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The Salem Witch Trials: Examples Of Mass Hysteria

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Mass hysteria a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, Irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness (Dictionary.com). An Example of Mass Hysteria is The Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials happened in 1692 when girls called witchery on the town of Salem, Massachusetts. These girls thought to have seen the devil, but they really hadn't as they were trying to protect each other. The Trials ended up taking 20 lives of innocent villagers who were being accused of witchery. Later in 1693, the court finally ruled the accusing unlawful and those who have not been hung were released from jail. How do other instances of mass hysteria compare to the Salem Witch Trials? In history, …show more content…

This theory was started in Belgium at a college where one hundred students all of a sudden became ill after drinking Coca-Cola (The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating). The illness sent Europe into public and cost Coca-Cola two-hundred million dollars. The drink was banned in Europe for several days until Belgium Scientist proved the Coke was safe. Scientists say that the victims experienced a “mass psychogenic illness.” All of these incidents are similar to the Salem Witch Trials. All these events have mass hysteria involved in them, which basically explains how all of these events caused panic but then was later proven wrong. The Salem Witch Trials were just like these incidents in some type of way because they all proposed threats against society (Holy hysteria a new look at the Salem …show more content…

All of these events involved the idea of a sickness or death taking over the world which is basically how the Salem Witch Trials were. In conclusion, all of these events represent mass hysteria that can be compared the Salem Witch trials. The Indian Alien Scare was a threat to society because it sent everyone into panic thinking that there was a face scratcher who was killing people in the town. The Contaminated Coca-Cola Scare was basically the idea that coke was putting a chemical in the coke to get people sick. The kissing bug scare was the belief that a kissing bug was going around America and poisoning people on the lips. The Salem Witch Trials resembled the characteristics of all these different events which involved mass

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Although there were many possible causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692, social division and drama were the most significant. Interestingly, historians have found out about the differences that were present between the accused and the accusers of the witches that fueled the witch hunt. Accordingly, the eastern side of Salem was more powerful and wealthier than the western side of town, which consisted of most accusers who charged people on the east (Doc E). As it is possible to see, there was a division, or crack, in the community, and the western half became jealous or disliked the others in the other half.

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The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.

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The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

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Meaning, one or two people show signs of illness that they blame on things such as genies, ghosts, or in this case, witches and suddenly others begin to show the same symptoms. Mass hysteria typically occurs in high-stress situations among people in confined areas, such as the small colonial village in Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a catastrophic overreaction to mass psychogenic illness. It all began when two young girls began

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Salem Witch Trials were a series of prosecutions and hearings of people being accused of witchcraft, at which it took place in 1692 and in 1693. Similar to that, was the Red Scare. The Red Scare, commonly known as McCarthyism, took place from 1959-1954 and was a campaign that endorsed the use of unfair allegations and or investigations. The horrible rumors and acts in both events really made people fear what was going on around them and pushed them to act on it, which lead to if you were with us or against us, which came with punishments and or hangings. Both the themes fear and with us or against us, play huge roles and are major factors in the upsurge of the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare.

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People were so full of fear that they would do anything to eliminate their anxiety. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950s reenacted the hysteria of the Salem witch trials of 1692 by spreading mass fear of prosecution, creating false accusations, and blacklisting people. The Salem witch trials were considered to be America 's most notorious episode of witchcraft hysteria. Many innocent people were killed as a result of false accusations, and many other women were put through trials to determine if they were witches.

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The Salem Witch Trials and The Holocaust are two past events that are commonly known and remembered today for the prosecution of many innocent deaths. These two took place in different areas as well as different time periods but are still comparable in numerous ways with the death tolls, the people who took leadership, and the way it affects history today for example. The Holocaust is known for the five to six million jews that were burned, shot, hung, or even experimented on (www.history.com). Several different individuals were punished for unique characteristics (Wiesel,).

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Mass hysteria has taken the country more than once by surprise. Throughout history people have been targeted for things that are no fault of their own. The Aids epidemic and The Salem Witch Trials have many things in common, such as, discrimination, and false accusations. The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692(Salem Witch Trials).It all started with young girls accusing

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The Salem Witch Trials was one of the products of mass hysteria in 1692. This gave me a curious question, how did the Salem Witch Trials start and end? The current events that were happening around Salem and the emergence of the belief of supernatural powers, specifically ones to harm others. Many girls were diagnosed with bewitchment which started the mass hysteria. The trials last for quite a while, with 151 hangings during that time.

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Mass hysteria can make people do terrible things. In arthur miller’s the crucible tells the story of mass hysteria in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 where people were being hunting and killing innocent people being accused of being something there not.www.history.com Miller uses this story to tell people that the Rewww.history.comd Scare during the 1950’s is the same mass hysteria as the salem witch trials. Miller was accused of being a communist just like people being accused of witchcraft during the salem witch trials.www.history.com The salem witch trials started in the spring in 1692. The Salem witch trials was started by a 9 year old name betty parris and a 11 year old named Abigail williams.www.history.com A doctor by the name of William

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Mass hysteria is a great enemy to humans and just makes us look like we aren’t worth a single breathe. One of the best and craziest examples of mass hysteria is the never to be forgotten ole Salem witch trials. Arthur miller wrote a great play about what is believed to have happened in Salem during the the late 1600’s. The play's name is the Crucible. Many people including myself believe that Arthur miller had a point to make in mind while writing the Crucible.

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The Salem Witch Trials were a time of confusion, mistrust and hysteria. Neighbors and families would turn on one another for their own safety against a possible death sentence. Starting in June of 1962, the Salem Witch trials lead to the persecution of ____ men, women and children. Many people believe that witch hunts are a thing of the past when in reality they have become more common and __________. The term witch hunt is used today to describe cyber bullying and is often the result of the production of false news.

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The salem witch trials and LGBT marriage rights are situations that have drastically inclined because they were negatively impacted by authority figures irrational fears or personal integrity. both of these situations are good examples to demonstrate how authority figures irrational fears or personal integrity can cause hysteria to grow among populations. In each case, a primary cause of the hysteria was because of the misuse of power that authority figures have. The reason Authority figures misuse of power was an issue with because since this is something you can 't really you can 't prove in anyway and they didn 't know back then much around the topic of science it was easy for them to be scared and gullible and and gullibility

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Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.

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Fear that spread among a group of people in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials, that event in history is a prime example of Mass Hysteria. In Salem the reason why so many women were killed was because of Mass Hysteria. It caused many people, in Salem during this event to think fast, rash and jump to conclusions. “The Crucible”, a short play dedicated to these events in Salem shows us how hysteria was such a leading cause of why the Witch Trials had even occurred. Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams and Judge Danforth.

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