Salem Witch Trials Cause And Effect

Curran McCartney

HIS 301

Professor Malcom

31 March 2018

The Salem Witch Trials and its Aftermath The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials and accusations against many people in the town of Salem Massachusetts that accused them of widespread witchcraft. This event in history took place for only one year, from 1692 to 1693. During this time period, over 200 people were accused of being a witch or performing some type of witchcraft and some even paid the ultimate price for a crime they never even committed. This event in history occurred through widespread hysteria created by lies from those who lived in the village. These lies that were spread around were about how the devil was there and took control of others so they could perform witchcraft

I want to explore this because this was a very important part of American history where the court systems were all ruled practically by religion and how the court systems rules were changed after the fact so that something like this would never happen again. The court systems were affected after this event because the rulings in these cases were very unfair to the accused. Some supposed witches were accused because they were seen in a dream of an accuser. I have two questions that I wish to explore in this paper; what was the cause and effect of these trials and what changes were implemented in the courts so people were given a fair

This question would be what problems arose during the trials that lead to the continuation of mass hysteria in the community? I wanted to focus more on other problems that lead to the growth of the witch hunts rather than just focusing on the aspect of religion alone. Were those who were accused have similar traits or aspects to them? Did the Indian wars near the town of Salem impact the hysteria in the town during the trials? Using these types of questions I hope to find out what problems really had a major impact on the Salem Witch Trials that led to events that happened the way they did. I will use primary sources such as books written by those who lived through the time period such as the book, “The MORE WONDERS OF THE Invisible World, Display'd in Five Parts” or other confessions to try to find some reasoning’s to why the witch hunt grew out of hand very quickly based on beliefs and lies in the community. I will also use my secondary sources to help understand connections or similar behaviors between the accused in the trials by using such materials as “Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials”, which examines a small sample of those accused in the trails. Also, I can use scholars such as Elaine G Breslaw and her findings in the confession of Tituba and how her confession