The Salem witch crisis was a terrible event where girls were accused of being witches. The people believed that witchcraft was the reasoning behind the excruciating pain some girls were experiencing. The Salem witch crisis lead to 20 people killed, and over 100 in jail. I believe the Salem witch crisis was caused by religious leaders trying to prove the bible has all of the answers. One example of that is Cotton Mather, a religious leader, mentions that many people experienced the horrors of witchcraft for themselves. He also mentions that witchcraft was mentioned in scripture. This supports my thesis because being a religious leader of the Puritans, many people would listen to him. So having said that witchcraft was…
The Salem Witch Trials are known as a series of people being accused and prosecuted of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts beginning in February 1692 until May 1693. The trials began after a group of girls claimed that they were possessed by the devil. Several local women were accused of witchcraft and this began the wave of hysteria that would forever haunt Salem and leave a painful legacy for a long time to come. Nearly every major school of historians has attempted to explain the answer to the mystery of the trials, trying to understand why they occurred. From Marxists who blame class conflict, to Freudians who believe in mass hysteria, the more ecologically based historians who put the blame on hallucinogenic ergot fungus, and now more…
More than 18 million citizens were put in concentration camps in Western Europe during 1939 through 1945. Approximately 11 million people died during those time with 1 million of them being children. Adolf Hitler, who was the Chancellor of Germany, targeted people who had different beliefs then him. This is why the Holocaust is a modern day "witch hunt". Holocaust is similar to the "witch hunt" in Salem because of how people were prosecuted, the conditions they were put through, and the fear in the civilians.…
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), this was a passage that the Puritans lived by. The Salem Witch Trials took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692 and claimed the lives of many innocent people. It led to the hangings of almost twenty, leaving more than one hundred in prison. A group of young girls in Salem Village accused several local women of witchcraft while being claimed of being possessed by the devil. This is causing a wave of hysteria to spread throughout colonial Massachusetts.…
Witches are known to be very dangerous, evil, and made deals with the devil. They were even killed, tortured and jailed, but nowadays we treat them completely differently. We invite them into our house, give them candy, and strike conversations with them, that is at least on halloween. In the late 1600s many older men and women were being caught as being “witches” in Salem, Massachusetts.These witch trials were being caused by young girls who were pretending just to get ergotism, attention, and eventually after one lie they got out control really quickly.…
The Salem Witch Trails started in Massachusetts from 1692 and lasted until 1693. There was about 200 people who were accused of practicing witchcraft, or Devil’s Magic, and about twenty of them were executed. Soon after the trials, the colonist admitted the trials were a mistake and the families of those who were executed were paid or compensated for their loss.…
The Salem Witch Trials were events that took place in the Salem Village between June and September of 1692. Hundreds of people were being accused of practicing Witchcraft and were put on trial. At least 20 people were executed. Victims of witchcraft were said to have Fitts, the act of screaming, throwing things, and outburst of gibberish. It was a strong belief that the devil could give certain people or “Witches” the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. This was one reason of that witchcraft trials became an outbreak in the Salem community.…
In a plain meeting house in 1692 a woman stands before her judges. She is accused of tormenting innocent girls with an unseen evil. Standing there, the poor woman is ridiculed in front of her whole town. She is surrounded by people accusing her of witchcraft based only on the hallucinations of attention-hungry schoolgirls. It makes us wonder was there no justice? It did not matter; superstition got the best of them. Eventually these superstitions claimed twenty-five lives, shattered the community, and forever shaped the American social conscience. The combination of fear and superstition in Salem in 1692 caused a devastating witch-hunt, leading us to cry out for some old-fashioned justice. There…
Named after the holy city of Jerusalem, Salem was founded in 1626 by English merchants who took advantage of the natural harbor and the abundant fishing the area provided. Fear of Devil-worship and witchcraft swept through Salem, Massachusetts, like a plague. During the years of 1692-1693, more than 200 people, men, women, and even children, were accused of witchcraft. Words of friends, neighbors, and even complete strangers put many people’s lives in danger; 19 were hung, 1 pressed to death, and 3 including 1 infant died in jail awaiting trial. The accusations, the trials, the executions, and the events leading up to and after the deaths, kept Salem Massachusetts, on its toes in this mass paranoia.…
Witchcraft trials started around 1648 in New England and were fueled by the strong faith of the Puritans. The Puritans, a devout religious group, believed that Satan was an angel who had turned against god1, and that witches had been possessed by Satan. In turn, accusations typically arose from social tensions between neighbors and often times targeted people who were difficult or disruptive towards their society2. For most of the seventeenth century witchcraft trials occurred across New England but were not prominent. There were actually only fourteen executions up until 1692, however, witch-hunting seemed to take a turn for the worse during the infamous Salem trials. These trials began when young girls cried fowl and their words were taken…
In January 1692, A hysteria developed in a Salem Village located in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The beginning of the Salem Witch Trials started when two girls, Betty Parris, 9 years old and Abigail Williams, 11 years old began acting strangely. They began by having “fits” that could not be explained by the local doctor. The doctor who had no explanation for the fits or convulsion like symptoms deemed it witchcraft. This was the beginning of the hysteria that developed in the village and the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials.…
In January 1692, the colony of Salem, Massachusetts would encounter a situation that would change the small colony forever. That year the quiet town would endure a 9-month long span of trials of witchcraft that would leave 200 accused witches and 20 dead. The trials were based on religious beliefs and would separate all the “unholy” citizens from the community. The trials separated the community based on fear and individuals singling out others based on class. The witch-hunts have affected modern society by deeming women as weak and inferior to men and as easily controlled. The whole thing could have even simply started as a group of young girls who just wanted to gain attention and then taken over by corrupt leaders who wanted to exercise…
The Salem witch trials happened in Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and about 20 were executed. The colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice. Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. A "witchcraft craze" rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches—mostly women—were executed. Though the Salem trials came on just as the European craze was winding down, local circumstances explain their onset.…
Witch-Hunts, Then and Now is basically comparing how witch-hunts were handled in the year 1692, in comparison to the McCarthy era prosecutions of suspected communists. I chose this topic because I have always been interested in learning what exactly happened at the Salem witch-hunts. I have always only heard stories of the hangings and they left me curious to find out more. I also have never heard of McCarthyism and how it would relate to witch-hunts. However, after reading and doing research on the two topics I can now compare the similarities.…
When the words "witch hunt" are heard, most people think back to the Salem witch trials, where religion governed the lives of people. They were searching for people who they believed practiced malificium. However, witch hunts are not just a thing of the past, as modern day witch hunts are happening right now. In 1993, West Memphis was shaken up after three eight year old's were found dead in a drainage ditch. The deaths of the three young boys caused an uproar. The police were rushed to find the murderer, and in the eyes of the policemen, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin were the only people capable of committing this heinous crime. Discourse played a major role in what ended up happening…