Letter To Salem Case Study

Twenty people were put to death for witchcraft in Salem during the 1692 Salem Witch Trial Hysteria. In The Crucible, a woman, Elizabeth Proctor, gets accused of witchcraft by a young girl by the name Abigail Williams, who just so happens to be having an affair with Elizabeth’s husband, John. Once John finds out Abigail accused his wife, he starts trying to find proof that all of these young girls are pretending that they are being hurt by these older women, just so that they will be hanged. The officials take Elizabeth and put her in jail, but cannot hang her because she becomes pregnant and she had no idea, so they are not going to harm the innocent child. John Proctor has no evidence that the girls are lying because his house servant,

Salem Village was one of many non-urban inhabitants. They were looked upon as country folk because of their interests and beliefs in the church and growing tobacco to survive in this new land. There was not much for children to do except go to church, work on the fields, or go to school. You can imagine how bored these children can get. In such a secluded lifestyle as this, you would be a crazy person if you were at all different, and this episode would be so different that it would be traumatic to the people of this small village. Traumatic as it was, I believe the people just did not know how to react in such a situation.

“Witch Hunt” is a term often thrown around whenever a group of people is being sought out and punished for their actions, regardless of whether they are actually guilty or not. Throughout history, there have been hundreds of different “witch hunts”, and not all of them have been hunting for witches. A few examples include the persecution of Muslims in post-9/11 USA, the sexual assault allegations of male celebrities and politicians being brought to light in 2017, and the search for communists through McCarthyism in the 1950’s. The most famous witch hunt that involved witches, though, occurred in a small village in Massachusetts called Salem, in 1692. But what caused these trials, and what made them so different from all of the others? There were no witches in Salem, but there was the impact of a sexist society on teenage girls, a desperate grab for land, and a malfunctioning legal system that allowed innocent people to be put to death. These are the three main causes of the famed Salem Witch Trials.

In 1692 mass hysteria broke out as the Salem Witch Trials came to their peak and executed 20 and imprisoned 200. Salem, located in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was a highly religious community running away from England’s prosecution like many other colonies. They found themselves in multiple conflicts that slowly was tearing them a part and increasing tension among the colonists. In 1691, the new king and queen of England, Mary and William, issued a more antireligious charter. They combined the Massachusetts Bay colony, Plymouth, and several others so they could be under closer watch. The bay colony mostly consisted of Puritans who felt they were under attack and still under England’s strict religious persecution. They began to believe that the devil was punishing them by attacking them with external factors. This made their fear manifest to anxiety so real it could be easily manipulated by even children. All of this would lead to the demise of innocent people and the tearing apart of a community.

In A Fever in Salem; A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trails, Laurie Winn Carlson claims that the Salem witch trials took place due to encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain due to an infection.

In 1692, a small town, by the name of Salem, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was riveted by events that would be a significant part of our history today. Those events would be known as the Salem Witch Trials. As Americans, we should be knowledgeable about this time in our history; what caused it, what happened, and what the outcome was.

Only surpassed by ministers as the most respected profession, magistrates wielded tremendous power in New England. Hand-in-hand with that power came the understanding that they would preserve the puritanical doctrine of the colonists. In the quest to maintain the purity of the colony, haste sometimes led to improper judgments, and the courts infrequently convicted those who were innocent in an effort to maintain the sanctity of the province. This situation manifests itself in Salem, where, in order to further their own personal desires to continue the trials and free Salem, the judges and prosecutors prefer to preserve their own veneer of authority over administering justice, rely on unreliable and easily manipulative witnesses, and fail

The witch trials of the late 1600's were full of controversy and uncertainty. The Puritan town of Salem was home to most of these trials, and became the center of much attention in 1692. More than a hundred innocent people were found guilty of practicing witchcraft during these times, and our American government forced over a dozen to pay with their lives. The main reasons why the witch trials occurred were conflicts dealing with politics, religion, family, economics, and fears of the citizens.

“James II, had revoked the old 1628 charter, so the colony was operating without an official government,” this is one of the circumstances that the Salem community was facing at the time because they had no structure or government/charter to proceed with the trials. This lead to the second circumstance that was the Salem Witch Trials because innocent people were being accused and because they didn’t have no charter the accused were being tried unjustly.

The primary fear that is apparent in the philosophy, “In unity still lay the best promise of safety” (5) is the fear of being accused of making a contact with the devil. In the quote, Miller shows that the citizen’s best way to feel safe is to act the same way everyone else is. He reveals that Salem has a strict social standard such as attending church every Sunday. Breaking away from the unity of their standards will make them victim to false accusations of witchcraft and contracting with the devil. In such a small town, the town folks are quick to notice changes and sometimes try to exploit their neighbors or friends for their personal interests. However by being conforming to Salem’s societal standards, it ensures your safety because one

<i>Why do you hurt these children?<br>I do not hurt them. I scorn it.<br>Have you made no contract with the devil? <br>No!</i><br><br>Mr. John Hathorn, a Judge involved in the witchcraft case of Sarah Good, then asked all of the afflicted children to look upon her and see if this was the person that had hurt them so. They all gazed at Goody Good and said that this was the person that tormented them—presently they were all tormented.<br><br>Puritanical beliefs had all of Salem truly believing that witches rode on broomsticks across the sky every night alongside the devil himself. They believed that these mere humans could send their "specter" out and haunt the children of their town. Proof of their belief follows, in an excerpt from Cotton

A real fear feels like death, but less satisfying. These fears enthralled the minds of the naive and frightened during the most dangerous time to be alive in New England, The Salem witch trials. The fire inside the Salem Trials needs a fuel, fed to it from the spoon of the stupid, will grown until it burns everything in sight. Who knew a mere lack of knowledge could get 20 people killed and drag Puritan society through hell. Highly religious peoples had a large role in fueling the hysteria that occurred during the trials. The fear from being attacked during the Indian war also had a played a big role in why the Witch Trials kept going strong for so long. The Salem witch trials, fueled by fear and influenced by hardship of Puritan life and

The events that transpired in Salem, Massachusetts occurred between the years of 1688 and 1693 constituted the most significant witchcraft outbreak in the history of the New England colonies. The entire event was quickly labeled as “colossal mistake” by the government after they had passed.(Ray, 2010) With this in mind the question remains; how did it get started and how did it get out of hand so quickly?

The 17th century was filled with mystery because of the strong beliefs in the supernatural powers and the presence of Satan on Earth in the colonial North America. Witchcraft, the use of magical faculties, was mainly used by the peasants with a particular charm of being associated with the evil spirits and demons to prosper in their agricultural activities. In fact, many literatures were written on witchcraft during that period. For instance, Joseph Glanvill in 1668, claimed to have proof of the existence of these powers in witches and ghosts in his thesis titled “Against Modern Sadducism”. Along with this thesis, other works by Cotton Mather, a minister at the Boston North Church, created the fear among the people about the wandering and meandering of demons on Earth (Adams, 2009). As a result, there was caution and concern among people from all quarters regarding the activity of witchcraft and black magic. This proves the common mindset of the society and the religious views and beliefs were blindly followed during those days; particularly when Christianity was almost occult.

When I think of witchcraft the first thing that comes to mind, is the Salem Witch Trials, and the fact that so many innocent people were accused, convicted and executed for being a witch, and more times than not this was done over such ridiculousness. Scott sheds light onto how ridiculous some of the accusations as proof of witchcraft really were. For instance in this “story” he explains how it was assumed that Margaret Simons was a witch because a boy became ill have he had an “altercation” with her dog, and she reprimanded him a few days prior to him becoming ill. And because of rumors, and because the father thought he was so “perfect,” there was no way that God would make a child sick, especially his, it had to be witchcraft, and Margret