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The actual salem witch trials
Salem witch trial topics
Salem witch trial topics
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In Massachusetts during 1692 a horrible expiernce had swept throughout the colonies that witches were real, and some of the key concepts that had a major impact to make people think they were real were superstation, economics, politics and there early ideal of gender shaped their era. Throughout the era of witches there had been puritans who were people who had believed in god and do that they thought to be able to see god and his angels you would have to believe in evil apparitions as well. Puritans at the time were one of the main contributing societies of witchcraft in Salem, and it was the belief that Satan was among them and roaming around freely. Next was the other type of contributing factor which was the relationships within and between
This triggered a large mass hysteria (Salem Witch Trials). They had several way and tactics to test you and see if they thought you was witch (Salem Witch Trials). If they thought you was a witch and you didn't confess and say you were you were hung in the gallows (Salem Witch Trials). This tragedy took place for
An Insight to Early New England Mentality In Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, Richard Godbeer reconstructs a particular witch hunt that is less known than its counterpart, the Salem Witch Trials. This trial, which took place in the Stamford, Connecticut area in the seventeenth century, demonstrated the theologies as well as the natural and supernatural beliefs of early New Englanders. These factors played an important role in how these settlers viewed the world and its peculiar mysteries. The perspectives of key participants, such as Katherine “Kate” Branch, Daniel and Abigail Wescot, Elizabeth Clawson, Mercy Disborough, Sarah Bates, and Jonathan Selleck, displayed the range of reactions and thoughts of early New Englanders regarding
These teenage girls claimed to be possessed by the devil and had power to harm others (Salem Witch Trials). These series of investigation and persecutions cause 19 people to be convicted and it continue to spread throughout the town (Salem Witch Trials). Strange behavior started throughout the town like disease and
When Elizabeth “Betty” Parris, Abigail Williams, and the other young girls started to experience strange fits and hallucinations, doctors struggled to find the cause, as Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History explains, “The girls began having hallucinations and strange physical ailments, some of them babbling incoherently. Doctors were called in and diagnosed witchcraft”. Most of them had never heard of an extreme case like Salem was encountering, so it was hard for them to diagnose exactly what the problem was. Eventually, “they [doctors] deemed the symptoms to be so unusual as to be supernatural, essentially passing the problem on to religious leaders. From that point the problem was viewed as a spiritual one, and the ministers became involved” (Carlson 51).
Due to religion, lying, and health problems, it caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692 to occur. Religion was important to the Puritans in their daily life. They would take every word from God and turn them into action. Without religion in their life, then the Puritans would not have come to New England. Religion was an extensive impact on the repercussion of the Salem Witch Trial.
The combination of the girls dancing in the woods, which is against the Puritan religion, and the endless amounts of conspiracies pioneered a gossip that filled the town. The town’s ultimate verdict was that the devil had turned the girls into witches, igniting a panic that consumed the villagers until twenty people were tried and
Three girls accused of witchcraft in the Puritans community. They accused three women a slave Tituba, a homeless beggar Sarah Good and an adulterous Sarah Osborn. Several other people were accused of witchcraft in the village of Salem, and Town of Salem. The Salem Witch Trials all started because a minster daughter asked an Indian slave woman, Tituba, to tell their fortunes.
So the people started to believe that every person that they accused of witchcraft was truly a witch just because of the act they girls were pulling. Lastly religion had to do with everything that went down during the witch hysteria. When, the woman accused of practicing witchcraft were trialed the Reverend made the townspeople conclude that the woman who were accused of witchcraft gave up their soul to the devil. Even though the accused put up a fight there was no way of winning unless you stated you’re a witch, but the woman did not want to confess to false accusations fearing that if they did their soul would truly belong to the devil.
“The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft.” Along with many citizens falling ill and failing to improve, village doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed these women and men as possessed
Salem Village, as part of the colony of Massachusetts Bay experienced turmoil from external and internal factors that contributed to the crisis known as the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692 to 1693. Being accused of witchcraft that lead to a trial was not unheard of before this event, however the scale and hysteria of the event can be attributed to a few factors. The mass hysteria experienced by Salem Village did not appear out of nowhere. There was a sense of unease and fear due to the ongoing war between New France and New England, King William’s War. Not far North of Salem Village there were raids of towns by Native American’s on behalf of the French, including Andover, Massachusetts where they burned the village, and in the following year
In 1692, A town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village found itself in one most documented cases of mass hysteria in history. This saga started with three girls: Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Parris, and Ann Putnam a neighborhood friend. Abigail Williams, the niece of the town’s minister, began to display weird and questionable behavior. The town’s physician,William Greggs, was called to determine the cause of this sporadic behavior. The town’s physician determined that the three girls were under “the Devil’s influence” and they had been bewitched.
The townspeople believed that to become a witch you have to be put under a spell by someone who is already a witch so the girls couldn't of done it themselves. The girls may have been in shock and just started believing that they were under a spell. The witch trials were not only wrong but ineffective the tests do not prove that they are witches. The idea of witchcraft is false and anything that was considered witchcraft could be explained today by science.
These views, in and of themselves, speak to the level of intolerance permeating America and to the level of fear associated with witchcraft. The Religious intolerance and fear experienced in English North America was not a sole construct of Puritanism in New England. These ideas permeated Southwards throughout the length of the thirteen English colonies. Oftentimes, the fear of witchcraft led to colonial governments establishing capital laws against any person entering into communion with Satan.
In the book, The Witches: Salem 1692, the author Stacy Schiff attempts to condense a large volume of research into a cohesive narrative that tries to avoid to much speculation. There is some contention that the book does speculate into the motives of primary accusers that some reviewers have intimated are bordering on fiction. However, the author defends her arguments logically, and her inferences do seem to bridge the gaps effectively. One of the items that causes some confusion, to both the historically curious, and to the researcher is that the author has created a list of dramatis personae in which the historical figures are labeled as a cast of characters which might make the book seem fictional.