Research Paper On The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 have become a prominent event in American culture. A series of the witch trials took place near Salem, part of the Massachusetts colony, in which more than 150 men and women were accused of witchcraft and dozens deteriorated in jail for months without trials. Those who were found guilty were hanged on nearby Gallows Hill. Only a combination of economic conditions, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies can account for the mass hysteria, spiraling accusations, trials, and execution that occurred in Salem Village, Massachusetts.

In January 1692, Samual Parris, a Puritan minister in Massachusetts Bay colony, faced a problem with the two girls in his household. According to “Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America,” Elizabeth Parris,

During the trial, the girls described attacks from the apparition of the three women, and they fell into their pattern of strange behavior and physical torment. As stated by “The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary” by Douglas Linder, other people from the village came forward with stories of cheese and butter mysteriously gone bad or animals born with deformities after they were visited by one of the three accused.

The trial might have ended with reprimand were it not for Tituba. On March 1, 1692, Tituba confessed that she was approached by Satan and that she had signed the devil’s book. More important course of the trial, she indicated that were more witches abroad and there were “nine marks” in the devil’s book, including those who were already accused (Adams, Gretchen). The significant element of her testimony was the news of the nine conspirators. Her confession also served to silence those who questioned witchcraft, and other local ministers began the witch hunting with