Do you know why innocent people were accused of witchcraft in Salem? Some people may argue that mob mentality is primarily responsible for the witch Trials in Salem because the girls who were dancing in the woods followed mob mentality to prove their innocence in court. Individuals like Abigail Williams and Danforth are primarily responsible for the Salem witch trials because she was making false accusations in the court and leading the mob mentality and Danforth was ignoring evidence in the court and just thinking that the girls are telling the truth and making himself worthy and true to the court. Individuals were one of the major reasons for the Salem witch trials as Abigail and Danforth were the main reasons the hearings of
\The infamous Salem witch trials, you may have heard of them, but do you know about the famous event which many book, movies, and even its own T.V. show are revolved around. From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women all been accused of witchcraft, were brought to Gallows Hill. Gallows Hills is also known as witch hill that is where they killed all the men and women accused. Now you may be thinking what they did that was so bad it’s just witchcraft, it was a common belief that people could pledge allegiance to Satan and become witches with supernatural power to harm others. The thing that made people start this witch hunt would be when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams the daughter and niece
In today’s society you are innocent until proven guilty. Could you imagine it being the other way around? Many people were wrongly accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. But who really started it all? Abigail Williams is most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria because she is a liar and often manipulated others in order to save herself from trouble.
So what provoked this tragedy? Evidence shows that the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692 was caused by boredom, personal, and religious bias. One of the most important things to consider is the biases the accusers might have had. When looking at a map of Salem one may observe that more than ninety percent of the accusers lived on the west side of town, and more than eighty percent of the Accused witches
Ultimately, I believe that the Salem Witch Trials’ main cause was mass hysteria and paranoia among the group. I can predict this, because in Exhibit A, Cotton Mather states, “ I will prove that Witchcraft exists. Those who deny it exists argue that they never saw any witches, therefore there are none.” I believe this is strong evidence supporting the over exaggeration of most people towards the trials and how hysterical people can become towards an unrealistic assumption like witches and witchcraft. Another piece of evidence supporting mass hysteria as the cause of the trials would be in Exhibit B, where Abigail Hobbs a 16 year old girls pleads guilty.
When people don’t want to get in trouble for something they normally blame it on someone else. Now most of the time it doesn't end out that bad, or they find out the person was not telling the truth, but that is not the same for the people of Salem. The main cause of the Salem Witch Trials is Abigail Williams, in Arthur Miller’s Crucible, because of her calling people witches, 20 people got killed there was a lot of fear and no trust for anyone. It’s the fear and people not trusting others that made the witch trials bad, and she seemed to create this hysteria because she feared getting in trouble, she wanted to get revenge, and because once she started she couldn’t stop without getting very punished.
One thing that might have caused the witch trials is profit, “ Mary Walcott ,Anns step cousin ,named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This almost proves that she might have been accusing people for money/profit. “Abigail Williams, fingered 41 different witches for attacking her; Ann Putnam Jr. accused 53;her servant Mercy Lewis named 54; and a girl named Mary Walcott who was Ann’s step-cousin, named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This means they were fervently,maliciously, wanted to abolish some of these people,and that most of the accusers stated accused more than 40 people. “Not all witches are human beings.
The Salem Witch Trials were caused by townspeople accusing people with different social classes of witchcraft and mass hysteria. The only reason why the witch trials started was because of townspeople pointing out the outcasts. In the video “Salem Witch Trials, The World Behind the Hysteria,” states,”The first women accused of witchcraft were seen as different unwanted people.” This shows that the townspeople were afraid of different people and decided to confront them of witchcraft to kill them off.
The Causes of the Salem Witch Trials Much of modern America’s fear and infamous interest in witches has been derived most likely from the profound Salem Witch Trials. “The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft,” stated History.com authors. However, many historians still deliberate how such events occurred in the first place. Based on several presented documents, some conclusions suggest that there was a prominent cause to the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. All in all, the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family
The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,
The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because no one wanted to be punished or killed. In Document B, Act 1 of The Crucible, Reverend Hale arrives to see who is behind all of the witchcraft. When he asks the girls to give him, the names of the people they saw with the Devil. “Abigail: I want to open myself. I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus!”
Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials.
In Salem, Massachusetts a series of hearings and prosecutions started, commonly known as the Salem Witchcraft Trials. The witchcraft trials in Salem became a big concern after two-hundred innocent people were accused and twenty people were executed. Many people of Salem believed the court was just in accusing all these victims. A seldom amount of people went against the court in saying that the court was a fraud and that the decisions were biased being made. Abigail Williams held all the power in the court and determined who was “guilty” or not.
In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge.
During the Salem Witch Trials a lot of people were accused of using witchcraft. As a result many people died for other people’s lies, rumors, and selfishness. There is one person that really caused and is most to blame for all the chaos, her name is Abigail. Abigail is to blame for all that has happened in the Witch Trials, the reason for that is because of all the accusing and lying she has done. In addition, it all leads up to her for instance, she used a doll to accuse people of witchcraft.
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.