Brennyn Mackey 2 May 2011 The Secret War of Salem Exposing the Culprit behind the Mass Hysteria The Salem Witch Trials were a series of infamous events that demand an explanation for their occurrence. The trials that took place in 1692 caused neighbors in the community of Salem Village in the colony of Massachusetts to turn on one another out of paranoia‚ accusing one another of witchcraft. According to Carol Karlsen‚ a longtime author of the subject‚ nineteen people were hanged
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From June to September of 1692 nineteen men and women we accused of witchcraft. Some would say the findings of the Court of Oyer and Terminer are justified‚ but I believe in a concrete theory. Secrets of the Dead: Witch’s Curse depicts on the Ergot Theory‚ which believes the “bewitched” were suffering from a side effect of the fungi Ergot. Ergot is caused by a fungus which invades developing kernels of rye grain‚ and thrives in warm moist climates. Coincidently the previous rye harvest was under
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mental breakdowns and fear.11 Descriptive sermons were being given frequently about and against witchcraft around the time of the Salem Witch Trials. It is obvious to say that the girls could have felt terrified about this and the witchcraft that they would have seen throughout the village. In Witchcraft at Salem‚ Chadwick Hansen says‚ “The cause of these hysterical symptoms‚ of course‚ was not witchcraft itself but the victim’s fear of it.”12 This could definitely be seen as a possible explanation
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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
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Mass Hysteria during the 1690s and 1950s. As examples of mass hysteria‚ both the Salem Witch Trials and the Cold War caused turmoil during their respective time period. Although very different time periods‚ the 1690s Salem Witch Trials and the 1950s Cold War were both dramatic examples of mass hysteria (Campbell). The Salem Witch Trials were one of the nation’s most dramatic examples of hysteria as close to 20 people were killed because of pure hype and chaos in the region (Campbell). The cold war
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Trials today compared to the Salem witch trials of the 1690’s are different in many ways‚ as you may already know. Compared to then we have way more freedoms and privileges that some people take advantage of. Even though they are both places for justice‚ but they differ in the way you are defended‚ how the public opinion effected your trial‚ and religious bias. During the Salem witch trials the defense you receive was very limited. When you where arrested it was solely based on accusation and no
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Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials During the time period of 1691 to 1692 the town of Salem‚ a small thriving community within the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony‚ was struck by widespread hysteria in the form of witch trials. The way these trials and accusations played out are historically unlike any other witch trials found in European and American history. Historians have pointed to a number of economic‚ political‚ and social changes of the then existing institutions throughout the Massachusetts
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seem preposterous. Any behavior regarded as strange by fellow citizens was sufficient to hold a trial with a sentence of death. Though such scenarios seem unfathomable in our modern culture‚ it was a reality for hundreds of New England settlers. The causes of the famous outbreak of witch trials in Salem‚ Massachusetts are rooted in social‚ economic‚ and political aspects of the late 17th century Salem community. Early New Englanders were unable to accept the increase in diversity and the break in
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In New England‚ mass agitation and paranoia resulted in a notorious episode of American history known as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. What started as an amount of accusations from a group of girls‚ turned into a series of disastrous events. These girls accused several local woman of the small town of Salem located in the state of Massachusetts of playing with the devil‚ casting spells and being witches. This series of events was considered a new phenomenon in America‚ but across Europe it was
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The changing historiography of the Salem Witch Persecutions of 1692. How current/contemporary and historical interpretations of this event reflect the changing nature of historiography. The number of different interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials illustrates that historiography is ever changing. The historians‚ Hale‚ Starkey‚ Upham‚ Boyer and Nissenbaum‚ Caporal‚ Norton and Mattosian have all been fascinated by the trials in one way or another because they have all attempted to prove or
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