Essay On The Reasoning Behind The Salem Witch Trials

The Reasoning Behind the Salem Witch Trials Christianity: it is a religion that is meant to unify people under God’s rule. It is meant to be a religion of peace and sanctity. The 1692 Puritan colony in Salem, Massachusetts was anything but peaceful. The Salem Witch Trials had ensued, and led to the killings of nearly twenty people. All this chaos was started due to an unofficial government, disease and famine, and patriarchal gender roles. During the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials, there was no solid form of government. A Salem Witch Trials article states that, “The newly appointed governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, ordered the establishment of a special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) on witchcraft cases” (History.com: Salem Witch Trials). This quote is an example of how religious leaders were also seen as political leaders,
The Salem Witch Trials article from History.com states, “On March 1, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, became the first Salem residents to be charged with the capital crime of witchcraft.” (Salem Witch Trials Documentary). All of these listed victims were women, and one of them was a slave. At the time, women did not have as much of a say as men, because they were seen as morally weaker. This idea originated from the Bible’s telling of Adam and Eve, when Eve gave into the Devil’s temptations (Salem Witch Trials Documentary). In the Puritan settlement, women and girls were forced to stay in the house all day and clean, while the men worked outside. A documentary from History.com states that, “once settlements started to grow… girls and women started to behave in new and different ways, that many men--and women--found threatening” (Salem Witch Trials Documentary). The people who had control over the trials were the religious leaders/politicians; they were all