Salem Witch Trials Film Analysis

The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692. A group of young girls started this, it turned into a mass hysteria (Miller 1124). Innocent people were accused, and several people died (Miller 1124). Several centuries ago many predicted christianity (Miller 1153). They thought the devil could give certain people witch powers (Miller 1139). Witching led to court and then death. In 1711 (Miller 1153), the town of Salem passed a law for restoring rights to good names (Miller 1153).

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. Many practicing Christians, at the time, believed that the Devil could persuade people to use the powers that he gave them to harm others. The Salem Witch Trials occurred because of resource struggles, many women were accused and tortured, and in the end the Governor realized that it was a big mistake. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1).

Nearly anyone from the New England has heard of the famous Salem Witch Trials. A year of persecution, leading to the accusation of nearly 200 citizens of all ages. No one was safe; men, women, children, even pets stood trial and 20 were hung for the supposed crime of witchcraft (Blumberg). 1692 was a year of witch hunting. Most today blame the trials on hysteria, or perhaps a bad case of paranoia. It is viewed as the time a town was foolish enough to believe a group of crazed teenage girls. Witchcraft is considered fiction, reserved for fantasy novels and television shows. What must be remembered, however, is that despite the current view, the trials were a very serious matter to those of Salem 1692.  To the people of Salem, they had every right to believe that what they were doing was justified. Through analysis of the event and its causes, one can conclude that the citizens of Salem had significant evidence to back their belief in witchcraft.

In 1692 hundreds of people were sitting in jail for being witches, but none of them were really witches. An author named Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible based of the true events of the Salem witch trials. In the play some girls get in trouble for dancing in the woods. They claim the witches were making them do these bad things. The girls accused a lot of people and got a lot of people of hang for being witches. The play is about human weakness, hypocrisy, and vindictiveness. In each paragraph these traits will be further explained.

The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.

The Salem witch trials was one of the most famous witch hunt in history. More than 200

Salem witchcraft trials started in New England and caused a lot of deaths and hysteria for the people of Salem, Massachusetts. Innocent women and men were hung just for being accused by their fellow friends and neighbors. Witchcraft in the 17th century was a big taboo that people feared.

The Salem Witch Trials were a terrible event that happened in the history of the United States of America was when innocent individuals where accused and sentenced to death for the crime of witch craft. More than 20 people were executed by hanging and one man was pressed to death by stones being stacked on his chest. In England they would burn people at the stake or throw them in a body of water with stones tied on their feet and if they swam to the top, they were a witch is they drowned, they were innocent.

The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England. 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. They claimed that spectral beings in the form of Tituba, a slave, Sarah Good, a beggar, and Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman who suffered financially, assaulted them. These girls were put under pressure by the magistrates

Living in Colonial America is very different than any other part in the world, especially when they didn’t know what’s around them. Colonial America was very hard for the new pilgrims. Not only is it hard when they didn’t have houses set up, but also life was made harder during the winter when it was freezing outside. After they set up different town's life began to become a little easier. In the town of Salem, the Witch trials popped up around 1692 and made life hard again. Even though times were hard in Colonial America the Salem witch trials made it harder because of the danger it caused in the town of Salem.

Do you have a neighbor that you really just don’t like? In 1600’s Massachusetts, there was a solution! You could tell everyone that they were a witch. Sure it might ruin their life, but hey, they’re out of yours. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials that occurred during Colonial America where many people, mostly women, were falsely accused of and wrongly punished for performing witchcraft. There is a well documented history of these accounts, including the causes, the results, and similar cases throughout history.

George Jacobs Sr. said, “You tax me for a wizard, you may as well tax me for a buzzard I have done no harm.” Although his words were true, many chose to either believe this hysteria or turn the other way. He died along with many other women and men. This was just the start of the many terrors of the Salem witch trials. Yet if you confessed to being a witch then you had a better chance of living, but if you denied you would automatically get hanged. They killed 19 people in similar ways, but the last person wouldn’t go to trial, so they stoned him. Within the year, the Salem Witch Trials were a very important event, because not only did most of the people convicted died, but because many people went about their day feeling vulnerable

Just as Europe suffered a loss of due process rights (provided by the documents presented by the 4th Lateran Council in 1215) when the Inquisition rose to power, members of colonial Salem, Massachusetts were not provided with the benefits of these rights. For example, only three of the twenty-one defendants in our data set had a witness speak in, rather than against, their favor. The presence of any sort of lawyer or council was not made clear in any of the documents, so it is relevant to believe that the Salem trials followed much of the same procedure as those that occurred during the Inquisition in Europe. Defendants were repeatedly asked similar-sounding questions regarding their alleged offenses, designed to catch a witch in her lies. This practice is incredibly similar to that utilized during the Inquisition. Additionally, both courts made use of the following method described in the Malleus maleficarum: “while he is being tortured, he must be questioned on the articles of accusation, and this frequently and persistently, beginning with the lighter charges-for he will more readily confess the lighter than the heavier. And, while this is being done, the notary must write down everything in his record of the trial - how the prisoner is tortured, on what points he is questioned and how he answers.” There was no presumption of innocence in the Salem trials; one was assumed to be guilty and in need of confession, rather than the plaintiffs being forced to prove the supposed acts of witchcraft performed against them. In conclusion, it is surprising that more defendants were not convicted of witchcraft, given the significant lack of due process rights for the accused and the (obviously) Puritan nature of those overseeing the Salem courts, in which hearsay and heresy went hand in

In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

The Salem Witch Trials began in Salem Massachusetts in 1629. Many people were accused of being a witch and many lives were lost.