Salem Witchcraft Research Paper

Witchcraft is an issue that has been present in our world ever since the Early Modern period in the fourteenth century. It is a topic that often gets overlooked even though there are still witches in our world today. This essay will discuss the early life of witchcraft, the most famous trials associated with it, and the modern practice of witchery because it is still a current subject that most people are not informed about.

Thirty years before the famous Salem Witch Trials there was a witch hunt in another New England Town. This case involved an eight year old girl in Hartford, Connecticut.She was found dead in her bed inside her home by her parents. Her parents claimed she was possessed by witchcraft. (Her parents) “ testified that …show more content…
People of the community had to abide by strict laws that everyone attend three hours of church in the morning, and two more hours every Sunday night. The time in between would be spent praying and participating in religious activities. In their eyes there were only two types of people: religious, respected people of society, and if you didn 't meet their high expectations you were possessed by spirits and the devil. In a book called The Salem Witch Trials by Don Nardo, he introduces some of the main characters of this story in Salem. The book tells the story of two girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams. They are very young girls, and when they suddenly start to act out in strange ways, their parents contact some people in the city to help. The leaders of the community examine them and came to the conclusion that they have been experiencing with witchcraft.The girls saw the power they had over everyone and used it to their advantage. They claimed that some of the most highly respected women of the community were secretly speaking to them mentally and luring them into being a witch. There were certain rounds of questioning all the women went through and eventually after long trials they were executed. This happened to many other women in …show more content…
Witches today are still commonly known to be satanic. However they claim that that is a myth. They say that witchcraft is not christianity and it is not satanic but it is a religion, a worldview of naturism and humanitarianism and it is also a practice. “ Satanism and witchcraft are both occult religions; because of this, they both see reality as entirely natural. There is no transcendent God in the truest sense of the term. Further, they both see all of reality, material and immaterial, as interconnected and working according to “laws” that can be mastered in such a way as to make not only material but also immaterial reality work according to one’s own bidding.” (Richard Howe, page #1) The information we have now about the practice of witchcraft is much more descriptive than what we all knew back