The Salem Witch Trials hysteria occurred in 1692, when the citizens of Salem Massachusetts turned on each other and accused hundreds of their own neighbors and people of practicing witchcraft. While around 150 total people were accused (most of them women), not everyone of them met the same fate. 19 people were hanged, one man was pressed to death, and a few died while imprisoned. The reasons behind the trials themselves are complex and they tie into the religious beliefs/constraints of Puritanism, socioeconomic class issues, and the longing for power in a strict community. The Salem Witch Trials also caused problems within the Puritan community by making fear a prominent factor of everyday life, which led to people doing things they normally
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The girls began the practice of fortune telling, even though it was regarded as a demonic activity in the Puritan community. Other girls began listening to the stories as well, including; Elizabeth Booth, Sarah Churchill, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam, Jr. Susanna Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Mary Walcott. “Soon thereafter, [the girls] became strangely ill, having fits, spouting gibberish, and contorting their bodies into odd positions. The Reverend Samuel Parris was sure that prayer could cure their odd behavior, but his efforts were ineffective.” The Reverend Samuel Parris brought in more local doctors to try and diagnose what was happening to the girls, and the answer he got was that the girls were being possessed by witchcraft and they were victims of the crime. The community began to search for the perpetrators and “within no time [at all], there were three witches who were accused -- Tituba, Reverend Parris' slave; Sarah Good, an impoverished homeless woman; and Sarah Osborne, who had defied conventional Puritan society.” All of these women who were accused were easy targets, and the people of the community truly believed that they practiced witchcraft because they were not only poor, they were women, and they didn’t attend
The girls began the practice of fortune telling, even though it was regarded as a demonic activity in the Puritan community. Other girls began listening to the stories as well, including; Elizabeth Booth, Sarah Churchill, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam, Jr. Susanna Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Mary Walcott. “Soon thereafter, [the girls] became strangely ill, having fits, spouting gibberish, and contorting their bodies into odd positions. The Reverend Samuel Parris was sure that prayer could cure their odd behavior, but his efforts were ineffective.” The Reverend Samuel Parris brought in more local doctors to try and diagnose what was happening to the girls, and the answer he got was that the girls were being possessed by witchcraft and they were victims of the crime. The community began to search for the perpetrators and “within no time [at all], there were three witches who were accused -- Tituba, Reverend Parris' slave; Sarah Good, an impoverished homeless woman; and Sarah Osborne, who had defied conventional Puritan society.” All of these women who were accused were easy targets, and the people of the community truly believed that they practiced witchcraft because they were not only poor, they were women, and they didn’t attend