Understanding The Salem Witch Trials
A event that happened in the 1600s will make you question yourself. Two young girls named elizabeth and abigail began having fits. After a local doctor came in to see what the problem was, they were diagnosed with bewitchment. Arrest warrants started being made out to a slave, tituba, along with two other women, sarah good and sarah osborn. They were accused of bewitching the young girls because during the young girls fits they would howl out the ‘witch's’ name. Later, a chain reaction started, if you were accused of being a witch then you either blamed it on someone else or plead you were innocent. These trials began overwhelming the justice system.
The Salem witch trials were a series of cases brought before local magistrates and the county court of trials in 1692. To understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to understand that the people in Salem thought differently and lived differently than people from the 21st century. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics and rivalry …show more content…
The harsh climate and rough, rocky terrain made farming difficult, and drought or flood ruin a year’s harvest. An epidemic of smallpox could kill a family, people at the time didn’t understand the science behind the disease, so they naturally looked up to supernatural causes to explain the problems. Having an angry witch killing your children made sense. When a neighbor would suffer misfortune, such as a sick child or failed crop, Puritans saw it as God’s will and did not help. In a world where people saw the Devil lurking behind every misfortune, it is little wonder they believed evil spirits were at work. But there may have been stronger factors behind the witch hunts—the Puritan lifestyle, a strong belief in the Devil and witchcraft, the divisions within Salem Village, and the expectations of
The Salem witch trials were a series of cases brought before local magistrates and the county court of trials in 1692. To understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to understand that the people in Salem thought differently and lived differently than people from the 21st century. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics and rivalry …show more content…
The harsh climate and rough, rocky terrain made farming difficult, and drought or flood ruin a year’s harvest. An epidemic of smallpox could kill a family, people at the time didn’t understand the science behind the disease, so they naturally looked up to supernatural causes to explain the problems. Having an angry witch killing your children made sense. When a neighbor would suffer misfortune, such as a sick child or failed crop, Puritans saw it as God’s will and did not help. In a world where people saw the Devil lurking behind every misfortune, it is little wonder they believed evil spirits were at work. But there may have been stronger factors behind the witch hunts—the Puritan lifestyle, a strong belief in the Devil and witchcraft, the divisions within Salem Village, and the expectations of