Bridget Bishop's Injustice Cases In America

Early colonists in North America were dumbfounded when they learned that many women in the colonies were doubling as a human, and a witch. During the early years of what is modern-day America, hundreds of women were accused of practicing witchcraft. Many men would accuse females who exhibited abnormal behavior, or family patterns during that time. Husbands, kids, or other family members of accused witches could also be convicted of practicing witchcraft by having any kind of association with the accused. There are many different beliefs about how certain residents of Salem got be chosen as witches. Therefore, colonists took many things into consideration before accusing someone. Attitude, personality, and health were only some of the things …show more content…
Bridget Bishop was a major case from this time period. She was accused of being a witch, having stalked people, and killing a pig. Samuel Gray was the first victim of Bishop’s witchery when he claimed to have seen her standing in his bedroom in the very late hours of the night. The next victim to Bridget was John Hale, who was a reverend in Salem. There were rumors of Bishop having people over throughout the entire night, playing games, and being very loud. One night the wife of John Trask came over and was extremely bothered by the events that were happening and threw the games into Bishop’s fire. Bridget then became extremely distracted and came to the reverend to complain of John’s wife. In her time there, John began to try and have her reach out to God, however Bridget continued to act abnormally for the next month, until she passed away. There were several other depositions against Bishop, that all lead many people to believe she was wicked. (Boyer, …show more content…
Many innocent people were executed for the ideas that colonists were planting into the community’s head. Early America saw many things throughout these years. Betrayal, lying, and slander were only some of the things that presented itself on a normal day. Through these hard times, it taught the colonists how to band together and also to trust their instincts. Although many people are still skeptical about what really happened during these trials, there is a good amount of documented events that took place during the trials. However, it is known that history repeats itself. As Janet Montgomery once said, “Witches were burned and killed in Scotland and England for centuries before what happened in Salem”. So, was the Salem Witchcraft scare something new, or simply history just repeating