Why Is The Salem Witch Trials Still Relevant Today

he Salem Witch Trials could be seen as one of the steps towards America’s democratic emergence. However, instead of blaming the cause of the witch trials on deranged colonists it can be seen as the collapse of religious expression into affairs of state and government. At the time, overly religious and scared villagers made it seem as if the whole trials were the cause of a Devil and spirits. Also the sources today, on the Salem Witch Trials avoid the truth about what really caused the Salem Witch Trials. It can clearly be seen that without the separation of church and government, the religious fears of the colonists found itself into the government. The use of “spectral evidence”, such as using dreams can be used in court as evidence, legally.

Current sources state that the cause of the Salem Witch Trials were all due to the fears, and strict religion of the colonists. However no sources state the religion affecting the government and the government's actions. The role of religion played a huge role during the Salem Witch Trials. In the present time, thanks to the constitution we have a clear separation of religion and government. Unlike the time during the Salem Witch Trials, before the Constitution was written, there was no clear separation between the government and church. With the people continuously adding their personal opinions and religion into the government, the government starts to fall with the belief of the colonists. The colonists who made up the government also start to use their own opinions while judging for the trials, leading to a misjudgement. Therefore due to the continuous reinforcement of religion into the government, the lives of many innocent colonists were lost. Although present sources don’t show the religion affecting the government during the Trials, the continuous pressure of religion on the government was always there, and always will

Due to the constant fear of religion pressuring the government, the government legalized “spectral evidence”. By legalizing spectral evidence is starts to show the effects of religion on the government. The colonist’s fear of the “witches”, finds itself into the government, making them use “imaginary” evidence as a legal form of someone accusing another colonists of being a witch. As a result many colonists lost their lives by false accusation due to jealousy, anger, and fights. Without the separation of government and religion, it is clearly shown that the outcome of the two are devastating. The government continuously tried to “solve” the problem, that was terrorizing the people in their town. However without realizing, while trying to find a solution to the problem, the government allowed themselves to be manipulated by the religion that was the problem they were trying solve in the first place. Although it cannot be seen, religion was always the “problem” that inflicted the fears into the townspeople. The “problem” that affected the people, also inflicted the government, which made the government use “imagination” as part of legal evidence. Which was their attempt of “solving the problem” that controlled their people, however it ended up controlling the government