The Salem Witch Crisis began during the winter of 1691-1692. In Salem Village, Massachusetts, when Betty Parris, the nine-year-old daughter of the village’s minister, Samuel Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams, fell strangely ill. The girls complained of pinching, prickling sensations, knifelike pains, and the feeling of being choked. Some weeks later, three ore girls showed similar symptoms. Doctors began to suspect that witchcraft was the reason of the girl’s symptoms.…
The history of the Salem witchcraft epidemic is well known. In the winter of 1692, two girls suffered convulsions and hallucinations, alarming fast their families and subsequently the entire community. When a medical diagnosis was not forthcoming, a religious explanation was accepted: the girls were acting strangely because "the hand of Satan was in them." The drama was intensified because the two girls were the daughter and niece of the town's minister.…
People were being falsely accused of conspiring against God. In Salem the people were very avid about their religion, therefor being accused of witchcraft was as to be conspiring against God. The Nurses were being falsely accused by the Putnams of witchcraft. Goody Putnam we jealous of Goody Nurse. The Putnams had “laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth” and had less land, whereas the Nurses had 11 children and 26…
The year 1692 marked a major event in history in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. During the year 1692, Salem, a colony filled with Puritans who believe in religion very strongly, but as their beliefs grow, the more the people were starting to die. The problem or question is what caused the Salem witch crisis hysteria of 1692? There were many causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria but the possible three main reasons were the conflicts between young and older women, the “afflicted” girls were acting throughout the trial, and the town’s differences in wealth and power.…
In Rosalyn Schanzer´s Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, extreme disorder in civilization took place due to massive amounts of unjust witch accusations. In early 1692, mass chaos struck Salem Village, Massachusetts. In a ravenous sprint to gain revenge and play a game of kill-or-be-killed, approximately 200 people were accused of witchcraft. 20 of these were executed. Families turned on each other, civilians accused one another of unimaginable things, and all because of two girls. Betty Parris and Abigail Williams who together accused a staggering portion of the innocent so called ´witches´. Many people question the motives of these two. It is hard to imagine two young girls under the care of such a high public figure…
Fear of the superstition of witchery drove the town of Salem into mayhem causing them to hang many of their own, whom they feared were witches. This is evident when the people of Salem fear the "workings of the devil" and become suspicious that anything out of the ordinary is witchery led by the devil . Imaginations flared as stories were told of Betty (Parris's niece) flying, even though she was only pretending to be witched. Because of the superstition of witchcraft many people became hysterical and accused women of being witches for ridiculous reasons. Some of these reasons included Goody Putnam's babies dying at birth "my babies always shrivelled". The aspect of witchcraft is supposed to be allegorical for McCarthyism where if people did not confess to being a communist, they could be punishment sometimes even being put in prison and many confessed despite it being a lie so that they avoided punishment (Miler was forbidden from writing).…
These people were called witches and were prosecuted heavily until about the end of the 15th century. In Salem Massachusetts the witch infamous witch hunt was partly caused by a new unpopular reverend named Samuel Parris. In 1692 when his daughter and niece began having fits it was easy for him and his daughters to blame it on witchcraft. Another child named Ann Putnam also began experiencing fits, the three girls blamed these fits on witchcraft and claimed they could see the devil. The first three people the girls accused was: Tituba, a Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless woman; and Sarah Osborne, a widowed poor woman. It was easy for the towns people to believe these three women were witches because they were at the bottom of the society. From here the court demanded the women confess, or they would hang. Tituba was the first to confess to save her own life. This confession caused the townspeople, and the people of the court, to truly believe that witchcraft was real and in the town of Salem. This enabled the three girls to accuse anyone in the town they liked. In turn it enabled Parris to tell his daughter and niece who to accuse, and he was able to rid the town of his…
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman is broken down into three sections the first section contains chapter 1 and deals with the world of New England witchcraft. It examines the beliefs and religious ideals of the settlers that shaped their views of witchcraft. The second section contains chapters 2-4 and deals with more closely with examining the characteristics and individual cases of the accused. The reader will find myriad cases of the women who were accused. Three major ideas are examined and each is given a chapter, the ideas are that demographics, economics, and personalities each played a major role in determining who was accused of being a witch. The final section contains chapters 5-7 and deals with interpreting the characteristics of witches within the gender system of Colonial New England. This is broken down by looking at Puritan beliefs about women in general, the relationship between witchcraft beliefs and the social structure of the time period, and focusing on examples of women that the Puritans thought were witches.…
Misunderstood Beliefs of the Puritans Fear is an emotion that has plagued mankind for centuries. Fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of others. When people are afraid, their actions can be manipulated to reactions out of fear. An example of extreme reactions to fear would be the Puritans.…
Abigail makes her first accusations of witchcraft because of the pressure to find a cause for Betty’s sudden illness. Witchcraft is an evil practice to the Puritans of Salem, and the mention of it worries Abigail’s Uncle, Parris. Parris’s worry and the quickly spreading rumor of witchcraft put pressure on Abigail to explain the events…
In the Act 1 of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Betty and Abigail were being diagnosis with unknown illness. In result the many believe that it's the work of witchcraft.…
The most popular historical perspective of what occurred is that in early 1692, the Rev. Samuel Parris’s 9-year-old daughter Betty and his 12-year-old niece Abigail, “began to fall into horrid fits”. There has been debate as to whether these fits were real, or if the girls were just acting. The village doctor could not explain these bizarre “fits”, and blamed it on the supernatural. One must understand that these were Puritans, their belief system at that time gave a great deal of power to the spiritual world. If something good happen to somebody they were said to be in God 's good graces. If something bad happened to somebody, it was said to be the devil 's work.…
The disturbed girls, led by Abigail Williams, began to claim that they “saw people with the Devil”. They believed the accused were harming them through black magic. Throughout the months, there had been many trials and many of the accused were found guilty.…
It all started out in January of 1692. Elizabeth Parris, a 9-year-old, and Abigail Williams, the 11-year daughter of Salem’s minister, began having fits. These fits weren’t just the typical child hissy fit or tantrum. These fits were considered demonic and involved the two young girls violently contorting themselves into abnormal positions, throwing random items, uttering strange things, and screaming out uncontrollably. The father of Abigail…
The Puritans that appear in the novel Witch Child are driven by superstition and religion. They're actions are often inhumane and unjust, but the evil monsters of superstition and religion obliterate any common sense. God's Law rules here. P224 These Puritans feel their way of life and their beliefs are the way to go. The Puritans do not have a logical and clear understanding of the things that happen. At this stage, one must remember that Witch Child is set during times when science was nothing like it is today. Keeping this in mind, it is true to say that the Puritans do not have a clear understanding why their crops and cattle were dying. They turn to superstition for answers and came to the conclusion that witchcraft was present. In turn, their fear and hate of witches came about.…