Salem Witch Trials Dbq Essay

In the Town of Salem, in Massachusetts, many people were being accused to be witches. Many accused, were lynched by the judge. Death's, day, by day. Girls, walking down the paths screaming that they are being tormented by witches, and cursing for no reason. Many innocent and guilty people were hung in the process. The hangings were carried out at monthly intervals. They wanted to have multiple people to put to death, so they wouldn’t have to do it very often. Plus, more people would be able to gather around to watch this. It would take a lot less time, and there was one mass hanging after the trial. The year of 1692 itself, there were 13 women, and 7 men put to death because they were accused of being possessed by the devil (Doc. A). The Salem

The younger generations believed that the older generations thought they were better. Most of the accused were between ages 41 and 60, while most of the accusers were between 16 and 20. The new generation decided to randomly accuse elders of being possessed by the devil because they wanted them gone. Many more women were killed than men because others believed that girls were the weaker gender. Also, people thought they themselves would be accused, so they kept accusing more people. They would not be able to defend themselves from the devil. Therefore, they were most likely witches. For example, 110 of the 134 that were accused were women. If one confessed they were set free. This was because they thought that if they confessed then the devil would not have any use for that person because everyone knew. The devil would leave the person's body soon after. It was showed that the people who were single were more likely to accuse others who were married (Doc.

The term afflicted girls are the accusers, the ones who have seen the witches. In the transcript written by Samuel Parris, Bridget Bishop is being accused of witchcraft. “When asked by one of her jailers, Bishop claimed that she was not troubled to see the afflicted persons so tormented, and could not tell what to think of them and did not concern herself about them at all. But the afflicted girls were not Bishop's only accusers. Her sister's husband claimed that "she sat up all night conversing with the Devil" and that "the Devil came bodily into her" (Document C?). With a whole town against her, Bishop was charged, tried, and executed within eight days. On June 10, as crowds gathered to watch, she was taken to Gallows Hill and executed by the sheriff, George Corwin” (Douglas O. Linder, 2009). She was remembered as the first witch to be hung during the Salem witch trials, In addition, there were many people that just accused random townspeople so that they wouldn’t be accused themselves. These people were known as the lying