Salem Witch Trials Essay

The Salem Witch Trials was an event caused by much more than a town full of “witches”. The small town in New England in 1962 faced one of the United States’ most disastrous mass genocides. A group of ten young girls accused roughly 200 people of making deals with the devil. Many of the accused were hanged at Proctor’s Ledge by Gallows Hill, while a few died in the jails waiting for their death sentence. The accusations were based almost entirely on spectral evidence, or evidence from the supernatural. This evidence is easily faked, so what really fueled the young girls to cause such hysteria? Often, the people accused had nothing of possession or were very rich with lots of land. Others were in the middle of disagreements with their neighbors.

Their lives revolved around worshiping. This also meant they had a heightened sense of fear of the devil. When rumor started that the devil may be in Salem, the community became extremely frightened. Witch accusations began, and people wanted answers. One of the accused villagers, Tituba, confessed to the crime of making deals with the devil (Brooks). This may have triggered the whole string of events that was the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba was the first to ever confess to such a crime. This confirmed the religious community’s fear of the devil living so close to

Many of the villagers were dealing with personal quarrels with each other. Neighbors who were in a disagreement decided to settle their differences by accusing one another of witchcraft, which would land their enemy in jail or hanged.
Reverend Samuel Parris used the trials for revenge. Parris had been elected reverend in the small town. A year into his term, he had still not recieved the pay of firewood he was promised from the committee in charge (Brandt). This angered Parris, and he looked for someone to get revenge on. Francis Nurse was one of the men on the committee. Parris’ niece was one of the original afflicted girls, so he persuaded her to accuse Rebecca Nurse, Francis’ wife, of witchcraft to get revenge on Francis. This lead to the death of Rebecca Nurse (Batchelder). The death of Rebecca was Parris’ way of getting his revenge.
Others who were greedy targeted the wealthy. For example, Giles Corey owned a bit of land and was living comfortably in his wealth. Thomas Putnam was not as comfortable, and seeked to own Corey’s land. Corey was not selling it, so Putnam encouraged his daughter to accuse Giles of witchcraft (Brooks). In his arrest, his land went up for sale and his wealth was left. Thomas Putnam was then able to purchase his