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Salem Witch Trial Essay

482 Words2 Pages

Cotton Mather accounts the witch trial of Martha Carrier through reporting the accusations and crimes prosecuted against her. This trial was unjust because prosecution occurred to explain unnatural events by using unfounded, spectral evidence. All unnatural events affected the witnesses negatively in matters of health or occupation. This led the people of Salem to create a scapegoat for their misfortune and other ‘witches’ to persecute those near to them in the fear of death. The claims of the witnesses in Martha Carrier’s trial were all based on misfortunes that affected them negatively. This is evident through Martha’s crimes only being those that made witnesses ill or affected cattle, “[H]is wife, testified her husband was not only afflicted in his body, but also that …show more content…

Witnesses do not have actual proof of Carrier practicing witchcraft because those events do not affect them. Seeing Carrier worship the devil did not matter to the people of Salem. They only persecute her of problems that relate to them. When no natural answer to events could be found, they made a scapegoat to solve their problems. Their scapegoat could be made quite easily due to spectral evidence. Spectral evidence enabled the victims to choose who they wanted to blame the event on which is why it is not reliable. Allin Toothaker could not explain why when fighting Richard Carrier, he fell to the ground so he uses spectral evidence to do so, “[He] fell down on his back to the ground and had not power to stir hand or foot…and then he saw the shape of Martha Carrier go off his breast” (126). Holding trial for a witch would lead to a removal of that witch from their community and a ‘answer’ to the people of Salem’s problems. Once the witch was

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