Salem Witch Trials During The Year Of 1962

The year of 1962 was a major turning point in history in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Nineteen people died as a result of the trials and more than hundred people were found guilty of practicing the Devil’s magic. This paper will debate the events leading up, the events that took place during and after the trials, and the children and women who suffered because this. The Salem witch trials began in the spring of 1692. A group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts claimed that the demon possessed them and “accused local women of the Devil’s magic” (www.history.com). The court declared Bridget Bishop of being a witch and hung her on June tenth. Eighteen more innocent women were hung on Salem’s Gallows Hill. About 150 more men, women, and children were accused of being witches. By September of 1962, the hysteria reduced.

“Witchcraft had started as early as the fourteenth century in Europe,” (www.history.com).

The witch trials was fueled by suspicions and resentment of neighbors and the fear of outsiders. An important figure was Samuel Parris, he was the minister of Salem Village. His daughter, nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris, and niece, eleven-year-old Abigail Williams began experiencing violent fits that included contortions and screaming uncontrollably. A “local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment” (www.history.com). “The young girls accused three women - Tituba, a slave; Sarah Good, a beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman,” (www.smithsonianmag.com). The three were brought before Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, the civil officers. Osborne and Good plead innocence, but Tituba plead guilty. This is a conversation between Hawthorne and