This essay will be describing what events that leads up to the brewing of the events that occurred in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Also, contemplates the role that superstition, religion, and politics played in the event. Along with the role that gender played in instigating and shaping the event. It is a story of inhumanity and greed. The primary event that lead up to the execution of innocent woman and children is when Reverend Parris moved to Salem with his wife, daughter, niece, and two slaves. Abigail essentially started the whole witch hysteria because she tormented her cousin Elizabeth played a game with Tituba. Tituba is a slave owned by Reverend Parris, who would do all sorts of readings on Abigail. Eventually Abigail was able …show more content…
One key factor that played a big role was politics. Politics is what brought Reverend Parris to Salem even though many people in the cabinet voted for him not to move to Salem. They knew that Reverend Parris would use them to get the things he wanted. Another component was superstition because many people are gullible. The people of Massachusetts Salem believed the act that the kids were pulling just because they had the reverend to back up their story. So the people started to believe that every person that they accused of witchcraft was truly a witch just because of the act they girls were pulling. Lastly religion had to do with everything that went down during the witch hysteria. When, the woman accused of practicing witchcraft were trialed the Reverend made the townspeople conclude that the woman who were accused of witchcraft gave up their soul to the devil. Even though the accused put up a fight there was no way of winning unless you stated you’re a witch, but the woman did not want to confess to false accusations fearing that if they did their soul would truly belong to the devil. The Reverend was aware of what was going on the whole time, the only reason he didn’t want to mention anything was the dread of losing his job, that also goes with the town doctor. Considering they didn’t want to lose their job and reputation they watched as innocent people were hung. Their primary goal was to use indefensible claims against people in order to impress the need of religious
At a time, Salem Village was a part of the Salem town but then was set apart due to the separation of its economy, class and character Residents of the village were poor farmers who did their part by cultivating crops in the rocky terrain. The town on the other was where the wealthy had lived (so to speak the upper class) and they had been prosperous for the of the trade with London most of people in Salem town were rich merchants. For many years, Salem village, had tried to declare their independence from the town but that was not likely to happen because the town depended on the village for the farmer’s food and their taxes. The Village had also been going to the town mainly because they don’t have their own church (till 1674), but there had also been a parting within the Salem village which was between those lived near the commerce road of the town which had Blacksmiths, carpenters and innkeepers. They had supported and praised the economic changes taking place but the farmers who lived far away from the commerce road believe the worldliness and affluence of Salem town threated there way of life and their Puritan values.
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.
The Salem Witch Trials: The How In the spring of 1692, the lives of the people who lived in Salem began changing. It is an event that can never be erased from history; lives were changed, and lives were lost. The Salem Witch trials began in a time where people felt vulnerability and fear to anything that they may not understand.
Living in Salem in the summer and spring of 1692 would’ve been an extremely hectic experience, especially if you were a married woman with another woman who wanted your man. Many people were put to death in the months between June and September, and had it not been for a mass hanging, it might have continued for who knows how long. The accusers of the Witch Trials were mainly jealous women who were out for the man(or land) of an accused woman, but that was not always the case. Some men(boys, really) accused others of being witches for the reason that a.) they wanted their land, or b.)
Due to religion, lying, and health problems, it caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692 to occur. Religion was important to the Puritans in their daily life. They would take every word from God and turn them into action. Without religion in their life, then the Puritans would not have come to New England. Religion was an extensive impact on the repercussion of the Salem Witch Trial.
The Causes of the Salem Witch Trials Much of modern America’s fear and infamous interest in witches has been derived most likely from the profound Salem Witch Trials. “The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft,” stated History.com authors. However, many historians still deliberate how such events occurred in the first place. Based on several presented documents, some conclusions suggest that there was a prominent cause to the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. All in all, the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family
This shows that everyone thought it was easier for the town if they just blamed it on someone and would take the easy way out. These issues are still happening in the world today. Places like Syria and Afghanistan are having battles because they can’t get over a feud and they are a struggling country so they think that the best thing is to go to war. In Salem they thought the best thing to do was to start taking the lives of innocent people for what they believed to be witchcraft because they were stressed out from their feud with the town in
Our topic, on the Salem Witch Trial, was chosen because we were inspired by a lesson taught by our 7th-grade social studies teacher, Mr.Wong. He had discussed the Salem Witch Trial as part of the 7th-grade curriculum; we were fascinated by this topic that we wanted to learn more about this event. What captured our interest? It was mostly due to the fact that this topic involved witchcraft since at this day it would most likely not be accepted. We found that the Salem Witch Trial was significant to the US’s history since it foretold the fragility of the US’s society in the past when reacting to a magical threat.
People was just finding a reason for their bad luck. Because the people did not find a good reason, their beliefs came out and people started thinking about the witchcraft in Salem.
For example, they were screaming, throwing things, and put their bodies in different positions . The two girls went to the doctor and the doctor proclaimed that the cause of these actions was supernatural activity. The girls accused three women: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, claiming that they casted spells on them to cause them to act abnormally. The two girls were related to Reverend Parris who was the Puritan minister in Salem who was well known in the town. Furthermore, the accounts of the children would be taken more seriously than the women that were accused like Sarah Good (the town beggar), Sarah Osborne ( an impoverished woman), and Tituba (Reverend Parris’s slave).
A Reverend named Samuel Parris' nine-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and his eleven-year-old niece, Abigail Williams, began revealing odd behavior, including shouting random things. Samuel Parris called in the local doctor, William Griggs, who found the girls experiencing confusion and shouting random things. The doctor was unable to offer a medical explanation or diagnosis, but did suggest that it might be the work of evil forces. Soon after the doctor had seen the girls, word of the unexplained fits had already spread around Salem Village, and soon several other girls were accused of exhibiting similar behavior. Therefore, pressure from the people of Salem was extraordinarily high because they wanted to know why such strange events were happening.
There is a connection between the Salem trials and current political drama in 2017. During the Salem trials, people were falsely accused of witchcraft and in the current political drama, it's the same except instead of witchcraft the word is ‘extremism’, regardless of political alignment. Reverend Parris is to be held more responsible for the injustice that occurred in Salem. Parris’ ignorance, remorselessness, and arrogance caused the escalation of unjust killing of the people of Salem. Parris’ constant defending of his niece, Abigail, during the court trials blinded him from the possible truths to uncover the fear and lies Abigail put into the girls, Parris knew the girls were dancing in the woods, and he tried to prevent evidence to be heard in the court.
Reverend Parris was a religious leader in Salem during the witch trials. The Reverend’s motivation for supporting the trials were his hunger for power and position in the community, his determination to protect his image and reputation, and to protect his own self from persecution. Overall, Parris was a man of greed. This greed is his motivation for most of his actions. Hunger for power and position in the community was a huge motivation for the reverend.
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
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.