The Puritans: The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and consisted of prosecutions of women and some men who were thought to have been practicing witchcraft. These women were taken to trial, and if they were convicted of practicing witchcraft, they were violently put to death. With the rising tensions in the colony, The Salem Witch trials of 1692 were caused by curiosity in religious beliefs, young women claiming they were possessed by the devil, and troubles arising among the community. By this point the people of Salem would consider themselves Puritans. They had many standards they had to abide by to keep good Christian standings, and as the people of Salem were learning more about the Christian religion, they learned about the devil and his possession. This lead to new ideas about worshiping the devil and changing their ideas about Christianity, leading to the accusation of women being witches. Boredom began to also contribute to religious experimentation and later practicing magic. Also in this time period, young women were seen as inferior to men and not believed to be allowed to have an education, so they did not have much to do with their time, especially with the younger women. They were bored, so they started thinking about theories and the use of magic and satans involvement in society. …show more content…
They thought that the devil was working to make all of the people against the christian religion and worship him. This raised much suspicion throughout the town, and lead to the accusations of women being witches and practicing witchcraft. As these ideas about possession arises it was coincidently around the time of troubles in the community. These diseases and such lead people to believe the devil had put this upon the town of Salem to curse them and turn them into worshipers of the