The Salem Witch Trials
On a day that had started out the same as any other, in January of 1962, Reverend Parris’ nine year old daughter, Elizabeth, and 11 year old niece, Abigail Williams, began having manic episodes. The girls would shout blasphemies, utter peculiar sounds, throw things, hide under or behind things, enter into trances, contort their bodies in odd and unnatural positions, and would run around pretending to be different creatures. Reverend Parris did not know what had gotten into the two. Reverend Parris summoned the local doctor to try and find an explanation as to why the children were acting out. The only reason the doctor could come up with was that the supernatural had to have been playing a part in the girls swift and abrupt change in behavior. Later on, the girls that were bewitched became known as the “afflicted girls.” Two men named Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne began interrogating the girls about who or what had came to them. After being pressured by the men, the girls accused three women of afflicting them: the Parris’ Caribbean slave, Tituba; a homeless beggar, Sarah Good: and an elderly impoverished woman, Sarah Osborne. All three of the women accused were social outcasts, so people willingly believed that they could be involved in witchcraft.
All three of the accused women were found and taken into custody. Starting on March 1, 1692, the women were brought before the local magistrates and interrogated for several days about inflicting the
The first ones to be affected by witchcraft were Betty, who was 9, and Abigail, who was 11: both showed symptoms of ergot poisoning, and both fit in the age group (Pruitt). It is the same for the other girls; they all have symptoms related to ergot poisoning, and they are all in the same age group. Their guardian Parris was the minister of the town and they took the word of God seriously(Weller 1:05) so they had no reason to fake it because that would go against God, making them sin which was a really bad thing to them. Why would they do something that they knew would go against their faith by choice making it worse, unless it was
by Rosalyn Schanzer the madness began in February 1692 when 9-year-old Betty Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams began to twist and turn in the home of the Reverend Samuel Parris there was only one possible reason for it: witchcraft. They lived in Salem, Massachusetts where the Puritan populace knew anything was possible. The doctor tried every remedy, but nothing cured the young Puritans. He grimly announced the dire diagnosis: the girls were bewitched! And then the accusations began.
But it wasn't until February 1692 that Dr. William Griggs declared that the sick were bewitched.(The UnMuseum) The first person that was examined by Griggs was Samuel Parris’ daughter. Parris’ daughter would cower in fear of something that wasn't there. Also of Parris’ house, the maid, Abigail was showing the same signs as Parris’ young girl. After awhile, girls everywhere were showing signs of being scared when there was nothing there.
The lying caused the witch trial hysteria. In 1692,In salem massachusetts. The puritans believed of what they read in the bible and becasue of the fales accusations twenty people died. One of them was a man and he was pressed to death. The three causes of the salem witch trails were the dividing towns,lying,and age.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 realized the execution by hanging of fourteen women and five men reprimanded for being witches. one man was pressed to death by overpowering weights for declining to enter a supplication and more than one hundred and fifty individuals were detained while foreseeing trial. In light of the survival of various critical records, including notes, articulations, and power choices, the essential truths of the claims, catches, trials, and executions are known. On January 20, 1692, in Salem, the Reverend Samuel Parris' daughter, Elizabeth, and his niece, Abigail Williams, began show bizarre behavior, including thundering joke and going into trances. Sarah and Osborne maintained that they were exemplary and stayed unconscious of
Doctor William Griggs declared all those afflicted bewitched and the village agreed with this statement. Indian slave couple Tituba and John were accused in the making of the witch-cake which all those afflicted had had. Tituba was reverend Parris slave, caretaker of Abigail and Betty. February 25 and 28 Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good also accused as the tormentors. The first three women to be accused witches were not originally born in Salem and Tituba was also linked towards the Indian war.
The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693, it affected the entire town of Salem, but personally affected approximately 150 accused witches (women) and warlocks (men), about 30 of which were executed. When one was convicted of witchcraft it was believed that they had supernatural powers that were given by the devil (in return for being loyal to him), to harm innocent people. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout Massachusetts, a special court was assembled to hear the cases. The first person, Bridget Bishop, was accused in and executed (by hanging) in June 1692. The local justice system was overwhelmed, in some cases, the judge sentenced them to drowning, in this method, they would throw the alleged witch into a deep pond or lake and if they drowned they were pure and not a witch, if they floated, they were a witch and would be burned at the stake.
Outside on a beautiful day, planting your crops. Along comes an angry woman, storming into your face. Yelling nonsense, accusing you of being indoors making strange teas. You notice this is a council wife. She takes you to court, spitting nonsense about your afternoon activities.
Since England had their own witch hunts, it was said that the anxiety spread to New England mainly because of a pamphleteer Cotton Mather. It started early 1692 when the daughter and niece of Salem local minister, Samuel Parris had strange violent convulsions and loud outbursts. The only local doctor of the village which only could read but not write, then concluded that the girls were bewitched. There were three primary “suspected” witches, the minister’s slave Tituba, Sarah Good
The years of 1692 and 1693 were a terrible time in Salem Massachusetts. The presence of the devil was in Salem. People living there were practicing witchcraft. Young women were barking like dogs and acting strangely. All this behavior would lead to what became known as the Salem witch trials.
Mental Illness in Salem Witch Trials Introduction Witchcraft is the practice of magic and the use of spells and the invocation of spirits. According to Salem Witch Trials, 2015, the Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts claimed to have been bewitched by several adults in the town. More than 150 people were accused and hung, including men, women, and children (Salem Witch Trials, 2015). There were three girls in particular that sparked the trials: Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and Ann Putnam. Also stated in Salem Witch Trials, their behaviors changed drastically; they began to hallucinate, shout in church, have fits, not eat, not wake up, attempt to fly, and feel as if they
The Salem witch trials were the prosecution of people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts from June to September 1692 by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Though the trials were held in Salem, the accused were brought in from the neighboring towns of Amesbury, Andover, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Gloucester as well. To this day the trials are considered the epitome of injustice, paranoia, scapegoating, mass hysteria, and mob justice. The results were almost 200 arrests, 19 executed “witches”, one man pressed to death, one man stoned to death, and two dogs killed because they were suspected to be familiars of their owners who were accused of being witches. (Familiars are evil spirits in the form of animals used by witches to cast spells and perform
One cause of the witch trial hysteria was the story of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the two were cousins, they decided to visit a fortune teller. This occurred on February 29, 1692, shortly after receiving their fortunes Parris’s father, who was a priest, began to notice that his daughter was acting strange, he eventually found out about the session with the teller and was
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.
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.