The Causes of the Salem Witch Hunt Essay - 925 Words

The Causes of the Salem Witch Hunt Many American colonists brought with them from Europe a notion in witches and an intrigue with alleged manipulation with the devil. During the seventeenth century, people were executed for witchcraft all over the colonies, chiefly in Massachusetts. Various of the accused were women, inducing some recent historians to recommend that charges of witchcraft were a way of dominating women who endangered the present economic and social order at that time. In 1692 the famous Salem, Massachusetts, witchcraft trials took place, and that summer hundreds of people in the colony were taken into custody without any reason whatsoever. To comprehend the events of the†¦show more content†¦Of these nine girls, only one is related to me, Ann Putnam. Her grandmother was Priscilla Gould, the sister of Zaccheus Gould. Ann was born in 1680 to Thomas Putnam and Ann. The affair, which led to the Witch Trials, as a matter of fact turn out in what is now the town of Danvers, then a district of Salem Town, recognized as Salem Village. Propelling the frenzy was the grotesque, apparently unexplainable behavior of two young girls; the daughter, Betty, and the niece, Abigail Williams, of the Salem Village minister, Reverend Samuel Parris. Magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne in February 1692, thought over three accused women. Corwin’s home, known as the Witch House, still stands at the corner of North and Essex Streets in Salem, furnishing supervised tours and tales of the first witchcraft trials. John Hathorne, an ancestor of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, is buried in the Charter Street Old Burying Point. (Jones, 163) To comprehend the happening of the Salem witch trials, it is essential to explore the times in which allegation of witchcraft occurred. There were the customary stresses of 17th-century life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions surrounded by Salem Village extremists and competitionShow MoreRelatedThe Witch Hunt : The Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials952 Words   |  4 PagesSalem Village is located on the northeast coast of Massachusetts. The settlements first title was Naumkeag but was changed to Salem, meaning peace, because it was preferred. Salem was founded in 1626, and is best remembered for the witch hysteria beginning in 1692. A few girls started acting deranged and crazed. A doctor diagnosed them as bewitched, leading to trials and hunts for accused witches. These witch trials and hunts caused nineteen people to be hung and caused one person to be pressedRead MoreThe Salem Witch Trials Essay1349 Words   |  6 PagesBefore 1692, the su pernatural was a part of people’s everyday normal life. This is so as people strongly believed that Satan was present and active on earth. 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People started getting very scared and startedRead More Salem Witch Trials Essay876 Words   |  4 PagesSalem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials was probably considered the darkest time for the New England Colony. This was a mass murder of women and a few men that were supposed witches. All of this started from two little girls and a bacteria in the bread that affected the brain. This all started on January 20,1692 when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams started to exhibit strange behavior. Blasphemous screaming, Seizures, Trance-like states and MysteriousRead MoreAbdeali Dalal. Dr. Jenkins. History 1301. February 13,1541 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Escaping Salem; The Other Witch Hunt of 1692† â€Å"Escaping Salem; The Other Witch hunt of 1692† was penned and published by Richard Godbeer in 2005. Godbeer expressed his views on what he called basic witch trials in Salem and more importantly, in Stamford, Connecticut Massachusetts. The same year that Salem witch hunt and trials began in 1692, another witch hunt took place in Stamford, the Western Connecticut to when a woman (Elizabeth Clawson) from there was also accused of Witchcraft. These witch hunt