Salem Witch Trials Book Review Essay

I choose to read the book The Salem Witch Trials by Don Nardo. This book was a very factual and informative book that discussed every detail concerning witchcraft, and what happened in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600’s. The book starts off talking about the people in Massachusetts and their religion at that time. It was a very demanding time period when religion was a must. There were harsh laws that every member of their society attend three hours of church in the morning, and two more that night every Sunday. The in between time would be spent praying and doing religious activities and no one was excluded from these orders. In their eyes there were only two types of people: religious, “godly” people and the rest were possessed by spirits …show more content…
This event was something we discussed in class, and it also relates to the trials. It once again shows how narrow minded the Puritans were then. It gives a good example about how if someone had different views in their community, they were no longer welcome. The Salem Witch Trials may not have happened if they would have had a more open mind about people and religion. I think this topic adds to the class because it is a small scale incident that could be related to any other small or mass event in history. On page 11 Nardo says “ this localized outbreak of contagious fear and violence is also important because it sheds light on other similar cases of mass hysteria, persecution and grave injustices in the human saga.” It shows that this small scale event can relate to other instances in our history. It is able to warn people and show them to not repeat it by educating us about it. The Salem witch trials is a valid topic that adds to our class because it helps students, ”...whether ethnic, religious, political or superstitious become less hard to comprehend.” (Francis Hill, one of the leading modern scholars of the Salem witch