The results of the trial in Stamford was that Mercy Disborough was temporarily convicted of witchcraft while Goody Clawson was acquitted. The consequences for Mercy Disborough were that despite months and jail and continued peer accusation, she was acquitted. The consequences for the townspeople are blurrier, but it is evident that persistent hysteria was not one of them. The results of the trial in Stamford were largely reigned in from the massive hysteria and mass convictions associated with contemporary witch trials by the law.
The first set of witchcraft persecutions occurred during Elizabeth 1st reign, this was Around 1563. Commonly people associated witches with a woman and the beliefs were the following of that they have made a pact with the evil spirit Satan. The rush of the witch persecutions mainly happened after 1563 and by the time period of 1750 roughly 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, or hung across the whole of Western Europe. Therefore, in this essay, I will be mainly focusing and arguing which of the hysteria surrounding witchcraft and witchcraft trials had a greater impact in Britain or the American colonies in the time period of the 17th century. And I will be arguing it following different factors which could contribute to this such as the social factors geographical factors, religious factors and also control law and order.
Amidst a period of colonization and pilgrimage, mass hysteria took root in the Essex County of what is now Massachusetts, in two communities of Salem. The role of “witch” was taken on by a mass of people, many of whom had been profiled as malevolent through underlying societal prejudices. Through an examination of Dorcas Hoar's case, we gain insight into the complex web of fear that characterized this chapter in history and drove so many to accuse their neighbors. While each trial was different, the trials of Dorcas Hoar work to uncover the aspects of an afflicted woman whose end was predetermined by her unconscious adherence to what John Demos ascribed to be the driving forces of witchcraft accusation. Through an examination of historical
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.
The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,
In the reading “The Devil in the Shape of a Women, Witchcraft in Colonial New England,” by Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social constructions the people from New England had about witchcraft during the seventeenth century and the gender relationship amongst its people. Karlsen address the Salem Witch Trials and the large number of “witchcraft cases” that arose due to such beliefs. She focuses on the females who were accused of being witches in colonial New England and discusses the role and the position of women in the Puritan society. During the seventeenth century, sex was seen as an act of impureness, even among married couples sex was seen as an illicit behavior.
In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.
The article “An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials”, written by Thomas Brattle who is a Harvard graduate and a Boston merchant, states a view against the Salem Witch Trials and what they are doing (Dudley 29). On the other side Cotton Mather, a leading minister in Boston, wrote “A Defense of the Salem Witch Trials” which is favored on continuing the trials (Dudley 26). The Salem Witch Trials are a very absurd way to get rid of the so called witches, and should be put to a stop. The article “An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials” stated, “The justices order the apprehended to look upon the said children, which accordingly they do; and at the time of that look, … the afflicted are cast into a fit.”
Escaping Salem asserts the tension to be the conflict between the laws of man and the laws of God. Why it is important is that it illustrates the struggle between the superstitious and the logical over the nature and efficacy of witchcraft that permeates New England culture. As a result, Stamford court magistrates are conflicted in their duty to the law versus their obligation to their community in providing security and comfort from “witches.” Thus, much care is taken with criteria establishing conviction and indictment on witchcraft. Without such criteria, those alleged to commit witchcraft would be at the mercy of the Puritanical mob.
In 1692, the townspeople would start to face allegations of being witches and/or performing witchcraft. These allegations would come from three Puritan youth (Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam) and cause one of the most infamous series of trials in the United States, The Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and ended in 1693. On February 29th, 1692 the three girls accused their first victim, a slave named Tituba. Tituba did admit to being a witch as stated by the article, “The woman, a slave named Tituba, said that a man came to her and told her to sign his book, a story that local authorities took to mean that the Devil himself had told Tituba to follow his orders”.
In the spring of 1692 people all around salem were being hung for the belief of them practicing witchcraft. With a town of only around 500 people living there having 200 or more people being accused of being a witch was a very big deal. “People had begun acting weird and doing very strange things such as dancing and acting as if they were possessed by the devil himself”, no one knew how to explain these weird behaviors. Little girls accusing grown men and women of being witches and practicing the devil’s work, harming innocents in the community. Believing that they watched a group of women perform a satanic ritual.
Circular logic has propelled social corruption throughout history; including the Salem Witch Trials, the Red Scare, and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Evidence for this can be found even today in modern religion, despite how logical western society has become. The Red Scare was a widespread fear of communism during the 1950s, as many thought that it threatened the United States’s capitalistic society. Similarly, the Salem Witch Trials during the 1600s closely resembled the circular logic behind accusation and prosecution in the 1950s.
The narrator describes Salem as a new town with strict puritan way of life and its out look on the rest of the world. The town saw itself as persecuted a legacy of persecution puritans faced in the old world because the puritans sought a community they managed to survive. Around 1692 much that was good about the puritans the narrator suggests has been lost. The Salem witch trials were an opportunity for the neighbors to vent against neighbors to publicly air long standing jealousy to accuse those they disliked and all while sounding righteous and religious. The first scene opens as Tituba the Rev Parisis slave enters the bedroom.
Carol Karlsen 's The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England provides a sociological and anthropological examination of the witchcraft trends in early New England. By examining the records, Karlsen has created what she suggests was the clichéd 'witch ' based on income, age, marital status, etc. She argues that women who had inherited or stood to inherit fairly large amounts of property or land were at particular risk, as they "stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to the next." These women, Karlsen suggests, were targeted largely because they refused to accept "their place" in colonial society.
Today, Your Honour we are here to exonerate the wrongfully convicted men and women of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts. Men and women were accused of witchcraft, 19 well respectable people were hung. As we know religion has no place in court, therefore eliminating the conclusion of witchcraft. Leaving us to look for other reasons and motives that appeal to human emotion such a s fear, greed and jealousy. Emotions like this led to the deaths in Salem.
