Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

In Salem, Massachusetts 1692, there were no true witches, meaning no one really signed the devil’s book and went around hurting others; even the ones who confessed to being witches were guiltless (“World”). The witch trials of Salem in the spring of 1692 were a “classic example of scapegoating”(Brooks). Today’s theories as to why these trials happened include epilepsy, boredom, abuse, suffering from a disease from eating rye, or mental sickness (Brooks). As illustrated in The Crucible, social and political tensions contributed to the mass hysteria that resulted in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. There were many factors that sparked the witch trials. When the chaos started, the colony was in need of a new governor, and they did not have a charter

Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and other girls danced a devilry dance in the woods, taught to them by Parris’ slave, Tituba (“Witchcraft”). Soon after, they dropped ill and started to act differently with symptoms including “suffering ‘fits’, hiding under furniture, contorting in pain, and experiencing fever” (Brooks). A doctor from the village, William Griggs, was ordered in to check out the girls, and he diagnosed bewitchment. Soon later, other younger girls in the town started to experience identical symptoms. This is when the two girls accused three women of bewitching them, and everything

Salem was split into two different factions: Salem Village and Salem Town. Those in Salem Village were usually penniless farmers that lived off tilling crops throughout the rough countryside. Citizens of Salem Town were rich merchants, since there was a thriving harbor town at the center of commerce with London (“World”). Salem Village was also trying to gain their freedom from Salem Town; Salem Village was really apart of Salem Town but was divided because of its financial system and social division. There was also a road called Ipswich Road that ran through Salem Town, close to the center of trade. A lot of residents accused of witchcraft lived by Ipswich Road, whereas the blamers lived in far away farms in Salem Village (“World”). This aspect was very interesting, it could have been because the poor were jealous or they had some other conflicts with the members of Salem