What Really Happened in Salem in 1692?
In the extremely religious puritan community, Salem, people were brainwashed to believe everything they heard from the head of the church. There were strong beliefs and paranoia about the devil which influenced the way the events of the Salem Witch Trials played out In this society, the belief in the devil was very common, making everyone on edge about who might be a witch. The devils presence was “felt everywhere, and when the colonists began to like for his new hiding places they found him crouches in the very heart of the Puritan colony” (Erikson 2). Religion was a major factor to why many people were accused of being a witch since the puritans were paranoid about the devil being everywhere. This is especially evident during an examination of Mrs. John Proctor, when Justice says, “You see, the Devil will deceive you. The children could see
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Once someone was accused of being a witch, it was very difficult to convince everyone that they weren’t. “Persons who scoffed at accusations of witchcraft risked becoming targets of accusations themselves” (Linder 18). If someone was accused of being a witch, no matter what they said to negate the accusations, they were going to be in the trials and if someone had supported one who was accused, they were also under suspicion and put in trials. This started a snowball effect of people being accused, leading to the Salem Witch trials. Many unfortunate events occurred leading up to the Salem Witch trials. There were brutal winters, Indian attacks, a small pox epidemic and a change in governing. “Sir William Phips appointed governor of MA Bay and a new charter is created in which the governor, church, legislature, and courts are welded together in a single religions and civil governing body” (Document #1). These were major changes that effected how the society functioned. Religion became even more prominent and people were being forced to deal with this,