In this article, the author, Edmund S. Morgan discussed how witch trials became an issue in the Salem Village which dispersed to other towns. The witch trials were well known in the sixteenth century. In the beginning, Morgan stated “the trials occurred at a time when the people of Massachusetts were passing through a very difficult time.” (Morgan, 47) The author clearly wanted to inform the readers that Massachusetts was already in a rough state to begin with until the witch trials came along. The witchcraft trials went unnoticed with only a few executions of the witches in a timeframe until 1692 where the people started to become aware and afraid of them.
One man who agreed with the prosecution and execution of withes was named Cotton Mather.
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In the article, Morgan defines witchcraft as “an ancient and in some societies a relatively respectable profession.”(Morgan, 47) The meaning of it seems as if witchcraft is not a threat to everybody and that there was more to being a witch. There were two different witchcraft that the witches did. One of them was benign witchcraft while the other one was malign witchcraft. There were various amounts of evidence that would be used to identify a witch before convicting them. It was more common to capture malign witches because of their actions. Some of the evidence that were recognized the most were the used in witchcraft. The witches tortured people by using dolls that resembled them in a way. The author states, “When the witch stokes the doll of stick pins in it, the person bewitched is supposed to undergo excruciating pains in the part of the body…”(Morgan, 49) This was effective to the witches because they didn’t have to be around a particular person to still harm them with the puncturing the doll. The “witch-marks” were known to be on a witch body but that was uncertain sometimes. If identified, the marks stood out on their bodies that were in unusual for a person to
In 1692, a group of young girls from Massachusetts named Elizabeth and Abigail, believed they were being possessed by the devil and falsely accused several woman, men and children of witchcraft. Once the men and woman were accused they were ordered to attend multiple trials in which would be help in the Massachusetts general court. Once the men and woman were taken to trial they were proven guilty by the girls actions that proved the court these men and woman were apart of witchcraft. After the accuses were proven guilty in front of the court they were either held in prison and eventually died or hanged and died. There were multiple young girls who were apart of the witchcraft accusing other than just Elizabeth and Abigail.
There are several incidences in history when someone was accused of witchcraft. Maybe they didn’t have anything to do with witchcraft but if someone said it, everyone believed them. Some many people’s lives were taken because of something they didn’t do not had a part in. From June – September 1692, 19 men and women have been convicted of witchcraft. They were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village for hanging.
The witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.
A historian by the name of Charles Upham, came out with a book called Salem Witchcraft. He talks about how the children, mostly the little girls, and how they were just acting about being possessed or having seen a witch in the village. In the excerpt of his book, he states, “Once or twice they were caught in their own snare,” (Doc D). Charles basically admitted that the girls were lying on some things that they were doing or saying. The man was a historian and studied the Salem Witch Trials for all of his adult life.
1692 was a bad time for women in Salem. Most lower class women were accused of witchcraft and killed. A lot of bad things were done to these innocent women, a lot of the time they were tortured to get a confession or to prove she was a witch. Some of these torture methods were inhumane and didn’t really prove anything. They were burned, stretched,crushed, swam; many methods were used and a lot of the time the odds weren’t in the accused’s favor.
The Innocence of People During The Salem Witch Trials why did so many people during the colonial era devote their time to witchcraft? where they falsely accused or did they actually make a deal with a devil? The people that had to die or suffer were either witches or innocent peopIle. The colonial people back in 1692 were unaccepting of differences in people; therefore, they killed anyone they believed practiced witchcraft whether it was true or not. Court Trials
August and September had brought many more convictions and hundreds of hangings. The last eight accused witches were hanged on September 22, in which turned out to be the final executions. On October 3, Increase Mather, father of Cotton Mather, delivered a sermon at a gathering of ministers in Cambridge. The sermon was soon published as Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men (1692).
REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.
As this becomes a greater issue, local jails hold more than 200 accused witches. These witches were chained in a dungeon underneath of the jail. (Brooks) There were a few opposers of the trials early on, one of them being a local farmer. John Proctor scoffed at the idea of witchcraft. Because of this, Proctor and his whole family were accused of witchcraft.
In the spring of 1692, in a small village know at the time as Salem, tension was brewing between the local townspeople of Salem and the young women accused of witchcraft. Not many knew this yet but the trials to come over the next few months would have an enormous impact on the history of Massachusetts and America as well. Salem was a decent sized village with about 500 residents residing within the city lines. So for the most part everybody knew everybody, and one of the most popular figures in salem was the town minister, Reverend Samuel Parris. Parris was a father and a uncle to two young girls named Betty Parris and Abigail Williams both around the age of 9.
Additionally, the author of the book describes in great detail the techniques that would take place when an accused witch was brought forth to the attention of the public and(or) judges. To further illustrate, the text states once a witch was captured, she would be stripped of her clothing to ensure there were no evil markings on her skin, then, a form of torture would be implemented by the judge, and once this was done, the witch would be persuaded or asked to confess to their sins; if she did not confess, they would be tortured harshly before being told to confess once more. This procedure would concur while attendants of the torture pray for the witch to confess. After the torture has been put to rest, the witch would be asked to admit one last time with the belief they would not be put to death. If they did not confess, they would effectively be
They also suffered from burning sensations, stabbing sensations, and visions of their tormenter. It truly horrifies me to think that people are so willing to accuse their fellow man simply to accomplish seemingly nothing. I do not believe Satan was in the room, and only the fears and the corruption of the human heart was to blame for this tragedy. Actions taken were to torture, and kill the witches. The moment one was accused he became subhuman, and they were expected to confess and reveal other "witches" or to die.
Witches were around eighty percent women that were elderly or deformed in some way. In Europe witches were said to fly through the air on broomsticks with other witches, but in England they were mainly accused of killing neighbors livestock, deforming childrens toes, or even making trees fall on barns (Stewart). It seem weird that so many people believed in witchcraft, but the theory of witchcraft was built up by knowledgeable people, usually theologians or clerics(Rowse). One of the crazy things about witchcraft is that “There were people who actually believed that there were no witches, but this was disproved by the confessions of the witches themselves. These were infallible arguments; the witch-hunters held these trump-cards so long as people believed the nonsense of the literal interpretation of the scripture, and had not the sense to see through the confessions” (Rowse).
This was more commonly found in women more so than in men, this is able to be seen in (Document N and E). While looking at the two tables in (Document E) it is divided into two subjects The Accused and The Accusers, in each table we see the majority of each table is centered around women. A majority of the people that consumed bread and showed the symptoms could be seen as a witch, the symptoms were usually a crawling of the skin sensation, hallucinations, delirium, etc. If you were seen in public seeing things that weren 't there or scratching your skin as if things were on your body you could potentially end up being seen as a witch and killed. This evidence helps explain the hysteria and the hangings because it showed that everyone was on high alert at all times everyone around them could be seen as a someone to blame or as a
As I said, what they possibly though were witchcraft back then could be something treatable by now. Unlike in 1690’s, they didn’t have proof to back their hypothesis that it was bewitching. But now that the reason behind the said incidents were already established and proved wrong by people who studied what might have happened back then. People might still believe witchcraft does exist in present time solely because they have no idea that it might just be an illness that they had no idea about. That the reaction of people around toward something can affect greatly on how things can be