Essay On The Causes Of The Salem Witch Dbq

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was a time of panic and bedlam. Men and women of all ages were being “inhabited by the Devil” in turn making them witches. During the 1600s, English immigrants arrived in New England, a number of them being Puritans. The Puritans were Protestant Christians who were unhappy with the way England practiced Christianity so they moved to New England for a fresh start. However, once it was the 17th century, witchcraft became more well known and people became more worried about their well being. There were three causes to this panic: people were afraid of being accused so they accused others, girls who were bored and messing around, and Western Salem Village’s loss of political influence. It was June 10, 1692 when the first “witch” would be accused and executed. In the same year, 19 more people would be executed and four would die in jail. Those 20 executions would happen within the timespan of three months. (Doc A) The villagers were likely to be afraid of their well being and didn’t want to be accused themselves. As an easy way out, they could have accused others. Mostly women were accused as they were seen as the weaker sex and it was possible that the Devil had less trouble inhabiting the women’s bodies in comparison to men’s. However, it was surprising that mostly young single girls were
Between 1661 and 1681, the people in the western half lost political power and farmed poor land as the people in eastern side gained wealth and the influence that the western side had lost. Because of this, the western side became jaundiced and probably wanted revenge on the eastern side. Most of the accusers lived on the west side and most of the accused and defenders lived on the eastern side. This leads to the belief that the western villagers were biased against the eastern side due to their loss and the eastern side’s