Witchcraft In The 13th Century

The Witch Craze is best described as a product of the political and social tension taking place between about 1480 to 1700. This tension was mostly due to the clashing Protestant and Catholic Reformations. What the people once thought of as true, was now being contested, and therefore, the Witch Craze ensued, causing the deaths of about 100,000 innocent people. Due to the uneasiness and confusion the current events at the time caused, people were not sure what to believe, and therefore, these events took place. However, those thousands weren 't slaughtered haphazardly.

In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, passions turned into problems. Witchcraft in Salem Massachusetts became a remembered event since 1692. Three girls were said to have interactions with the devil. When they were confronted about it they denied every interaction the people who were convicted they would say they weren’t a witch and would bring someone else’s name into the equation. Those who would admit to being a witch would go to jail, but for those who denied having interaction with the devil would have been trialed and hung, so really, anyway you put it

Many inmates were able to escape prisons due to shortage of staff, however. The average victim was a woman in her 40’s or older, many of which were in their 60’s (“Salem Witch Trials”). Almost all the men accused of witchcraft during the trials was related to a woman who had been accused prior. Accusations were usually directed towards colonists in the higher wealth class, in contrast to English witchcraft accusations which were directed towards the poor wealth class (Campbell). As well as humans, two dogs were shot and killed after being accused of witchcraft, showing that just about anything could be accused of witchcraft in Salem during the late seventeenth

Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.

During The Crucible, the Witch Trials caused many court hearings. A good deal of the court hearings consisted of people over exaggerating outbursts of demons inside of them just to get somebody convicted. The Witch Trails also affected the church in many ways. Reverend Parris’ already had a wicked reputation as their minister, and the trials made it even worse. People wanted him out of the church.

People were hanged, jailed and these people were innocent. Abigail Williams started this because she was

The Accused Witches of 1692 The year of 1692, accused witches were being hung left and right. About 134 people were accused of being a witch or wizard, these hangings mainly occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. What caused the exaggerated behavior of 1692? The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 could have been caused by the puritans religion, acting or lying, and ergot poisoning. One possible cause of the Salem witch trial could have been the cause of religion because the ministers and church leaders had to let everyone know about witchcraft and that they needed to end it.

During this apparent incident a man named Cotton Mather wrote and published a book about an incident of witchcraft. This made the people think that Betty Parris was a witch. After other local girls developed similar symptoms, they called a doctor. After the doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them and said that their problems may have a ‘supernatural origin’ more people started believing that they were

Chapter Eight: The Demoniac and the Witch According to Levack, witchcraft is defined as “the infliction of harm or misfortune” caused by a magical being or power that the witch received from the Devil. Witches were persecuted under law, while demoniacs were not held responsible for their behaviors while possessed. Because many believed that these possessions were genuine and not an actor in a play, they could not be held responsible.

People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.

The idea of witches stemmed from religious folks believing that the Devil could give certain people, known as witches, the power to harm others in return for their loyalty (Smithsonian). Due to the popularity of religion and supernatural beliefs, many people believed that the source of evil was the Devil. This idea appeared in Europe as early as the 14th century and it was quite popular in New England colonies. Villagers often blamed unfortunate things upon the Devil and other spectral sources of evil due to their lack of knowledge.

Over 100 individuals were suspected to be witches in result to weird behavior before a disaster happens. The puritans set fairly high standards on themselves and others. True puritans could show their commitment by going to church and working their hardest. They also believed God was not the only powerful force among their community.

The Salem Witch Trials were such a terrible moment in history for the people of Salem, Massachusetts they eventually decided to rename the area to Danvers in hopes to forget what all occurred in that small village. In the end, the Salem Witch Trials could be considered a very lurid moment of history due to the fact that the villagers in that town went so far into their religious beliefs that they actually went along with the idea that the people they grew up with, the people they married, and even their families were involved in

The hallucinogenic and mind altering effects of ergot poisoning seems to be the most widely accepted theory. Prior to the events in Salem, ergot poisoning was responsible for the deaths of large numbers of people in Europe throughout the middle ages in what came to be known as Saint Anthony’s Fire (Goldberg, 275). Symptoms of ergot poisoning include hallucinations, disorientation, spasms, and a burning sensation in the hands and feet (Secrets of the Dead). These symptoms were similar to the behavior of both the accused witches and the supposed victims of witchcraft, who apparently suffered from torture by an unseen force and reported being bitten and scratched (The Salem Journal: The Aftermath). Or perhaps it is no coincidence that many of the accused witches were girls between the ages of 11 and 20, living in a society that had little concern for the hormonal changes of puberty.

If someone wanted land and they couldn 't get it, they would say that they are a witch and the person would get hung. A lot of people died because of getting blamed on about being a witch. But in “The Crucible” the character Abigail would blame anyone that got in the way of her and John Proctor, she was obsessed with him. There is a lot of movies that can relate to the