During the summer of 1692 in Salem Massachusetts 13 women and 7 men were killed by either hanging or rotting in jail. These killings all happened within 3 months of each other. So what caused this mass hysteria? This was the Salem Witch trials. The people of Salem believed that the devil had sent witches to Salem to attempt to stop God's work. Witchcraft was a crime that was punishable by death. Many believed that there were truly evil forces at work other believed it was caused by jealousy or mania. The purpose of this essay is to explain what caused the Salem Witch trials. The leaders in Salem at the time were Puritans. “Puritans were Protestant Christians who were unhappy with the church in England. They came to New England to practice Christianity in a new way.” (Background Essay) Puritans believed in predestination, this means that God had already determined who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. They believed if they worked hard enough and did enough good they would be able to go to heaven. Puritans were scrupulous and …show more content…
Each side was controlled by either the Putnam or Porter family. The Porters lived on Salem eastern side and enjoyed many of its spoils. The land was rich,fertile and close to the port. The Porters were well connected with the merchants and enjoyed political prestige. (Doc J) Meanwhile, the Putnmas live in the less fertile western side, and have lost the political status they once had. (Doc J) Soon, the west side was accusing wealthy east side women of practicing witchcraft. (Doc I) On June 1st 1692, Ann Putnam Jr. ( Thomas Putnam's daughter) accused a wealthy east side woman named Rebecca Nurse of affecting her and possessing her. There had been drama between the Nurse family and the Putnams, “… for years had been harassing the Putnam family by claiming that parts of their land laid on the topsoil rather than in Salem Village. (ask how to end
Many others in Salem use the chaos of the witch trials to their advantage. The Putnams wish to have the most land in Salem. When someone is tried for witchcraft and hanged, they must forfeit their land. “There is none but [the] Putnam[s] with the coin to buy such [land]”. Since the Putnams were the only ones with the money to buy the forfeited land, they started falsely accusing and thereby killing their neighbors for the land.
One of the families who had denounced the economic changes was the Putmans who were a strong influence against the witchcraft accusations. Tensions had then become worst when Salem villiage had
Salem Witch Trials In the summer of 1692, 104 people were accused and put into trial for witchcraft. These trials were called The Salem Witch Trials, there has been a huge debate about why it happened for multiple years and no one has yet had a guaranteed reason why. So what actually caused the Salem Witch Trials? I believe the Salem Witch Trials was caused by a secret rivalry between two sides.
One of the most powerful families in Salem was the Putnam family, and because of their puritan beliefs, they strongly supported and believed in the Trials. Over 50 people were directly or indirectly accused by members of the Putnam family. Throughout the course of the Trials, many families fought against the Putnam family to try and end the witch hunt and one of these families was the Burrows family. The feud between the Burrows family and the Putnam family began when George Burrows accepted the job as minister for the town because he wanted to bring Salem town and Salem village together. John Putnam believed that he could influence Burrows into preaching against witches but as tensions grew from the possibility of a merger with the neighboring town, Burroughs decided to leave his job and abandon the project completely.
The Salem Witch Trials were a period of murders of women, children, and even some men during the 16th century. These trials were pretty much a huge mass murder, these trials started because of a huge fear that the puritans has against the devil. These murders happened when someone (Mostly females) would start to act “satanic” some would stop coming to church, some would not read the bible and/or burn the bible causing the church to think that they were possessed by the devil. The puritans finally came to the conclusion to kill whoever started to act even slightly strange. Why would such a thing spring up?
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.
In 1692, one hundred and fifty people were charged from suspicions of being witches in the town (Hamilton 24). Rebecca Nurse, one of the accused witches, joined Salem’s church in 1972, but even though she was a loyal member of the church, she had to prove that she was truthful to God (Brandt). She and her family were very supportive of the community by helping in charity and helping support others. Her family had been rarely involved in any confrontation with the law, but only had the occasional land dispute, which was normal in their time (Brandt). Rebecca Nurse was accused of being a witch even with all her contributions to society.
One main cause for the Salem Witch Trial was religious hysteria. Puritans believed that any sin should be punished. Witchcraft and magic were major sins that were considered the greatest crimes to commit. There was a constant fear
Although many people have their assumptions as to what specifically caused the Salem Witch Trials, no one has a definite account of what caused them. One must use logic and knowledge to come to choose and realize multiple factors that played a part. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by religion, politics, teenage boredom, family feuds, economic conditions, and fears of the people. The overall effect of the trials did not have a serious effect on American society as a whole, but only as Salem as a whole. During the spring of 1692, a hysteria swept through the little town of Salem, Massachusetts (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts) that will end as quickly as it began.
The Salem witch trials were a very dark time in the history of the United States. The tragic deaths of the 20 people who died will forever be carved into United States history. There are three main theories about what caused the mass hysteria in Salem. Ergot poisoning, strict rules towards women, and strict religion.
Salem Massachusetts was a puritan town and their religion was a main part of their daily life(King and Mixon, “Religiosity and the Political Economy of the Salem Witch Trials”). Which is why the Salem witch trials were such a huge problem during this time. Three girls by the names of Abigail, Betty, and Ann were the family of Parris and Putnam and they were huge factors in the Salem witch trials. There are often theories that the girls were faking their strange behavior such as twisting their bodies into strange shapes and saying words that made no sense (“The Salem Witch Trials''). The girls accused three women that didn’t have a dominant role in the town of Massachusetts.
The father noticed his little girls were acting weird. Crawling on the floor making messes, and speaking weird languages. Their explanation…... ‘witches’. The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 was a big part of Massachusetts history. What caused the Salem Witchcraft Trials?
In 1692 the Salem Witch trials took over the Puritan religion. People were being convicted based on spectral evidence and being hanged based on the words of greedy awful people who were willing to kill someone just to accomplish some of their own selfish desires. Thoughtless reasoning clouded by a harmful religion is what caused the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Fear of the Devil, and witches who did his bidding, was very real in Salem at the time. People in Salem believed very much in plainness, the divine mission, and most of all grace.
Analyzing Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum's book, Salem Possessed leads to the exploration of the pre-existing social and economic divisions within the Salem Village community, as an entrance point to understanding the accusations of witchcraft in 1692. Salem Village and Salem Town were politically a single unit, but socially as well as economically the two were diverse and because of this, it caused a rivalry. Salem Village had a lot of farmland, poorer people and was more rural as well as conservative. ; the Village was led by the Putnam family. Salem Town was more sophisticated, nautical, and prosperous, with wealthier and more respected people; They were interested in the mercantile and political life of Salem Town and were led primarily
So the Putmans because of the Porters succes felt very jealous and blamed their family and friends for them being unsuccessful. This theory argues that the Putnams made their daughters accuse the Porters’ friends, close community members and family of witchcraft. There is actual evidence for this theory, as most of all the ‘bewitched’ girls were very close to the