Do you have a neighbor that you really just don’t like? In 1600’s Massachusetts, there was a solution! You could tell everyone that they were a witch. Sure it might ruin their life, but hey, they’re out of yours. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials that occurred during Colonial America where many people, mostly women, were falsely accused of and wrongly punished for performing witchcraft. There is a well documented history of these accounts, including the causes, the results, and similar cases throughout history.
The Salem Witch trials popped up around 1692 and they were a disaster. The reason why they came up was because of their religion. The people in the town of Salem were puritans. This means their religion was very strict and that they believed in the devil. The way this all started was that the people who were accused of being witches were acting funny. Studies that were tested later said the reason why was because of something they ate. The people of the town were worried about these people because of rumors that were about these people. As the author says in the article, “One night, while trying to see the faces of their future husbands in an egg white dropped in a glass of water, one girl believed she saw the shape of a coffin” (Zeglin). Because the people thought they were seeing into the future, they had to be witches. They got accused and the girls said yes to being witches, but the said they wouldn’t do it again. They also blamed tons more of people to make this a big huge event. This caused around twenty-five deaths and all of it was for no good reasons as the state of Massachusetts later claimed that it was a
In 1692 the Salem witch trials were a big a deal keep reading reading to find out. Between June 10 - September 22 1692, 20 people were put to death in salem, massachusetts for witchcraft. It has long remained one of the more troubling events in American history. The Puritans were determined to farm on their new land. To guide them through this difficult life, Puritans had help - the word of God as spoken in the Bible. Whatever the bible said the puritans believed, and one subject about the devil. The devil was real and he was clever, one of his trick was to enter a normal person’s body and turn that person into a witch. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were caused by? The Salem witch trials in 1692 were caused by three things marital status, lying girls, and economic differences.
In 1692, the people in Salem, Massachusetts went on a hunt accusing people of being witches. This was a hysterical time in history known as the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials led to many distraught people and false accusations. The famous trials started with two sick children and then led to discrimination manly towards women of a lesser class. The accused people were tortured and eventually killed.
Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned and even more accused; but not pursued by the authorities. 29 were convicted of witchcraft but only 19 were hanged. The best known trials were in the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
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.
Nineteen people were hung due to false judgement by human nature and society. Taking place in a small village called Salem, inside of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a depressing seventeenth century, was a movement that would challenge the nation’s religious and psychological beliefs.
The first witch case involved Reverend Parris’ daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and his niece Abigail Williams, age 11, in January 1692. The girls were accused of having “fits”, that means that they were contorting their bodies
The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England. Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches. They claimed that spectral beings in the form of Tituba, a slave, Sarah Good, a beggar, and Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman who suffered financially, assaulted them. These girls were put under pressure by the magistrates
The Salem witch trials was one of the most famous witch hunt in history. More than 200
In Salem, Massachusetts there were Witch Trials held during the summer months of 1692. Throughout the seventeenth century in New England, witchcraft was said to be a crime punishable by death. Puritans came to New England in the early 1600’s to practice their Christianity in the purest form possible. They believed every word in the bible and that the words of God were to be followed down to the last sentence there was. Havoc started occurring around the town and 19 women along with men were hanged for witchcraft. Over 100 individuals were suspected to be witches in result to weird behavior before a disaster happens.
It started when a couple of girls from Salem encountered an African woman slave who knew about sorcery and fortune. After a few days, people noticed that they seemed different. When they were asked about it, they blamed the woman slave and two successful white women. After this incident, several accusers came up. They were typically young women that are slaves and lost one or both parents. The people they accuse are from wealthy upbringings, also women that are middle aged wives and widows.
George Jacobs Sr. said, “You tax me for a wizard, you may as well tax me for a buzzard I have done no harm.” Although his words were true, many chose to either believe this hysteria or turn the other way. He died along with many other women and men. This was just the start of the many terrors of the Salem witch trials. Yet if you confessed to being a witch then you had a better chance of living, but if you denied you would automatically get hanged. They killed 19 people in similar ways, but the last person wouldn’t go to trial, so they stoned him. Within the year, the Salem Witch Trials were a very important event, because not only did most of the people convicted died, but because many people went about their day feeling vulnerable
Centuries ago many Christians and those who practiced other religions believed that the Devil gave certain people known as witches power to bring harm to other people in exchange for their loyalty to him. From 1300 to the end of 1600 raged in Europe. Practicing witches were mainly women
Between February 1692 and May 1693, there were a series of hearings where people were being accused of witchcraft. The outcome of the hearings ended with 20 people being executed, but more than 200 people were accused of performing witchcraft. The hearings and prosecutions are very well known as the Salem witch trials. The trials took place in colonial Massachusetts. Nineteen accused witches were convicted and hanged on Gallows Hill in 1692. One accused witch was crushed to death after he failed to plead guilty or not guilty. As many as thirteen other accused witches died in prison.