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Primary sources of salem witch trials
Primary sources of salem witch trials
Salem witch trials 1692
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Primary sources of salem witch trials
Primary sources of salem witch trials
Salem witch trials 1692
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Although there were many possible causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692, social division and drama were the most significant. Interestingly, historians have found out about the differences that were present between the accused and the accusers of the witches that fueled the witch hunt. Accordingly, the eastern side of Salem was more powerful and wealthier than the western side of town, which consisted of most accusers who charged people on the east (Doc E). As it is possible to see, there was a division, or crack, in the community, and the western half became jealous or disliked the others in the other half.
This caused the Puritans to believe in evil forces like the devil who could potentially try to lead them into temptation or other sinful things because their faith in God was so strong. In 1692, the Puritans worst nightmare had begun. The Salem Witch Trials had started and an estimated number of 200 people were accused of practicing dark magic and some had been punished by death. These trials consisted of bringing convicted witches into court and sentencing them to be hanged or in prison for many years if proven guilty. To the Puritans, the devil was as real as God, and the devil would choose the weakest people to torment, and those people were mostly women and children.
Witchcraft was a crime that was punishable by death. Many believed that there were truly evil forces at work other believed it was caused by jealousy or mania. The purpose of this essay is to explain what caused the Salem Witch trials. The leaders in Salem at the time were Puritans. “Puritans were Protestant Christians who were unhappy with the church in England.
These tensions in America’s Massachusetts Bay Colony erupted in the everlasting hysteria throughout 1692. “Over the course of 1692, 156 people were accused of witchcraft. Considering confessions as signs of repentance, the courts were more lenient with those who volunteered stories of dealing with the devil. Knowing that persistent denials were not believed, many confessed and implicated others in the process. Few of the staunch Puritans were willing to betray their morality by lying to save their lives.”
Mass Hysteria In the Salem Witch Trials Abigail is the one who starts the whole witch thing, when her and all the girl from the village were in the woods doing a ritual about who they wanted to marry. The girls didn't notice that someone had followed them into the woods and they were caught and a young child fell to her knees and into a comma. The townspeople thought it was to be witchcraft. Abigail didn't want the towns people to know so Abigail threatened the girls and told them if they were to talk she would kill them.
Meaning, one or two people show signs of illness that they blame on things such as genies, ghosts, or in this case, witches and suddenly others begin to show the same symptoms. Mass hysteria typically occurs in high-stress situations among people in confined areas, such as the small colonial village in Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a catastrophic overreaction to mass psychogenic illness. It all began when two young girls began
Puritans believed in evil supernatural beings like witches, werewolves, and the devil. Their beliefs of these supernatural presences led them to accuse women of witchcraft because they believed the devil possessed women and made them his servants. Ultimately, they put these women on trial, thus starting the Salem Witch Trials. Additionally, their spiritual intolerance manifested in their disdain for Native
The word hysteria defines an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion among a group of people. “Paranoia breeds paranoia,...” a famous quote from Arthur Miller’s essay that alludes to the use of mass hysteria that struck fear to the bourgeois of two eras that stained the face of American history. By creating and exploiting public hysteria as a means to obtain power and manipulate people as seen through the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the McCarthy Era which lasted a little under a decade. Both calamitous events shared common factors that contributed to their beginnings as well as helping them retain momentum.
Hysteria is defined as uncontrollable excitement, especially among a group of people. In the book there were a group of people (the Puritans ) who all were paranoid over something that isn’t even that large of a conflict. In the book accusations of neighbors, sisters, brothers, mothers, and even fathers being witches spread like a wildfire. “By March,
The Salem Witch Trials accusing others of a feared crime showed definite evidence that mass hysteria was to blame. Salem was a religious settlement, following Puritan beliefs (Miller, 6). A large fear for everyone in Salem was the touch of the Devil (Miller, Arthur). According to Puritan beliefs, if a man or woman was touched by the Devil he would convince them to do witchcraft. Once word was mentioned the Devil had possibly touched Salem, the fear spread.
The use of “spectral evidence”, such as using dreams can be used in court as evidence, legally.
What is a witch? A witch is a person who practices magic as part of a religion. In 1692, mass hysteria broke out in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of girls came together and said they had been possessed by the devil. Together the group of girls accused many women in their town of practicing witchcraft.
Our text defines mass madness as outbreaks in which large large numbers of people apparently share absurd false beliefs and imagined sights and sounds (Comer et al. 2014; p. 37). Mass madness, aka mass hysteria, has occurred throughout time and across the globe. Some historical examples of mass hysteria are the Salem witch trials (1600s), the red scare (1919-1920), and satanic daycare scandals (1980s). There are many examples of mass hysteria in recent times too.
The witchcraft of Salem, Massachusetts was an example of mass hysteria, it resulted in the hangings and deaths of many people from being charged with relations with the devil. The people who convicted the innocent were actually the ones who themselves had relations with the devil. The reasons the convictions happened were because of the young girls who got caught dancing around a fire in the moonlight and doing other practices, they didn’t want to get accused of the witchcraft so they ended up blaming other people who they were jealous of. Innocent people were accused and convicted on witchcraft making it the most unjustifiable testimonies in Salem.
Fear that spread among a group of people in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials, that event in history is a prime example of Mass Hysteria. In Salem the reason why so many women were killed was because of Mass Hysteria. It caused many people, in Salem during this event to think fast, rash and jump to conclusions. “The Crucible”, a short play dedicated to these events in Salem shows us how hysteria was such a leading cause of why the Witch Trials had even occurred. Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams and Judge Danforth.