Watters 1 One of the most incomprehensible events as well as one of the darkest times in history occurred in the colony of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The Salem Witch Trials occurred in seventeenth century New England, where people lived in a constant fear of the Devil which led to paranoia and illogical thinking. This fear led to many accusations and trials of innocent people and in the end, twenty people were killed, nineteen hung and one pressed to death. With the technology and knowledge we now have in the twenty-first century, it has become apparent that the behavior exhibited during the Salem Witch Trials (and other Witch Hunts around the world around this time) was not due to witches, as they do not exist. Although we can now conclude that this commotion was not caused by witches and magic, the question that still looms is what did cause this behavior in 1692? There is no straight forward answer to this. It is believed that there are many factors that led to the strange occurrences of the Salem Witch Trials. Some of them include a new and unstable government, Puritan religion, Puritan politics, Puritan societal expectations, mental health …show more content…
One of the many stresses put on Massachusetts at this time was that in 1684 “ King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s royal charter, a legal document granting the colonists permission to colonize the area” ( #6.) Shortly after, King Charles the II died, and King James II replaced him. During James II rule, he merged the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the Dominion of New England where the government was royally appointed and had extremely strict laws. After the Glorious Revolution occurred in England however, the Massachusetts Bay colonists fought and overthrew the Dominion. After this, the new King William of Orange and Queen Mary of Orange who ruled England, issued a new anti-religious charter and also combined
The Mass Hysteria of Salem Mass hysteria struck colonial Massachusetts in 1692 when several hearings took place known as The Salem Witch Trials. In this small town of Salem, there were 141 people arrested, 19 people hanged, and one person crushed to death. Why would this take place you ask? They were all accused of witchcraft, the Devil’s magic, and it was not taken lightly..
In January of 1692 a series of witch trials, caused by economical stress and fear of the devil began in Salem. The Salem witch trials included executions and trials that ended in devastation and the death of several men, women, and children. Causing people to flee, the King William's War began the economic stress in Salem. With the overpopulating town the people ran out of jobs to offer and living areas. Christians and religious people believed that the devil used this time of stress to overtake their religious society.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts a violent panic broke out. The Salem witch trial hysteria largely caused by religious beliefs, suspicious acts, and ergot poisoning. One main cause of the witch hysteria was religious beliefs. Puritans of the Church were strong holders of every small thing in the Bible.
1) The Salem Witch Trials, which began in 1692, was a phenomenon of hysteria that took over the colonial Massachusetts ("Salem Witch Trials"). Back in 1692, a lot of things were happening around town that people could simply not understand. A group of young ladies were accused of witchcraft and were claimed to be possessed by the devil, in Salem Village, Massachusetts ("Salem Witch Trials"). These young girls were accused of witchery, because they were chanting something abnormal while twirling in a circle. Later, people began blaming each other of witchery, because of a person's criminal act or unexplained events.
During the 1692 Salem Witch Trials and 1950 McCarthyism Era, various societies under a great amount of tension and injustice introduced the idea of formal hearings in which the citizens of these societies accused others of violating social standards. These “social standards” included the experimentation of witchcraft, and the defiance to the beliefs of the United States of America’s government. The Salem Trials and Red Scare created a display of terror which permitted the government to have increased powers over the rest of the American population. Throughout the course of history both men and women, such as Abigail Williams and Senator Joseph McCarthy, have led a revolt that used society's fear for their own individual advancement. During
The Salem Witch Trials are very infamous, but what really happened? Many believe that the town's leadership was corrupt, and that was the reason. Although that is a very common idea, there are many other ideas to better explain what happened. The first thing to understand is the timeline of what happened at Salem.
The Salem Witch Trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 was most defiantly a time when one could attribute “moral panic” to the deaths of 20 people who were hung for being what society deemed as witches. It was a time when Christianity was prominent and no one steered away from the biblical beliefs. The small town of Salem, where everyone knew their neighbors was stricken by the physical unnatural actions of two young girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris. “The two girls were known to throw fits that involved screaming, crying, crawling, destroying property and contorting themselves in ways that society seen as abnormal bizarre behavior” (Salem Witch Trials HIstory Channel, 2014). These behaviors brought about increased
Many would assume that after the witch trials that occurred in Salem in 1692 people would be terrorized or cautious, but is that really what happened? Out of the almost two hundred people accused of witchcraft only "nineteen were hanged on Gallows Hill" (Brooks, 2011). After this gruesome event one would think that people would be disgusted by themselves for randomly blaming innocent people. The few who were pardoned continued their lives normally seemingly not caring about the ones who had passed away due to false accusations.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem in the winter of 1691 to the winter of 1692, a group of young girls fell strangely ill and complained of symptoms including knife-like pain, the feeling of being choked, and pinching. The town’s religious leaders blamed witchcraft. Salem, being a theocratic government, therefore relied heavily on the decisions and opinions of the religious officials. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by the enormous amount of attention and speculation it received from the religious leaders. The three main reasons the Salem Witch Trials took place were because of the written scripture, the legal/judicial system, and the tensions between the Town and the Village.
But they was being revoked their rights due to them violating several of the charter's rules. But shortly after Charles died James the second took his place and merged the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Dominion of New England which meant they created many more strict new laws. But later on the new King and Queen took over and created more laws and intense anti-religious charter, so instead of using the old charter they combined the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony and many other colonies into one. This ended up making things worse for the people in Massachusetts but a break out of smallpox in the colony growed and caused problems between families within the
The Salem witch trials were a large and well known part of our history. Beginning in 1692, three girls were accused of being possessed by the devil. There were many theories to the cause of the Salem witch trials, but there were three main reasons. The belief that the devil had taken over society, the belief that the devil was recruiting witches to work for him, and the belief that a disease caused by eating infected rye caused hallucinations. These were the main reasons for the cause of the Salem witch trials.
The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,
What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? What caused the Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692? The three reasons that caused this were revenge, jealousy, and feeling empowered. Between June 10 and September 22, 1692, 20 people got put to death in Salem for witchcraft.
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.
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.