The Accused: The Salem Witch Hunt Of 1692

Improved Essays
When it comes to folktales and scary legends people tend to not believe in them now a day. Back in the ancient time people had the belief of witchcraft. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. Although it is believed that the witch hunt of 1692 started in Salem Village, in reality it first occurred in Charlestown. First of all, the witch hunt of 1692 started long ago in Charlestown by Margaret Jones who was a midwife, and the first person to be executed for witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. According to Winthrop’s journal, Jones was accused in 1648 by some of her patients who stated that she told them they would

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Back in 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, there was an issue that would eventually lead to chaos. It involved several people going to trial because they were accused of doing suspicious activity. People, mostly women and some men, were accused of using witchcraft on the other villagers. The salem witchcraft trials of 1692 started when two girls, Betty and Abigail, from a town called Salem, inspired an African woman by the name of Tituba to talk about things involving the paranormal. Many villagers in Salem believed that this was the work by the devil.…

    • 1822 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1692, Puritans in colonial Massachusetts faced an interesting event called the Salem Witch Trials. The first sign of witchcraft was discovered when two girls, Elizabeth and Williams were having “fits.” The local doctor blamed their unusual movements on the supernatural. Satan worried the Puritan community because they believed that they always had to behave to go to heaven. Whether puritans were in or out of their home, they believed the devil was always watching them which is why they were always cautious towards their actions.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History, Peter C. Hoffer closely examines the many complexities of the bizarre Salem Witchcraft Trials and offers explanations as to what led up to and caused the terrible event. In the book, Hoffer uses analogies and insight to village life to support his explanations. This paper will review Hoffer’s re accounting of the trials, his theories on the trails, and the way in which he presents his arguments.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You may find that the Salem witch hunt indirectly compares with the witch hunt of today, the Me Too movement. The one thing the two parallels share almost interchangeably is the act of accusing others without proper evidence against them. With that said, the witch hunt of 1692 took place in a small town called Salem. It all started when a group of girls who were caught dancing naked in the woods by Reverend Parris. This kind of dancing is frowned upon by the church because it is viewed as a type of satanic worship.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1692, people were making Salem Witch trials. There was a group of girls who were dancing and singing in the forest with a witch, Tituba. They were doing witchcraft to make some boys of the Salem Town like them. Sam Parris saw the girls and Tituba dancing. To protect themselves, the girls said that there were witches and they acted like they were possessed.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Working Bibliography Asha McWilliams Topic: I would like to write my paper on the impact of Puritan ideas and the evolution of early evidence presented in court, with an emphasis on the Salem Witch Trials. Secondary Sources Latner, Richard B. "The Long and Short of Salem Witchcraft: Chronology and Collective Violence in 1692." Journal of Social History 42, no. 1 (2008): 137-156. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=2d94ea2f-15f0-49db-98c8-085aaafbe5e8%40sessionmgr4007.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Salem witch trials were trails held in Massachusetts during February 1692 and May 1693. Several girls claimed they were taken over by the devil and they accused woman of practicing witchcraft. The trials executed primarily women for the charge of witchcraft. Although they were called Salem witch trails, hearings were conducted in several towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An infamous episode in American history, the Salem witch trials of 1692 resulted in the execution, by hanging, of nineteen villagers, fourteen women and five men, accused of witch craft. Additionally, one man, Giles Corey, was punished by peine et fort, death by pressing (Linder, paragraph 22). These antics could have been the cause of teenage boredom, congregational strife, personal jealousies, and fears of the citizens. The main question is why did this travesty happen in Salem?…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Salem Witch Trial In 1629, Salem was settled as a Massachusetts Bay Colony (Dunn 4). Little did anybody know that in about 50 years, this land would turn into one of the most remembered and haunted places in the world. In Salem, in the years between 1692 and 1693, over 150 people were accused of witchcraft, and 20 people were executed because of this accusation (“First Salem Witch Hanging”). This report will explain exactly how these executions happened and some of the dark conspiracies that tag along with it.…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Witch trials began during the spring of 1692,a group of young girls Salem village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil accused several local women of witchcraft. The first convicted witch, Bridget bishop, was hung in June. 150 more we're accused from men, and children the next several months. The general court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches. Connecticut witch trials Long before the much more famous trials at Salem, Massachusetts, Connecticut's witch trials were held in the mid-1600's,those crimes were like robbery and murder here you did it you were arrested and tried.the trials beginning withal alse (Alice) youngs of Windsor.…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is a witch? According to Webster’s Dictionary witchcraft is, “the use of sorcery or magic.” By this definition, the term “witch” has been misused and misunderstood throughout history. Often considered a taboo subject, nothing stirs the pot quite like witchcraft. An in-depth study of witchcraft can help one to understand the mystique that surrounds it.…

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials, had its dealings with the supernatural world, people afflicted (or bewitched) seeing “witches’ in their visions, a “mysterious” man taunting people to sign his book, or even unexplained deaths of livestock or even an infant. Whatever it may have been, the people of Salem Village all assume that it is “supernatural.” Samuel Parris and others speculate that anything supernatural is because of the doings, or even presence of the devil. It is this concept that brought forth the Witch Trials which convicted over two-hundred, and nineteen of them hanged. Their convictions stemmed from people who bewitched, seeing them in visions.…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walter Kirn once said, “Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it 's someone else 's witch being hunted.” Krin is a regular reviewer for The New York Times Book Review and has authored a handful of previous works of fiction. This quote applies to Richard Godbeer’s historical monologue Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 in the sense that most people have viewed the Salem Witch Trials as a form of entertainment in recent decades. His work, however, brings forward the reality of witch trials and the extreme measures people took just a few hundred years ago. Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 follows the main themes of faith, superstition, reputation, uncertainty and unreliability.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Zealotry In The Crucible

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Salem witch hunts were a sadistic series of false accusations that had people hanged with no evidence that they were guilty. For example, ” Anyone who suspected that some untoward event or development was the work of a witch, could bring the charge to a local magistrate. The magistrate would have the alleged evil-doer arrested and brought in for public interrogation, where the suspect was urged to confess. Whatever his or her response, if the charge of witchcraft was deemed to be credible, the accused was turned over to a superior court and brought before a grand jury. ”(Kubic, Mike.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A major tragedy in American History occurred known as Salem Witch Hunt. In the year of 1692, 150 women and men had been accused, tortured, arrested, put to trial and charged with the crimes of witchcraft. The Salem witchcraft incident began when two young girls, nine-year old Elizabeth Parris and eleven year old Abigail Williams began to have strange fits. Samuel Parris did not believe that his daughter and niece were bewitched. However, Physician William Griggs believed, “the girls were under an evil hand” .…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays