It was the year of 1629 when Salem was settled in what was then the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Just like most colonial settlers, the group that arrived in Salem was searching for religious freedom from the Church of England. In 1641 England declares that witchcraft is a capital crime; capital crimes include treason and it is punishable by death. The settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were a very religious group known as the Puritans; the Puritans strongly believed in The Bible, which includes passages such as Leviticus 20:27 “A man or woman that hath such a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death.” Ministers started arriving to Salem in 1629 and it was evident that the Puritans wanted to disengage from the Church of England. Around 1689 witchcraft met its ignition, Martha Goodwin starts displaying strange behavior after a dispute with Goody Glover, then her sibling’s began exhibiting the strange behavior as well; Goody was arrested …show more content…
Elizabeth was a calm person who was very nice, Abagail Williams was her housekeeper before the outbreak of witchcraft in Salem and also her accuser; it is believed that Abigail and John, Elizabeth’s husband, had an affair, but the odds of an affair is very unlikely. Abigail and a girl named Mercy Lewis claimed that Elizabeth would visit them at the late hours of the night and torment them in the form of a spirit. Once Abigail and Mercy began complaining, a warrant was out for Elizabeth’s arrest, and very soon later she was to be examined. Men were also accused and arrested for witchcraft, and John Proctor was the very first male to be arrested. John protested the evaluation of his wife Elizabeth and he was then the first man to be accused and arrested for witchcraft. The Proctors’ owned a servant, Mary Warren, who once she started showing the same signs as the afflicted girls, John told her to stop and her “afflicted” symptoms almost ceased
When Rev. John Hale comes to Salem to be of assistance with the trials he calls John out on only having two of his children baptized and that John has been caught not going to church on the Sabbath day. John Proctor is a very respected man in the town of Salem that is until he cheated on his wife, Elizabeth Proctor with seventeen year old Abigail Williams. Mary
Salem Village, as part of the colony of Massachusetts Bay experienced turmoil from external and internal factors that contributed to the crisis known as the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692 to 1693. Being accused of witchcraft that lead to a trial was not unheard of before this event, however the scale and hysteria of the event can be attributed to a few factors. The mass hysteria experienced by Salem Village did not appear out of nowhere. There was a sense of unease and fear due to the ongoing war between New France and New England, King William’s War. Not far North of Salem Village there were raids of towns by Native American’s on behalf of the French, including Andover, Massachusetts where they burned the village, and in the following year
Guilty or Proven Innocent? The Salem witch trials occurred from February 1692 to May 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts. During the Salem witch trials no single person or family was safe from persecution. Once accused of witchcraft you were incarcerated and appeared at a hearing in the courts.
The events in Salem in 1692, were but one chapter in a long story of witch hunts that began in Europe between 1300 and 1330 and ended in the late 18th century (britannica). In the Spring of 1692, paranoia broke out that is much too familiar to us today. Adolescent girls, in an effort to shift blame for their own delinquent behavior, used their current social climate to start a wave of mass hysteria and panic that involved multiple communities. Salem Village was half of the overall Salem community, and the other half was the more influential Salem Town (britannica). Salem Village leaders, that included the minister, the doctor, and the magistrates supported the girls unsubstantiated and otherwise false claims against villagers.
In Salem, they had a theocracy, which means that their government was also their religion. Religious rules were the law. Because of this, witchcraft was punishable by law, because it was forbidden in their religion. Ministers became enforcers of the law. The bible was referred to for punishments and law settings.
“Black Magic: Witchcraft, Race, and Resistance in Colonial New England” is an interesting work by Timothy J. McMillan published in September of 1994, it primarily focuses on the manner in which blacks were accused of witchcraft in colonial New England. I find this paper to be rather enjoyable to read as it conveys the information in an unbiased manner, it also refers to an intriguing subject matter focusing on race as it is not commonly used when witchcraft is brought up. The author appears to be trying to explain why blacks were more commonly accused of witchcraft and the reason is not as obvious as one would think. The article is about how blacks were more likely to be accused of witchcraft, however the reasons had less to do with race
Elizabeth begged him to go tell the court that the girls were lying and that all the people are innocent but John won’t because he still cares for Abigail and risks the chance of his secret becoming exploited, thus blackening his name. But once Elizabeth and his friends are beginning to be accused of witchcraft, Proctor decided to attempt to prove they were all innocent using Mary Warren. John and Mary Warren told the court that the girls were lying about the alleged witches, but the court doesn’t believe them. “Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers?
In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.
The Salem witch trials was one of the most famous witch hunt in history. More than 200 accused witched occupied the local jail. 19 people executed, were hanged, one pressed with rocks to death and few more died in jail within a year from 1692-1693. It happened in Salem Village, New England in Massachusetts, now known as Danvers. Witchcraft was second among the hierarchy of crimes which was above blasphemy, murder and poisoning in the Puritan Code of 1641.
The year of 1692 identified a significant event in history in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials revealed series of prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft, which resulted in the executions of twenty innocent people. Out of the twenty people, fourteen of them were women were hung to death and the others died in prison. It all began with several girls that experimented with magic, which the Puritans believed they were collaborating with the Devil. Based on the Puritan beliefs, the meaning of witchcraft was the Devil’s magic.
Proctor motivates to learn how the truth can still not matter if it is not what the court wants to hear causing people to be killed and put in jail. John Proctor chooses to try to hide the affair between him and Abigail Williams , which causes half of the town of Salem going to jail for witchcraft. John is talking to Mary Warren when she is talking to him about the Devil being in Salem and they must find where he is:"I
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.
Gender roles played a heavy role in colonial society, and the women who did not conform to these roles were easy targets for witchcraft accusations. Women who were post-menopausal, widowed, unmarried were not fulling their “duty” to society of bearing children and thus could come under fire (Lecture.) Those who were aggressive, out spoken, or did not do as another wished could also bring cries of “witch!” (Lecture.) This is highlighted in Cotton Mather’s Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, one of these accused women Susana Martin stands trial with many of the testifiers being men who had been wronged by Martin in some way or another.
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.