Comparison Of Bacon's Rebellion And The Salem Witch Trials

Colonial America is known for its end product of the United States and its ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is also known for the rebellions that have occurred against the government. This theme of anger and rebellion can be exemplified of Bacon’s Rebellion and the Salem Witch Trials. These instances contain events that redeem tensions throughout colonial society through hardships such as corruption, mass hysteria, and contradicting the ideas of the government. Initially, corruption inhabited a major issue that had driven the two rebellions to become majorly eventful within American History. In the Salem Witch Trials, corruption was discovered within the ideas of the devil. The devil was glorified because of Salem, Massachusetts’ theocratic government, which meant that religion was highly en It was believed to cause certain individuals to influence them into witchcraft, therefore corrupting them, but the devil was just a masquerade to protect certain individuals being accused from death. The frequent accusations of others would attempt to suppress the fear of

Bacon’s rebellion resulted in, “The governor fleeing the burning capital of Jamestown”(Zinn 39). Order in the town was difficult to manage, so much so that the town had been burned, and chaos was spreading rapidly with the common goal of establishing a government to satisfy the demands of the citizens. In Salem, there were so many cases of hangings in the town that, “The Supreme Court of Judicature took over the witchcraft court...the new court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting executing. The Salem Witch Trials were over”(Salem Witch Museum). The restart of a central government demonstrates that the majority of people resented government ideas, and that these needed to be taken over by one that’s unbiased and listens to the demands of the