Salem Witch Trials In 1692

In 1692, A town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village found itself in one most documented cases of mass hysteria in history. This saga started with three girls: Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Parris, and Ann Putnam a neighborhood friend. Abigail Williams, the niece of the town’s minister, began to display weird and questionable behavior. The town’s physician,William Greggs, was called to determine the cause of this sporadic behavior. The town’s physician determined that the three girls were under “the Devil’s influence” and they had been bewitched. What started as a silly game between children slowly brought Salem Village to the edge of insanity? This insanity lead to the killing of 25 innocent people due their “crimes of witchcraft”.

In the years prior, the town of Salem had seen its fair share of hardships. One major hardship included the revoking of the town’s charter by King Charles II in 1684. The charter was very important because it was a document that allowed the citizens to colonize the area. Without the charter the people would not have the rights to their own land. The king of England believed that the citizens of Salem had neglected several provisions of the original document. After King Charles death in the year 1692, King James II later took over and merged the Massachusetts Bay Colony into what is known as the Dominion of New England. The main reason King James II merged the colonies was because he wanted to tighten his control over what went on in the New England colonies. Later in the year 1691, the new royal family, King William and Queen Mary issued a charter that had a lot of anti-religious aspects. Instead of giving Salem the original and much simpler charter, King William and Queen Mary decide to combine Salem with the many of the surrounding colonies. The new charter by King William and Queen Mary wasn’t much different from the earlier charter created by King James II. All these events are significant to the witch trials because they caused a lot of discontent in the colony. The Puritans,who left England to

The majority of the people who wanted the two towns in Salem separated were the farmers and poor citizens. The citizens of Salem Town believed that the more prosperous Salem Town had abandoned the intentions of the original settlers. The individuals of Salem Town had become Individualistic. These individualistic views were the complete opposite of what the Puritans stood for upon their arrival . The Puritans believed in the importance of a community and working together. One of the largest farming families in Salem, The Putnams, felt that Salem Town had abandoned the Puritan’s original beliefs. Since the Putnam family owned so much farmland, they were the main ones pushing for separation from Salem Town. The Putnam family lived a simple and traditional Puritan lifestyle and they truly believed in the value of community working together over trying to make oneself rich. The Putnams seeing, how Salem Town clashed with their own values, created a unique congregation separate from Salem Town. What seemed like a great idea at first, presented many issues because the congregation only represented a select fraction of of the church. This select group that the congregation represented was the Putnam family. Not only did the idea of separating the two communities drive a wedge between Salem Town and Salem Village, but it also