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How Did The Salem Witch Trial Affect The Community

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The Salem Witch Trials are very infamous, but what really happened? Many believe that the town's leadership was corrupt, and that was the reason. Although that is a very common idea, there are many other ideas to better explain what happened.
The first thing to understand is the timeline of what happened at Salem. Elizabeth Parris, and Abigail Williams were the first to display what was thought to be symptoms of bewitchment (US History). Tituba, a caribbean slave belonging to the Parris family, was one of the first to be accused. Tituba confessed to being a witch, later Tituba also claimed that there were other witches along with in the community. The conviction process was very easy for anyone to be prosecuted. The last straw was when the governor's own wife was accused of witchcraft. The trials were then put to a stop. …show more content…

Many of these troubles are believed to be the cause of the Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were in the shadow of the French and Indian War. This was believed to have serious repercussions on the small community. Also around this time Indian attacks were increasingly common causing the community to be very fearful and on edge. Salem had just been through a smallpox epidemic, one of the coldest winter yet, and the small community was growing at an alarming rate, making it increasingly hard to acquire land. A passage from Witchcraft in Salem, “The motive of the young girls themselves can be questioned. In a society where women had no power, particularly young women, is it not understandable how a few adolescent girls, drunk with unforeseen attention, allowed their imaginations to run wild.” That quote perfectly describes how the situation in Salem lead to a terrible lead of events of The Salem Witch

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