What Really Happened in Salem in 1692?
In the extremely religious puritan community, Salem, people were brainwashed to believe everything they heard from the head of the church. There were strong beliefs and paranoia about the devil which influenced the way the events of the Salem Witch Trials played out In this society, the belief in the devil was very common, making everyone on edge about who might be a witch. The devils presence was “felt everywhere, and when the colonists began to like for his new hiding places they found him crouches in the very heart of the Puritan colony” (Erikson 2). Religion was a major factor to why many people were accused of being a witch since the puritans were paranoid about the devil being everywhere. This is especially evident during an examination of Mrs. John Proctor, when Justice says, “You see, the Devil will deceive you. The children could see
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Once someone was accused of being a witch, it was very difficult to convince everyone that they weren’t. “Persons who scoffed at accusations of witchcraft risked becoming targets of accusations themselves” (Linder 18). If someone was accused of being a witch, no matter what they said to negate the accusations, they were going to be in the trials and if someone had supported one who was accused, they were also under suspicion and put in trials. This started a snowball effect of people being accused, leading to the Salem Witch trials. Many unfortunate events occurred leading up to the Salem Witch trials. There were brutal winters, Indian attacks, a small pox epidemic and a change in governing. “Sir William Phips appointed governor of MA Bay and a new charter is created in which the governor, church, legislature, and courts are welded together in a single religions and civil governing body” (Document #1). These were major changes that effected how the society functioned. Religion became even more prominent and people were being forced to deal with this,
The church and the nature of Protestant culture present in both places played a vital role in fuelling accusations and fear. Salem village in the 1690s was a strictly Puritan, in which the monotony of theocracy could not be escaped. Central to the Puritan beliefs was the uncertainty of salvation, with even the most godly men still vulnerable to temptation by the devil. Vital to Puritan theology was the view that Satan was an instrument God used to punish the sinful, and that troubles during one’s lifetime were a manifestation of God’s judgement against sin. Witches were one means by which the devil might penetrate society, with a witch’s pact with the devil interpreted as the antithesis of Christian baptism.
The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft, 1692 One of the most horrific events that occurred in American history was The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 that took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, now known as Danvers, Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials were the accusations of two hundred people that were believed to be practicing witchcraft or worshiping the Devil. The witch trials began in the early year of 1692 and ended in 1693. Enders A. Robinson believes that the witch hunt occurred because of conspiracies formed by the townspeople, and because of the relation of religion and social ideas.
The Puritans were unhappy with the church in England, They stated that the church wasn’t pure and wasn’t the pure way of a church. So they had decided to leave England. The Puritans had decided to settle in New England. They had a strong belief in the Bible, and the pure way of the church. The majority of times the accuser would find that they despised, was jealous of them, or just saw them as unholy.
In the 1600 a large group of very religious people left their homes and went to the New World. In the Bible it states, that no witches (people who have the devil in them) should not live, so the Puritans would accuse people, mainly women, of being witches for simple reasons. This caused 20 people to be put to a painful death and more than one hundred in jails. What is the reason for the hysteria surrounding the Witch Trials in Salem 1692? The Salem Witch Trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the belief in witches, the fear of being accused of witchcraft and the punishments all witches would fear.
These accusations were then turned into good people that happened to not give others what they wanted and wrong people started to accuse them. This then changed to being the Salem Witch Trials. A reverend and several men in the court came to Salem to help with this problem in their community. Their acts brought many to being wrongly accused and the evidence towards them was not good enough to hang them. This power and control ended many lives and brought destruction within one’s village.
In the year of 1692, 130 people were persecuted in Salem, Massachusetts on claims of Witchery. 25 of them died. What could have happened in Salem to spark the infamous witch trials of Salem? I believe it was caused by paranoia, attention seekers, and unneighborly conflicts.
So, the Puritans believed that any person (witch) who serves the devil is immediately known as a witch and tries to persecute them. Many people were found to be witches. So, they tried to blame other townspeople for witchcrafting to escape from the accusations. The blamings over people got spreaded all over the town which started the Salem witch trials. The Puritans brought religious rules which led witches to appear.
The Causes of the Salem Witch Trials Much of modern America’s fear and infamous interest in witches has been derived most likely from the profound Salem Witch Trials. “The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft,” stated History.com authors. However, many historians still deliberate how such events occurred in the first place. Based on several presented documents, some conclusions suggest that there was a prominent cause to the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. All in all, the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family
In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.
any innocent people in the colonial times who were accused of witchcraft didn't even partake in any of the activities that were associated with witchcraft, were still labeled as witches, and harshly punished or sentenced to death. The people of salem frowned upon witchcraft. the people had come to the conclusion that the devil had come to their town in 1692. Most of the cases of witchcraft were girls were acting strange and doing weird activities with women in the woods believed to be witches.the townspeople thought this was strange and took action.
The Salem witch trials took place because of people practicing witchcraft and they were not witches. This resulted in the imprisonment /execution of more than 200 people. Centuries ago many Christians and those who practiced other religions believed that the Devil gave certain people known as witches power to bring harm to other people in exchange for their loyalty to him. From 1300 to the end of 1600 raged in Europe.
discovery education tells us the people of Salem believed that all sins should be punished. Even the littlest sin can get you in big trouble. They had such strong faith in this “God” that every bad thing that happened to you that no one could control ( sick child, rotten crop, miscarriage etc.) was a punishment for sinful behavior. In Salem the Devil was as real as God.
Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials.
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
Many practicing Christians, at the time, believed that the Devil could persuade people to use the powers that he gave them to harm others. The Salem Witch Trials occurred because of resource struggles, many women were accused and tortured, and in the end the Governor realized that it was a big mistake. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1). In 1689, English rulers William and Mary started a war with France in the American colonies which sent many refugees into the Essex County and Salem Village.