How Did The Salem Witch Trials Happen

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions that lead to the death of 20 innocent lives with over 200 accused of Witchcraft. However, I believe that something similar would’ve happened if the Salem witch trials didn’t happen. Salem was a ticking time bomb ready to explode any moment. The restrictive Puritan society coupled with personal fear of the severe punishments that ensues witchcraft, and people’s natural inclination for survival and power made Salem an ideal setting for mass hysteria. The restrictive Puritan society allowed for people to use the system according to their advantages. The Puritan society was restrictive in many ways, not only on their strict religious legal system, but the fact that there was extreme

The natural human desire to survive coupled with fear allowed for the rampant false accusations to ensue in such a short amount of time. Another factor for such a fast snowball effect to occur was the already tense environment that was in place (such as land disputes) causing people to blame people that they dislike or have a grudge against. If everyone was like John Proctor who viewed their personal integrity and the lives of the people around him, there would be no snowball effect that would eventually engulf the entire Town. It is because of personal fear of the painful and deadly execution methods that are used in Salem which encourages people to quickly blame other people to avoid their painful execution. In a way it is ironic to see painful execution methods encouraging criminal activities, which were originally used as a deterrent criminal

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, people’s natural inclination for power made leeway for tension in the Puritan community which lead to people falsely accusing one another to later buy their property. Another prime example of this is Abigail herself, although she did accuse people at first for the sake of her survival, she realized she could use her position to accuse many more people in the end to reign power over the people that did her wrong in the past. The scenario was a Ponzi scheme with no other alternative than death and it was just a matter of time this virus would engulf the entire town of Salem. That doesn’t mean that there were people that had interests besides survival. John Proctor being one of the people that chose his personal integrity over his survival for the sake of his children and his grandchildren being able to live a life without being a martyr was more important. He was executed, but died in a heroic