Salem witchcraft trials Essay

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Salem witchcraft trials speech by Hailey link
Sir Bedevere asked the peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail “What makes you think she is a witch?” to which the peasant replied “she turned me into a Newt”. “A Newt” says Sir Bedevere, to which the peasant says meekly, “I got better” and the crowd shouts “Burn her anyway!”(Monty Python). Witches and wizards have been the subject of films and books for many years. From Monty Python to the famous Harry Potter Series, the subject is one that people are fascinated with. The most famous story in history about witches took place hundreds of years ago in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts and has been written about in history books ever since. The adults of Salem Village and the surrounding townships did not know why some of the village girls were afflicted with fits and seizures but felt that the logical conclusion was that the devil was working in the girls and they had become witches, but they had no concrete evidence of this. This period of history captured the attention of Arthur Miller, who wrote a play called the Crucible in 1952 that later turned into a screenplay and move. Miller took these events in history and told a story that people could see unfold on stage and screen. The events of the Salem Witchcraft Trials that were told in The Crucible have several historical inaccuracies that Arthur Miller himself has admitted to writing because they would play out better on stage. A few of the The differences between history and the drama written by Miller include the lack of information about all of the judges who presided over the trial, and the lack of information regarding Cotton Mather’s influence on the trials.
Marc Aronson, in his book “Witch hunt, mysteries of the salem witch trials”, shares that in addition to Thomas Danforth and John Hathorne, who are identified in the play, the other judges who presided over the trial included William stout, John Richards, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Jonathan Corwin, Peter Sargent, Bartholomew Gedney and Samuel Sewall. At least five of the judges had to be present and sitting on the panel and at least one of the five had to be Delton, Richards, or Gedney. The full panel of judges were appointed for the special court of Oyer and terminer. The examination of the accused individual in the play were actually part of a special court of Oyer and terminer, but they were not the actual trials as those began a few months later in June 1692.
Cotton Matther was a prominent Puritan minister who felt that the incidences of witchcraft proved that New England was a Holy Place since the Devil had taken such an interest in it by inflicting evil spirits in the people who lived in there. Charles Upham, in his book, Witchcraft and Cotton Mather , shares that Initially Mather felt that all witches be rooted out and punished to the full extent of the law at that time. Matther started to hear about the
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