Dbq Salem Witch Trial

Anxiety was common from the very beginning of the settlements created in New England, Salem village in the 1690’s was the edge of the settled universe for the colonists. They feared death by starvation, death by savages, and death by the unknown. The strict religious tenants that brought them to this new world, feared that the devil and the Indians were allied with one another, yet also feared the supernatural such as witches. It was usually older women who were accused of witchcraft, mostly because people started to distrust one another because of noticeable behaviors. Everyone accusing these women believed they were doing the right thing by hanging them one by one, the judges, the townspeople, and even the little girls who were accusing the

Two of them denied the accusations, but the other confessed most likely trying to save herself. She began to claim that there were other witches serving the devil along with her, working against the puritans. While hysteria began to spread throughout Salem and Massachusetts, more and more people were accused of witchcraft. Like the first woman who confessed, more women began to confess and started to give names of others, most likely people these women didn’t like. With all these people being accused the justice system was overrun with trials. In May of that same year a new governor created a special court to take on the witch trial cases. The courts first conviction was on June second and eight days later the convicted woman was hung on what would come to be later known as Gallows Hill. Five more people visited Gallows Hill in July, five in August, and eight in September, in addition to this number seven of these accused women died while in jail, while an elderly man was crushed to death by stones after having refused to plea

In January of 1697, the Massachusetts court declared a day of fasting to honor the tragedies of the witch trials, and later stated that the trials were unjust. The man who lead the trials later apologized for his wrong doings. After the court passed a legislation redeeming the names of the ones accused, nothing could get rid of the way anyone felt towards the courts and what had happened to those wrongfully accused that year in 1692 and in the year