How Did The Salem Witch Trials Affect America Today

According to Christine Heyrman, the name Salem means peace. The Salem Witch Trials were disreputable for many reasons, which makes the Hebrew meaning of Salem sort of ironic because the trials were everything but peaceful. The trials occurred in a village in colonial Massachusetts during 1692-1693 (Blumberg). During this period, around 200 people were accused of witchcraft. One thing starting this period of time was the devil’s magic. In the late 1600’s, the Salem Witch Trials began and have now influenced how America is today. Three fourths of the witch hunts took place in West Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland (Wallenfeldt). The trials didn’t just happen because of one thing, there were actually multiple issues that led to them.

In January of 1692, the reverends daughter, Elizabeth, and niece, Abigail, started having “fits.” These fits included screaming, throwing items, and being in weird positions. Of course, the colony blamed the supernatural (Wallenfeldt). Witches were considered followers of Satan and were often identified by hearing rumors or suspicions.

Tituba, a local slave, was one out of the three women that was blamed by the two girls. Tituba later confessed and admitted that she was a witch, but said there were other witches in Salem. Now historians believe that people in the colonies took advantage of the witch trials and blamed everyone that they disapproved of (Brooks). The stereotype of witches is that they are ugly, green, have warts, and fly on broomsticks. During the trials, the “witches” looked nothing like that. The people who were accused of witchcraft looked like normal humans. Witchcraft tended to be a female crime and most of the people accused were women (britannica.com). Out of all the people who were tried, 85% of them were female (Day). Other people who were accused were the poor members of the Puritan

If this were true, then why did the government leaders eventually say that the trials were unlawful? They knew that what they did was wrong and immoral because they should not have killed innocent people without some sort of proof. At some point in history, people had to realize that they didn’t want to be afraid anymore. The actions of the Puritans in North America proved to be embarrassing for religious minorities in England (Johannes). Like I stated before, the colony knew that it had done something wrong. 1702 was the year that they officially declared that the Salem Witch Trials were unlawful. Nine years later, in 1711, government officials passed a bill forgiving the people who were accused (history.com). The trials left an impression on early American colonists. Two words that really describe the trials are paranoia and injustice. The trials were not a good thing for our society, but we know we are where we are at because of them. We have learned from our mistakes and now our court system does a better job of not accusing people without any proof. A big example of why the Salem Witch Trials were important is because we now have something called the “separation of church and state” which is in the Constitution. This is the relationship between religion and a