Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

460 Words2 Pages

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? Well let's take this from where it all began. The First Trails The Salem Witch Trials began during the spring of 1692, A group of young girls in Salem Village Massachusetts, were claimed to be taken over by the devil then accused other women in the town of being possessed also. This whole epidemic spread through colonial Massachusetts. A court that was in Salem was chosen to hear about these cases, the first convicted witch was Bridget Bishop she was hung that June. Eighteen other females were hung after her in the time to come, They even had a special place where these hangings would commence called Salem's Gallows hill. There was 150 men …show more content…

This belief came about in Europe in the 14th century and then spread over to the 13 colonies. This also started during hard times for pruitains in the Salem village, These hardships included the after effects of the British war with France in the American colonies in 1689, then a smallpox epidemic, then fears of getting attacked by local native American tribes and so much more. Amid these tensions the Salem witch trials would be fueled by residents thoughts and suspicions and hatred for their neighbors as well as their fear of

Open Document