The Salem Witch Trials Essay

Submitted By ryanrap
Words: 1298
Pages: 6
Open Document
The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of court hearings and prosecutions of people accused of performing witchcraft and other supernatural abilities in colonial Massachusetts. These occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. Although they are referred to as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings were done in various towns: Salem Village, Ipswich, Andover, and Salem Town. These trials had a lasting effect on a multitude of things in the formation of the United States of America and its colonies. The trials brought about warnings of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, and profiling based off of social class. Thanks to these trials, America was able to take caution in them to help them eventually form the great country it is today.

In order to completely understand the effect of the trials it is necessary to have a little information from the trials. Salem was originally founded in 1626 by a group of European fisherman. Over the years it had gotten a little larger of a town, but never too big. Overall in the incident, around 24 people died because of their accusations of being a witch; whether from being executed, tortured in order to get information, or being killed while in prison.

Isolationism really added in influencing the mass hysteria of the people of Salem. They were all so far away from everyone else they essentially had no ways of communicating with anyone at all and they rarely got any news of anything. They were never being updated with cultural norms and were all very traditional. So when they noticed something out of the ordinary, they would all assume that it was something not normal and evil. Supposedly, the witch mania began when two little girls started playing around with fortune telling that their slave had told them about. The girls started having strange fits, and according to a doctor, this was happening because they had been bewitched. Instead of going towards a reasonable response, they automatically go towards any answer that just seems okay. They are not used to cultural norms and what now may be accepted and what may not be, and since they were out in the middle of nowhere, nobody could stop them. Eventually it goes to tell that the slave was arrested (along with two other women who were assumed to be witches because one had drinking parties and the other had been married three times) and were put on trial for the “horrible crime of Witchcraft”. This isolationism lead to eventually make the United States realize that you cannot leave a town alone because then they would have no idea what is going on. You need communication with everyone to help maintain a healthy and strong community.
Religious extremism most likely had the biggest effects on the trial being that they were the basis of most accusations. Massachusetts’s government was dominated by conservative Puritan secular leaders. Specifically in Salem Village, the church governed their life. Being that they were primarily Puritans, they had a strong tie associating Satan with sickness, misfortune, and anyone going against their religious beliefs. If they then associated you with Satan, they would associate you with witchcraft. They believed that witches had made a pact with Satan and that they should be punished for dealing with the devil. These religious extremities lead to the executions and prison sentences of a multitude of women, men, and children. They let their religious belief overcome them and wouldn’t even resort to common sense to deal with a fairly reasonable problem. The people also wanted to be able to feel comfortable that they had an answer to these problems, instead of leaving it unsolved completely and be worrying about it and being scared of these people. They wanted to prove themselves superior to others. In modern United States court of law, it is highly illegal to base an accusation against someone based off of supernatural and
Show More

Related Documents: The Salem Witch Trials Essay

Salem Witch Trials: The Salem Witch Trial

The people of Salem accused innocent people for being witches because of selfish reasons in the town of Salem. In the video it displayed evidence of what happened in the Salem Witch Trials that took place in the year of 1692. Even though I have learned about the Salem Witch trials, there still are facts that surprise me every time I learn about the witch trials. In the video three parts stuck out to me the most, such as, no physical evidence, two towns of Salem, and false reports. The first…

Words 501 - Pages 3

The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials cost many people their lives, planted a seed of paranoia around the world, and affected many people. The Salem Witch Trials began in Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. The trials lasted only a little less than a year. Trials started when two young girls claimed to be afflicted by very violent convulsions, or strange fits that unabled them to hear, see, or speak. These witch trials led to twenty executions and nearly two hundred…

Words 984 - Pages 4

Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials: Religion, Realization, and Remorse. The Salem Witch Trials, occurring in Massachusetts from 1692, to 1693, stands out as a captivating, and troubling chapter in American history. These trials led to the accusations, arrests and executions of individual women accused of practicing witchcraft. The events in Salem Village and its surroundings were influenced by a mix of religious and political factors that fueled fear, paranoia, and many injustices. This analysis explores the…

Words 2965 - Pages 12

Salem Witch Trials

Analysis of the Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials were a sequence of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of black magic in colonial Massachusetts in February 1962 and May 1693. It all began when a group of small girls declared to be possessed by the devil himself and accused multiple women of being witches. This all led to mass hysteria and the tragic execution of twenty innocent people. It was a very dark and unsettling experience in American history. The Salem Witch trials exist as a…

Words 607 - Pages 3

The Salem Witch Trial

only occasion people really talk about witchcraft now days; but in the early days, witchcraft was a serious matter. Historically, United States early days of witchcraft is associated with the Salem Witches Trial . The first documented and most famous witchcraft trial in the United Stated history, The Salem Trial. Almost two hundred man and women were accused, and a combined of nineteen were executed. The names involved were: Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin…

Words 1067 - Pages 5

Salem Witch Trials Misunderstood

In today's world, many people misunderstand each other. This also happened in 1962, during the Salem witch trials. This is when people were killed because they were misunderstood and didn't get a chance to save themselves. This is when people were accused of being witches and in just a few months, around 150 men, women, and children were killed. The reason the Salem witch trials started was because they were very superstitious about anything like witchcraft. The website Britannica states, Witches…

Words 317 - Pages 2

Women In The Salem Witch Trials

In 1692 in Salem Village, women everywhere were living lives of “toil and trouble.” The hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials left men and women alike in awe of the human capacity for superstition and paranoia. Women especially were affected by the trials in Salem and lost lives, pride, social standing, and integrity because of the pressure placed on women in this time and place. The Salem Witch Trials were fed and nurtured by the patriarchal societal constructs of the puritan lifestyle and religion…

Words 2343 - Pages 10

An Analysis Of The Salem Witch Trials

earth. The men and women in the Salem Village believe that every one of the hardships that happened upon them were crafted by the devil. Eventually, the state conceded the trials were an error and remunerated the groups of those indicted. From that point forward, the account of the trials has turned out to be synonymous with neurosis and shamefulness, and it keeps on staggering the famous creative energy over 300 years after the fact. In 1692, the subjects of Salem, Massachusetts turned on each other…

Words 343 - Pages 2

The History Of The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials is a significant time in our history and we should always remember what happened so history doesn't repeat itself. One part of it was that more vulnerable members of society were targeted and accused. Widows, slaves, younger children, and younger adults were the majority of the people who were accused. Women made up the majority of people accused with 3/4 of everyone accused being women. Sadly, this has been the case for several later incidents in our history. The men need…

Words 285 - Pages 2

Essay On The Salem Witch Trial

going on. Germany and Salem; they wanted the mass hysteria around them to stop so they murdered innocent people when the opportunity made itself available. The Holocaust and The Salem Witch Trails are a lot alike because of their many cruel ways of dealing with the hysteria around them. Before the accusations were made, both societies were experiencing hysteria (Sheperd). The societies were distracted from the bigger problems. Germany was in the middle of a depression and Salem feared their new settlement…

Words 404 - Pages 2