History Of The Salem Witch Trials

How would you react if you were accused of being involved in witchcraft? In today’s time no one is phased at the thought of being called a witch, but back in the seventeenth century that was a growing concern among the people. Within the seventeenth century individuals of the Puritan religion began to move to Colonial America with the ideas of religious freedom. However, the concept of religious freedom did not go very far. Once they were settled in Colonial America, the Puritans began to prosecute anyone else who did not follow the Puritan religion. The individuals who were not involved with the Puritan religion faced being beaten, jailed, and even being kicked out of the colony. This maltreatment led to the colonization of Rhode Island, in

Once they were put on trial, they were given tasks to complete to try and prove to the others that they were not bewitched, such as reciting the Lord’s prayer. Nonetheless, during the time the individuals were reciting the prayer, it is said that the young girls would begin to act out even more. With those actions being placed in the middle of the court case, almost everyone tried was convicted of witchcraft. Many turned to dealing with the accusations by confessing to being a witch. Once the individual confessed they were no longer facing execution, but they still faced imprisonment. Multiple accused individuals died while they were in prison, due to the terrible conditions. During the time of imprisonment the accused people were said to have been tortured and even denied water to try and get them to confess to being witches. One common story that is spoken with the Salem Witch Trials really shows how far they went with the situation. That story involves a man named Giles Corey, who was accused of being a witch, but unlike the others he refused to plead in any way. In an effort to get him to talk, Corey was forced to remove his clothes and lay flat on his back where they began to place large rocks on top of his body. They kept Corey in this position for two days until he died, adding more

Many innocent people were put to their death over foolish accusations of being involved with witchcraft. No one really knows the true reasons for why the young girls started to say they were possessed and that people they knew were witches, or even why the villagers decided to believe them. Over the years, many people have come up with different assumptions to try to explain what might have actually been going on during the trials such as the idea of the girls simply wanting to receive as much attention as they could possibly have. Another idea individuals have come up with was that the bread the villagers were eating included a mold which simulated the effects of LSD. However, no one actually knows the truth of what happened in the village of Salem during the trials except for the people who were actually involved. The Salem Witch Trials were such a terrible moment in history for the people of Salem, Massachusetts they eventually decided to rename the area to Danvers in hopes to forget what all occurred in that small village. In the end, the Salem Witch Trials could be considered a very lurid moment of history due to the fact that the villagers in that town went so far into their religious beliefs that they actually went along with the idea that the people they grew up with, the people they married, and even their families were involved in