What Is The Cause And Effect Of The Salem Witch Trials

“Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.” - Walter Kirn. From October to May in 1692 the killing of nine-teen innocent people took place in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. This was called the Salem Witch Trials. This massive hysteria all started when a group of young groups started to act out. The girls started to scream, throw things, and contorted their bodies in unnatural positions. Also, they complained of a fever and severe pain. The girls were then examined by Dr. William Griggs, who said they girls must be suffering from something supernatural. This lead to the imprisonment of 185 people, the hanging of eighteen persons and one person being pressed to death. The first person to be tried and hanged
In addition, they girls who were “possessed” didn't want to get caught for misbehaving. The girls were caught playing with a crystal ball and telling each other's fortunes. During this time, these types of actions were associated with witchcraft. To save themselves from being punished the girls blamed it on Tituba, the west indian slave, Sarah Good, a homeless beggar, and Sarah Osborne, who lived with her second husband before they were married, which was frowned upon by minister Samuel Parris’s church. Also, when doctor William Griggs said the girls must be possessed by a witch, it put pressure on the girls to find the ‘witches’ that possessed them. This just shows that the people who were targeted where the people who were easy targets. The first three women accused of being witches, were women who had no power to stand up for themselves. The people who testified against these three women, were neighbors that weren't fond of them. For example, they would testify that when one of these women came to their homes their livestock had died shortly after or their cheese had gone bad. The government allowed this crazy and unreliable testimonies to justify the conviction of these three women to protect themselves and the group of young
Most of his supporters were poor farmers in Salem Village. They believed that Parris’s way of running the church had “traditional values” and was stable. The farmers thought Salem Town was a threat to their way of life. Parris was mostly in charge of finding “witches”, so he took this as an opportunity to get vengeance on the people who didn't approve of his church. Majority of the people who didn't like the way Parris ran the church lived in Salem town. In addition, anyone one in Salem Village who had any connections to people in Salem Town and who opposed Samuel’s church were the ones mainly accused of being witches. Because Parris and his supporters were so afraid their way of life could be compromised, they did everything in their power to preserve it. Even if it means killing innocent people. To help make sure their life stayed the same Parris, his supporter and the government forced people to give false testimonies to get people unlawfully imprisoned and