ipl-logo

Comparing The Salem Witch Trials And The Trial Of The West Memphis 3

1517 Words7 Pages

Let me set the scene for you: you’ve just been accused of a crime you didn’t commit, there’s no reliable evidence to prove you committed said crime, and yet you’re still being found guilty. While this isn’t as common today as it was in the past, it still tends to happen. Some of the most famous cases of this happening are the Salem Witch Trials and the trial of the West Memphis 3. While these are very different events we, as people, can learn many different lessons from both events. The witch trials were started and spread by fear and hysteria. Townspeople were accusing people who didn’t go to church, who didn’t seem to follow the Puritan ways exactly, or people who they disliked and wanted to get revenge on. Hundreds of innocent people …show more content…

Both were religious communities, but the town of Salem was strictly Puritan. They believed women and men had certain roles within the community, everyone should go to church, and if they sinned they would go to hell. One of the biggest sins one could commit in this society was to be accused of working for the Devil. The punishment for this was hanging, after they had been found guilty at their “trail” of course. I say “trial” because the witch trials were merely a formality, if one was accused they could expect to be hanged soon. This is similar to the West Memphis 3 trials because this trial was merely a formality, once the town had found someone to pin the murders on they wouldn’t rest until someone was …show more content…

It started with one person accusing their neighbors, friends, and in the case of the West Memphis 3, possible murderers. There was no real basis for their fear, people just started being afraid. Many didn’t know why they were afraid, just that their town was afraid so they should be afraid too. They were so focused on what the majority of people thought, they didn’t think they were allowed to have their own opinions on what was happening. This allowed people to turn a blind eye to what was going on in Salem and West Memphis. If they acted like it wasn’t going on, to them it

Show More
Related
266 Words | 2 Pages

During the “West Memphis Three” trials however, no eye witnesses came forth to the judges and said that they saw the boys do it. In determining if the defendants should be counted guilty, eye witnesses play a huge part in it. During the “West Memphis Three” trials, Jason Baldwin

Read More
661 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

In the Rosewood Incident and the Salem Witchcraft Trials, similarities and enthralling affairs occurred. Many competitions against one another existed including, homicides, battles, and damages. It was just a big disarray! In the Rosewood Incident, massacre was a violent, racially massacre of blacks and the destruction of a black town. In the Salem Witchcraft Trials, several young girls claim to be afflicted by witchcraft.

Read More
1039 Words | 5 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials was held in 1693, this was when witches were feared. Both of these

Read More
224 Words | 1 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 left an indelible mark on Massachusetts, revealing deep-seated societal tensions and profoundly influencing perceptions of witchcraft, religious fervor, and gender dynamics. The trials were a manifestation of Puritan anxieties about the supernatural and the moral purity of their community, exacerbated by economic hardships and political instability. The accusations and subsequent executions of 20 individuals highlighted the fragility of justice in an environment fueled by fear, superstition, and religious zealotry. This period underscored the unchecked power wielded by Puritan men in positions of authority, who played pivotal roles in initiating and perpetuating accusations. The trials also exposed the vulnerabilities

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

Twenty innocent citizens of Salem Town were executed because they were thought to be compacting with the devil. In the year of 1692, the Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony undergoes desperate times, generally referred to as the Salem witch hunt. Envy, hatred, and desire were the core accusations of witchcraft and sorcery among the townsfolk. Neighbors would declare witchery upon each other, in hopes of gaining their land or just out of resentment towards one another. When people jump to conclusions or make unjustified assumptions, people are convicted of false crimes such as conjuring with the devil, something Martha Corey was arrested and charged for, innocent individuals are killed for doing no harm, like when Sarah Osborne was hanged for being seen as a nuisance, and all of which creates a bandwagon of wrongful claims and a flawed court system, initiating what is known today, as the Salem witch trials.

Read More
1711 Words | 7 Pages

What a Horrible World     In today 's day and age we have more technological, medicinal, societal, and worldly advancements than we did in either 1692 or 1947, but we are still just as easily corrupted by jealousy, power, and paranoia. The years 1692 and 1947 are perfect examples of prospering societies that became undermined through very similar processes. In 1629 the Salem Witch Trials and in 1947 the McCarthy Communist Trials- were both held unjustly, involving condemnation based on unfair trial practices. People desperately admitted to being a witch (1692) or to being a communist (1947) only because they didn’t want to die. Even if you were found innocent your life was virtually over because your career and livelihood had been destroyed

Read More
1312 Words | 6 Pages

Scapegoating began taking place everywhere and soon chaos broke out. People were accusing other simply because they, themselves, had been accused and they wanted to blame to be passed on to someone else. Accusations were being made at enemies and those that someone had a grudge on - rarely were accusations made in an honest manner. “Any unlikeable characterist could get someone accused of witchcraft” (“Five Myths about the Salem Witch Trials”). A great level of paranoia grew around the town of Salem because one never knew when he/she would be accused of the witchcraft.

Read More
279 Words | 2 Pages

People are afraid of things they do not know and it moves them to act hysterical. During the Salem Witch Trials and the Rosewood Massacre, people were wrongly attacked because of false accusations made by others because they were afraid of the unknown. In the Salem Witch Trials, a group of girls were caught doing something they weren’t supposed to do and to get out of it, they coped by accusing people of witchcraft: a crime punishable by death(Weiser). In the Rosewood Massacre, blacks were attacked wrongfully in their own town(Bentley).The Salem Witch Trials and the Rosewood Massacre have an abundance of similarities.

Read More
480 Words | 2 Pages

In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.

Read More
657 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever seen a government accuse a person of a crime he or she did not commit? Well, one of the best examples of this is in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. In this town in 1692, the courts not only wrongfully accused one person with sufficient evidence, but wrongfully accused 150 people of witchcraft. Furthermore, these people were accused without any scientific evidence. Even more terrible, though, is that 19 of these people were executed for this reason.

Read More
668 Words | 3 Pages

The Salem witch trials demonstrated much more in the puritan culture than ignorance or fanaticism. It illustrates the interior deformation of the society. Through the tragedy at Salem it is evident that the accusations covered issues that were colony wide. The case of the Salem witch trials demonstrates the financial issues within the colony, the personal issues used to accuse individuals, and the stress of colonial life that stretched far beyond the New England Colony.

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

The West Memphis Three vs. The Salem Witch Trials Society makes people feel pressured to make assumptions for their own benefits. There have been many examples of this throughout history. Society has been pressuring people to change and make assumptions, dating back to the stone ages all the way until the present. Why does society pressure people to make assumptions?

Read More
369 Words | 2 Pages

By using the devil which everyone feared at the time, they got what they wanted. These actions were made by love and selfishness, love which ties to many emotions, including jealousy, which as young girls they could have had to start these trials. And selfishness, which these people were known for. Even if the person accused was innocent, they did not care, for they only cared for themselves. In a small town where mostly everyone knew each other, some people began to create grudges, rivalries, and hatred for one another.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

This means that unlike in the times of the Salem Witch Trials, accusations and witness testimony is not enough to convict, especially for a capital crime. The prosecution must prove that there is no other reasonable or logical conclusion for that has transpired other than the the accused has committed the crime in which they are accused. Similarly, and perhaps most important of all, in the modern criminal justice system one is considered innocent until proven guilty; whereas, during the Salem Witch Trials a presumption of guilt was almost immediate. Similar to the accused having to present evidence in their defense, the accused

Read More

More about Comparing The Salem Witch Trials And The Trial Of The West Memphis 3

Related Topics

Open Document