The Salem Miller's Trials: The Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem witch trials held in Salem Massachusetts began in late February 1692 lasting through April of 1693. These trials were based upon women who were accused of being witches, given unfair trials and therefore harming society. All told, this event became known as a tragedy as twenty-five people died, nineteen were executed by hanging, one was tortured to death, and at least five died in jail to due harsh conditions. Within this period of time, over one hundred sixty people where falsely accused, most were jailed, and many deprived of property and legal rights. Threating these innocent women to an unfair trial, nearly fifty people confessed to witchcraft knowing their chances of winning were slim to none. In October 1692, the governor, …show more content…
For example, late in 1691 Samuel Parris lived in a household along with his wife, three children, and a Caribbean Indian Slave, named Tituba, each who were steeped among his rigid beliefs. Elizabeth Williams, and her 11 year old cousin Abigail, began displaying symptoms of hysteria, including fits and convulsions which occurred off and on for months. Before long, these symptoms spread around the community and Salem Villagers began fearing that a plague of witchcraft had come to their town (Kallen 13). Some would claim the girls where acting, but it is virtually certain that Elizabeth and Abigail were highly impressionable and believed vigorously in what the Devil, magic, and witchcraft could to do hurt them; thus, fright caused them to descend into a genuine state of …show more content…
Griggs had unintentionally fueled the flames of fear when he could not provide a better medical diagnosis for Elizabeth and Abigail. His conclusion that “an evil hand is on them” was crystal clear: everyone is Salem Village understood that meant the children were casualties of witchcraft (Brandt 55). But if one accepted that Elizabeth and Abigail were the victims of a witch who afflicted on them, then that implied that someone right in Salem was working for the Devil. According to popular belief, witches were nearly always women, and they were operators to the fiend, consenting to do his abhorrence (Roach 66). In America, the battle came down to God versus Satan: and the Puritan religious government never had any uncertainty about whose side they were on. Now, in the time of fear and guilt, two young girls suffered from physiological effects of the supernatural in an age when hysteria was not a well understood medical condition. Their display of physical symptoms could only be translated within the restrictions of Puritan thought and