Similarities Between 1741 And Salem Witch Trials

Lauren McGilvray
February 15, 2023
Prompt 1:
The Salem Witch Trials of 1962 and the New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741 are two events that seem to have unraveled in similar ways. Each event created paranoia and distrust in the surrounding community and made nearby townspeople question their safety. These two events were impacted by various factors that led to a questionable way of dealing with each situation.
Beginning the year of 1962, a hysteria began in the Salem Village of the Massachusetts Bay Colony over the possibility of witches inflicting harm on the community. In order to understand the causes of this event, it is important to mention factors that may have contributed. King William’s War caused much strain on the new American colonies,

However, Horsmanden’s fear, partnered with the peoples’ fear, resulted in the unjustifiable deaths of many slaves who had no participation in the fires. Horsmanden believed that slave owners needed to take precautions to keep their slaves from acting out or against them. He shares his thoughts in his account of the event and says, “…be warned to keep themselves upon a strict guard against these enemies of their own household, since we know what they are capable of …” (Daniel Horsmanden, A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy, 1744). It is evident that Horsmanden acts with prejudice, sending many slaves to their

They saw Catholic Spain as their enemy and decided to move forward in settling the New World in hopes of spreading Protestantism. Bartolome de Las Casas’ writing was seen as justification to “rescue” the inhabitants of the New World (Foner 126). While Spain’s main focus was to expand its empire, the English came to America on the premise of religious freedom and economic independence. Unfortunately, after working well with the Native Americans for a period of time in “Anglo-Indian harmony”, the English settlers eventually began to overpower them. The English way of living disrupted that of the Native people which resulted in conflict, prompting the Uprising of 1622. The Jamestown colony took a turn for the worst due to disease and an extremely harsh winter (https://historicjamestowne.org/history/history-of-jamestown/the-starving-time/Links to an external site.) George Percy describes the brutality and hardship faced by the colony saying, “…All was fish that came to net to satisfy cruel hunger as to eat boots, shoes, or any other leather some could come by…” (George Percy, “Starving Time” (1624)). Not only did the people of Jamestown starve during a harsh winter, left to eat leather and some turning to cannibalism, but the uneven ratio of men to women also contributed to the population’s decline. Overall, the colony had a very rough go at creating a new