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Why Did Witchcraft Occur In 1692 Essay

753 Words4 Pages

Why would anyone burn human beings at the stake because of avid hallucinations? Salem had this occur in 1692 because of the thought of witchcraft. Many factors induced this thought of witchcraft, and led to the mass murdering of more than 200 people.
The first factor that induced the thought of witchcraft in Salem is the great amounts of sociological strife. Community division caused anger among a few select families that decided blaming each other of wrongdoings was the way to go. These families tended to be that of wealthy household names. The most prominent families, the Putnams and the Porters, were the main source for all of the conflict. The Putnam family believed that Thomas Putnam Jr. and the rest of his family accused others due to …show more content…

Most of the populace had either Catholic beliefs or Puritan beliefs. Their thoughts of hunting and burning witches relates to their Catholic studies. Catholicism is tied to rituals on numerous occasions, and they believed that the only way to stop them was to take an active stance. On the other side, Puritans did not agree with rituals and focused on prayer, faith, worship, and legitimate medical practices to fix even spiritual ailments. They still; however, viewed witchcraft practices as entirely sinful. It was these specific set of religious beliefs. The people’s construction of an entire worldview based on a specific set of religious beliefs was a huge instigating factor that led to the witchcraft crisis …show more content…

During this time, trials were going in a new direction when they added juries to the mix. Prosecution was a lot easier because they were always favored by the government. To add to an already almost impossible case to win, the defendant was not allowed a lawyer. The population did not go off of book law, but off of their own written laws that they could tailor to their own liking. The superstitious people were always so afraid of giving a possible witch a fair trial. These factors made it to where the defendant had no leverage in the case and would undoubtedly be convicted

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