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What Are The Causes Of Hysteria During The Salem Witch Trials

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In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge. Hysteria is defined as uncontrollable excitement, especially among a group of people. In the book there were a group of people (the Puritans ) who all were paranoid over something that isn’t even that large of a conflict. In the book accusations of neighbors, sisters, brothers, mothers, and even fathers being witches spread like a wildfire. “By March, …show more content…

In My mind the whole Witch hunt has been a popularity contest People are trying to rack up kills like a Call Of Duty session are the Hunger Games. “ Abigail Williams, fingered 41 different witches for attacking her’’( Schanzer 56). I believe she was trying to get more people to like her and comfort her since she had been “attacked”. Maybe she just wanted to get back at someone which leads to one thing revenge. Revenge, Everybody has done it. Revenge is defined as’’ the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands’’. What I believe is that parents of the “suffering” children had an argument with another family. This resulted in the parents to blame the others of being witches or conjurers. It was the perfect way to get revenge and nobody would suspect it. “ In all, 10 of 18 depositions against Rebecca Nurse were signed by Putnams, but 2 of the other accusers had grudges against the nurse family as well’’. Revenge, Hysteria, and Popularity everyone has an idea on what caused the salem witch trials. It would take forever to just list out all the possible factors. Beleiving in the listed ones are the best bet. All the world can do is think and believe. Society will never know how or why the salem witch trials happened. OR WILL

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