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How Did The Cause Of 1692 Salem Witch Trials

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In 1692, A town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village became known for 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. What started as a silly game between children slowly brought Salem Village to the edge of insanity? This insanity led to the killing of 25 innocent people due their “crimes of witchcraft”. …show more content…

The standard contract for minister during this time period included: a small amount of firewood, a generous salary, and the use of a house in the village. The new minster was Samuel Parris and he received all these benefits and more. Samuel Parris not only received a nice salary, but he also received deeds to land in the surrounding area. This added perk in the minister’s contract made many of the resident angry because they felt Samuel Parris did not deserve deeds to land since he had just come to town. This act especially angered the residents who wanted to stay a part of Salem Town. Despite the disagreement over his contract, Samuel Parris’ first two years started out smoothly in Salem. As time went by, the dissatisfaction towards Samuel Paris became evident and the townspeople began to loathe him. Many of the citizens saw traits in Samuel Parris they did not like. Samuel Parris upheld the strict Puritan ideals that Salem Town was slowly moving away from. Samuel held strict church membership and attendance policies for the townspeople of Salem. Samuel Parris significance to the start of the Salem Witch Trials is that he represents the danger of truly upholding the puritan standards. Also the blame for the Salem Witch Trials can be placed on Samuel Parris because the first accusation of witchcraft came from his household. Samuel Parris fueled the trials with harsh sermons. An example of this can be seen when is delivering a sermon to the church and he says “After ye condemnation of 6. Witches at a Court at Salem, one of the Witches viz. Martha Kory in full communion with our Church.”Samuel Parris harsh messages to the citizens of Salem contributed to the mass hysteria because his speeches created much fear. This fear was due to Samuel Parris’ speeches instilling the mindset that they were betraying God if they did not turn the people in

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The witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.

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Samuel Parris was a man who cared a little too much about people 's opinion about him because of him being power hungry. He had a right to feel like that as a minister but because he cared so much it lead him to make poor decision. During the trials he only cared about clearing Abigail and Betty 's name so he wouldn 't look bad for having witchcraft under his roof. He didn 't really care about everyone

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Reverend Samuel Parris played a significant role in the Salem witch trials, and many historians believe that he is the most responsible for the hysteria that swept through the town. There are several reasons why Parris is considered to be the most responsible for the witch trials. First, Parris was a divisive figure in the community. He was a strict Puritan minister who was known for his fire-and-brimstone sermons.

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Nineteen men and women hung from the tree of destruction, for they were the ornaments of hysteria. New England was supposed to be a land of opportunity for the Puritans. During the summer of 1692, Salem Village proved to a wretched example of this; twenty people were falsely accused of witchcraft and were accordingly jailed and executed. Salem’s infamy has bewildered many, for nobody truly knows in entirety what caused the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Clearly, there were a few possible causes of the hysteria; however, envious, young, single women; sexism; and lying little girls stand out as the main causes.

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Character Analysis: Rev. Parris Parris is a reverend from Salem he is an old man who lives with Tituba a black woman from the island of Barbados and also his daughter Betty and also Abigail a young girl obsessed with John proctor. He wants to have lots of control over the land he demonstrates this very often throughout the text for example when he is freaking out about his niece being a “witch” and how they will remove him from power if this is true. He is also very manipulate he demonstrates this when he forces his Abigail to tell him what happened in the forest. He is also very paranoid towards everyone in the village he shows this when they are in the court and john proctor says that there is no type of witchery and that Parris has known

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The Salem Witch Trials In March 1692, Rebecca Nurse, an elderly woman and respected member of Salem Village, was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. She was accused based solely on the testimony of four young girls who claimed that the apparition of Rebecca Nurse had severely harmed them. Many witnesses testified in favor of her, but ultimately the "afflicted girls" prevailed. Nurse was executed on July 19, 1692.

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The Massachusetts Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were unfortunate, unforgettable tragedies that resulted in the slaughtering of innocents, tests and punishments against accused witches, and ultimately regret that tore a community apart. Puritans were wary of witchcraft so by the end of May 1692 prisons were full of people who were believed to have sold their soul to the devil (Wilson 103). However, the accused citizens had much to say about that outrageous claim. Sarah Good, a woman executed in July of 1692 due to the Salem Witch Trials yelled this as she was being convicted; “You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you my blood to drink” (Brandt 34).

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To avoid ruining his family’s reputation, he starts siding with Abigail about people being possessed of witchcraft. Parris knew that accusing was wrong and that all of this were stories but because of he was concerned his image, he leads Salem to more paranoia with witches. In fact, Parris tries to accuse John Proctor of “ trying to over throw the court.” He was so scared that John

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Reverend Parris’s need for a good reputation had an impact of the tragic ending in Salem. An example of Reverend Parris’s desire of good reputation shows when he makes the claim “I am certain there be no element of witchcraft here”(Miller 14). Although he knows Abigail might be involved in witchcraft he is arguing against it so that no one will suspect that he is connected to witchcraft in any way. He doesn’t want his reputation in the town to be ruined. Reverend Parris drills Abigail about what the girls were doing in the forest because it reflects on him.

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Reverend Hale comes to Salem to help the sick children, but he eventually realizes that there are no real witches in Salem. Reverend Parris goes to court with Abigail to keep her out of trouble because there cannot be witches in his house. Parris is caught up in the fact that he could lose his job, but if his world did not revolve around power then lives could possible have been saved. His motivations led him to testify against an innocent man, known as John Proctor, to save his name and reputation. Many people panicked in Salem and often chose the wrong way to handle situation and as a result, many people did not survive the Salem witch

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What were the causes of the Salem Witchcraft Trials? One of the causes for the Salem Witchcraft trials is Abigail Williams not telling the truth to her uncle Rev. Parris, after he caught them dancing in the woods around a fire. Also the next morning when her cousin Betty Parris didn’t wake up, then Mrs. Putnam saying that their daughter Ruth is acting strange. Then when the grown ups walked out room Betty wakes up and saying “You drank blood to kill Goody Proctor”(p.837)

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Reverend Parris shows the first example of the importance of reputation in the Salem. In Act I, lines 63-66, Parris discovers the girls dancing in the forest; he recognizes the threat of witchcraft that has formed in his

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The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.

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Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.

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Reverend Parris was the uncle of Abigail Williams and all he wanted was to have a good reputation in the community. At the start of the Crucible the girls were dancing around a fire in the woods in the middle of the night which was perceived as conjuring spirits during the salem witch trials times. Reverend Parris was in the woods and saw the ceremony going on and when the girls got caught they scattered around. Normally that would be reported immediately and the punishment to the girls would be getting whipped. To keep his reputation reverend Parris kept it to himself until the very end of the movie when he reluctantly told governor Danforth because reverend Hale and John Proctor brought it up.

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