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Salem witch trials encyclopedia britannica
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Summary of the salem witch trials
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In 1692, as the puritans of Salem Massachusetts over-turn on each other, they started scapegoating many of their villagers with witchcraft. During this time many were murdered unfairly. The Salem Witch Trials was a reformation of the government. People believed that this was an era where the devil gave certain humans powers to harm others in joining them into their beliefs. It was certain to happen, because many had personal envy which caused many of the accusations,trials, and the implementations.
In Massachusetts during 1692, Salem Village underwent a time of grief, trial, death, and Witchcraft. The chaos in Salem Village began when young girls would have what they called “fits” and they would scream vey vulgarly and fall onto the ground and shake uncontrollably (Magoon 6). These fits frightened the surrounding people and the Doctors of Salem couldn't find a diagnosis. After studying and trying to understand the illness they had, the people of Salem came to the conclusion that these girls were possessed by the Devil (Magoon 7). The result would lead to one of the most recognized events in American History, the Salem Witch Trials.
The Background of the Salem Witch Trials and How They Affected America The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 when teenage girls’ behaviors were questioned at reverend Samuel Parris’ house. The girls were accused of performing dark ritual dances in the woods. They would randomly fall on the ground and scream hysterically. After this strange event this type of behavior was spreading throughout the whole town.(History of salem). There were 140 people accused of being witches.
The Salem witch trials were the cause of 25 innocent women, men, and children. Salem was a town that settled in 1626 and was made up of puritans, which was a group of English protestants. The people were afraid of disease and starvation and the relationships of the people were non existent, in fact they did not like each other. In the winter of 1692 two cousins Betty Paris and Abigail Williams began to act strange so they were checked on and although he determined there was nothing physically wrong with them he determined that they were possessed and as news began to spread so did the “possession “. This eventually led to four of the girls accusing 4 women of tormenting them, these women were considered outsiders and they were swiftly arrested.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 have become a prominent event in American culture. A series of the witch trials took place near Salem, part of the Massachusetts colony, in which more than 150 men and women were accused of witchcraft and dozens deteriorated in jail for months without trials. Those who were found guilty were hanged on nearby Gallows Hill. Only a combination of economic conditions, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies can account for the mass hysteria, spiraling accusations, trials, and execution that occurred in Salem Village, Massachusetts.
Centuries ago within the two years of 1692 and 1693, the Salem witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. During this tragic event, there were over two hundred people, including male and female, who were accused of being witches. Isolating the accusations, there were only about twenty or those people who were executed for the practice of “Devil’s Magic”. Such practice of witchcraft was against many religions, like Christianity (Blumberg). The trials begin in January of 1692 because of Reverend Parris’ daughter, Elizabeth (who was only nine), and his niece, Abigail Williams (who was eleven).
The Salem Witch Trials were a terrible event in human history that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The Trials started with a few people being accused of witchcraft and did not take long to transform into mass hysteria among the town. There are many theories for what caused the Witch Trials. Some people would argue that the girls led by Abigail Williams caused the Salem Witch Trials, or that the “ignorant” judge failed to see through their lies. However, the true reason why the Witch Trials took place is the society that people lived in and a parasitic fungus called Ergot.
The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690’s were a period of mass hysteria. Neighbors turned on neighbors and families got torn apart. Salem was full of fear as people accused everyone of witchcraft. Everyone was afraid that the Devil was working to destroy Christian communities. And even more afraid that he was enlisting women in the community to do his work.
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of events that occurred within the 1690's. The numerous allegations lead to hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, most of them women. Additionally, the accusations lead to community wide hysteria and blood thirst for the death of nearly all the accused witches.
Throughout History, women have long struggled and fought for the same equality, justice, and rights as males in society. Historians have two opposing views of what life was like in Puritan society. One side argues that Puritan society was a golden age for women as they worked alongside their husbands, had an important role in the household. However, opposing historians argue that Puritan women were inferior to men in the society for five main reasons. Women were inferior because they were supposed to be silent company, they only received half the inheritance of their brothers, they were meant to have and take care of the children, they received harsher punishment for their wrongs, and they had to follow strict rules.
Salem Village, as part of the colony of Massachusetts Bay experienced turmoil from external and internal factors that contributed to the crisis known as the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692 to 1693. Being accused of witchcraft that lead to a trial was not unheard of before this event, however the scale and hysteria of the event can be attributed to a few factors. The mass hysteria experienced by Salem Village did not appear out of nowhere. There was a sense of unease and fear due to the ongoing war between New France and New England, King William’s War. Not far North of Salem Village there were raids of towns by Native American’s on behalf of the French, including Andover, Massachusetts where they burned the village, and in the following year
The Salem Witch Trials began in Salem Massachusetts in 1629. Many people were accused of being a witch and many lives were lost. In Author Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail Williams is the most to blame for the events of the Salem Witch Trials.
The Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692 in Salem Town and Salem Village. They were a devastating event that took place in the 1690’s several girls began to have fits and it was declared that an evil hand was doing this to them so they were asked to name the ones who were doing this to them, men and women were accused, imprisoned, sentenced and some even hanged and one man pressed to death because he would not appear in court. These trials took place in Salem Town and Salem Village. This happened because children were to act as adults and there was nothing for these in between girls so they took up amusement of their own; forming a circle of girls, going into fits of an evil nature and then gaining attention of the
The tight-knit community of Salem was rife with suspicion and anxiety. The settlers faced many challenges, including harsh living conditions, disease, and conflicts with Native American tribes. In this environment, any deviation from the norm is met with fear and apprehension. The sudden and unexplained afflictions experienced by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the two young girls who started the accusations, fueled panic. Their strange behavior, characterized by fits, convulsions, and hallucinations, baffled the community.
The events in Salem in 1692, were but one chapter in a long story of witch hunts that began in Europe between 1300 and 1330 and ended in the late 18th century (britannica). In the Spring of 1692, paranoia broke out that is much too familiar to us today. Adolescent girls, in an effort to shift blame for their own delinquent behavior, used their current social climate to start a wave of mass hysteria and panic that involved multiple communities. Salem Village was half of the overall Salem community, and the other half was the more influential Salem Town (britannica). Salem Village leaders, that included the minister, the doctor, and the magistrates supported the girls unsubstantiated and otherwise false claims against villagers.
