Essay On What Happened During The Salem Witch Trials

What Happened During The Salem Witch Trials In the 1600’s, colonial america feared the devil and his servants, also known as witches, and would do anything to prevent any devil related harm from, entering their towns. During the Salem Witch Trials, many accused witches were punished in both unfair and inhuman ways. The small town of Salem, Massachusetts, was the setting for the trials. It was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony 1600’s. It was located almost alone in the New World, and was strongly religious. Salem’s habitants were afraid that the Devil would enter and destroy Christians and their communities. This plus the fear of witches made everyone approve witch trials. There had before been accusations of witchcraft before, but none

4 girls, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren and Elizabeth Booth,were seen by a doctor because they had been having weird behavior after playing a fortune telling game. He didn’t detect anything wrong, so he concluded that they were bewitched. Two of the girls quickly accused their bewitchers, Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn and Tituba, an enslaved woman. They were arrested and interrogated March 1st. During the interrogations, Tituba confessed to being a witch. After her confession, a great witch hunt sparked along Salem. Acording to paragraph 5 of an article made b the History.com staff, “As hysteria spread through the comunity and beyond into the rest of Massachudetts, a number of others were

Sending the witches to jail was the most common punishment. Most of the imprisoned victims died in jail. Unlike normal criminals, witches were chained to a wall in the prison’s dungeon, to prevent their spirits to escape and haunt the city. “Since the accused witches were considered dangeroud prisoners, they were kept in the dungeon and were chained to the walls…” (Brooks 9). Another well known punishment was hanging the witch in front of the whole town. 19 people were hung during the trials. After a few more deaths, the town’s citizens started having doubt about if they were doing the right thing. Many citizens started to doubt that so many people were witches. Most of the evidence seemed to be unreliable, like dreams and halusinations. The trials ended after the hanging of eight people. The most believed reason the trials ended was the accusation of Governor Phipp’s wife as a witch. He forgave all the imprisoned witches, guilt ot not, and gave conpensations to the families of the diseased ones. There was a day of fasting in memorial of all the innocent lives taken during the trials (History.com