various reasons. The accusation was threatening to their future even if they were found innocent. So, to protect themselves, they accused other women in fear of being without a spouse as they grow older and unable to fulfill the duties that a puritan women was characterized by: taking care of her children and husband. This vulnerability in the minds of women allowed the prosecutors to persuade them of their devilish acts even if they weren’t actually guilty.
The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.
Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials.
In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge.
Salem was a small settlement, every settler knew one another (Miller, Arthur). And when there were whispers of witchcraft, the whispers became loud and public
The Salem Witch Trials The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England.
These refugees were from northern New York, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. The displaced people created a strain on Salem’s resources because they did not have their own resources and they used others. That aggravated existing rivalries between families with ties to the wealth port of Salem. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1). The first witch case involved Reverend Parris’ daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and his niece Abigail Williams, age 11, in January 1692.