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The Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials

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The Salem witch trials was one of the most famous witch hunt in history. More than 200 accused witched occupied the local jail. 19 people executed, were hanged, one pressed with rocks to death and few more died in jail within a year from 1692-1693. It happened in Salem Village, New England in Massachusetts, now known as Danvers. Witchcraft was second among the hierarchy of crimes which was above blasphemy, murder and poisoning in the Puritan Code of 1641. Since England had their own witch hunts, it was said that the anxiety spread to New England mainly because of a pamphleteer Cotton Mather. It started early 1692 when the daughter and niece of Salem local minister, Samuel Parris had strange violent convulsions and loud outbursts. The only local doctor of the village which only could read but not write, then concluded that the girls were bewitched. There were three primary “suspected” witches, the minister’s slave Tituba, Sarah Good who was a beggar, and Sarah Osborne, a widower. Both Sarah claimed innocence while after days of interrogation, Tituba then confessed to practice witchcraft. Ann Putnam Jr. among the other girls claimed to have been acting similarly. Ann Putnam Jr. accused 19 people and 11 of them were hanged. Her name was said to be written more than 400 times in the court documents of the trials. Because of her age, the judges believed she was innocent and honest. In 1706, Ann Putnam Jr. confessed to lying. “I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and

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