From about 1480 to 1700, a witch craze spread rampantly throughout most of Europe, more specifically in the southwestern region. More than 100,000 so-called “witches” were tortured and executed after being accused of witchcraft, along with their alleged connection with the Devil. The three main reasons for the oppression of these citizens were religious reformations, social descrimination, and financial greed. This craze landed during the same time as the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution.…
Another method used during this time frame was pressing. This is where the condemned is laid out on a flat rock and more rocks are added on top of them until they are crushed to death. This was done to a man during a mass execution of 20 people was carried out in 3 separate dates in the summer and fall of 1692 for the crime of witchcraft. Other members of the group included women and children. Most of them were hung, but other methods were used (BLACKMAN & MCLAUGHLIN, 2004).…
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.…
Of the accused, 14 women and 5 men were hanged. There were fears about religious extremists as many critics perceived witchcraft as being…
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.…
6. The witches crimes included bewitching, casting spells, and demonic relationships. 7. If convicted witches faced death, usually by hanging. Senator Joseph McCarthy and HUAC 1.…
The Salem witch trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, was a notorious episode in American history. This historical event resulted in the execution by hanging of fourteen women and five men accused of practicing witchcraft. Furthermore, one man was pressed to death by heavy weights; at least eight people died in prison; and more than one hundred individuals were jailed while awaiting trial. The political discrimination experienced in Salem was the foundation for the trials. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts was split into two distinct sections.…
From Paranoia to Pardon Years ago many christians believed that the devil would give certain people the power to harm others in return for complete loyalty.(A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials, 2007.) These people were known as “witches.” Tens of thousands of people were killed for supposedly being witches throughout Europe, and more than 200 people were accused , 20 of them being killed in Massachusetts alone. In this essay I will explain what the Salem Witch Trials were, how they affected the state of Massachusetts, and how they still affect us today. The Salem Witch Trials happened in Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693.…
Trial Of the Wicked Witch, written by Craig Sodaro and directed by Jane Purdy, focuses on the trial of the recognizable character of the Wicked Witch. The main twist of this play is that it breaks the fourth wall, a conceptual wall that serves as a barrier between a play and its audience, by allowing the audience to determine the outcome of the trial. The major theme of the play is that all people are innocent until proven guilty. This theme is expressed through a court case that enables the Wicked Witch to defend herself against the accusations being put forth. The main conflict is proving whether or not the Wicked Witch committed any crimes through the court case.…
Salem Witch Trials took place in the Massachusetts colony, during the winter of 1691-1692. The Salem Witch Trials were started with a rumor from several teenage girls at the colony. This rumor will spread out of control and innocent people will be put to death. The teenage girls who started the rumor were fascinated with fortune telling and voodoo practiced by a West Indian slave, whose name is Tituba. The mesmerized girls started to behave oddly.…
Just like today, you could be held in front of a judge and they would decide your punishment, right then and there. Usually it would just be the judge that would decide your fate. The punishment they choose the most and the one that is most known was usually death. Either by hanging or slaughtering, they got the job done somehow. Like crimes, punishments were different between genders.…
America’s Encounter with the Salem Witch Trials: Outburst of Hysteria and the Effect on Social Structure, Government, and Religion in the 1690s and the World Today The infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts forever marked the history of the United States. Much more than pointing fingers at so-called witches, these trials were the result of underlying tensions in the Salem community as well as a product of fear and anxiety produced by the Puritan religion. The trials did not simply die as soon as the last gavel was struck— they left behind a legacy that altered life forever. An intense period of hysteria and paranoia, the Salem Witch Trials had a significant impact on social structure, government and religion in the 1690s…
The Salem Witch Trials In 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, many of the young girls and women were complaining of being possessed by the devil due to witchcraft. However, none of the villagers were certain of who was doing the witchcraft. The girls accused many other women and some men in the village out of revenge or pure hatred. “Thousands of suspected witches were hanged or burned in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and belief in witches was common in the American colonies”.…
This all began in the small area of Salem Village, Massachusetts. These events started when some young girls claimed that others were supposedly “possessed by the devil.” A young girl started with this excuse after her and a handful of others were caught by a man while she and the other girls in the village were dancing in the forest, but some had claimed they were performing rituals to summon the devil himself. The word spread and anything someone thought was off about another person, or if they did not have a close bond was their way to accuse them of being a witch and getting rid of them forever. All of these reasons had been false and not what they were said to be, and people also were able to use this against people, neighbors, or outsiders…
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.…