Salem Witch Trials In 1692

To understand why and how these issues arose in Salem, first look to the history of the Puritans. The Puritans believed that the Anglican Church needed to be purified of the Catholic ideologies. With monarchs of their time disinterested in the idea of reform, many Puritans became discouraged and thought the colonies would give them a better chance to reform the church. John Winthrop along with a few other Puritans in the New World decided to create City on a Hill to set an example of good behavior and religious purity. The Puritans believed that God had made a special covenant with them so they could live according to scripture, reforming the Anglican Church, and set a good example for those who were still living in England.

Conservative Salem was not in agreement with the prosperity of Salem Town. There was also rivalries against the Putnam and the Parris’ due to the different beliefs in society. Many did not like the local power structure and the amount of influence Parris had over the town, many did not like his way of keeping Salem unmodernized and unchanged. The Trials ignited all the jealousy and ambition Salem had been cooking for

More specifically than just discussing the trials, I will be discussing what roles that religion, current events, and outside influences played in causing the trials to begin. The religion, and overall majority, behind the madness and chaos of the witch trials were the Puritans. The Puritans, who thought of themselves as as the “social

The Fate of Salem In the Hands of A Few The society of Salem in the 17th century was a state of deterioration. Some citizens of Salem were forced to lie about a crime they didn’t commit, or be killed because another citizen didn’t like them. What made this worse was the types of people who made these decisions on whether they were innocent or not. People who were regarded as having little influence under normal circumstances were making decision on people's’ lives. Everyone in Salem was paranoid about the devil, or that they might be the next person to be blamed of a fake crime.

Those who wanted to stay separate from Salem, and those who wanted to be part of Salem. The Putnams were the leaders of the separatists group mainly because they owned almost all of the farmland in the Salem village. They really wanted to join the two parts together, so everyone would get along. Which led to establishing a congregation. The leader was Reverend Samuel Parris.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692, a dark period in American history, resulted in the death of "two-hundred Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony" and the persecution of many more (Loock 528). This witchcraft crisis was sparked by religious intolerance and these wrongful actions were justified by the fact that they were purging the town of anything that went against their belief system. Frederick Douglass, a self-educated slave, could point out that people tend to fall back on religious belief in order to justify their cruel actions. The Salem Witch Trials prove that Douglass's assertion that men use religion to justify cruelty was not a new theory brought about by slavery. There becomes a point where people's morals become distorted and they

Nineteen people were hung due to false judgement by human nature and society. Taking place in a small village called Salem, inside of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a depressing seventeenth century, was a movement that would challenge the nation’s religious and psychological beliefs. Innocent people were being accused of witchcraft, when rather they were just ill or not taken care of properly by family and friends. Thought to be caused by stress, fear, and panic, the Salem Witch Trials was an event that changed the nation’s view on mental illness because of false assumptions and mischievous behavior. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of false accusations of witchcraft taking place in Salem, which during the seventeenth century, was apart of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

The Salem Witchcraft Trials had many effects on the town of Salem, Massachusetts. A lot of the effects were negative, destroying the community, government, even individuals. The Witch Trials affected the community of Salem in multiple ways. The witch trials created many tensions between several families in the town. The most acknowledgeable dispute from the play was between the Putnam’s and the Nurse’s.

The people that lived near Ipswich Road were close to all the commerce in Salem Town and their jobs were more fulfilling than farmers. They were usually merchants, blacksmiths, carpenters and were able to support their families and all the economic changes that Salem went through at this time. The people that lived farther apart from Salem Town tended to be closer to religion and held the beliefs that the prosperity of the Salem Town was against their Puritan religion. This actually lead many historians to believe that economical jealousy and envy could have been one of the reasons behind the Salem Witch Trials. Most of the accusers were from this part of town, indeed one of the most influential families during the accusations were the Putnams and they highly disagreed and protested about the economic changes in Salem and the different classes

Much of what happens in Salem still resembles some things we see in society today. The word of one man can change people’s ideas and images of another without conclusive evidence. What people fear the most can sometimes bind us together, even if it is not

When the people migrated from England, “the Old World” to New England, the Putnams, primarily farmers could not farm well due to New England’s very rocky soil and swampy lands, which could not be used as pastures for cattle. Therefore, the Putnams could not earn money. Meanwhile, a family named the Porters, who were farmers like the Putnams found a way to make money through trade with distant lands, taking advantage of Salem’s location as the second largest port in New England. And with the Porter’s trade came new luxury foreign goods, which caused the rules to lighten and people to live by newer, much more lavish living standards. This caused tensions between the Porters and the Putnams.

"You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time-we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God's grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not light will surely praise it." First we must look into how the Salem Village lived at that point in time. Back in those days, the Salem village people all were expected to go to church.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 were among the most surprising and violent episodes in the history of America. It wasn’t violent due to a lot of people dying, in fact, only 19 people were killed due to this event. However, hundreds had their lives changed forever. Some, without any hope of it ever going back to how it was prior to the Trials. No, it was violent due to the fact that it was neighbor turning on neighbor.

Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.