ipl-logo

Summary Of Unraveling The Salem Witch Hunts By Marc Aronson

1426 Words6 Pages

Truth Untold: Unraveling the Salem Witch Hunts through Marc Aronson
Marc Aronson uses this his book, Witch-HUNT: Mysteries of the Salem witch trials, to unravel and debunk myths surrounding the events of the Salem witch hunts and replace them with plausible theories based on evidence. Aronson relays that the modern ideas on the events of the witch trials and what may have happened are often wrong and the perpetrators of those pies used them to over stimulate the imaginations of those who were to believe these tales.
The Salem Witch Hunts that are referred to by Aronson’s book are the hunts and trials that took place between February 1692 through May of 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. In a time of lawlessness or anarchy in …show more content…

Sleeping Beauty has two popular recounts. One in which a King and Queen are not able to have a child and with the help a medicine woman are able to have one. The other is the story of a King and Queen who are finally blessed with child and invites everyone in the kingdom to a grand celebration with the commonality of both stories being that the old women of the community, the outcast, is not allowed to attend. In version one, the royals threw away the woman who once issued them help and in version two the outsider is shunned and excluded from everyone. This was a set example of how readily they sided with witchcraft accusers, never actually looking to the side of the accused. Aronson finds that the witch hunts of Salem were much like this in that the accused (the rejected) were outsiders who were outspoken, independent, have few to no children, bitter, and quite often depended on for medicinal assistance. “Who better to help bitter people get revenge than satan, the prince of darkness. The angel whose own envy of God made him try to subvert all of creation (Aronson …show more content…

This often dim lit fact is that the family of the the accused suffered as well. Witches’ families could suffer as much as the witch because not only could they be accused of being accomplices in the witches’ activities but the families could also be stripped of their possessions or any possessions they would stand to inherit as a relative of the witches’ or prominent member of society (Aronson 2005). Godbeer, in 2011, found that the accused were outspoken, problematic and had little to no children as well. Aronson and Godbeer both agree that Sarah Good was perfect as the blueprint for what a witch looks like as she herself had no children, was heavily outspoken to her neighbors, and readily displayed her independence. Not only that but the two academics also agree that the hunt for witches in Salem was easily accepted do to the troubling nature of being without a government as well as the fact that most people accepted, on faith, the understanding of how the invisible world interacted with their daily lives in that God ultimately judged and determined everything but that there were also bad forces present in their lives in an effort to derail the efforts of

Show More
Related

  • The Testimon Young Women In Salem Possessed

    1418 Words  | 6 Pages

    The witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Hunt Analysis

    1001 Words  | 5 Pages

    Causing many suspicion of demonic activity throughout the salem village, hysteria spread quickly as the population ascended to witchcraft creating the act of cynicism. Most conducted these suspicions though dissecting their physical and mental image meaning that most of the civilians would convert to supernatural explanations in order to assume the act of demonic possession and I quote “Good also had a reputation for holding a grudge and for muttering curses against those who crossed her, which would have alarmed her neighbours, not least because many people believed that such curses would work” ( The Salem Witch Hunt, p.69). This quote taken from Sarah Good’s bibliography confirms the suspicions of witchcraft as these sign were depicted as supernatural to the puritans perspective. Being fearful of the devil, most puritans believed that the abnormal should endure punishment as for these acts were created against the church law leading to christian ignorance and disbelief and I quote “They also show how easily people could become convicted that hostile neighbours were wielding occult forces against them”(The Salem Witch Hunt, p.69).

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

    887 Words  | 4 Pages

    (Schanzer 50). The trials started when the daughters of Reverend Samuel Parris starting acting strange, he took them to the doctor and he said the two girls convulsions were caused by witchcraft. Later that week an old beggar came up to Samuel Parris’s house to ask for food, and he gave her something and the beggar mumbled under her breath. Parris thought she was being cantankerous, so he accused Sarah Good because he thought she was ungrateful for what he gave her. “Maybe their tormentors were the usual suspects, people their family did not like or respect” (Schanzer 27).

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Book Report

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book by Rosalyn Schanzers Witches! The absolutely true tale of disaster in salem gives information about the salem witch trials. The surroundings of the trials(such as weather)changed from winter all the way through spring 1692.They also were very paranoid of a lot of things. Such as witches and the devil. The main theories i will state are Reasons for the witch hunts.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Dbq Analysis

    712 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example, Annika L of the Salem Times states, “A fourth theory is that the girls behavior was caused by physical illness.” Despite the fact that such points could be defended with some logic, most of the support would be weak and loose. On the other hand, it can be concluded that the claim made by this essay is more logical and well supported if anything. All in all, it can be determined that the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family ties and enter or sustain continued community safety within the

    Read More

  • Essay On The Salem Witch Trials Dbq

    480 Words  | 2 Pages

    This jealousy was created from other’s female gender, age and marital status. Based on document B provided, the accusers were around the age of 16-20, female, and accused mostly women (41-60), that were married of being a witch. Drawing to a conclusion, the accusers, younger and single girls, were jealous of old, married women who had their future set for them

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Justified Analysis

    1716 Words  | 7 Pages

    The first known witch hunts took place in the early 1300’s (Wallenfeldt). As early as the 1400’s, prominent and trustworthy European figures like the pope released pamphlets on finding and persecuting witches (Saari 13-15). The Salem Witch Trials weren’t even the first to occur in America; a woman in Boston had been hung for witchcraft shortly before the Salem trials began. The people of Salem even cited the Boston trials as proof for their accusations; because their afflicted girls had the same symptoms as those in Boston, then clearly both must have been telling the truth (Alexander 194). It would make sense for Salem residents to look to past events to try and understand their current situation, since this is something that happens frequently through history and even

    Read More

  • Chapter Summary: The Salem Witch Trials

    1223 Words  | 5 Pages

    REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.

    Read More

  • The Salem Witch Trials: Powerplay Between Men And Women

    626 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Salem Witch Trials is the most well-known witch hunt that occurred in New England, and probably in all of America. This has been an incredibly fascinating topic for both students and scholars alike as everyone asks the one question no one can ever definitively answer: why. Why did this happen? Why was this scale so great compared to Europe or other colonies, when the same ideals were in place? Was this the cause of a mass hallucination, overzealous religious citizens, or a real presence of supernatural beings throughout the town?

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trial Essay

    1729 Words  | 7 Pages

    Sarah Good was targeted due to her status as a pregnant beggar who was known to ask her neighbors for help. She was also accused of rejecting the puritanical expectations held by the people of Salem-Village. She is representative of the larger group of the accused because all of them were disliked or looked on as lesser by their neighbors. Even though the only claims against the accused were that the accusers saw an ‘apparition’ or spirit they had believed to be Sarah Good or Osborne, or

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Witches: Salem 1692

    527 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book, The Witches: Salem 1692, the author Stacy Schiff attempts to condense a large volume of research into a cohesive narrative that tries to avoid to much speculation. There is some contention that the book does speculate into the motives of primary accusers that some reviewers have intimated are bordering on fiction. However, the author defends her arguments logically, and her inferences do seem to bridge the gaps effectively. One of the items that causes some confusion, to both the historically curious, and to the researcher is that the author has created a list of dramatis personae in which the historical figures are labeled as a cast of characters which might make the book seem fictional.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Rhetorical Analysis

    1066 Words  | 5 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Summary Of A Delusion Of Satan By Frances Hill

    1532 Words  | 7 Pages

    The novel A Delusion of Satan written by Frances Hill describes the history of the Salem Witch Trials (“Salem”) in 1692, the causes and effects of the witch hysteria, and the biographies of major characters associated with the trials. In the novel, Hill started out explaining the Puritans’ beliefs and customs, the gender roles of men and women in Salem and why women were easily accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft in the 17th century. During that time, women were easily accused of practicing witchcraft because they were viewed as physically, politically and spiritually weaker than men. Men were perceived as the power, status, and worthy in the society, and they dominated women’s behavior and social status. In the 17th century,

    Read More

  • Research Paper On The Salem Witch Trials

    801 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Salem witch trials was one of the most absurd and tragic events in history of pre-colonial America. A fine example of how believing in accusations and hearsay could affect a lot of people in a short span of time. the justice system is flawed and prejudice was allowed to reign over the people. I found this topic very interesting even though it is one of the most regretted in history. I’ve always been the type of person who likes reading all those weird and peculiar things on the internet.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Research Papers

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.

    Read More

More about Summary Of Unraveling The Salem Witch Hunts By Marc Aronson

Open Document