The Significance Of The Salem Witch Trials In 1692

During the Salem witch trials in 1692 many people were accused of performing witchcraft. This essay will discuss the definition of a witch, who was classified as a witch, who were accused, what these said witches did to the people of salem, and the reasons as to why the accused were accused.

Definition of a Witch According to the smithsonianmag.com (2007) and History.com (2011) a witch is a human who through the Devil has the ability to harm people. The witches would harm people to prove their loyalty toward the Devil. Most often a witch is an outsider to the inner community who, compared to the Puritan community was the weakest. Again, however according to merrium-webster.com a witch is currently classifed as a women whom is thought to

They withdrew themselves from the church to remain pure. Most of those who moved to Salem were a “larger, better-financed group”. According to vcu.edu (n.d.) Puritans segregated themselves from Europe to show England “with its religion that they regarded as corrupted, just what a religious community could be” A couple of generations later after coming to New England, the puritans became “weak” and stopped with holding exactly what was expected of them. They began to “be rather cruel, involved in killing and persecuting the native Indians and people of other religions”. At the same time as this “The holy people of Salem found themselves doing what were some pretty unholy things, all in the name of

At the time of the Salem witch trials she was married to Edward Bishop, however, before she was married to Edward she was married twice before. She proved herself to be someone who was weak in nature to the Puritan belief and was accused because of it.

Church member Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse whose husband had high status in the community, and according to The Huffington Post (2013) those who were accused of being a witch in Salem were mainly an English Puritan, married with little to no children, had a bad reputation, had a history of crimes, female, middle aged, and were accused by another witch.

The accusations of witchcraft came from those who were afraid of outsiders, and because they had resentment towards those they accused. Most often the accused had higher titles in the community. Tituba was Parris’s house slave, she was accused because she was from another country and spoke another language. Tituba confessed to the witchcraft because she believed that the Devil would take her back to Barbados. According to school.discovereducation.com (n.d.) those who were accused were seen as outcasts to the community. Those who they seen were different and an outcast to their community were: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah