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Essays of the salem witch trials
Effects of salem witch trials on society
Effects of salem witch trials on society
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Another purpose as to the root cause of the Salem Witch Hysteria is because economic dislocation. Documents 5, 4, and 3 are charts representing the location of thing that occurred and were there placed. The charts are socially stratified. They were separated economically, also if you look closely the people who are like leaders of the village are actually more richer. Document 9 is a photograph of Matthew Hopkins the witchfinder.
In the May of 1692, Increase Mather returned to New England with Sir William Phipps. By the time of their arrival, the witch trials were already taking place, having started a few months prior in February. As the witch hunt in Salem escalated, the prison cells started to fill up with individuals accused of witchcraft. The confusing political situation following the ascension on William and Mary and the new charter allowed for a court Oyer and Terminer to be put in place on the 27th of May 1692. The lieutenant governor, William Stoughton, became the chief magistrate for this newly appointed court.
How was the idea of a witch created or thought of? It started when two girls asked an Indian woman their fortune. Their reverend father noticed odd behavior, and as the result of a testimony, the first three woman were sent to jail. After that there were more accusations of people being witches. But what made people believe or know that another was a witch?
In addition, one cause of the Salem Witch Trial hysteria was sexism. Evidence of this is from the Salem Court Records where out of 20 people executed for witchcraft 14 were women and six were men(Doc A). This evidence shows that there were more women than men being executed and accused of witchcraft. The people were sexist against women because they weren’t as many men being executed and accused. The accusers, who were mostly women, were being sexist against other women that were being accused.
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.
In a town called salem there was a huge rumor going around. That rumor was that people were doing witchcraft. Many innocent people were being blamed for the action of doing witchcraft that had nothing to do with it. These people were being hung for doing absolutely nothing but telling the truth. In times like this their are many grudges and personal rivalries going on.
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.
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.
"There are such strange people in the world, when a fly walks over their body, it must be witchcraft. " Anna Roleffes said this quote during her trial after she was accused of witchcraft. It verifies that people were accused of being witches and wizards with very little and inconsistent evidence. However, more than 150 people were indicted, and 20 were executed. The chilling havoc spread during the winter of 1692 in Salem Village when a doctor "diagnosed" three ladies with peculiar visions and fits, with bewitchment.
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
In total, the process of his execution took two full days (Findling 162-163). Executions consumed the summer of 1692 for Salem Village. Finally realizing how awful the court system and executions were, the Salem Witch Trials came to an end. Although the chaos caused by the trials had started to resolve, some of the same original fits occurred in the years following (“Salem Witch Trials” n. pag.). Salem Village was ready to move on, so the victims were ignored.
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.
Just as most persecutions begin, the people of Salem were trapped by an emotion which led to a six-month witch hunt; they were enraptured with fear. Though the whole situation began with a teenage joke, the Puritan society was in a paranoid state by trying to stay pure in their religion. The Puritans were not only afraid of the Devil tainting them, but rather a shattered reputation, and possibly death, by being accused of witchcraft. So, many Salem residents accused their neighbors of being witches to avoid blame on themselves. While fear was a large motivator for the trials, it is also a fact that "most of the accused lived to the south of, and were generally better off financially, than most of the accusers.
For example, Annika L of the Salem Times states, “A fourth theory is that the girls behavior was caused by physical illness.” Despite the fact that such points could be defended with some logic, most of the support would be weak and loose. On the other hand, it can be concluded that the claim made by this essay is more logical and well supported if anything. All in all, it can be determined that the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family ties and enter or sustain continued community safety within the
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
