Salem Witch Trial

In the summer months of 1692, twenty-three people died in Salem, Massachusetts. The passing away of these people were due to them being accused of being possessed by evil spirits. Were these people actually possessed or were these accusations made for different reasons? The witch hunts in 1692 have caused debates over why they started, and the debate over the cause is still going on. Many people don’t know why these trials happened, but there are three obvious reasons as to why the witch trials in Salem were generated. The Salem Witch Trials were created for the poor to take revenge on the wealthy for taking their land, to intimidate the townspeople to start paying more attention to religion, and by the deception that people were possessed by the devil when in reality it was just the consumption of ergot. To begin with, the witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts were conceived because the poor were retaliating to the wealthier townspeople taking their land. In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts was unofficially split into two halves. The eastern side was the wealthier side, and was controlled by the supporters of the Porter family. The western side of Salem was controlled by the supporters of the Putnam family, and was less wealthy. In 1661, the richest ten percent of Salem residents owned 21 percent of the town’s land. By 1681, the richest ten percent of Salem residents owned 62 percents of the town’s land and wealth. Most of the accusers in the trials were from the western side of the village, while most of the defendants were from the eastern side of Salem village. Due to the fact that they lived on different sides of Salem, it was very difficult to obtain proof that proved that someone was indeed a witch. It is clear that the poorer people in Salem had a lot of their land taken by the wealthier townspeople, and these trials were retaliations from the poor people. The Salem Witch Trials in 1692 were composed because the poverty-stricken people were